Heineken amused me.
Their latest print ad touts how awesome it is that their beer is imported. However, in England, Heineken is not imported. For English consumption, the Dutch beer is brewed in English breweries, under license from the Dutch corporate headquarters.
What’s the big deal about “imported” anyhow? “Chinese-made” used to mean poor quality. Now, nearly everything is made in China, and often with very high quality built in. “American” brands and “German” brands are made all over the world. Even Swiss watches may be assembled elsewhere.
Having said that, I still prefer certain countries of origin for certain products. What’s your favorite imported product and why do you like it better than the alternatives?
Almost every situation where we make a decision involves some compromise.
In Hong Kong, I saw this umbrella vending machine. In Ghent, Belgium, I saw an entire storefront made of vending machines, selling a huge variety of stuff, including Hoegaarden beer.
I found this card on the parking lot of a Target store.
If you fill up your fuel tank when it’s only half empty, here are some good reasons to wait till it’s nearly empty:
Life just gets to be too much at times.
A store in our neighborhood closed. I was really sad. Though I was not a big patron of 
Traffic is part of life in many large cities around the world. The traffic in the busiest of USA cities is nothing compared to the grid-lock that affects many urban centers, particularly in the “developing world.”
Back in the 1970s, air pollution was really bad. The average car back then put out literally 20 times the amount of harmful emissions than today’s average car. If the government had not stepped in and made laws that forced car manufacturers to clean up what was coming out of tailpipes, I am sure we’d have dirtier air today.
