Here's a contest I'm not entering. I wonder what genius thought happy people would take the time to write to Heinz and tell them about their wonderful state of mind. Happy people are too busy being happy to write to anybody for ketchup. I think a better contest would be "How Unhappy are you?" Can you imagine what they'd hear - and they'd soon run out of ketchup prizes. I'd make up a sob story to enter that one.
I'm not too happy myself at the moment. Costco stopped baking that wonderful rosemary and garlic bread they've sold for years. All they carry now is a rather weak French loaf. Trupiano's stopped serving the cannelloni, my favorite item on the menu. Ruby's, those saboteurs, removed my favorite Kobi sliders from the menu. Music gets louder and louder in restaurants, and there are fewer places we feel comfortable. Who wants to yell at each other throughout a meal? We feel we're gradually being "86'ed" ourselves. Things change.
What should I expect? 40 years ago I had a favorite place in La Crescenta where we'd go for the Friday night Abalone special. We'd enter the place and walk through the cigarette smoke haze to a red leather booth where we'd settle in and munch on the complimentary "radish, celery, carrot plate." Next, we'd order a shrimp cocktail, along with a gin and tonic or Rob Roy or rum and coke - whatever was the cocktail of the moment. A salad might be tossed tableside and frequently was "spinning." If the plates and fork were ice-cold, that was up-scale. Our abalone was dredged in flour then sauteed in butter. It always came with a baked potato (wrapped in aluminum foil) with a big blob of sour cream on top. The plates were garnished with a huge piece of kale which nobody would think of eating. Between courses, everybody lit up and blew smoke into each other's faces. We'd be horrified by the whole scene today.
Correction: The Heintz people weren't offering ketchup as a prize. Apparently you are supposed to assume that money is involved...in other words it means (but doesn't say), "Tell us what makes you happy and you could win money".
I'm not too happy myself at the moment. Costco stopped baking that wonderful rosemary and garlic bread they've sold for years. All they carry now is a rather weak French loaf. Trupiano's stopped serving the cannelloni, my favorite item on the menu. Ruby's, those saboteurs, removed my favorite Kobi sliders from the menu. Music gets louder and louder in restaurants, and there are fewer places we feel comfortable. Who wants to yell at each other throughout a meal? We feel we're gradually being "86'ed" ourselves. Things change.
What should I expect? 40 years ago I had a favorite place in La Crescenta where we'd go for the Friday night Abalone special. We'd enter the place and walk through the cigarette smoke haze to a red leather booth where we'd settle in and munch on the complimentary "radish, celery, carrot plate." Next, we'd order a shrimp cocktail, along with a gin and tonic or Rob Roy or rum and coke - whatever was the cocktail of the moment. A salad might be tossed tableside and frequently was "spinning." If the plates and fork were ice-cold, that was up-scale. Our abalone was dredged in flour then sauteed in butter. It always came with a baked potato (wrapped in aluminum foil) with a big blob of sour cream on top. The plates were garnished with a huge piece of kale which nobody would think of eating. Between courses, everybody lit up and blew smoke into each other's faces. We'd be horrified by the whole scene today.
Correction: The Heintz people weren't offering ketchup as a prize. Apparently you are supposed to assume that money is involved...in other words it means (but doesn't say), "Tell us what makes you happy and you could win money".
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| Lawry's waitress with her spinning salad bowl. |
Yes, definitely. An unhappy story would be better. I remember a radio station in San Diego used to have a segment called "How Sad Are you" and then they'd list to all the sad stories and vote on which one was the saddest. It was really interesting. Kind of like the old "Queen for A Day" stories. Remember those?
ReplyDeleteBut who wants to listen to happy stories? Wouldn't that just make us sadder because we don't have as good a happy story?
Heintz has really blown it with that campaign.
Nancy