Dear Carl’s Jr./Hardees:

A bacon cheeseburger IS NOT a grilled cheese sandwich. It is a bacon cheeseburger. I don’t frequent your restaurants, but I imagine that if I did order a grilled cheese sandwich I would receive a milkshake.

Morons.

My weekend project: filling a 55-gallon drum with emergency drinking water and outfitting a duffle bag with protein bars, first aid supplies, flashlights and batteries, and a cool hand-crank radio that will also charge USB devices. I’m not really an alarmist, but narrowly missing that 8.8 earthquake a week after we left Chile left me feeling a little antsy.

Saw Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” at the Gold Class Cinemas in Old Town Pasadena this afternoon. I am astonished that this is the number one film around the world for weeks. It’s dreary, dreadful and contains surprisingly conventional storytelling, with zero tension and absolutely no sense of whimsy or “wonder.” I could not have cared less about any of the characters or any part of the story. A wasted Johnny Depp alternates between a Scottish brogue and his “Jack Sparrow” accent, and Helena Bonham Carter is mildly interesting as the Red Queen, but she is given far too little to do in this mess of a film. Glad to see that Crispin Glover can still get employed in Hollywood, though! The whole thing feels like a rehearsal for Mr. Burton’s coming remake of “The Wizard of Oz,” and it really does call to mind the horrible “Return to Oz” film produced by Disney in 1985. Like his main character in this mess, the director clearly has “lost his muchness.”

From the 1975 Sears Catalog - horrific prints on nylon clothing. Just what your son always wanted! I think I had the red check print - bought new in the summer for the coming school year.

Cheeseburger topped with everything from Pie 'N Burger in Pasadena.

Now who wouldn’t like to know where the black box is prior to takeoff? I do like this new branding campaign by South Africa’s Kulula Airlines, which also divulges facts like the “secret agent code” for the aircraft, but admittedly some of the more obvious labels are a little too cute by half.

“The Poseidon Adventure” comes to life!

From Time Magazine:
“It was like something out of a Hollywood disaster movie. On March 3 a cruise ship sailing in the Mediterranean Sea off the northeastern coast of Spain was hit by a sudden wall of water, killing two people, injuring 14 and causing severe damage to the vessel.”