- Berlin, you have been spared…..for now. Unless you take advantage of the major, major break you just caught, the same Scud you just dodged will be coming straight at your head again some time soon. See, your ears were almost subjected to an entire concert of Usher’s crap-tacular “music” before a mysterious illness intervened. The concert was originally scheduled to take place Wednesday at Berlin's 02 Arena, but the man who has done the best job outside of Justin Timberlake of ripping off Michael Jackson’s schtick and making a career of it canceled at the last minute due to illness,. He then rescheduled the show for the next night and threatened, via Twitter, "the show that you all properly deserve." Whatever cold or flu medicine he downed the next day didn’t work, because when Usher took the stage Thursday night he lip-synched his first two songs and danced poorly to them. While I might call that a pretty typical Usher show, Berliners were not impressed and those closest to the stage reportedly started complaining. Loud boos were also heard throughout the arena and in response, Usher lowered his head and stood silently on the stage for about four minutes before leaving altogether. The house lights came up and the crowd was informed that Usher was too sick to continue the show. His publicist released a statement Friday explaining that the singer is "suffering from upper respiratory illness which is currently preventing him from performing a proper show. After consultation with doctors, he has been advised to reschedule the upcoming dates in order to get the rest he needs to ensure a complete recovery." No word was given on when the auditory torture session might be rescheduled for, but postponed shows in Rotterdam and Antwerp have been rescheduled for March. That gives you plenty of time to act and find a way to permanently postpone this disaster, Berlin. But Usher did issue a statement of his own further apologizing for the Berlin blowup. "I deeply regret having to reschedule the shows," he said in a statement released Friday. "I am truly sorry for any inconvenience I have caused my fans. My fans are the best in the world and I am looking forward to getting better so that I can give them the show they deserve." They are the best fans in the world…..because they put up with some of the worst music in the world and keep coming back for more……..
- Smokers, you’re disgusting. We all know that, from the green, leathery skin you sport to the awful stench ground into every piece of clothing you own to that catcher’s mitt that is stapled atop your neck in place of your face if you’ve smoked for more than a few months. But for an additional reminder of how nasty each and every last one of you are, the rest of society need look no further than the cigarette butts you leave lying around all over the place. They are a saliva-laden, smelly and filthy reminder of what you’re doing to your own body and to the body of anyone subjected to your toxic secondhand smoke. Personally, I don’t want anything to do with those nasty cancer stick butts, but some people are too bothered by them to just let it go. Thus, an organization called RippleLife.org is hosting the first cigarette butt redemption event this weekend in San Diego. By collecting and redeeming cigarette butts, individuals can get a small cash reward. "It's a big environmental pet peeve of mine," said organizer Curtis Baffico. "I know that I'm not alone." "I thought to myself, what if cigarette butts had a value similar to cans and bottles? While they're picking up cans and bottles, there's most likely several cigarette butts nearby as well as. This is another added element to incorporate into their recycling strategy. Cigarettes can indeed be recycled. Baffico said many smokers think they're biodegradable. This is true for some rolling papers, but not the filters." While that’s way more than I ever needed to know about death sticks, I’m glad someone cares. Big ups to RippleLife.org for working with several local organizations and shops to sponsor the CBR event. In fact, Baffico and his team are also in talks with companies that can recycle the butts. "I want to create sustainable things with these cigarette butts," he explained. "It can really make a difference in San Diego." So all weekend long, San Diegans desperate for meal money will be scouring areas like the intersection in Pacific Beach where Grand Avenue and Garnet Avenue split, which is littered with butts. The moment of inspiration for Baffico came after he picked up 725 cigarette butts in 33 minutes. For those interested in taking part, simply collect cigarette butts and turn them into RippleLife.org at the far west end of Thomas Street in Pacific Beach. For every pound you collect, you will receive $3, which you can to one of the dozen or so charities RippleLife sponsors if you don’t want it yourself. But even if you miss this event, the organization plans to have cigarette butt collections once a month, so there will be other chances………
- Don’t count on the NBA league office to paint the same picture of gloom and doom that players, agents, fans and media are offering up about a potential lockout prior to next season. Yes, NBA commissioner David Stern is standing behind his idea that the league wants to cut salary costs by $700 million to $800 million annually, a reduction of almost 40 percent. And yes, there is still no way in hell the players will ever agree to that proposal. But NBA deputy commissioner still believes that a lockout is "not inevitable," even though no formal meetings are scheduled between the owners and players' union and the two sides are still miles apart on virtually all of the major issues. Silver, attending Friday night's game between New Orleans and Houston, insisted the two sides have plenty of time reach a compromise before the current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30. "It's not inevitable," Silver said. "While we have no other formal meetings scheduled now, there is an ongoing dialogue with the union and we've been completely forthcoming with our financials. And I'd like to believe they understand the position in which we find ourselves and that no rock will go unturned in trying to get a new deal done." For the record, the players resoundingly rejected the league's last formal proposal over All-Star weekend last February, then presented a counterproposal last summer. The offer contained a proposal to negotiate a reduction in the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenues, while relaxing salary-cap restrictions on trades and add a second midlevel exception. Stern rejected that proposal on the grounds that it was too similar to the current deal that is so bad for the league. Silver said the league has offered no new proposal because, "Our position hasn't changed." Okay, so how do you expect any deal to be reached? "From the league standpoint," Silver said, "we believe we made a compelling case to our players on why there needs to be reduction in salaries. I understand from the players' standpoint and the union's standpoint, what their position is." If no agreement is reached, the NBA would have its first work stoppage since the 1998-99 season. That lockout stretched into late January and the regular season was shortened to 50 games. So far, no one outside of the league office has been able to muster any optimism that another work stoppage can be avoided……….
- You’ll need to excuse me for a moment while I try to compose myself enough to properly share this next story, which should strike outrage and furor into the heart of each and every person who has ever picked up a television remote control. One of the greatest shows of all-time, a show that made Saturday morning television must see for several years and which has lived on through reruns (and will continue to do so as long as someone with an IQ above 24 is running most basic cable networks) is under assault by one very angry, possibly drunk man in Illinois. Saved By the Bell holds a very dear place in the hearts of so many, which means it impacts us all when an angry, probably drunk bar patron at Mullets Sports Bar & Restaurant in Homer Glen, Ill. goes into the bathroom, rips a photo of SBTB hunk A.C. Slater (played expertly by Mario Lopez) from its place of pride above a urinal and smashes it on the floor. If you don’t know who A.C. Slater is……..you are a horrible human being. But for the record, he was the mullet-wearing jock played by Lopez on the popular teen drama. Slater was a wrestler, a friend, the boy toy of show brainiac Jessie Spano and so much more, but to this tool at Mullets Sports Bar & Restaurant, he was just a target for misguided rage……or was it. Seems that this a-hole had a reason for his actions. "I just don't like Slater," the man reportedly told the owner after allegedly yanking the photo down and smashing it on the floor. Thankfully, he left after another person gave the bar owner $11 for the broken frame. The bathroom floor was also damaged, so hopefully this scumbag gets what he has coming to him. No one is quite sure where the anti-Slater sentiment came from, but one could surmise that with Slater’s many hunky attributes, this alcohol-fueled idiot had plenty of which to be jealous, from the dimples to the bulging biceps to the many hard-fought victories on the football field and wrestling mat over archrival Valley……….
- The government is trying to help you, FAT Americans, so why won't you let them? If someone tells you that the grub you’re shoving down your gullet is fatty, laden with unhealthy ingredients and better suited to be buried in a hazardous waste dump than processed by your digestive system, why can't you listen? But sadly, that’s exactly what is happening, at least according to a study published Friday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. This chilling piece of research examined ordering patterns at a fast-food chain in King County, Wash., where a labeling law went into effect two years ago. The law mandated that food carry nutritional labeling alerting people to the health content (or lack thereof) of the food they were ordering at their eateries. Researchers found that in the 13 months since the law went into effect, food purchases at the Taco Time restaurants in King County were identical to those at Taco Time restaurants where menu boards did not list nutritional information. "Given the results of prior studies, we had expected the results to be small, but we were surprised that we could not detect even the slightest hint of changes in purchasing behavior as a result of the legislation," said Eric Finkelstein of Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, the lead author of the study. "The results suggest that mandatory menu labeling, unless combined with other interventions, may be unlikely to significantly influence the obesity epidemic." The only silver lining in this barrage of bad news is that the researchers may have simply picked a bad sample for their study. See, Taco Time was already identifying its healthier food choices in all of its restaurants prior to the new labeling law. There simply may not have been any perceptible change because in the minds of Taco Time customers, nothing had changed when they walked through the door of their local (faux) Mexican eatery. So before naysayers argue that the well-intended laws will not have a huge impact on consumer eating habits, let’s do some more research and make certain of that fact. Besides, the Food and Drug Administration won’t release its recommendations for the nation on fast-food menu labeling until later this year. There’s still time, America, for the millions and millions of FAT among you to turn from your poor eating habits and start afresh. It can happen, it should happen and it must happen, so let’s get busy………
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