First Cuppa Coffee – April 13, 2012: Friday the Thirteenth Edition

• The UCSD Geisel Library staff, who were given wrapped Christmas crackers at the outrageous cost of slightly less than $1 each.

• On the higher end of things, SDUT Chihuahua revealed spending of $62 per person for the surgery staff from UCSD’s multiple medical facilities.

• And, at SDSU, they sprung for $2,633 at Lips (the drag show restaurant) for faculty and staff at the biology department. We’re sure that the local family values people will be all over this once they get through working on Carl DeMaio’s campaign. If you want to look at the bright side of things, now we can be assured that the biology people at SDSU have received adequate instructions on what things go where.

There were tons of other “holiday parties” at our local colleges, which it turns out were paid for without using state funding or tuition revenue. Since they were unable to actually prove any misuse of funds, the SDUT Chihuahua’s dredged up some geezer who was, of course, outraged that anybody was allowed to have any fun.

Everybody else covered this already… But for those of you that haven’t seen the South Park episode making fun of San Diego, here’s the NSFW link: http://www.macbrosplace.com/jackin-it-in-san-diego-south-park-video/

Promises, promises….  Remember last year when Wal Mart came to town and promised to build a whole bunch of stores (a dozen, actually) and give everybody jobs and free ponies for their kids?  Well, we want you to know that Wal Mart sorta told the truth… they are building ONE smallish store in City Council President Tony Young’s district (at the Sherman Heights Farmers Market)… but when the Labor Council’s Lorena Gonzalez checked in yesterday, it turns out that the guys doing the work are not from San Diego. So much for the local jobs… maybe we can get Tony Young to make good on the ponies promise for the holidays.

What do foods sound like?…  British researcher Charles Spence has been looking into the burning question of how sounds modify our perception of flavors. (It’s a good thing he’s not doing that research here, what with our SDUT Chihuahua on patrol) You know, things like, if you’re eating bacon-and-egg ice cream, will the sound of sizzling bacon or farmyard chickens influence your perception of flavor? The answer is yes, in a general sense. Higher pitched noises, for example, create an expectation that appears to sweeten sweet treats. That’s why (in the good old days) an ice cream truck’s high pitched bells were such a draw, back before they became mobile pot dispensaries.

While we’re on foodie patrol… Did you know that there’s a blog that’s all about the flavors and sensations to be had from junk food? Well, now you do, courtesy of Cory Doctorow over at boingboing!. Welcome to the world of FoodJunk, where they bought a 22-year-old unopened package of Batman cereal on eBay and tried it recently. It was… not so good.

 I was hoping for some kind of honey nut aroma remnants upon opening the bag. Sadly, the villain in this issue is The Plastic. He has taken over virtually all of Gotham. The thick plastic inner bag held up perfectly (take that Earth!) and did a great job of keeping the cereal dry and crisp, but the air inside was thick with chemicals. And not the kind that would put a cool maniacal smile on your face.

 North Park elitists set out to prove OBceans stupid… The stiff pinkie set over at San Diego City Beat are bringing an Earth Day Trivia Quiz to the Raglan Public House on Bacon Street. You have until Thursday, April 19^th at 7pm to rehabilitate your brain cells. Be ready to face tough questions—courtesy of CoastKeeper—and be sure to RSVP via Facebook.

 The Mayoral contests, tick, tick… Just watch this video of Congressman Bob Filner trying to set the record straight on KPBS about statements he’s made regarding the Port of San Diego.

 Breaking up wasn’t that hard to do… Nathan Fletcher’s decision to dump the GOP won him a nice slice of the “undecided” voters in a couple of local polls released yesterday. As Filner says, there’s still seven weeks left until the election. But as of today, it’s DeMaio and Fletcher going into a November runoff.