In this issue...
• End of an era: Hershey Canada discontinuing Cherry Blossom candy
• Grocery chains caught overcharging Canadians for meat for years
• By the numbers X 10 + 1
• CBC Radio's Under the Influence: Last chance tourism
• Popeye and Tintin are now in the public domain, but that doesn't mean there's a free-for-all
• Buy them now! Acadian Recipes and More - Volumes 1, 2 & 3, and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1
• The next Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Trivia Night will be held on Monday, January 27!
• Before you go: 7 things you may have missed in the news
• Enjoy the outdoors this winter with the Greater Moncton Walking Group
... and trivia, quotes and more!
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End of an era: Hershey Canada discontinuing Cherry Blossom candy
Say it isn't so! The much-loved / much-mocked / much-hated iconic Cherry Blossom is going away forever. Hershey Canada - which manufactures the candy - is ending its production after being on the market since the 1890s. It certainly had long run!
Article excerpt: "The rumours of its demise were not greatly exaggerated.
Hershey Canada has confirmed with CityNews that it is discontinuing its Cherry Blossom candy.
The company did not provide a reason for halting production of the candy, which consists of a maraschino cherry and cherry syrup surrounded by a chocolate coating.
It was first produced in the 1890s by the Lowney Company’s Canadian subsidiary before a series of acquisitions eventually landed it in the hands of Hershey Canada in the late 1980s.
Reaction to the candy’s looming extinction was mixed online, with some celebrating its removal from Canada’s collective palate and others yearning for another nostalgic taste."
I don't care what anyone says, these were really good! Buy them while you can! To watch a fun retro 1970s TV ad for Cherry Blossom, click here. (If you're of a certain age, you'll probably remember it, although you haven't heard the jingle in years.)
Read: Hershey Canada stopping production of Cherry Blossom candy.
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Grocery chains caught overcharging Canadians for meat for years
It seems that some grocery store chains in Canada have been including the weight of the packaging in the weight recorded on their meat packaging. If a consumer purchased 1 kg of hamburger, for example, in some cases it was 1 kg total - including the packaging. This has been deemed to be clearly misleading.
Article excerpt: "The Loblaw grocery chain overcharged customers by selling underweighted meat across 80 stores for an undisclosed period that ended in December 2023, a CBC News investigation has found.
On top of that, over the past few months, CBC News visited seven major grocery stores in three different provinces and discovered packages of underweighted meat in four of them: two Loblaw stores and one Sobeys-owned location, plus a Walmart. Calculated overcharges per item ranged from four to 11 per cent.
The findings suggest grocers selling underweighted meat is a prevalent and ongoing problem, at a time when shoppers are struggling with high food prices that began rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
'When you're seeing that they're not weighing meat product properly ... there's an extra hit there that the consumer is taking,' said Iris Griffin, a shopper who blew the whistle on the 80-store Loblaw case."
The reputation of grocery store chains has taken a major hit lately with a number of issues such as this. Where will it end?
Read: CBC investigation uncovers grocers overcharging customers by selling underweighted meat.
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CBC Radio's Under the Influence: Last chance tourism
Last week's episode of CBC Radio's Under the Influence series with host Terry O'Reilly examined the very interesting area of last chance tourism - where travellers are marketed an experience that is considered to be "going away". This, in turn, creates urgency and the desire to not miss out.
• January 16, 2025 - Last Chance Tourism. Synopsis: "This week, we take a look at last chance tourism. Tourism companies around the world have started to advertise specific destinations to travellers, because those locations have a very unique offering. Namely, they are vanishing. From glaciers, to polar bears, to the Amazon rainforest, marketers are using a strategy called “loss aversion” – where the emotional impact of a loss is felt more intensely than a gain. So people are rushing to these locations, afraid they might miss their last chance to see them." Click here to listen to the episode. Click here to read the episode's website post.
Click here for the show's website and here for the show's podcast archive.
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Popeye and Tintin are now in the public domain, but that doesn't mean there's a free-for-all
Popeye and Tintin have now entered the public domain, meaning that no compensation is required to trademark owners.
Article excerpt: "It’s a new year, and that means more works are headed to the public domain. This year, thousands of copyrighted works created in 1929, including the earliest versions of Popeye and the Belgian comic book character Tintin, are now free to reuse and repurpose in the US.
Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of Public Domain has once again rounded up all the most iconic works that have been freed from the bounds of copyright, which also includes sound recordings from 1924. As pointed out by Duke Law School, 1929 was a particularly pivotal year for film, as it was the first with sound.
These are just some of the works entering the public domain this year:
• The Skeleton Dance from Disney’s Silly Symphonies short film series
• Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film Blackmail
• Nacio Herb Brown’s Singin’ in the Rain and the film it appeared in, The Hollywood Revue of 1929
• On With the Show, the first all-talking feature-length film in color
• William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
• Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery
• Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms
• Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own"
But wait, it's not a free-for-all, because only certain versions of the characters are now in the public domain - and they're likely unrecognizable to modern audiences. Before you go rogue and started publishing new Tintin books, check out which version of him is actually in the public domain.
Read: Popeye and Tintin are now in the public domain. Related: These works newly enter the public domain now that 2025 has officially begun.
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Buy them now! Acadian Recipes and More - Volumes 1, 2 & 3, and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1
My three volumes of Acadian recipe books (English and French) and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1 are out now and make a great addition to your recipe book library or a gift for someone else! They are available on Amazon Canada, Amazon USA and in some local retail outlets in Southeastern New Brunswick:
• Chapters (Dieppe) (Volumes 1-3, Forgotten Recipes)
• Le P'tit Coin Acadien Poutine Râpée (Bouctouche) (Volumes 1-3)
• Jean Coutu Pharmacy (Champlain Street, Dieppe) (Volumes 1-3)
• Monument-Lefebvre (Memramcook) (Volumes 1-2)
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The next Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Trivia Night will be held on Monday, January 27!
The next Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Club Trivia Night of the 2024-2025 season will be held at St. Louis Bar & Grill, 1405 Mountain Road, Moncton, on Monday, January 27, beginning at 6:30 p.m. $10 per person (cash only). (Facebook event listing: bit.ly/3Z9PQ3m)
Participants may play as teams or individuals. The winning team gets 50% of the door receipts as their prize.
It is strongly suggested that participants arrive by 5:15-5:30 p.m. for a seat. Trivia begins at 6:30 p.m. sharp and is usually over by 8 p.m. Everyone welcome!
Please note that restaurant reservations are NOT available for this event. First come, first served. Limited seating of approximately 50 guests.
Participants may bring an optional non-perishable food item (box of granola bars, Kraft Dinner, cereal, etc.) for distribution at Krista Richard's Community Sports Program events, of which the Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Club is a sponsor. Any donations will be gratefully received and provided to Krista for distribution to her program participants (school-aged children from Moncton-area schools).
Since Rotary Trivia Nights began in 2016, the Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Club has donated more than $20,000 to Atlantic Wellness, Karing Kitchen, Ray of Hope Kitchen, Salvus Clinic, The Humanity Project, BGC Moncton (Moncton Boys & Girls Club), Junior Achievement New Brunswick, Project Linus - Moncton Chapter, Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement New Brunswick, Children's Wish Canada and Krista Richard's Community Sports Program, among others.
The Greater Moncton Sunrise Rotary Club gratefully acknowledges the kind and generous sponsorship of our restaurant partner, St. Louis Bar & Grill.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a no telephone rule at these events. The answers cannot be researched except among discussion with your team members.
The remaining Trivia Night schedule for 2024-2025 is as follows:
• Monday, January 27, 2025
• Monday, February 24, 2025
• Monday, March 24, 2025
• Monday, April 28, 2025
• Monday, May 26, 2025
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Trivia: Did you know?
While Thomas Crapper did not invent the toilet, he did invent the ballcock, a tank-filling mechanism still used to this day. His company manufactured the first line of successful flush toilets.
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Quotes of note
• 1. "All adventures, especially into new territory, are scary."
- Sally Ride (1951-2012), American astronaut (see photo)
• 2. "There may be aliens in our Milky Way galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies. The probability is almost certain that there is life somewhere in space."
- Buzz Aldrin
• 3. "The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."
- Maimonides
• 4. "Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected."
- Steve Jobs
• 5. "A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: 'We did it ourselves.'"
- Lao Tzu
• 6. "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters."
- Albert Einstein
• 7. "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
- Theodore Roosevelt
• 8. "We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."
- Ronald Reagan
• 9. "My brother-in-law died. He was a karate expert, then joined the army. The first time he saluted, he killed himself."
- Henny Youngman
• 10. "When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before."
- Mae West
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Enjoy the outdoors this winter with the Greater Moncton Walking Group
In January, the group is walking in Moncton's Mapleton Park until Thursday, January 30. Meet-up is in the parking lot next to Rotary Lodge off of Mapleton Road.
In February, the group moves to Centennial Park in Moncton. Meet-up is in the parking lot on St. George Boulevard. Walks at Centennial Park begin on Tuesday, February 4, and run until Thursday, February 27.
The group meets for walks every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 a.m. New participants are always welcome! For more information, please contact Wayne Harrigan at 506-386-2187 or via email.
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About this newsletter
Brian Cormier's Weekly Update is distributed weekly from September to June. If you're reading this newsletter online and want to subscribe, please email me, fill out the subscription form on my website, or subscribe via the "Join Our Email List" button at the top of the newsletter (if you're viewing this in a browser.) This newsletter is not published in July and August and on holidays.
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