Archive for December, 2009

As LOST Prepares to Return for Last Season, The Most Despicable Theory Rears Its Ugly Head

LOST fans love theories about what is going on on the show. All but this one.

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Santa Robbery Season Refuses to Abate

Last week we wrote about a Santa robbery story we had presented to a number of media publications only to find that the very same day another Santa had performed an even more daring robbery.

Now comes a report that there is a Santa so heinous that puts the rest of the evil Santas to shame. (And all the while helps to give credence to the journalistic cliche that three stories constitute a trend.)

According to the report below from CBS, a “jovial” man clad in a red suit and white beard robbed a SunTrust bank in Nashville so that he could provide money “for his elves”.

Communist-Era Confections Come Back

The landscape for consumers in Central Europe has changed dramatically from what it was two decades ago when the last vestiges of the Communist states started crumbing. Large Western European supermarket chains, such as the British Tesco, the German Lidl and the Dutch SPAR, can now be found in most moderately sized towns in the region, and the ubiquitous brands of candy and cola globalization – Mars, Sprite, Pepsi – are as prevalent here as elsewhere.

Nevertheless, making their way back beside the Tic Tacs in the checkout line and the two-liter Coke bottles in the soft drink aisle are a number of products which experienced their heyday during Communist times.

Krowka are caramel fudge candies made in Poland by several different firms but all with an image of a Holstein cow on a white- and yellow-colored wrapper. The word “krowka” means “little cow” in Polish. Krowka were a widely popular treat across Central and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, though they noticeably occupied less counter space in the immediate post-1989 era.

“A few weeks ago, I found some krowka at a local supermarket. I had been hoping it would come back for years. It brought back fond memories of my childhood. I bought several of them the last time I was in the shop and handed them out to all my old friends,” said Csilla Nagy, 41, from Gyula, Hungary.

In the Czech and Slovak Republics, shops are now selling vast quantities of Kofola, a drink that gained local fame in the decades before the Iron Curtain came down. Kofola was originally introduced in 1962 by Galena, a pharmaceutical company, which was researching ways to bring a caffeinated drink into the Czechoslovak market — one which it hoped would rival Coca Cola. Czechoslovakia was split into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 1993.

“After 1989, local consumers were interested primarily in cola brands from the west. As a consequence, sales in Kofola decreased substantially, “said Lenka Puzlikova, a spokesperson for Kofola.

“However, in 2002 we started refocusing on our brand. Our effort was successful, and as a result sales have been increasing every year since then. Today Kofola is the best-selling non-alcoholic drink in Slovakia and the second in the Czech Republic after Coca-Cola,” she added.

Another brand often spotted is Vinea, a grape-flavored carbonated beverage, which was created in 1973 by a Slovak named Jan Farkas. Vinea was purchased by its soft-drink rival Kofola in 2008.

“To me, nothing is better than a bottle of Vinea on a hot summer day,” said Robert Karnis, 38, an English teacher and small business owner in the Slovak town of Sliac.

To be sure, the large cola companies have established a significant presence in the countries which once comprised the other side of the Iron Curtain. Pepsi sponsors Sziget Festival, one of the largest cultural and music festivals in Europe, every summer on Obudai Sziget, a small island situated on the Danube near Budapest. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, funds the eponymous Coca-Cola Beach House for revelers at Hungary’s Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe and a favorite holiday destination for people in the region.

Balaton too is the name of local chocolate bar which was an established Hungarian brand in the days before Snickers and Kitekat hit the shelves. The brand, which is available only in Hungary, became part of Nestle subsidiary Nestle Hungaria in 2008.

Sweets such as the Sport candy bar from Hungary and Bon Pari hard-boiled fruit candies from the Czech Republic continue to enjoy widespread recognition in the Web 2.0 Internet age. Each has developed a loyal following among Facebook users with several hundred devoted fans apiece.

Founded in 1953 by the Csemege Edesipari Vallalat, Sport was eventually procured by Kraft Foods. In the words of its Facebook aficionados, it is “the favorite snack amongst majority of Hungarians.”

Bon Pari traces its roots to the SFINX sugar confectionary which began operations in 1863 in the Czech town of Holesov. The company was sold to Nestle in 1992 and, according to the company’s literature, produced 20,000 tons of sweets in 2008, mainly for export.

Traditional Media Truly in Trouble; Quota Placed on Santa Robbery Stories

If you ever needed an idea of just how strapped the budgets of traditional news organizations are these days, then look no further than the number of Santa robbery stories they are willing to buy on a given day.

It so happened that a DVD and lottery store not too far from where this writer is stationed was burgled by a man attired in a Saint Nick outfit. I knew immediately that I had a story. Stop the presses, I said. I thenceforth dusted off my Smith Corona and sent out said story.

But lo and behold, that same day an even more heinous man with a long white beard robbed a bank in Pennsylvania, and thereby took with him not only wads of cash but all the newspaper space which had been allocated to Santa crime for the day.

Is Tiger Woods a Sports Cheat Too?

I wanted to write a column with this title over the weekend, but at the time it just seemed too sensational, too outlandish – even for this website. Don’t forget that up until this weekend, everyone was counting Tiger Woods’ mistresses. Nobody was questioning his abilities on the golf course (at least not out loud). Now, with a New York Times report that Anthony Galea a doctor who treated Woods, is under investigation for supplying performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, it feels like it is being asked a little late. But I am not the only one who feels this way. It turns out that the thought had crossed the mind of Los Angeles Times sportswriter Bill Plaschke two years ago.

Two years ago, there were some snickers – including snickers from this writer – over comments by golfing legend Gary Player regarding performance enhancing drugs on the PGA Tour. After all, a jibe in one commercial that stars Tiger Woods says that golf is not a “real sport”. But nevertheless, the unfortunately named Dick Pound, the former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said a golfer could very well use and abuse certain substances to calm nerves around the greens and lengthen drives down the fairway.

Just two weeks before Tiger’s crash, one that happened while he was allegedly on prescription drugs, golfer Doug Barron was in court to block a one-year suspension after falling afoul of the PGA Tour anti-doping policy. And now, of course we have The New York Times revelations about one of Woods’ doctors.

But for me the oddest thing about this whole drip, drip, drip of the Woods saga is that he would take time off from golf over what is a personal, domestic issue – something that has nothing to do with his professional life. As painful as marital problems are, people go through them all the time and still show up for work. Often people take an extended hiatus from the job, when they really have something to hide.

Being a billionaire, Woods has the luxury of when he wants to turn up at the office. And in my view, it is more unlikely than likely that Tiger would do anything to enhance an already superior golf game. Still, Barry Bonds was an outstanding baseball player before he started taking steroids. And until three weeks ago, nobody thought Tiger would need to enhance his love life while he is married to a Swedish model.