X out of 10

Pompous and Superfluous Bluetoothery (PSB) is a blight on our society that can be found virtually everywhere—at the bar, in restaurants, or even while shopping at the grocery store. But do not panic! PSB is easily avoidable and minimally contagious.

What is PSB, you ask? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines PSB as “the act of wearing a Bluetooth headset unnecessarily when one is not planning on having a telephone conversation, particularly when one is amongst peers or when the functionality of said headset is eliminated by the wearer’s noisy environment (as in a bar or nightclub).”

Symptoms of PSB include looking like a tool/cyborg/jackass, an inflated sense of self-worth, cockiness, and, ironically, not receiving any phone calls at all because you are a douche.

You can protect yourself from PSB by removing your Bluetooth headset from your ear as soon as you finish your telephone conversation, and by leaving your headset at home when you go out to the club.

It should be noted that wearing a Bluetooth headset, despite the obvious functionality, does not make you look cool, rich or important. Today, Bluetooth headsets are a relatively cheap piece of consumer electronics and should not, under any circumstances, be considered to be or a fashion accessory or an item of “bling.”

As a correspondent for The Daily Show, Rob Corddry is goofy, clueless, and generally hilarious; his new vehicle, a vacuous mid-season sitcom called The Winner, has quite a bit of the first two, but a distinct lack of the latter.

Within the first few seconds of the series premiere, two questions sprang quickly to mind: first, which idiot executive gave this pile o’ schlock the green light? and second, is Rob Corddry intentionally committing career suicide? The second question can also apply to the show’s executive producer, Seth McFarlane, who created a moderately successful cartoon called Family Guy (you may have heard of it).

In the show, Glen Abbot (Corddry) is a thirty-something loser who lives with his parents, has never gotten laid, and whose best friend is a kid one-third his age. Through a series of fortunate events, he becomes the richest man in America. Normally this would be quite an impressive feat, but in this case it’s hard to give less of a shit about Corddry’s moronic, borderline-pedophile character.

The worst part about this show is that, while watching it, you get the feeling that it was focus grouped in front of a group of chimpanzees with Down’s Syndrome. After all, how else can you explain the ridiculously over-the-top laugh track, which (according to Wikipedia) is played 61 times (!) before the first commercial break. Wow—television has reached a new low.

X = 0: This show will make you dumber, and may cause allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, erectile dysfunction, and utter loss of faith in humanity. Avoid contact at all costs.

If you only read the packaging, you’d think that WiiPlay gives you nine awesome games, and includes a BONUS FREE Wii Remote, all for only $50! Exciting, right? Well, not so much.

Although I knew which games to expect when purchasing WiiPlay, I didn’t know quite how limited they’d be. WiiPlay is definitely not the must-have game for Nintendo’s highly-sought-after console. On the other hand, if you can’t find extra Wii controllers to save your life (and if, like me, you refuse to pay a premium to those hell-bound bastards who scalp everything Wii-related at huge profits on eBay), you might as well pick up WiiPlay—there are at least enough games here to keep you entertained for a while, and there are even a couple that might just keep you coming back. Read more »

A warning, fair readers: Sun Pacific is putting heroin in their Cuties brand clementines. That is the ONLY LOGICAL CONCLUSION I can find as to why I am so hooked on the things. It’s no longer unusual for me to eat six in a day.

On the downside, the recent failure of much of the California citrus crop has made these pocket-size citruses skyrocket in price lately. If you see me standing on an offramp next to I-5, you’ll know that my Cutie addiction has finally made me a broken man.

X = 9.2: easy to peel and eat, extremely sweet and juicy, but high prices may someday reduce me to a life of vagrancy, performing unspeakable acts for my next Vitamin C fix.

[You can see the recipe referenced in this post at FoodNetwork.com]

Thank you, Bobby Flay, for providing me with one of the most delicious recipes I have ever created. I could eat salmon prepared this way every night and never get sick of it. My only modification to the recipe was to use Sockeye rather than King salmon, mainly because the intense flavor of the Sockeye is further enhanced by the smoking process. If you decide to give this recipe a shot, know that you probably won’t need as much of the pesto as indicated in the recipe; of course, your tastes may vary, but I found that about 1/2 to 3/4 tbsp per fillet was plenty. Read more »

Got a hole in your sole? If you have a pair of shoes that have fallen out of repair, but you just can’t bring yourself to toss them in the bin, give Swanson’s (2305 N 45th St in Seattle) a shot. Stepping into the tiny old shop makes you feel like you’re stepping out of a time machine, and for a good reason: the Swanson family has been repairing and restoring shoes in this same spot for the last 60 years.

Swanson’s also repairs all types of leather goods, including luggage, purses, and wallets. They’ll even give your shoes a professional shine job for about $3.50 (half what you’d spend for a lesser job at, say, Nordstrom), and give you advice on keeping your new kicks in the best shape possible.

X = 8.7: Taking your shoes to Swanson’s is a great way to bring your old shoes back to life and keep new ones looking good. Plus, it just feels good to support a small, local, family-owned and operated business. Be warned, though: they only accept cash.

NutritionData.com ain’t pretty, but it sure is useful. If you’re trying to watch your consumption of a particular component of your diet—be it sodium, cholesterol, fat, or even things like theobromine or caffeine—NutritionData.com should be in your Bookmarks list.

Just type the name of the food in question into the search box to get an extensive list of nutrition facts. You’ll find just about everything in NutritionData.com’s database, including full nutritional data for many fast food products, if that’s your thing (of course, if you’re really interested in a healthy diet, you’re probably not eating much fast food anyway, but I digress).

The site also features advanced search tools that help you figure out which foods you should eat depending on your dietary needs. For example, say you’re on a low-sodium diet, but you want to find foods that are high in protein. Just make your selections in the Nutrient Search tool, and you’re good to go.

X = 9.2: probably the Web’s most complete source of nutritional data, although it could use a facelift.

NutritionData.com

I make no bones about it: I’m a Mac guy. Unfortunately, my work computer is a PC.

When I’m at work, one of the features of my Mac at home I miss most is Spotlight. Spotlight is a nifty addition to OS X that helps you find pretty much anything on your computer—applications, music, documents, Address Book entries and more. In my experience, though, Spotlight is best used as an application launcher: just hit the Spotlight keystroke (by default Cmd+Space Bar), type a few letters of the name of the app you’re looking for, arrow down to select it, and press Enter. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it only takes about two seconds. Most importantly, it’s way better than digging through your Applications folder or cluttering up your Dock with icons.

Windows XP, among many other things, has no Spotlight-esque feature, just a sub-par desktop search app with an irritating animated dog. Forget where you installed a particular app in XP? You could go routing through your Start menu, or navigate your way to the Program Files folder on your hard drive, or fill your desktop with shortcuts, but those methods are all clumsy and inefficient. This is the gap that Launchy very elegantly fills. Read more »

We all know Craigslist is a great way to find whatever you need, be it cheap electronics, free firewood, hookers, apartments for rent, a job—just about anything you could ask for. But Craigslist’s great power comes at a great price: your time, which is spent digging through a bunch of garbage to find that one diamond in the rough.

Enter Listpic. Although it doesn’t get rid of all the crap on the ‘List, it’s a lot more fun to look at than the boring text-only Craigslist listings, and it should help you find only the items that are visually appealing to you. Just click a category on the main page (it’s laid out almost exactly like the main page for your local Craigslist), and you’ll get thumbnail after thumbnail displaying all of the items in that category that have pictures attached. Click one, and the whole listing is overlaid on the screen. It’s great if you’re seeking a new apartment, thinking about a new (used) care, or looking for some real estate. A nice bit of Ajax flair even lets you resize the thumbnails on the fly.

X = 7.3: simple and useful, especially if you use the ‘List a lot, but definitely not vital if you’re only an occasional user.

Listpic.com
Seattle Listpic

Seattlites: Looking for delicious, ridiculously-overpriced desserts and worse service than you’d expect in the snootiest Parisian bistro? Look no further than 806 East Roy Street on Capitol Hill, home of the city’s newest dessert spot, Coco La Ti Da.

Upon walking in the Coco La Ti Da’s small, cozy and beautifully-appointed space, do not expect to be warmly greeted; you will most likely not be greeted at all. Hang around for a bit until a table opens up (for whatever reason, the place is typically packed, especially on weekends), then head straight for it and wait. After a few minutes, your server will come along and scurry away the previous party’s dishes while struggling desperately not to make eye contact with anyone in your party. You’d better come with good company, because she won’t be back for quite some time. When she finally does return to take your order, expect minimal interaction. If you were lucky enough to receive a glass of water upon this visit, savor it—you won’t get another.

After an inexplicably long wait (all the desserts are pre-prepared, so your server merely has to plate your selection and bring it out to you), your dessert will arrive, minimally appointed, but delicious-looking all the same. Enjoy it—you will—because it’s going to cost you ten bucks. For a freakin’ slice of cake.

Coco La Ti Da? More like Coco Aye Yi Yi.

X = 2.6: delicious desserts and a great atmosphere do not come close to making up for unbelievably poor service and insanely-overpriced dishes.

cocolatida.com