The Consumer Category
We bring you the chic and unique, the best and most bizarre shopping offers both online and offline. We offer you tips on where to buy, and some of the less mainstream and crazy, individual and offbeat items on the internet. Anything that can be bought and sold can be featured here. And we love showcasing the best and worst art and design.
Rosemary Conley Slimmers Of the Year 2014 Grow Feet
MELISSA Bridges, 23, a care home assistant from Tamworh Staffordshire, is Young Slimmer of the Year at the Rosemary Conley National Slimmer of the Year awards at the London Marriott, County Hall Hotel in London. She lost a total of 11st 3lbs.
You can now see her feet.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, January 2014 | In: The Consumer | Comment
12 Impressively Bizarre and Ridiculous Fitness Records
YEARS AGO in days of old when magic filled the air, people did their workouts at home by their turntable. Generally, the needle bounced and scratched from all the flopping around. Plus, record players were usually centrally located, which meant you had to get sweaty and embarrass yourself in front of everyone in the living room. It wasn’t until the advent of the Walkman and the proliferation of health clubs that workout music got practical. Of course, this meant the demise of the fitness LP.
Thankfully, the fossilized remains of some of these albums have been uncovered and are well worth a look.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, January 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Baker Sends Customer ‘Eat Sh*t’ Wedding Cake
“I HAVE no regrets at all about what I did. I feel she got what she deserved,” says Emma McDonald, of New Zealand’s Oh Cakes. “I don’t make cakes as a business. It is just a hobby and I’m taking it all with good humour.”
McDonald had created a cake for the engagement party of 24-year-old Micaela Harris. The bride-to-be’s relative had won a $50 voucher. McDonald said the winner owed her $20 from a previous deal and reduced the free token to a value of $30.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, January 2014 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Foodie Balls: Making Mushrooms With ‘Raindrops Tapping Me On The Collarbone And Hawks Screeching On The Updraft’
HOW do you make Porcini Mushroom Soy Sauce? Well, food blogger Hunger A Thirst For Life. Who is he?
I’m a wandering weed lover, wordsmith, teacher, and worshipper at the altar of tasty treats.
Ready? Let’s forage:
I have a some rituals that keep me content during the off-season, when conditions make it nearly impossible to forage. Most days begin standing at the east window, huddled around a steaming cup of nettle tea, while the candied dawn stretches and yawns over the horizon. Next, I shuffle my woolly slippers into the pantry in search of breakfast. Part food storage area, part temple to the growing season past, its shelves are packed with tins of herbs, and jars of pickles and preserves. There is something deeply satisfying about standing in the doorway and scanning the shelves. My preserves aren’t just aesthetically pleasing, they’re a treat to the ancient part of my brain that loves knowing I can feed myself. Also, there are memories stored inside the cell walls of those plants.
Invariably, in this winter morning ritual, my eyes settle upon the rows of dried porcini. My obsession. My prize. I’m compelled to the two gallon container that houses the finest mushroom slices. The ceremony goes like this — I lift the lid, close my eyes, genuflect, and nuzzle my entire face into the jar.
~~~inhale~~~The piano-wire tension connecting all things throughout the summer of ’12 as fires ravaged the mountainsides. The balm of honeyed relief when the rains finally came.
~~~smell~~~
Raindrops tapping me on the collarbone, bootsteps swallowed by sodden moss, hawks screeching on the updraft.
~~~breathe in~~~
Sugared soil and arrows of sunlight bolting through canopies of Englemann spruce. Dirty fingernails and my favorite knife.
~~~inspire~~~
Suspense, seduction, Mother Nature’s slight of hand. Mushrooms.
I season my meals with remembrances.
Take one mushroom and one bottle of soy sauce…
Posted: 6th, January 2014 | In: The Consumer | Comment
All The Cool Cats Chewed Beatmint Gum In 1964
FLASHBACK to Weekend February 4th 1964. All the cool cats were chewing Beatmint gum. Groovy…
Spotter: Vintage Scans
Posted: 3rd, January 2014 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Strange and Terrible Fitness Products from the 1970s
THE NEW YEAR has arrived. Time to once again pledge to stop eating like a starved cow and get going on a weight loss program. Catalogs and magazines in decades past were full of wonderfully terrible options to start you on the Grand New Year’s Tradition of Fitness Plans Doomed to Failure. Let’s have a look at a few.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 3rd, January 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, The Consumer | Comment
Kleenex For Sale On Amazon: Mum Of Three Teenage Boys Almost Cuts Her Hand On A Sock
ON Amazon, some Kleenex are for sale. A mum of three adolescents reviews their worth:
I want to start this off by thanking Kleenex for selling these in 36-packs. I’ve put it on subscription, and if they want to start selling a 72-pack, sign me up. I have three reasons for needing this much Kleenex, and their names are Liam, Samuel and Hank.
Spotter: b3ta
Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Waiter: There’s A Fox In My Chinese Ass
NEWS is that your packet of Wal-Mart donkey meat contains other meats. The Five Spice donkey meat sold in Wal-Mart’s China stores has been found by the Shandong Food and Drug Administration to contain fox.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
For Sale: Barbecue Helps Man Bed Scarlett Johanssen On The Back Of A Unicorn
BARBECUE Advert of The Year: The Enchanted burner:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Train Fares Rise: Blithering Sutpidity From The Campaign For Better Transport
Transport- Station Staff – Ticket Clipper – London – 1973: A British Rail ticket clipper waits for passengers for the last train to Bedford from St.Pancras at 18.08.
THEY’RE whining about how train fares are going up again: and as usual, they’re managing to get entirely the wrong end of the stick. Here’s their complaint about fares:
Rail fares are rising so quickly that the government will soon be making a profit from the commuting public, campaigners claimed as the new year ushered in higher annual season ticket prices.
According to a report from the consultants Credo, for the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT), by 2018 the fares collected from passengers will cover 103% of railways’ operating costs, compared with 80% in 2009.
There is a very slight problem with this analysis: operating profits are not profits. Operating profits are the costs of goods sold minus the costs of goods purchased. If you thought about Sainsbury’s for example, then it would be the cost of everything they sell minus the costs of buying the things that they sell. And the perceptive will note that those aren’t all the costs of running a supermarket. It’s necessary, for example, to have buildings in which to operate the supermarkets. Vans and trucks to move the stuff around. To pay for advertising to get people to come in and buy the stuff.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
How To Tell Good People From Bad People According To The International Order of The Golden Rule
THE International Order of The Golden Rule is a funeral homes organisation based in Austin, Texas. On their website filed under “history”, they tell us:
To a group of funeral directors in 1928, the “Golden Rule” – a fundamental principle that is universally admired and upheld – became the cornerstone upon which to built a professional association.
The founders embarked on a mission to seek out a dependable, ethical funeral directors in every community by means of a carefully tested screening process. They wanted to establish a quality-minded identity in the minds of families everywhere. The Golden Rule credo – “Service measured not by gold, but by the Golden Rule” – speaks to that identity.
And:
Each Golden Rule® Funeral Home must show a commitment to provide to their client families: “Service measured not by gold but by the Golden Rule.”
So. What is the Golden Rule? We never do get to nail it down. Under “STandards of Ethical Conduct”, we get not one rule but 10 rules. We also see their name printed on this booklet called “How To Tell Good People From Bad People”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 1st, January 2014 | In: Books, Flashback, Strange But True | Comment
The Steve Buscemi Christmas Jesus Candle
ETSY seller DMAGIC has created this wondrous Steve Buscemi Christmas Candle:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 31st, December 2013 | In: Celebrities, The Consumer | Comment
Victoria’s Secret: What A Difference 30 Years Makes
CAN YOU GUESS which Victoria’s Secret models come from 1984 and which are from recent catalogs? I’ll give you a hint: the ones from 1984 resemble actual human females.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 31st, December 2013 | In: Fashion, Flashback, Key Posts | Comment
Madiba Tributes: The Nelson Mandela Full-Body-Fat Work-Out
THE Nelson Mandela keep-fit tribute video:
As many of you might know, this week we lost one of our favorite son’s here in South-Africa, Nelson Mandela.
So I decide to go and shoot a workout video in a very special place to pay our respects to this great man!
RIP Madiba!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Politicians, The Consumer | Comment
The Hanging Dolls Of Mexico’s Dead Girl Island
DOLLS die in Xochimilco, Mexico.
They’re in the trees and on the ground, bunched together on wooden fence posts and hanging from clotheslines like laundry left to dry. Their dead eyes stare at you from half empty sockets, their dirty hair hangs like cobwebs. Their skin is scabbed and peeling away, and their plump limbs are scattered everywhere—arms and legs strewn about haphazardly, decapitated heads impaled on stakes.
This is not a nightmare. It’s La Isla de las Muñecas, a real place located in a southern borough of Mexico City, on a man-made island, which for decades has been home to hundreds of dilapidated dolls.
The island was once the property of Don Julián Santana, a local farmer. Legend has it that in 1950, he saw a little girl drown in the canal and her spirit began haunting the place.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Key Posts, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Amazon Is Banning Sales Of Virginia Wade’s Monster Smut e-Books
MY Little Pony filth has nothing on this kind of cryptozoological smut. E’ve shown you dinoraur erotica before. Now Business Insider says Amazon is looking to ban “monster p*rn” e-books. Anyone read Cum for Bigfoot? Some of you have because author and mum-of-two Virginia Wade* says that 12,000-word tome earns her $30,000 a month.
For those of you versed in Wade’s works:
An idea to write a campy, teen horror-fest, with a Sasquatch protagonist, led to the creation of Cum For Bigfoot, which is essentially a series of stories spanning several years in the lives of a tribe of Bigfoots and their human lovers. The silliness, the romance, and the sex struck a chord with readers, who enjoyed the adventures of Porsche, Shelly, and Leslie, while the kidnapped teens came to love their hairy abductors. The series is now on its fourteenth installment, with more to follow.
…
How can Porsche leave all of this behind and return to civilization? When she’s in the arms of her Sasquatch, warm and snuggly in his matted fur, the only thoughts going through her mind are of utter bliss. But challenges abound for the star-crossed lovers, including Leonard’s head injury, a devastating wildfire, and a sexy forest ranger named Mike. Will these obstacles shatter the growing love between an ape and its mate or will true love triumph?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 29th, December 2013 | In: Books, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comments (2)
Library Rules of The Insane Asylum of California (1861)
THESE are the Library Rules of the Insane Asylum of California (1861):
1. The Library of the male department shall be under the charge of the Supervisor. Every volume taken therefrom shall be charged to the borrower, except for the use of the patients, when it shall be charged to the Attendant, into whose ward it is taken, who will be responsible for its being used with ordinary care and returned in proper time.
2. If a volume shall be lost or destroyed, by any patient, the Attendant, having charge of the patient, will report the fact to the Supervisor, and, if practicable, exhibit the fragments. If lost or destroyed, by any other person, it must be replaced.
3. No one will be permitted to take from the library more than one volume at a time, or to keep a volume more than two weeks, without permission from the Superintendent or Assistant Physician, except Bibles, Testaments and Prayer books placed in the hands of the patients for daily reading.
4. The Supervisor will be responsible for books taken from the library and not charged.
5. The Library of the female department will be under the charge of the Matron, who, in its management, will be governed by the above rules, prescribing the duties and responsibilities of the Supervisor.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 29th, December 2013 | In: Books, Flashback | Comment
Extreme Dieting: Keith Moon Versus Hunter S Thompson
Keith Moon, the eccentric drummer of The Who, at Heathrow Airport with his girlfriend Annette Walker-Lax, on return from the United States.
THE late Keith Moon was once asked whether he thought he was the greatest drummer in the world, he replied: “I’m the greatest Keith Moon-style drummer in the world”, and no one can argue with that. However Moon is just as famous, even today, for packing in far more than his fair share of convivial nights during his short eventful life. He died in September 1978 just two weeks after his 32nd birthday when he fell unconscious, never to wake up, in the Mayfair flat of his close-friend Harry Nilsson. Coincidentally, it was the very same bed where Mama Cass Elliot had died four years earlier.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Books, Celebrities, Key Posts, Music | Comments (2)
Are You Ready For Candy Crush, The Movie?
WE’VE entered a strange time for films. Films everyone can remember first time round are being remade, Ryan Reynolds is still getting work and, weirdest of all, films are being made based on toys.
Now, of course, action figures and the like have ended up on the silver screen, but the Rihanna-starring ‘Battleship’, based on a coordinates board game, flummoxed everyone. What next? Well, to save us all from a ‘what’s next – [insert ludicrous ‘Monkey Tennis’ idea here] joke’, we’ll cut to the chase.
Candy Crush, that’s what.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Film, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
Spot the difference: Dante’s Hell vs Boxing Day at Westfield
SPOT the difference. Dante’s Hell vs Boxing Day at Westfield.
There are nine more differences….
Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Lydia Estes Pinkham Wanted To Cure ‘Hysterical Women’ Of Their Menstrual Weaknesses
LYDIA Estes Pinkham made “women’s tonic” to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains.
In 1875, Lydia Estes Pinkham reaction to straightened times by creating tonics for “all those painful Complaints and Weaknesses so common to our best female population”.
The original recipe for Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound is as follows:
Unicorn Root (Aletris farinosa L.) 8 oz.
Life Root (Senecio aureus L.) 6 oz.
Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa (L.) Nutt.) 6oz.
Pleurisy Root (Asclepias tuberosa L.) 6 oz.
Fenugreek Seed (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) 12 oz.
Alcohol (18%) to make 100 pints
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Church of England Supports Marks & Spencer Sharia Checkouts But Not Christians Refusing To Serve Halal
THERE has been something of a furore over Marks & Spencer’s announcement that henceforth Muslim staff on their checkouts will be permitted to decline to serve M&S customers who purchase alcohol or pork, writes Cranmer. That is to say, M&S customers will either be asked to queue at a checkout where the employee does not object to serving kuffar (however much longer the queue), or they will have to wait while M&S find a member of staff who is prepared to serve you.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 24th, December 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comments (7)
How to Cover Up A Tattoo
THIS is how you cover up an old tattoo:
Posted: 24th, December 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Glen Hanson Creates Shower Curtains For A Hollywood Entrance
NEW York’s Glen Hanson gives hope to your tired, mildewed bathroom. We’re talking sho0wer curtains: those dank, cold-to-the-touch, unusually stained nylon bath drapes that harbour several new strains of e-Coli and an axe murderer. But mo more. Shower curtains are now portals to a dimension of star-speckled glamour and Divine’s trailer:
Grey Gardens
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 23rd, December 2013 | In: Celebrities, The Consumer | Comment
