Snowman Tatermitts

I'm not sure why, but ever since I first heard about Snowman Taterlegs, I've been enamored of the term. It's just a strange juxtaposition of words that I imagine rolls right off the tounge. (I haven't had a chance to use it in any of my live games yet.)

Thanks to the power of Tivo, I don't watch many commercials, but happened to have my head in email while half-watching something when this came on:

Peeling potatoes can take forever! Oh No! Not with a knife, that's dangerous! Now there's a better way! Introducing: Tater Mitts!

It's basically a pair of kitchen gloves with coarse-grit sandpaper built-in to the palms/fingers.

The commercial sucked me in to actually watching, and I had to rewind, because it made me laugh out loud. They had 4 demonstrations of the product "in use", and 3 of them either made the product look bad, or were obviously rigged.

1 - Potato ("in only 8 seconds!") - This potato has obviously been boiled to within an inch of its life. (The instructions apparently state that you must boil the potato first, but it never says so in the commercial. Looks like it works OK, with no obvious doctoring.

2 - Carrot ("works great on other vegetables, too!") - looks like it works OK, but the carrot sawdust is clogging up the sandpaper on the gloves somethin' fierce. Looks like they'd be a bitch to clean.

3 - Apple - This is the one that first got my attention, because they use "time lapse" footage to show the before and after. The after shot has a very clear circle around the stem which makes it completely obvious that the apple has been peeled using a knife.

4 - Sweet Potato ("you can even peel sweet potatoes in a flash, too!") - This is the one that made me laugh. You can see that they're dropping "peelings" out of the gloves as they wave them around the pre-peeled yam under a stream of water.


The spooky thing is, their number has Snowman Taterlegs right in there.
1-800-453-3300.

Call now!

STFU

So, I've been watching Poker After Dark, on NBC, and it's not bad. It has the flavor of High Stakes poker, but it's in a tournament format. They show most (all?) of the hands, and most of the time the interactions between the players are featured. Shana Hiatt does exit interviews, and is available throughout if a player feels like getting up to talk to her about what's going on.

All of that is very cool. It even seemed for a while like they were going to not have any commentary, and let the players' conversation and actions be the whole of the entertainment.

But, it turns out there's this annoying announcer, who not only makes informational statements (some of which are useful, but most of which are completely redundant with either the graphics or the obvious actions of the players), but also makes these snarky comments out of the blue, and pretends to be involved in conversations at the table, even though it's obvious he's adding his comments in a studio after-the-fact.)

Here are some examples:

Sheiky rakes in the chips, while Annie's in the middle of a story. The announcer drowns out the story I want to hear to share this pithy thought:
Ann: Shawn wins the pot

Annie: David Grey against Sam [Grizzle] with his crippled hand.
Ann: Sounds like a pay-per-view event.

Sheiky: Don't do that to Steve
Ann: Sheiky the peacemaker.

Gus: Alright, let's try something new [as he pushes all-in].
Ann: Yeah, how about someone calling a raise.

Annie: All-in
Ann: Annie's taking a page out of Gustav's book.

Gus Hansen: I hit my man right away.
Announcer: If Gus keeps hitting men, he may as well sign with Don King.

Gus shows AKs to the hole camera, and we hear the insightful:
Announcer: Another big hand for Gus.

Gus: I guess I could stack them a little bigger.
Ann: Ya think, Gussie?

[Doyle folds T2]
Ann: How do you not play your own hand, Doyle?!?

Mike Matusow: I'm not creative. I'm not here to be creative.
Ann: Oh come on, Mikey, you're a poker artiste.

[out of nowhere]
Ann: David still nursing the tail end of that drink.

David Grey: Wherefor are you Dolly?
Ann: Easy there, Shakespeare.

Ann: Carlos is rockin' the tower of power chip configuration...

[Moneymaker plays his first hand.]
Ann: Nice of you to join us, Moneymaker!

Ann: You think Chris Ferguson wears a suit to bed, like PJs?

Ann: [Johnny Chan] kind of looks like Superman, with that curl. Now we just have to get him a cape.

[After Chan makes a flush (and a straight) on the river]
Ann: Johnny makes a runner-runner straight, and Doyle's stack is now extremely short.

I think the show could be revolutionary, if they just drop any commentary (other than the lead-in for each segment after returning from commercial). If there's silence, so be it. I think the fan base knows how to tell what's going on in a hand without needing to be spoonfed information like:

3 players to the flop.
Daniel's betting with 9-high.
Gus wins the pot.
etc.

I've read other complaints about this, so I hope for next season NBC will either eliminate/replace him, or get him to tone it down.