soapbox

So this past week I have ended up watching more non-sports TV than normal (i.e. greater than zero).  I accidentally stumbled on the season finales of both American Idol and CSI: Miami (separate posts) as well as five minutes of the finale of Dancing With The Stars (all I could handle), and local (LA and SD) news.

Regarding the last item, I mean no offense to anyone who stays well hydrated, but I was moderately amused when the 10 o’clock news started off with a tease “how drinking bottled water may be bad for your face!”  I could imagine millions of Beverly Hills soccer moms reacting in horror and being glued to their TV sets for the next half hour.

Apparently, they weren’t kidding… pursing your lips while drinking from a small-mouth bottle could eventually lead to “smokers’ lips,” with one doctor claiming that “drinking a lot of bottled water can actually be like smoking three packs of cigarettes a day.

Okay, how scientific is that?  “a lot of bottled water”?  hmm.
Finally, there was one quote from a starlet along the lines of “I’m not going to stop drinking my [fancy posh brand name bottled water], I’m just going to get my lips done.”  Good times.

Well, it’s that time again, to waste most of this coming week poring over articles and different sites’ analysis, trying to figure out which 5-12 upset to go with, flipping coins on 8-9s, and so on.

Mostly, winning a pool is just dumb luck.  Both times that I’ve won (in almost 20 years of playing, hmmm, that’s worse than the Florida Marlins, ugh) it has been a case of knowing who my competition liked and going a different way, then lucking into those guys winning.

My buddy Joe* has found the most reliable solution - asking his very ditzy girlfriend about each pairing and going with that.  Seriously, oftentimes that bracket beats his carefully-crafted one.

*not his real name.

Anyway, for more analysis on the detrimental effects of sports knowledge on March Madness brackets, check out this entertaining read.  I really like the Mascot Fight Club method, although that’s also the most difficult to clearly define.

While paying proper respect to St Patrick’s Day Season, we should also note the onset of another calorie-consuming tradition that is soon upon us.

Very kindly, WebMD has put out a survival guide for GSC Season although that can be somewhat misleading; just like a sugar-free poptart or a “light” beer, eating/drinking 100 of them will still cause a bit of weight gain.

Apparently there are two new less-unhealthy options of which I was unaware:

• Cinna-spins come in 100-calorie pouches topping out at only 2 grams of fat, 1 gram saturated fat, and 8 grams of sugar.
• Sugar-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies have 0 grams sugar (but 7 grams of sugar alcohol that’s mostly not digested). But they’re relatively high in fat (9 grams per serving) and calories (160 per serving).

The overall list:

*Cinna-Spins (1 pouch = 15 mini cookies; 24 grams weight)

*Lowest in fat; lowest in saturated fat; lowest in calories

 2. *Shortbread (4 cookies; 26 grams)

*Lowest in sugar among the regular cookies

3. Do-si-dos (2 cookies; 24 grams)

4. Lemon Chalet Cremes (2 cookies; 32 grams)

5. Peanut Butter Sandwich (3 cookies, 35 grams)

6. Thanks-A-Lot (2 cookies, 31 grams)

7. Trefoils (5 cookies, 33 grams)

8. All Abouts (3 cookies, 30 grams)

9. Thin Mints from Little Brownie Bakers (4 cookies, 32 grams)

10. Lemonades (2 cookies, 31 grams)

11. *Caramel deLites (2 cookies, 28 grams)

12. Peanut Butter Patties (2 cookies, 28 grams)

13. Samoas from Little Brownie Bakers (2 cookies, 31 grams)

14. *Thin Mints from ABC Bakers (4 cookies, 33 grams)

*Tied with Caramel deLites for the highest in saturated fat

15. Sugar Free Chocolate Chips (3 cookies, 34 grams)

*Highest in fiber; Lowest in sugar

16. *Tagalongs from Little Brownie Bakers (2 cookies, 27 grams)

[*Highest in fat]

I don’t know of any official forum for complaints, but if you feel so moved I’m sure that letters to your congerzman would be appreciated: Monsanto is attacking the RBGH-free labels used by virtually all non-bad-for-you dairy products. Happily, that bastion of all that is good and holy (and tasty) is fighting back.

I like blockquotes, so I’ll go with these two:

A newly formed farmers’ group, backed by Monsanto, is pushing for labeling changes, saying the hormone-free labels imply that the milk is safer than other milk, when they say it’s not.

Well no shit dummies. They imply the crap about of the subject, but if you read the details they very clearly say “we can’t say anything other than our products don’t have any hormones in them.”

and

The hormone, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to boost production in dairy cows in the early 1990s, was not approved in Canada, Japan or the European Union, largely out of concerns it may be harmful to animals.

And “there are unanswered human questions with it. It probably should never have been approved,” said Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports.

So, it’s that time again to spend 4 hours of tedium and gluttony waiting for occasional moments of genius - let’s just hope that we get more of “Buzzword Bingo” quality and less of GoDaddy.com shallowness… um, nevermind the latter there, GoDaddy.com ads are just fine!  (And this year will feature Danica Patrick!)

First person to present a properly Bingo-ed gamesheet to me in person* receives a free beer!

(more…)

Well, apparently it’s not the booze or the ciggys, it’s the lack of fasting that makes us die faster.

While I don’t recommend this to Nathaniel, and it’s counterproductive if you’re dieting, people say that fasting one day a month reduces arterial plaque.  I like the idea that it hits the reset button, that kinda makes sense.

So i just found an iphone in the wilder washroom, touched the screen and an email came up with the words “you wanna blaze?”

Scrolled over and found a whole conversation between dundergrads about getting a really good “eighth”, I resisted the temptation to make them give me some in return for the phone and gave the iphone to Gaynell with the text conversation open… hilarity ensued.

edit: (spelling corrected undergrads -> dundergrads)