When trying to enjoy a tasty snack of Wheat Thins and horseradish chive hummus, be forewarned that reading the Wheat Thins box could destroy your appetite. First, I discovered that Wheat Thins contain the demon's sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup, which I try so hard to avoid.

Then, as I debated the virtues of finishing *just this box* before making an avowed conversion to HFCS-less Triscuits, I discovered something almost as disturbing: Despite Nabisco's cost-reducing HFCS usage, they seemingly can't afford a proofreader on their package design team.

For those of you who can't read the image (but who are not spam bots), the first blurb reads:

For a sweet/salty combination, Honey Wheat Thins is a perfect choice because of it's slightly sweet honey taste

Now personally, I think that saying "Honey Wheat Thins is a perfect choice" would be like saying "jelly beans is a tasty treat," but I can accept the possibility that Nabisco might see their products more…conceptually..than I do and that they might—I hope—be referring to one box of Honey Wheat Thins as a perfect choice rather than, say, a handful thereof.

Then I read why Honey Wheat Thins…um…are…such a perfect choice—and still, I tried not to judge. Maybe the Nabisco package team was in a hurry. Maybe they were quickly reading aloud to themselves and heard "its" rather than "it's." What with my obsessive multitasking, high-speed typing, and constant utilization of multiple immediate communication channels, I must admit I've made it's/its, you're/your, and even we're/were slips before. Just not, um, in print on the packaging of a multi-national product.

But still I could forgive the Nabisco team. They're probably up against some tough deadlines, I thought. Until I read the second blurb:

Ranch Wheat Thins offers zesty flavor like a chip because it's it's made with delicious ranch seasoning.

Really, Nabisco? Really??? You didn't catch "because it's it's"? Your copywriter finally chose the correct "it's"—but no one noticed that you have the same word two times in a row on your package?

Reason #587 to not let your child major in English: He or she will be unable to eat because of poorly proofread food packaging.

I used to cite the possibility of getting a banana at just about every third street corner with only the odd quarter that happens to be lurking in my pocket as one of the happiest conveniences of living in nyc. But a few months ago when I handed my lint-coated quarter over to the fruit vendor nearest my office, I got an alarming surprise: "Thirty-five cents, please."

I rummaged around my purse for a dime wondering where this guy got off thinking his bananas were worth ten cents more than everyone else's. But as weeks passed I began to notice that all the fruit carts in the general vicinity of my office were selling 35-cent bananas! Granted, I live in el barrio, where fruit carts, like most civilized elements of New York life, are few and far between, so this ten-cent hike could be limited to ever-pricy midtown.

But I have to wonder: How did they coordinate this? Is there a fruit cart vendors' coalition of some sort that regulates fruit prices? If not, what's to keep the fruit cart guy down the street from undercutting your newly increased banana price to lure cheap New Yorkers (like me) away from your cart?

Everyone's favorite research tool did little to abate the mystery, though I did discover that banana prices in the U.S. are strikingly lower than they are in other non-banana-producing nations, that residents of Santa Barbara probably consider banana prices a dull topic because theirs cost only 19 cents apiece, that "comparing per pound price to per banana price is like comparing apples to oranges (or to bananas)" [previous link], and that Aussie banana fiends should fear for their pocketbooks.

What on earth did I blog about before embedded video?

Here's a fascinating clip of Steve Jobs presenting the first mac in 1984. Steve Jobs has so much hair! And little 22-pound grandfather of all macs that got Lawrence Magid so excited had such a snarky sense of humor!

Embedded video doesn't work in RSS so you'll have to go to the actual post.

Since I'm enjoying my fair share of embedded video fun, I really must insist that you watch what seems to be a rehearsal for an all-Japanese production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Embedded video doesn't work in RSS so you'll have to go to the actual post. If you're already here and you still don't see a video, I apologize.

The inherent humor of this mash-up simply cannot be denied, especially if you grew up watching the movie—but what's really fascinating is the similarity of spirit between this rehearsal of "Tradition" and the familiar movie version. And I don't just mean that this performance is as spirited—the character of the performances are quite amazingly well-aligned (at least as far as I can gather without understanding a word).

flier (for what I take to be the same production) via Jew School

And according to an oft-cited anecdote, after the first performance in Japan (I believe this story refers to a performance by an American cast on tour) Fiddler's libbrettist, Joseph Stein, was approached by Japanese audience members who found the story so "Japanese" that they couldn't believe American audiences had enjoyed it! Theodore Bikel, who played Tevye in Japan, tells the same story, although Bikel attributes the resonance to the universality of pain, while the other articles point out similarities between the traditional Jewish and Japanese families.

At any rate—what a non-traditional meeting of the cultures. I love it!