USA annexes Canada

At least, it would appear so from this product origin information I found at Safeway.

UPDATE:
Okay, okay. So this isn't that funny, but it gives me a chance to rehash some of my other on-the-spot Safeway posts here, here, here, and here.

Nor is it as egregious as when the Wall Street Journal handed Saipan over to South Korea.

Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Sadly, a jaunt down to the Safeway on Kapahulu can seem like a journey back to Soviet Russia.

A warm feeling from a blizzard

This is a heartwarming story of local residents during the Great DC Blizzard of '10 doing the right thing by leaving money for the goods they took from an unmanned Safeway store:

Somehow, word got around to a few desperate shoppers, who made it over to the abandoned supermarket on Davenport Street NW and found something of value on shelves that had been nearly emptied by waves of snow-weary customers in recent days. Two witnesses told The Washington Post that they had been inside the store and seen people selecting goods and paying at unmanned cashier counters before leaving.

"People were getting groceries and leaving the money on the counter," Hilary Peterson said.

"The lot had been plowed, the lights were on, the PA system was operating, but there was no one working there," said shopper Frank Swain, who drove over in search of milk. "It felt like a movie set."

Swain said he would have taken and "left a couple of bucks for milk, but it was all gone," so he just left, but he watched as a couple with their dogs selected a variety of groceries and left payment for them.

This is something I would almost expect in Korea (in Seoul subway stations, newspaper sellers would leave a stack of papers completely unattended and people would take one and leave their 500 won or so), but you don't hear as much about these stories in the US (even though I know they happen).

It renews my faith in humanity, at least in the Greater Washington area. Here in Honolulu, Safeway patrons steal carts.

I know a lot of Americans are biology-challenged but...

... was the handwritten label necessary?


COMMENTS:
ZenKimchi has left a new comment on your post "I know a lot of Americans are biology-challenged b...":

I go to check my Google Reader and Kushibo gives me a little head.
Posted by ZenKimchi to Monster Island (actually a peninsula)* at Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:55:00 AM




kushibo has left a new comment on your post "I know a lot of Americans are biology-challenged b...":

ZenKimchi wrote:I go to check my Google Reader and Kushibo gives me a little head.

A little head? That's a lot of head. That a couple pounds' worth of head.

Anyway, if anybody else wants some of this, it's five bucks a head.

Actually, $4.87. 
Posted by kushibo to Monster Island (actually a peninsula)* at Tuesday, December 01, 2009 10:13:00 AM




kushibo has left a new comment on your post "I know a lot of Americans are biology-challenged b...":

arvinsign wrote:LOL..maybe the seller was a former ichthyologist :)

Yes, because the Safeway butchers are former marine biology majors at UH or HPU.

Anyway, I wonder if "ick" comes from ichthyology. 

Posted by kushibo to Monster Island (actually a peninsula)* at Tuesday, December 01, 2009 10:21:00 AM




reijene has left a new comment on your post "I know a lot of Americans are biology-challenged b...":

ROFL

(and still rolling)
Posted by reijene to Monster Island (actually a peninsula)* at Tuesday, December 01, 2009 6:44:00 PM

Nice, aßßhole.

So I'm at the big Safeway on Kapahulu, stocking up on food for the finals crunch, and I buy myself a baguette (something I totally got used to doing in Korea) and I left my cart for a few moments to look for a frozen dinner, it being 10:30 p.m. and the dorm kitchen closing at 11 and all.

So I come back and my cart is gone. I hate things like this because I fear my inability to find things I knew I had left right there is a sure sign of EOGXD (Early Onset Gen-Xer Dementia, all the rage these days).

After I spend a few futile minutes looking for the dang thing, I give up and head back outside for a new cart (almost forgetting that I'm carrying an unpaid-for frozen dinner in my hand — damn EOGXD!), go back in and find a new baguette, and go on with my shopping.

As I go down one of the aisles, this is what I find:

That's right: some a-hole went up to my cart, took my food out, then made off with my cart, leaving me to go back out and get my own. Aßßhole!

What the hell is wrong with people? If only I knew the ethnicity of the culprit so I could make a disparaging generalization — probably totally valid — about their co-ethnics.

Come to think of it, if this is the worst thing I have to complain about right now, life can't be all that bad.

And if this post doesn't get me booted off the Marmot's Hole right-column blog feed, nothing will. Be sure to read the one about the Japan Times revision on Tokto.

Sent from my iPhone

Lost in the dairy section

I don't think I ever blogged about this, but one day while walking through the Safeway on Kapahulu, I passed someone who looked quite familiar, the gentleman at left.

In fact, I run into a lot of people from the university—often folks you walk by several times a week so you know their face but you have never formally met—and I just assumed it was one of those people. It was only when I got home I had my little epiphany: that's the guy who's the leader of The Others!

At that point, I had deliberately not watched any of Lost (I was waiting for a chance to watch each episode in order from the beginning), so I only recognized him from the commercials on ABC. Had I said anything, I would have sounded pretty stupid.

But now that I'm completely up to speed on "Lost," I think there's a good chance I might run into him again. The Safeway on Kapahulu is the largest (and nicest) on the whole island, probably the whole state. In fact, Governor Linda Lingle showed up for the grand opening in November 2007 (as she probably will when Target opens this March and maybe even Trader Joe's if they ever opened one here; there's not a lot going on in Hawaii when the president's not here on vacation).

First off, I will not go up to him and say, "Hey, you're Ben!" I will say, "Oh, aren't you Michael Emerson from Lost? You do a great job on that show." I've been in media long enough to know that it's always nice when people come up to you and say your name instead of, "Aren't you that guy on that news program?" Or worse, "You're on TV!" clearly with no idea who you are or what program(s) you do.

Come to think of it, I probably should also remember the names of the other actors, too. Honolulu and Oahu are not that big and they shoot Lost scenes all over the island, so you never know who you'll encounter. I just hope the meeting isn't a bending of fenders with someone driving inebriated through the streets of Oahu, as seems to be a theme with some of the Lost actors (who end up dead on the show).