Zooey & Ben no more? (insert “she without the him” and/or play on death cab lyric subhed here)

I guess we all saw this coming, after the Cotton: Fabric of Our Lives commercial…but what a rough week. Kim and Kris, and now this. 

via Rolling Stone

Unfriendly news for this native Clevelandian: the smiley cone sundae could be no more??

Okay, Westlake + Parma Heights are safe, for now….but still.

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., the troubled family restaurant chain that was a casualty of a tough economy and changing customer preferences, said it closed 63 of its nearly 500 locations as it looks to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. … Friendly’s was founded by Prestley and Curtis Blake, brothers who started a neighborhood ice cream shop in Springfield during the Great Depression in 1935. Over the next several decades, the men opened hundreds of restaurants, carving a niche in the market as a family-friendly hangout serving ice cream treats before they began feuding over the direction the business would take. They sold it to Hershey in 1979.

During the 1950s, before anyone fretted about childhood obesity and before the mall had completely displaced Main Street as the business district of suburban communities, Friendly’s seemed the ideal place for New England families to share meals built around hamburgers and ice cream sundaes.

(via Boston.com)

above the fold: puppy dog face for no Christie run?

If you scroll down a little there’s a caption… but too-small-browser-lolz for the win.

“High concentrations of restaurants primarily serving Miller Lite (termed “Miller pours” in restaurant industry vernacular), more than four Applebee’s casual dining restaurants, charcoal barbecue unit sales per capita, bars per capita; night clubs permitting adult males wearing tank-tops; restaurants serving pork rinds and pickled meats.”

One of the criteria to be named a “mustache-friendly” city.

fashion don’t?: necessary glasses for life’s awkward moments

Whether you’re a micro-celebrity on the run from paparazzi… or (more likely) want to avoid the embarrassment of trip-and-fall, bad hair day, unattractive-cupcake-eating pictures on Facebook… or worse… it’s now possible.

(Did I legitimately buy these $12 glasses because I think I will need them frequently? Yes, yes I did. But hey, you can’t tell who’s in this picture, now, can you?)

The woman, a former California resident, says, “pinch me, it just doesn’t feel real,” as she reaches for a napkin to dry her eyes.

-In-N-Out’s Texas Opening Brings Woman to Tears

“so my wife sent me on a side trip to ikea this weekend. my friends and i started asking ourselves- what if you lived in ikea? well take a look…”

What if you lived at Ikea?, Christian Gideon Photography, via Steve Oslica

Presented without comment. 

File under: ineffective marketing.

Effective marketing: E!’s “Always a Bridesmaid” Sex & the City marathon this afternoon.