Bistro Temple Buell

If you're reading this, you probably find snack packaging as fascinating as I do. A couple of items available in our department vending machines:

1. Foster clued me into the late semester appearance of the "Gourmet Big Az Boston Creme Honey Bun". The packing of this is actually pretty conventional, if plus-sized. But you have to agree that the name is something else. I like the use of the 'z' because it leaves you open to the double meaning of Big Ass and Big as Boston without directly pointing to either. I haven't tried one (yet) but it looks like a conventional honey bun, with no actual Boston Creme.

2. Doritos. The Frito-Lay company is in a tough spot here. They flirted with superlatives a couple of years ago when they changed the name of the nacho chesse flavor Doritos to "Nacho Cheesier Doritos" and the cool ranch flavor to "Cooler Ranch". The next logical step is introducing Nacho Cheesiest, of course. But this presents the company with a conundrum, because it would imply a finality in their ability to innovate (and, concomitantly, raise prices). Instead, this year's packaging update included the uninspiring slogan "Now better tasting!". Remarkably, however, this text is set in a black picture that is clearly meant to be a POWER STRIP. There are cables plugged into it and everything. WTF? Maybe they wanted to go high tech. Yet they took one of the least glamorous images of technology you could find to do it. One other possibility is that the chips are supposed to be supercharged. At any rate, I have bought these new Doritos a couple of times. "Now better tasting!" would be more to the point if it instead said "Now more coloring!". They're not natural.