Good morning, my friends, and welcome to the weekend! I almost skipped out on Saturday Surprise today, for I’m afraid Jolly is very sick, and I wasn’t sure I could do it without him. Oh no, don’t worry about disturbing him, for he is deep down in the rabbit hole at the moment. Anyway, then I came across a couple of things that had me shaking my head, saying “Who knew?”, and I thought I would see if I could do this post on my own, without Jolly’s help.
Drive it or eat it???
When you think of Volkswagon, what do you think of?
This, right? Well, it turns out that Volkswagen sells more sausages than Beetles! Yes, you heard me right … sausages! In fact, in 2015 and 2017, it sold more sausages than cars overall! Who knew? Some would say it makes sense, since sausages have both a lower overhead cost and a lower purchase price than the average car.
In 1973, the company started making the currywurst sausages, known as “item no. 199 398 500 A” in the Volkswagen factory, at the company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. Meant as a breakfast or lunch item in the company’s cafeteria, the sausages were served whole or chopped up and tossed with Volkswagen’s own factory-made curry-flavored ketchup. I guess they must have gone over well, for these days, 30 kitchen staffers, most of them trained butchers, are put solely on weiner duty, making 18,000 sausages every day. The pork is sourced from local farms, and the recipe, which includes curry powder, pepper, and ginger, is a company secret. The sausages come in two lengths, and are dried, smoked over beechwood, and then steamed at 350°F for 100 minutes. The finished product is shipped in packs of five to VW dealerships all over the country, who then gift it to customers after a successful sale.
In 2017, Volkswagen sold nearly 7 million sausages, more than the number of VW-brand cars sold worldwide that year. Given their role in the recent emissions scandal, perhaps they would be better off to stick to sausages?
Send it via pigeon …
I use a free greeting card service to send an occasional e-card for birthdays, get-well wishes, or sometimes just to let somebody know I’m thinking of them. The one I use is 1-2-3 Greetings, for they are quick, simple, remember your contacts, and have a fairly decent selection. And free … did I mention free? So, a couple of days ago, I received this email from them …
Back by popular demand:
Our messenger pigeons
Hi Jill!
Following the requests of many of our users, we are resuming our pigeon delivery service. Starting from April 8, it will again be possible to send real greeting cards by our top trained pigeons.
We are proud to announce that we had the top bird trainer in the country – Barbara Heidenreich – training pigeons for over a year to deliver your greeting all across USA. Currently we have over 20 pigeons available. This amazing service will start in United States only, but please be patient as more countries are to follow.
This extraordinary option will be available starting from $199 for each delivery and, due to limited availability, will have to depend on the geographical location of the sender.
More details here
Rather than a “who knew?” moment, this was more of a “Say WHAT???” moment. Who in their right mind, using a free greeting card service, is going to pay upwards of $200 for a carrier pigeon to deliver a card??? I can mail a greeting card for 45 cents, for Pete’s sake!
Now, I saved this message because I was so incredulous. Just last night, as I was cleaning out my email box that had gotten up to over 600 messages, I came across it again and notice the “More details here” at the end of the message. I had not clicked on that when I first received the message, so I clicked this time to see what else they were trying to profit from … perhaps you could have a bottle of Dom Perignon delivered by carrier pigeon. Well …
I now have a bit of a sheepish grin on my face, for … had I bothered to look at the date of the email … April 1st … April Fool’s Day … Oopsie. Got me!
More Lego art — kitties!
Remember … was it last week or the week before … when I posted a bit about some magnificent Lego sculptures? Well, last night I came across another … the sculptures are not huge like the ones from last time, but they are … well, take a look for yourself …Being a housemate to currently six, and at one time as many as ten of these furry critters, I thoroughly enjoyed these!
I saw this on a friend’s post on Facebook last night and found it humorous. Might be an idea for some of you who are parents of teens!
Well, folks, without Jolly to help, I’m afraid that’s all I can come up with for this morning. Let us hope that Jolly feels better by Monday! But never mind, for it’s the beginning of the weekend, and you no doubt have better things to do anyway. Take care and have a great weekend, my friends! Thanks for stopping by!