Doesn’t sparkling beverage mean wine?

Epic Fail, TTC.

Jane is normally a “line” station with side platforms. It was not built to accommodate large crowds that occur at ends of lines and significant transfer points when the entire train, or a good portion of passengers, need to de-train.

As a side platform station, only one platform was being used. Naturally large queues formed at stairs and escalators to get upstairs…

Once upstairs, the hoarde was forced into replacement buses, which were sorely inadequate to handle the crowd.

Once I crammed aboard the bus, it travelled fairly quickly, for a bus. Thankfully, the bus did not service local stops on Bloor, but the automate system continued to read out the stop names. The driver DID NOT announce the equivalent subway stops, so if someone were not paying attention it would have been easier to miss, particularly since this sort of closure is outside if everyone’s usual routine.

I happened to be heading to Islington on this occasion. The TTC had a few supervisors present, buy they were really only there to answer questions. There were no announcements or signs at the bus stop to point disoriented travellers in the right direction.

I had to ask how to get to the Mississauga Transit buses (now branded as miway). Since the subway and bus platforms were closed, all of the miway routes were being serviced by a single bus stop on the street corner. As you can imagine, one bus stop is insufficient for a large number of riders all looking to take different routes.

This concludes the story of failure.

What I don’t understand is why the TTC feels it is necessary to close to entire subway during regularly scheduled service. They close every night for maintenance already…. Other cities somehow manage to operate 24 hour metro service. Why can’t the TTC do their maintenance using the existing closure period?

This habit of closing the subway during service for regular maintenance is leading to an impression of unreliable, degraded service.

So I ask again… Why? Hmm?

I also wanted an excuse to try out WordPress for iPhone… WP for BlackBerry was a big disappointment.

Update: January 19, 2011 – Added link to Transit Toronto H5/H6 page.

Five TTC buses sighted waiting at Yonge and Bloor at ~12:30 am on Tues Dec 14.

Update:  Subway Replacement bus service between Bloor and Finch is in effect until Dec 19th, starting at 12:30 AM.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/08/25/f-food-chocolate-milk-ingredients.html

© 2010 http://talkinghead.ca

You don’t have to look far to find a big company that promotes its .com domain name over a .ca.  Shame on the likes of Scotiabank and The Bay.  Shame.

Why do they do it?

It is just too easy.  Not only is “dot-com” a major part of pop culture but it is also only two syllables and rolls off the tongue more easily.  Perhaps the extra syllable in a Canadian “dot-C-A” makes it unpalatable to marketers trying to establish an online brand.

Shining Beacons of Canadiana (found in occasionally unusual places)

The once proudly Canadian-owned Future Shop still plugs it’s Canadian roots with a patriotic red colour scheme and it’s FutureShop.ca website.

Chapters and Indigo.  Prior to Indigo’s acquisition of Chapters Bookstores, their online property was Chapters.com.  Now that Indigo has a near monopoly on retail book selling in Canada, their merged website appropriately reflects the Canadian heritage and ownership of both companies.  Chapters.com, Chapters.ca, indigo.ca and even worldsbiggestbookstore.ca all reroute your browser to the unusually cobranded domain chapters.indigo.ca.

Even Americans playing in the Canadian sandbox tend to keep their Canadian sites separate, using .com for the US property and .ca to distinguish its Canadian site.  Online powerhouses like Amazon and Yahoo use the top level domain to distinguish their sites.  American Electronics retailer Best Buy, owner of Future Shop, also has stores and a website in Canada on a .ca domain.

Are companies that push dot-com being un-Canadian?  Or is it simply better for business?  You tell me.

© 2010 http://talkinghead.ca

It was strange not just because of the odd scenario itself, but also because I almost never remember dreams.  Of all the dreams to remember, why this one?  Anyway, in the dream I was walking along Bloor St. in the middle of the empty road, passing in front of Holt Renfrew, a high-end/luxury retailer of designer apparel and other goods.  Holt’s is known for having elaborate and unusual displays in their windows.

My sleeping mind had conjured a window full of cardboard cut-out dinosaurs.   A recent window display at Holt’s featured decapitated mannequins holding their own heads, so it’s not much of a stretch… Perhaps I had the ROM’s dinosaur exhibit on my mind, which just happens to be about a block away from the Holt Renfrew store.  When I turned my attention from the strange window display back toward Bloor St., I realized the dinosaur scene had expanded beyond the window and I was now walking among the two-dimensional dinosaurs.

The city faded away as I looked around at the cardboard dinosaurs and foliage.  The hard asphalt became mud.  I continued to walk.

I kept thinking the dinosaurs were staring at me.  Ridiculous, I thought, they’re made of cardboard.  There was one dinosaur, behind a small bush that caught my attention… it was different somehow.  It had been watching me, apparently; when I realized it was alive, it lunged for me.  I woke up, quite disturbed.

Weird, eh?  I’m not sure why I decided to post that.

© 2010 http://talkinghead.ca

Sealtest dairy creamer and milker

I spotted Sealtest “dairy milker” and “dairy creamer” at a local breakfast place. I have no idea what milker or creamer are, but it doesn’t sound good.

P.S. This is my first time posting using WordPress for BlackBerry. Cool, eh?

Update:  Okay, so WordPress for BlackBerry broke the blog.  Still needs some work, I guess.  I’ve reformatted this post using a real browser.  Anyone out there using WordPress for BlackBerry or iPhone having a better experience?

Copyright 2009 talkinghead.ca

Beatrice 1L Chocolate Dairy Beverage

More than a year has passed since I originally posted about Chocolate Milk Beverage.  Since then it’s become one of the most popular posts on this blog!  I appreciate all of the comments!

As you can see to your right, they’re not even calling it milk anymore.  This begs the new question:  What is Chocolate Dairy Beverage?

First, let’s see what Metro and Beatrice had to say…

Response from Metro

True to their word, Metro got back to me within two days.  Kudos!

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for your e-mail.

I know there have been some changes to labeling regulations as to what a product is called and what has to be included in the ingredients.

I suggest you contact Parmalat directly at their website “parmalat.ca” or call 1-800-263-2858 for more information.

Kindest regards,

Judy [redacted]
Customer Care Specialist
Metro Ontario Inc.
1-877-763-7374

I appreciate Metro’s timely and personal response.  Judy actually read my e-mail and wrote a reply in her own words that was useful and appropriate, given Metro’s position as the retailer.

Based on Judy’s response, my initial assumption is that Health Canada’s website wasn’t quite up-to-date last November.  More on that in a bit, but first, lets see what Parmalat had to say.

Response from Parmalat (Beatrice)

Unlike Metro, it took Parmalat three months to formulate this canned reply.  Not only that, but the central section of the e-mail was in a different font from the header and footer – I have indicated this section in bold.  Content is king but the formatting is simply another indicator of how little effort they put into this response.

Dear [Redacted],

This is to acknowledge receipt of your recent e-mail to Parmalat Canada.

Thank you for your recent enquiry on our Chocolate Milk Beverage product.  Parmalat and Beatrice have been providing Canadian families with the wholesome benefits and great taste of milk for generations.   Proudly made with milk from Canadian dairy farms, our products are great tasting and nutritious.

Chocolate Milk and Chocolate Milk Beverages are both standard dairy products under the Milk Act. The primary ingredient in both products is milk.

Chocolate Milk Beverage is a good nutritional choice as it is:
Low in Fat
Excellent Source of Calcium
Excellent Source of Vitamin D
A Source of Vitamin A

Beatrice and Parmalat also offer a variety of other value added Chocolate Milk Products, such as Smart Growth 2% Chocolate milk with DHA, and Omega-3 1% Chocolate milk as other options for consumers who are looking for chocolate milk products with additional functional ingredients.

We appreciate your input and will provide your comments to our product development team for consideration in future developments.

Thank you for your loyalty and for taking the time to write to us.

Sincerely,

Consumer Relations,
Parmalat Canada
1-800-563-1515

Snapshot: Chocolate Dairy Beverage, conspicuously absent

Wow, thanks Parmalat.  This sounds more like advertising copy than an e-mail response. I asked several pointed questions; your lengthy reply has not answered any of them.

Interestingly, the Beatrice website nolonger lists Chocolate Milk or any of its relations on their product page.  Why not?  Buttermilk, Egg Nog, Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk are all apparently worthy of mention?  Banana and Strawberry milk are not even sold in all provinces, Egg Nog is only available at Christmas time and Buttermilk is for pancakes, not for drinking.  Chocolate is available all year round.  You wouldn’t be trying to hide your chocolate flavoured dairy concoction, would you?

Dairy Farmers of Canada

Since Beatrice was no help at all, I decided to write the Dairy Farmers of Canada on November 18th to see if they could help.  A few months ago they changed their blue cow logo to include the text “100% Canadian Milk” and was curious to see what they had to say about dairy beverages.

Hello Dairy Farmers of Canada,

I have noticed over the past year the appearance and prevalence of products labelled as Chocolate Milk Beverage or Chocolate Dairy Beverage, in place of real Chocolate Milk.  I have been trying to figure out what exactly a ‘dairy beverage’ is and was wondering if you could shed some light on that?

Would you mind sending me some information on your 100% Canadian Milk programme?  How do ‘dairy beverages’ align the goals of that programme?

Much appreciated

Anyone care to guess what they’ll say?  They’re basically a lobby group, so they don’t want to piss off their dairies, however, they want to sell REAL milk.  There’s a bit on their website about frozen desserts being substituted for real ice cream.  We’ll see, I guess…

What are we drinking??

Packaging copy:  “Made with partly skimmed milk (fortified with vitamins A and D) and added dairy ingredients.”  Unlike real partly skimmed milks as defined by Canada’s food and drug regulations, the packaging of Beatrice’s dairy beverage does not overtly indicate the milk fat content.  To the average consumer, the packaging looks nearly identical to Beatrice’s old Chocolate Milk and Chocolate Milk Beverage products.

For the record, Beatrice Chocolate Dairy Beverage contains thirteen ingredients, fifteen if you count the mandatory vitamins:

• partly skimmed milk (vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3)
• modified milk ingredients
• sugar
• reconstituted skim milk powder
• cocoa
• dipotassium phosphate
• modified corn starch
• salt
• colour
• carrageenan
• cellulose gum
• guar gum
• artificial flavour

There are five ingredients that I actually understand, which I have highlighted in grey.  Several of the ‘questionable’ ones would seem to be thickening agents:  modified corn starch, carrageenan, cellulose gum and guar gum.  What are modified milk ingredients, anyway?  A quick Google search comes up with all sorts of interesting stuff.  CBC’s Marketplace summed it up well:

That name can mean just about any product that was initally part of milk, especially including the following:

• skim milk powder
• milk protein concentrates
• milk protein isolates
• casein
• caseinates

As pointed out in a comment on the previous post, Parmalat’s own Protelac products are sold to the food industry as ‘milk replacers.’    Their frightening marketing copy identifies the true goal:  cost savings.

Each Prestige and Protelac milk replacer is an all-natural, advanced technology ingredient specifically designed to replace the functionality and taste of milk solids in your formulation while generating substantial cost savings verses skim milk (non fat dry milk).

There’s much more to cover in the exciting world of chocolate dairy beverages masquerading as chocolate milk…  In a subsequent post, I’d like to review what real chocolate milk options are left to us, beyond the dairy beverage offerings of Parmalat, et al.

© 2009 http://talkinghead.ca