Still, even amongst artisans, there is a big difference. Our micro-contest contestants declared the one on the right (above) and on the bottom (below) a clear winner.

…..fast food chains are tapping into a demographic that is pushing back against the healthy eating trend and giving in to a product that’s being unabashedly upfront about being unhealthy.  Debi Andrus, marketing expert, University of Calgary

Former reigning champs in the extreme-sport of piling junk together and selling it as food are Wendy’s Baconator  – 1,130 mg of sodium and Burger King’s Triple Whopper  – 1,600 mg sodium.  Recommended daily consumption is 1,500 mg.

But look out, KFC, the greasy, secret-herbs & spices chicken emporium introduced the Double Down “sandwich” in 2010 – two pieces of fried chicken (grilled if you’re watching your heart) sandwiching bacon, cheese and special sauce – 1,740 mgs of salty madness. It was pulled after a  month in Canada, and then reintroduced in 2012, with an allegedly lower sodium count.

And now KFC Japan prepares to launch Kentucky Chicken Rice featuring a ketchup-flavoured rice patty garnished with cheese, sauce and mayonnaise jammed between two slabs of fried chicken.  To properly honour the launch, Toronto Life has assembled a Top 10 of the World’s Grossest fast foods.  This stuff may be edible, but it’s not food.

- a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations.

Another 80′s throwback become trendy.

Milk and cookies

Omnishambles is the U.K. Word of the year – a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations. (see also Romneyshambles)

Runners up include:

• Eurogeddon  -  the European Union’s potential financial collapse.
• nomophobia – anxiety caused by being without one’s mobile phone.
  
• YOLO -  you only live once; commonly used as justification for impulsive or irresponsible behavior.
• Super PAC – type of independent political action committee which may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, and individuals but is not permitted to contribute to or coordinate directly with parties or candidates.
• Superstorm – an usually large and destructive storm.

Squirrel Snack

Snacking to Feasting

Feast or Carnage

The show must go on.

Too Moldy to Munch

Goodbye

Neuroscience proves that self-disclosure stimulates the same reward areas in the brain as eating and sex – it feels good.

Social media is all about talking about ourselves; what we think and like and do. Which lends itself quite nicely to the art of bragging.

But the classic brag is crass (Are we all braggarts now? ), better to be humble when bragging (#humblebrag) but that’s become obvious so the latest variation is the underbrag as noted by blogger Jen Doll and illustrated by Oliver Burkeman:

If I mention that I fell asleep drunk on the sofa last night, surrounded by the detritus of a half-consumed McDonald’s meal and empty cider bottles, you might not envy me. But that’s precisely the point: by telling the world, I’m implying that I don’t care that you don’t envy me, and that I am secure enough to report my debauchery without needing to contemplate the consequences. Which is why you should envy me.     

 

Is a pole ever just a pole?

There are lamp poles, fence poles, electricity poles, totem poles, fishing poles, utility poles, telephone poles, steel poles, iron poles, fire poles, the north pole, the south pole, ski poles, flag poles,  javelin poles, poles for vaulting, dancer’s poles, stripper’s poles and exercise poles.

So what kind of pole are you using in a Pole Dancing class, and is that pole perceived differently depending on whether you are 26 or 6 years old?

A dance studio in British Columbia has stirred up quite a controversy by offering a class called Little Spinners for kids as young as five because their “existing students were asking about it for their children. They were saying, ‘My daughter plays on my pole at home all the time, I’d love her to actually learn how to do things properly and not hurt herself’.”

The reaction has been strong, ranging from the nonchalant (they’re just like the horizontal bars except vertical)  to the hysterical (they will become strippers for sure).

Taiwanese animators jumped into the fray and the International Pole Sport Federation used the opportunity to publicize its’ desire to include Pole dancing in the 2016 Olympics.

No word from the kids about whether they’d rather climb a tree or slither up a pole.

After the latest massacre on July 20 in Aurora, Colorado, gun sales went up 40%. It’s ironic but not that complicated, people want to defend themselves from other people with guns. But imagine that movie theater if even a few of the movie-goers were packing guns.

Fear of  gun control also sells guns.

After a mass shooting, people are worried that new laws will be implemented to restrict, reduce or take away their right to bear arms – so they stockpile, taking advantage of some very good deals.

We had a sun lamp in the 70′s, it was in my parent’s room, and every now again I would give my pimply face a roast, usually too much, burning it bright pink.

Then, it seems to me that sunlamps and tanning salons largely disappeared for a couple of decades, relegated to the occasional sighting at strip malls.  But wherever they went there is no doubt that bronzage on the tanning bed is back in a big way – with rays apparently 5 to 15 % times stronger than the midday sun and available in the oddest places like laundromats and travel agencies. Which I guess is a kind of efficiency, tan while you launder and get a base while sealing your winter travel deal to the south.