But after a wealthy Hong Kong businesswoman bought the property 14 years
ago, the refuge that once offered patrons a swimming pool, gymnasium
and library deteriorated into a dusty, hollow version of Morgan's
vision. Blemished by peeling paint, water damage and boarded windows, it
sits in the shadow of Pasadena's distinctive City Hall.

Frustrated by its declining condition, city officials voted last week to
use eminent domain to claim the structure. The motion came six months
after the owner rejected the city's offer to purchase the property for
$6.43 million and countered with a figure nearly double that amount.

Read the full story here.

–Corina Knoll in Pasadena

Photo: Built in 1921, Pasadena's YWCA was a community refuge offering women a
pool, gymnasium and library. Today it sits vacant with peeling paint,
standing water and boarded windows.

(Bret
Hartman / For The Times / April 15, 2010)

For the most part, I have ignored the fringe group turned mainstream antics of the so-called Tea Party protestors, considering them more an embarrassment and nuisance than someone to be taken seriously. I've ignored them, that is, until this past weekend when a benign difference in ideology turned into an angry mob of racial slurs, homophobic rants and excessive mouth phlegm as President Obama and congress set out to make history with the health care reform bill. I couldn't ignore it any longer. I know firsthand the consequences of racism and am appalled such a lack of respect for our American lawmakers occurred, reminding me of an incident from my own childhood and how far I've come, and how far all of us have yet to go.

It was the summer of 1980, when I was eleven years old, a friend of mine and I decided to spend a day at the swimming pool of my neighborhood hotel. As we walked toward the pool we noticed a crowd of black children staring into the water at the deep end. When we got to them one of us asked what they were looking at and a little girl pointed into the water and said, “He's been down there a long time.” We looked to where she was pointing and saw a little boy, no more than eight or nine, lying on the bottom of the pool. We immediately jumped in and pulled him out while one of the children ran to get an adult. We laid the boy on the concrete along the pool and I felt for a pulse. It was faint, but still there, and my friend and a man who ran to the pool began CPR on him. As I watched frozen in fear, knowing they were doing it wrong, thinking I should move my friend out of the way, tilt the child's head back to open the air passage and do the mouth to mouth myself because I was the only one there who really knew how, a voice in my head screamed, “You don't kiss a black boy. You don't kiss a black boy.”

So I said nothing, did nothing, and watched him slowly die. Yes, I was only a kid in a scary situation, but I knew even then it was the color of his skin that kept me paralyzed, and I've felt the shame and remorse ever since. Could I have saved him? I don't know. I don't know if it was already too late. All I know is I didn't even try, and in that moment I knew, “You don't kiss a black boy,” was wrong. It was all wrong, everything I had been taught, the bigotry, the intolerance, the superiority was just wrong. My profound moment came at a heavy price I wish for no one, because at eleven years old innocence shouldn't be shattered by confronting racism, even when it is within one's self. The racism shouldn't have existed at all.

I've lived my entire life in the South, and I've experienced people of such incredible tolerance and generosity and love. True Christians, who give so much while asking for nothing in return. These are God loving, selfless people of compassion and hope who live what they preach.

In my life, I've also experienced people of such vile hate, bigotry and intolerance I wonder how it is most of them vehemently claim to be Christians. How do they hold their heads up in church every week?

As I got older I developed a basic philosophy about race: Being racist makes absolutely no sense. It is completely illogical. Not only does it defy basic Christian principles, for those who really care about that, but there are just way too many white people in this world I sincerely dislike, for reasons that have nothing to do with the color of their skin. So why would I dislike someone for a feature God or whatever gave them that is beyond their control, when they're likable for so many reasons?

Which brings us to the racial and homophobic epithets hurled at lawmakers on Saturday, March 20, 2010, in Washington D.C., the place of the Tea Party protest against, of all the idiotic things, health care reform legislation. What is it about this topic that has these people so scared and angry? Socialism? Really? Every democratically elected industrialized country in the world, including ours, has government-sponsored health care, and so far they haven't turned into the Karl Marx utopia these people are so afraid of. I think after several decades it's safe to say they never will. Remember Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, military veterans, Congress? I mean, come on, this bill doesn't even have a public option to force competition on private insurance, much less a Medicare for all universal plan.

Though I've been asking this question for a while now, the real reason for the anger reared its ugly head on the last day as one gay, one Muslim and two black Congressmen walked towards their votes on one of the most historic legislative acts of their careers. Protestors screamed the N-word, others screamed words offensive to homosexuals, and one brazen and distinctly irrational protestor spit on one of them. This is America's Tea Party, fueled by the right-wing media, and supported by Republican politicians, which begs the question, “Is this really such a surprise?”

The right-wing media has been stoking this fire for months, preying on their fear, appealing to their prejudices and telling them to “take back our country!” with crazy, irrational rhetoric or guns, if necessary. When the Tea Party people are encouraged to take guns to presidential events and carry signs with assassination threats to our Congress and our president, are we really all that surprised by this, the moment they realize they've lost? The more Democrats, and especially President Obama, succeed, the more irrational Tea Party protestors will become.

Because this Tea Party group, which has taken over conservative politics, has no sense of humility, no concept of the Constitution or the legislative process, and no flexibility in their ideology, my fear is this is just the beginning. At some point we'll all be shocked because the violence gets worse, and as that eleven year old girl, raised in ignorance and fear, learned the hard way, someone could end up dead.

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I took a fish cooking class the other day, at LA’s New School of Cooking. Perhaps not surprisingly, we spent a big chunk class talking about how to buy fish — because it’s a more sensitive meat than chicken or pork or beef, and can go bad much more quickly because of its high moisture and protein content. Aside from overcooking, probably the number one mistake people make with fish is buying mediocre product and then storing it improperly. So here are a few ground rules on both buying and storing.

Things to smell for in a seafood market
The first thing you want to do when you walk into a fish market (or the seafood section of your grocery store) is take a whiff. Does it smell a little salty? Like the beach, perhaps? That’s a good sign. Fish isn’t odorless, and a fish market should smell like “a clean beach.” However, if the “fish smell” smell is intense, that’s a warning sign — it could mean that the fish hasn’t been stored properly, or the market isn’t particularly clean. Also, look at the ice. You want to see the fish lying on beds of finely-crushed ice, not on cubes of ice, which can damage fragile filets of fish.

How to tell if whole fish is fresh
Buying a whole fish? The skin should be shiny, almost iridescent. If it’s got a slimy-looking coating, that’s OK — it’s natural. Just make sure the slime is clear, not cloudy. Also, look at the eyes. They should be clear and not sunken-in, which is a sign of dehydration. Make sure the fins aren’t torn up. And don’t be afraid — if they’ll let you — to push on the fish with your finger. It should almost spring back from your touch, which is a sign that the meat is still full of moisture.

Looking for freshness in filets
Really fresh fish filets should be moist-looking and slightly translucent. They should be firm to the touch — compact and dense. If it flakes, that’s bad, a sign of dehydration.

How to store fish
Most home refrigerators aren’t cold enough to keep fish in for long. The ideal temperature for storing fish is 33-34 degrees — almost but not quite freezing. But there’s a workaround you can use if you buy fish and aren’t planning on using it for a day or two. First, unwrap the fish and then re-wrap it so it’s not so tight in the paper. Fill a bowl with ice and put the fish, in its paper, on top of the ice, and cover the whole thing, bowl and all, with an upside-down colander. Put this is the back of your fridge, the coldest part. This is good for 48 hours of storage, max.

Then cook the darn thing! (Want some good recipes? I love the Cook’s Illustrated website. These guys are like crazy food scientists, and they cook every recipe a dozen times a dozen different ways to make sure they’re doing it the absolute best possible way. There’s an annual fee, but it’s worth it — and they have a free trial.)

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Material from:Self Publish Children's Book

Newsmax :

A former Iranian Revolution Guards officer who spied for the CIA in Iran for nearly decade is telling his story in a new book that will hit bookstores next week.

“A Time to Betray” provides a riveting account of how the author, who uses the pseudonym Reza Kahlili, worked undercover and sent intelligence reports to his CIA handlers, all while a suspicious counterintelligence officer was chasing him.

Read the whole story: Newsmax

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Shaquille O'Neal's mother has her own story to tell, and it's not just about raising a sports superstar. In her new book, “Walk Like You Have Somewhere To Go,” Lucille O'Neal shares the intimate details of her life, from her struggles with alcoholism and teen pregnancy to the joy of being able to get a college degree as an adult, funded by her son. On “Good Morning America,” Ms. O'Neal spoke charmingly about the book and her son — and why she doesn't like to be called “Shaq's mother.” She shared some of the wisdom that she imparts as a motivational speaker. The most important?

I want people to know that all things are possible. When you have a dream, dream big and hold on to that dream.

Ms. O'Neal also got a surprise phone call from her son during the segment, who reaffirmed how important his mother has been throughout his career. “She allowed me to have a very silly imagination, and she allowed me to dream big,” Shaq said.

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Every year at this time the editors of The Awl commission a poem by a respected scribe to best encapsulate our feelings about the day. We hope you enjoy this one, because we pretty much blew the April budget on it.

The Fools of April

The fools of April early rise
To better share their silly lies
They don their finest fooling clothes
And start to spread their prankish prose

The fools of April love to jape
No barrel bottom won't they scrape
There's not a joke for miles round
The fools won't beat into the ground

April's fools play silly tricks
But they can eat a bag of dicks
Mark me, fellows, here's the crux
These fools are fucking stupid schmucks

Every year the same lame gags
April's fools are fucking drags
How to end it? Here's an answer
Let them all get anal cancer

Or better still, some rare disease
That makes their balls fall past their knees
I wish the worst upon these tools
Who think that they are April's fools

I'd like to see them in the ground
And people come from town to town
To take a shit upon their graves
As tribute to these assfaced knaves

Twere better that they died at birth
Then spend their time upon the earth
Pulling off their stupid gags
The fools of April can lick my crack in the middle of Times Square on live television. Seriously, fuck those guys.

William Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer of the English language. Don't Fuck Me In The Ass And Tell Me That It's Hemorrhoids, his new book of relationship advice, will be published this fall by Harper Studio.

Material from:How To Publish A Childrens Book

NEW YORK — Biographies of Abigail Adams and Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange are among the winners of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for history.

Columbia University announced Wednesday that three authors will each receive $10,000 for the Bancroft.

The prize goes to Linda Gordon for “Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits”; Woody Holton for “Abigail Adams”; and Margaret D. Jacobs for “White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940.”

Previous winners of the Bancroft, founded in 1948, include John Dower's “Embracing Defeat” and Sean Wilentz's “The Rise of American Democracy.”

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Wandering the icy streets of Chambarak–little more than compacted humps of ice glacially layered with hay and dung–I come to note that there's a feeling around a place that has had shells lobbed at it. Bombs sensitize, not de-sensitize, as is often romantically supposed. There's a quivering nerve that stays raw and bleeding long after the gunfire has stopped.
In the middle of the town there's an old Soviet block that was once either a prison or a collection of miniscule apartments without plumbing. It stands gutted and derelict. Van Baelen takes me inside. “When I first saw this place,” he says, “I knew immediately why I was in Armenia.”

A fetid stench upholsters the block, sharpening as we move upstairs. The building has been stripped to bare sooty concrete, and in places genuinely gutted by fire. Litter migrates in icy drafts. Some flights up, noises can be heard behind a door. We knock. The door opens onto a cloud of dung smoke from a wood stove, thick enough to burn the eyes and throat. In one room just big enough for a single bed, a small table, and a dresser, sits a woman called Hamest. Three children sit with her. They are refugees. They fled Azerbaijan fifteen years ago. The building is a refugee hostel. A handful of families are camped there still, waiting for a change in their fortunes.

And there's something more: a curiousness, an unexpectedness in the makeup of the family's features and in their manner. The boy has a strangely elongated face and a detached, doleful gaze. Then the father arrives and bids us welcome. And there's something unusual about him too, behind his beard and in his eyes.

Hamest and her husband are mentally retarded. So are all their children. And their life's routine after the door closes behind us is one of unthinkable abuse. Hamest's husband often trades their bread for vodka and drinks with other men in the building, often in that tiny room. He regularly beats Hamest, and there is reason to suspect her daughters suffer sexual abuse at the hands of the men. Hamest's mother is dead, and she has lost all contact with the family she knew when she fled Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, in 1990. She is utterly powerless.
MSF provides Hamest with a grant for electricity, and its psychologist tries to convince her to send her adolescent daughter to a boarding facility, away from the horrors of home. But Hamest is afraid she will lose her daughter as well. I retire from the building with questions. Not least, what are the odds of a mentally handicapped couple finding each other, and going on to raise a handicapped family?

I met a great many people in the Southern Caucasus. And it may be, notwithstanding psychoses brought about by the trauma of war and dislocation, that there are no more mental disabilities here than anywhere else. But there's a great stigma placed on mental disability here, and it attaches to anyone within reach of a sufferer. Sufferers are alone with their problems. Lesser conditions like depression and anxiety are ignored altogether, just taken as another fact of hard life. And this dynamic forms the heart of Van Baelen's project. He has made a start on the task of destigmatization.

Chambarak opened its first MSF day center in 2003. There is one in each of the towns I've visited, staffed with psychologists, social workers, and assistants. They are a hub not just for the disabled, but for the wider community; if only for warmth, coffee, and conversation. Every weekday the center is open for counseling, crafts, music, fitness, anything that brings the twain together in a relaxed and constructive way. Picnics and open days are mounted whenever possible. The able and disabled are mingling.

“We use any excuse for a party,” says Chambarak's psychologist, Loussine Mkrttchian. Subscription is steadily growing at her center.

It's also at the day center I see a remembered face. The shepherd who wandered past the house containing the missile. I meet him. His name is Petros, a handsome, weather-beaten, profoundly retarded thirty-five-year-old with airs of great musing and reflection and a fixation with the buttons on his coat. A familiar sight around the district, he simply wanders from morning to night, often in the mountains, often around the prohibited border zone. His family feeds him, but that's as far as his care goes. He's been left all his life to wander. He has never spoken a word.

© WRITING ON THE EDGE: Great Contemporary Writers on the Front Line of Crisis, Rizzoli New York, 2010.

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Sourse:Greek Salad Recipe

Amid the clamour over the Greek debt crisis, a far more perilous threat to the global economy is becoming increasingly apparent. The global economic and financial crisis has wreaked havoc on the United Kingdom's public finances, with no clear path to salvation.

Consider the following statistics. Greece has a GDP of approximately $350 billion, compared with $2.2 trillion for the UK. In other words, the Greek economy is only 16% the aggregate size of Great Britain's. The proportion of Greece's annual deficit to GDP is 12.5%, a figure that has triggered the current Greek sovereign debt crisis and panic search for a bailout formula within the Eurozone. Yet, in the much larger UK economy, the deficit to GDP ratio has reached 13%, an even higher level than for Greece, which has aroused so much fear among global investors and policymakers. Furthermore, while the UK's official public national debt comprises 68% of GDP, a figure lower than America's and much lower than with Greece, that level of indebtedness is accelerating at a rapid rate. It must be recalled that only three years ago the UK national debt to GDP ratio was only 38%, and with double digit deficits now an inescapable fiscal reality in the United Kingdom, it seems almost certain that the nation's public debt will exceed 100% of GDP within the next three years. Furthermore, it is widely believed by analysts and investors that off balance sheet public debts (as was similarly revealed in relation to Greece's current debt crisis) and unfunded contingent liabilities significantly add to the official figures.

What do these dismal statistics tell us about the future trajectory of the UK's profound sovereign debt and economic crisis? Consider what Kornelius Purps, fixed income director at UniCredit, Europe's 2nd largest bank, told the British newspaper,The Daily Telegraph; “Britain's AAA-rating is highly at risk. The budget deficit is huge at 13% of GDP and investors are not happy. The outgoing government is inactive due to the election. There will have to be absolute cuts in public salaries or pay, but nobody is talking about that.”

In effect, the UK economy is at a dangerous tipping point. Massive public indebtedness occurred as a result of the government's bailout of its banks, yet businesses remain afflicted by a severe credit crunch. Massive stimulus spending has added enormously to the deficit, but the only result has been suspect figures that, if interpreted most optimistically, show that the UK's economy has essentially flatlined after incurring a sharp contraction in economic output during the height of the global financial crisis.

The predictable outcome, as alluded to by Kornelius Purps, is that in the future the UK's treasury gilts will be unable to finance the nation's prodigious borrowing needs with historically low interest rates. At some point, perhaps sooner than many realize, interest rates on the UK's debt instruments will rise precipitously. This will occur while GDP growth is at best sluggish. Sharp reductions in public spending will almost certainly tip the economy back into deep recession, further constricting revenue and maintaining London's fiscal imbalance. However, the alternative is even more unpalatable. The sovereign bond market will demand increasingly higher yields, leading to a fiscal reality that is unsustainable. Ultimately, the United Kingdom will face the real prospect of national insolvency, with all the predictable dire consequences.

This grim trajectory has an even darker meaning for the United States. As bad as the UK's fiscal situation is, America's is far worse. Its annual deficit to GDP ratio is only marginally lower than Great Britain's. Furthermore, its national debt to GDP correlation is significantly higher. More importantly, the average period of turnover on the United Kingdom's debt is 14 years, compared with a mere four years on U.S. Treasuries. Once bond yields start to rise, the short term structure of America's national debt will incur a vast increase in annual interest payments.

It seems to this observer that it is only a matter of time before the UK sinks into an irreversible sovereign debt cataclysm, with the United States not far behind. Anyone who believes that the same political establishment and financial elites that have led both nations to this hellish fiscal precipice can now lead us to a sustainable solution is, in all probability, being excessively hopeful.

Greece has a E8.22 billion redemption due on April 20 and another E8.086 billion payment on May 19, which must be refinanced. It also has sizeable coupon payments in coming months, which total E3.923 billion.

Greece has so far raised E8.0 billion with a new five-year benchmark bond issued via syndication on January 26. It has also raised E2.0 billion in a private placement conducted in December, which was seen as pre-funding for 2010.

In addition, the debt agency has raised E2.8 billion through sales of T-bills with 13-week, 26-week and 52-week maturities, in part to cover a T-bill redemption of E1.51 billion that was due on January 15 and of E1.95 billion redeemed on January 22.

Greece's borrowing programme for 2010 is estimated at E54 billion, considerably less than last year's E66.0 billion.

In the meantime, while both Moody's and Fitch have affirmed their negative outlooks on Greece, both rating agencies can't find enough praise just how wonderful yet more actionless yapping out of Ellada is. And now add the IMF to that list, after the Currency Board expert said that it “welcomes substantial measures by Greece today” and “stands ready to support implementation of the Greek plan (with TECHNICAL assistance).” Whether this means that the IMF's 191 tons of gold (for ~$7 billion) will be sold tomorrow is unclear.

The only voice of reason here seems a little line in the Fitch report which notes that the “debt market access window is closing quite rapidly.”

Full Moody's report below, which is preparing its brand new AAAA rating, especially for Greece. Somehow merely talking about austerity measures is now considered sufficient. We fully expect Arnie to come out and say that California will adopt the same austerity as Greece… in 3049. And Moody's VP Sarah Carlson will be first in line to believe any and all promises. Former Moody's employee Deep Shah had no comment as of the time of this posting.

Moody's: Greece's New Austerity Measures Lend Credibility to Fiscal Adjustment Plan

London, 03 March 2010 — Moody's Investors Service today said that the additional fiscal
measures announced by the Greek government are consistent with Moody's
current A2 rating, with a negative outlook, for Greece's
government bonds. Today Moody's also published an Issuer
Comment, entitled “A Ten-Point Analysis of Greece's
A2 (Neg) Rating”, which reiterates the rating agency's
rationale behind Greece's rating and the conditions under which
that rating could change.

“These new measures are a clear manifestation of the government's
resolve to regain control of public finances,” says Sarah
Carlson, VP-Senior Analyst in Moody's Sovereign Risk
Group and lead analyst for Greece. In an economic and market environment
that has become increasingly challenging, these measures increase
the probability of debt stabilization provided that they, and the
previously announced policy measures, are fully implemented.

“The onus is on the government to demonstrate that it does not merely
announce ambitious plans, but is also able to deliver on these commitments,”
says Ms. Carlson. “However, Moody's does
not expect Greek public finances to be turned around in a fortnight,”
adds Ms. Carlson, insisting that the Greek government needs
to be given time to allow it to follow through on its plan.

As repeatedly stated by the rating agency, Greece's current
A2 (Neg) rating balances two factors: on the one hand, Moody's
assessment that the government faces limited short-term liquidity
risk; on the other, Moody's concern about the long-term
erosion in Greece's creditworthiness given its need to deleverage
the economy (starting with the public sector) in a context of weak competitiveness
and slow regional growth.

Going forward, maintaining the government bond rating at A2 will,
according to Moody's, be contingent upon the government executing
its fiscal austerity programme and delivering the quantum of deficit reduction
that has been promised. Signs that deficit reductions will fall
short of what has been promised would likely lead to downgrades —
as suggested by the negative outlook — in proportion with the shortfall.

Moody's last rating action on Greece was implemented on 22 December
2009, when the rating agency downgraded Greece's government
bond ratings to A2 from A1, with a negative outlook.

The principal methodology used in rating the government of Greece is Moody's
Sovereign Bond Methodology, published in September 2008, which
can be found at www.moodys.com in the Rating Methodologies
sub-directory under the Research & Ratings tab. Other
methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process
of rating this issuer can also be found in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory
on the Moody's website.

Sourse:Seafood Salad Recipe

Blood clams are a type of ark clam found in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, and the Indo-Pacific region. As their name implies, the clams are red, due to having the red blood pigments hemoglobin and myoglobin, This gives them better oxygen transfer allowing them to live in murky low oxygen environments. Most clams have clear blood.

Here's the part that freaked me out: blood clams filter 40 liters of sea water per day, a larger amount than most shellfish. This means if they are harvested from areas that do not practice standard sanitary regulations, the clams absorb harmful bacteria and viruses such as hepatitis, typhoid or dysentery. Research has found that the hepatitis virus can survive for as long as three months in the clams.

They are currently banned in China as blood clams harvested in China were responsible for a hepatitis outbreak. It is illegal to import Chinese blood clams in the United States, but smugglers still manage to get them in, and there have been crackdowns and arrests in New York City's Chinatown on discoveries of seafood shops selling illegal Chinese-harvested blood clams.

Blood clams from other locations are okay, just not the ones from China or Southeast Asia. Since I have no idea where the blood clams I purchased came from, I decided against eating them, just to be on the safe side. Scary!

Related: Use Caution When Eating Escolar

(Images: Kathryn Hill)

When the American food machine turns out a new salty treat, they turn to Jeremy Selwyn for approval. Tali Yaholom on one man’s decade-long odyssey to find the perfect snack.

Jeremy Selwyn’s passion is to find every single snack in America, no matter how obscure or bizarre, and then write about his reaction. Consider this past Monday: After discovering risotto-flavored potato chips manufactured by a relatively unknown company, New York Style, Selwyn brought a bag into his office and urged his co-workers to try some. “Everybody was like, ‘What the heck is that?’” he laughed, but “as it turned out, they were pretty good.” So the chips, described as rice crackers with a Doritos-like flavor will soon become the 4,423rd on Selwyn’s 10-year-old site, Taquitos.net, a compendium of snacks that sound like salty Willie Wonka concoctions: seaweed corn crackers, octopus-flavored potato chips and peanut butter and jelly popcorn, to name a few.

Snack manufacturers will defensively tweak their recipes to satisfy Selwyn’s criticisms.

The site started as a solution to a monotonous newspaper job in central Massachusetts, where Selwyn would pass time by buying creative-sounding snacks at a local convenience store. During this time, salt and vinegar- or ketchup-flavored potato chips were “somewhat of a novelty,” and Selwyn quickly became known as the guy who eats weird junk food at 8 in the morning, which turned out well for him, as his friends and colleagues soon began bringing exotic snacks for “the chip guy” to try out. A site was born, that now attracts about 30,000 snack-happy visitors a month, according to Quantcast.

What separates Taquitos.net—named for a Trader Joe’s offering and a Simpsons joke—from most other cult food blogs is everyman appeal, its creator’s eagerness to shove a herb-roasted anchovy-flavored potato chip down his throat. “For people who are adventurous, it’s fun to try different things,” Selwyn says. “It’s fun to see something you couldn’t imagine existed and then eat it.” Selwyn, who goes by “Chief Snacks Officer” when he’s not working his day job as a Web site developer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finds his craziest-sounding nosh when travelling abroad (England introduced him to Cajun squirrel-flavored potato chips) or visiting Asian grocery stores in Chinatown (home to all things seafood). Snack manufacturers regularly send Selwyn complimentary cases of their newest products and, occasionally, will defensively tweak their recipes to satisfy Selwyn’s criticisms—such was the case of a certain caramel popcorn, which Selwyn complained left too much sugar on his hands.

• Watch: 12 Banned Super Bowl Ads Selwyn is careful not to brand himself as any sort of culinary expert, though his site reflects the national obsession with snacking in general, and extreme snacking in particular. “Personally, I have kind of no actual background in food preparation or food science,” he says. “I’m a terrible cook. I really just eat these things as an ordinary snacker and I’m surprised by the number of people who read my reviews who say, ‘You had that one right on,' which isn’t to say everyone agrees with me or I want everyone to agree with me, but I call it as I see it and I’m just aiming at ordinary snackers.”

There is a “sub-industry trying to crusade against snacking,” he adds, but “people are going to eat what they want to eat” and, regardless, “more and more people are willing to experiment.”

Plus, there’s room for the foodie elite to participate, since snack manufacturers often try recipes incorporating gourmet trends and exotic foreign foods. “It’s whatever the flavors are of the moment tend to get integrated into snacks, whether it’s some ethnic combination or a spice or a food like bacon,” adds Ed Levine, founder of Serious Eats. “When big snack food companies are fighting for shelf space, one way you battle for shelf space is by broadening your line.”

Plus: Check out Hungry Beast, for more news on the latest restaurants, hot chefs, and tasty recipes.

Tali Yahalom has written for New York, the Atlantic, The Financial Times and USA Today.

For more of The Daily Beast, become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Muscle Relaxers For

Over the last few days we have been hearing numerous stories about Gregory “Hurricane” Helms. As most have heard by now, both he and Chris Jericho were arrested a few days ago.

But why was Jericho allowed to compete at the Royal Rumble and Helms was pulled?

The reason is completely simple, Jericho wasn't the man who caused any issues. In fact, the police were called for Helms and his reckless behavior, and because Jericho stuck around (unlike Matt Hardy who was with both Helms and Jericho but ran when police arrived) he was arrested for being intoxicated in public.

Kinda reminds me of what a comedian said. “I was thrown out in public while being in a bar, I was caught by police and they wanted to arrest me for being drunk in public, I wasn't drunk in public, I was drunk in a bar. They threw me out in public.”

They both were apparently play wrestling and Jericho got hit, which is where the black eye you saw him sporting at The Royal Rumble came from. Helms was said to have done that, and allegedly struck a woman.

Helms and Jericho were arrested and then bailed out soon after, but the story doesn't stop there.

At the time of the arrest, Helms had what police said was ”one white round pill.” Now, some could think this was claritan or something along those lines at first glance unless they were a pharmacist or another type of drug professional.

So the police asked Helms about it, and Helms told them it was Soma. The pill is a generic version of the muscle relaxer Carisoprodol and a schedule four narcotic. Many who have used it said it is a very good, I've never tried it so I'm going by online reports here.

Now Helms claimed that he had a prescription for it, but he was unable to prove it at the time of the arrest.

The police did not charge Helms for the single pill, but should he be unable to provide a prescription he will be in violation of the WWE Wellness Policy and Kentucky state law. I am not sure on what their policy is for possession of one Soma pill though.

A lot of wrestlers use pain killers or muscle relaxers, and many in places such as the WWE or TNA have prescriptions for them. There are times in which they do not, where they have some that have a prescription yet have others without one.

But it's mostly Indy wrestlers that don't have prescriptions for drugs nowadays.

In any case, Helms may be out the door quite soon.

And this was before the arrest by the way. According to my sources, Helms met with the WWE legal department early last month about a release from World Wrestling Entertainment.

It was believed that if he was going to be leaving the WWE, it would be after the Royal Rumble at some point.

Helms has a veteran's policy in his contract, which means his no compete clause when released is about 45 days, instead of the normal 90 most wrestlers see upon their release from the WWE.

If he is released from the WWE, it could be at some point this month. It's unlikely the WWE would use him at WrestleMania, and there is no storyline for him going into the Elimination Chamber PPV either.

So with that being said, Helms could be gone very soon. Especially with all the legal trouble he has been in.

While many would think that he is being released for the legal trouble, we should keep in mind that he allegedly asked for the release.

I say stay glued to WWE.com to see if he is gone. But for now this is all the news on Helms I can find and what I've heard from a few sources.

partial source for arrest news: TMZ

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Sourse:Seafood Salad Recipe
Makes 4-6 servings

2 small-medium acorn squashes
3-4 leaves kale, thick stems trimmed and chopped to 2-inch pieces
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup whole milk or half-and-half
sprinkle of sea salt or coarse kosher salt
pinch of nutmeg (optional)
about 1/2 cup pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and discard or reserve for another use. Grease a baking tray with a tablespoon or two of the olive oil and place squashes cut side-down. Roast for about 30 minutes or until the squash is tender when poked (depending on size/shape of your squash). Let cool completely. Scoop out flesh from the skins and discard skin. Combine the squash with the vegetable stock and process with a hand blender or by transfering until smooth. Bring to a simmer in a medium pot and season with salt and pepper to taste, adding the optional nutmeg if desired. Once seasoning is correct, add the milk or half-and-half and heat through completly.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Toss the kale pieces with about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and a sprinkle of coarse salt. Spread across a baking tray in an even layer and bake for about 1-2 minutes, or until loud crackling is heard. Carefully rotate the kale with tongs or by shaking the pan (carefully, it’s hot!). Place back in the oven and cook another 1-2 minutes, or until some pieces are just browned. Let cool. Top the soup with a handful of the kale chips and a sprinkle of the pine nuts.

Make Scrambled Eggs and Bacon in the Oven

Scrambled eggs and bacon are a hearty, heart-warming way to start a day, but they require a bit too much stove-top work and dish dirtying for a typical morning. Not so if you follow this oven technique, which keeps your eggs fluffy.

The TipNut blog's recipe calls for 12 eggs, but that's a number you can easily break down into smaller portions. Add a good bit of milk and a bit of butter, add the mixture to a greased pan, place in an oven warmed to 350 degrees, and then:

When eggs begin to set (after cooking for about 10 minutes), take a spatula and push the eggs from side to side to scramble them (you'll notice the edges are where the eggs first start cooking), make sure to scrape the bottom and sides well. Continue cooking for approximately another 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so to scramble as the eggs really start setting up.

The full post describes a method for also cooking bacon alongside the eggs. The advantage of the oven is not having to work about the direct heat drying out the bottom of your eggs, and cooking bacon in the oven certainly condenses the clean-up.

If you've got a simplified morning breakfast recipe, we'll certainly take your tips in the comments.

Everyone gets sick once in a while. Itis expected. Therefore people have sick time at job. That's why there are physician and insurance companies. But there are a few basic things to make sure you stay in general perfect health. You should wash your hands. In general, not enough people do this. When taking the restroom. Investigations have been done and a shockingly low percentage of men and women wash their hands after taking the lavatory or before meals.

I always tell you: Consume water. Liquid cures all ills. Deprivation of water is the culprit of many general ill health like headaches and plus bloating. 8 cups of water is the minimum so be sure you're consuming at least that much. Think that fruits and vegetable juices count towards your daily scoop of hydrating beverages. Sport. Physical activity does not have to mean hours on the treadmill sweating away to exhaustion. Sport can be as easy as walking across the parking lot to the grocery store or doing housework. That's right! Vacuuming burns calories intake! The more active in basic you are the more exercise youare getting. Think getting a passometer. Passometer's have shown that people who wear pedometer's are more effective than those who do not.