"ban" news and stories

I don't know about you, but I hate coming home to take-out menus stuffed in my door, or left on my porch. Oh, if only I lived in New York.

Apparently there's a new law in New York state that any kind of unwanted advertising cannot be left on a property, and the city of New York has just started enforcing it. The property owner will have to post something that specifically states that they don't want the advertisements and that must be highly visible. There's also a whole complaint process that the sanitation department has worked out, and the fines start at $250.

Check out this article in the New York Times City Pages for more information.

[via Grub Street]

If you are Marilyn Manson and you decide to launch a line of absinthe, what do you call it?

Why, Mansinthe, of course.

The drink is made in Switzerland, and, despite the U.S.'s recent lift on the absinthe ban that has been in place for 80 years, is not yet legal in America.

Epicurious recently conducted a taste test of the drink, and the results were less than desirable. Several tasters described Mansinthe as "oily," one called its color "pale and green in color, like the fourth horse of the Apocalypse."

Some eloquently compared the aroma to "sewage" or "swamp mud." And the overall responses in the test's "flavor" category were so hilarious, I had to print them here, word for word:

"Main flavor is just plain."
"Yuck. Sour + bitter"
"If you don't smell it, the taste is good. A little woodsy, but not too much"
"Holy sh*t, is this poison?"

So, there you have it, folks. Everyone thought it reeked of bathroom waste and three out of the four tasters thought it tasted like crap. Drink at your own risk...preferably while brooding and listening to "The Dope Show" at full volume.

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San Francisco is considering making a change that will affect most shoppers in the city: they're talking about instituting a ban on the use of plastic grocery bags. Lawmakers are blaming the bags for everything from "littering streets and choking wildlife" to playing a major part in global warming. The expect that such a change will save the city millions of dollars, although taxpayers may have an increased out-of-pocket expense for reusable canvas (or other materials) shopping bags and alternative plastic bags that would serve the functions that reused grocery bags often do now (lining small trash bins, picking up after dogs, etc.).

San Francisco is not the first city to consider such legislation. Plastic bags are either taxed or not used in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan. Bangladesh has banned them and Zanzibar, Rwanda and Paris are also considering a ban. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will vote on the measure next week and, if passed, it will take effect in six months.

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Last year, the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) was involved with the promotion of several measures to restrict the content of food advertisements that were targeted at, or easily viewable by, children. Broadcasting regulator Ofcom instituted a ban on junk food ads that were targeted at 16-and-under TV viewers during non-primetime hours, which was a major victory for those supporting restrictions.

The FSA also supported a ban on online junk food advertising that was targeted at this demographic, a step which many believed was a step too far at the time. Clearly, times and opinions have changed, however, because further regulations have just been drawn up by the Department of Health's Committee on Advertising Practice that will ban "junk food companies" from advertising in magazines, on the internet, on billboards and at movie screenings that are targeted at under-16s.

Fortunately for the companies in question and the media outlets that rely on their advertising dollars, there is no official oversight of all these forms of advertising, which means that following the regulations is voluntary - for the moment, anyway.

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Kid's television shows may be cheesy, but if one group has their way, the ads will be cheese-free from now on. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has requested that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ban cheese and cheese-related advertising from airing during children's TV programs. The Committee feels that cheese, as it is very high in fat, is "is not an acceptable food to be promoted to kids during the obesity epidemic." This means that cheese in any form - grilled cheese, string cheese, Laughing Cow cheese snacks and pizza, to name just a few - would be off limits.

Believe it or not, there is precedence to back up their request. The ban on junk food advertising during children's TV programs in the UK, which has been in place for several months now, includes cheese.

Despite a high fat content, cheese should not be made a villain. Cheese is high in protein, vitamins, and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and zinc. Eating cheese can also help prevent tooth decay - and let's not forget that there are plenty of low and reduced fat cheeses out there, including cream cheese, cottage cheese and sliced sandwich cheeses. The FTC is under no obligation to honor the PCRM's request, so we will just have to wait and see how things turn out.

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