Looser: Dairy Queen

The Curmudgeon and his lovely wife enjoyed a brisk, hot, humid 35 mile bike ride today, our idea of "fun" when the kids are off at day camp on an otherwise beautiful pre-4th of July holiday.

(In the small world file, while grabbing a quick lunch in Reston, we ran into an old law-school buddy we hadn't seen in at least five years! We talked up the wonders of early retirement.)

Hey Dude, That's My Caramel Chip Cheesecake Blizzard!

Now, while taking a respite in the air-conditioning, the Curmudgeon decided to make a quick post to award our periodic "looser" award to Dairy Queen. (Reminder: the "looser" award goes to an advertiser that has managed to portray boys/men as losers, misspelled as only a loser would.)

We're a little reluctant on this one just because we're not sure where we'd find a DQ around here if we suddenly got the itch for some of their food fare. Perhaps if we drove to West Virginia?

Anyway, here's the offending ad: a businessman gets on an airplane with his overnight bag and something in a cup. He finds his seat and places the cup--a Dairy Queen cup with something ice-creamy in it--on a seatback table while he starts to put his bag in the overhead bin. The guy in the next seat over--also dressed as a businessman, spies the treat-filled cup and begins helping himself to a few bites. This guy, in particular, comes across as a loser--bald and sneaky looking (not that there's anything wrong with bald).

This causes the first business guy to lose his grip on the overnight bag and drop it on the head of a nice black lady, while an elderly white lady in the next seat squeals. The man grabs his DQ cup, but then has to put it back down and the whole scene repeats itself--the other man eagerly sneaks a few more spoonfuls and the bag again falls on the nice lady. The guys begin to fight over what we eventually learn is DQ's Caramel Chip Cheesecake Blizzard. The guys come across as real losers, while the two ladies are victimized.

(You may ask why we don't also award DQ a gluttony as well; the answer is that the Curmudgeon is partial to ice cream, especially paired with caramel (not so keen on the cheesecake part); anyway, we didn't see anything to suggest it was an outrageous portion size.)

We guess it's supposed to be funny, but it's not--it's just another ad conveying to boys that even men in the business world are dead-enders.

Desperate Burger King

While on the topic of Loosers and Gluttonies, what is it with Burger King? Now they have ads for some kind of Super Stacker burgers with up to four patties. The burgers are portrayed as huge--indeed one is dropped on a midget and pins him to the ground. It seems to us that Burger King is just out-and-out desperate. No big surprise: a group of private equity firms bought BK a few years ago and then squeezed everything they could out of it; recently, it went public again, bringing vast riches to the investors, but there wasn't much meat left on the old bone of Burger King and we think they're struggling quite a bit.

Solar House Anyone?

We're thinking of going solar. We have a decent southern exposure with lots of roof area. With electricity prices about to skyrocket in our area, the time may be right. Anyone out there have experience with this--recommendations for a contractor, pros, cons, etc.? (Our likely plan would be to put in a photo-voltaic array, plugged into the power grid; we're not trying for heat and hot water, at least for now.)