8.9 Earthquake Hits Japan

There are days when I ponder what will happen next. Should I write about the week that was or some food. And then, life happens and with today's earthquake, Japan faces toughest crisis since WWII. The Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for unity as rescue teams struggle to reach the battered northeast and new fears emerge over a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex. Two reactors are in jeopardy of meltdown after the devastating earthquake and tsunami crisis.

''This is the toughest crisis in Japan's 65 years of postwar history,'' Kan said during a televised news conference late Sunday. ''I'm convinced that we can overcome the crisis.''

The prime minister's remarks came on a day when the head of police in Miyagi prefecture estimated that the death toll in his prefecture alone would exceed 10,000.
The government, in power less than two years and which had already been struggling to push policy through a deeply divided parliament, came under criticism for its handling of the disaster.

"Crisis management is incoherent," blared a headline in the Asahi newspaper, saying information and instructions to expand the evacuation area around the troubled plant were too slow.

There has been a proposal of an extra budget to help pay for the huge cost of recovery.

The Bank of Japan is expected to pledge on Monday to supply as much money as needed to prevent the disaster from destabilising markets and its banking system. It is also expected to signal its readiness to ease monetary policy further if the damage from the worst quake since records began in Japan 140 years ago threatens a fragile economic recovery.The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century. It surpassed the Great Kanto quake of September 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake killed 6000 and caused US$100 billion in damage, the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about US$10 billion.

Thank you to Reuters for news information.

Another Icon of Youth Going Away...

WTF?! Cap'n Crunch To Be Discontinued?! Is our beloved Cap'n about to walk the plank? Ohh Cap'n, say it aint so. If the internet hysteria is correct, it appears that Quaker Oats is putting an end to our beloved mouth-scraping morning delight, Cap’n Crunch. Where do these stories come from? Not sure but I could not stand idle and see this happen. I went goggling.

You can’t find a picture of the blue-capped Cap'n anywhere on Quaker’s official website, and sales are reportedly way down. So who or what is to blame for this apparent upcoming extinction of breakfast greatness? Sadly, but logically, a lot of the responsibility is falling on the shoulders of people eating more responsibly. Heck, I have not had a serving in decades! With 12 grams of sugar per serving, a bowl of Cap'n Crunch amounts to half the recommended daily intake for kids.

Parent company PepsiCo is apparently forcing the good Cap'n, once the #1 breakfast cereal in America, to walk the plank. Last year, PepsiCo vowed to reduce added sugar per serving by 25 percent and saturated fat by 15 percent in its products over the next 10 years.

After the initial thrashing fit in the cereal aisle of the grocery store upon hearing the news, smashing inferior breakfast foods under my feet while screaming for the dearly departing Cap'n, (never said I was not a drama queen!) a little bit of reason began to set in. Sure, we can rationalized the piercing jabs the corners of the squares inflict on our upper mouths for the sake of the delicious wonderment.

As the day continued and hype built, Quaker Oats issued a statement saying that the cereal giant has no plans to end the deliciousness:

"Reports of Cap'n Crunch's demise are greatly exaggerated. In fact, we just launched an official Facebook page for Cap'n Crunch. Now that our Cap'n Crunch brand is in the social-media space, our adult consumers can stay up to date on all things Cap'n Crunch."

A conspiracy? Smokescreen tactics? We'll see... but damned if I didn't want to stock up on 10 boxes last night, just to be safe. But I got real and just decided I need to savor the memories.

Thanks to Johnny Firecloud of LA Times for some of the detailed information in the above article.

For People Who Love Bananas...

but hate the environment! Indeed, single serving bananas. Gotta love where is says at the bottom right hand corner "Sealed for Freshness" - I mean seriously?! Sad, sad, sad.

Say It Ain't So!

I was stunned at the news yesterday. After decades of being the world's biggest fast food change, McDonald's has been outdone. Subway may promote itself as a fast food option that helps shrink the waistline, but the chain is now the largest kid on the restaurant block, surpassing McDonald's with more stores, coming in at 33,749 units compared to McDonald's 32,737.

We've come to think of McDonald's as an iconic symbol of American consumerism, can Subway fill those same shoes? It's got lots of room yet to grow in developing countries, with just 199 stores in China thus far. It passed McDonald's as the largest quick serve chain, store-wise, nine years ago, thanks to Subway outlets in gas stations, Walmart stores and pretty much anywhere it can sandwich in a $5 foot-long.

It's not all bigger and better for Subway though. McDonald's makes more money, bringing in $24 billion last year compared to Subway's $15.2 billion.

This focus on who or what is bigger never ceases to amaze. Back when Best Buy was the upstart battling Circuit City, the two would go back and forth about which was bigger. One had more stores but the other was more profitable, then had more sales, and finally Best Buy overtook Circuit City in all things. Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008 and ultimately liquidated all its stores in early 2009.

However long the battle for dominance, and the means by which its measured, looks like it's Jared vs. Ronald to the death.

Thanks to Laura Heller for her contributions to this story.

Spicing Up My Life

Markie just got home from a trip to U. S. Grant's home town in Illinois and he does enjoy going shopping in thrift stores and antique malls to see what he might find. Well, on this trip he found not 1, but 4 Schilling spice boxes. They are from the 30's. I have about a dozen different "Schilling Spice" products, but my sister Janet has an amazing collection in her apartment in Portland. Quite stunning to be sure.

Balloons Make You Smile

Today, National Geographic photographed a "house" being lifted off by several hundred weather balloons. A scene right out of the movie "Up" and well, there is not a lot to be said. But hey, at least you can smile. a good thing for a Monday. So what makes you smile? Feel free to leave a comment and letting me know or leave a comment on any post to let me know what you think. Thanks!

Bye-Bye Facebook

A couple of years ago I was asked to add a facebook account as part of a work project. I did and soon I was adding "friends" left and right. Soon it was over a 100 and climbing. Out of the walls I was contacted by people dating back to collage, high school and all wanting to be friends. Mind you, many of these people I had no clue who they were. Then a strange thing happened. If you did not accept them, they were hurt. They would ask, "What have I done?"

Well, nothing. It was just that we did not connect before and life marches on. No problem. NOT! Requests would be repeated. I would be poked. One Sunday I decided enough, I took on a project where over a week I went from nearly 200 friends down to 50. It was done in fun and in the end I was feeling good. Well, it had begun to creep back up and all the old themes had started up plus some of the postings were just over the top, while others were pretty darn funny. I then began this blog and it is fun. So, I have decided to once and for all to pull the plug on facebook this week. Funny how a couple of my friends have kinda freaked a bit. But all is good. We all move on. And so, moving on, have a great day and catch you later.