Freeze your brains

Today is Free Slurpee Day! July eleventh, or 7-11, is the day when the 7-eleven stores give out free small slurpees.

It's an especially good year to go and get one as this year Winnipeg was crowned the Slurpee capital of the World! Actually, it's the 10th year in a row we've been crowned - every year, in fact, since they started doing it in 1998.

Is there a reason that we keep making it? It could be our hot summers - which often peak over 40C (313K for those using Kelvin). It could be nostalgia - for all those of us who remember the taste from when we were kids and it was a cheap way to cool off. The main reason though is that even when it cools off outside, and the summer days fade, we still keep on buying them - right through the winter. It may be our way of taunting the weather - "Is that all you got?" when the temperature dips to -40C (233K).

It's interesting though that, for a city with a reputation of being such bargain-hunters, we are so enamored of what is basically just overpriced flavored ice.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.