A short history of movie theater concession stands. Plus: A candy quiz! - By Jill Hunter Pellettieri - Slate Magazine

From one of my favorite columns on the Interwebs, The Explainer on Slate.

A short history of movie theater concession stands. Plus: A candy quiz! - By Jill Hunter Pellettieri - Slate Magazine: "Make It a Large for a Quarter More? A short history of movie theater concession stands. Plus: A candy quiz!
By Jill Hunter Pellettieri
Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2007, at 5:10 PM ET

Read more from Slate's Summer Movies.

Illustration by Deanna Staffo. Click image to expand.What movie snack you choose to indulge in is not a decision to treat lightly. When else is it socially acceptable to consume 8 ounces of Reese's Pieces by yourself? And yet few among us spend much time dithering at the concession stand. Maybe you're a Raisinets guy. Or perhaps you prefer the salty magic of popcorn. Elaine Benes is a Jujyfruits kind of gal. Me, I'm a Red Vines person trapped in a Twizzlers world.

Whatever our concession allegiances, they tend to be deeply ingrained. And for most, a trip to Live Free or Die Hard won't be complete without some goodies, even if it's the kind of goody we might otherwise avoid—particularly at such egregious prices. How exactly did we form this cultural habit? Today, concessions are the lifeblood of the theater business: According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, they account for approximately 40 percent of theaters' net revenue. But it wasn't always this way."

mean

mean, originally uploaded by ideateller.

but kinda funny:

New Skoda Fabia Advert - Full of lovely stuff

Fucking cool.

:60 version

Big Brothers Big Sisters commercial

Just uploaded this to YouTube. It's about 1 1/2 years old, but like any toddler, just really starting to get cute.

Kudos to Dan Buchmeier (Art Director) and Rob Groenwald (Director).

Happy Solstice

Longest day of the year, kicking off the time of the year that it's most fun to be in Portland.

We got posters

We got posters, originally uploaded by ideateller.

We got posters of our Wash Your Hands bus shelters and had to figure out

where to put them in the agency. It took .4 nanoseconds.

We got posters

We got posters, originally uploaded by ideateller.

We got posters of our Wash Your Hands bus shelters and had to figure out

where to put them in the agency. It took .4 nanoseconds.

OPmp3

Otha People's Property:

Copy, Right?: Frightened of the things I might find.: "Jenny Owen Youngs 'Hot in Herre' (Nelly cover)"

LOLBurnerz

LOLBurnerz, originally uploaded by ideateller.

LOLCats now has an LOLBurners off-shoot on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/lolburners/

mo coachella

mo coachella, originally uploaded by ideateller.

Flickr¹s been acting weird posting to my blog.



So here¹s a cutie.

mo coachella

mo coachella, originally uploaded by ideateller.

Flickr¹s been acting weird posting to my blog.



So here¹s a cutie.

look ma evil knievel pants

look ma evil knievel pants, originally uploaded by ideateller.

Purchased in the Haight, to be used for part of a boccé ball uniform and for

Burning Man.

EDSBS Fulmer Cup update

Hey, I'm partially famous. To like 3 people.

EDSBS � Archive � FULMER CUP SCOREBOARD: HENRY MELTON IS LOOSE, CALL ANIMAL CONTROL: "Florida bumps up a few points thanks to the admirable and sadly illegal thievery of a dreaded UPD boot from Dorian Munroe’s car by one Dorian Munroe. We still await the popular uprising by Florida students to get Munroe’s felony charges dismissed in the case, since, as commenter DogtownGator pointed out, stealing a police boot is sticking it to the man hard like Turk 182 would. Dorian should wear the V mask during games next season just to boost his rep as Florida’s Antiauthoritarian People’s Champion."

FW: tryin' again

FW: tryin' again, originally uploaded by ideateller.

------ Forwarded Message

FW: tryin' again

FW: tryin' again, originally uploaded by ideateller.

Coupla leftover pics from Eric¹s birthday.

San Fran Mem Day! - a photoset on Flickr

The BloomKing photoseet of Memorial Day weekend:

San Fran Mem Day! - a photoset on Flickr: "We all came.
We all def. conquered.
We all fell in love with Kal and Anna.
And then we conquered more.
Thanks guys for a mem. PDX reunion"

UCSC Engineering Building Attacked by Giant Gorilla

File under 'too much free time' and 'very geekily cool'.

UCSC Engineering Building Attacked by Giant Gorilla: "About the piece
Donkey Kong (Miyamoto, et. al.,1981) was the first appearance of the Itallian plumber we now know as Mario. While this game's early '80s arcade popularity predates most of today's engineering students, it represents the amazing results that a small development team can produce. Today Donkey Kong is ranked as the 3rd most popular arcade game of all time, selling over 65,000 units.

Currently this work is visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed on or before May 1.

Total Number of Post-It� Notes

about 6400
Total People

about 10
Total Time

5 hours"

Eatin'

My first bowl of oatmeal since I was a little, little kid. It's organic maple nut, sprinkled with cinnamon and some added blueberries (anti-oxidantorific!) and bananas.

Thanks high cholesterol!

Police drummer rips band's "lame" concert

Had a friend who I lost because I did and said some really stupid things while fucked up. She would've liked this article, and I would've sent it to her.

Been trying not to get fucked up since then.

Did a reasonably good job in my SF weekend with the Portland Ad Kids.

It's a start.

Oh, yeah, and here's the Police.

Police drummer rips band's "lame" concert: "Police drummer rips band's "lame" concert

06/01/2007 2:56 AM, Reuters
Dean Goodman

The singer in the Police jumps like a 'petulant pansy,' the drummer is making a 'complete hash,' and who knows what the guitarist is doing?

Notes from a bitter critic? Actually, it's a disarmingly frank concert review from the aforementioned drummer of the newly reunited rock trio.

A philosophical Stewart Copeland unleashed his vitriol in a posting on his Web site on Thursday, a day after the band played its second show in Vancouver, the Canadian city where it began its first world tour in more than 20 years on Monday.

'This is unbelievably lame,' Copeland wrote of Wednesday's show at the GM Place arena. 'We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea.'

Most of the 20,000 fans at the venue might not have noticed a series of small flubs, but Copeland, singer/bassist Sting, and guitarist were painfully aware of them.

Copeland started the show off on the wrong foot, literally. He tripped as he took to the stage, and then banged his gong at the wrong time so that 'the big pompous opening to the show is a damp squib.'

He did not hear Summers' opening riff to 'Message In a Bottle,' and Sting in turn misheard Copeland's drum intro -- 'so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho.'"