life hereafter

random musings from a wannabe economist

I came across something during my Sunday shopping routine that really bothered me today. Recently I have been drinking those V8 Splash, vegetable juice hidden in fruit juice, things. I noticed they make a “light” version which has half the calories and sugar content as the regular version. Upon closer inspection I determined that the actual juice content of the “light” version was 42% juice while the regular version was 100% juice. Could this be? V8 is cutting down on the calories and sugar by simply adding more water to the regular product and selling it at the same price? So simple! So genius!

I noticed the same thing with Tropicana Orange Juice. New “light” version where the only decernable difference in the two products is the fact that the light version is only 50% juice!

It is so, companies have found a way to get consumers to self-select even in the juice aisle. For those of you who are price conscious, my recommendation is to simply buy the regular version and add your own water. (It’ll last longer that way!)

Under the Dome by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ok. At just shy of 1100 pages, this was one monster of a book.

This was my first Stephen King novel and as such was not very familiar with his writing. I have seen a lot of his movies and thoroughly enjoyed them and I thought the premise for this book sounded great. Small town gets cut off from the rest of the world via a large dome? What’s not to like?

The novel explores the dark, unsettling side of human nature. It brings to light the things we have down in our past of which we are not quite proud of and which we can never truly atone for. The main characters struggle with these things throughout the novel ultimately learning that you just have to move on, do your best and learn something. It also explores fundamental Christianity and the use of fear as a political device.

Personally, I thought this book had a real “made-for-tv” movie quality about it. I’m not a huge fan of the reader knowing things that the main characters do not drive you to know. King frequently informs the reader of certain things which are in place or certain people who are going to die chapters before.

Foreshadowing is one thing, outright telling people what is going to happen is another. I can almost see a conversation happening between two unsuspecting people as the camera pans away so the viewer can see the bomb set to go off.

I gave this novel three stars because it was entertaining and the story did keep moving forward, however I’m not sure I am going to run out and buy another of King’s novels just yet.

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