REVIEW: Heineken Premium Light

Sometimes to be creative, people need a catalyst – something that sparks the imagination and lets creativity flow.

For many great writers, like Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allan Poe, and my friend Ryan, their catalyst was/is alcohol.

Since alcohol helped these writers create wonderful pieces of literature (except for my friend Ryan, who instead wrote about his experiences in nightclubs for a local alternative newspaper) I felt that it wouldn’t hurt if I tried to find out if alcohol would help me be more creative, and perhaps write the GREATEST quasi-product review IN THE WORLD.

Okay, I may not be able to write the GREATEST quasi-product review IN THE WORLD, but at least something better than the usual crap I spew out.

To make this happen, I need two things, alcohol and something to review. Although not a lot of alcohol, because excessive amounts of it make me want to dance with inanimate objects, especially refrigerators, which in an inebriated state look like big booty white women to me, like pre-Trimspa Anna Nicole Smith…times two.

Also, for some reason, I like to dance with poles when drunk.

Anyway, let’s see what kinds of alcohol I have in The Impulsive Buy Laboratory.

Red wine? Too classy.

Vanilla vodka? Too much of a chance I’ll end up freakin’ a fridge.

Listerine? Too painful.

NyQuil? Too drowsy.

Rubbing alcohol? Too poisonous.

Heineken Premium Light Beer? Yahtzee!

Oooh, I can also review it. Sweet!

Let’s do this.

7:45 p.m. – Okay, so I’m sitting here with my laptop and Heineken Premium Light Beer. I’ve taken a couple of swigs of the beer and I don’t feel creative.

7:47 p.m. – I’ve gone through a quarter of a bottle and I don’t have any ideas for the GREATEST quasi-product review IN THE WORLD. The Heineken Premium Light so far has been easy to drink. It’s like a slightly watered down version of regular Heineken. It tastes all right. But if you like Heineken and are watching your girlish figure, you probably will enjoy the 99 calories and low carbs in each bottle.

7:50 p.m. – Oh man, I’m feeling kind of warm. I’m such a frickin’ lightweight! I only drank half the bottle and I’m already turning red. Damn these Asian genes! These Asian genes make me red when I drink. These Asian genes prevented me from growing past 5’7″. These Asian genes make everyone think I’m good at math. Maybe I should’ve ate something before I started drinking. I still don’t feel creative.

8:00 p.m. – Ugh. I drank the whole bottle and nothing. I wish I could channel the spirit of Hemingway. How did he do it? Maybe I should call my friend Ryan and ask him how he does it. No wait, he’s probably drunk right now and in his writing flow. Don’t want to mess with him because not only is he a creative drunk, he’s also an angry drunk.

8:10 p.m. – I’m just here waiting for the creative buzz to hit me, but I don’t even feel it coming. Shouldn’t the creativity be flowing like a river after the white blanket of snow melts? Shouldn’t the ideas be pouring out of me like iced tea from a clear glass pitcher on a hot summer day in August? Shouldn’t the words, sentences, and paragraphs be falling from the sky like rain in the spring?

8:11 p.m. – Oh man, I gotta pee.

Item: Heineken Premium Light
Price: FREE (12 ounces)
Purchased at: Given by Charlie at Hass MS&L
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: If you like Heineken, but are watching your girlish figure, this would be good for you. Tasted like a slightly watered down version of regular Heineken. Easy to drink. Low carbs. Low calories.
Cons: Alcohol does not equal creativity for me. My ability to turn red after drinking half a bottle of beer. I’m such a lightweight. Couldn’t write the GREATEST quasi-product review IN THE WORLD, not even a tribute.

REVIEW: Staples Easy Button

(Editor’s Note: To get the full effect of today’s review, you must read it like you’re an evil scientist. Trust me, the review will be better.)

SUDOKU!!!

You taunt me with your numbers and blank boxes, making me spend hours trying to figure out your mysterious ways. The pressure of trying to solve you permeates from my body into my pencil’s eraser and then into weak newspaper paper, causing it to tear, along with my hopes and dreams of solving the mystery that is you.

You look so easy to do, but are difficult like William Faulkner novels and making women orgasm.

Despite all that time spent, I have yet to solve one of you, and you are now on my list of things I have yet to solve, which grows longer every year.

This list includes: the Rubik’s Cube, a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of kittens, a crossword puzzle on the back of a Denny’s paper place mat, a word find puzzle on a Frosted Flakes box I opened in 1993, and the Da Vinci Code.

But I feel your days are numbered, Sudoku. For I have the key to unlocking your mysteries. It is the Staples Easy Button, which will make quick work of your numeric ways. For I have seen its power and it is magnificent.

Just by pressing the Staples Easy Button, entire offices have been cleaned, ink cartridges have fallen from the sky, and the Great Wall of China can instantly pop out of the ground.

It is as powerful as the fortune-telling Magic 8 Ball, which has accurately predicted on many occasions that I will not get laid.

It was difficult trying to find the elusive Staples Easy Button. For the Staples online store has been sold out for months. I thought, if only I had a Staples Easy Button to make it easier to find a Staples Easy Button. However, I ended up doing something much easier…eBay.

It was well worth the $4.75 plus $4.99 shipping to have the opportunity to see you unraveled, Sudoku. Now with one press of this Staples Easy Button, all your answers will be revealed!

(Presses Staples Easy Button)

“That was easy.”

What? Where are the answers?

(Presses Staples Easy Button again)

“That was easy.”

Why won’t you show me the answers, Staples Easy Button?

(Presses it again)

“That was easy.”

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

The Staples Easy Button doesn’t work!

You may have won this battle, but you have yet to win the war, Sudoku. I shall unlock your mysteries someday.

SUDOKU!!!

(Editor’s Note: Thanks to Impulsive Buy reader Muneer for letting me know about the Staples Easy Button. If only it could truly make my life easier.)



Item: Staples Easy Button
Price: $4.75 (plus shipping)
Purchased at: eBay
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Says “That was easy” when button is pushed. Batteries included. Nice novelty item to have on your desk at work. Kittens. Frosted Flakes.
Cons: Totally ineffective in making things easy. It can’t even make Paris Hilton easier. Not available at Staples online store. Can easily annoy those around you if pressed too many times. My inability to solve a sudoku, figure out a Rubik’s Cube, put together a jigsaw puzzle, and make women orgasm. William Faulkner novels.

Vanilla Mint Listerine

I can hear the cries from non-Listerine users who are afraid to use it.

“Wah! Wah! I can’t handle Listerine because it burns! I’m a little wuss, that can’t handle anything and I need my mommy to hold my hand, or else I’m going to cry like a little baby.”

“Oh, woe is me, I can handle the burn of vodka down my throat, the wailing of Michael Bolton in my ears, but I can’t handle Listerine in my mouth.”

When I was growing up, the kids on the playground had names for weaklings who couldn’t handle things like the burning sensation of Listerine. Those names included, “scaredy cat,” “the first one out in dodgeball,” “pussy,” and “Marvo.”

Sure, I didn’t like the burn of Listerine, but I sucked it up, grew some balls, and got used to it. That’s how it is with Listerine, people eventually get used to the pain. Although I will admit that this technique doesn’t work with everything, like watching Jay Leno.

Now thanks to the less intense Vanilla Mint Listerine, weaklings can use this Listerine to kill germs that cause bad breath, plaque, and the gum disease Gingivitis, without it feeling like they’ve just made out with Courtney Love’s cigarette or Courtney Love herself.

It maybe about 30% to 50% less intense than normal Listerine, but according to the bottle, it’s equally effective. However, it maybe equally effective factually, but personally, it doesn’t feel like it’s equally effective.

One of the great things about the original Listerine – and its various minty forms – was that intense burning sensation, which felt like it not only killed the germs that caused bad breath, but also a few tastebuds and saliva glands.

The burn is the indicator that lets you know it’s working. The more it burns, I feel the harder it’s working. Honestly, if you found yourself one morning next to a strobelight honey or a beer goggle prince, wouldn’t you want something that has the power to disinfect regret and get rid of the taste of whatever you put your mouth on and around.

I think only the full-burning sensation of Listerine, and its equally intense minty counterparts, could provide that type of cleansing. Oh, alcohol would work as well, but the danger of alcohol would be drinking too much of it, ending up in bed the next morning with another strobelight honey or beer goggle prince, and repeating the Circle of Shame.

The less intense Vanilla Mint Listerine was mintalicious, but not very vanillalicious. Its very light vanilla flavor made me wonder why Listerine bothered to put it there in the first place. The Crest Whitening Expressions Refreshing Vanilla Mint I reviewed was much more vanilly.

Anyway, the bottom line is that if you’re a wuss, then the Vanilla Mint Listerine is better for your weak ass mouth.


Item: Vanilla Mint Listerine
Purchased Price: $3.54 (8.5-ounces)
Purchased At: The-Superstore-Behemoth-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named
Rating: 3 out of 5
Pros: Mintalicious. Less intense for wusses. Kills germs that cause bad breath, plaque, and the gum disease Gingivitis.
Cons: Not vanillalicious. Not intense enough for extreme people. Making up adjectives. Always being the first one out in dodgeball. Strobelight honeys. Beer goggle princes. Circle of Shame.