The madness is soon to recommence

Sign on the door of McDonald's outlet, Main Street, Vancouver, BC

The Canadian fast food/quick service restaurant industry has two periods of frenzy. Tim Hortons "Roll Up The Rim to Win" in winter and McDonald's "Monopoly" in the autumn

For the past two years McDonald's has interfered with "Roll Up The Rim to Win" by giving away free coffee for a week during the Tim Hortons promotion.

I sure the marketers at McDonald's are wondering what the competition has dreamed up to interfere with the success of the "Monopoly" promotion.

I wonder if this will be the year that someone takes a stab at grabbing some of the extra traffic that McDonald's generates during this promotion?

Getting a little thing so wrong

One of a pair of toy dice, Made in China 

Dice have been around for over 4000 years. Modern dice have a logical arrangement of numbers. The numbers on opposing side always add up to seven. So you will find 1 and 6 on opposing sides, 2 and five, and 3 and 4.

And what do I see on this die? (Die being the singular of dice.) 3 and 4 on adjacent sides.

The other die in this pair, a red one, is fine. The numbers on opposing sides add up to 7.

But at least the manufacturer didn't make the bigger mistake. At least all of the numbers are only on the die once.

Back from obscurity

Heinz Ketchup bottle with Trivial Pursuit game (Front)

Heinz Ketchup bottle with Trivial Pursuit game (Reverse)

In the days before Google and smartphones, it was sometime hard to find the answers to trivial questions. And hence the 1980s hit game Trivial Pursuit.

Today, I find students are using their phones to both satisfy their curiosity and find the answers to questions that arise in class.

And so has a good memory and a grasp on trivia become unnecessary, or at least unappreciated?

Students are surprised by the stuff I remember, but then I am surprised at the pop culture that they know.

For me the interesting outcome will be what from today will be important or remembered  in 100 years. I don't hold out much hope for the longevity of anything or anyone connected to "reality" TV.