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.
Sack the agency: Advertising Week Europe vs. Advertising Week NYC gets the Hugh Grant it deserves
HOW do the advertisers advertise for Europe Advertising Week? With this. The only thing that could make it more of a w**kfest is if the censorious Hugh Grant turned up. Oh, hi, Hugh… Hugs.
All of them, in one place at the same time… Get the doors…
And this:
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Washington Restaurant gives discount for well-behaved kids – you don’t stand a chance
EVEN parents know that children in restaurants are the worst thing on Earth. Noisy, snot-faced infants are worse than teams of drunk rugby players and screaming hen-parties put together. They howl, loudly need the toilet, don’t like anything and worst of all, wander around establishments bugging the rest of civilisation who have enough to deal with while eating in public and being forced to pretend to know about wine.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Freedom is rife on the Armenia / Georgia border
AT a truck stop on the Armenia / Georgia border, the sweet smell of freedom. Grab the cigarettes while you can:
Spotter: Samizdata
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Halifax women finds tomato in beef and tomato Pot Noodle
“I’d put the Pot Noodle on a plate and was half-way through when I saw something that did not seem right. I touched it with my fork and saw the eyeball. I did not want to eat the rest. I felt sick but didn’t physically throw up. I won’t be buying any more Pot Noodles.”
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
How they queue for football tickets in Japan (they write their names on a line)
I ONCE queued at Highbury, Arsenal’s old stadium, 14 hours for football tickets. When the gates finally opened, everyone at the back dashed for the front. It was mayhem. In Japan, they do it differently. The punters write their names on a strip of tape. They then go away, returning when the ticket office opens to claim their place in the line. Could this work in the UK? No. Of course not. The process would requite a booking fee, use of the official “Queue Pen” and the kind of order and decorum that goes against everything we love about the game |(well, before Sky got hold of it):
Posted: 11th, February 2013 | In: Sports, The Consumer | Comment
Robert Crumb predicted twitter and the internet (photo)
DECADES before it went live, Robert Crumb predicted Twitter and the internet:
“Everyone will be tuned into everything that’s happening all the time! No-one will be left out. We’ll all be normal!”
Crumb – a life in photos; the Crumb Bible; the Crumb rejected.
Posted: 10th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
Robert Crumb: the same-sex marriage cover art the New Yorker rejected
WHY did the New Yorker magazine reject Robert Crumb’s same sex marriage cover (see above)? Nadja Sayej got the bottom of why the New Yorker didn’t use this art by Robert Crumb: They never told him…
Did the rejection offend you?
I’m in a privileged position because I don’t need the money. When you go to the cover editor’s office, you notice that the walls are covered with rejected New Yorker covers. Sometimes there are two rejected covers for each issue. I don’t know what the usual policy is, but I was given no explanation from David Remnick, the editor in chief, who makes the final decisions.Has the New Yorker attempted to commission work from you since this cover?
Yeah, Françoise [Mouly, the art editor] keeps mailing me these form letters, which they send to various artists they like to use. It says something like, “OK, so here are the topics for upcoming covers.” They send it out a couple of times a year or something. But it’s a form letter, not a personal letter.Did you receive an apology?
An apology? I don’t expect an apology. But if I’m going to work for them I need to know the criteria for why they accept or reject work. The art I made, it only really works as a New Yorker cover. There’s really no other place for it. But they did pay me beforehand—decent money. I have no complaint there. I asked Françoise what was going on with it and she said, “Oh, Remnick hasn’t decided yet…” and he changed his mind several times about it. I asked why and she didn’t know. Several months passed. Then one day, I got the art back in the mail, no letter, no nothing.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 10th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Study the Bible, with Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis
IT’S Sunday. Time to study the Bible, with Robert Crumb’s Book of Genesis.
Greta Christina reviews:
Of course I’ve read Genesis. More than once. It’s been a little while since I’ve read the whole thing all the way through, but it’s not like it’s unfamiliar. But there’s something about seeing the story fleshed out in images to make some of its more striking narrative turns leap out and grab your brain by the root. There’s nothing quite like seeing the two different creation stories enacted on the page to make you go, “Hey! That’s right! Two completely different creation stories!” There’s nothing quite like seeing Lot offer his daughters to be gang-raped to make you recoil in shock and moral horror. There’s nothing quite like seeing the crazed dread and burning determination in Abraham’s eyes as he prepares the sacrifice of his own son to make you feel the enormity of this act. Reading these stories in words conveys the ideas; seeing them in images conveys the visceral impact. It makes it all seem vividly, immediately, humanly real.
Now, that is something of a mixed blessing. Spending a few days with the characters in Genesis isn’t the most relaxing literary vacation you’ll ever take. Richard Dawkins wasn’t kidding when he said, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.” The God character in Genesis is cruel, violent, callous, insecure, power-hungry, paranoid, hot-tempered, morally fickle… I could go on and on. And God’s followers aren’t much better. They lie, they scheme, they cheat one another, they conquer other villages with bloodthirsty imperialist glee, they kill at the drop of a hat. This isn’t Beatrix Potter here. It’s more like Dangerous Liaisons by way of Quentin Tarantino. With tents, sand, and sheep.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 10th, February 2013 | In: Books | Comments (5)
Frank Lund’s New Brighton pirate ship made from Mersey driftwood and other washed-up stuff (photos)
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
In the 1950s Heinz thought clowns would make pickles fun – they didn’t (photos)
IN the 1950s, Heinz looked at pickles and wondered what went with them? The answer was simple: clowns. Middle-aged men in small hats and lots of make-up would make tummies rumble for jarred pickles. Look out for the clown with a face so stitched in the upwards grin that when eyeing his puke-encrusted sausage, he still smiles broadly. Unless he is, like Bom Bom, actually turned on by such things. But, then, Bom Bom’s a wanted man who only took to clowning because he had a tube of congealed pig’s blood, chronic anaemia and a chronic need for an alibi:
Posted: 9th, February 2013 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Hessian is the off-the-peg brand
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 8th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Findus dishes up horses for courses
FINDUS beef lasagne contains up to 100% horse meat. No artificial meats. Just trusty horse meat. No consumer complained about it not tasting like cow. No-one died. No-one fell ill. The horse lasagna sold as well as before. But then that consumer apathy may be rooted in the animal painkillers injected injected into those Nag Burgers.
Findus says it is “Good lads food made Findusly Simple”:
For over 50 years, Findus has stood as one of Britain’s best loved names in food. Using only the best ingredients and a generous pinch of imagination in our recipes, we’ll help you prepare great tasting and effortlessly good food straight from your freezer
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 8th, February 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comments (4)
Idiots vote for cat’s inclusion in Monopoly
YOU can make a good judgement on a human by viewing which piece they decide to play with in Monopoly. Basically, the rule is this: If they choose the dog, they’re an idiot.
This may seem harsh, but think about it. The car has a lovely art-deco quality and implies speed and fun, while the boot is reminiscent of a cartoon hobo’s boot, implying a wistful, rambling freedom. The top hat is a satisfying piece to hold and has a Lord Snooty quality, and anyone who doesn’t like the Beano should be slapped senseless. The ship is also filled with romance and a promise of adventure and maybe decadent dinner parties on deck, before the vessel perishes at the whim of an iceberg.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, February 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Human tooth found in Tesco meat sausages
WITH horse meat no longer on the menu, Tesco is looking elsewhere to bulk up its budget meat meals. But Tony Hinds is not keen on the latest animal product in his Finest herb and chive sausages: a human tooth.
Tesco has rewarded Mr Hinds with £25-worth of vouchers. He remains unhappy, however, perhaps hoping that, what this being the Finest range, the tooth should have been made from gold.
Says the unhappy shopper, who bought his tooth sausages at a Tesco in Sheerness, Kent:
“She [his lover was making sausage rolls] thought it might be a bit of hard skin or a gristle. It’s only when she picked it up she realised what it was.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, February 2013 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comments (5)
Plastic bags kill five people a year in San Francisco
THE purge on plastic bags is claiming lives. Ramesh Ponnuru writes in Bloomberg:
In a 2011 study, four researchers examined reusable bags in California and Arizona and found that 51 percent of them contained coliform bacteria. The problem appears to be the habits of the reusers. Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag. When bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold…Klick and Wright estimate that the San Francisco ban results in a 46 percent increase in deaths from foodborne illnesses, or 5.5 more of them each year. They then run through a cost-benefit analysis employing the same estimate of the value of a human life that the Environmental Protection Agency uses when evaluating regulations that are supposed to save lives. They conclude that the anti-plastic-bag policies can’t pass the test — and that’s before counting the higher health-care costs they generate.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
When We Went Mad: the documentary of Mad Magazine (with added Jimi Hendrix fold in)
MAD Magazine is a film. WhenWe Went Mad is a documentarythat MAD Magazine over the past 60 years.” You get to put faces to Al Jaffee, Sergio Aragones, Arnie Kogen, Jack Davis, and Al Feldstein.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: Film, Flashback, The Consumer | Comments (3)
Aeroflot crew sacking: the curious case of Tatiana Kozlenko’s finger
FLIGHT crew Tatiana Kozlenko posted a picture of someone giving the finger to passengers travelling with Aeroflot. She posted the image on Vkontakte, a Russian website.
Tatiana Kozlenko has been sacked. She denies the finger is hers. She says it not even an Aeroflot jet. Does he have a case?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Have you been taken up The Shard?
THE Shard is open to the public. You can see our photos of London’s epic building rising up here. Anyone considering using The Shard as a venue for dates, should heed the words of OK! magazine’s Natalie Posner who writes beneath the headline “OUR GIRL ABOUT TOWN”:
“On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to be taken up the Shard…”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 6th, February 2013 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Corpsing yoga woman sues New York studio for masturbating handyman
CAN you put a price on this? Keiko Herskovitz is suing Related Companies, which owns Equinox, for unspecified damages. Herskovitz enjoys yoga at Equinox Pure Yoga West on New York’s Upper West Side. She alleges that whilst meditating in the corpse pose (see above), a maintenance man entered the room. She “felt that there was a person next to her, and she opened her eyes to find a Pure Yoga employee, a maintenance associate, about two feet away, masturbating.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 5th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Dog face: Tonik the Poodle/Shih Tzu mix has a ‘human’ face
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 5th, February 2013 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
These photographs will appear on cigarette packaging sold in Ireland
THESE photographs will appear on cigarette packaging sold in Ireland. The key word is that smoking “can” cause a slow death. And it cannot.
Might this be time to dig out that cigarette case?
Ireland was the first EU country to introduce a smoking ban. Did it work?
Despite hikes in tobacco tax, the smoking ban and a new law against the public display of cigarettes for sale, the number of smokers has steadily risen since 2007 when 29pc of the population smoked. The survey, which was conducted between March and September, revealed the largest group of smokers — 45pc — is aged between 16 and 30.
Posted: 4th, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
That creepy Super Bowl Scientology advert for sports fans and other sectarian egotists
DID you see the advert for the Church of Scientology aired during the Super Bowl? If you heard it, you’re probably reciting the mantras word for word in your sleep and at the bank. If you didn’t, here’s your next tattoo from the starriest self-improvement system in Tinsel Town – the one penned by Ron (that’s a name you can trust):
“To the curious, the inquisitive, the seekers of knowledge. To the ones who just want to know about life, about the universe, about yourself. Not cute questions, big questions, one’s that matter. To the rebels, the artists, the free thinkers and the innovators who care less about labels and more about truth. Who believe non-conformity’s more than a bumper sticker. That knowledge is more than words on a page. You’re young, you’re old, you’re powerful beyond measure and the fuel of that power is not magic or mysticism, but knowledge. The things you see, the things you feel, the things you know to be true. Sure, some will doubt you. Let them. Dare to think for yourself, to look for yourself, to make up your own mind. Because in the eternal debate for answers, the one thing that’s true is what’s true for you.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 4th, February 2013 | In: Sports, The Consumer | Comment
WIP’s Wing Bowl 21: photos of sporting gluttony
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 3rd, February 2013 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Jon Venables: Ralph Bulger’s new book sheds light on James Bulger’s killer
THE murder of James Bulger is still news. Ralph Bulger, father of the two-year-old murdered by twn-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, has written a book. My James by Ralph Bulger and Rosie Dunn centres on the events of February 12, 1993. The parts about he and wife Denise Ferguson’s unbearable pain are horrible, like being invited to look at survivors’ slides from a fatal car crash. The parts about the child’s body and wounds are grim. They offer nothing new. What is interesting is the story of the criminal case, particularly how Jon Venables comes across:
…
‘Is that you on that video, son?’ Ann Thompson demanded. ‘Nah, it’s got nothing to do with me,’ he replied. As if to prove his point, Robert went to a makeshift memorial near the railway in Walton and later took some flowers. When he got home he said to his mother: ‘Why would I take flowers to the baby if I had killed him?’ At another home nearby, Jon Venables told his mother, Susan: ‘If I’d seen them kids hurting the baby, I’d have kicked their heads in.’
…
Jon’s father, meanwhile, asked his son about the blue paint that was splattered on his mustard-coloured coat. He said that his friend Robert Thompson had thrown it at him.
I later learned that on the Wednesday evening an anonymous woman went to Marsh Lane Police Station. She said she was a friend of the Venables family and knew that the son, a boy called Jon, had skipped school with a friend called Robert Thompson on the Friday that James went missing. He had returned home with blue paint on his jacket.
…
Jon was having lunch when his mother held her son in a tight embrace and said: ‘I love you, Jon. I want you to tell the truth, whatever it might be.’ He started to cry, and just blurted out: ‘I did kill him.’ The boy looked across the room at the detectives and said: ‘What about his mum? Will you tell her I’m sorry.’ Jon continued to blame everything on Robert. He said they found James outside the butcher’s shop. He said it was his idea to take him, but it was Robert’s idea to kill him. They took him to the canal, where Robert planned to throw him in. James would not kneel down to look at his reflection in the water as they wanted, so Robert picked him up and threw him on the ground. This was how James had first injured his head. He said that James kept crying: ‘I want my mummy.’
…
‘He wanted him dead, probably,’ he responded. ‘Robert was probably doing it for fun because he was laughing his head off.’ For his part, though, Robert refused to admit any involvement in the attack. ‘He never actually told me the truth in the end – far from it,’ said DS Roberts. ‘He lied from the minute we started to interview him.’ ‘When he was charged, he had no problem with it. I suppose he knew that if he was found guilty he would have a better life than he would outside. I thought to myself, “This boy has caused so much misery and evil.” I didn’t look for the three sixes on the back of his head, but at that moment I thought he was the devil.’
…
It may oversimplify the arguments, but that to my mind makes them evil beyond belief.
You never do hear much of Robert Thompson…
Posted: 3rd, February 2013 | In: Books, Reviews | Comments (21)
