Bubble Gum Etiquette October 15, 2006
Posted by Admin in Culture, Etiquette, tim hortons.add a comment
Last weekend, I was at Tim Hortons, grabbing myself and Heather a coffee for the three hour drive home after spending the weekend at the cottage. This particular Tim Hortons is always busy when we visit and it’s not uncommon to wait 15-20 minutes for a cup of coffee, which means a lot of people watching.
As I stood in line, a middle-aged woman came out of the bathroom and joined her husband and son at the table. Shortly after sitting down, I watched her take the gum she had been chewing and casually stick it under the table.
I stood there a little confused, angry and a bit disgusted by her bahaviour, especially in front of their impressionable pre-teen son.
Some thoughts immediately sprang to mind:
- The woman just left the washroom, why didn’t she throw her gum out while she was in there?
- They had napkins on the table, why didn’t she put her gum in a napkin?
- She didn’t make an effort to hide her behaviour or seem to mind that other people could have seen her.
- Am I overreacting? Does everybody put their used gum under their seats or tables? Why does this bother me so much?
To me, few things are worse than when I’m at a restaurant and I accidentally put my hands under a table and cop a feel the tiny hardened bumps of other peoples’ chewing gum.
I’m writing this entry, kicking myself for not asking these questions of the woman when I had the chance. But I guess my own rules of etiquette (and the fact that I would have lost my place in line), precluded me from further investigation.
As I get older though, my tolerance for this kind of behavior lowers and as a result, there will likely be some confrontations. The upside is that my blog posts will probably have more exciting conclusions!
Technorati Tags: Tim Hortons – gum – Canada – Toronto – etiquette – culture
Fraudulent security claims on ‘Hercules Hook’ website could affect consumer confidence online October 15, 2006
Posted by Admin in infomercial, online security.16 comments
We turned on the TV this afternoon and were sold on a cool product: The Hercules Hook. Ignoring for a moment the product is being pimped by Billy Mays (of Oxiclean fame), It’s a neat product that lets you hang pictures, shelves and whatever else, without any tools. Ever since my silly 3am purchase of a Ron Popeil Ronco food dehydrator (I had big plans to make loads of beef jerky), I decided to never again buy anything I see on an infomercial.
But last week I hung four pretty heavy paintings on the wall at my office and I could have really used these things then. As part of the ’special offer’, they were also going to include a free laser level too! I was almost ‘hooked’… no pun intended.
But then something struck me as odd.
When you visit the website mentioned on the add, www.bamzu.com makes no mentioned of the Hercules Hook. A search for the product on the Bamzu website (owned by Turner Broadcasting) only returns ‘Hooked on Phonics’. It’s not unreasonable the Bamzu just hasn’t been updated to reflect the new product, I suppose.
That’s not the only thing I found odd. Although Hercules Hook can’t be found on bamzu.com, it can be found at www.herculeshook.com. The site is a one page add, with an online form so visiting patrons can enter their ship to and credit card information. Nothing is out of the ordinary except when you notice their claim of a 100% secure site is actually false.
That’s right. The large button claiming a “100% secure site” is actually false. Not only is there no encryption to protect their customers’ credit card information, but when you click the button, you’re directed to Thawte (an e-commerce verification site), the resulting page reports ‘INVALID CERTIFICATE’. Do the owners of the website bet on the fact that consumers won’t click that button?
Even though Hercules Hook isn’t the only site out there laying false claims about security on-line, it certainly doesn’t excuse them. Lying about the security offering by your website only hurts legitimate sellers out there, not too mention, opens the thousands of customers out there that place their trust in on-line retailers.
Shame on you Hercules Hook. I’ll gladly buy you at Walmart, but you’ll never see an order from me online.
Time for a top 50 list. October 15, 2006
Posted by Heather in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Time has pulled together it’s latest list of top sites, 50 of’em to be exact. According to Time “many of this year’s choices are shining examples of Web 2.0: next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips.“
Check out their well categorized selection for some great reads.
