The Wild Life and Times of a Botanical Geek

The weather-types say that this pollen season is the worst we've seen in eight years, with double the normal pollen count. I believe it. It's *everywhere*, and it's getting into everything. In some places it's so thick it looks like blackboard chalk. Stand still outside long enough, and you'll be yellower than Big Bird.

So I'm now curious, is the pollen as bad elsewhere? How has the season of allergies been for you people?

So, let me know if there's some sort of bread trend that I'm completely unaware of.

I read an article in the paper today about childhood obesity and how parents are oblivious to their children's weight problems. Okay, fine. Now, after this article, there were some statistics to help drive the point home, such as how many parents limit their kids TV time, how much exercise they get per week, etc. There was one thing in it, though, that made me raise an eyebrow and become instantly skeptical about some of these numbers. One of these lists discussed how portion sizes have grown over the years, how hamburgers are bigger and how supersizing has caused french fries to become highly dangerous caloric material. In particular, it mentioned that bagels have jumped in size from three inches to diameter to six. ...bwuh? Call me crazy, but I have yet to see a bagel that's six inches in diameter. Four inches? Yes, but not six. Am I just not in an area that's big on bagels? And I'm assuming they mean your standard round, hole-in-the-middle-that's-perfect-for-an-extra-cream-cheese-stash bagel, not those square bagel-like things or whatnot. I consider those to be distinctly not-bagels.

A question:

"Buckle up for safety": Engrish, or not Engrish?

The other day I was spending my Tuesday afternoons the way I usually do--staying after class in the systematics lab, looking over the plants that had been set out for the day and practicing my keying. The book we use for keying is this big fat monster with something like 1500 or 2000 pages or so. I've never really bothered to look. Maybe I should, the next time I'm in the lab. In any case though, it's a big book. So, I was keying out a plant, probably one of the practice plants, I can't remember which one, when the book tells me to turn to page 1001. I do so, because, well, it's darn hard to key out a plant correctly if you don't follow what the book says(Usually. But that's another story).

As I'm doing so, I start hearing this little kooky cartoony male voice in my head, saying "1001 Taste Adventures!".

Now, call me crazy, but unless I've totally lost it, I'm almost CERTAIN that this was a voice from my youth, most likely from some commercial I saw over and over again while watching Saturday morning cartoons. It was also most likely trying to sell a food of some sort. Not too many sock commercials out there advertising for their taste, or how many adventures one can have with the taste of a sock. The problem is, I can't remember for the life of me what food it was that was promising so many taste adventures. It's starting to bother me that I can't remember. I've consulted the almighty google, but sadly have come up for naught in that regard. Found lots of sites recommending restaurants and what sort of taste adventures I can have in X city, but nothing that seems to touch on kooky cartoony males and Saturday morning commercials.

So, I pose the question to all of you, for the sake of my curiousity. Do any of you remember said commercial, and what it was advertising for?