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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check
October 14, 2009
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Christmas shopping (already!):
It's never too early to start shopping for memorable holiday gifts. Survival Of The Hippest is a Web site that custom designs jewelry to "increase your social net worth."
Calling them "status symbols for the ultra-chic and uber-geek," they offer gold or sterling silver necklaces of your Twitter address. Because if you're on Twitter, you might just be that pathetically dedicated to acquiring new followers wherever you go by displaying your tag on your clothing.
Starting at $50 for silver, at $120 for solid gold, and more for more than 8 letters. Prices are the same for bracelets or anklets, and actually higher for pins. (Kaye)
Guilty Pleasures:
No winner in Tuesday night's drawing for the Mega Millions Lottery. That means Friday night's drawing is valued at $200 million ($127.2 million cash value). Mega Millions is played in 12 states: CA, GA, IL, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NY, OH, TX, VA, WA. Chances of winning the big prize are 1 in 175.7 million.
Filling a need:
A reported spike in the price of chicken wings.
The NY Times says what's usually a cheaper part of the bird has replaced the most expensive part of the bird, the breast. Now the wings are more expensive than the breasts.
Why? The recession, of course. Restaurants drastically cut back on breast orders, causing the prices to slump. Meanwhile, restaurant chains focusing on wings have been growing and people have begun eating more of them as well, seeing them as a cheap luxury during hard times.
Several restaurants are aggressively promoting "boneless wings," essentially breasts that are cooked as if they were wings.
Breasts are expected to get back on top once the economy improves, but some think the days of cheap wings might be behind us. "If they can figure out how to grow chickens with four wings," said the founder of one chain restaurant, "we'd be in really great shape." (Maiman)
Chic Sh*t:
They're all the rage in Asia, but one New York lawmaker would like to see fish pedicures disappear.
New York Senator JEFF KLEIN has proposed legislation that would ban the spa treatment across New York. Klein says the state department in charge of inspecting nail salons supports the measure, but admits it might be tough to check out every salon in the state that offers fish pedicures.
The fish pedicure involves sticking your feet in a pool of water while tiny fish nibble away the dead skin, exfoliating the surface of your feet. The Albany Times Union explains the reason a dozen states have banned the practice --and that Klein wants New York to join them-- is because even though the footbaths and fish tanks can be sanitized, the fish themselves cannot be. There is concern the fish themselves will carry a disease from one client to the next.
Klein hopes the ban becomes law before the end of the year. (Page)
Grace notes from Vinny Marino:
The guy who wrote the worst song of all time is suing his former fiancee. The New York Times says JOSEPH BROOKS, composer of "You Light Up My Life," claims JOALY GOMEZ never told him she was already married so he wants at least two-million dollars in damages, the 550,000-dollar bank account he set up for her and the return of an engagement ring worth 60,000-dollars. Joseph is 71-years old, Joaly is 21.
FYI: Back in June, Joseph pleaded not guilty to raping 11 women he allegedly promised to cast in his movies. (Marino)
Health and Medical Briefs:
Forget iPods and rock concerts. Loud music isn't the only thing that can damage your hearing. Turns out your car could cause you to go deaf.
A new study found that people who drive or ride in convertibles could be destroying their hearing. Driving at 50 miles per hour with the top down can subject your ears to wind noise above 90 decibels. That's about the same as a gasoline-powered lawnmower.
The U-S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that exposure to that type of noise level for longer than two hours can cause permanent damage to your hearing. Researchers say rolling up the windows at high speeds can help some.
According to CNN, noise-related hearing loss is worse for men than it is for women. Researchers claim men face triple the risk of noise-related hearing loss. (Page)
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