I Know I Shouldn't Give A ****

I took a nice ride yesterday after work, lengthening my afternoon commute by about 15k just for kicks. It was rainy, which was nice because 1) I like riding in the rain and 2) it reduces the number of people out on the paths and 3) I was nice and cool. Anyway, I was in a pretty good mood and getting fairly close to home when this happened:

I didn't have to touch my brakes. I did have to let up on pedaling a little. In the grand scheme of things, it is not a big deal. It shouldn't even be a small deal, but it is to me. Would the officer have done that to a slow car? Maybe, I don't know. I do know that if it is OK for cops to do it, surely it is OK for everybody else, right?

I wonder a little if I'm just being opportunistic, because cops make great video fodder. There may be an element of that in my posting of this video when I let so many other drivers off without a mention here or on youtube. That said, shouldn't I be able to hold police to a higher standard? I know when I'm in a marked work vehicle I drive like anybody might report me for just about anything, which is probably true.

So, having seen the video, what do you think? Cheap shot or legitimate beef? I'm starting to think a little of both.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Review: Doritos Intense Pickle

My last post was about how I wished  for a return to the days when I wrote more and better stuff for this blog.

Today does not mark such a return, but something rather far from it. Nonetheless, this is IMPORTANT STUFF. There was a 2-fer kind of sale on Doritos at the grocery store today, plus there was a flavour on offer that I had never seen before: Intense Pickle!

hmmm. Bag opened, but not empty. A clue to the reviewer's opinion, a symptom of his level of satiety or merely the state of the bag at the time of the photo? We shall see, dear reader. Oh yes, we shall see. That much is certain...

Speaking of junk food, I am always rather amazed at the wider variety found in American grocery stores as opposed to Canadian. I mean, in Canada you might find like 3 flavours of Mountain Dew on any given store shelf, where in the US it is more like 6 or 8. Same goes for chips, candy, etc.

Given the fact that our national diets are very similar, I'm guessing it is simply a function of how much larger the US market is; there are enough consumers to make more variety financially viable. Or maybe, Canadians are simple folk who would just stand in the aisle undecided until the store had to close if presented with so many choices. Hell, I don't know why, really. Why are we talking about this anyway? Can we just talk about the chips I tried today, please? Sheesh! You and your rambling tangents! Don't get me wrong, it's kind of endearing and one of the many things I quite like about you. You da best, dear reader.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Intense Pickle Doritos. I think pickle flavoured chips are one of those black-and-white, love 'em or hate 'em kind of things. People who like pickle chips really like them, and people who don't really don't. Obviously, I'm in the pro-pickle chip crowd. Even so, I couldn't quite get my head around corn-tortilla-chip-pickle-flavour fusion, let alone an intense version of said synthesis.

Sorry I'm so damn wordy. This was supposed to be a review, not a never-ending run-on continuous stream of ceaseless meandering without final destination of a textual journey that fails to come to any conclusion within a reasonable time frame! So here it is:

Intense Pickle Doritos are frikkin' awesome. Also, not too intense.

That is all.

R A N T W I C K

PS - In case you're new here or whatever, please know that I have no relationship, financial or otherwise, with the makers of these pickle chips, and as such have not and could not receive any kind of consideration monetary or otherwise for my frikkin' awesome review.

My Personal Faves

I've added a new item under "Post Series and Emerging Themes" on my sidebar called "My Personal Faves". I've gone through the 605 posts on this blog and applied that label to 49 of them. That means while I am almost always OK with what I'm putting out, I am really really pleased with myself about 8% of the time. The distribution of Faves, however, is heavily weighted toward the first few years, which makes sense because I used to spend untold hours thinking about and writing for this blog. Although I of course would love for everybody to read them again or for the first time, this particular label is really more for myself.

Reading some of the old posts reminds me of when I've enjoyed writing and goofing around here the most, which fires me up to do more and better stuff than I have of late. I wanna get back to the sort of writing I used to do all the time. I may or may not succeed in this regard, but I want to try.

I love writing for this blog and the conversations that ensue afterward. I find it amazing that there are still a few of you hanging around after all this time and after lengthy absences.

Thank you so much.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K