It's been an unusually perfect run of Starbucks competence recently. I'd have to do the math, but I think the good to incompetent visit ratio is about 15:2.
Some other odds and ends from the week, leading to a Super Bowl prediction.
Organics/Vegan Shopping
Giant Eagle charges different prices for different NuGo protein bars. The dark chocolate and mint chocolate chip bars are 4/$5, the rest are 5/$5. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to this that anyone could identify, unless those two types of protein bars are vegan friendly and the remainder are not.
Other Random Items
The Columbia Journalism Review has gone live with an online app. This, along with The Walrus and The Atlantic, are the three magazines to which I subscribe, and it officially brings to a close the era of the printed magazine in my life. Of course, it means I'll now have to haul my iPad into the washroom with me, so not all progress is progress.
But it begs the question, when was the last time you bought a CD? And if you're still buying them, when will you stop?
Along the same lines, I had to buy a new DVD/surround sound player for the first time in six years. Not only is it an actual DVD player, but it comes with integrated Vudu and Netflix access. With that in mind, and coupled with movie access on portable devices, cable/satellite On Demand and Redbox, it's not hard to understand why Blockbuster and it's ilk are now virtually extinct. (Though I think that Family Video fills a nice niche and will hold on awhile longer).
Consider that, just a decade ago, you subscribed to a paper newspaper (already then on borrowed time), bought paper books, bought hard CDs and rented movies on a physical medium from a bricks and mortar store. All four of those activites have been replaced by one or more devices with network access.
*****
I personally find this weekend's Super Bowl strangely uninspiring, and I attribute that to my general lack of enthusiasm about the Baltimore Ravens. The offense is a deep pass, all or nothing game and Joe Flacco has all the charisma of Eli Manning painting a room beige. Ray Lewis' act is tiresome, the defense is old overall and it's Baltimore. Stop downtown, have some crabs and head down to Washington DC, someplace considerably more interesting where you're marginally less likely to get killed (says the man who works in Detroit for a living).
The 49ers, on the other hand, are a considerably more interesting team. They're well constructed, they run an innovative (for the NFL, at least) offense and are generally well built. Roster management has been phenominal. San Francisco proper is a lovely town (the suburbs are utterly uninspiring aside from Half Moon Bay, which is gorgeous), and well, here's the deal: Baltimore's defense is a bad matchup for San Francisco's offense. They run well, and Vernon Davis should be able to exploit Baltimore's old linebacking corps. San Francisco 31, Baltimore 21.
*****
It's a bare notebook overall for a bare time of year. Some thoughts next week on the Argos situation in Toronto as I get the chance to do some thinking on the first love of my life, the CFL.
