Knockoff Girl Scout Samoas?!

There is always some sort of solicitation going on outside of grocery stores here in Seattle. Girl Scout Cookie season is the part of the year that I look forward to giving my money to someone else other than Safeway on a grocery store run. According to the Girl Scout Cookie website, I have to wait another 114 days until I start seeing tables piled with colorful boxes.

I always look forward to blowing away any cash I have in pockets on Samoas, those delectable lug nut-shaped vanilla cookies encrusted in coconut shavings and covered in chocolate and caramel. They're also known as Caramel deLites, depending on the area. Two bakeries supply the Girl Scouts with their cookies, Little Brownie Bakers and ABC Bakers. Depending on the bakery, the cookie name may be different. Comparing images, deLites seem to have more chocolate stripes than Samoas. Samoas come from Little Brownie, while Caramel deLites are a product of ABC. Regardless of the name, these treasures only come in purple colored packages of 15, as opposed to 30 or 40, like Thin Mints or Trefoils.






















I was walking down the cookie aisle of Safeway during and I stumbled upon a purple package of Safeway branded Fudge Caramel Coconut cookies. Generic branded food usually is distinctly different tasting for the worse, but for a fraction of the price of name brands. At $2.50/ box during the offseason of Girl Scout cookies, I decided to give them a try.

Right out of the box, the most noticeable difference is that these cookies are completely covered in chocolate from top to bottom, no Fudge Stripe-like lines revealing the caramel and coconut. The configuration is slightly different, with coconut and caramel both on top AND under the cookie portion instead of being just on top. Upon taking a bite, there seems to be less caramel. Often strings of caramel will stretch out of a Samoa on first bite. I wonder if the chocolate covering has something to due with this: more chocolate, less caramel. Regardless of the lack of caramel, as well as coconut, the cookie taste remarkably similar. As I'm writing this I don't have a Samoa to directly compare the taste, but I cannot tell any glaring differences in taste.












Has Safeway found a way of making a profit off of a nonprofit favorite? Have they partnered up with one of the bakeries or have they figured out the formula. Comparing the ingredients on the box (nutrition facts: Samoas, Caramel deLites), the ingrediants for Safeway's FCC cookies are most similar to the Caramel deLites. While comparing nutrition facts, FCC share similarities with Samoas at 150 calories/serving (2 cookies) to deLites' 140 calories/serving but fits in the middle when it comes to sodium. Samoas are only 55 mg of sodium/serving, FCC w/ 80 mg, and deLites last with 85 mg/serving.

I can't seem to buy these cookies off of Safeway's website, so hopefully these weren't cookies that couldn't sell and are now, or soon to be, discontinued . I'd hate to have to clean out my local store of a hidden treasure.

Both Little Brownie and ABC share recipes featuring their famous cookies. I'm going to have to try the Fried Samoas Shrimp, but if someone wants to grant me a birthday wish it would have to be making me the Samoas Dream Cake.


What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?


You guys want some cookies?


The Man Show Boy sells Girl Scout Cookies

Baseball vs Football

Football season has started this weekend with the NCAA's first full week of games. The NFL begins next Sunday. The MLB is nearing towards the end of the season, with the teams duking it out for those wild card spots. Here's the late George Carlin's take on both sports:

George Carlin's Take on Football vs. Baseball

Um..It's Like...Did Anyone See the Movie 'TRON'? We're Getting a Sequel?

Disney released at test footage of their sequel of their groundbreaking 1982 film TRON at Comic-Con in 3D. This footage is actually over a year old, as it was screened but not released to the public. Now you can see it online in glorious HD. The film will be called TRON: Legacy.

TRON: Legacy test footage

Alice in Wonderland Trailer Teases US

I haven't posted in awhile, I've got much to catch up on. Anyways, we see our first peak at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, fresh from Comic-Con:

Alice in Wonderland Teaser:

Remembering the King of Pop

Bidding farewell to Michael Jackson, I reflect upon my memories I have of the Hoosier pop star. I don't think I truly appreciate his music until much older, but what I remember most growing up was his videos. No one has, or probably will, gain the status that he did to produce music videos (or short films) with that much production value. His films/videos were collaborated by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Landis, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Stephen King, Stan Winston, and Rick Baker.

There are so many that are memorable, I've decided to include a few of the lengthy and possibly less visible ones - Enjoy

Captain EO (1986) - High production film that became a 3D Disney attraction for a number of years

*If you have 3D (red/cyan) glasses lying around, here's the original 3D video*




Moonwalker(1988) - 93 min feature length film with its most notable song Smooth Criminal. (features film split in 11 parts, ignore last video)


Ghosts(1997) - Co-written by Stephen King and played before his film Thinner



Bad (1987) - Classic song, classic video


Thriller (1983) - Video speaks for itself


Still not enough MJ? This link contains 81 videos (music videos, some redundant)

When Tim Burton Gets His Hands on Wonderland

Some images of Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland were released today from USA Today. It's usual Burton we all know and love - whimsically creepy imagery. He's got the usual suspects featured in his film - Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, his wife Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Alan Rickman as the Caterpillar, and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwock. Mia Wasikowska is Alice, with Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. This film is slated to release (and conjure up nightmares in all of us) March 5, 2010.

25th Anniversary of Russian Fun

This year marks the 25th birthday of the iconic game Tetris. The puzzle game's addictive nature continues to proliferate to other forms of electronics and knock-off games after a quarter century. I have many memories of the original GameBoy and those falling monochromatic blocks set to that 8-bit Russian tune. Below I've got a short retrospective on Tetris' success after 25 years. If you want a deeper look into the making of Tetris, below is also an hour long BBC documentary on the gaming phenom.

Tetris: 25th Anniversary


Tetris: From Russia With Love(11 parts, all included in the playlist)

For the Love of Ball Card Collecting

Like many kids across America, I grew up with the obsessive hobby of collecting trading cards. It started out with Topp's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards (still had the rock solid sticks of gum back then), then Marvel Comics cards, and as I grew older I turned to basketball and football. I loved the anticipation of going to the ball card or comic book store to burn any allowance money I had on these plastic or foil wrapped treasures. The smell of printed comics, the feel of plastic coated cardboard, the obsessive drive to complete a set, and contemplating if I could afford any rare gems behind lighted glass counters are all fond memories to me. Even if you had the complete series of cards, the ones most sought after would be the 'chase' cards - holograms, transparent cards, jersey swatches, rookies, or autographed. This age-old pastime has evolved to some degree, as cards have become pricier and even more collectible. Here's a documentary short, called The Baseball Card Movie, that was shot in a ball card shop in Brooklyn that encapsulates the rush of trading card collecting.

The Baseball Card Movie

How Much Cash For a TipTrode? - Part 1

We've all seen those ridiculous cash for gold advertisements on television. You send away for an envelope, place 'unwanted' or 'unused' gold in envelope, send, and wait for your check. I decided to conduct an audiological experiment requiring two of the most notable cash for gold companies and a handful of used tiptrodes. I decided on using two companies because I could not gather anything conclusive on the internet as to which cash for gold company was more reputable.

The tiptrodes are foam insert eartips that are wrapped with a gold foil. These tiptrodes are used in auditory evoked potential testing, such as auditory brainstem response. To be more specific, I am using 4 used (but sanitized!) 13mm Tiptrodes.












The two cash for gold companies used were Cash4Gold and 1-800 Gold Kit. I signed up on each website and within days I received my gold kits in the mail.
















Here's what you've probably seen on TV from each of these companies:

Cash4Gold:


1-800 Gold Kit:


I placed 2 tiptrodes in each envelope and sent them away in the mail. I pulled no punches with them, as you can see the picture below I describe exactly what the envelope contains.












We'll see what turns up! Most from what I've heard about these companies is that they're big scams, they payout less than 30% of the actual value of the gold. Some people have been known to contest the amount offered and been awarded more. It's also been proven that someone who's gold spray painted objects have received some (very little) money for it.

Fun with an NU-6 Word List

For you audiology folk, anytime I am trying to obtain a word recognition score using Auditec of St. Louis' NU-6 words I must chuckle when a particular two words are asked to be repeated. They are right after each other on List 1A. It reminds me of a particular SNL commercial parody featured below. For you non-audiology folk, word recognition measures a person's ability to repeat a word at a suprathreshold level of loudness - if it's loud enough for you to hear, can you repeat it. Audiology folk will get a kick out of it and if you don't get it you'll get a kick out of Horatio Sanz.

Check it out!

Great Moments in Film: Enter The Dragon

Sadly, two icons of the martial arts genre passed away yesterday. David Carradine was found dead yesterday in his hotel in Thailand at the age of 72. He is most well known for starring in the hit 1970's show Kung Fu, which was supposedly originally created by Bruce Lee. Carradine was also recently the lead villain Bill in Kill Bill. Cantonese actor Shih Kien also passed away Wednesday from kidney failure at the age of 96. He will forever be known to the American audience as the clawed villain Han from the film Enter the Dragon.

The iconic fight been Bruce Lee and Han from Enter the Dragon:

This Summer's Silver Screened Hearing Aid Hero

I haven't seen it yet, but I can't wait to see this last weekend's #1 film at the box office, Pixar's Up. The film's main character is an elderly man named Carl Fredrickson, voiced by Ed Asner. Carl sports an ITE hearing aid in his right ear. The film actually contains hearing aid feedback, check out the clip below! Since millions have already gone out to see this flick, I wonder if folks will ask their audiologist to be fit with what Carl's got or will it detract those from getting fit for fear of being stereotyped as the animated senior citizen.

Pixar's Up, now with hearing aid feedback!

Sam Wo, a San Francisco Treat

During my weekend getaway to San Francisco, passed the Sam Wo Restaurant in Chinatown. I've never actually eaten here, but it evoked a memory I had of Conan O'Brien's visit to San Francisco on the Late Show. He created an ad for the narrow, 3-story restaurant in which you enter through the kitchen. I'm checking out that Sam Wo Mystery Room next time.

Conan - Sam Wo Ad:

Stan Bush's 'The Touch' Transformed

With Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen releasing in a month, a song has been redone for the upcoming soundtrack - the infamous song 'The Touch' by Stan Bush. Featured in the soundtrack for the original Transformers movie in 1986 (the one where Optimus dies), the song has become a cult classic and so much so that it was also sung by Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights. Let's hope Weird Al doesn't try to remake 'Dare to be Stupid.'

'09 'The Touch' or Sam's Theme:


'86 'The Touch':


Dirk Diggler's 'The Touch' from Boogie Nights:

Profound Hearing Loss, MTV-Style

I never watch MTV, but I found this episode of their series True Life about 2 young people with profound hearing loss - a high schooler who gets a cochlear implant and a college student trying out for the Baltimore Ravens cheerleading squad.

True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 1


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 2


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 3


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 4


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 5


True Life: I'm Deaf - Part 6

Sherlock Holmes, Action Hero

Here's the trailer for Guy Ritchie's take on the pipe smoking gumshoe. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law play Holmes and Watson. It's slated to come out this Christmas.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer

Beaucoup de Fromage est Très Bon!

This weekend was the Seattle Cheese Festival down at Pike Place Market. I hit downtown in the sun yesterday to check it out with Gary, Mike, and Diana. I don't know much about cheese, so it was definitely a primer for me - a tasty and free primer at that! We were exposed to cheeses of all consistencies, milks, and countries. After trying trying all sorts of varieties, I must say I'm still not into the goat and Europe imports some really savory cheeses.

I brought home some Terre des Volcans fourme d'ambert, a cow's milk blue cheese from Ambert in the French province of Auvergne. It's not too strong and is softer than most blue cheeses I've had. The cows were supposedly fed on a pasture over volcanic rock. The lady at the booth said that the cheese is aged in an old train tunnel - she had a picture to prove such a claim.

The milk is also thermalized, heated just below pasteurization longer to preserve enzymes and kill bacteria - so not pasteurized and not technically raw (although supposedly the FDA considers it raw).

If you see the 'Appellation d'Origine Protegee' under the name of the cheese, there is apparently a federal bureau in France that certifies certain geographic regions to their particular cheeses, wines, and butters. These are known as AOC (appellation d'origine controlee) products. Here's a list of AOC cheeses from Wikipedia.

Happy Birthday George!

Kinda almost the end of the day, but Mr. George Lucas turns 65 today. I just saw Star Trek today, and his special effects signature is written all over it like a kid with a crayon and a wall. Here's the classic short film George Lucas in Love, a humorous look at what may have inspired George at USC.

George Lucas in Love

It's Mother's Day, Someone Get Me This!

I think I'd need one for more than just celebrities, maybe something that would consolidate an hour's worth of verbiage into a few concise ideas or statements....I kid, kid! I love my mom! Justin Timberlake better stay away, that's just disgusting.....

Mom Translator

Backlash at the New Star Trek Film.

This is a news short about the backlash from Trekkies that the new Star Trek is 'watchable and fun.' This is hilarious! Oh, by the way, this is from The Onion.

Trekkies Bash Film as 'Watchable and Fun':