Bug Bumper Crop

Two different types of periodical cicadas are due to hatch this year and according to some chefs it's not necessarily a bad thing. In Louisiana only blocks from the fine dining French Quarter the Bug Appetit is located in the Audubon Insectarium where they regularly serve up insect dishes, though now they are concentrating on building their cicada menu. So far some of the offerings are: green salad with apple, almonds, blueberry vinaigrette and  roasted cicadas, fried cicada nymphs dressed on top with a warm mixture of creole mustard and soy sauce. They say the cicadas taste like roasted seeds or nuts and believe it or not there are even cookbooks available devoted to the critters. 

Going Crustless

 If you happen to either have children or watch TV on a regular basis you probably are aware of  Smucker's Uncrustables. Apparently there's a big market for frozen, crustless, smushed sandwiches that or people are getting lazier than I ever thought was possible. Parents claim they are perfect for school lunches as they defrost by the time lunchtime comes...but wait peanut butter and jelly isn't something a person needs to worry about going bad if they're not kept cool and that is the only kind of Uncrustables they make other than chocolate flavored hazelnut spread which also needs no refrigeration. I must be missing something since Smucker's made 700 million the first year off their 1 million dollar purchase of Uncrustables trademark. 

 

Rat Race

 A family in B.C. took a previous study to heart and made their two rescue rats little cars they could operate by pressing pedals, middle pedal moves it forward, left pedal makes it go left and right pedal makes it go right, it isn't mentioned how they stop the cars but I'm guessing it works like a golf cart. So why did they decide to teach their rats to drive? It turns out that it lowers their stress hormones unlike humans driving in traffic. Speaking of humans driving...if rats and dogs can learn to drive why do so many humans do such a poor job of driving? 

An Axe to Grind

 I don't know if anyone still uses that godawful Axe men's body spray anymore but not to worry, sheep farmers have found a use for it! When rams decide they want to fight out comes the Axe spray and they both get a spritz and can no longer smell the hormones that make them want to fight. The spray also works on ewes who either want to abandon their lambs or lambs that are orphaned, a little puff and the ewe can't smell the difference between her lamb or another. The pungent (it really reeks) Axe is also called Lynx Africa though I imagine it smells just as bad as Axe. 

Quick Draw

 This time it's Pringles and Crocs forging a rather unusual partnership which we've seen before with Crocs, though this time with a twist. Crocs are offering a unisex boot with a holster to carry a mini can of Pringles. First problem is you would need to be sitting down to safely reach your snack and secondly the size of the mini Pringles can doesn't seem like it would be worth the effort but if you're both a Crocs and Pringles fan the boots would be well worth the $100 price tag. There are also some more traditional Crocs styles glorified with Pringles promos though no snacks to go with them. 

In Other Words

 Today's post explores some idioms from around the world proving idioms are not exclusive to the English language. From the Swedish, to slide in on a shrimp sandwich which is similar to being born with a silver spoon. In Mandarin, take your pants off to fart, meaning to do something unnecessary. In English the saying is, break a leg which never sounds like it's wishing someone good luck though in Italian it is equally weird as they say, in the whale's ass to which the recipient of the good luck wish must reply, "let's hope it doesn't shit." or it's bad luck. 

Saucy

 In a nod to Barbie's 65th anniversary Mattel and Heinz (UK) teamed up to make a limited time offer of Barbiecue Sauce. The sauce is a mixture of vegan mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and beetroot extract to produce the Barbie pink color. It is good for dipping fries and use on burgers or any other thing that might need a little zing. There is also a possibility of a pink tomato Kenchup in the works though it is not available at this time, as for the Barbiecue Sauce it is only available online and at limited locations in Europe but may be coming to the states depending on the limited sales response.