Tuesday Megalinks

CNN: Health magazine names top chain restaurant fare
Pretty decent rundown of good/bad dishes from a variety of mid-level eateries. Olive Garden’s Capellini Pomodoro gets a huge thumbs up, as long as you can resist UNLIMITED BREADSTICKS.

Consumerist: NJ Gov Interested in Fast Food “Sin Tax”
Wow! This is new. In an attempt to raise funds for struggling Garden State hospitals, Gov. Corzine (who doesn’t wear his seatbelt) is apparently considering a levee aimed at Mickey D’s, Burger King, and the like. While it sounds like a decent idea on the surface, aren’t you essentially taxing lower-income people? Who need the money to use the hospital? It’s a vicious circle.

Eurekalert: Better-educated women are a healthier weight, new research reveals
I think you can pretty much attribute this to: better education = more money = better nutrition, but I could be wrong. Why? Well, outside the U.S., “the average male body mass increased with every additional year of schooling.” Who knew? (Thanks to Jezebel for the link.)

iEat: Looks Like Intentional Pass for Roger Clemens Sports Bar
Bill Simmons said it best, but no other public figure enrages me more than The Rocket. A money-grubbing, Piazza-beaning, ‘roid-abusing, affair-having butthead of the highest order, he makes Ron Artest looks like a Mahatma Ghandi. Hopefully, his blunders will guide in a new era of honest, naturally talented ballplayers. Oh yeah – there’s also something about a restaurant here.

Festival of Frugality # 124: Frugal for Life
Dawn uses the alphabet as her guide for this week’s Frugalpalooza, which includes nice posts from The Digerati Life, My Daily Dollars, and My Dollar Plan.

The Kitchn: What Foods Can You Carry On The Plane?
Great list (including a mah-velous comment section) on airplane edibles. The Kitchn leans a bit toward the pricey sometimes ("roasted almonds are a must" ... uh, no), but these should cover every financial base.

Lifehacker: Creative Ways to Use “Disposable” Items
My new favorite toy are the rubber bands off of leafy green vegetables. The Boyfriend and I reuse them for everything, up to and including: sealing garbage bags, closing half-eaten snack sacks, and decorative wrist bands. (One of those may be false.)

MSN: What if No One Were Fat?
Behind that provocative title lies a solid breakdown on how much money America would save on the whole if we didn’t have the obesity problem. The number they came up with (“$487 billion in gas, sweat and stretch pants”) is … well, it’s a lot. Suggested reading.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Neighbors take turns making “family meal”
I LOVE this. In a world where we know our neighbors less and less, food could be the great uniter – especially if there are kids involved. Hot dogs! Hamburgers! E Pluribus Unum! (Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Philadelphia Weekly: Reality Bites - When a young chef tries to save teen lives through food, his students prove his toughest critics.
Essentially, a chef teaches a cooking class to kids in Juvie who aren’t exactly receptive to “rich-people food,” a.k.a. hummus. Beyond the eye-opening anecdotes and some truly surprising stats, this piece does a GREAT job illustrating how income determines diet. (Thanks, Slashfood.)

Real Simple: Common Cooking Mistakes
Man, I do at least half of these things on a daily basis. Kudos to the world’s calmest magazine to correcting the mishaps of a nation. (Thanks to Lifehacker for the link, and for many additional comments on the subject.)

Science Daily: Body Image Program Reduces Onset of Obesity and Eating Disorders
I don’t go into body image and eating disorders much around here because I think they deserve much, much more attention than my half-cocked food blog can give them. Nonetheless, the discoveries covered in this piece are tremendously important, and absolutely worth reading if you have tweens or teens running around. (Thanks to Jezebel for the link.)

Slate: The agony of the food snob
Like just about everybody else, gourmands of the upper economic echelon are forking over mucho moolah for their chow. Unlike everybody else, it’s $21.99/lb prosciutto. Trying … to … gather … sympathy. (Thanks to Serious Eats for the link.)

Wise Bread: The ethics of hoarding
Wow. Just a stellar post on the difference between hoarding and stockpiling, and the lines folks cross when they resell goods at a higher price.

Wise Bread: Healthy frugal eating
WB’s Philip Brewer strikes again with a straightforward, no-bull piece on why we gotta suck it up and stop eating expensive crap. Stern, but informative!

Wise Bread: Optical illusions that make you fatter and your wallet lighter
Does this mean if you eat a meal on top of an M.C. Escher drawing, it will seem like it never ends? Up is down and down is up, people!

(Photos courtesy of Flickr members catiebear912, and foggychan, and Bookblog.)