Letting the Yellow Mellow

What, you ask, could spur Adam to write his first blog post, taking the reigns from Steph? A few random things, starting with drought, and its consequences.

As my last Random Fact and the title foreshadowed, we’re indeed abiding by the adage, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow.” For inquiring minds, at 1.6 gallons per flush, I’m saving 8-14.4 gallons per day. Water your mansion lawn with that, Al Gore! (As a side note, 1.6 gallons per flush! Is all that really needed? No, according to this state-of-the-art commode.) The drought is bad news – specifically, once every 50 years bad news. And North Carolina is feeling it worse than any other state (not counting morons who set wildfires), though our neighbors are in bad shape, too.

As Steph mentioned, we recently went to San Antonio. No, we didn’t find Pee Wee’s bike in the basement of the Alamo. But we flew a new airline, Express Jet, that aims to connect smaller (i.e. not top 20) sized cities with direct routes, a la Raleigh-Durham to San Antonio, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Louisville, Birmingham and Kansas City. My opinion: U.S. population has reached a point where this type of airline can succeed (though not all routes, of course), and we don’t have to only rely on the old-school hub-and-spoke model to get from Point A to Point B.

Cool story about how the U.S. may have 3 times the oil reserves as Saudi Arabia, if scientists have figured out how to extract oil from our country’s massive deposits of oil shale. Still years down the road, and nothing that will lower the price per barrel yet, but quite interesting. Semi-related thought: energy conservation and “green” initiatives are finally gaining momentum not because of an inconvenient truth, but because of convenient economics. It’s finally cheaper to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs, for example, with the savings they provide over time. Make solar power cheaper than electricity and propane, and watch both Republicans’ and Democrats’ roofs get panels.

I learned as a journalism student that many of the best stories link the beginning and the end. I got learned good, Mom & Dad! In that vein, here are some Random Facts about the soda Mellow Yellow. It is:
* Available in 4 flavors: Cherry, Citrus Lemon, Citrus Punch and Watermelon. Diet Mellow Yellow is only available in Citrus Lemon.
* Sold in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Guam, American Samoa and the Mariana Islands. Diet Mellow Yellow is only sold in the U.S.
* Full of 126 Calories for 12 oz., and 231 Calories for 20 oz., according to Fazoli’s.

Random Fact – from Steph! "The Wall Street Journal has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million (as of 2006), with 931,00 paying online subscribers." You too can read the Wall Street Journal by clicking on this link to read about my AWESOME HUSBAND and see him quoted in the WSJ!!!