Facebook
Ay-ples and Ba-nay-nays
What is Monkey Ice? Perhaps the “Planet of the Apes” version of Vanilla Ice? Or an arena where Capuchins play hockey? Actually, it’s an ice drink product at Weigel’s that comes in four different flavors: Monkey Brains (watermelon), Monkey Mush (banana), Monkey Tango (orange), and Monkey Zing (green apple).
Over the winter, Weigel’s contacted me via Twitter about possibly having a tweet-up to sample their red velvet cappuccino. The timing didn’t work out, partly because of my vacation. As temperatures increased, they suggested sampling Monkey Ice instead. When we looked at our calendars, April Fools’ Day seemed like a natural choice to fling free Monkey Ice.
The location that Weigel’s chose is one I know. When they opened their store at 9729 Middlebrook Pike in 2008, I was there to buy discounted gas and milk. If 20 ounces of free Monkey Ice sounds good to you, show up on Friday between noon and 1:00 p.m.
Carol Freely
Amazon.com is giving away Christmas songs again this year. “25 Days of Free
New Nerdist contributor Perry Simon posted a link at his day job to an entertaining review of this year’s Christmas albums. Sean Daly panned Wilson Phillips and Jackie Evancho but was surprised that he liked Susan Boyle’s album.
Billboard.com just published a list of 100 Hot Holiday Songs, based on sales and airplay from the 2009 season. Mariah Carey deservedly has the #1 spot with “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Three different versions of “Last Christmas,” a personal favorite, land in the top 20. The atrocious “The Christmas Shoes” comes in at #12. The whole list is worth perusing. For some reason, a lot of good songs ended up ranked between 41 and 60.
Salsa-free-tas
Coupon Katie’s husband Shawn tipped me off about free burrito night at the six Knoxville Salsarita’s. The local outlets of the chain were celebrating their tenth anniversary on Monday.
The line at Salsarita’s reached the door when my wife and I arrived but it moved quickly. I love it when restaurants offer something of value for free, like when The Pizza Kitchen gave away food on their birthday in August. My wife and I had eaten at Salsarita’s before, using half-price gift certificates we bought over the summer. Couponing websites are all the rage lately.
We were allowed to choose either a small chicken, beef or vegetable burrito. We both picked chicken. Even with a full house, we were served and seated with enough time for my wife to get to the Knoxville Choral Society’s weekly rehearsal.
Kitchen Vogue
The Junior League of Knoxville has created a free event to help fight childhood obesity. Families in the Kitchen starts Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at World’s Fair Park. The event is open to all.
Rachel Ford, whose day job is Executive Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, is very active with the Junior League. She invited me to be the emcee of Families in the Kitchen. I also get to be one of the judges of the Healthy Living Cook-Off. Our job will be to choose the tastiest meal prepared by local chefs and child assistants. The recipes have to be healthy, affordable and easy for a busy family to prepare.
Three rounds of the cooking competition will start at 1:00, 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. Between cook-offs, there will be entertainment by the Angela Floyd Dancers and the Premier Athletics Cheerleaders. A big attraction will be the 19 or so exhibitors. As a foodie, I am most excited to see what freebies we can all get from Froyoz, Earth Fare and Food City.
Kitchen Sync
Publicist Zane Hagy had a great idea for his client. Celebrate The Pizza Kitchen’s birthday by giving away free 8-inch pizzas all day Wednesday. He predicted that they would give away 600 pizzas. He was only off by 2,003.
There was a line out the door when my family and I arrived for dinner. Like many of the patrons, we purchased drinks and salads to go with our free pizzas. Zane told me that the restaurant would make money that day despite all the free food. We thought our pizzas were delicious and I’m not just saying that because they were free. I would be shocked if they didn’t repeat the promotion next year.
Giving away pizza was more cost-effective than mailing postcards to people who may never come to the restaurant. They used free social media sites to spread the word, which made me wonder how many people missed out because they don’t use Twitter or Facebook. The 2,603 free pizzas went to satisfied customers who are likely to become repeat customers and who are likely to tell their friends online and in the real world.
Balance Bored
Movie companies deliberately overbook theatres for advance screenings. I have always felt that they secretly enjoy turning people away because they take it as a sign that they have a hit on their hands. At Wednesday night’s screening of “Eat Pray Love,” the representatives from Columbia Pictures and Regal Cinemas proved me wrong. Rather than disappoint any of the people who showed up, they held a second screening across the hall.
I gave away a lot of tickets during a remote broadcast at US Cellular on Monday. I felt bad for a lady who arrived at the end of my two-hour appearance, just after I had given away the last tickets. This particular movie was very important to her and she seemed crushed that she had missed out. I thought of a long-shot idea that might work if she were willing to approach some strangers.
The printed tickets for most movie screenings say “admit two.” I told the woman that she could try coming alone to the Pinnacle 18 before we started seating the audience. Maybe she could find a group of three and convince them to let her be their fourth. It worked. She found me inside the auditorium and told me how happy she was to have gotten in.
In the future, more preview screening tickets might be like those for “Dinner for Schmucks.” Each ticket only admitted one person and had a unique bar-code. Some small print at the bottom read “If you are unable to attend the event, please release your pass in the MyFobo area on www.gofobo.com. Gofobo is dedicated to recycling 100% of movie screening passes.”
“Eat Pray Love” would have been better if it stopped at “Eat.” Julia Roberts’ character goes on a year-long journey to find happiness. She seemed happy eating her way across Italy but left it behind to go to an ashram in India. Richard Jenkins’ character spelled it out for her quite plainly and she still didn’t get it. Happiness comes from within. God is in you, as you. We Catholics would phrase it as “we are the body of Christ.” Same thing. Then she goes to Bali to hook up with Anton Chigurh and continues to be unsure. I had long since lost patience with her by that point.
The Chicken Cow
Christian Birdseye is looking for a few good community events. Maybe more than a few. The Chick-Fil-A employee served my family on Monday as we were treated to a free lunch. Ten days earlier we each went to www.getspicychicken.com and printed a coupon for a free Spicy Chicken Sandwich. When we went to redeem them, we were told that those who chose to eat on the outdoor patio would be treated to a free drink and side item too.
During the course of our conversation, Christian told us about the difficult process of becoming a Chick-Fil-A franchisee. He also asked if I knew of any upcoming community events where he could send the cows and distribute coupons for free sandwiches. I think that one challenge for him will be to find big events that don’t already have a restaurant sponsor.
Christian had a few occasions in mind where he will hand out actual sandwiches. I told him a little about my Coffee/Oatmeal TweetUp with the idea that maybe we could do something similar at his Chick-Fil-A.
-
Site Search
-
A Word from Our Sponsors
-
With Humble Appreciation:
-
Connections:
-
Welcome Visitors
-
Olden Days Archives
2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010