Tag Archives: USA

The Galveston B.B. Stone

Posted on by Standard Reply

OK, so I already blogged about this one. You gotta peep the comments there, one from Orjan Jacobsson is very enlightening! I gave up SquareGuitar.com a log time ago, so all those links are broken, but as of now it still lives via the Wayback Machine.

I wanted to grab some of the info I gathered from there to drop here to go along with my Dewey Decibel FlipOut and Indy Custom FlyCaster posts, hell even the custom Russ Lorenz Shitar. Sorry if most of these links below are just broken or no longer exist. I like weird guitars and obsolete websites, I guess.

A composite photo showing different angles of a uniquely shaped, rectangular-bodied Galveston electric guitar with a sunburst flamed-maple top. The left panel shows the full instrument hanging, the top-right panel shows a close-up of the body and dual humbucker pickups, and the bottom-right panel shows a close-up of the black headstock with the Galveston logo.

The short of where it stands as I understand it now:

Jerker Antony & Orjan Jacobsson designed the guitar, had it manufactured at Un-Sung in Korea, sold it under the Eagle brand in Sweden/Scandinavia and in the U.S.A. under the Galveston brand… Maybe Brownsville too? I still don’t know anything about Galveston, or really Un-Sung. B.B. Stone was a nickname for a salesman, and he was not a player who got a signature. I can assume this was inspired by Bo Diddley’s square guitar meeting 80s flash? Maybe? I should reach back out to these guys and see if I can get some updated information. It seems there are 24 worldwide, and 12 made it here to the US? There there is an orange/butterscotch option and a black/ash one. The names Dae-yong Suk & Chess Lim have come up in searches too.

I’d love to find the owners of the rest of them out there in the wild. Please, share your stories and photos in the comments!

An image comparing two guitar headstocks side-by-side against a wooden background. The left panel shows a black Galveston headstock with strings, and the right panel shows a natural-wood Eagle headstock with a cutout center and three tuning pegs on each side. Blue text at the bottom reads: "The headstock is the main difference between the Galveston B.B. Stone model & Eagle B.B. Stone model."

The original synopsis from me (via SquareGuitar.com):

My band was playing show at the American Music Café, a venue in Murrysville Pennsylvania with an attached music store. The venue & music store would be described by many locals as a “shady” business place. We played there a lot because it was easy to book shows, & a lot of our fans & friends all seemed to gravitate to the place because of the growing (at the time) void of live all-ages music venues. Every once in a while a cool or strange guitar went through the store among the usual myriad of second-rate knock-offs. On Saturday December 23rd, 2000… I saw the “square guitar”, and bought it that day. I actually ended up trading in a Cimar by Ibanez Strat clone guitar that I had purchased earlier in the week in trade for it.

Trying to find out anything about the guitar manufacturers that use the Galveston brand can prove to be difficult. The best I can gather is that they’re made in a factory somewhere in Korea.

The model name is not listed anywhere on my guitar, & I didn’t know what it was until I came across a black & white photo on some discount guitar store’s website. I noticed that he headstock is quite different from my guitar though, and there was no visible name on the headstock of the pictured guitar, but I’m getting closer.

  • The first piece of useful information about the Galveston B.B. Stone that I came across was a review found at Harmony Central. Check it out here. – I don’t know if I agree with this guys ratings 100%, but he seems to have a lead on Galveston, Silverstar, and Un-Sung Musical Insruments… and what he’s equating it to as far as existing models. I haven’t been able to find anything out about Silverstar or Un-Sung Musical Instruments either, but if you have any information on any of the aforementioned companies, please let me know.
  • Through my searching, I did find two useful sites: Eagle Instruments & B.B. Stone & Son Musical Instruments. Eagle instruments apparently makes the exact same B.B. Stone Signature model, & they’re actually the originator. They give these Specifications.
  • From that website, I was able to discover & e-mail the actual designer of the guitar, Jerker Antoni. This is my correspondence with him, we were sightly confusing each other at the beginning. Maybe it has to do with the language barrier?
  • I sent the same e-mail to B.B. Stone himself, and got a little less of a reply. I think there was a slightly stonger language barrier here.
  • I can only see one major difference between the Galveston & Eagle models, the headstock. Also, the Eagle models appear to have the words “B.B. Stone” on them.
  • Know anything about this guitar? Where did you find it? Remember the day you bought it? Please share it with us!

My Emails from Jerker Antony:

—–Original Message—–
From: Jerker Antoni
To: ERiC AiXeLsyD
Sent: 7/8/2004 11:54 AM
Subject: SV: Mail från hemsidan (Galveston B.B. Stone?)

OK – now I understand what model it is – it is the B.B. Stone model, not
the Flash B.B. model.
In Scandinavia we used the Eagle head as you can see on attached
picture. We sold just 24 pcs all in all world wide I think.

I designed it (like I told you about the Flash B.B.) – but this model
was designed totally from scratch, and not like the other models with
the B.B. names like Flash B.B. aso.
Still with indonesian mahogany body and canadian hard rock maple neck.
It was never imported by Sam Ash or anybody else from what I know, I
think there are just 8 or 12 pcs in the USA and all imported by
Galveston.
Thanks for the pictures, I might put one up on our hompage later and
link to your homepage if that is OK.
Take care!


—–Ursprungligt meddelande—–
Från: ERiC AiXeLsyD
Skickat: den 7 juli 2004 23:44
Till: ‘Jerker Antoni‘
Kopia: ‘eric@aixelsyd.com‘
Ämne: RE: Mail från hemsidan (Galveston B.B. Stone?)


Wow Jerker,

You don’t know how long I’ve been searching for the origins of my
guitar! Here’s a picture of my collection:


When my band plays out though, people always ask to see the “square
guitar”, ha ha ha. It’s what I use on stage mostly. I love the feel of
the fretboard, and I love the sound. It does have great sustain, &
someday I might replace the pickups with something a little screamier…
but for now, I love what I’ve got. I’m assuming it was made in Korea &
it’s from a small run. It’s next to impossible to find anything out
about the company Galveston, but it looks like I somehow surpassed them
& got right to the source!

I don’t know how I can thank you enough for the explanation, or for the
great guitar design. I will tell you to keep up the great work, & link
you to some photographs of me with the guitar in action:


You’re my hero, dude!


Rock on!
-Eric Carroll a.k.a. ERiC AiXeLsyD – www.aixelsyd.com

—–Original Message—–
From: Jerker Antoni 
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 2:47 PM
To: ERiC AiXeLsyD
Subject: SV: Mail från hemsidan (Galveston B.B. Stone?)

Dear Eric,
I designed that model. It is a great guitar, light and easy and with
better sustain than most Les Pauls, as the body is from indonesian light
mahogany, and the neck is not from mahogany but from hard rock canadian
maple. Pickups are OK for korean made, but that is easy to change if you
want.
They got so popular here that Gibson sent their lawyers to sue us, they
thought it was a copy of their LP model but they just had the picture,
and they did not see the backside of the instrument with the body shape
going through the neck like an S-curve. So I took a picture of the
backside and they gave that thing up.
We called it Eagla Flash LP as all models I designed with star inlays in
the fretboard were called Flash something, but Gibsons lawyers thought
LP stood for Les Paul so they were still angry.
So we changed the name to Flash B.B. as B.B. Stone was the boss of the
factory that produce them, Un Sung in Inchon, Korea, south of Seoul.
The B.B. Stone name is another story, his korean name was very odd, so I
asked him to interprete it in english, and it meant Big Brave Stone, so
I thought he would be better remembered as B.B. Stone. So he changed his
name and he also put up his own company later on using this name.
We sold a few hundred of this model in Sweden, and also a few hundred in
the USA, some to Sam Ash (they used the Brownsville logo for their own
imports), and some to other importers like the guys with the Galveston
logo.
They all use other headstocks, we had our own Eagle headstock which I
think looks better.
Later on we made other versions of it like the Mezz signature model, the
same instrument but with oil finish for even better sound. The guy Mezz
is a great guitar player and singer, american that lives in Europe.
His father was jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow, who wrote a classic jazz book
in the 50’s.
Take care of the guitar – it is really a great instrument – especially
compared to the Gibson models which I think are great looking junk for
the guys that were not allowed to play with doys when they were young,
so now they compare the looks of the birds maple tops of their Les
Pauls…
Best regards

Jerker

—–Ursprungligt meddelande—–
Från: ERiC AiXeLsyD
Skickat: den 7 juli 2004 20:07
Till: ‘eagle@eagleinstruments.nu‘
Ämne: Mail från hemsidan (Galveston B.B. Stone?)

Hello,

I found your sites at www.bbstone.co.kr & www.eagleinstruments.nu and
I was wondering if you knew anything about the Galvestion B.B. Stone
model guitar? I belive that I own one, only it does not have the B.B.
Stone logo, or the correct headstock… I cannot find any history on
Galveston or the guitar itself. I was wondering if you could possibly
help me out?


Thank you,
-Eric

My Email from B.B. Stone:

—–Original Message—–
From: BB.Stone
To: ERiC AiXeLsyD
Sent: 7/10/2004 11:38 AM
Subject: RE: Galveston B.B. Stone Model Guitar?Dear Eric

I have developed “BB.Stone” guitar before I established my own company.
At that time, Galveston purchased guitars. I am now selling various
kinds of musical instruments and guitar parts. I hope this will help
your questions.


Best Regards.


BB

Insight from Orjan Jacobsson:

Orjan Jacobsson's avatarOrjan Jacobsson

 says:

Edit

Hello I was one of the owners of Eagle Instruments AB Sweden. Jerker Antoni and I Orjan Jacobsson. This guitar was designed by Jerker that´s right. We made about 12-18 pcs of it under our brand Eagle. Since there are too many Eagle branded products out there we could not use that name in other countries than Sweden. Other companies like Galveston bought guitars under their own labels to sell. Some of them through Sam Ash under the brand Brownsville. Made by Un Sung in Inchon Korea.
BB Stone is no blues guy from Korea. He was the salesman at Un Sung. Hes name was something like Dae Young Suk. That did not sound so good Jerker thought. He asked him to translate this korean name into English. He said it means “Big Brave Stone” Hence that: BB Stone. So Jerker named him that. Today he uses this on his buisness card. He has his own Company today and don´t work for Un Sung. Funny story isn´t it?

A wide shot of a guitarist performing live on stage with a wide stance. He is wearing a dark t-shirt, a black beanie, and light-colored jeans, playing the rectangular yellow sunburst electric guitar with a microphone stand in the foreground.
A live action shot of a guitarist wearing a cap and playing the yellow sunburst electric guitar while standing directly behind a large, ornate carved wooden statue of a standing bear that matches his height on stage.
A composite image showing three electric guitars mounted side-by-side on a rustic wooden plank wall. From left to right: A Dewey Decibel FlipOut, a sunburst double-cutaway guitar with a white pickguard, The Indy Custom FlyCaster a bright yellow V-shaped-bottom guitar with a black pickguard and a matching yellow neck, and the yellow sunburst flamed-maple Galveston BB Stone guitar with a rectangular body.

Shamrocks & Shenanigans ☘️🍀| Mazes for St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Standard Reply

OK, so I drew up a maze with a Leprechaun and a pot o’ gold, because… Stereotypes. I thought it may be a fun activity for people who celebrate their Irish or Celtic heritage this time of year. I do love to rock the Celtic Shenanigans 🍀 playlist on random more often than usual this time of year. You can spare me your “dusting off” Dropkick Murphys/Flogging Molly jokes. I have heard them all, and I listen all year. (I also don’t drink much any more, but my Beer 🍻 playlist also feels stereotypical and apropos.)

A colorful maze featuring a leprechaun on the left encouraging viewers to help him reach his pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, all set against a light green background.

🪙☘️🪙🌈🪙🍀🪙

I also made a shamrock maze & a four-leaf clover maze, for a fun quick activity, & I uploaded them to my TeePublic & RedBubble shops. Everything is on sale right now at TeePublic, including these two designs. Get T-shirts for $16, stickers for $3, or all kinds of other cool stuff. You can even customize the colors of the products, so you can have a black hat or T-shirt, a green one, or whatever you prefer.

Which one do you like more, the shamrock (three-leaf clover) or the lucky four-leaf clover? Should I add this leprechaun maze to the shops too?

A green clover leaf filled with an intricate maze design, featuring arrows indicating entry and exit points.
A green four-leaf clover designed as a maze, with intricate pathways and two yellow arrows pointing downward.
Green t-shirt featuring a black outline of a shamrock filled with a maze design.
Green t-shirt featuring a stylized maze design in the shape of a shamrock.

☘️🍀

Check out all of these mazes, in a printable black & white if you’d like:

A black and white illustration of a shamrock shape filled with an intricate maze design.
A maze illustration featuring a leprechaun on the left, with a speech bubble saying 'Help the Leprechaun get to his pot o' gold!' and a pot of gold at the bottom right, connected to a rainbow.
A black and white illustration of a four-leaf clover designed as a maze, with intricate pathways and arrows pointing downwards.

🍀☘️🍺🤘🍻☘️🍀

They work great as adult coloring book pages too. You can fill in the dead ends to find the path, or just color ’em however you please. I’m a big fan of anarchy.

You can check out my playlists on your preferred streaming service with these links from Tune My Music:

Let me know if you think I’m missing something good for either list!

Also, what do you like to eat for St. Patrick’s Day? I have been hungry for something like this. Maybe with potatoes this time.

Update | Maze Marauder Mitigated

Posted on by Standard 1

So, a while back… did you read about the weasel who grabbed a bunch of mazes online and put them into a self-published print-on-demand book to be sold all over the damn internet?

I guess I never did update, lots of the listings are down or read as “Temporarily Unavailable.” I would like them to read as “⚠ 404 Page Not Found.“

I did get two short emails from the offender. Thank you to Jakob Mewes for reaching out! I never did hear back from Jakob after reaching out for further details. Did you Google AiXeLsyD and/or Gasoline Dion and find me here? I’d love to know!

I did get two emails from Mr. Heppke.

From: Kurt Heppke <mail@kurtheppke.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of My Artwork in Your Book – DMCA & Cease-and-Desist
To: Eric Carroll <red@acted.yo>


Dear Mr. Carrol,

I'm sorry for using your trademarked images and I really want to apologize for that. I took the images from Pinterest and did not check the license. I made a mistake. 
I have requested today that the book be stopped selling immediately and will send you confirmation as soon as I have it.
I hereby give you written confirmation that I will no longer use your work.
I also confirm the immediate cessation of any further use or reproduction of your work in any form.

I am truly sorry for the trouble I have caused you.

I would like to make one more point about your WordPress post " Stolen Mazes! (Someone took my art.)". It gives the impression that I have flooded half the world with my books. No. I've sold the book 8 times in the last 3 years. So I think the damage is limited.
That's not an excuse! 

Anyway, thank you for your patience and kindness and I will definitely change my behavior when it comes to checking licenses.

Best regards

Kurt Heppke

---
Kurt Heppke
Tel: +## ### ########
Mail: mail@kurtheppke.com
Homepage: www.kurtheppke.com

And, then this, referencing the photo below:

From: Kurt Heppke <mail@kurtheppke.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of My Artwork in Your Book – DMCA & Cease-and-Desist
To: Eric Carroll <red@cted.yo>


Dear Mr. Carroll,



I have withdrawn my book "Labyrinthe" from sale and would like to inform you of this, as promised:

Labyrinthe
Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere

ISBN-13: 9783756233120
Verlag: Books on Demand
Erscheinungsdatum: 30.06.2022




the German sentence:

"Wir haben Ihr Buch wunschgemäss für Bestellungen aus dem Buchhandel gesperrt. Auch die Listung für den internationalen Vertrieb und der E-Book-Vertrieb wurden damit automatisch ausgesetzt."

means:

"We have blocked your book from bookstore orders as requested. The listing for international distribution and e-book distribution have also been automatically suspended."


I would like to apologize once again and thank you for your patience and kindness.

Best regards

---
Kurt Heppke
Tel: +## ### ########
Mail: mail@kurtheppke.com
Homepage: www.kurtheppke.com

And this was in there:

the German sentence: "Wir haben Ihr Buch wunschgemäss für Bestellungen aus dem Buchhandel gesperrt. Auch die Listung für den internationalen Vertrieb und der E-Book-Vertrieb wurden damit automatisch ausgesetzt." means: "We have blocked your book from bookstore orders as requested. The listing for international distribution and e-book distribution have also been automatically suspended."

✍️

I did not reply, as I am still salty about it. A little theft is still theft. I know Joe Wos sent something over to the effect of a Cease & Desist or DMCA, and Brian Hilbert commented on my last post. I never did get a comment from Sean C. Jackson. Not sure how many other maze artists were robbed. I never did track any others down.

Please, don’t steal others’ art & sell it. I have a lot here for free, like the ones that showed up in this book of plundered pathways.

<shameless plug> You can support your favorite punk rock letter-writing goofball maze artist by buying a copy of So I Finally Made a Maze Book or You Can See Yourself Out, or getting some cool swag from my TeePublic or RedBubble stores. </shameless plug> 

I did just upload some Halloween mazes, and TeePublic is having a sale. You can always get my books & merch up top. I sell tens of copies worldwide myself, I don’t need any help from art thieves.

I’m sadly still morbidly curious to get my hands on a copy of this outrage. Share your stories of art theft in the comments, or comment here if your stuff was also uncredited in this book!

Stolen Mazes! (Someone took my art.) 🤬

Posted on by Standard 7

So, I recently got an interesting message via my contact form:

Hello, I bought a book in germany and in that book a "Kurt Heppke" from "Norderstedt : Books on Demand" is using your artwork. Did you ever give permission to that? I can send you more information if needed. Greetings from Germany, Hamburg

I did write back, but have yet to receive a reply. I would like to thank you Jakob, for reaching out! Not sure how you found me, but then again maybe I am sure as the one stolen maze is kind of highly specific in subject matter, but we’ll get to that.

I did do some light Googling though, like a modern-day super lazy Sherlock Holmes (or at least Dick Tracy). The ever-so-helpful auto AI summary was actually kind of enlightening…

An AI summary via Google about some weenis that stole a bunch of mazes to create print-on-demand books.

Yeah. That one past stuck out.

“He finds inspiration for his books by browsing graphic portals and libraries.”

I take that to mean “Bruh finds shit on Pinterest or Google image search and steals it to put into his books.”

Cover of Labyrinthe: Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere by Kurt Heppke, stealer of images.

I did find a book creatively titled Labyrinthe: Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere, which according to Google Translate says Labyrinths: Light, heavy, and very, very heavy. It luckily had a link that looked like a preview link, and I was able to see inside part of the book.

Mr. Heppke has a website, and apparently several books. I know that print-on-demand can be looked down upon by “real” publishers, and these are considered “low content” books, but theft is theft.

I have been drawing mazes since I was a kid, maybe 4th grade or so? I have put a bunch up on the internet (especially at this blog among other older sites) for free over the years. I don’t need this dude or anybody stealing my stuff, taking credit for it, or making money off of it. Oh yeah, taking credit? Dude has stones. That sure looks like a © 2022 to me by his name in a book full of mazes that he didn’t draw.

Two of my mazes appear to have been pilfered:

Bruh took a bunch of mazes, but these are mine,

The original posts can be found here:

Help AiXeLsyD get to the AmericanMusic Café!
✍ Today’s Maze ✍

I know I have pinned them in the past, so they may be floating around there too. There are probably about 100 people on the planet who have heard, saw, heard about, or remember my old punk band, AiXeLsyD. Why take that maze? Our logo is right there beside a terrible drawing of my 1986 Buick SkyHawk. Weird. Also, it name drops Sheetz & Wendy’s as places to not stop (as well as a nudie bar). They may have a harder copyright infringement case than me? 🤣 I’m sure the maze is much older than 2012. The quality of the scan & the coloring is BAD.

The AiXeL-Mobile (1986 Buick SkyHawk)

I have thought about collecting all my old stuff for a book… but the thought of checking to see if they’re passable & providing solutions is overwhelming, and now that I put out You Can See Yourself Out, I feel like I have a level of quality that I need to maintain. Drawing the mazes & posting them has always kind of been a creative outlet & stress relief for me. I think I’d need to re-scan the pile of stuff that I have, and the stuff that I just posted to social media with phone pictures if I were to do it right… and include solitions.

I’m not doing art to get rich, or even make a living… but if I can fund keeping this blog AiXeLsyD13.com, and buy some art supplies, that would be awesome. I have made tens of dollars off of my books and merch. That’s not a complaint by any means, but some dude across the globe shouldn’t be making money off of my art. (As an aside, check this shit out! Art theft is rampant, and following @kilkennycat_art on Threads has opened my eyes to it.)

Which brings me to the other mazes here. I’m sure just by looking at the style, there’s a few mazes by renowned cartoonist, maze artist, & educational television host Joe Wos. I think there’s at least one by Sean C. Jackson. The cover appears to be by Brian Hilbert (Check out his Pittsburgh maze!).

Maze artists: Is your maze art here?

An index of stolen mazes assembled & being sold by Kurt Heppke.

I have tried to lift up other maze artists here. It’s a weird little niche. We gotta look out for each other, in my opinion. I did post about this issue on r/mazes, too.

I’m unsure of my next step. Is reaching out directly to Norderstedt Books on Demand and/or Kurt Heppke directly via email with some sort of cease and desist the way to go? Is that at all official? Is Google Translate even gonna get it right?

I don’t have any written verbiage here about my mazes being copyrighted, but I do have dated posts, and I think copyright is implied with any created works… no? I have no idea how any of it works really within the US, let alone internationally & specifically in Germany.

It also looks like this damn thing is available on more than a few sites:

…and so many more.

At any rate, I implore you to by mazes (or any art) from the artist through their official channels… or enjoy the many free mazes that are put out there by all of us.

So, Cease-and-Desist email or letter? DMCA Takedown? Both? Lawyer up? I’m assuming there is not much to financially recover with print-on-demand sales. I just don’t want anyone making money off of my art other than myself.

<shameless plug> Speaking of that, you can support your favorite punk rock letter-writing goofball maze artist by buying a copy of So I Finally Made a Maze Book or You Can See Yourself Out, or getting some cool swag from my TeePublic or RedBubble stores. </shameless plug> If you’re not inclined to make a purchase, that’s cool too. Maybe share the links, or just enjoy all the free mazes here, & check out all the other maze artists?

I look forward to your thoughts & advice in the comments!

Green Potatoes 6: Night of the Living Spuds 🥔

Posted on by Standard 1

Are you with me so far? I bet you thought I forgot about #GreenPotatoGate. Maybe you had, and wish I had. I think this may be it, as I’m never going to get a full response from Giant Eagle, and I did get some coupons! First, are you all caught up?

Had enough? Of course you haven’t. Read on, brave soldiers for spuds and titans for tubers!

As promised, I did receive some coupons from Tasteful Selections. Way to stand behind their products! There was a cool ingredient card too, so I may check that out. I do like purple potatoes.

Giant Eagle reached out with a DM on Twitter, then nothing. 🦗🦗🦗

And…

I submitted some shenanigans to Shop ‘n Save via webform, but haven’t heard anything back via email.

Although, I did get a Facebook message:

That was anti-climactic. They didn’t comment on the maze or the green potatoes.

I did, however, get one super awesome response to a positive message that I sent out about some potatoes from The Little Potato Compnay that I bought at Shop ‘n Save. I reached out like this:

From: Me <me@nunya.biz>
Date: Sun, Jan 1, 2023 at 10:44 PM
Subject: Thank you for a great product! 🥔
To: <feedback@littlepotatoes.com>

Salutations Spud Specialists!

I just wanted to reach out to thank you for your tremendous tiny tubers, or your perfect potatoes if you will.

Saturday I picked up a bag of the Terrific Trio style spuds from Shop ‘n Save in Heidelberg, PA, …and they were all fantastic.

You may think it’s odd to be so elated with a perfect product, but lately I have been on a crusade of sorts as I feel that nearly ¼ of all my purchased potatoes are green and arguably poisonous.  Albeit very slightly poisonous.

I eat a lot of potatoes.  So I buy a lot of potatoes.  It seems like no one is immune to the great greening that has taken place iver the last few years.  Yours were absolutely delicious though.

If you would like a window to my spiral into spud shenanigans, please feel free to catch the saga as it has unfolded so far at my blog:  

https://aixelsyd13.wordpress.com/tag/green-potatoes/

I’m sure that I’m up to at least 2 readers semi-regulartly that aren’t me or AI bots.  Well, I think.

I draw mazes.  I sent mazes to some of your competitors as a means to get their attention, and perhaps stand out among all rhe other missives.

I am sending them you you as a thank you.  Please, enjoy them and pass them along to your potato people!  I would love if you got a chuckle out of them and if you took the time to try them out.

I really appreciate your multiple avenues of contact, prominently displayed right on the packaging, and a super easy to navigate website.  I need to poke around the recipes!

I hope the new year brings you many new opportunities, great joy, & happiness.

Auld Lang Syne

-Eric

PS – Also attached is a photo collage of breakfast home fries with those fantastic tri-color delicious beauties.

And attached this photo (along with my potato mazes):

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is wp-1672606172129.jpg

And I got this response:


From: Feedback feedback@littlepotatoes.com
Date: Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 12:21 PM
Subject: RE: Thank you for a great product! 🥔
To: Me me@nunya.biz

Hi Eric,

Thank you so much for the aMAZEing feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed your Terrific Trio home fries!

Don’t hesitate to check out our website at https://www.littlepotatoes.com/en/recipes/ for recipe ideas and upcoming contests. Also feel free to check out our Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/LittlePotatoCo ) to watch our video recipes and share with other The Little Potato Company lovers.

Have a terrific day!

Madison Marano | Consumer Service Coordinator

direct 587.460.2095 | main 780.414.6075

email madi.marano@littlepotatoes.com | web LittlePotatoes.com

11749 – 180 Street | Edmonton, Alberta | T5S 2H6

Neat!

I will be looking for more of their products too.

I think we can all agree, if you start seeing less green potatoes in the grocery store, that was clearly all my doing.

Please try to solve the potato mazes if you’re into that.

Green Potatoes 5: From Russets With Love 🥔

Posted on by Standard 1

Well. The garden plot thickens. Or something. I have a few more potato-related emails. All signs point to the grocery stores being at fault, and funnily enough the grocery stores have not replied, at all.

This happened, and we got a refund from Instacart. It’s not green potatoes, but they definitely weren’t ready to just toss into the crock pot with a roast.

Tasteful Selections - Organic Golden Potatoes Sprouting Eyes

If you’re wondering what the hell I am talking about, you must have missed the saga as it uprooted…

And that brings us to the following…

Dear Eric,

Thank you for reaching out. It’s always great to meet another potato enthusiast! As you may know, while we don’t represent any one brand, Potatoes USA works on behalf of more than 2,000 potato growers and handlers across the country to promote the benefits of eating potatoes. We’re happy to provide general feedback, and the individual brands and retailers can tell you more about their practices.

As far as green potatoes go, you’re correct that the color signifies the build-up of solanine. It’s a natural reaction to the potato being exposed to too much light. If there’s slight greening, you can cut away those green portions before cooking and eating. Generally speaking, you’re unlikely to ingest enough solanine to do you any harm.

However, I know you’re a potato skin fan (and rightly so). One bit of good news on the nutrition front is that the only nutrient significantly lost when the skin is removed is fiber. (A medium (5.3 oz) potato contains 2 grams of fiber with the skin and 1 gram of fiber without the skin.) Potassium and vitamin C are found predominantly in the flesh.

Potato growers take a number of steps to reduce greening, including maintaining enough soil cover over potatoes in the field and storing harvested potatoes in facilities with minimal light.

If you aren’t already, I’d encourage you to store your fresh potatoes in a cool, dark place. If you’re finding green potatoes upon returning from the store (or after Instacart delivery), you can often return them.

Thanks again for your note. We hope you have a spud-tacular holiday season, filled with plenty of potatoes.

Cheers,

Btj

Bonnie Johnson, MS, RDN 

bonnie@potatoesusa.com

Director of Nutrition + Industry Relations

O: 303.873.2328

C: 702.217.3055

3675 Wynkoop St.

Denver, CO 80216

PotatoesUSA.com

So, of course I replied.

Hello Btj,

Thank you for your response!  I really appreciate your time and the imparted potato knowledge.

In my reaching out to several potato producers, it seems that they all want to lay the blame on the distribution and storage by the grocers.  

So, the “all the vitamins are in the skin” that I got from my grandma when I was a kid was just potato public relations? 🤣

No matter, I agree they are delicious.

Please, enjoy the attached mazes with your friends, family, & co-workers!

I hope you enjoy you have a pleasant holiday season and a happy new year, and a great going season next year.  I know I am looking forward to planting some potatoes myself.

I may leave out some potato candy for Santa, if I don’t eat it all!

Tuber-ular Tidings to you & yours!

-Eric

I sent the mazes again, like an idiot. Ha ha. I forgot I had sent them previously. No reply or acknowledgement this time.

This came as response from Tasteful Selections, which are the ones pictured above:

Hi Eric,

​

Thank you so much for contacting us. I am terribly sorry for the poor experience you had with our product. I can assure you that the quality you saw is not our standard, and for this I apologize.

We strive to ensure that every package of potatoes that leave our farm is handled with the utmost care in order to deliver a quality product to our consumers. Unfortunately, sometimes temperature changes and changes in light make potatoes break down or decay faster than they normally would. 

The greening you’re experiencing occurs when potatoes have been exposed to too much light, either natural or artificial, that gives the potatoes a sort of “sunburn.” While greening is a result of light exposure, the visible greening can be delayed. Potatoes exposed to light may be packaged and continue to green beyond our last inspection point. We make every effort to avoid this, however, in your case we were not successful. You can cut the green out of the potatoes and use the rest (although that’s a bit tougher with small potatoes), but eating the green portion of the potato can give a very bitter flavor.

Here’s some additional information if you’d like to see more: https://www.potatogoodness.com/potato-greeningfact-check/

I am sincerely sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. We stand by our products and you should not have had to have an experience like this. I would like to make it up to you by offering you a product voucher to hopefully help compensate you for your troubles.

If I may please have your mailing address, I would be happy to send you a product voucher straight away. Again, my personal apologies for the frustration this has caused you. 

Sincerely,

Jenny

RPE Inc. support@rpespudassist.freshdesk.com

TastefulSelections.comimage

So, I wrote back:

Hello Jenny,

Thank you for your response!  I have been exasperated lately with the amount of green or sprouting potatoes from the grocery store.  It is a consistent issue across brands and stores, and whether we use a service like I Instacart or pick a bag ourselves.

I understand, from your reply among others, that the issue is most likely occurring after it leaves the potato farm.

Can retailers like Aldi, Giant Eagle, or Target be better educated about potato shipping and storage?

Instacart already refunded us for the purchase of the recently sprouting spuds as that was clearly a shopper error.

If it was spring, I would just plant them!  You have a delicious variety of golden potatoes, perfect for home-fries!

Sometimes, the green potatoes don’t reveal themselves until you crack open that bag about to prepare a meal.

I would just like some sort of solution going forward.  What can the potato industry do to hold grocers accountable?

If I wanted the gastrointestinal distress and discomfort associated with eating green potatoes, I would just dine at Taco Bell or Pizza Hut.  Right?

My mailing address is…

     Eric AiXeLsyD

     #### Nunya St. 

     Bidness, PA  #####-####

…but again I’m not really looking for free potatoes, I just want to get what I pay for.  

I appreciate you reaching out, and pride in the quality of your product.  Please find my gift of the attached potato mazes, and share them with your co-workers and friends if so inclined.

Have a very starchy Christmas and a tuber new year!

-Eric

And I got a reply:

Hi Eric,

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I definitely understand your concerns. Our sales & business development team are already working with Produce Managers and providing resources for storing and caring for potatoes. We’ll continue to do our part, however, it ends up being the responsiblity of Produce Managers to not only train their staff, but also make sure they are following through with the potato best practices. 

I have a few coupons headed your way. 

Sincerely,
Jenny

I like free potatoes. I will be on the lookout for potato vouchers!

Now, I have reached several road-blocks with getting a message to Aldi. They apparently do not like to give out email addresses.

Messages from Aldi. Or not.

I dug up some email formats & corporate names on teh Google mosheen and sent this, also to no avail (so far):

Greetings My Frugal Friends,

I hope you are gearing up for a pleasant, festive, and relaxing holiday season!  I appreciate your role in bringing food & other goodies to our homes.

I write to you today with some tuber related shenanigans I have noticed over the last few years.  I have submitted a missive to your contact form at the Aldi website to no avail.  I have been checking my junk/spam folder too.

I also tried reaching out via Facebook and Twitter… only to be told that your social media teams are unfathomably unable to forward messages to your customer service team or provide an email address.  I had to do some Googling, and I pray to a higher power that this reaches a live intelligent and empathetic human being.

I love potatoes.  At rhe risk of sounding like Forrest Gump’s friend Bubba droning on about shrimp…

I love potatoes.  I like home fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, cheesy potatoes, hassleback potatoes, scalloped potatoes, potato candy, potato soup, lyinnaise potatoes, potato filling, tater tots, potato salad (hot or cold styles), shepherd’s pie, and sometimes even potato pancakes.  Twice baked potatoes are a fantastic treat too.  I hear potato vodka is good too, but I am not much of a drinker.  Perhaps a potato beer would be more my speed if such a thing exists?

Nearly every bag of potatoes that I have purchased from your and/or your esteemed competitors over the last few years has had an alarmingly large amount of green solanine-filled potatoes.  Glycoalkaloids are not our friends!  On the mild end, eating green potatoes would be like chasing a Taco Bell meal with a laxative.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was one night at dinner when ready to bake 8 potatoes as a side to chili… 2 of the potatoes were totally green on the outside.  They had been delivered by Instacart, but the green potatoes were not evident upon eying the outside of the bag.

That’s ¼ of rhe potatoes unusable for their intended purpose.  Yes, I could have peeled away the green, but who wants a baked potato with no skin?  That’s just craziness.  Do I get ¼ of my money back?

I have written to and received replies from quite a few potato farms, and they all seem to point the finger at the end retailer… which in some cases is Aldi.  They cite importer handling and storage… specifically exposure to light and longer than optimal time frames.

Perhaps the powers that be within your fine organization can put their heads together, asses your handling of these tiny starcchy underground gifts from heaven, and come up with ways to prevent waste?  It may need to be a highly coordinated effort with logistics, distribution, shipping, and warehousing.

As an effort to aid exercise in meditation and clearing your thoughts, I have attached some potato themed mazes.  Mazes and labyrinths have a history of assisting people to achieve a zen like state.  Perhaps this will provide the needed clarity to prevent ultra violet potato decimation.

You have a fantastic business and I appreciate your effort to bring quality goods to the more budget-concious among us.

If requested, I can even forward my original (perhaps lost?) message.

Thank you for your time, I look forward to your thoughts on the matter!

Let’s root for a starchy Christmas and a tuber new year!
-Eric

So, maybe that will get something. Maybe not. Giant Eagle hasn’t bothered to reply either.

Oh well. Do you think I’ll ever get a meaningful reply from Aldi or Giant Eagle? I am starting to doubt it.

I know we have received green potatoes from Target too. I’ll have to bark up their tree next.

Food allergies as they pertain to the COVID-19 vaccine?

Posted on by Standard Reply

Juts some thoughts posted on Facebook at Twitter that I thought I’d also share here. I feel like its been a long time since I posted any food allergy content.

In case I ever make the FB stuff not public:

As a proponent of Food Allergy advocacy, this is concerning. You would think that responsible reporting from CNN would include the triggering protein(s) of those that suffered an anaphylactic reaction. I call shenanigans on it not being immediately obvious, let alone warranting further research or investigation.

From what I have read about allergies and vaccinations in the past, sometimes they contain egg protein. Personal results can vary… much like some people with peanut allergies report deep fryers with refined peanut oil trigger a reaction, and others seem to not have any ill effects.

Is this that same type of issue, or have new ingredients or a new combination of ingredients been introduced?

Obviously this is something that would be sussed out and analyzed over time in a clinical trial with a more traditional timeline.

I look forward to keeping an eye on this and how it progresses. Is it approx 1 in 30 kids any more have a food allergy? This could potentially affect a large portion of the population.

Is a vaccine a more viable solution than actual produced human antibodies, or are they one-in-the same here?

Keeping an eye on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the others to follow.

While by no means a scientist of medical professional, I find this stuff fascinating.

I also would hope the comments here don’t devolve in to anti-vax or mandatory-vax sentiments.

#FoodAllergies #FoodAllergy #Covid19

And a link to the original article: Allergy warning for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after UK health workers with allergy history suffer reaction

Can you get the quarter to the cart & avoid the aisle of shame? (My Aldi maze.) 🛒

Posted on by Standard 2

I know most online Aldi groups call it the Aisle of Shame. Can you get through the maze without going there?

There are some crazy Aldi fans in Facebook groups out there. There are some people who like mazes out there. Is there much of an overlap?

  1. Print this.
  2. Solve it.
  3. Snap a photo.
  4. Post it on social media.
  5. Tag me. (@AiXeLsyD13)

It’s really that simple. You can even skip the printing and solve it on your phone or tablet usong a note app or photo editor if so inclined.