Cerebrate Good Times

The other day someone at work told me he can't eat any food that is pink, as a result of associating Pepto Bismol with being sick. I've heard from other people that they can't take that medicine anymore because of having it when they were sick as a kid. Do any of you have an aversion to Pepto? How about other foods?

What is your favorite punctuation mark and why?

Yea or nay?

On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being “afraid to step on a blade of grass” and 10 being “I’m gonna kill everyone!”), how bad is it if I were to warm up my car in the morning for 10 minutes before coming to work?

When the economy stops circling the drain and drops in, how will you respond? a) Curl up in a fetal position and cry b) Grow a beard and move to the desert c) Sell pencils (and possibly organs) on the street d) Loot as many stores as possible e) Find yourself a nice little dumpster and settle in; then begin training rats and raccoons to become your unholy army of the night f) _________________________________

I’ve been having a couple of pest problems lately. At home we have those extra tiny ants invading our pantry. Oddly, they mostly seem interested in the peanut butter. But I’ve been squishing them like mad, and they seem to be realizing that it would be better to get their meals somewhere else (probably just another spot in the pantry I haven’t discovered yet). The other problem is that there’s a mouse running around at work. It has been visiting my desk at night, enjoying whatever chocolate it can find. I’m amazed that it can climb up from underneath to the middle drawer, chew away on Hershey’s miniatures, and get away again. I keep a couple Advil in my desk that are so far untouched, so apparently it’s not Ralph . I am somewhat at a loss as to how to get rid of it. We have poison and traps, but I don't like all the blood that would be involved (and I’m not a huge fan of killing things unnecessarily). I cleaned out the drawer, so it doesn’t really have a reason to return, but obv...

Which produces worse results: a singer who tries to launch an acting career (like Mariah Carey), or an actor who tries to launch a singing career (like Steven Seagal)?

I’ve never understood the saying “hindsight is 20/20.” There’s no way to know how something would have worked out if you had done it differently. The best you could hope for is increased odds of success. For example, you might have gotten food poisoning from the fish you ate at the restaurant, but even if you had ordered the steak instead all that does is reduce the odds of you getting sick, since it’s less likely that there were multiple contaminated food items. You may have choked on a piece of the steak and died instead. On what I’d like to claim is an unrelated note, can any of you help me figure out how to avoid the situation of doing what my wife tells me to do but still getting in trouble for it?

In a Todd -like move, I’ve been thinking lately about alternative energy sources, especially when it comes to powering a car. There are a lot of technologies out there which could make cars more efficient and eventually eliminate our dependence on oil. But none of these technological advances is yet ready for mass production, except for hybrid cars and, to a lesser extent, ethanol. So let’s brainstorm a bit and think of some other ways to get your car from point A to point B. We could go back to animal power, only instead of having a horse pull you along you could have a hamster running in a wheel, which would then generate electricity. Then your fuel cost is basically feeding the hamster. Of course, there are two downsides: first, the animal-rights people; and second, the hamster would probably have to run for six months straight in order to give you the power to drive out to your mailbox and back. (What? You don’t drive out to your mailbox and back?) What if we figured out a way ...

Here's a little question for you. Should I be worried if, every 60 seconds or so, there's a noise coming from our elevator shaft that sounds like an elephant blowing its nose? I mean, we're in a two-story office, so it's not like I ever take the elevator anyway. But it's still a little unsettling.

Question: Do all women with shoulder-length or longer hair suffer from an intense desire to cut their hair short every spring? I'm curious.

How long do you think it will be before Hallmark starts selling "Happy Groundhog Day" cards?