I’m Just Saying

When Good Grapefruit Has Bad Marketing

/ Ally Bean / 35 Comments

DSCN5865 To your left you will see a photo of half a grapefruit, on a pretty white bread & butter plate, plus the label off the sturdy red mesh bag it came in.

This grapefruit, purchased at the local K. Roger, is not as humongous as many of the grapefruits available, nor is it as intensely pink in color as most of the individually sold grapefruits.

It was tasty.  Easy to section. Juicy, but not overly so. With just the right amount of sweetness.

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But here’s the weird thing about this grapefruit.  Just like Proust’s madeleines, this grapefruit stimulated long-lost memories from my childhood.

It reminded me of being an elementary school-age girl.  Sitting at home in my parents’ warm kitchen while eating breakfast at the old, slightly wobbly, wooden drop-leaf table.  Listening to the local AM radio “Quickie Quiz” show.  Wondering what I’d be doing at recess later in the morning.

So considering the effect that this grapefruit had on me, I’m left wondering what marketing genius came up with the idea to name this product:

NOT your MOTHER’S Grapefruit.

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Putting aside the stupid inconsistent capitalization of the letters of the product’s name, if there was ever a fruit whose essence reminded me positively of my past, it would be these grapefruits.

And considering that grapefruits are pretty much the same old fruit now that they were 40 years ago, I’m irritated with the somewhat passive aggressive marketing message that I’ll be an old fuddy duddy if I don’t buy these particular grapefruits.

I understand that times change, but I gotta wonder how it could be that bad-mouthing grapefruit is the key to more sales.  Does that even make sense?

Of Presidential Candidates & Contenders: What’s The Use In Jiving?

/ Ally Bean / 20 Comments

{ Subtitled: Your Story’s So Touching, But It Sounds Like A Lie }

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Please note, I didn’t watch last night’s presidential wannabes debate tedious issues + character failings among themselves.  I get nothing from such events.  They are a waste of my time.

Next September after each political party decides who’ll be the candidate, then I’ll pay attention to her or him.

But in the meantime, I don’t want to be accused of encouraging any of these babbling, narcissistic, argumentative individuals with delusions of presidential grandeur by watching them.

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In fact, my suggestion would be that instead of televising these dog and pony shows debates, the TV stations would do better to play endless versions of the 1940s hit song, Straighten Up and Fly Right, written by Nat Cole and Irving Mills.

The lyrics of this tune summarize all that there is to be learned from the real presidential wannabe debates.  Or at least it seems that way to me, an Independent voter with limited patience for political shenanigans.

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Hazy Summer Days & A Less Than Brilliant Idea

/ Ally Bean / 20 Comments

Over the weekend we went for a walk on the trails in a wooded, overgrown section of a city park.  It was hazy and hot outside, but it seemed like a good idea to go for a walk… at first.
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In my mind this walk was going to be a glorious opportunity to photograph the flora and fauna we saw along the way.  Yes, I was going to capture, for all time, the beauty of late summer.

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I had my camera with me, but thanks to the hazy weather conditions + lens-smudging humidity most of my photos aren’t clear enough to be of any interest to me– or anyone else.
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I share these three photos which are, trust me, the best ones of the bunch.  No pithy story to go with them, however.  Only a realization that I need to check the weather forecast before going on a walk… if my camera is coming along, too.

Pedicures & Color Possibilities: A Husband Weighs In

/ Ally Bean / 30 Comments

I only asked him as a courtesy.  I didn’t think that he’d have opinion, but he did.

And it surprised me.

I’d sorted through my bottles of nail polish, throwing out shades that I hated or bottles with lids that no longer opened.  I was left with 5 shades:

  • Houston We Have Purple by OPI [dark dramatic shiny purple]
  • From A To Zurich by OPI [dark maroon]
  • Strawberry Margarita by OPI [bright bold pink]
  • Incognito by Dior [neutral beige-y medium pink]
  • Nail Glow by Dior [sheer pinkish purple that makes nail tips look white like a French manicure]

So there I sat, on the screened-in porch, trying to decide which of the above colors I was going to put on my little piggies.  About 90% of the time I wear the Dior Incognito because it’s classy and goes with everything.

I repeat, everything.

But Zen-Den was out there on the porch with me, too.  So I asked him which color he thought that I should wear.  And the color he picked was…