For my column this week, I had several different ideas, but none long enough to fill an entire column. So, for the first time, I present a bunch of random thoughts, observations and witticisms.

I’m getting really tired of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Granted, they do taste good, but once you’ve had them a few times, they tend to lose their novelty. They’re not really any better than the doughnuts they sell at the grocery store &045; just more expensive. Personally, I think their popularity has already reached its peak, and they will soon go the way of Dippin’ Dots &045; the ice cream of the future of the past.

And while we’re on the topic of food, what’s the deal with McDonald’s? I read recently that they are working to improve the flavor of their hamburgers. The funny thing is that they waited until their company started showing a financial loss before they decided to make an improvement to their product. Why is that? Incidentally, I am curious as to how they are going to do this. Maybe they’re going to start using actual meat.

Have you ever noticed that anytime you go to buy something, nobody ever counts the change back to you anymore? Sometimes they don’t even tell you how much change you have coming to you, they just hand you a wad of money and say &uot;Here you go.&uot; I realize that the amount of my change is printed on the receipt &045; that is beside the point. Attention retail managers: If I give the cashier a $5 bill for a $3.28 purchase, I should get $1.72 counted back. That means the cashier is supposed to say, &uot;It was $3.28, there’s four (handing me the 72 cents first), and five (handing me the dollar).&uot; It is not that difficult, and would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve noticed something kind of funny. Have you ever noticed that a CD can cost about $5 more at a music retailer than it does at a discount store &045; for the same title? I’m not talking about the CDs that are on sale at one place and not at the other &045; that makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is how a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young CD costs $5 more at a Sam Goody store than at Wal-Mart &045; especially when Sam Goody’s parent company, Best Buy, sells it in their stores for even less than Wal-Mart’s price. What’s up with that?

Last summer I did a column about soft drinks, but these ones are worth mentioning here. 7-UP has released a bizarro version of itself. It is called 7-Upside Down. It is a green, artificially-flavored soft drink with caffeine. The label on the bottle is, predictably, upside down. My wife works in Le Center. There, she saw a sign indicating that this soft drink was on sale &045; except they didn’t call it 7-Upside Down. They called it dnL.

The other soft drink-related nugget I wanted to bring up was the kinds of soft drinks found only at Super Wal-Mart. I saw pop in two unprecedented flavors &045; cotton candy and celery. Yes, celery the vegetable. Actually, it was celery combined with something else (I forget which). I am not making any of this up. I would have liked to have been at the board meeting where they approved production of these. It kind of makes me wonder what flavors were given the thumbs-down. Maybe someday we’ll see raisin-flavored soda, too.

I’ll end this column with something that the anti-telemarketing crowd will appreciate. Qwest provides my telephone service. One of the features that I use is anonymous call rejection, in cooperation with their Caller ID service. It prevents blocked calls from getting through. I am also on the state’s Do Not Call list. The other day, Qwest called me, offering me some service to prevent telemarketing calls. I told them I did not accept calls from telephone solicitors. The caller had the gall to tell me that if I purchased their new service, I wouldn’t get calls like that. Then I told him I was also on a Do Not Call list, and he gave up. I just found it kind of amusing that a telemarketer was trying to sell me a product designed to prevent calls from telemarketers.

Dustin Petersen is an Albert Lea resident. His column appears Mondays.