I've been riding my bike to work the majority of the time lately. It's great for a lot of reasons, gas prices being not the least of them. I also enjoy the exercise and being more connected with my surroundings on my way to sitting in front of a screen all day.
Alicia Buxton wrote a sidebar to the cover story in this week's Flyer. She uses the statistics that there are far fewer biking deaths than auto deaths as evidence that biking is safer than driving.
I won't get into dissecting the stats comparison and belabor the fact that there are more auto deaths because, duh, more people are driving.
However, I do feel that biking is considerably more dangerous, especially in a city like Memphis.
I myself was nearly killed earlier this week by a driver not paying attention.
Riding a bike requires ten times the attentiveness of driving a car. You can't talk on the phone, both hands need to be on the bars. You have to be constantly aware of drivers entering the road that probably aren't watching for you.
In a city like Memphis, (more after the jump)
The CA's Whining & Dining blog asks "What's your family drink"? and goes on to describe the infamous Jager-Bomb, which is (apparently) the "family drink" of someone she knows.
Okay, first off...
Who really has a "family drink?" I mean, I know alcoholism tends to run in families, but isn't that just being a little brazen about it?
Secondly, of that select boozy lot with "family drinks," which of them settled on the Jager Bomb as the one cocktail that the family would enjoy in unison at gatherings and such? I can just see grandpa...
"what's that black stuff?"
"Grampa, that's Jagermeister. It tastes like licorice and gets you trashed."
"Uh okay, what's that stuff that looks like fizzy piss?"
"That's Red Bull. It tastes like fizzy piss and it makes you all wired and hyper."
"Sounds delicious, set me and Gam Gam up a couple"
The term "family drink" sounds like it should have some tradition behind it... Like "we drink MEAD at our reunions in homage to our viking ancestor Sven the Horrible..."
A Jager Bomb tradition could only go back as far as, oh I don't know, 2006?
Whatever, I'm still giggling at the thought of jittery, wasted aunts and uncles.
(Bonus, the photo of the precocious young man above was image result #3 when I googled "jager" to find a photo for this post)
Posted in jager | Snack Submitted by Grillmaster on Mon, 2008-06-23 15:52.
Grillmaster's blog
Debunking Fuel Economy Myths.
I received a forwarded email from a coworker a while back that contained claims about fueling up early in the day, squeezing the handle only half way, and avoiding gas stations that were just restocked by a fuel truck. All three of these and more are debunked in the above "quiz." You don't have to answer the questions, just skip through for the answers.
This post is a little outside the realm of my usual snark and cynicism, but I feel like posting it so nyeh.
Yesterday, many tech sites reported that Wal-Mart was starting an online classifieds service Here.
I forwarded the link to some folks I work with as a heads-up and we got to talking.
I grew up in Bentonville, where Wal-Mart HQ is located. The place fairly exudes Wal-Mart corporate, so anytime I visit I pick up whatever is going on by osmosis. Doesn't make me an expert, but when I see moves like this I have a pretty good idea what they're thinking.
My take:
They are working hard to build their online brand. They want to drive traffic to their online store and I bet they’re hoping a classifieds service will accomplish that. I’m betting they’ll serve ads from their online store next to search results, so If someone is looking for a lava lamp and there aren’t any classified listings, they’ll show you where you can buy one from Walmart.com instead. (more after the jump)
"So what's up with the neck brace? How'd you get hurt?"
"Well, I was being a loud jackass in spin class. By the way, I go to spin class. It's really intense! Sometimes I just get way into it and start grunting and yelling "Woo!" really loudly. Anyway, this jerk couldn't hang with it and threw me and my bike into a wall."
"Spin class, huh?"
That's this guy.
I was just reading the national news sites' coverage of the multiple national disasters going on in the world... The lingering effects of the Myanmar cyclone, the tornadoes across the southern US, and the earthquake this morning in China.
Then I decided to check out what our local news outlets were saying.
Here's the Commercial Appeal's lead story from this morning:
It's a stupid headline no matter how you slice it, but it's just sad in light of what's actually going on in the world today.
Posted in Breakfast | CA Submitted by Grillmaster on Mon, 2008-05-12 10:25.
Grillmaster's blog
This morning, I left for work a few minutes early so I could take a suit and a couple pair of pants to the dry cleaner.
I stopped at Kraus Model cleaners on Union only to find that they were closed. A sign on the door read "Effective November 5th, our store hours will be 9-3 at all locations."
Seriously? A dry cleaners only open from 9-3? Isn't the bulk of your business from people dropping off clothes before work and picking them up after work?
And November 5th? I KNOW I've dropped off laundry before 9 am since last November.
Kraus Model has officially lost my business, and I'm sure lots of other business too.
Maybe next week they'll open a pizza place that's only open from 5am to 10 am.
Posted in Lunch Submitted by Grillmaster on Thu, 2008-04-17 16:02.
Grillmaster's blog
Aid Worker on the Food Crisis in Haiti.
Posted in Snack Submitted by Grillmaster on Tue, 2008-04-15 12:55.
Grillmaster's blog
