Chuck's Daily Diggs for 10/19

Wednesday October 19th, 2011

Today is Make a Scarecrow Day, Evaluate Your Life Day, and Greasy Spoon Day (What was your favorite greasy spoon? Still in business?)

In the News

A new Gallup poll found a majority of Americans favor legalizing Marijuana (Gotta have something to do...it's not like we're working)

McDonalds is launching its own TV channel to be shown inside McDonald's restaurants across the country. (The first program will be a live Republican debate featuring Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Mayor McCheese.)

It turns out male penguins turn to a life of crime to impress the ladies. They actually steal rocks from other penguins to build an impressive nest. The better the nest, the better chance at a mate. (Apparently, female penguins need more than just a fancy tuxedo) (BTW: very cute video here)

Great Travel Tips For the Holidays

If you're on the road this holiday season, Stever Robbins, from the Get It Done Guy blog, has four great websites to make your trip easier to manage...

1. Use Kayak to find flights. Kayak is a search engine that searches all the flight databases to find the best deal. Once it finds your best price, it hooks you up with the ticketing site directly to book your flight.

2. Use SeatGuru to pick your seat. SeatGuru knows the plane's layout and amenities -- even down to legroom, obstructed views and misaligned windows. Great for long flights.

3. Use TripIt to track your itineraries. TripIt takes all your travel details and constructs an itinerary for you, including weather, restaurants and maps.

4. Use FlightTrack Pro to track flights. Make sure your flight is on time, know the departure gates, or any weather alerts with FlightTrack Pro. It even connects to TripIt and loads your itinerary automatically. If you're picking someone up from the airport, FlightTrack lets you track their flight so you know exactly when they'll land.

Pick Sides

A new study found that it's the woman who determines where a couple sleeps in bed.   Why? Women seem to have a reason for picking a side of the bed, where men are just willing to adapt. For example, women will pick a certain side for protection (from burglers), for a quick exit (to the baby's room) or closest to the window (to avoid his bad breath).  Men take the side that's open.

Conclusion: Men just want to sleep.

Reality TV -- So Real, Say Teen Girls

8 out of 10 teenage girls think reality shows like "Jersey Shore" and "The Hills" are pretty good representations of the real world. The Girl Scouts Research Institute found these girls tend to accept and expect more aggression and bullying than girls who avoid reality TV. The more they watched reality programming, the more likely they were to agree that being mean was the key to getting ahead:

• "You have to lie to get what you want" (37% agree)
• "Being mean earns you more respect than being nice" (37%)
• "You have to be mean to others to get what you want" (28%)

Sounds like we have an awesome workforce in our future!

Women: The Stronger Sex

The science is in -- women are stronger than men. Think about how much your man whines when he gets a cold, the same cold you power through. Why is that? Because women have the double X. Two X chromosomes which contain more genes working to bolster immune function. Men have one X and a Y chromosome which leaves them more vulnerable to cancer and infection. It's the reason women live, on average, 5-years longer than men. Go ahead, ladies..."na na na na na na"

Date Someone Your Own Age!

Can relationships like Ashton and Demi's ever go the distance? It's challenging, according to relationship expert Lisa Steadman. "It can create significant barriers," she says.

Here are five pitfalls to dating outside your age bracket:

1. Different life stages. “You might be starting your career while someone else is winding down. Don’t expect to be on the same page about everything.”
2. Mixing friends. Disapproval by close family and friends can add additional strain to a pairing.
3. Shared goals. Having common goals (kids?) is a huge factor in any successful relationship
4. Sexual chemistry. It's fun at the beginning, but the age difference really shows as the older partner starts to slow down while the younger is still in his/her prime.
5. Life experience. When one person has drastically more life experience than the other, it can lead to difficulties -- but it's not impossible.

Cuttin' Cake

• John Lithgow (66)
• Chris Kattan (41)
• Amy Carter (44)

Primetime, Baby!

ABC: The Middle (NEW), Suburgatory (NEW), Modern Family (NEW), Happy Endings (NEW), Revenge (NEW)
CBS: Survivor: South Pacific (NEW), Criminal Minds (NEW), CSI (NEW)
NBC: Up All Night (NEW), Whitney, Harry's Law (NEW), Law & Order: SVU (NEW)
FOX: World Series (Rangers vs. Cardinals)
CW: Ringer, America's Next Top Model (NEW)

Joke of the Day

A father came home from a long business trip to find his son riding a very fancy new mountain bike. "Where did you get the money for the bike?" he asked. "It must have cost 2,000 dollars!"

"Easy, Dad," the boy replied. "I earned it hiking."

"Come on," the father said. "Tell me the truth."

"That is the truth," the boy replied. "Every night you were gone, Mr. Reynolds from the grocery store would come over to see Mom. He'd give me a fifty dollar bill and tell me to take a hike!"