- The age-old conundrum has confounded many: how to get one’s buzz on and grub on but not get stuck with the massive influx of calories from pounding both dessert and booze in one sitting. The makers of Cream believe they have the answer. No, not Cream as in the old-school rock band that was one of Eric Clapton’s first groups, but Cream as in the alcohol-infused whipped cream that comes in a five flavors including chocolate, caramel, raspberry, vanilla and cherry. You heard me correctly - booze-infused whipped cream. With a major void in the liquor novelty products ever since the government dropped a ban on the sale of caffeine-packed alcoholic drinks, someone had to step up and fill the void. And what better product to pitch to Americans than something that combines their love of eating foods that make them FAT and their love of getting liquored up? Cream is currently available in a limited number of stores around the country and contains 15 percent alcohol by volume, three times the amount found in most beers and wines. One of the product’s first landing spots was Massachusetts, where liquor store owners can attest to Cream’s potency and popularity. "You definitely know that there's alcohol in it," said Max Pendolari, general manager of the Wine Emporium in Boston’s south end. "Most bottles of wine would have the same alcoholic content." But of course, any good idea is going to produce competition and Cream has its rival in the form of Whipped Lightning, which is being sold in at least a dozen states. Considering the fact that Cream costs $12.99 for a standard can, its growing popularity is interesting. For anyone buying Cream or Whipped Lightning, take note of the fact that neither product can be refrigerated because the alcohol separates from the cream. That would seem to give the alcohol-added whipped creams a short shelf life because keeping them in your liquor cabinet for long wouldn’t work either. Thus far, no state or national regulatory groups have taken a stance on alcohol-infused whipped creams, but if they have a problem with combining caffeine and booze, odds or they’ll have something to say about this topic as well………
- Any time Ryan Seacrest regularly appears on your network, airing programming that will actually decrease your network’s standards is next to impossible. E! certainly has an uphill battle in that regard, but the network that has made a habit of throwing Hugh Hefner’s latest ditzy, morals-free blond Playboy girlfriend into a reality show may have accomplished the feat with a new show called Bridalplasty, a competitive reality series in which 12 soon-to-be-brides compete in “challenges that will help you become closer and closer to the perfect bride.” That leads us to the obvious question: What amazing prize will these brides compete for in exchange for degrading themselves on a low-rent reality series for the world to see? For starters, they will win an all-expenses-paid dream wedding. That makes sense because if you’re going to humiliate yourself on the basis of your impending nuptials, then the least you should receive if you win is your wedding day tricked out and paid for. But as the name of the show would imply to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the medical field, there’s more to the equation. Because what happens if a bride-to-be is orca-FAT, has a ginormous nose or feels her rack is too small? Those concerns could lead to a less-than-perfect wedding, so of course the winner of this absolute debacle of a show will also receive an all-you-can-order plastic surgery process. Liposuction, nose job, cheek implants, enhanced rack, whatever you want. That way, a bride can looked as carved-up as Heidi Montag when her wedding day rolls around. Stay classy, reality television, stay classy………
- Thanks for finally getting around to that, Russia. Some 70 years after a World War II massacre in which an estimated 20,000 Polish officers were murdered at point blank in the village of Katyn, Russia's lower house of parliament has found time to approve a resolution recognizing that Josef Stalin's regime was responsible for the massacre. For some bizarre reason, Russia’s refusal to admit its culpability in the slaughtering of tens of thousands of Poles had kept relations between the two nations relatively icy. Immediately after the somewhat hollow and meaningless gesture (on account of everyone involved no longer being alive), Poland's Foreign Ministry issued a written statement saying it welcomed the resolution titled "Katyn Tragedy and Its Victims," adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation on Saturday. "Acknowledging the Stalinist totalitarian regime's accountability for this unprecedented massacre is the Russian Parliament's important gesture, signifying that we are making progress on the way to reconciliation between our countries and peoples," the statement read. "This gesture proves that there is no turning back from the truth-based dialogue between Poland and Russia.” The truly hilarious part of the resolution is the “revelation” that documents stored in secret archives for years show that the "massacre was committed on the direct orders of Stalin." Really? These documents have simply been collecting dust in some secret storage room with a guard posted at the door and a retinal scan required for entry? Maybe this is looking the decades-late-hollow-resolution-passing Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) in the mouth, but they probably could have found time for this 25 years or so ago. I suspect this has a little something to do with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev trip to Poland in December. Nothing paves the way for a warm diplomatic reception quite like admitted that maybe, just maybe is wasn’t Nazi Germany that senselessly murdered 20,000 Polish officers were murdered at point-blank range. Sure, Russia attempted to score some brownie points in 1990 when it admitted to what many in Poland had long suspected: The Soviet Union secretly murdered as many as 22,000 Polish soldiers and civilians in the early days of World War II in an attempt to preemptively suppress a Polish rebellion against communist rule. However, a criminal case opened by Russian prosecutors into the killings was closed in 2004 and nothing more came of it. Predictably, the more staunchly Communist members of parliament opposed the declaration, claiming German authorities actually executed the Polish soldiers. Way to keep head firmly plated up ass, Commies. You keep on insisting that this declaration is part of "Soviet history falsification" as part of an "ideological war," but the rest of us are glad to see someone from your nation finally copping to the truth………
- Professional athletes just don’t make enough money each season in terms of salary, right? They need bonuses and other incentives for winning MVP awards, breaking records and playing to the very level they are already paid to play at, no? Then there are playoff shares, which reward players from teams that make the postseason with additional pay based on the amount of money made from those playoff games in terms of TV money, ticket sales, concessions, etc. Major League Baseball announced the value of playoff shares today for each of this postseason’s eight participating teams and needless to say, the totals were impressive, especially for teams that advanced past the divisional round. A full World Series share for the champion San Francisco Giants was worth $317,631.29 (don’t wanna round that down, no sir) while the American League champion Texas Rangers' share was worth $246,279.55. Teams are allowed to determine who receives a playoff share and the Giants voted 50 full shares to members of the team and other personnel, along with 9.89 partial shares and five cash awards. A full share was worth 7 percent less this year than it was last year for members of the world champion New York Yankees. The reason for the difference is smaller stadiums in this year’s playoffs, although it would be fair to argue that the difference with $317,000 and $350,000 when talking about bonus money is not much difference at all. The pool for players’ shares is 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first three games of the Division Series and 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first four games of the League Championship Series and World Series. The other six playoff teams broke down thusly for playoff shares: Philadelphia Phillies ($123,140.50), New York Yankees ($110,302.97), Minnesota Twins ($30,838.43), Atlanta Braves ($29.510.57), Tampa Bay Rays ($28,141.51) and Cincinnati Reds ($26,910.27). Nothing like being able to buy a new car with your bonus money………
- More bad news this way comes for you, lazy and out-of-shape Americans. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the Radiological Society of North America is currently holding its annual meeting in Chicago and some interesting studies relating to exercise and health were presented at the conference Monday. Three separate studies using imaging techniques to show how exercise can affect our bodies and brains were presented and all three suggest that walking may slow cognitive decline in adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as benefiting brains of healthy adults. One study, which is still ongoing, monitors participants for the distance they walk each week and that data is correlated to brain volume that is measured using MRI, then combined with mental function testing, using the 30-question mini-mental state exam, which measures cognitive decline. That may sound complicated, but in reality it’s simply a means to measuring the impact that regular exercise may have on people. Researchers are following 426 people for the study, which includes 299 healthy adults and 127 cognitively impaired adults, including 83 with mild cognitive impairment and 44 with Alzheimer’s disease. "Volume is a vital sign for the brain," said lead study author Cyrus Raji, Ph.D., from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. "When it decreases, that means brain cells are dying. But when it remains higher, brain health is being maintained." The distance walked by participants in varied between zero and 300 blocks per week. Those that walked greater distances tended to have greater brain volumes, especially in the key memory and learning areas of the brain. The standard for those with some form of cognitive impairment to slow cognitive decline and maintain brain volume was at least five miles – about 58 city blocks - per week. By comparison, healthy adults needed to walk about six miles per week— at least 72 city blocks —to maintain brain volume and reduce their risk for mental decline. "Alzheimer's is a devastating illness, and unfortunately, walking is not a cure," Raji said in a written release, "But walking can improve your brain's resistance to the disease and reduce memory loss over time." Anything that could improve brain function and even minimally decrease the affects of a debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s, which affects as many as 2.4 million to 5.1 million Americans, is huge. A similar study presented at the conference revealed that light exercise - like the walking researched in the first study - may help protect people at risk for osteoarthritis from developing it. That study was done by University of California, San Francisco researchers who studied 132 study participants who were at risk for knee osteoarthritis but were not yet experiencing symptoms. They then enrolled 33 control subjects in the study and divided participants groups based on their responses to a quiz on physical activity and strength training. Levels varied from sedentary and the way up to strenuous exercisers and also included strength and knee-bending-exercise-participation components. In the end, researchers found that light exercisers significantly healthier knee cartilage than those that did no exercise. The final study among the trio to be presented was from German researchers who spent two months collecting and analyzing MRI images, urine, blood and biometric data from 44 runners participating in the nearly 2,800 mile TransEurope-FootRace in 2009. Among their findings, which should be extremely encouraging for veteran marathoners like myself, is the fact that fat tissue was the first tissue affected by running and changes in visceral fat –the dangerous type of fat that’s tied to heart disease—occurred much earlier in the running process than previously thought. Also, researchers found out that some leg injuries are safe to “run through” without stopping, such as intermuscular inflammation in the upper or lower legs. All in all, the cumulative message of these three studies is simple: Run, walk, bike….just get some freaking exercise for once, America……….
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