Icewind's Ramblings

Life Observation # 58 A man’s trust is a valuable thing . . . You don’t want to lose it over a handful of cards. Robert Duvall from the movie Open Range (2003) I was reminded of this recently with real life events. Ice

I am a huge fan of the product. The only thing . . . we don’t have any stores here in Alaska . I have to get my sugar fix of Krispy Kreme doughnuts every time I go “outside” to the ‘lower 48’ as we say here in the far north. KK does an excellent job of building ‘Buzz’ (publicizing new store openings etc.) and Napsterizing their product (giving people samples as the walk in), and building Community interest. But I think there is a huge vulnerability to the company. They have, for the time being, a product that can compete favorably on taste and the melt in your mouth texture of a ‘hot doughnut’ is something to always look forward too. The problem that I see coming with the ‘health craze’ in America is that the product is not a healthy food. As the circumference of more and more people increase the obsession with "healthy" food choices builds remarkably. Will the tide of public opinion turn negative towards Krispy Kreme and if so how can they continue to co...

Recently my wife’s childhood friend and her family ventured from the sweltering heat of Arizona to take a brief but needed break. There was the visit to see other friends in Washington State and the road trip driving southeast to visit family in Utah before venturing on silver wings to the lands beyond to the north. They have been friends since they attended grammar school in northern California and over the years have gotten together for visits, class reunions, and the County Fair where they grew up. They arrived late afternoon so the logical thing seemed to be a bit to eat and a brief ‘show them the town’ before heading to settle in for the ‘night’. We went downtown and tried to get a table for 6 at the Glacier Brewhouse but were told that a table would not be available until after 9:00 pm. It was only about 5 pm on a Wednesday so a four hour wait was not even a possibility. We decided to head over to Lake Hood to a place we enjoy sitting outside watching the ...