Brandon Notices

At Fred Meyer last night, I walked by the bulk Jelly Belly dispensers. I was seriously considering getting a few dollars worth of Very Cherry beans, when I was distracted by the flavor menu pamphlet. (You can click the picture to see inside.)

Jelly Belly releases a new pamphlet every few years to keep consumers up to date with their ever-changing flavor lineup. I was excited to see the new flavors listed in the Official 50 Flavors section. I wrote about the new flavors back in July, but here's a summary of the changes:

In: Chili Mango, Pomegranate, Sunkist Lime, Mixed Berry Smoothie, Sour Cherry
Out: Grape Jelly, Jalapeño, Peanut Butter, Café Latte, Caramel Apple

Also, some of the citrus flavors have had "Sunkist" appended to their names. I don't think they taste any different.

I looked through the bulk flavors again to see if I could find any of the new flavors, but I didn't see any. In fact, I've occasionally been looking through candy aisles to see if the bags with the new flavors are in stores yet. I haven't seen any yet, though. When will the new flavors be in stores? This pamphlet indicates that it may be soon.

For months now, the new flavors have been available online at the Jelly Belly website. Shipping is a bit expensive, though, so I prefer to buy the candy in stores.

It's exciting that they have 73 distinct flavors in the menu, if you don't count the sugar-free flavors (they're just sugar-free duplicates). Well, it's 83 if you count the "weird & wild" Bean Boozled flavors, such as Pencil Shavings, Baby Wipes, Canned Dog Food, and Moldy Cheese. Hey, they changed the name of Vomit to Barf! I don't know why Jelly Belly decided that this is a good change, but I like it! (I like the name, not the flavor. I don't want a Bean Boozled box for Christmas.)

I started this blog on September 25, 2007, with the article "My Summer Discovery". Since then, I've written over 150 articles.

Well, I'm currently undergoing a project, importing many older articles from my blogs on Xanga, MySpace, and Facebook, into this blog. These articles date back as far as November 29, 2003. I realized that the RSS feed of this blog might be affected as I import older articles into the blog. I'm sorry if I clutter up your feed reader.

Please enjoy my older articles. I have also imported the pictures when I could, and I tagged the articles appropriately with labels. Many of the articles on the other blogs had comments, but I have not copied any comments to this blog.

Here's a news story that aired yesterday on MSNBC, about Rom Houben, who awoke from what doctors thought was a coma; however, he allegedly may have been conscious but paralyzed the entire time.


An important element of this story is that they are using what is called facilitated communication for Houben to correspond. Facilitated communication is a dubious practice. It was first used in the 1970s, designed to to help autistic children communicate. A facilitator would support a child’s hands over a computer keyboard, and the claim was that the facilitator was there just to keep the child's hands above the keyboard—the child would be the one typing the messages. Some of these messages contained terrible things, including reports of sexual abuses occurring in the home, and many of these children were separated from their families because of this.

However, some blinded tests were performed to see what was going on. In these tests, the facilitator and child wore headphones, and they were asked questions. Sometimes, they each got a different question, but the messages obtained through the facilitated communication were always answers to the question the facilitator was asked, and not answers to the child's question. This revealed that it was the facilitators who were subconsciously cueing the children to type specific messages.

The same kind of effect could be happening with this story. Maybe not—I can't possibly know for sure, but in the video, it's the facilitator who's looking at the screen; Houben doesn't even seem to be looking at it very often. Arguments revolving around this case might be used in arguments about a patient's right to live or die, so I hope they ask Houben these same questions again, but with a properly blinded facilitator the second time.

----
Mook, Douglas. "The Cautionary Tale of Clever Hans." Classic experiments in psychology. 2004: p.221-224. University of Washington Electronic Reserves.

Earlier this month, I wrote about the German Garfield book I got at Value Village. This article is about the other eight books that were inseperably packaged with that book. The other books included in the bag were Angeln, Der tag der einheit, Viel Spaß beim Fotografieren, Viel Spaß beim Fliegen, Du läßt dich gehn!, and three books about Bremen, Germany.

Here's the fun part! Five of those books have writing in the inside covers. And they're all addressed to someone named Jonathan A. My cousin suspected that the books were from an exchange family that Jon stayed with, but they're mostly all written in English, and they seem to be from peers from various locations.

My guess is that a group of people traveled to Germany together. My Garfield book doesn't have any writing in it, but the Du läßt nicht gehn book has this line from Brenda, which I think is funny: "I'll always admire your 'logical thinking' skills, although you'll probably hate me for saying that. Good luck in Montana next year, but don't forget your little buddie in Wisconsin! I'll be seeing ya next summer!" So maybe some of these people were planning to travel again. I don't know. There isn't enough information.

The writing by Corné in the cover of Viel Spaß beim Fliegen says "It was realy [sic] great getting to know you!" So maybe some of these people were strangers. In the inside cover of Angeln, Shawn A. gives his address—it's Canadian—and he invites Jon to come fishing with him in Vancouver. Corné also wrote "I wish you a happy birthday and one heck of a long life!" so maybe these people conspired to all give Jonathan books as a birthday present.

One of the Bremen books has several signatures in the inside cover, and it's dated 01.08.92—that's August 1, 1992. So these books are old! Since then, I suppose Jon stopped reading these books, and decided to donate them to Value Village. I only got the package of books for the Garfield book—most of the rest are too hard for me—but it was fun to figure out what all these books had in common. Thanks for the Garfield book, Jonathan.

Yesterday, I found a German Garfield book at Value Village. Now, being a huge Garfield fan (I have all of the first 36 Garfield books) and a student of the German language, I was excited to come across this. The book was bagged with a half dozen other German books that I really wasn't interested in, but the employees refused to sell just the one book, since they were all bagged together.



Obviously, that's the English version on the left, and the German version on the right. They are both book 14, and they contain the same strips. But the covers are wildly different! The English book is titled Garfield Swallows His Pride and the German version is called Garfield läßt nicht locker which translates to "Garfield Doesn't Give Up." These are very different titles!




I was surprised that I was able to understand the first strip in the book, posted above. Perhaps it helps that I'm familiar with the English material, though. The strips are almost entirely literal translations of the English versions.

According to Wolfram Alpha, a typical translation to German is 10% longer than the original English source, which means more letters. Accordingly, you can tell that the words in the German Garfield strips are smaller, to accommodate more letters in the same amount of space.




Like in the English version of Garfield (and nearly every other comic), the German version of Garfield capitalizes every letter. This is worth noting because the German letter ß (eszett, or sharp s) exists only as a lower-case letter. If you want to capitalize "ß", you turn it into "SS". So words like "weiß" and "Spaß" become "WEISS" and "SPASS", as in the strip above.

I also noticed that the German Garfield strips remove Jim Davis's name, the copyright info, and the date from the strips. The playground strip above seems to be an exception, though—it looks like they forgot to remove the date.

And now, the fun part: ONOMATOPOEIAS!!!



Interestingly, but not surprisingly, onomatopoeias (or sound words) are different in different languages. German for "scratch" is "kratzen", so I can see where "KRIIIETSCH!" comes from. It's odd, though, that I imagine a different sound in my head when I read both comics.



Garfield's trademark SPLUT! sound becomes the even more comical FLATSCH! Something else they changed in this panel is the lettering on Garfield's bowl. It says the same thing, but the letters are different. (This is a lot easier to see if you scanned the books and were flipping through the images.) It's not a big change, so I wonder why they bothered redoing it.

Anyway, now I have to collect all the German Garfield books too.

Here are actual responses given by contestants on the game show Family Feud (or the British version Family Fortunes). I admit, it may be mean to call some of these answers "dumb", so if you'd like, you can call them "erroneous" or "funny" if you prefer.

Name something in a bird cage	Hamster
Something you'd find in an operating room	Operator
Something that comes with a summer storm	Snow
Something you'd yell at if it stopped working	Spouse
Something worn only by children	Clothes
Something you might buy that could turn out to be phony	Horse
An animal with three letters in its name	Frog
An animal with three letters in its name	Alligator
Something you feel before you buy it	Excited
The price of a dozen roses	$1.75
An article of clothing that children always lose	Pants
An animal whose eggs you'd never eat for breakfast	Hamster
Something you might accidentally leave on all night	Shoes
One of the three bears	Yogi
A holiday named after a person	January
A holiday named after a person	Easter
One of Santa's reindeer	Nixon
One of Santa's reindeer	Adolf
Something Russia is famous for	Russians
Something that comes in pairs	Bananas
A time when people wake up	Morning
A time when people go to bed	Night
A state with good skiing	Florida
Something you buy in a larger size if you have a large family	Jeans
Something you buy in a larger size if you have a large family	Games
A city in the state of Georgia	Alabama
A pie that does not contain fruit	Lemon Meringue
Something that kills a lively party	Guns
A brand of gasoline	Regular
A brand of gasoline	Ethyl
A job around the house that has to be done every fall	Spring Cleaning
A man's name beginning with the letter K	Kentucky Fried Chicken
The month where a pregnant woman begins to show	September
A food that's red on the inside	Kiwi
Something people do clothed that others don't	Ride a motorcycle
The heaviest item in your house	600 pounds
The heaviest item in your house	Husband
Something you put in tea	Tea bag
A holiday where stores are always busy	Monday
Something made of leather that a cowboy uses	Purse
The first thing you take off after work	Underwear
A weather term that can also describe your wife	Wet
A day of the year when you want to be with friends	December
A department in a supermarket	Lingerie
The most lovable breed of dog	Kitten
Something women borrow from each other	Husbands
An invention that has replaced stairs	Wheel
Something you often misplace in your car	Steering wheel
A famous “Arnold”	Arnold & Willis
A reason you might stay indoors on a beautiful day	It's raining
Something associated with the show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire	Bob Barker
A yellow fruit	Orange
A kind of attraction you see in almost every parade	Merry-go-round
Something you stroke	A match
A tradition associated with Christmas	Hanukkah
A holiday where men buy last minute gifts for their wife	Thanksgiving
A food people give as a gift	Lasagna
A vegetable you marinate	Grapes
The one thing that the people living near you have that you want	A beautiful wife
Something you buy and then have to be careful about how you carry it home	An infant
Besides a house or a car, the most expensive item you own	Car
A food with an edible skin	Banana
A piece of clothing wives buy for their husbands	Halter tops
A street name that is common to cities all over the US	Hollywood Boulevard
A kind of bear	Papa Bear
A real person who made a living scaring people	Red Skelton
Something a hostess does to let her guests know it's time to leave	Goes to bed
An animal with really good sight	Bat
A state beginning with the letter M	Mexico
Something an Indian chief might use	Squaw
Something that floats in the bathtub	Water
A word beginning with “Egg”	Excellent
A city named after a president	Carson City
A sport in which two people compete against each other	Checkers
An occupation in which you disguise your appearance	Doctor
Something that flies that doesn't have an engine	Dishes
Something that flies that doesn't have an engine	A bicycle with wings
Something a blind person might use	Sword
A song with “moon” in the title	Blue Suede Moon
An occupation where you need a flashlight	Burglar
A famous brother and sister	Bonnie & Clyde
An item of clothing worn by the Three Musketeers	A horse
Something you wear on the beach	A lawnchair
Something red	My cardigan
A number you have to memorize	Seven
Something you do before going to bed	Sleep
Something of yours you hit when it's not working properly	Your spouse
Something you put on walls	Roofs
Something in the garden that's green	Shed
Something in the garden that's green	Scarecrow
Something you might be allergic to	Skiing
A famous bridge	The bridge over troubled waters
Something a cat does	Goes to the toilet
Something you do in the bathroom	Decorate
Something associated with the police	Pigs
A sign of the zodiac	April
Something slippery	A conman
A kind of ache	Fillet 'O' Fish
A kind of ache	Pancake
A jacket potato topping	Jam
Something with a hole in it	Window
A food that comes in instant form	Asparagus
A non-living object which has feet	Plant
A domestic animal	Leopard
A part of the body beginning with the letter N	Knee
A part of the body beginning with the letter N	Name
A way of cooking fish	Cod
Something you open other than a door	Bowels
A part of the body everyone has only one of	Big toe
Real or fictional, a famous Willy	Willy the Pooh
Something you squeeze	Peanut butter
A bird with a long neck	Penguin
A continent	Italy
A sport you can never play on grass	Baseball
An occupation starting with "J"	Jackhammerer
A phrase some husbands dread hearing	"Honey, I'm home"
A bad occupation if you don't like kids	Mortician
A question you don't like to be asked	"Are those real?"
A European country in which you'd expect to find castles	London
Something every doctor has	Speculum
An animal with horns	Bee
A medieval weapon	Hand grenade
Something made of wool	A sheep
Something a bridegroom might wear	A dress
Someone you wouldn't expect to see in a strip club	Animals
An animal with a long tail	Rabbit
Something you put out for the birds	Worms
A way to prevent snoring	Put a pillow over his face
A word used to describe a very hot day	A very hot day
Someone who works early hours	Burglar
Something made to be wheeled around	A hammer
A reason for kneeling	To be beheaded
A nickname for a slim person	Slimmy
A measurement of liquid	Paint
Something that's nice to wear next to your skin	Pants
A famous Dick	Carrot
Something that Santa Claus does when he comes to your house	Feeds your pets
Something that comes in 7's	Fingers
Something associated with Liverpool	The Yellow Brick Road
A boy mentioned in a nursery rhyme	Little Red Riding Hood
Something associated with Queen Victoria	Her husbands
Something you hide in your socks when you go swimming	Your legs
A place you would keep a pen	A zoo
Something you beat	An apple
Something you make into a ball	Eggs
A game that uses a black ball	Darts
A way parents reward chidren	Time out
A popular TV soap	Dove
Something you might find in a garage	A grand piano
A fast animal	Hippo
A famous Peter	Peter
Something you keep in the garden	A cat
Something that gives you goose bumps	Mumps
A character from Little Red Riding Hood	Hansel and Gretel
Something that has a shell	Batman
Something a policeman might say	"Spread 'em"
Something that frightens Dracula	The King of the Vampires
A mode of transportation that you can walk in	Your shoes
An animal with big ears	A bear
Something you do on water	Wallpaper
A musical instrument you can play in the bath	Drum kit
Something associated with Egypt	Cigars
Something you pull	A potato
An animal used as a form of transportation	Turtle
A Thunderbirds character	Doctor Spock
Another TV game show with the word 'family' in the title	The Generation Game
Something that makes you scream	A squirrel
A food that can be eaten without chewing	Chips
The ideal everyday temperature	98.6 degrees
A type of record	A floppy disk
A type of large cat	Persian
A job that a working dog does	A slave
Something you use a microchip on	A fish-fryer
A game played in the dark	Charades
A part of the body you have more than two of	Arms
Something you find on a fire engine	Coal
The first place detectives look for fingerprints	The floor
Something you associate with the sea	A coffin
A famous Arthur	Shakespeare
A weapon in the game of Clue	Dice
Something people take to the beach	Turkey
A reason someone digs a hole in the road	Grave digger
Something a girl should know about a man before marrying him	His name
An item of clothing a woman might borrow from a man	Underpants
Something taken from a hotel as a souvenir	The lamps
Something you keep in a garden shed	A gardener
Something you wear on the beach	Deckchair
Fruit used in fruit salad	Cucumber
The last thing you take off before going to bed	Your feet
Something that has to warm up before you use it	Your wife
A noisy bird	Chipmunk
A car known by its initials	Corvette
Something you keep handy by the front door	Spittoon
A job that helicopters are used for	Tuna fishing
A famous robber	Cops
A famous resort area outside the continental United States	Tahoe
An American state where people speak with accents	Mexico
Something a man has that he'd be upset if someone else used it	His jockstrap
Something London is famous for	Pasta
Something you wouldn't want the police to find in the trunk of your car	Pickles
A game you could play in the bath	Scuba diving
A food that makes a noise when you eat it	Really loud hamburger
Something that your wife would do that would be shocking	Greet you at the door naked
Something you throw away when you're moving away	Pantry
A dangerous animal that some people keep as pets	Wolf
When you sneak out of work, the reason you give for leaving	"I'm going to the beach!"
When you sneak out of work, the reason you give for leaving	"Going to another job"
An animal that eats mice	Rat
Something you have that you wish worked better	Spouse
Something you wouldn't try even once	Sex on a train
A famous male dancer	Betty Grable
An occasion for which you stayed up all night	Lost my virginity
Your favorite country western singer	Van Whalen
Something that falls from the trees	Bird shit
Something a dentist says	"Just a small prick"
An excuse that a girl uses not to invite you in after a date	Her husband's home
A name that rhymes with "Larry"	Larry
Something you just won't buy unless it's on sale	Cake mix
Something you just won't buy unless it's on sale	Drapes
Besides an animal, something with a tail	Tailpipe
Something that gets accidentally run over by a lawn mower	The lawn mower's cord
An occupation where someone wears a robe at work	A fireman
An occupation where someone wears a robe at work	A graduate
A sport that people sometimes play by themselves	Tic-tac-toe
A household pet you can leave by itself for a couple of days	Monkey
A part of the body people love to have massaged	Hips
An activity that makes people cry	Playing games
A vegetable that is grown in a patch	Strawberry
Something some people fear that starts with the letter S	Squirrels
A reaction someone might have if they got really scared	Laugh
An occasion when family photographs are taken	Photography
Something that comes after the word "double"	U
Something you'd hate for the plane you're on to only have one of	Pillows
Something your spouse does in the bedroom that rhymes with "mumble"	Pumble
Something you should do in moderation or you'll be sorry later	Sex
A famous group of singers	The Simpsons
A breed of dog that starts with the letter C	Cheetah
A vegetable that takes more than one bite to eat	Apple
Something every dream home must have	RV parking
A word that rhymes with "bubble"	Fubble
A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie	18
A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie	50
A question, such as, "How old are you?" that you might answer with a lie	I'm 39
Something you see along the side of the street	Carnage
Something that people stick a pin into	Their eyes
The perfect dessert for a supermodel	Chocolate cake
The perfect dessert for a supermodel	Brownies
A country that has exactly four letters in its name	China
A city famous for its museums	England
A liquid that pours slowly	Milk
A fruit that is red	Kiwi
Something you keep in a kitchen canister	Cans
A way which you can make bathing a sexy experience	401(k) jelly
Something a man might hate about his chest	Flat
A place where people are scolded for falling asleep	On the airplane
Something you might find in a manicure set	A wig
A part of a telephone	The bottom part
When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind	Their parents
When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind	A blender
When kids finally move out of the house, something specific they often leave behind	Their boyfriend or their girlfriend
Something that guests get hit with a Jerry Springer	Keys
Something a teenage boy can do for hours at a time	Masturbate
In order to get a three-day weekend, a holiday usually celebrated on Mondays	Thanksgiving
In order to get a three-day weekend, a holiday usually celebrated on Mondays	Someone's birthday
A part of the body people dab perfume on	On the tongue
A liquid that people drink when they're sick	Vicks
Something you can't use without water	An ice cream cone
A place where you might see a dead body	In your house
Something frogs do that people don't	Turn colors
Your wife's most unappealing habit	Picking her feet
A night with the worst TV programs	UPN
A word that rhymes with "Coke"	Float
A word that rhymes with "Coke"	Moke
Something that dries up when it gets old	Water
A mischievous animal	Beaver
Something of yours you hope doesn't start making noises	Cell phone
Something of yours you hope doesn't start making noises	Bed
Real or fictional, a famous Dennis	Buddy Holly
Someone you have to lie to once in a while just to keep the peace	Dog
A famous fictional island	Rhode Island
A famous pig	Your mother-in-law
A reason a man takes off his toupee	To show off
Something that you hope your husband never loses	His pants
Something with claws	Christmas
Something you associate with Godzilla	Gorilla
A card game that's easy to cheat at	Checkers
One of Oprah's favorite people	Regis Kelly
Something nailed down in a hotel room	The soap
A type of bean	Lesbian
The month with the best weather	January
A slang term that means wife	Bitch
The birthday men dread the most	Their wife's
A sport that husbands and wives can play together	Kickball
A food that's good for your heart	Steak
Something people learn from a how-to book	Read
Something you should not do in someone else's car	Get arrested
An animal you would recognize by its ears	A chicken

I'd like to thank Adam Buckley, Carrie, Laura, Ling, Lori, Paul, Sean Willett, and Zach for helping me compile this list!