Ambien, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Cookie Laws

1. Please wish Taylor Hanson (of Hanson) a happy 23rd birthday.

2. Studies coming out of some Minneapolis sleep disorder centers are revealing the sleeping pill Ambien is causing some patients to sleep-eat, to “claw through their refrigerators like animals and consume calories ranging into the thousands.” In the same studies, the doctors say that many of these unconscious eating behaviors ended when the patients switched to other pills like Lunesta and Sonata. (NYT)

3. A Greek study comparing long-term (4+/wk). shorter-term, and occasional marijuana users showed that regular users performed worse in cognitive, memory, and attention abilities, with long-term users showing the greatest deficits. To be wow’ed by these findings, pick up the current issue of Neurology. (Reuters Health)

4. A Mexican couple in Yucatán are recovering after a marital spat that involved firing guns, throwing knives and hurling homemade bombs. The fight ended when a homemade gasoline bomb went off and blew up the house. Juan Espinosa said he was glad his wife, Irma Contreras, got burned, while Irma says she wished she “hacked off his manhood” in their spat. (Reuters)

5. Some sixth-graders and legislators obviously have too much time on their hands when on Monday, sixth-graders Leanne Oleasz and Caroline Pluta led a PowerPoint presentation to promote a bill designating “oatmeal chocolate drop with a dash of nutmeg” as the official state cookie for CT. If passed, oatmeal chocolate drop with nutmeg will join the ranks of New Mexico’s biscochitos and Massachusetts’ and Pennsylvania’s chocolate chip. Representative Andrew Fleischmann of West Hartford sampled a cookie and said it was “awesome,” making all Democrats proud. (AP)

6. Stop feeling sorry for Jennifer Aniston. Aniston tells Vogue she is “so tired of being part of this sick, twisted Bermuda Triangle,” never mentioning the names that make up Brangelina.