enlightenment?

Today at snacktime, Corey, Mark, and I went to get Jamba Juices because they'd gotten these "free smoothie" coupons in the mail advertising this new "Enlightened Smoothie." They apparently have 1/3 less calories than regular Jamba smoothies, and so of course I'm curious to know what they did to reduce the calories. I go into the store and check out the ingredient list for one of these new smoothies. It says it contains "low calorie enlightened base." What on earth is that?! Curiosity still unsatiated, we go up to the counter and ask the guy what "low calorie enlightened base is." He has no idea. He asks around, and finally comes back with a box of the stuff, with yet another ingredient label. This one says it has some random ingredients, annatto for color, etc., and its primary ingredient is "proprietary dry base." Helpful! I did find that a FAQ about the new smoothies mentions that they use sucralose instead of sugar, but presumably that is just one of the ingredients in the "proprietary dry base."

We gave up. We ordered our smoothies. They were ok. Tasted a bit thin and a bit like sucralose. I don't feel at all enlightened, though. Marketing has let me down yet again :(


Update: a bit of web research has revealed that "Jamba's proprietary Enlightened Base contains nourishing ingredients like non-fat milk, natural flavors, whey protein and Splenda." Still doesn't explain why it can't just say that on the box, though.

outsmarted by machines

I keep having "did I set that clock? Is that time right?" moments. I have only needed to manually reset two clocks so far. All my other clocks are smarter than me and have switched their times accordingly, or have been zapped by the Überclock and are now all correct. However, now that I don't have to set my clocks, I worry that I was supposed to set one of them and that it's still wrong. At least in the old days, I'd know if I'd reset the clocks. Now, though, I must second-guess them all! Gah!

Clocks that have automagically set themselves: TiVo, three computers, cell phone, atomic wall clock. Clocks that I manually set: car clock, alarm clock. Clocks that still definitely need setting: oven clock, coffee maker.

This limbo-time before all clocks have brains, but some clocks have brains, is quite disconcerting.