Category Archives: Food

Dominos Bailout

Someone figured out that Dominos Pizza had a coupon for free food. I say figured it out because it was enabled on their website, but it was not publicized…until this past Monday, when stories like this one appeared on The Cheapskate – CNET News:

Domino’s is offering a free medium one-topping pizza.

The catch, if you can call it that, is that you’ll have to hop in the car; it’s carry-out only. Here’s how to get the deal:

1. Head to the Domino’s Pizza site.
2. Click Order, then type in your address to find stores near you.
3. Choose the store you want, then create your order for a medium one-topping pizza.
4. Use coupon code BAILOUT. Presto: free, free, free!

It seems the promotion worked. Dominos gave away a lot of pizza, true, but they are now a top story. Something tells me the cost of those pizzas was nominal compared to the airtime they are getting right now.

It is possible someone is scratching their head and wondering why or how a hidden coupon was disclosed, but as far as breaches go this is a fairly harmless one. I mean what percentage of people also bought drinks when they picked up their free pizza, for example, since it was carry-out only…

History of Medicine

Some people think I could not carrot all about nutrition, but while researching types to plant in my garden I came across this amusing history of medicine

Patient “I am sick”.

Physicians responses:
3500 years ago – “Here eat this root”
2500 year ago – “That root is heathen – say this prayer”
150 years ago – “That is superstition – drink this potion”
50 years ago – “That potion is snake oil – take this pill”
15 years ago – “That pill is no good, take this antibiotic”
Today – “that is not natures way – here eat this root”

Deer Season

by Barbara Tanner Angell

My sister and her friend, Johnny Morley,
used to go on Saturdays to the Bancroft Hotel
to visit his grandfather.

One autumn, the beginning of deer season,
the old man told them,

“Used to hunt when I was a boy,
woods all around here then,
but I never went again after that time…

the men went out, took me with them,
and I shot my first buck.
It was wounded, lying in the leaves,

so they told me,
take the pistol, shoot it in the head.
I went straight up to it,
looked right into its eyes.

Just before I pulled the trigger,
it licked my hand.”

Kebabs labeled imminent threat

Bruce posted an interesting note about a “rational” response to peanut allergies today. I agree in theory with his suggestion that people need to move away from fear to find better solutions.

On that note, the BBC describes a similar issue with ‘shocking’ kebabs.

Apparently kebabs in the UK are not only bad for your health, they do not accurately state their ingredients.

Some 35% of labels listed a different meat species than that actually found in the kebab.

Six kebabs were found to include pork when it had not been declared as an ingredient. Two of the six were described as Halal – food or drink permitted for Muslims, which must not contain pork.

Just the words “different meat species” make me not want to eat a kebab ever again. Here is another shocking revelation.

In addition, there was little difference in weight between kebabs labelled as “small” and “large”, [Geoffrey Theobald, of Lacors] added.

“While some people may think they are making sensible choices by ordering a small kebab, this study showed little difference between small and large kebab weight.”

That might be a great thing when measured in simple economic terms, but the health/safety researchers seem to think less is more. They have even labeled some kebabs an “imminent” threat to public health. Will there be a kebab ban? Kebab control?

Maybe regulators should go the opposite direction and assign awards that emphasize kebab quality. That would surely help the folks too drunk at 4am at the Kebab stand. Although they are unable to tell if they are chewing pita or soggy paper wrapper/napkin, they should at least be certain they have purchased a healthy meat species. Wait, are we still talking about rational responses?