Funky French Friday

I’ll close out the week with a really terrific, wacky video; everything you suspected was going on with the Internet:

It’s 14 minutes long, and you’ll have to read the subtitles (unless you’re a francophone), but it’s completely worth it.

Social verité

An entirely different approach to using social media to support an anti-drunk-driving campaign, from the opposite side of the world from Australia:

The West Yorkshire Police produced this YouTube video to get a similar message across. But an entirely different tack from the one put out by Victorian Police that I posted yesterday.

Be advised—this one is not amusing in the least.

You'll be stuffed!

You know, the Aussies really know how to get a point across. By way of example, here’s a video giving potential drunk drivers a view into their future:

’Nuff said.

Shopping shift

One of my friends tweeted about this “revolutionary” new shopping experience: you go to a shop to buy some clothing, but don’t actually schlepp your purchase home with you. They “ship” it to you from some other location.

They call it “a store architected for the digital era”.

Well, aside from the “other location”, this is not actually a new concept. As I understand it, department store customers back in the 50s, 60s and 70s could buy things, then go to the customer service department (remember that?) and have their purchases delivered. So they didn’t have to schlepp.

Then, as department stores consolidated, so there are only about two actual companies in the US, that whole delivery thing went the way of the tea room and nylons with seams. Deliveries cost money, and that wasn’t the sort of “service” that the conglomerates had in mind.

So I find it amusing that this is being touted as a paradigm-shifting innovation. (Jeez, the tech world loves its paradigms. But only if they’re in the process of being shifted.)

My mom and grandmother would be completely befuddled by that notion.

Gratitude Monday: Farm bounty

It’s Gratitude Monday & I’m grateful for farmers’ markets, where you can buy super-fresh produce & other stuff right from the people who raised it Around the Silicon Valley there’s an abundance of them, many open all year round. I could go to at least one a day in different communities within a ten-mile radius.

We’re close to California’s Central Valley, & not too far from the nexus of startups there are a lot of truck farms. We get some of the most amazing fruits & vegetables. Last year I bought some artichokes that were so tender I realized I was eating the entire leaves, not just the tips. & I’m not talking about only the interior leaves, either. I’ve never had ’chokes that lovely.

Right now we’re at the height of the strawberry, cherry & peach season. It’s heavenly. & we’re starting to get tomatoes that smell & taste like, you know, tomatoes.

This past Saturday I bought a luscious, ripe tomato & four kinds of summer squash, so I could make poached chicken breasts with tomato mayonnaise & sautéed squash. Absolute heaven.

Sadly, you can’t see what I’m talking about because I ate it before I could take pix.

But I’m really glad for farmers & the farmers’ markets that cut out the distribution stages.