click here to close this box and continue browsing.
This blog has been transferred to a new site. Please look there.
Jun 6, 2006
Code Red
The world is going more and more crazy, and this time, at least, it isn't my fault. I recently came across the following on the label on a bottle of Mountain Dew Code Red, a substance with little to negative nutritional value, yet one which aided a great many of my late-night coding sessions:

Contains: Carbonated Water, High-Fructose Corn Syrup AND/OR Sugar...

And/or sugar? And/or sugar?! I'm sorry, but the phrase 'and/or' belongs in insurance contracts, not in ingredient lists. Then again, I suppose that there were early warning signals that Code Red was bad news. First of all, the name: it definitely violates my never-drink-anything-named after-emergency-situation-terminology policy, which I plan on sticking to much more carefully in the future.1 Second, the color should've been a tip-off. That particular hue is generally reserved by nature for such crucial messages as "I'm a tropical flower! Pollinate me!" or "I'm a particularly good-looking parrot! Let's mate!" or "I'm heat vision coming from Superman's eyes. Die, villain!" Since I am neither Lex Luthor, nor able to pollinate much of anything, nor particularly attracted to parrots (good-looking or otherwise), maybe this isn't the beverage for me. You live, you learn, I guess. "AND/OR?" Sheesh. ________

1The policy mentioned above is similar to my don't-eat-anything-that-sounds-like-an-Aladdin-character policy. This, of course, is why I do not eat Babaganoush.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about the don't-eat-bologna-with-a-name policy? (From one of your old posts)

>>R

Alisha said...

Ilan, you should know that that "and/or" on the ingredient list of at least some sodas is probably there for the express benefit of observant Ashkenazi Jews. I don't know whether Code Red is kosher l'pesach during the appropriate time of year, but Coca-Cola is, and because of the flexible ingredient list on the label the only thing the company has to change to indicate its kosher-ness is the bottle cap.

Puts your ridicule in a whole new light, doesn't it?

Oh, and will you eat babaganoush if it's called salat chatzilim? ;-)

ilan said...

Yeah, people told me that was the reason. I don't buy it. Check out the label on the small bottles of Coke.

Anonymous said...

Hows about, I'm a bright Red frog. The poisin in just one of my toes can kill a small city.

» Newer Post « » Older Post « Home