You can get an-y-thing

Today we took one of our new French friends to the west side of Bloomington to see the strip malls. We stopped at a sporting goods store to show him how readily available guns are. I do like to admire the air rifles and pistols on the rare occasions I go there but this time something else caught my eye: They like to start them young! I also saw this in the camping section: And this:

Hot and Smooth

I'm always amazed by the range of flavours coffee creamer comes in. And they're constantly coming up with new ones, or at least new combinations. I suppose vanilla is a spice but only in the technical sense. I wonder how well this sells.

Air fresheners with very specific scents

Chocolate coated jelly beans

When apple flavoured apples are just too predictable

There was also "tropical" flavour. At least that's fruity. 

Branding iron for snags

S'mores-Flavoured Coffee

Everything has a pumpkin version in autumn

Including the grog

St Paddy's Day in Chicago

Every year St Patrick's Day falls during IU's Spring Break. (Normally we go to The Irish Lion for a lamb burger and a half-yard of cider.) Last year we were keen to head up to Chicago to see their big parade but we found out too late that it's not usually on the day but the Saturday before. This year St Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday so Cindy felt that we absolutely had to go.

We drove up the day before and found a cheap motel within walking distance of a railway station. Then we got up the next morning and caught the train into town to see them dye the river green at 10 am.

A few blocks south of there they held the parade. It started off with the sorts of groups you'd expect: Gaelic pride, Irish dance troupes, dignitaries like the mayor (I think the Irish PM was even in town but he's a bit nondescript-looking so I have no idea if I saw him in the middle of the secret service officers.) There were also Catholic schools, the Knights of Columbus (the only ones who tried to be provocative) and various politicians and judges campaigning for re-election. But after a while it started to get a bit random. Politicians gave way to trade unions; dance schools gave way to Ronald McDonald and the Irish heritage groups gave way to individual families and even a float of Assyrians!

"Is this a great country, or what?"

It seems that a few Americans are quite self-aware when it comes to their consumer culture and ridiculous food products:


I mentioned already that there are weird flavours of vodka hitting the market such as chipped cream and cotton candy. Now I've also seen cake and marshmallow flavours. I must confess that I actually bought a 50mL bottle of the marshmallow ($1!). I haven't tried it yet but I hear it goes well in hot chocolate.

Black Friday 2011

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, which makes today Black Friday.

Last night I had dinner at the home of a professor with whom I've worked (he invited one other international student). They bought two deboned rolled turkeys of 10lb each -- the six of us got through less than three quarters of the first one! (So we students were sent home with leftovers.)

I got home just before midnight and realised that it was just in time for me to go to the Black Friday sales. Every year the shops open early on the Friday after Thanksgiving and usually people camp out in the cold waiting. But this year a number of shops, including the electronics giant BestBuy, announced that they would open at midnight. I arrived at 20 min past but the queue was still outside, snaking around the corner about 150m. I brought a warm jacket and my earphones so I joined them. The queue moved slowly but when I got in I quickly found the hard drive I was looking for (and was happy that they hadn't yet sold out). But then I had to find the queue for the checkout. After wasting a few minutes in a line for something else, I was told that the end to that queue could be found by looking for a pink helium ballon. I did find it but had no idea how long it was, snaking through the aisles. About an hour and a half later I got to the checkout! I didn't get back to the car until two hours after I arrived!

It wasn't all that pleasant having to be there so long but my experience was nothing like the twenty people who got capsicum-sprayed by a psycho shopper in L.A. And elsewhere people have been robbed on the way back to their car and shot. I guess my experience was fine, compared to all that.

More Things You Can Get in America

Today I noticed that Bed Bath and Beyond had a surprising number of interesting products that I didn't know existed:




This one came from a plain old supermarket. If it's not clear, that's a home s'mores maker:

Crazy flavours extend to alcohol

A friend of our had a big housewarming party tonight. She's a well-paid full professor so her parties always have a well-stocked bar. But tonight, I noticed a couple of bottles that I'd never seen before:
Whipped cream vodka


"Cotton candy" (i.e. fairy floss) vodka

In America, you can get anything!

When I first arrived in America, I really liked to go shopping. I'd spend a lot of time browsing the supermarket and even Target seeing what was available. These Poms feel the same way:


While the novelty has worn off for me now, there are still occasions when I'm amazed that a certain product exists, and Cindy will exclaim, "You can get an-y-thing in America!" This happens mainly around Xmas.

Satellite TV is not as glamorous as it sounds

We've had some intermittent problems with the TV lately. Apparently it was the heat -- it's been in the mid-30s all week. A serviceman came today and found that one of the switches had melted.

It's fixed now but there's still nothing good on.

Bacon Ice-Cream

I had dinner tonight with some friends at a well-known local brasserie. One thing they have on the menu is a diabolical sounding seitan tenderloin, so I thought that if Cameron ever visited, I'd take him there.

But one other thing they have on the menu is bacon ice-cream! That's a chocolate-coated rasher on the left!


It had little chunks of real bacon through it, as you see in the photo and the rest of the ice-cream tasted of bacon too. It was as nauseating as it sounds.

Bilingualism

Tonight at the play I saw someone whom I was supposed to know but didn't recognise. I knew him from French Table (he came a few times a couple of years ago, I remembered his name when he told me) and he thought it was funny that we had never spoken in English before. In fact, I had failed to recognise him last week when he was at the meeting with Kim Beazley. That was the first time he had heard me speak English and so tonight he said to me, "I didn't know you had an accent in English."
"I don't. You do!" I replied.
"Well, I didn't know that you were Australian until then," he corrected himself.

Let Newton Be!

I went to see a play tonight. My department and a few others sponsored a showing of "Let Newton Be!", about the life of Isaac Newton. It was a very small production, just three actors and not many props, but they made excellent use of what they had. The actors represent three stages of Newton's life but they also change into other characters occasionally, like Leibniz. The most impressive thing is how they managed to keep it under an hour and a half and include so much material without dumbing it down.

Interesting Chip Flavours

What can't be flavoured like bacon?

I think this speaks for itself:

I'll just add that the picture on the box looks like that because Americans usually eat streaky bacon (rarely "Canadian" back bacon and never middle rashers).