Year: 2002

Celebrity Mole

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I’ve written about The Mole before, and I was pleased to see a commercial for Celebrity Mole on one of the overhead-TVs at the gym. (The gym is one of the few places where I see commercials these days, since I use TiVo to skip over them when I watch TV at home.)

Variety reports that ABC has finished casting — and shooting — its celeb edition of “The Mole“. “The Mole 3” will star celebrities Michael Boatman (Carter on Spin City), Corbin Bernsen (Arnie on LA Law), Kim Coles (from Living Single), Erik von Detten (from Dinotopia), Baldwin brother Stephen Baldwin, comedian Kathy Griffin, and supermodel Frederique. Ahmad Rashad will be the host. The show quietly wrapped production earlier this month following nearly two weeks of on-location production in Hawaii. The six-part series is likely to air begin airing in January. […]

“Celebrity Mole Hawaii will premiere on Wednesday, January 8th at 10PM ET [9PM CST] following the series premiere of The Bachelorette.”

AAA Discounts

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The other day, AAA gave me a call to make sure that I was happy with the service (well, I suppose I was, since I didn’t need to make use of it yet).

They also asked me whether I was aware of all the discounts available. I knew about the various hotel and car-rental discounts, but apparently there’s much more than that.

The lady on the phone mentioned just a few, but I was unaware of most of them. For instance:

Ok, so some of them aren’t useful on an everyday-basis (I’m not sure when next I’ll use Amtrak, for instance). But, I’m especially stoked about the 30% off (!) at Papa John’s carry-out and $3 off at Wherehouse Music, as I can make use of those right away.

(Keep in mind that these discounts are from the AAA-Texas website, and might not be valid elsewhere.)

Cadillac’s Demographic

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

I was noticing a slight “klunk” in my car (an Alero), as I went around turns around 15 - 20 mph. So, yesterday I took I took it to an Oldsmobile dealership (Sewell) to have them take a look at it (especially since my car is still under warrantee).

I drove in to the Oldsmobile/Cadillac service area, handed over my keys, and waited in the customer lounge. Of course, the Oldsmobile brand is now defunt, so most of the other customers waiting in the lounge along with me were Cadillac owners.

It was as if I had stepped into Sunnyvale Retirement Home — the median age must have been 80 (well, ok, maybe 70). I sat and read some magazines alongside four or five old ladies with badly dyed hair and various degrees of hair loss (the old-age type of hair loss that affects some women).

Scary clientele aside, the waiting area was pleasant and clean. The floors were a shiny-grey tile with a persian-colored rug. There was also coffee, tea, and spiced apple-cider mix at a nearby counter. More over, they also had Krispy Kreme donuts at the counter, of which I had a couple through the course of the day.

As car repairs go, this wan’t too bad. I was there for about six hours, but it only felt like it was maybe four hours ;). All the same, I can’t help but wonder that Cadillac’s customer base may be getting older and older, only to die off over time.

MetaFilter on French Toast

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

There was recently this thread on MetaFilter on french toast. In the main entry, there were quite a few links to recipes. However, the one that interested me most was this recipe from the July 1992 issue of Bon Appatit for overnight french toast.

The basic ingredients are the same — eggs, milk, sugar, bread, and so on. However, the eggs are “marinated” overnight and then baked in the oven. Mmm, sounds tasty. And, it takes some of the guesswork out of when to flip the toast (as a french toast beginner, I end up flipping too early or too late more often than I would like).

In addition to that overnight french toast recipe, there was also this link to “monkey makes yummy croissant french toast!” in the comments. There, a stuffed monkey shows the steps of making french toast. It’s cute, but informative at the same time. And, the directions are clear enough that I’d find the site to still be a useful reference even without the adorable monkey.

Of course, in addition to moneky recipe for french toast there’re many other recipes in the Cooking with Monkey series. In particular, I think I'll check out the Guacamole with Nachos recipe, as that sounds tasty yet something that I wouldn’t want to do incorrectly for fear of ruining any otherwise perfectly-good avocados ;).

AC/DC – Death Metal

Ashley Bischoff5 Comments

While driving to Bed Bath & Beyond last night, I was listening to Sirius Radio’s Metal channel when I heard a cover of AC/DC’s classic “TNT” by Six Feet Under, a death metal band. From their website:

Launched in 1995, Six Feet Under, was originally conceived as a side project by then Cannibal Corpse lead throat Chris Barnes along with Obituary guitarist Allen West, Death’s Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall. Chris’ departure from Cannibal Corpse that same year expedited the bands rapid evolution beyond a one-off Death Metal super group into the world's most respected name in extreme music. The combination of speedy riffs, down tuned groove and lyrics inspired by the horrors of the mind and the world at large had established SFU internationally as the reigning, if not, most feared Death Metal act. […]

Imagine, for a moment, what a growling death metal version of “TNT” would sound like, and you’d probably be fairly close. It was at once slightly amusing but surprisingly catchy ;). And, as it turns out, it’s available as an mp3 from their website if you want to hear what it sounds like.