And I thought I hated veggies on my burger

Once again in the land of stupid lawsuits we have the pleasure of reading about some guy who is suing Burger King for $100,000 for putting pickles, onions and tomatoes on his burger. His reason for suing is that the oversight in his order made him suffer an allergic reaction to the food.

Now, I dislike veggies on my burger just as much as the next guy and I've been given my fair share of burgers in the past with every veggie under the sun on it despite having asked for no veggies or any other crap on it but it has never crossed my mind to sue over the oversight. Depending on my mood I usually either just politely tell them that they got my order wrong and hope that they don't spit on my food or else suck it up and eat the damn thing because veggies are good for you. I guess I'm just not cunning enough.

Also, despite the fact I may have asked for said burger without veggies, it has always occurred to me to double check said burger before biting down on it. It's sort of a natural reaction to getting any sort of food I ask for that may be altered from the norm in some way. Now, luckily for me I don't have any food allergies (I'm just not a big fan of veggies). However, if I did have any such allergies I would make damn sure to double check my food before taking a bite (I'm not even going to mention the fact that the guy only noticed after he had swallowed his food!).

Further more, look at that fine picture above of the finer specimen which is a lovely big BK burger. How the hell could you not see a big hulking slice of tomato, pickle or onion hanging out of it? OK, granted that not all BK burgers look that fine and delicious but still, you got 3 frickin things that are slapped onto your burger which should be large enough to have the potential of making themselves known to you. They'd have to be minuscule for them to be hidden under the bun. Either that or you'd have to be blind with hunger not to notice (or just plain thick).

And of course, not to be outdone by BK, Micky D's (aka McDonalds) has also gotten a slice of the stupid suing pie (other than the famous hot coffee lawsuit that is). However, in this instance, it involved some rogue cheese that shouldn't have been on a burger and $10 million dollars!!! Luckily common sense won the day and that lawsuit has since been thrown out.

Game Over

This has got to be the best resignation letter/message I have ever seen! If anyone who worked for me ever came up with such an inventive and fun way to hand in their notice I'd give them a big raise and promote them on the spot (they're quitting anyways so no biggy :P).

R.I.P. Frankie Manning

Frankie Manning

Those of you who know me know that I dance quite a bit. Out of all the dance styles I do, it is Lindy Hop (the grand daddy of all swing dances) that I dance most.

So, I was saddened this morning to wake up to the news that Frankie Manning, one of the original father's of Lindy Hop had passed away. He was a few weeks shy of 95. The whole Lindy Hop community from all around the world were all getting ready to gather in New York to celebrate his 95th birthday next month. Now it looks like it will be a memorial gathering instead :(

Those of you who don't dance Lindy Hop will probably have never heard of Mr. Manning. But for Lindy dancers, Frankie was the great ambassador of the dance and an inspiration for all Lindy Hoppers of all levels. He was still giving classes and shaking it with the best of them up until last year when he injured himself.

Here's a famous footage from the 1941 film "Hellzapoppin" featuring Frankie (he's the guy in the mechanic's dungarees) and his fellow Lindy dancers (known collectively as Whitey's Lindy Hoppers) doing what they do best:





RIP Frankie.

I'm still here!... Unlike the Irish economy

I'm still floating around! I've been so incredibly busy in work in the last couple of months I've had very little time to do anything exciting or even to find anything interesting on the interweb to blog about.

Speaking of jobs, I came across this recent youtube video that I just found so incredible I had to share it (no its not the Susan Boyle, Britain's got talent video). I knew the Irish economy was bad but I never knew it had gotten this bad!





I'd hate to be the interviewer. What I find interesting in the video is the considerable lack of Irish faces in that queue and the number of people of "foreign" decent. I suppose you can't say that people aren't willing to work.

If this is the type of crazy competition that is going on for a (probably low paying) till job in Londis it looks like I may have left Ireland at a good time.

Vancouver Fog

It's been really foggy here for the last week or so. As a result there have been some amazing photo's showing up of the fog in Vancouver. Unfortunately non of these photos were taken by me :(

Non the less, these photos are so class I've decided to share them. If these photos are yours and you want them taken down or at the very least want some acknowledgement for them then drop me an email and let me know.



The above photo was taken from Cyprus Mountain (one of the three local mountains). It was taken either by Scott Miller from the Vancouver Sun or Blair Kent. Can't really tell which one of them this particular photo belongs to since both took almost identical photos. Apparently this has led to a bit of an argument as to who took the photo. But as the comparison done here shows, there are actually two photos which are almost identical.

Now some more photos.... I actually don't know who or where these photos came from (as these were emailed to me). So again, if you own them or know of who took them let me know and I'll credit the appropriate person (or remove them if you so wish).

Happy New Year!

Better late than never.... Happy New Year!

Mormon Wedding

Last week just before we were meant to make the road trip back to Vancouver again (this time thankfully the roads were clear all the way up to Vancouver and quite uneventful) I went to my first Mormon Wedding.

We never actually got to go to the actual wedding ceremony, only the reception. Apparently if your not part of the Mormon faith you are forbidden to be present at the ceremony. The groom converted to Mormonism for the girl. So, it turned out that the groom's parents were also not allowed at the wedding ceremony. Only to the reception. I was told that the groom's father (understandably) was not impressed.

For the most part the reception was ...err... reserved. The complete lack of alcohol probably had a little to do with that as well. I wasn't too concerned about the total absence of alcohol but then I found out that no coffee would be served either! So it would seem that Mormons don't drink alcohol or caffeine. I suppose that's why they allow polygamy. Got to have some sugar to sweeten the deal somehow I guess.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the lucky girl was wife number one and probably will be the only wife (barring a divorce or some kind later on down the line). I believe the US Mormons (in Utah anyways) gave up the right to polygamy so that they could join the union back sometime in the 1890s.

The couple in question were very young. No older than 20 and 21. So that meant a good few of their guests were also within that age range. So when the dancing started it sort of looked like a high school disco.

In short, it was a nice wedding if not a little more sober than I'm usually used to for a wedding.