Jell-O Pudding Promotion Cause of Bizarre Minor Riot

SF Weekly's Joe Eskenazi followed up on yesterday's announcement that Jell-O would be doling out free pudding to help dry San Francisco's Super Bowl tears, and what he discovered at the drop sites was something that appears to be akin to the queues at UN water trucks, at least from the corresponding photos. At Ninth and Market, homeless folks "groped with both arms into the pudding vat, carting off mass quantities of the ersatz dessert," while former Niners safety Ronnie Lott, handing out pudding at Broadway and Columbus, attempted to catch a pudding hoarder in his tracks: "What are you doing, man?" he asked a gentleman loading up a pink Chinatown plastic bag.

Overall, however, San Franciscans appeared to be cheered by the pudding, with Eskenazi reporting chants of "We're #2!" Said one worker: "Everyone just wants their free stuff." But with so many folks attempting to cart away their weight in pudding cups, Jell-O might have been better off just donating them to the local food bank. [SF Weekly]