February 05, 2004

Melange

You know how NBC has been being a jerk lately by starting their shows a minute before the hour? I got screwed by that on Tuesday, as the Tivo recorded Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (which started at 9:59) and did not record America's Next Top Model, which was over at 10:00.

Luckily for me, ANTM is on again on Wednesday, because UPN has given up on the idea of coming up with enough new programming to fill a week. However, that meant it would overlap American Idol, which Fox had scheduled to air from 8:30 to 9:30. That's almost as annoying as NBC's deal, but it looks like a one-time deal. Now, Tivo is a great invention, but it can't record two things at once. However, I was able to Tivo AI and use a regular VCR to record ANTM.

Oh, but it's not over. See, 9:00 is also when Angel's on. I don't normally watch Angel (which I guess I ought to be abbreviating "A" just to be consistent) but my roommate does, and she was at an art show. So it needed to be recorded too. Plus, it was the 100th episode and Cordelia was coming back, so it seemed like I might want to watch it myself. So I ended up needing the Tivo and two VCRs. Plus I'm probably going to need therapy when I realize I went to all this effort for two reality shows and a show about a whiny vampire with a soul. Actually, three reality shows, because there's also Celebrity Mole on Wednesdays. It's a madhouse, I tell ya.

And speaking of madhouses, I saw a Burger King ad that sets new records for nonsense. The announcer was going on abouut how healthy the food was, and how little of something (either fat or cholesterol, I think) was in it. And then there was a caption, explaining that the hyperbole was justified if you ordered your Whopper "without bun, ketchup, or mayonnaise". What? In what sense is that a Whopper? And what happens if you actually order it like that? I know they used to claim that "special orders don't upset us," unless that was actually McDonalds, but I'm pretty sure you'd get some suspicious looks.

Besides, with no bun, your hands would be covered with meat and cheese! Word.

By the way, have you seen the new commercials for KFC? It's true; they're now pretending it doesn't stand for "Kentucky Fried Chicken"; it's "Kitchen Fresh Chicken". Except if you look at the fine print, you notice that the freshness guarantee doesn't apply to wings. Or to people eating on parts of the West Coast, Alaska, or Hawaii. Weird. Most people are assuming that this change was done to remove the evil word "fried", in much the same way that Super Sugar Crisp became "Super Golden Crisp". Me, I think they wanted to remove the word "Kentucky" because they didn't like the connotations. The next step is to change Colonel Sanders from a Kentucky Colonel to some kind of Space Marine.

I recently read an article about restaurants everywhere getting orders for burgers without the buns. The guy I work with is doing an Atkins kinda thing and yesterday I walked in on him in the break room where he was eating his burger without the bun. I don't know about cheese, but he was covered in mustard. Ick.

There's some debate on this, but personally, I like the new Quiznos Subs ads.

Posted by: Sheila at February 5, 2004 07:29 AM

I'm getting totally screwed on ANTM too with the not-being able to record two channels thing with my PVR. And I missed Scrubs this week for that reason, too. Damn you, American Idol!

I'm hoping ot upgrade my PVR soon to a newer Dish one that can record two things at once.

Gael's right, though, the newer TiVos with two tuners have dropped in price a lot.

Posted by: Omar G at February 5, 2004 08:40 AM

I believe KFC dropped the "Kentucky" theme because anyone that uses the word "Kentucky" in branding has to pay the state of Kentucky an outrageous royalty.

Posted by: scott mcdonald at February 5, 2004 10:51 AM

I caught my dad eating cold-cuts without bread over Christmas break. It's definitely an Atkins thing. I have to wonder why somebody on Atkins would be doing fast food, anyways.

Posted by: Mitch H. at February 5, 2004 11:57 AM

Back in the pre-Atkins days I worked the grill at McDonalds. One of the precipitating events to me not working at McDonald's anymore was my several minutes of laughter at the woman who ordered "A McDLT, hold the meat". She wasn't nearly as amused as I was.

Posted by: Mac Thomason at February 5, 2004 12:58 PM

Down here in the land of In and Outs I see at least 2 people every visit eating their burger wrapped in lettuce instead of bun.

When I went there last night a guy from work was ordering this, explaining the details and the girl asked "Oh, protein style?"

So yeah, its all over the place!

Posted by: jaykester at February 5, 2004 03:25 PM

Oh how I bless the DirecTV/TiVo combo, that lets me record two shows at once! And oh how I curse NBC and their "a minute here, a minute there" programming. This week Scrubs lost a minute at the beginning AND at the end! Ripoff!!

Posted by: tomthedog at February 5, 2004 03:48 PM

I saw an article last week about Burger King's new "Atkins-friendly" Whopper (Atkins-friendly being a phrase that makes me want to pound things); it was meat and lettuce in a black plastic bowl. When you start Atkins-izing Lazy American Convenience Food, the trend has gone just entirely too far, I think.

Posted by: angeline at February 5, 2004 04:43 PM

It's only the Direct TV Tivos that have the dual tuner things. I was surprised that the Series 2 Tivos don't have two tuners, but they really don't. Darnit.

Posted by: Laurel at February 5, 2004 06:34 PM

I have Time Warner Cable, which offers a digital cable box with a built in DVR. It can record two shows at once, pause and rewind live TV, etc. It doesn't skip the commercials, though. It costs me an extra $9.99 a month, but I didn't have to buy the box. I know Comcast is about to offer something similar in some markets, too.

About Mustard Man - he's not really the brightest Crayon in the box.

Posted by: Sheila at February 6, 2004 07:30 AM

Melange

Comments