The news from the last week has been boring and dull…..so to counter my boring I look for ‘other’ news that will be entertaining an hopefully a bit educational….

First the bad news…..

I truly enjoy eating tomatoes…..matters not whether fresh, stewed, grilled, or sauced….so the latest report from the agriculture department…..

California farmers who grow tomatoes are being squeezed by the drought and other factors, which means prices at grocery stores are only going up. In the central part of the state, low levels of rain and snow are being felt, and the limits on water from the Colorado River are affecting the south, Reuters reports. Prices are high, but production is falling. One farmer near Firegaugh said he decided to plant only one-fourth of his 2,000 acres. “I don’t think farming in California has ever been more complex and more challenging, and the drought is a large part of that,” said Aaron Barcellos. The US Department of Agriculture cut its forecast for California’s tomato production in 2022 by 10% in August.

So farmers are getting high prices not only for tomatoes, but for onions and garlic. “What you’re seeing harvested this summer, that really hasn’t even hit the grocery shelf, is a 25% increase in the cost of the product to the processors—the canners, the buyers downstream,” said Don Cameron, president of the state’s State Board of Food and Agriculture. Studies show the main reason for the difficulty is the first human-driven regional drought on record, per Axios. “There’s just not enough water to grow everything that we normally grow,” said Cameron.

Keeping with the food trend…..

I like hot sauce….not the stuff that takes your breath away because it is too hot…..I have one for breakfast food, another for beans and such and one for Tex-Mex or Mexican.

My hot sauce for breakfast stuff is Texas Pete and there is a lawsuit around the product….

A new class-action lawsuit involves four different states and a very literal reading of the label on a bottle of hot sauce. The first state is California, where resident Philip White went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of Texas Pete (second state) hot sauce, reports USA Today. Upon getting home and reading the label, however, White discovered that the product—which falls under the general category of a Louisiana-style (third state) hot sauce—is not made in Texas but rather in the fourth state, North Carolina.

“White relied upon the language and images displayed on the front label of the product, and at the time of purchase understood the product to be a Texas product,” says the complaint, per WGHP. He says he never would have bought the hot sauce had he known it wasn’t from Texas, renowned for its spiciness, and he’s asking the court to force parent company TW Garner Food to pay damages and change the brand’s name.

The company “has cheated its way to a market-leading position in the $3 billion hot-sauce industry at the expense of law-abiding competitors and consumers nationwide who desire authentic Texas hot sauce and reasonably, but incorrectly, believe that is what they are getting when they purchase Texas Pete,” says the complaint. Texas Pete has not commented, but the brand’s website makes no secret of the fact that it’s made in North Carolina. So why the long-standing name? As the website explains, it’s just a marketing thing.

This yahoo sounds like one of those useless tools that wants to win the lawsuit lotto.  Did he ever think about reading the label before he bought?

Now a sad story…..

It seems a man died thanks to the use of GPS……

The family of a North Carolina father of two say he died after following his GPS at night onto a bridge that partially washed away almost a decade ago. The body of Philip Paxson, 47, was found in his overturned vehicle in a creek on Oct. 1, the morning after he failed to return home from his daughter’s birthday party, reports WCNC. “He was following his GPS which led him down a concrete road to a bridge that dropped off into a river,” wrote mother-in-law Linda McPhoee Koeing, per People. “The bridge had been destroyed 9 years ago and never repaired.”

As Today notes, the rural road Paxson turned onto after 11pm is a private one that is not maintained by the state or the county. The road in Hickory appears on GPS directions, even though it leads to a bridge that washed away and was never fixed. Police say barriers to prevent people from continuing down the road were removed for reasons that remain unclear. “He took a left, and that left went to that bridge to nowhere, which is what they called it since 2013 when that bridge washed away and no one took responsibility to get that bridge fixed,” sister-in-law Kayla Bubar tells WCNC.

Paxson had been at a birthday party for one of his children earlier that night, and his wife drove home ahead of him with their kids. Paxson stayed behind to clean up and never returned home. A friend out searching the next day came across his vehicle in the water. It remains murky just who is responsible for the road at this point, notes People. A real estate development company that once was involved in the upkeep has since dissolved.

Finally….there has been a wealth of debate around the Scooby-Do franchise….that being the sexual orientation of the character Velma….well that debate may have been settled once and for all…..

The sexual orientation of Scooby-Doo character Velma Dinkley has been as hot a topic as that of any actual celebrity—and perhaps more so, given that fans haven’t received clear confirmation of their suspicions for “generations,” per Deadline—until now. In the animated HBO Max flick Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, released digitally on Tuesday, Velma’s attraction to another woman is acknowledged outright. Upon meeting famous fashion designer Coco Diablo, Velma takes in her brilliant mind and attractive appearance as she blushes and her glasses fog up.

“I didn’t know convicted felons were your type,” fellow Mystery Incorporation crew member Daphne Blake (Grey Griffin) says to Velma (Kate Micucci), referring to Coco (Myrna Velasco), per the Hollywood Reporter. “I’m crushing big-time, Daphne,” Velma responds. “What do I do? What do I say?” In another scene, Velma adopts a lovestruck expression as Coco calls her “the cute one” and touches her shoulder. In yet another interaction with Coco, Velma’s glasses literally melt off her face. This means Velma is now “officially a lesbian,” according to Variety, which reports this fact has been “an open secret among fans and Scooby-Doo creatives” for years.

James Gunn, director of 2002’s live-action Scooby-Doo and the 2004 sequel, previously noted his intention was to portray Velma as “explicitly gay” but said Warner Bros. interfered. Tony Cervone, a producer for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the animated series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2010 to 2013, also described Velma as “gay”—”not bi.” He added the series showed sparks between Velma and female character Marcie Fleach, though their relationship wasn’t explicitly acknowledged. “OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY,” reads one Tuesday tweet, liked more than 225,000 times.

You are now caught up with the useless news from the week….

Enjoy your weekend and be safe…..

“lego ergo scribo”