Here's one outstanding question I have from ISKCON days.

Does anybody know the origin of "Sri Visnu" x3, ie., the "mantra" used to "offer" food on the fly? Where did this come from?

I always assumed it was not an actual attempt to offer food, but rather just to de-karma-ize it for purposes of eating. But I still had no idea from where it derived.

It's a common invocation to purify something, often chanted at the end of the apavitraH pavitro vA chant during achaman, for example. A common variant has you banging the raw object to your forehead while chanting it.

So this has actual, authentic roots? I figured it was just one of those creative shortcuts (like chanting with a click counter while going about other chores and holding conversations) that ISKCON devotees were so good at formulating.

Well not as a method of offering, not really, but it is a phrase you see used in some ritual contexts.

I remember one traveling sankirtan devotee who would hold a picture of Krishna up to a grocery store, then offer the entire store.

Then he would walk in and buy anything. I heard him confess later, "I ate some things that might have had eggs in it".

I can't help but wondering if the Sri Vishnu idea was meant to purify potato chips, 7-UP and Breyer's Ice Cream since they are all things that are prepared by 'karmis' and were so great for that after-hours impromptu feast.

After all, if there was any evening maha to speak of, it was only for the laxmi collectors, or the odd mata who knew how to muscle it away from the distribution table.

I used to like the 'Sri Vishnu x3' Iskcon invention as a way of cutting to the chase, God's blessing when there isn't the time for long drawn out mantras. An offer of a leaf, flower, fruit or water with love, as advocated by Krishna, pulled many a young spiritual aspirant into Krishna' world and Iskcon.
Clickers over beads was a really stupid idea, like talking to God (jopa) vs checking off a laundry list or getting your homework in. I think it had a short shelf life.

Not for me, i am still using mine occasionally after a few decades of use. I might bring the clicker when i go hiking today. I was once sort of trapped somewhere, and had my rounds to chant, i knew how to use my fingers to keep track, and did that for a whole bunch of rounds.

I, uh, I rarely 'finished my rounds'. How awful, to come to the end of a day, and feel the failure. But, the real awfulness, was that it became an exercise in getting them done in the first place.

If I'm calling out to someone, or praising them, what does it MEAN that I must finish a prescribed NUMBER of calling outs, or praises? My attention was on the NUMBER, slur the name, race, plough, drag......all those stories of people who had duties to finish, pujari service, sankirtana, caring for children, always racing, ploughing, dragging. I failed at it, but one thing I remembered, was the little counter beads. It became an exercise in counting. I might as well have just be COUNTING all those years, for heaven's sake. That original attraction to the name, holy or not, just that, that beautiful name. It got sort of mashed, with all the guilt, over time, time and again, failing. Pah!

I still have my beads in their bead bag, in a drawer. I have never been able to throw them away, simply discard them, and I don't use them for any other mantra. I like mantras. I have a repetitive mind; for good or ill I get on jags and repeat and repeat things anyway. And really, it is true, if you love someone, you like to dwell in their name. Seems a waste, even now.

Now when I say Krsna, I'm not trying to beat some clock, or GET SOMEWHERE ELSE. That's better I think. Better that I say Krsna, not against some table, some column, some row, some counter. At least now when I say it, I mean it!

It's a practice sort of thing, loving practice. If you don't love, you practice and practice by chanting the loved-to-be's name until you gradually start loving. Should recommend that to long-time married couples who are losing the spark in their relationship: keep chanting 16 rounds of each others' names until it starts working out.