From staff

GUITTARD HERO

Rave: If you love chocolate chip cookies (and who doesn’t?), try Guittard semi-sweet chocolate chips in place of Nestle next time you make a batch. I’m not saying Nestle isn’t good; it’s just that Guittard chips are better – in fact, they’re little pieces of heaven. My husband and I have made several batches of cookies since I bought Marjorie Johnson’s “Blue Ribbon” cookbook a few months ago. We started out using Nestle, and the cookies were great. But one day, at the grocery store, I noticed some gold-colored bags near the old standby yellow and black ones and, since they were cheaper, decided to give them a shot. Sometimes, cheaper isn’t better, but in this case, I struck gold. – Lori Carlson

TEXT TROUBLE

Rant: If anyone out there has figured out a way to avoid paying for unsolicited spam text messages sent to their cell phone, I’m all ears. It’s not so much that I can’t afford an extra 40 to 80 cents a month on the phone bill (even though every little bit adds up). I simply believe I should not have to pay so much as a penny for incoming messages from people/robots hocking everything from Asian escorts to Zoloft. I think I’ll be placing a call to T-Mobile soon to check into this – not to mention the occasional “account update” text message from T-Mobile itself, which also shows up on the bill. – Lori Carlson

UNDER KEROUAC’S INFLUENCE

Rave: A few years ago, I had a chance to view Jack Kerouac’s infamous “On the Road” scroll at an exhibit in a Las Vegas library. The stuff of legends, the story behind the scroll goes something like this: Kerouac shut himself off from the outside world for three weeks while punching out his unconventional prose onto a roll of teletype paper a buddy of his stole from work. The “Beat Generation” writer emerged from his apartment with what many would consider one of the most important pieces of post-war American literature. Well, over the weekend, I found a published copy of the scroll and dove in as soon as I got home. Since I’m new on the job, it might not be a good idea to immerse myself in a book noted for its lack of both paragraph breaks and punctuation, but I can’t help myself. So, dear colleagues, please forgive me as you copy edit my work in the next week or so. Just think: I might give you something to rant about in next week’s paper! – Josh Chase

FANNY PACK ALERT

Rant: My wife’s birthday came and went this past week. She wanted to go to the zoo, so we paid the $19 to get in (it was buy-one, get-one last Sunday at the Minnesota Zoo), “paid” being the key word. As in, “We may not have children, but we paid just as much as anyone else.” I get that kids need as many educational activities they as they can get. When I notice a kid trying to catch a peek of the cute little otters wrestling around on the ground, I get out of the way. And when a kid wants to spend 10 minutes looking at a green tree frog through a tiny glass aquarium window only two people can look through at a time, I politely wait my turn. But after going through that kind of thing all day for your kids – and this is for you, Mr. Neon Fanny Pack – when my wife and I are trying to look at the cute little fish from “Finding Nemo” through the glass wall of a fairly large fish tank, stay out of the way. There are plenty of other places to look from. If you do, for whatever reason, have to stand directly in front of us, and we move someplace else, try not to walk all the way across the room to do it again. It’s not funny. Not as funny as that fanny pack, at least. – Josh Chase

THINK SUMMER FESTIVALS

Rave: Five of the last six years, I have attended the 10,000 Lakes Music Festival in Detroit Lakes in mid-July, and let me tell you, this is a great music festival if you don’t mind four days jam-packed with music, camping and entertainment. This year, the festival has announced the first artists in a lineup that is shaping up quite nicely. So far, the Dave Matthews Band is headlining one night, Widespread Panic is playing two nights and Wilco will take the stage to close a fourth night. In addition to those bands, there are a variety of late-night shows that may go until the break of dawn, and then the music starts up again at about noon. If you’re interested, get tickets early as the price slowly increases as the festival gets closer. This is my way of bringing a little summer to the dead of winter. – Shawn Hogendorf

SMASHING SUCCESS

Rave: I recently learned that great customer service isn’t dead. All too often, I spend time on the phone with large companies and don’t feel like I have accomplished a thing. Last week, I called Hunter, a company that made the ceiling fans I recently purchased, because I had a Wii problem. See, as I was slamming home a serve on the video game system, my arm extended to the ceiling and I smashed the light out of the fan. When I called to try to get a replacement shade, I explained what happened, and after sharing a laugh with the person on the other side of the phone, they sent me a replacement free of charge. Needless to say, I was shocked and quite pleased. I guess honesty does pay off, and a slightly humorous story to go with the truth didn’t hurt my chances either. By the way, I won my tennis match. —Shawn Hogendorf 

Do you have a rant or a rave? Send us your musings:

E-mail: rantsandraves@swpub.com

Address: Prior Lake American, Attn: Rants and Raves, P.O. Box 538, Prior Lake, MN, 55372

Guidelines: Reader rants and raves must be no more than 100 words. The deadline is noon each Wednesday.

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Rants and raves may be edited as space requires. All publication decisions will be made by the editor.