Yesterday I had to work, but after work, instead of what I usually do (visit family) I decided to stop at a few places. A couple of years ago I found (without looking for it) club soda and seltzer water in cans. This was at Safeway. I've never seen it anywhere else. Since I got out of the habit of going to regular supermarkets most of the time, I haven't bought any for a while. Instead I just buy it in bottles. Walmart has been selling a brand in 1 liter bottles called Vintage. I buy it when I see it there because it's cheaper than Walmart's own brand by about thirty cents. I buy club soda and seltzer as my substitute of soda pop, which I try to avoid whenever possible. When I do drink soda, it will be the ones without HFCS, such as Sierra Mist Natural, Pepsi Throwback (though I'm avoiding caffeine too, now) and others. I have heard that cane sugar is better than beet sugar, as sugarcane doesn't have issues with GMOs, so I was delighted to find some Hansen's CANE soda in an eight pack box at the Safeway I visited. I got the Cherry Vanilla Creme, and it tastes as good as the name suggests. It was a bit on the expensive side, but not too bad (only came to a little over fifty cents a can). Here are the ingredients:
PURE FILTERED CARBONATED WATER, SUGAR, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVORS WITH EXTRACTS OF MADAGASCAN VANILLA AND WASHINGTON CHERRIES (all CAPS in the original -keeping it real, people!)
Now, I don't know about you, but when a company goes to the trouble of using just one kind of sugar, then goes all the way to Madagascar for the vanilla and on top of that, actually tracks down George Washington's centuries old cherry trees, well, you know they put quality first. I love this flavor, and I'll definitely buy it again. But, back to my plain carbonated water. At first I didn't see the cans in the Safeway I was at, and after searching down several aisles I began to think maybe they'd discontinued it. After rounding the liquor area, however, I spotted it way down with the bottled seltzer, club and tonic waters. It was on sale, so I bought 4 six packs, two each of plain and lemon-lime (it adds just a hint of unsweetened flavor). I was delighted with my purchase when I got out to my car.
By the way, does anyone reading this know of any other brand or market that sells this in cans? Again, other than Safeway, I haven't seen it.
Since the day was still relatively young, I thought I'd browse around another place (just across the street) that I also hadn't been to for a long time, Fry's Electronics, a huge warehouse sized store with everything from computers, large appliances, software, books, DVDs (they still have a large section devoted to movies, even though everyplace else has nearly eliminated the category) and more. For fun I picked a couple of random favorite films of mine that you wouldn't ordinarily find at most locations selling DVDs, White Heat
starring James Cagney, and Mildred Pierce
, with Joan Crawford. Sure enough, they had them both, each for $14.99, but you can get them much cheaper on Amazon at the links (just $5.00 for White Heat, a true classic, and the same price as the duds you'll find in the Walmart $5 "These DVDs Stink" value bin). I then went down the aisles, and soon approached the porn section, which is away from the regular "clean" DVDs and by itself up against an isolated wall. One lone guy was there, cautiously browsing the titles (there's a sign stating you must be at least 18 years old to attempt to sneak a peek at the nasty DVD covers). I walked right past and headed for the exit, making a mental note to remember to write my post I'm calling "A True Story of a Porn Purchase Gone Wrong", based on events that happened at that very store and that I'd rather forget, but which I'll milk for a good post anyway.
Before leaving, the magazine racks near the check out area caught my eye. Magazines seem so pointless in the Internet age, but I still buy one occasionally. I used to subscribe to dozens of magazines, but I don't have a current subscription to any. They had some girlie magazines there amongst the computer, fashion, news, and sports titles. The only reason I stopped right there was because of Helen Thomas (and no, I don't have an old lady fetish and thank God there were no nude photo spreads of Helen), who is the interview in the April 2011 issue of Playboy. I might of bought it, but I didn't want to go through the line with just a copy of Playboy under my arm. I couldn't browse the magazine, because all the newsstand copies now come wrapped in plastic (not like the good old days when they had them right out in the open at the drug store check out lane, unwrapped and ready for men -or young boys- with lust in their eyes).
I do love Helen Thomas's stand on Israel (you can read the interview with Playboy here).
Below is a short excerpt on the "anti-Semite" smear against her:
PLAYBOY: When people write your obituary——
THOMAS: [Eyes suddenly fill with tears] Oh, I know what they’re going to say: “anti-Semite.”
PLAYBOY: That has to bother you after all your years of hard work.
THOMAS: [Starts to cry] I’m a reporter.
PLAYBOY: What’s making you emotional?
THOMAS: I’m a reporter. [sobs] I know damn well what they’re going to say because they have their print, they have their ink. They don’t give a damn about the truth. They have to have it their way, and they’ll be writing my obituary.
PLAYBOY: Isn’t that their job?
THOMAS: Well, I don’t want to be treated that way. [pauses but continues to cry] I’m sorry. But what am I supposed to do, love every Jew because they want to take Palestine? It’s a real cause with me. They should have a conscience and they don’t if that’s what they’re going to do. Is there such a thing as a conscience? I think there is. Stop taking what doesn’t belong to you! Stop killing these people. These children throw stones at them, and they shoot them. Where is the Jewish conscience? I want to know. Have some feeling. They can’t just come in and say, “This is my home,” knock on the door at three in the morning and have the Israeli military take them out. That’s what happens. And that’s what happened to the Jews in Germany. Why do they inflict that same pain on people who did nothing to them? [takes another break to compose herself]I sure didn’t want to cry. But I do care about people. And I don’t care what they write about me. They’ve already written it. My family will be disappointed in me for crying.
Later when I got home, I walked across the street to the 7-11 for a half-gallon of milk and saw one issue of Playboy left. I grabbed it and added it to my milk, and I didn't care who was looking at the odd fellow who still buys the print version of Playboy. "Hey," I said to the woman with two young children giving me a disgusted look and standing at the counter behind me, as I held up the cover with an almost nude Taryn Manning on it, "Helen Thomas! Don't cha love her!"
Oh, and people over 50 are having a hard time finding new jobs. Well, what else is new...
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