It took almost two hours to tape the show but only about 40 minutes was broadcast, when you take out the unnecessary news from the broadcast and the additional "promotions" (not commercials; public radio doesn't have commercials) beyond the sponsors of the show itself. I'm glad we went to the taping and will do it again when it comes back to Cincinnati; too much gets lost in the broadcast.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
"Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!®" was taped in Cincinnati
My wife and I attended the taping of this week's "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!®" and now we've listened to the broadcast. The whole risque sequence on morning missiles is gone! So is Mo Rocca's claim that Cincinnati's Music Hall is the largest concert hall in North America (false, the DAR Constitution Hall is larger although it doesn't have a resident orchestra). Skyline Chili (two references) also got dropped; I guess if you're not a sponsor, you don't get mentioned. (Keep in mind that Skyline Chili is only one of several chains and restaurants serving Cincinnati-style chili.)
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Regarding the healthcare.gov mess...
Regarding the healthcare.gov mess: The "best and brightest" avoid government contracts like the plague. It's all too political and bidding is sometimes all about getting the lowest price, to hell with quality. That's one reason the military ends up with counterfeit components, which endanger the lives of the men and women in uniform. In the specific case of healthcare.gov, I suspect sabotage, either on the inside or on the outside.
BuzzFeed has an interesting article in which it claims that the contractor who built healthcare.gov (CGI Federal) is a big Republican supporter. I link to this to reinforce that the whole bidding and completion process is rife with politics.
Rusty Foster, a writer and computer programmer, wrote a more detailed analysis of the problems in an article in the New Yorker, "Healthcare.gov: It could be worse." National Public Radio interviewed him; a transcript is not yet available but you can listen to the interview which is rather informative. The interview and article pointed out that over 55 government contractors were involved with the site; any soup made by 55 cooks would be inedible.
Rusty Foster, a writer and computer programmer, wrote a more detailed analysis of the problems in an article in the New Yorker, "Healthcare.gov: It could be worse." National Public Radio interviewed him; a transcript is not yet available but you can listen to the interview which is rather informative. The interview and article pointed out that over 55 government contractors were involved with the site; any soup made by 55 cooks would be inedible.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Same-sex marriage coming to New Jersey
Here's some unanimous common sense from the N.J. Supreme Court. Money quote: "Civil-union partners in New Jersey today do not receive the same benefits as married same-sex couples when it comes to family and medical leave, Medicare, tax and immigration matters, military and veterans’ affairs, and other areas," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote. "The state constitution’s guarantee of equal protection is therefore not being met." (My original source is the The [New Jersey] Star-Ledger)
Eventually, same-sex marriage will be the law in all states and then smoking marijuana will be legalized. I didn't ever think the Berlin Wall would be torn down in my lifetime, but it was. These are the latest walls that will fall.
The most opposition to same-sex marriage seems to come from the religious-right Christians. One reference says that the principle purpose of marriage is procreation; however, there are no laws requiring that a man and wife be capable of bearing children as a condition of marriage. There are laws prohibiting first cousins from marrying but not in all states; there has been some rethinking of that lately. I find it ironic that many religious-right Christians are opposed to same-sex marriages but that polygamy is allowed to flourish in the West. Since all people are made in God's image, that includes LGBT people as well. If homosexuality is a sin to God, why does God create lesbians and gays in the first place?
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Milestone for today: Over 2,000 page views
My milestone for today: This blog has now had over 2,000 page views.
No, it's not just me admiring my posts; I set a cookie in my browsers that keep most of my views from counting.
No, it's not just me admiring my posts; I set a cookie in my browsers that keep most of my views from counting.
Tide®-brand detergent in five-gallon buckets? Not a chance!
This post has proven to be popular with over 36,000 55,000 page views. To read the original post, scroll down to "Original post:" I'm putting updates here at the top so that they get noticed.
Update July 16, 2016: Another fundraising company has posted a comment, Profitable Solutions Fundraising. This company, like the others, is selling detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising but is not misrepresenting it as Tide. You can contact them by filling out a form on their "Contact Us" page.
Updates September 27, 2015: There is another company offering liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising, Sudz Fundraising. There is a "Contact Us" form on their web site as well as a live chat option. You can also contact them through email or by calling them at 765-598-5521.
Tonight, I received an email from a person who prefers to remain anonymous. She wrote, "I saw a post on fb of a store nearby that claims they sell actual Tide in the five gallon buckets. We did a little research and found your blog. I wanted to send you these screen shots. I also made a post on the page questioning the authenticity of the product. I will try and go back through the blog and send to P&G as well. I don't care they sell detergent but they shouldn't claim it is a product that it isn't. Thank you for your blog!" The first image is a picture which she sent, cropped to remove some identifying information. The second picture is my response to Jake's Place Wholesale on Facebook:
The comment she made on this Facebook post has been deleted but mine remains for now. I'm glad she read this blog post because now, if she decides to buy this detergent, she will know that it is not a genuine Procter & Gamble product. It may be excellent or it may be not so good (see comments for more information). But it won't be genuine.
Update April 12, 2015: Selling liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for various organizations, especially high-school sports teams. However, the manufacturers producing detergent for these fundraisers do not claim that they are selling the real thing but are selling alternate products that they are trying to make as good as the real thing. When you read this post, please keep this in mind; not all liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets is counterfeit.
One of the companies selling detergent for fundraising is Good Clean Fundraising (www.GoodCleanFundraising.com or 800-680-3775). For more information about this company, click on the links or look for more information from Michael A. Fitzgerald near the bottom of the comments (March 13, 2015). I can't directly endorse this company but I haven't seen any negative reports about it, either.
I will check for other companies doing this (if there are any other companies) and post an update for those who want to pursue this as a fundraising opportunity. Full disclosure: Mr. Fitzgerald did not offer to make nor would I accept any payment for adding this update. I do not operate that way.
[Some other minor changes were made with this update.]
Update March 3, 2015: A commenter has found Tide (powdered, not liquid) in five-gallon buckets imported from Vietnam being sold in Houston. Look for a link in a comment near the bottom. It's getting interesting!
Update December 25, 2014: Procter & Gamble has done a good job stopping the counterfeits. Don't try selling generic detergent as the real Tide®-brand detergent. It won't work. An alert reader noticed (see a comment from Sept. 12, 2014) that P&G sells industrial powdered Tide in five-gallon buckets but you would be shocked at the price. I will update this post when I get a price from a distributor.
Original post:
Back in April 2013, I overheard some people talking about getting Tide® in five-gallon buckets as part of a school fundraiser. I was skeptical, did some research and notified Procter & Gamble, the manufacturers of Tide, of people selling what was supposed to be Tide this way. Here is their response (emphasis added):
Well, I thought that the brand-marketing whizzes at P&G would put an end to this real fast. They sure did. Here it is six months later and I could only find one half-way decent attempt at selling Tide in five-gallon orange(!) buckets and I bet they're off of Facebook within a day of this being posted.
I tip my hat to you, Procter & Gamble, for preserving your excellent brand of detergent.
I did a Google search today and here's what I found: (Top five relevant results shown and, yes, I broke the links. Do your own search!)
This appears to be the real counterfeit deal (in an orange bucket!) complete with a fake label. P&G, time to go after this one. Who would think that Facebook would allow counterfeit merchandise to be sold?
Here's the comment I posted on Liquidation Station, Nashville, Tennesee's Facebook page: "If this is powdered, it's likely real Tide imported from Vietnam (note the CHUYÊN DUNG in the middle of the label). If it's liquid detergent, it's likely counterfeit (not Tide at all). I wrote a blog post about this." A tip of the hat to Angela for alerting me to this. The comment she submitted is below. Follow up: My comment has been deleted, but so has the post and the image. (That's why I took a screen shot.)
Update July 16, 2016: Another fundraising company has posted a comment, Profitable Solutions Fundraising. This company, like the others, is selling detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising but is not misrepresenting it as Tide. You can contact them by filling out a form on their "Contact Us" page.
Updates September 27, 2015: There is another company offering liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising, Sudz Fundraising. There is a "Contact Us" form on their web site as well as a live chat option. You can also contact them through email or by calling them at 765-598-5521.
Tonight, I received an email from a person who prefers to remain anonymous. She wrote, "I saw a post on fb of a store nearby that claims they sell actual Tide in the five gallon buckets. We did a little research and found your blog. I wanted to send you these screen shots. I also made a post on the page questioning the authenticity of the product. I will try and go back through the blog and send to P&G as well. I don't care they sell detergent but they shouldn't claim it is a product that it isn't. Thank you for your blog!" The first image is a picture which she sent, cropped to remove some identifying information. The second picture is my response to Jake's Place Wholesale on Facebook:
The comment she made on this Facebook post has been deleted but mine remains for now. I'm glad she read this blog post because now, if she decides to buy this detergent, she will know that it is not a genuine Procter & Gamble product. It may be excellent or it may be not so good (see comments for more information). But it won't be genuine.
Update April 12, 2015: Selling liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for various organizations, especially high-school sports teams. However, the manufacturers producing detergent for these fundraisers do not claim that they are selling the real thing but are selling alternate products that they are trying to make as good as the real thing. When you read this post, please keep this in mind; not all liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets is counterfeit.
One of the companies selling detergent for fundraising is Good Clean Fundraising (www.GoodCleanFundraising.com or 800-680-3775). For more information about this company, click on the links or look for more information from Michael A. Fitzgerald near the bottom of the comments (March 13, 2015). I can't directly endorse this company but I haven't seen any negative reports about it, either.
I will check for other companies doing this (if there are any other companies) and post an update for those who want to pursue this as a fundraising opportunity. Full disclosure: Mr. Fitzgerald did not offer to make nor would I accept any payment for adding this update. I do not operate that way.
[Some other minor changes were made with this update.]
Update March 3, 2015: A commenter has found Tide (powdered, not liquid) in five-gallon buckets imported from Vietnam being sold in Houston. Look for a link in a comment near the bottom. It's getting interesting!
Update December 25, 2014: Procter & Gamble has done a good job stopping the counterfeits. Don't try selling generic detergent as the real Tide®-brand detergent. It won't work. An alert reader noticed (see a comment from Sept. 12, 2014) that P&G sells industrial powdered Tide in five-gallon buckets but you would be shocked at the price. I will update this post when I get a price from a distributor.
Original post:
Back in April 2013, I overheard some people talking about getting Tide® in five-gallon buckets as part of a school fundraiser. I was skeptical, did some research and notified Procter & Gamble, the manufacturers of Tide, of people selling what was supposed to be Tide this way. Here is their response (emphasis added):
| from: | "P&G Tide" <address omitted> | ||
| to: | "bruce.hobbs@gmail.com" <bruce.hobbs@gmail.com> | ||
| date: | Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 9:01 AM | ||
| subject: | Thank you for contacting Tide
Thank you for contacting Tide, Bruce.
You are correct that Tide does not offer our detergents in 5 gallon buckets.
I will pass your email on to the proper department within P&G. As a thank you for letting us know of this I will be happy to send you a money saving coupon for a tide product by postal mail. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Thanks for writing.
Jim
Tide Team
|
Well, I thought that the brand-marketing whizzes at P&G would put an end to this real fast. They sure did. Here it is six months later and I could only find one half-way decent attempt at selling Tide in five-gallon orange(!) buckets and I bet they're off of Facebook within a day of this being posted.
I tip my hat to you, Procter & Gamble, for preserving your excellent brand of detergent.
I did a Google search today and here's what I found: (Top five relevant results shown and, yes, I broke the links. Do your own search!)
5 gallon bucket tide | eBay
This link did produce eBay listings, but they were for laundry detergent "Comparable Tide" [sic]. No fake, official-looking Tide labels on any of the buckets.Wholesale Laundry Soap | Facebook
This appears to be the real counterfeit deal (in an orange bucket!) complete with a fake label. P&G, time to go after this one. Who would think that Facebook would allow counterfeit merchandise to be sold?Tide liquid laundry detergent 5 gallon buckets - Arizona Classifieds
This has a gray bucket with a Tide label. Arizona Classifieds had a place to complain so I did.
Tide® Professional Closed-Loop Laundry Detergent, 5 gal Bucket ...
This one shows a picture of a box of Gain and the price is $0.00. Doesn't look like it's even in business.
Tide Formula 5 Gallon Pail Liquid Laundry Soap - $25.00 - TradeKey
Wow, they have 1,800 five-gallon buckets for sale of "Tide Formula Laundry Soap." You can deal directly with a counterfeiter. The picture is too fuzzy to see if the label is counterfeit. I bet the formula for Tide is almost as secret as the one for Coca-Cola®.
So, to wrap this up, I'm happy that P&G listened to me* and cleaned this up (pun intended). If anyone offers you a five-gallon bucket of Tide, you now know it's a scam.
* Obviously, there is no way for me to know if my tip was the one that caused these scams to be fixed. I will keep making suggestions anyway.
Update Oct. 11, 2015:
Update Oct. 11, 2015:
Tide®-brand detergent in five-gallon buckets? Not a chance!
This post has proven to be popular with over 36,000 58,000 page views. To read the original post, scroll down to "Original post:" I'm putting updates here at the top so that they get noticed.
Update April 12, 2015: Selling liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for various organizations, especially high-school sports teams. However, the manufacturers producing detergent for these fundraisers do not claim that they are selling the real thing but are selling alternate products that they are trying to make as good as the real thing. When you read this post, please keep this in mind: Not all liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets is counterfeit.
One of the companies selling detergent for fundraising is Good Clean Fundraising (www.GoodCleanFundraising.com or 800-680-3775). For more information about this company, click on the links or look for more information from Michael A. Fitzgerald near the bottom of the comments (March 13, 2015). I can't directly endorse this company but I haven't seen any negative reports about it, either.
I will check for other companies doing this (if there are any other companies) and post an update for those who want to pursue this as a fundraising opportunity. Full disclosure: Mr. Fitzgerald did not offer to make nor would I accept any payment for adding this update. I do not operate that way.
Update July 16, 2016: Another fundraising company has sent a comment, Profitable Solutions Fundraising. This company, like the others, is selling detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising but is not misrepresenting it. You can contact them by filling out a form on their "Contact Us" page.
Update September 27, 2015: There is another company offering liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising, Sudz Fundraising. There is a "Contact Us" form on their web site as well as a live chat option. You can also contact them through email or by calling them at 765-598-5521.
Update November 6, 2016: I just received word of another company selling liquid detergent for fundraising, Soapy Joe's Fundraising/GMACK Fundraising. You can reach them by email, with this contact-us form or by calling their office at 765-356-4259.
Update September 27, 2015: Tonight, I received an email from a person who prefers to remain anonymous. She wrote, "I saw a post on fb of a store nearby that claims they sell actual Tide in the five gallon buckets. We did a little research and found your blog. I wanted to send you these screen shots. I also made a post on the page questioning the authenticity of the product. I will try and go back through the blog and send to P&G as well. I don't care they sell detergent but they shouldn't claim it is a product that it isn't. Thank you for your blog!" The first image is a picture which she sent, cropped to remove some identifying information. The second picture is my response to Jake's Place Wholesale on Facebook:
The comment she made on this Facebook post has been deleted but mine remains for now. I'm glad she read this blog post because now, if she decides to buy this detergent, she will know that it is not a genuine Procter & Gamble product. It may be excellent or it may be not so good (see comments for more information). But it won't be genuine.
Update March 3, 2015: A commenter has found Tide (powdered, not liquid) in five-gallon buckets imported from Vietnam being sold in Houston. Look for a link in a comment near the bottom. It's getting interesting!
Update December 25, 2014: Procter & Gamble has done a good job stopping the counterfeits. Don't try selling generic detergent as the real Tide®-brand detergent. It won't work. An alert reader noticed (see a comment from Sept. 12, 2014) that P&G sells industrial powdered Tide in five-gallon buckets but you would be shocked at the price. I will update this post when I get a price from a distributor.
Original post:
Back in April 2013, I overheard some people talking about getting Tide® in five-gallon buckets as part of a school fundraiser. I was skeptical, did some research and notified Procter & Gamble, the manufacturers of Tide, of people selling what was supposed to be Tide this way. Here is their response (emphasis added):
Well, I thought that the brand-marketing whizzes at P&G would put an end to this real fast. They sure did. Here it is six months later and I could only find one half-way decent attempt at selling Tide in five-gallon orange(!) buckets and I bet they're off of Facebook within a day of this being posted.
I tip my hat to you, Procter & Gamble, for preserving your excellent brand of detergent.
I did a Google search today and here's what I found: (Top five relevant results shown and, yes, I broke the links. Do your own search!)
This appears to be the real counterfeit deal (in an orange bucket!) complete with a fake label. P&G, time to go after this one. Who would think that Facebook would allow counterfeit merchandise to be sold?
Here's the comment I posted on Liquidation Station, Nashville, Tennesee's Facebook page: "If this is powdered, it's likely real Tide imported from Vietnam (note the CHUYÊN DUNG in the middle of the label). If it's liquid detergent, it's likely counterfeit (not Tide at all). I wrote a blog post about this." A tip of the hat to Angela for alerting me to this. The comment she submitted is below. Follow up: My comment has been deleted, but so has the post and the image. (That's why I took a screen shot.)
Update April 12, 2015: Selling liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets has proven to be an excellent fundraiser for various organizations, especially high-school sports teams. However, the manufacturers producing detergent for these fundraisers do not claim that they are selling the real thing but are selling alternate products that they are trying to make as good as the real thing. When you read this post, please keep this in mind: Not all liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets is counterfeit.
One of the companies selling detergent for fundraising is Good Clean Fundraising (www.GoodCleanFundraising.com or 800-680-3775). For more information about this company, click on the links or look for more information from Michael A. Fitzgerald near the bottom of the comments (March 13, 2015). I can't directly endorse this company but I haven't seen any negative reports about it, either.
I will check for other companies doing this (if there are any other companies) and post an update for those who want to pursue this as a fundraising opportunity. Full disclosure: Mr. Fitzgerald did not offer to make nor would I accept any payment for adding this update. I do not operate that way.
Update July 16, 2016: Another fundraising company has sent a comment, Profitable Solutions Fundraising. This company, like the others, is selling detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising but is not misrepresenting it. You can contact them by filling out a form on their "Contact Us" page.
Update September 27, 2015: There is another company offering liquid detergent in five-gallon buckets for fundraising, Sudz Fundraising. There is a "Contact Us" form on their web site as well as a live chat option. You can also contact them through email or by calling them at 765-598-5521.
Update November 6, 2016: I just received word of another company selling liquid detergent for fundraising, Soapy Joe's Fundraising/GMACK Fundraising. You can reach them by email, with this contact-us form or by calling their office at 765-356-4259.
Update September 27, 2015: Tonight, I received an email from a person who prefers to remain anonymous. She wrote, "I saw a post on fb of a store nearby that claims they sell actual Tide in the five gallon buckets. We did a little research and found your blog. I wanted to send you these screen shots. I also made a post on the page questioning the authenticity of the product. I will try and go back through the blog and send to P&G as well. I don't care they sell detergent but they shouldn't claim it is a product that it isn't. Thank you for your blog!" The first image is a picture which she sent, cropped to remove some identifying information. The second picture is my response to Jake's Place Wholesale on Facebook:
The comment she made on this Facebook post has been deleted but mine remains for now. I'm glad she read this blog post because now, if she decides to buy this detergent, she will know that it is not a genuine Procter & Gamble product. It may be excellent or it may be not so good (see comments for more information). But it won't be genuine.
Update March 3, 2015: A commenter has found Tide (powdered, not liquid) in five-gallon buckets imported from Vietnam being sold in Houston. Look for a link in a comment near the bottom. It's getting interesting!
Update December 25, 2014: Procter & Gamble has done a good job stopping the counterfeits. Don't try selling generic detergent as the real Tide®-brand detergent. It won't work. An alert reader noticed (see a comment from Sept. 12, 2014) that P&G sells industrial powdered Tide in five-gallon buckets but you would be shocked at the price. I will update this post when I get a price from a distributor.
Original post:
Back in April 2013, I overheard some people talking about getting Tide® in five-gallon buckets as part of a school fundraiser. I was skeptical, did some research and notified Procter & Gamble, the manufacturers of Tide, of people selling what was supposed to be Tide this way. Here is their response (emphasis added):
| from: | "P&G Tide" <address omitted> | ||
| to: | "bruce.hobbs@gmail.com" <bruce.hobbs@gmail.com> | ||
| date: | Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 9:01 AM | ||
| subject: | Thank you for contacting Tide
Thank you for contacting Tide, Bruce.
You are correct that Tide does not offer our detergents in 5 gallon buckets.
I will pass your email on to the proper department within P&G. As a thank you for letting us know of this I will be happy to send you a money saving coupon for a tide product by postal mail. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.
Thanks for writing.
Jim
Tide Team
|
Well, I thought that the brand-marketing whizzes at P&G would put an end to this real fast. They sure did. Here it is six months later and I could only find one half-way decent attempt at selling Tide in five-gallon orange(!) buckets and I bet they're off of Facebook within a day of this being posted.
I tip my hat to you, Procter & Gamble, for preserving your excellent brand of detergent.
I did a Google search today and here's what I found: (Top five relevant results shown and, yes, I broke the links. Do your own search!)
5 gallon bucket tide | eBay
This link did produce eBay listings, but they were for laundry detergent "Comparable Tide" [sic]. No fake, official-looking Tide labels on any of the buckets.Wholesale Laundry Soap | Facebook
This appears to be the real counterfeit deal (in an orange bucket!) complete with a fake label. P&G, time to go after this one. Who would think that Facebook would allow counterfeit merchandise to be sold?Tide liquid laundry detergent 5 gallon buckets - Arizona Classifieds
This has a gray bucket with a Tide label. Arizona Classifieds had a place to complain so I did.
Tide® Professional Closed-Loop Laundry Detergent, 5 gal Bucket ...
This one shows a picture of a box of Gain and the price is $0.00. Doesn't look like it's even in business.
Tide Formula 5 Gallon Pail Liquid Laundry Soap - $25.00 - TradeKey
Wow, they have 1,800 five-gallon buckets for sale of "Tide Formula Laundry Soap." You can deal directly with a counterfeiter. The picture is too fuzzy to see if the label is counterfeit. I bet the formula for Tide is almost as secret as the one for Coca-Cola®.
So, to wrap this up, I'm happy that P&G listened to me* and cleaned this up (pun intended). If anyone offers you a five-gallon bucket of Tide, you now know it's a scam.
* Obviously, there is no way for me to know if my tip was the one that caused these scams to be fixed. I will keep making suggestions anyway.
Update Oct. 11, 2015:
Update Oct. 11, 2015:
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