Archive for category: Nerd Alert

Kosher Coke: the verdict

Kosher Coke: the verdict

Although I’m trying to reduce my intake of Coke beyond my Lenten abstinence, I finally opened the bottle of Kosher Coke that has been in my fridge for over a week. Lucky I bought it when I did because they’re no longer stocking it!

Verdict: it tastes like Coke made from brown sugar with a hint of molasses. The carbonation is also significantly reduced and the colouring is slightly more brown. It’s a weird taste to get used to if you’re expecting regular Coke and get hit in the face with the brown sugar taste instead. My sister Theresa thinks it would be best to use it for making Coke floats rather than drinking it, and I think its rather syrupy taste would definitely lend itself better to ice cream rather than beverages.

The only Coke-alternative formula that I’ve ever really enjoyed is Vanilla Coke, so this could be part of why I don’t love the Kosher formula that much. Maybe I’ll make a vanilla syrup to see how it tastes with the Kosher stuff…

April 5, 2010 1 comment Nerd Alert Permalink
my one vice

my one vice

Things I completely forgot about when deciding to give up Coca-Cola for Lent: Kosher Coke, made with real sugar.

In observance of Passover, Coca Cola is rolling out their Kosher Coke made with real sugar. Lucky for the soda purists, corn happens to be one of the grains Jews refrain from in observance of Passover. No corn, no high fructose corn syrup. Produced only for 2-liter bottles, the company manufactures syrups and concentrates under rabbinical supervision, with each independent bottler handing the certification. Notice the yellow cap marked OU-P or the white cap stamped CRC-P. The codes indicates certification by either the Orthodox Jewish Union or the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Chances are, you’ll have to go on a bit of a hunt to find Kosher Coke as it’s made in limited batches, but people say it’s the closest available to the original recipe.

Luckily, I live in a Jewish neighbourhood with a grocery store that has a large kosher section and discovered after Passover last year that they carry this stuff. Unluckily, I can’t drink it until after Easter due to my random acts of Catholicism. Why must religion tear us apart?!

March 27, 2010 5 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
my other favourite fictional holiday

my other favourite fictional holiday

Happy Gary Oldman Birthday Day! Today ol’ Gaz is 52. In my younger, more rabid years of fangirling I used to celebrate the day with big picspams and movie marathons but now it takes the IMDB birthday listings or a nudge from my sisters for me to remember. (Yes, my sisters remind me about it, they’re good that way.) It’s a sad state of affairs to be sure.

I have nothing to offer today except for a repost of something I did about five years ago and still had the pictures kicking around for: Name That Gary Oldman Facial Hair!

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March 21, 2010 0 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
I’m also convinced I’m related to Manfred Mann (the singer, not the whole band)

I’m also convinced I’m related to Manfred Mann (the singer, not the whole band)

Via notemily on Tumblr, I’ve discovered the joy of the World Names Profiler. Type in any last name and it will give you all sorts of fun facts. For instance!

  • My last name, which we’ve long believed to be German in origin but Polish in extraction:

    • is most common in Germany, the United States, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. France?
    • exists at a rate of 3.16 per million in Ontario, which seems incredibly low given that there are 10 million people in this province but I’m pretty sure there are only 8 people with our last name: the six people in my immediate family, my grandma, and the guy I randomly found in our ticketing database at work when I was trying to find my own account.
  • My mom’s maiden name, which she’s told me is the equivalent of “Smith” in Portugal:
    • is most common in Luxembourg, Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United States.
    • exists at a rate of 1865.67 per million in Rhode Island, and I’m sure we’re related to every last one of those people.

My maternal grandmother’s maiden name is most common in Luxembourg (again with the Portugal/Luxembourg connection!), Argentina, Spain, India, and Switzerland. On the other hand, it completely fails to acknowledge that there is anyone with my paternal grandmother’s maiden name living in Canada, even though I know there are dozens.

Some of these odd results make me curious about lesser-known colonial connections in history.

Also, trivia fact: the surname Hitler is most likely to be found in New Zealand, followed by India (?!), these days. I would have guessed Argentina, myself.

March 14, 2010 5 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
short vestigal limbs

short vestigal limbs

If 65 Million People join, God will bring back the dinosaurs!

Best. Facebook. Group. EVER.

March 14, 2010 0 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
things that bug me: the job hunting edition

things that bug me: the job hunting edition

A couple of years ago when I was prepping for an interview for a job, a friend loaned me What Colour Is Your Parachute because she thought it would be helpful. What I actually ended up learning from this book was that every single “tip” the author gives you about job hunting actually annoys the ever living hell out of me when I’m the person doing the hiring. For the love of god, do not call me to follow up on the status of your resume; I will call you if I want to interview you.

I read through a stack of about 150 resumes this afternoon and when taken with the vast volume of resumes I’ve read over the last two years (which is several thousand), I’ve developed a keen sensitivity to things people do in their resumes that annoy the hell out of me. Obviously, I am unable to keep these thoughts to myself.

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March 4, 2010 3 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
thy will be done, gold medals won

thy will be done, gold medals won

O CANADA!!!!!

Audrey and I spent the weekend at Amelia’s, so I’ve been absent and now have way too much Olympics to catch up on.

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March 1, 2010 0 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
I am losing faith in humanity

I am losing faith in humanity

I’ve already complained about this somewhere (probably Facebook) but I will complain again: the only downside to winning lots of medals is having to endure CTV’s awful, awful medal winners’ montages set to the increasingly obnoxious and grammatically incorrect “I Believe”.

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February 26, 2010 1 comment Nerd Alert Permalink
rage overload

rage overload

I want to list five theoretical events that Canadian athletes may or may not have participated in tonight:

  1. hockey
  2. 5000m long track speed skating
  3. 3000m short track relay speed skating
  4. two-man bobsleigh (two teams)

If Canada were to win four medals in three of the events and absolutely nothing in the fourth one, which one event would be the lead story on many major news outlets in Canada?

If you guessed the event were no one won anything, you’d be correct! (Cut for ire and accompanying illustrations!)

February 25, 2010 2 comments Nerd Alert Permalink
fins au blé

fins au blé

I’m suffering from a bit of confusion. You’d think that given the fact that most beauty products labelled as being “nude” or “flesh coloured” tend to skew in favour of white women, it would not be difficult for white female figure skaters to find tights that match or mostly match their skin tones. And yet… apparently there is a crisis in the figure skating world where they think it’s okay to look like you got selectively sprayed in the spray tan booth. Girl from Hungary, I’m looking at you with your butterscotch pudding arms and super pale chest. Eek. I mean, white ladies, you have zillions of aesthetic options that women of colour do not have when it comes to this stuff; how are you making such poor choices?

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February 24, 2010 4 comments Nerd Alert Permalink