Ernestine Jamison cooks vegetables for her four children every night in their north Houston apartment.

But when she opened a bag of Pictsweet frozen cut green beans last month, she found more than just green beans.

The Jamison family believes the green and black frozen object nestled in their dinner was a severed snake head.

Jamison called Pictsweet, and they offered her $150.

But she wasn’t looking for money and turned it down.

A letter sent by the company’s insurance provider to Jamison claims Pictsweet “is not responsible for this accident,” and they are “denying liability.”

The company also claims it wasn’t a snake head at all. They say it was a frog head. “But it's still gross whether it's a frog or snake,” said Jamison.
 

Procter & Gamble is gunning for me.

With two dogs, two cats, hardwood floors, a 1-year-old and a wife who watches the Dog Whisperer on TV, I’m the target demographic for P&G’s new campaign to replace mops and brooms with Swiffer products, featuring celebrity spokesthingy Cesar Millan.

The New York Times reports that Swiffer, the 11-year-old Procter & Gamble brand, is hiring Mr. Millan to help with a different sort of behavior modification: getting consumers to forgo traditional floor cleaning devices and buy Swiffer products.

“Mops and brooms are really what we’re going after,” said Marchoe Northern, a Swiffer brand manager, adding that women were the target consumers. “It’s really about habit adaption at first — getting the Swiffer in her house — and then habit formation.”

P&G: I’m not a woman. I’m your target. Stop being so sexist.
 

I used to be an even bigger nerd than I currently am. Spending my time focusing on food safety might be considered by some as sexy (the food pornographers) but while in high school I was into a much weirder and unhip hobby -- I built robots. It's not like I hung out alone in the basement messing around with motors and gears; I built robots on my high school robotics team (I hope that makes it a bit cooler). A couple of us even coined a somewhat embarrassing team name, Team PHYRE (PHYRE stands for Port Hope young robotics engineers).

The robot building wasn't entirely aimless, we competed against other nerds in an annual national competition, Canada First. Each participating high school was provided with a few materials and tasked with creating a remote control contraption that would be used to play a game against other teams. The game varied from year-to-year but usually involved collecting/shooting/storing and moving balls or pucks into a goal. Fun stuff. We had 8 weeks to build the robot, but the competition weekend was the big pay-off. A bunch of senior high school students staying in a hotel and getting into various levels of trouble. The most embarrassing part of the story is that the competition weekends still rank high on my list of most memorable experiences.

In a related story, a group of Waterloo region (Ontario) students probably had a memorable extracurricular event weekend recently -- but for more barfblog-worthy reasons. Twenty-five students and two teachers attending DECA, an extracurricular program that gives students hands-on experience in marketing and business, reported symptoms consistient with foodborne illness after the comptetion.

The students stayed at the Toronto Sheraton Hotel in the city’s downtown, where the competition was held.
“We’re still in the early fact-finding mode,” said Brenda Miller, the region’s manager of health protection and investigation.
Public health began investigating on Wednesday (February 11) and has contacted both school boards to find out which schools sent students to the competition and if they have a surge in absenteeism.
One possibility being looked into is the hotel restaurant where many students ate, although Miller stressed there are other potential sources that must be investigated.
“It could be norovirus, but at this point it’s too early to tell,” Miller said.

While there were definitely illnesses associated with the robotics competitions, I'm pretty sure foodborne illness wasn't a likely cause.

The sun is out in Washington, D.C., as the city begins to dig out from record snowfall and even worse television commentary (why do so many people in D.C. apparently own cross-country skis when it rarely snows enough to use them?).

The Capitals-Pens hockey game was sold out, the teenager was asleep, and after a walk we soon found ourselves in a bar to watch the hyped pre-Super Bowl noontime game showcased on national TV. The Caps 13-game winning streak is in danger with the Pens leading 4-2 after 2 periods. Sorenne in her Ovechkin shirt fell asleep in my arms, although her eyes briefly opened for this pic (right). 

The Consumerist just published its top 13 grossest food stories of all time – or from the past 4 years or so. I'll just run the headlines here.

Customer Claims There Was Human Blood in Her Taco Bell

This Kmart Bacon Is Excellent, But Could Use Some More Fat

Applebee's Apple Walnut Chicken Salad, Now With Free Insect Leg

Reader Says He Found Brains In His KFC

Dead Bugs Found In Health Valley Soup

Customer Claims McDonald's Gave Her Mucus-Filled Iced Tea

Snakehead Found In T.G.I.F. Sandwich

Pardon Me, But There Is A Mouse In This Can Of Diet Pepsi Good News,That Dead Mouse In Your Diet Pepsi Was Actually A Toad

Man Claims To Have Found Condom In Soup

Loaf Of Bread Comes With Baked-In Rodent Goodness

This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog
(Addendum: I suck at this prediction thing; Caps win 5-4 in OT)