The Risks of Chocolate Advertising

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Ferrero White Kisses.
ferreroFerrero, Europe’s biggest confectionery company, has been forced to pull its ads for their new line of white chocolate kisses. The product was designed for the German market, where white chocolate is more popular than it is in the US. Ferrero’s ads use the slogans ‘Germany chooses white’, ‘Germany votes white’, and ‘White kisses are best.’ Furious Germans demanded that Ferrero pull these ads because they mirror the position of Germany’s far-right anti-Semitic party, the NPD, which wants to restrict immigration to Germany to white Christians only. Obviously Ferrero wasn’t trying to develop a candy that would appeal to Nazis. They just hadn’t considered how these ads would sound in Germany, where neo-fascism is a very sensitive issue.

 

WHY CAN’T I PAY MY RENT WITH A CREDIT CARD?

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Every now and then, a tenant will ask me if he can pay his rent with a credit card. My answer is No. All of my leases state that the rent must be paid by check or money order. I don’t accept credit cards. Why? My reason is quite simple. I don’t want to pay the bank fees.

Some apartment houses in Berkeley and San Francisco allow tenants to pay their rent with credit cards, but invariably, its the buildings that get top-of-the-market rent. Many of the new apartment houses in downtown Berkeley allow tenants to pay the rent with credit cards; however, those buildings charge $2,500 to $3,000 a month for small 1 bedroom apartments. I get $1,700 to $1,800 a month for my 1 bedroom apartments. If I was getting $3,000 a month for 1 bedroom apartments, I would accept credit cards too!

SHOULD TENANTS BE LICENSED?

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Many cities in California require landlords to obtain business licenses, but in other states, a growing number of cities are licensing tenants. In these places, you have to get a license from the city before you can rent an apartment. In some cities, you have to show a prospective landlord your ‘tenant license’ before you can even fill out a rental application form. The stated purpose of these tenant licensing laws is housing safety; however, the real purpose of these laws is to catch illegal immigrants. This is not an issue here in California. No city in California licenses tenants.
In Pennsylvania: The city of Hazelton passed a law requiring applicants for apartments to obtain a permit from the city proving citizenship or legal residency before renting an apartment. A landlord who rents an apartment to a tenant without a city permit faces large fines.
In Texas: The city of Farmers Branch (a suburb of Dallas) passed a law requiring would-be tenants to first obtain a license from the city confirming their immigration status before applying for an apartment. Landlords who rent apartments to unlicensed tenants face harsh civil and criminal penalties. In Farmers Branch, a landlord can go to jail for renting an apartment to an unlicensed tenant.

In July, 2013; Federal courts in both Texas and Pennsylvania ruled that these tenant licensing laws are unconstitutional. The courts said that the true intent of these laws was to force landlords to act as immigration police under the guise of housing safety. The Appeals Courts ruled that the power to enforce immigration laws is reserved exclusively to the Federal government under the U.S. Constitution and that state and local governments cannot pass laws designed to supersede Federal law. In August, the city of Farmers Branch appealed the decision of the Appeals Court to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether or not to hear this case. Personally, I think the idea of licensing tenants is absurd. It would certainly never fly in California.

WHY DO WE ELECT DEMOCRATS? WHY DO WE ELECT REPUBLICANS?

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I have a theory about this. We elect Democrats because we want the stuff they promise to give us, and then we elect Republicans when we get the bill for that stuff and don’t want to pay it. We don’t want to give up the stuff that we got from the Democrats. We just don’t want to pay for it.

Lyndon Johnson (Democrat) was elected president in 1964 in a landslide. He created Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, federal funding for public schools, federal college grants, the school breakfast program, and a lot of other very expensive ‘Great Society’ programs, all while fighting a major war in Vietnam, and without raising taxes to pay for any of this. When the bills came due for the war and Johnson’s Great Society programs, taxes went up, so we elected Ronald Reagan (Republican) in a landslide. Reagan promised (and delivered) big tax cuts, but without getting rid of or even cutting back any of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. Predictably, the federal deficit skyrocketed. In the 8 years that Reagan was president, total Federal debt tripled.

The problem isn’t the Democrats or the Republicans. It’s us. We want stuff from the government, expensive stuff, but we don’t want to pay for it. Every democracy around the world seems to have this same problem. After touring America in 1830, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: ‘Democracy works, but only until the people realize that they hold the keys to the Treasury.’

HOW TO CLEAN YOUR MICROWAVE OVEN IN UNDER 30 SECONDS.

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I use my microwave oven several times a day. It’s a great convenience. However, cleaning out the inside of a microwave oven can be a real pain, especially if something blew up inside and dried out bits of food are stuck to the oven walls. Cleaning up a mess like that can be a real chore; however, here’s how you can easily clean up that mess in 30 seconds or less. Put a bowl of water with some lemon juice in it in your microwave oven and cook it at full power for 3 to 5 minutes. The steam with soften the crud inside your microwave oven. You can then clean out the inside of your microwave oven with a damp sponge in 30 seconds or less!

WORST APPLICATION EVER.

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“We’re Interns.”  I recently rented a 4 bedroom apartment in Berkeley’s South Campus. The first application I got came from a group of 4 guys who had all just graduated from a small (but pricey) liberal arts college back East. All 4 of them just starting working for an environmental organization based in downtown Berkeley. After reviewing their applications, I said: “None of you filled in the income section on your application forms.” The leader of the group said: “We didn’t fill in that section because we are all interns.” I said: “I am not sure I know what you mean by the word ‘intern.’ Does that mean that you don’t get paid?” He said: “Yes.” I said: “Do any of you have secondary jobs or some other source of income?” They all shook their heads No. I said: “You know, the rent on this apartment is $3,500 a month.” They shook their heads Yes. I said: “Well, I don’t understand. If you are all unpaid interns, how do you plan to pay the rent?”  The leader of the group (the brains of this outfit) said: “We are going to pay you by check. We all have checking accounts.” He showed me his checkbook. I said: “I don’t think I am making myself clear. I am not concerned right now with the method by which you plan to pay me the rent. What I want to know is where the money will come from.” The leader of the group said: “Bank of America. We all have checking accounts at Bank of America. That where the money will come from.” I said: “I still don’t think I am making myself clear. The rent is $3,500 a month – every month – but your gross income – between all 4 of you – is zero. Do you see the problem?” They looked at each other in confused silence and then looked at me and shook their heads No. I never did find out how they planned to pay the rent. I thanked them for their applications and sent them on their way.

I have run into this situation before. There are a lot of non-profit organizations based in Berkeley. Most of them have very little money, so they rely on volunteers and unpaid interns to do their work. I have met quite a few of these interns. Some of them have been working for years and years without pay for environmental or political organizations. I often wonder what they live on, but I haven’t figured it out.

Things You Should Never Buy at a Garage Sale or Flea Market.

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This is the time of year when college students are furnishing their new apartments. Understandably, they are looking for bargains. Most college students have very little money, if any at all, set aside for home furnishing budgets. Nevertheless, even if you have very little money to spend on home furnishings, there are some things that you should always buy new, never used. Here is a list of things that you should never buy at a garage sale, flea market, or off Craigslist.

  1. Mattresses. It is illegal to sell used mattresses at thrift stores in California. I think it should be illegal everywhere. You can get very sick from sleeping on a used mattress. Suppose the last person who on slept on this mattress had a contagious disease. You could get that disease yourself just by sleeping on that mattress. Also, the mattress could have parasites in it. When you bring a used mattress into your home, you could be bringing in a long list of undesirable critters that might be hiding inside it, including bedbugs, fleas, lice, ticks, and spiders. Finally, the mattress could have mold in it. Sleeping on a mattress with mold in it can make you very sick.
  2. Couches, sofabeds, pillows, and upholstered chairs. You don’t want these in your home either, and for the same reasons that you don’t want a used mattress.
  3. Sheets and blankets. Yes, you can wash used sheets and blankets in hot water, and that will kill most of the bad things that might be in them, but it may not wash everything out. For example, bedbug and spider eggs can survive washing in hot water.
  4. Hats and shoes. All used hats and shoes contain dried sweat, particles of hair, and dead skin from its previous owner.  If the last person who wore a pair of shoes or a hat before you had a contagious skin disease, you could catch that disease yourself just by wearing that person’s hat or shoes.
  5. Cookware. Don’t buy used cookware if it shows any sign or rust or other damage. Worn out nonstick cookware can leach chemicals into your food, and rust can leach toxic metals.

Neapolitan Ice Cream

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neapolitanI have never understood the appeal of Neapolitan ice cream. I never liked it. Neapolitan ice cream is that 3 color ice cream that you frequently see at children’s birthday parties. It’s 1/3 chocolate, 1/3 vanilla, and 1/3 strawberry.  It usually comes in a square or rectangular brick and is sold in nearly every supermarket in the United States. Neapolitan ice cream is one of America’s top selling ice cream products, and it has been that way all my life. But – why do people buy it? It always tastes lousy. The chocolate is usually OK, the vanilla is bland, and nobody likes the strawberry. The strawberry ice cream in Neapolitan usually gets eaten last or not at all. It seems that every time someone opens up a container of Neapolitan ice cream in their freezer, the chocolate and vanilla are gone, but the strawberry is all still there and covered with frost because it’s been in the freezer so long. I think the only reason that people buy Neapolitan ice cream is because it is colorful.

BEAVER URINE. Why don’t people eat the strawberry section of Neapolitan ice cream? Maybe it’s the beaver urine. None of the mass market brands of Neapolitan ice cream are made with real strawberries. The strawberry section of Neapolitan ice cream is usually flavored with beaver urine. Yes – you read that right – beaver urine. To be technical, imitation strawberry ice cream is flavored with castoreum, a chemical produced by beavers to scent mark their territory. It is extracted from beaver urine. Castoreum is used to create a number of different artificial flavors besides strawberry. A lot of raspberry ice cream and sorbet are also made from beaver urine. I wonder how much Neapolitan ice cream they would sell if they had to put on the label ‘flavored with beaver urine.’ I suppose that for most people it wouldn’t make any difference. After all, most people never read ingredients labels.

NATURAL STRAWBERRY FLAVOR. Don’t be fooled by the words ‘natural flavor’ or ‘natural strawberry flavor’ on the ingredients label on Neapolitan ice cream. ‘Natural strawberry flavor’ does not mean the flavor came from strawberries. It means that the flavor came from a natural or organic source, and beaver urine is natural and organic.

A New Product For Hershey.

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I know an executive at Hershey. Back in May, I sent him my best idea yet for a new Hershey product. You have probably seen commercials for Smucker’s jelly with the line “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.” Smucker’s has been using that line in their TV commercials for over 50 years. The idea is that since the name Smucker’s sounds bad, the jelly has to taste good. Using that same logic, I have come up with 3 new Hershey products:

  • Hershey‘s Compound Fracture bar
  • Hershey‘s Painful Bowel Movement bar
  • Hershey‘s Searing Gas Pain bar. Plain or with Almonds

This marketing strategy works for Smucker’s, so why not Hershey? What do you think? This is the best marketing idea I’ve come to come up with, but from what I can see, it doesn’t look that Hershey is going to use it.

How Many Chemical Element Were Discovered in Berkeley?

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An astonishing 16 elements on the atomic chart were discovered at the Berkeley National Lawrence Lab including Berkelium, Californium, Americium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Curium, Nobelium, Neptunium, and Plutonium. And how many elements were discovered at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford? Zero!  Berkeley Lawrence Lab