Today's (celebrity-friendly) favorites in the news

1. Omigod, Malcolm Gladwell blogs! There is a God and he likes to indulge me.

2. Sources from the Failure to Launch set have it that Matthew McConaughey despises co-star SJP! When Oprah asked him to comment on working with her, he says, "Great comedic timing... Very peculiar, too. Man, she's a very interesting woman. Yeah."

3. Lindsay Lohan's nose bleeding picture:

Poor thing. I totally empathize with the dry air in NYC.

4. More Lindsay Lohan--she was seen at 5:30 a.m. yesterday going back to the SoHo Grand hotel room of Wilmer Valderrama. Uh..shocker would be that it's not a new man but an old one? (Page Six)

5. As an incredible example of her journalistic skills, Katie Couric asked Kimora Lee Simmons in a Today interview, "Was it hard for you to achieve fabulosity? For you personally?"

and yesterday's news because I forgot to post:

1. After ten years of being on board, Ted "Time Charity Warner" Turner is leaving it.

2. Don Knotts, aka Mr. Furley and Barney Fife, died at 81 from lung problems.

3. Calendars marked! Britney Spears will play a Christian conservative sidekick to Jack on April 13's episode of Will and Grace. Ricky Gervais wrote an episode for The Simpsons to appear in March and has also penned an episode with Stephen Merchant for The (American) Office which will be part of the 06-07 season.

4. Taking advantage of a Carnival parade passing by, four armed men carried off treasures from the Rio de Janeiro museum, including Dali's "Two Balconies," Picasso's "Dance," Monet's "Marine," and Matisse's "Luxemburg Garden." The thieves also stole visitors' cell phones, digital cameras and wallets against the background of samba music playing outside.

5. Sheryl Crow postponed her tour on Friday as she underwent surgery for breast cancer the Wednesday prior.

6. Mandy Moore and Zack Braff are set to marry in April. Try to send them a gift via their registry if you can get to the site: http://www.tiffany.com/registry/registry_pur.asp?registryID=407261&mysid1=3F9F30CA08B64BBC9903633B4471D9D9&cntry1=-1

7. George Michael slumped over a car wheel in London. Arrested. Class C Drugs...aka boring ones a la canabis, painkillers and tranquilizers. George Michael news now officially suck.

8. Peanut Butter Jelly Time...except it's K-Federalized: http://www.youtube.com/w/It's%20Peanut%20Butter%20Federline!!!?v=XGTl6tgVEFw&eurl=
Hell yeah.

9. Christy Turlington and Ed Burns welcome baby number 2. Um...she was pregnant? and uh...she is married to Ed Burns?

10. Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach divorce gets ugly. Baywatcher says separation is in order due to "unwarranted annoyance"...can we say zing?

Favorites of Friday news

Quick synopsis of the going-ons for [TGI]Friday:

1. Ahh...all that walking of miles to/fro work was worth it, as the MTA and TWU...have "gone back to square one." (Daily News)

2. "Such is the end of the Empire, I sighed to myself," Prince Charles lamented in a 1997 diary entry--I mean, journal--about flying business class. Currently, Charles is trying to block his journal's publication, in which he talks about his dislike for the Chinese's leadership.

3. For all those who doubted my magazine gaydar, GQ has the gayest readership followed by EW, TV Guide, and People. Sadly, Details didn't make the cut in the DNR study as their low readership disqualified them from the survey's criteria. If only this was an Olympic sport... it would be so wrong and also boring...

4. Eight years after her acceptance, Katie Holmes's dad (he has a name?) asks Columbia to withdraw Katie's name and return his non-refundable $500 deposit. Perhaps TomKat is real.
(TMZ)

5. Beaver thing causes jurassic wave amongst dinosaur geeks. Something about it being the earliest Jurassic mammal. It weighed 1-2 pounds...and had teeth. Party it up at AMNH!

6. Kevin Federline has been photographed with French/whoisshe/model-actress

-type Sandy Lakdar (walking and hugging!), who has an awesome myspace page. Poor Britty and Britty baby.

Favorite news items of the day

The consequentially inconsequential things you should know for today:

1. Gmail has barred me from entering their site...or work has after realizing I spend way too much time on this site...hopefully ban is lifted soon. I am suffering from withdrawal from the supposedly evil email provider. Current status: sobbing.

2. Actual news, but scary! South Dakota's lawmakers have voted yesterday to outlaw nearly all abortions (incl. rape, incest, danger to preggers' health; excl. danger to preggerz' life). SD Republican, abortion-opposing, Mike Rounds has 15 days to decide to sign and enact the bill.

3. Jonathan Rhys-Myers and La Lohan spotted in New York's Spotted Pig and Bungalow 8 together...potential new couple alert?...except that she's also been seen with Olympic Gold snowboarding winner Shaun White at 8 this Tuesday. Slutterific, unofficial word, at least now has a new face.
And to see the face of the gold medalist, um..here it is...

Good to know that Lindsay is no real-life mean girl.

4. Egg on hipsters' face! Flash mobs turned out to be hipster puppetry aka social experiment aka Harper's senior editor Bill Wasik's invention to analyze the "hollow hipster culture" --to read the article, http://www.harpers.org/MyCrowd_01.html.
What I find completely bizarre about all this is what kind of self-respecting hipster participated in flash mobs? I thought hipsters were supposedly hip...

5. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban are set to marry early March. Invitations have been set out. Breath-holding can start now.

6. Kid Rock wins temporary ban against Red Light District's (distributor of 1 Night in Paris) selling of his and devout Christian Scott Stapp's tape. Or was it Red Light District that won? Or the general public?...hmmm...

7. According to a Virgin Mobile study, millions are suffering from thumb and finger damage due to increased use of sms'ing (London). Worries among psychologists include that users might have sms-addiction problems or worse, will be increasingly awkward in face-to-face meetings. Yuck.

8. Gmail withdrawal status: life sucks.

Monster Edit

Whoops, rant on me, because according to wikipedia, Monster's Energy drink only contains 160 mg of caffeine. Two questions only can come to mind:

1. This does nothing for Monster's branding of intense energy. Why choose Monster for late night studying when coffee and cola does just the same? How can we overcome late night partying now without a crazy intense surge of energy in the cubby the next day?

2. What the bloody hell is the rest of the 4840 mg (specifically, L-Carnitine, Guarana, Inositol, Glucuronolactone, and Maltodextrin)? Sounds yum though (and perhaps answer to #1)!

For those who want to check out the caffeine content of drinks easily, click here: http://wilstar.com/caffeine.htm.

Monster Rant?

I love caffeine, but does anyone really need* 5000 milligrams of pure "energy blend"? This morning after a three-day weekend, Monster Beverage Company sent out its minions to hand out its insanity-filled babies (probably hoping to follow in the success of Red Bull via same/similar grassroots marketing campaign). I obliged, as I usually do for anything free and right in front of me, and have been undergoing an understated increase in heart rate since. Don't be fooled by the highlighted ingredients of B-vitamins and Ginseng--the cross under % Daily Value perfectly connotes its true meaning.

*For caffeine content in coffee, tea, etc. check out: http://www.holymtn.com/tea/caffeine_content.htm or just keep on reading: Caffeine in a 10 oz. coffee normally amounts to 100-300 mg, black tea 50-200 mg, and cola (12 oz.) 100 mg.
If you want some amusing (but not funny haha) copy on caffeine, check out Red Bull's site, which of course brags about caffeine's health benefits and uses the word "foodstuff", which I find funny. Actually, you might not find this funny at all.

Fast food and love in the city

Nothing goes better than Valentine's Day and...fast food.

The chains have really stepped up to the plate as of late, and I commend McDonald's and White Castle for their mirthful efforts, respectively offering a free firemen calendar with a spicy chicken sandwich purchase and offering candlelit and serviced dinners.

There's nothing hotter.

http://www.whitecastle.com/valentinesday/

The first post

The first anything always feels wierd, doesn't it?