#President's Choice

[vgadvisor]

[pink-pkmn-trainer]

one time i was craving tea but was too lazy to make it properly so i just put some President's Choice flavour drops and tap water into a mug and stuck it in the microwave

and i kid you not

it tasted exactly like fruit tea

[masoncarr2244]

[kent-farm]

—Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent using the President's Choice Speckle Mug (in Grey), Superman and Lois, "O Mother, Where Art Thou?"

[msbarrows]

Well... No Name brand has been around since I was a pre-teen back in the 70s, so this is technically art imitating life. And yes, that means it also came before Repo Man, which I saw mentioned elsewhere in the notes.

(Me blathering on about brand history and other products under the cut.)

Their quality can vary a bit, and there is the problem that sometimes they change suppliers so what's in the package can change slightly-but-noticeably in taste/makeup/whatever, but yeah they've been a staple of the Canadian supermarket scene since 1978, when they were introduced during a time of rising inflation and lowering food quality (gee, doesn't THAT sound familiar...).

Dave Nichol, Loblaws' president at the time, bragged about how it was easy to make No Name items that were as good or better than national brands because they'd all decreased their own quality so much. He used to regularly do ads comparing the cost of a cart of No Name products vs a cart of the same products in name brands, and the No Name was always a considerably lower total for reasonably comparable quality. Very clever marketing, especially since they opened a "No Frills" line of stores that heavily featured a much wider range of No Name products. The No Name brand and No Frills stores are one of the things that saved Loblaws as a company, as they'd been in decline since the 60s and were fighting to turn things around throughout most of the 70s. The addition of a higher end/vaguely gourmet line (President's Choice, with less iconic packaging but still following a unified aesthetic) also helped to turn them from a failing business into the biggest supermarket retailer in Canada.

theres a popular brand in canada called no name brand and it manufactures everything you can imagine in a grocery store and it kind of makes me feel like im in a world no one bothered to do much world building for

[lunchcase]

Dreamland Tea

A friend got me (finger gun emoji)

I’ve had a cold the last few days, and having run out of usual sore throat remedies, I scrounged up some tea bags a friend got me years ago. The internet said both camomile and peppermint had antibacterial properties, and I just so happen to have this dreamland tea that contained both, and let me tell you. I have never known the healing powers of camomile and peppermint can be this immediate (albeit temporary). It had a strong scent that cleared my sinuses or whatever the moment I sniffed it, and keeping my nose over the tea soothed it in a way no tissue ever did. Same thing for my throat. It’s the camomile combined with the spicy potent powers of peppermint, and for a good few hours I felt almost human. The taste was good too! Mellow, floral natural sweetness! It’s like if I dunk a bunch of flowers into traditional Chinese blends. I am healed (for 15 minutes). I am also a sucker for dreamy sounding teas.

[isawthismeme]

She’s brown and a democrat, gotta get that birth certificate, that we’ll call fake news anyway. Apparently, if you can’t win in a fight, you gotta at least try to get your opponent disqualified.

Sad and weird.

[ohwaitwhatdamn]

*Travels back to 2015 for this ice cream*

[reasonsforhope]

THANK FUCKING GOD

"The Supreme Court on Thursday [June 13, 2024] unanimously preserved access to a medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.

The nine justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the medication, mifepristone, and the FDA’s subsequent actions to ease access to it. The case had threatened to restrict access to mifepristone across the country, including in states where abortion remains legal.

Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy in 14 states, and after about six weeks of pregnancy in three others, often before women realize they’re pregnant.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was part of the majority to overturn Roe, wrote for the court on Thursday that “federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions.”

The opinion underscored the stakes of the 2024 election and the possibility that an FDA commissioner appointed by Republican Donald Trump, if he wins the White House, could consider tightening access to mifepristone, including prohibiting sending it through the mail...

Kavanaugh’s opinion managed to unite a court deeply divided over abortion and many other divisive social issues by employing a minimalist approach that focused solely on the technical legal issue of standing and reached no judgment about the FDA’s actions...

While praising the decision, President Joe Biden signaled Democrats will continue to campaign heavily on abortion ahead of the November elections. “It does not change the fact that the right for a woman to get the treatment she needs is imperiled if not impossible in many states,” Biden said in a statement...

About two-thirds of U.S. adults oppose banning the use of mifepristone, or medication abortion, nationwide, according to a KFF poll conducted in February. About one-third would support a nationwide ban...

More than 6 million people [in the U.S.] have used mifepristone since 2000. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone and primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of a second drug, misoprostol. The two-drug regimen has been used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation...

Biden’s administration and drug manufacturers had warned that siding with abortion opponents in this case could [have] undermined the FDA’s drug approval process beyond the abortion context by inviting judges to second-guess the agency’s scientific judgments. The Democratic administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, which makes mifepristone, argued that the drug is among the safest the FDA has ever approved."

-via AP, June 13, 2024

--

Note: A massive relief and a genuine victory - this will preserve access to the medication used in 2/3rds of abortions last year, for at least another 2 years. (Probably minimum time it will take Republicans to get their next attempt before the Supreme Court.)

Still, with this, a sword that has been hanging over our heads for the last two years is gone. There will be a new one soon, but we just bought ourselves probably at least 2 years. The fight isn't over, but this is absolutely worth celebrating.

[johnny-depp-is-loved]

[cyarskaren52]

I read that earlier, shook my head in disgust & scroll on by

The folk behind her look just as through

She’s evil for that!

[spankymerve]

Just had a President's Choice Chai Tea Almond today. It was absolutely vile. Swing and a miss, Galen.

[masoncarr2244]

[kent-farm]

—Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent using the President’s Choice Kitchen Towels Set (in Blue; Sold Out), Superman and Lois, “The Best of Smallville”