uPolice: Man Pitched A Condiment-Throwing Fit Over Rest Stop’s Lack Of Macaroni & Cheese, Potatoesr

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  (Coyoty)

  We all get cranky when we’ve got a craving for a certain food and it’s nowhere to be found, but it’s important in those frustrating moments to keep a cool head. Unlike one man who allegedly was so enraged that a rest stop didn’t have any macaroni and cheese — and to add insult to injury, had run out of potatoes.

  State police in Pennsylvania say a man from New York threw condiments around in a rage at a Turnpike rest stop when he found out that the foods he wanted to eat were not available at that location, reports the Associated Press.

  The 47-year-old man allegedly got his duff up after he ordered macaroni and cheese at the rest stop’s Roy Rogers restaurant and was informed they had run out of it. Police say this lack of mac caused him to become “angry and agitated” and he “began to curse.”

  Being angry and swearing isn’t a crime, of course. But police say after he got coffee from another vendor and returned to the restaurant to order potatoes, things escalated: After he was told that Roy Rogers was out of potatoes as well, he allegedly became enraged and started tossing condiments around.

  At some point the police were called to intervene, and the man was charged with disorderly conduct.

  Good travel tip: Pack your own macaroni and cheese and potatoes. It’s a rule I live by, in case of dairy/carb emergencies.

  Police: Man enraged by lack of mac ‘n cheese at rest stop [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uNJ Residents Call For Info On Sprint Refund, Get Phone Sex Line Insteadr

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  (Misfit Photographer)
  

  Earlier this week, Sprint and Verizon reached multimillion-dollar settlements with federal regulators for allowing third parties to bill for unwanted and unauthorized add-on services. But when New Jersey residents tried to call the Sprint information number given out by the state’s attorney general, they were in for another telephonic surprise.

  After hearing from concerned locals, the Courier-Post called the toll-free number given out by the AG’s office in a press release, and rather than hearing the greeting of “Thank you for calling the Sprint Government Restitution Helpline,” the sexy voice on the other line told them, “You’ve definitely come to the right place.”

  “Want to get kinky one on one,” one woman on the not-Sprint hotline asked. “Or do you want to meet my girlfriends in the orgy room?”

  No, I just want to know if I’m eligible for a refund, but since you asked…

  Obviously, Sprint isn’t in such dire straits that it’s now running a phone sex business to subsidize its wireless operations. The New Jersey AG says it was just a typo that transposed a couple of numbers in the press release.

  The issue has been fixed and the number for any Sprint customer to call for more information on the bill-cramming settlement is (we checked) 877-389-8787.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uNew Chicago Taco Bell Could Be Company’s First To Sell Alcoholr

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  (Mike Mozart)
  

  Want an ice-cold beer to wash down that Doritos Locos Taco? If city permits and licenses are to be believed, a new Taco Bell in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood may be the first to let you live that dream.

  Eater reports that management for the establishment – which is expected to open sometime this summer – applied for a liquor license.

  Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that the restaurant will serve alcohol, but it’s a pretty strong indicator that the location could be the company’s first ever to sell adult beverages.

  A spokesman for the fast food company wouldn’t offer additional details about the location other than to say it would be a “completely new urban restaurant design.”

  This isn’t the first time that Yum! Brands – the owner of Taco Bell and several other fast food brands – has dipped its toes in the taco/booze pool.

  Last spring, the company announced plans to open a new upscale eatery called U.S. Taco Co. that served “American-inspired” tacos and other American dishes, as well as boozy milkshakes.

  While the U.S. Taco Co. location eventually opened in California, the company postponed plans to serve alcohol after it was unable to obtain a liquor license, Business Insider reports.

  If the new Wicker Park Taco Bell does indeed go the route of margaritas, Mexican beer and other alcoholic drinks, it could prove to be a competitor for another Mexican-inspired chain restaurant serving alcohol: Chipotle.

  Taco Bell Wicker Park Could Become First in World to Serve Booze [Eater]
  Taco Bell wants to open a restaurant with alcohol [Business Insider]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uWhat Are The Best And Worst Airlines For Using Rewards Travel?r

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  (paul_houle)

  So you’ve racked up a bunch of frequent flier miles or loyalty points or whatever your preferred airline calls them, but can you actually use those rewards to book free travel when you want? For some U.S.-based carriers, the answer ranges from “almost definitely” to “good luck.”

  Airline research firm IdeaWorks Company has released the results of its annual Switchfly Reward Seat Availability Survey which looks at a wide variety of carriers to see how much flexibility you have in using your rewards miles.

  Southwest‘s Rapid Rewards once again led all U.S. carriers (and tied with airberlin for the top spot overall) with 100% of the tester’s attempted travel dates available for booking with rewards points.

  JetBlue was the #2 U.S. airline (tied for #5 overall), with an availability rate of 87.1%, down nearly 6 points from the previous year.

  Alaska Air Group, which runs Alaska Airlines and Horizon, showed a huge 20 percentage point year-over-year improvement in rewards availability, leaping up to 80%. Alaska was followed by United with 75% availability.

  American Airlines‘ 67% availability rate isn’t impressive, but it is 12 percentage points better than last year. Meanwhile, Delta had the lowest availability rate of American carriers, with only 57.9% of rewards booking queries available.

  “Consumers expect something of value from brands in return for their business and for their loyalty, and they want and expect offers that are relevant reflections of themselves,” said Switchfly CEO Daniel Farrar. “The key takeaway is that airlines can’t afford to allow a single customer to have a bad experience anywhere in the booking or redemption path.”

  To test for availability, IdeaWorks attempted to book travel on 280 specific dates for each airline, using only rewards travel. Each itinerary in the test included a Saturday night stay. The availability rate reflects the percentage of selected travel dates for which the testers were able to use their rewards miles.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uPanama City Beach Officials Vote To Ban Boozing On Beaches During Spring Breakr

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  (|third|eye|)

  While there is a distinct pleasure in burying your toes in warm sand while sipping on a cold alcoholic beverage, city officials in Panama City Beach, FL have decided to crack down on the booze-fueled beach shenanigans commonly exhibited by college students on spring break, after a spate of negative publicity this year. To put it plainly: No more drinking on the beach in the month of March.

  The sands of Panama City Beach’s beaches will be a bit quieter next year, as the city’s Beach Council voted unanimously yesterday to ban alcohol on its sandy stretches next spring break, reports the Panama City Herald.

  Other ordinances were also approved in a first reading (that still must become final) in an attempt to tamp down the rowdiness of the season, including rules that would close bars at 2. a.m., ban open containers of alcoholic beverages in commercial parking lots unless under the surveillance and control of the business, and outlaw parking on right of way after dark.

  The council also voted to designated the entire month of March as officially Spring Break as it applies to those laws.

  Local officials are seeking to clean up the city’s image after this most recent spring break, when seven partiers were shot and injured at a party, and an alleged sexual assault on the beach behind a popular nightclub — in broad daylight — was reportedly caught on camera and reported widely in the media.

  For the drinking ordinance to become law, it will have have to be brought back for two council votes.

  Spring break can still be fun though, kids! Especially if you have The Lion King to wake you from your malt-liquor-beverage-induced slumber every morning at the hotel.

  PCB agrees to ban drinking on beach during Spring Break [Panama City Herald]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFans Of Avon’s Skin So Soft As A Bug Repellent Are Wrongr

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• Avon doesn’t market its Skin So Soft bath oil as an insect repellent, and it’s not clear where the legend that it works as one started. Yet many people swear by it, including avid outdoorspeople like my late dad. It’s not clear where the legend started, but as far as our myth-repellent colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports can tell, Skin So Soft doesn’t actually repel insects.

  Now, Avon does take advantage of the product’s legend and now markets a Skin So Soft brand combination insect repellent/sunscreen, but combo products are problematic because you need to reapply sunscreen more often than insect repellent, which means building up more of the latter on your skin than you probably need.

  As part of their tests of insect repellents, Consumer Reports tested the original Skin So Soft bath oil, the product that so many people swear by to repel mosquitoes. They found that it…did not repel mosquitoes.

  The deal with Skin So Soft [Consumer Reports]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uDairy Queen To Remove Soda From Kids’ Menu By Sept. 1r

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  (Paxton Holley)

  Taking the lead from other fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Wendy’s and Burger King, Dairy Queen has reportedly decided to nix sugary drinks from the kids’ menu.

  While we’re still waiting for confirmation about the menu update from the company, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and other consumer groups are reporting that the Minneapolis-based subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway is joining an ever-growing list of fast-food restaurants no longer serving soda as an option with kids’ meals.

  “Dairy Queen deserves credit for being responsive to the concerns of parents, who increasingly want to be able to order off the kids’ menu without having to say ‘no’ to soda,” Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at CSPI said in a statement.

  According to Wootan, the decision to remove soda from the kids menu was approved unanimously by DQ’s Franchise Advisory Council.

  The removal of all soda (or pop, Coke, cola, fizzy brown stuff) from the DQ kids’ menu is expected to take place by September 1. The company’s current kids’ menu offers milk, soft drinks and the ice drink Arctic Rush as options to complete meals.

  The Food Justice campaign from Momsrising.org, a grassroots organization, was quick to applaud DQ’s move, saying the company is now doing its part to keep America’s kids healthy.

  “Ensuring that our children can make healthy choices is an important part of raising them,” Monifa Bandele, senior campaign director with the group, says in a statement [PDF]. “When restaurants offer up sugary drinks as a default choice, it undermines those efforts.”

  Consumerist’s request for confirmation and comment to Dairy Queen was not immediately returned.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist