"outer space" news and stories

Until a fast-food restaurant places ads on the moon, the publicity stunt that KFC used to unveil its new logo earlier this week gets my vote for most bizarre. The chicken purveyor placed a gargantuan logo in the Nevada desert, making it the first brand visible from outer space. The outsized ad measures 87,000 square feet, a whopping six-and-a-half times bigger than the dome of the Taj Mahal.

The new logo is part of a rebranding effort that includes using the name Kentucky Fried Chicken along with reintroducing the slogans "Finger Lickin' Good" and "11 Secret Herbs and Spices." Forgive me while I indulge in some greasy childhood nostalgia as I ponder those slogans. The new logo sports bolder colors and a more defined graphic of the chain's late founder Colonel Harland Sanders. In addition to the crisper likeness, the good colonel has shed his white suit in favor of a red apron.

It's great that KFC is getting back to its roots and letting folks know that the colonel was a real person, but did they really need to build what amounts to a corporate version of the eighth wonder of the world? Gregg Dedrick, president of KFC Corp. had this to say: "If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice. For now, we'll be very content satisfying the entire human population ... Besides, who knows if extraterrestrials even have fingers?" Umm, OK then.

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No, the rotund New Orleans-inflected celebrity chef will not be rocketing beyond the earth's atmosphere, but his food will.

Next week astronauts on the International Space Station will dine on a menu that Lagasse began crafting more than 18 months ago. The chef will chat with the astronauts next Thursday as they chow down on Mardi Gras Jambalaya, kicked up mashed potatoes with bacon, green beans with garlic, rice pudding, and mixed fruit. UPI's press release notes without a hint of irony that Lagasse is the first star chef to develop recipes served in outer space. It seems that's not entirely true. Alain Ducasse, one of haute cuisine's most successful chefs, has been working with the European Space Agency to give astronauts a taste of fine dining.

Perhaps we can look forward to freeze-dried meals from chefs coming to science museums sometime in the future. God knows they have to be better than Astronaut Ice Cream.

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