Random Thoughts

-My brother is doing much better. I talked to him on Tues and was surprised by how much better he sounded. He said the doctors do think is was something gastric and gave him an appointment next week for those tests.

- My husband's friend's mother is not doing well. I heard that the hospital is not allowing her any visitors and that they have not set any of her broken bones. The first statement is probably true but the second statement is probably a rumor. A sad story getting sadder.


-George Orwell said, "At age 50, every man has the face he deserves." He may be right. I caught a glimpse of Madonna in her movie Swept Away and she is looking very hard. It used to be only her eyes were that way. Now, she looks like you could drag a kitchen match across her face and watch the match light. Hard very hard.


-I love Campbell's Tomato Soup but there is trouble in soup land today. Campbell Soup has come out with a new can design that they are describing as an, "Easy Open Pop Top." I hate it for three reasons. First, it is not easy to open. Here are Campbell's directions for opening the can:

"1. Hold the can firmly below the can edge with one hand. 2. With your free hand, pull the tab up until it touches the rim (do not rock the tab back and forth). 3. Rotate can one half turn (180 degrees) and pull the tab back slowly while pressing down firmly on the rim with thumb. 4. When the lid is almost detached, twist the lid slightly to pull completely off."

Simple? Try that if you have any pain in or problems with your hands or wrists. These cans are so badly designed that Campbell's has created a special tool called a Pop N Pull to open them. They will cheerfully sell you one at the supper market if you need it. At their website, under FAQ's, their answer to someone who was having problems with opening the new can was the following:

"We're sorry you are having trouble opening these lids. The cans and Pop Tops we use have been carefully designed to balance our requirements for product integrity and ease of opening."

Company speak for, "We are sorry you can't open the can but it works for us so bug off."

The second problem is that you cannot open these cans with "traditional manual or electric can openers"(Campbell's own words), they suggest you go out and buy one of those new can openers that cut the whole can top off.

The last problem with the new lid is that the new design has created a lip around the top of the can. When you turn the can of Campbell's Condensed Soup over to pour the soup out, that lip turns into a ledge which traps some of the soup, soup you can't reach no matter how you try to scrape it out. This I find annoying and frustrating. I would like to eat all the soup I paid for, please.

So, Campbell Soup wants me to keep buying their soup now that they put it into a can that is hard to open, cannot be opened by some people without their "special" tool, and cannot be opened with a regular can opener. They also want me to keep buying their soup packaged in a can that reminds me I am not getting all the soup I paid for when ever I pour it into a cooking pan. I can still get Campbell's Tomato Soup in the old cans, so, my plan at this point is to keep buying Campbell's Tomato Soup as long as the old cans are available, after they are gone I'm done.