Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Taste Of The Carolinas: Part Deux

Where was I? Oh yeah - the Cheerwine kreme-filled Krispy Kreme doughnut that I was supposed to have reviewed 2 months ago...  True to form, I procrastinated and finally got a box of these on July 31, the last day they were available (until 2011 anyway, maybe forever). Essentially, the doughnut was pretty much what I expected.  But I was surprised at how true to the taste of Cheerwine the "kreme" filling was; otherwise there were no big taste explosions or revelations to relate here.

In hindsight, the idea of this doughnut is sort of like a french tickler in a truckstop vending machine - the novelty creates a desire to have one, but what are you really going to do with it?  I know I'm an easy mark (I also want a Shark steam mop based on an infomercial I saw while walking on a treadmill), and I will admit I got ahead of myself with North Carolina pride on this one, because the doughnut itself breaks my entire short list of unwritten doughnut commandments right out of the box: 1) doughnuts shall have holes  2) doughnuts shall not have gooey cream filling, and  3) doughnuts shall not possess an outer layer of frosting and/or sprinkles.

So, to sum it up, the Cheerwine kreme-filled Kripsy Kreme doughnut -- Novel, yes. Edible, quite. A marriage of two NC institutions that make me swell with pride, absolutely. BUT... Krispy Kreme's best offering? Hardly. I'll stick with the original glazed from here on out, and so should you.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

AAAACK!

It was announced in late August that the Cathy comic strip would be ending in October. I was floored. Dumbfounded.  Aghast that Cathy was still published.  No one outside of Cathy's target market (which I assume consists primarily of single women of questionable sexual orientation, much like the title character) will notice or care.  Nothing against Cathy specifically, but comic strips are just another dying art form that can't seem to find a place in our modern age.

When's the last time you really read and laughed out loud over a comic strip?  I haven't had an ounce of interest in the "funny papers" since Gary Larson retired The Far Side in 1995. (Moment of silence...)  There's no way to pinpoint exactly what set the Far Side apart from the other frames that cluttered up the comics page, but it was inarguably the Seinfeld of comic strips - absurd, ironic, polarizing, about nothing at all, yet hilariously relatable and memorable.  As required reading, I strongly encourage that you spend your hard-earned dough for the hardbound edition of The Complete Far Side, a two-volume set that contains the whole shebang of over 4,000 Far Side cartoons.

On a side semi-related note, here's Exhibit Z illustrating what an odd-ball kid I was... Long before I realized that a person could exchange money for goods like Far Side calendars and comic strip compilations, I would hoard the funnies from the Winston-Salem Journal in a yellow cloth suitcase, clip out the Far Side cartoons on rainy days, and then glue them into my very own Far Side scrapbook.  Aaaack, indeed.