Chemistry professor Joe Schwarcz explains how the Costco rotisserie chicken lawsuit is frivolous

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Vaidehi Mehta at FindLaw on February 2, 2026 titled Lawsuit over Costco’s preservative-free rotisserie chicken ruffles feathers. He said:

 

“Their legal arguments center on the idea that Costco’s ‘no preservatives’ promise is deceptive because it conflicts with how the product is actually formulated. They allege that sodium phosphate and carrageenan function as chemical preservatives (by buffering pH, chelating metal ions, reducing fat oxidation, preserving texture, and extending shelf life), so a reasonable consumer would not expect a product advertised as having ‘no preservatives’ to contain these ingredients.”

 

But when you look up the Wikipedia articles on sodium phosphate and carrageenan you will find neither is described as being a preservative.

 

Joe Schwarcz is a chemistry professor and runs the McGill Center for Science and Society. His latest article collection book from 2025 is titled Better Not Burn Your Toast: The Science of Food and Health. Another article by Joe Schwarcz at the McGill Office for Science and Society on February 4, 2026 is titled The Frivolous Costco Chicken Lawsuit. He begins by explaining:

 

“Let’s start with the fact that sodium phosphate and carrageenan are not preservatives! Preservatives are substances added to food, other than salt, sugars, vinegar or spices, that prevent spoilage by curbing the growth of bacteria, molds or fungi.”

Then he goes on to explain what sodium phosphate and carrageenan are and how they function. He ends by pointing out that the high sodium content from salting the chicken instead is a valid dietary concern.

An image of a rotisserie chicken was cropped from this one at Wikimedia Commons. 

 

 

Six comic strips describing different types of dog barks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Specific details can make a speech more memorable. Dave Kellett draws a web comic strip called Sheldon. Dogs are one of his common subjects. In the second half of February, he had a series of six comic strips, each describing four different types of dog barks. They are:

 

February 16, 2026

‘Trampoline’

‘Car engine that won’t turn over’

‘New Orleans slow funeral tuba’

‘Smoke detector with a dying battery’

 

February 18, 2026

‘Space shuttle launch’

‘Blender with a spoon in it’

‘Popcorn kernel that won’t pop’

‘Polite-but-still-unexpected-fart’

 

February 20, 2026

‘Opera singer who stubbed a toe’

‘Mic check at a concert’

‘Elevator that stops between floors’

‘Old man in need of a lozenge’

 

February 23, 2026

‘Two shoes in a dryer’

‘Inflatable guest bed slowly losing air all night’

’10-year old Scottish kid learning bagpipes’

‘Still-mad-at-you, Marvel-movie slow-walk-away’

 

February 25, 2026

‘Church organ warm up’

‘Submarine sonar ping’

‘Bubble wrap addict’

‘Unbalanced towels in the dryer’

 

February 27, 2026

‘Spanish bull before the charge’

‘Cave’

‘Slowly cracked soda can’

‘Winter-weight buffalo crossing the road in Yellowstone’

 

My comic was modified from images of a barking dog and layered grass at OpenClipArt.  

 

 

More about eulogies and writing them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The March 2026 Toastmaster magazine has a brief article by George Kiser on pages 18 and 19 titled Finding the Right Way to Say Goodbye.

 

There also are some good longer articles on writing eulogies. One is a 5-page pdf by Angela Morrow, RN at NH Funeral on August 14, 2019 titled How to Write a Eulogy or Remembrance Speech. Another 9-page pdf article by Rhodes Davis at Godly Youth in 2016 is titled Writing a Memorable Eulogy. A third 15-page pdf article at Eulogy for Life in 2019 is titled Write a Eulogy in 7 steps. A fourth 16-page pdf article at Co-operative Funeralcare is titled Well chosen words: How to write a eulogy.

 

There is a four-minute YouTube video at TEDx Talks September 1, 2021 titled How to write a eulogy | Bret Simner | TEDx Basel.

 

And there is an 11-page pdf article by David M. Markowitz et al. in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA on August 26, 2025 (Volume 122, Number 35) titled An exploration of basic human values in 38 million obituaries over 30 years. The abstract says:

 

“How societies remember the dead can reveal what people value in life. We analyzed 38 million obituaries from the United States to examine how personal values are encoded in individual and collective legacies. Using Schwartz’s theory of basic human values, we found that tradition and benevolence dominated legacy reflections, while values like power and stimulation appeared less frequently.

 

Major cultural events—the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic—were systematically linked to changes in legacy reflections about personal values, with security declining after 9/11, achievement declining after the financial crisis, and benevolence declining for years after COVID-19 began and, to date, not yet returning to baseline.

 

Gender and age of the deceased were also linked to differences in legacy: Men were remembered more for achievement, power, and conformity, while women were remembered more for benevolence and hedonism. Older people were remembered more for tradition and conformity than younger people. These patterns shifted dynamically across the lifespan, with obituaries for men showing more age-related variation than legacies for women. Our findings reveal how obituaries serve as psychological and cultural time capsules, preserving not just individual legacies, but also indicating what US society values collectively regarding a life well lived.”

 

There even is a two-page pdf article from the Canadian Mental Health Association titled Writing an obituary for a loved one who has died by suicide.

 

An image of a eulogy for Anwar Sadat at the UN came from the Library of Congress. 

 

What would you rather do than call customer support?

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Shep Hyken at Medium on April 2, 2025 titled Your Call Is Very Important to Us which also appeared at Advisorpedia on April 14, 2025. As shown above in a bar chart, he found in surveys that, rather than call customer support, 53% would have dinner with in-laws, 39% would clean a toilet, 34% would visit the dentist, and 26% would speak in front of an audience of a thousand people. These results previously appeared in his 2025 The State of Customer Service and CX study on page 22. In his 2026 study 36% would rather clean a toilet. And in his 2022 study 46% would rather visit the dentist while 42% would rather clean a toilet.

 

 

Be aware of speakers and audience members with mobility challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a useful post by Rich Hopkins at his Speak & Deliver blog on February 27, 2026 titled A Plea to Meeting Planners. He had his left leg amputated below the knee. Rich says to plan inclusively:

 

 “Ask speakers about mobility needs in advance - Ensure ramps are visible, safe, and easy to use - Provide seating options on stage - Reduce unnecessary distances when possible - Think about attendee navigation, not just speaker logistics.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, on stage there preferably should be a chair with arms rather than a high stool.

 

Rich made it to the semi-finals (top eighty) of the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking seven times and the finals (top ten) three times, as was discussed in an article by Joe Rubino in the Broomfield Enterprise on August 17, 2011 titled Broomfield man aiming to be the roast of Toastmasters.

 

You can watch an 8-minute YouTube video of his speech titled What We Knew Then at Rich Hopkins 2006 Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking Third Place. (At 6 – 1 /2 minutes he sits down in a chair). And you can watch his Top Ten speech from 2008, Unthinkable.

 

Most of us don’t think much about mobility challenges either for speakers or the audience. I only did after I broke my fibula, which I blogged about on November 24, 2016 in a post titled What I’m thankful for today – recovering from a broken fibula.

 

There also is an article by Dane Cobain at speakerHUB on September 26, 2023 titled How to Make Your Public Speaking Events More Accessible.

 

Images of an amputee, a chair and a stool were adapted from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Humor Me is an amusing 2026 book by Chris Duffy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an amusing 2026 book by Christopher Duffy titled Humor Me: How laughing more can make you present, creative, connected, and happy. On page 215 there is a 2x2 chart, which I have colorized as shown above. And on February 10, 2026 I blogged about this book in a post titled Hair salons with puns for names.

 

The book has eleven chapters with the following titles:

 

 1] The First Pillar: Being Present

 2] The Second Pillar: Laughing at Yourself

 3] The Third Pillar: Taking Social Risks

 4] The Math of Comedy

 5] Becoming Magnetic

 6] Inside Jokes with Abe Lincoln

 7] The Second-Best Medicine

 8] More Exciting than ‘Eureka!’

 9] Punching Up

10] Laughing and Crying

11] The Only Thing Worse than No Sense of Humor

 

Chris has an eight-minute TED talk about what’s in the book released on September 11, 2024 titled How to Find Laughter Anywhere | Chris Duffy | TED. He describes, as also is on page 69 in the book, putting the title of Chief Executive Officer of LinkedIn on his LinkedIn profile. Amazingly it took their Trust & Safety department a year to react to that by deleting his account!

 

He also was interviewed by npr at Weekend edition on January 11, 2026.

 

 

We can sometimes see more than really is there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wikipedia page says:

 

“Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.”

 

There is a brief article by Dr. Alice Pailhes on April 21, 2025 titled Why We See Faces in Random Places: How our brain turns randomness into meaning. And another article by Phil Plait at Scientific American on June 28, 2024 is titled The Face on Mars and Other Cases of Cosmic Pareidolia.

 

The happy potato face by Andy Mabbett came from Wikimedia Commons.