Tuesday Megalinks

Almost Fit: 20 Tactics to Kill the Fast Food Habit
Three more strategies:
1) Watch Super-Size Me
2) Read Fast Food Nation
3) Work for McDonald’s your sophomore year of college, an experience which will kill any and all urges to order a cheeseburger combo ever again.
(Thanks to Get Fit Slowly for the link.)

Best Week Ever: Heinz Pulls Mayonnaise Ad Over Gay Kiss Furor, Yet Leaves Mayonnaise, Which is Gross, on Market
BWE addresses the severe dearth of good sense that allows Hellman’s to remain on shelves while others must suffer. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Chow: Kids Gone Wild - How should restaurants handle misbehaving children?
As friends reproduce with ever-growing frequency (last year around this time I had 11 pregnant buds), I’m a little more sensitive to folks with younger kids. The parents rarely get to go out in the first place, so I’m not gonna raise a fuss over a flying French fry. On the other hand, a modicum of décor should be expected. If your kid can’t behave even marginally well, they might not belong in a restaurant setting yet.

Consumerist: 100 Calorie Packs Make You Fat
Well, we kind of knew this, but it doesn’t make it any funner to hear.

Consumerist: Eight Common Foodborne Illnesses and Their Symptoms
Botulism is a terrible, terrible sickness, and I pity anyone who has the misfortune to catch it. That said? It’s one of the funniest words on Earth, not least because you can make it into “buttulism” (meaning: stankbum). Whee! I’m five.

Culinate: Healthy Cookbooks – Useful books both new and old
Nice! Post of the week right here, from the ever-useful Culinate. They’ve been concentrating a lot on rice, wheat, and quinoa lately, so the books have a slight grainy focus. And yes, I wrote that whole sentence for a lame “grainy focus” gag. Sorry.

Dooce: Revelations
Ehhh … so Dooce’s cleanse didn’t go so well.

Frugal Upstate: Frugal Food Part 4 – Ground Meat
Jenn’s ongoing series hits the wide world of chopped beef this week. Be sure to check into her prior installments on eggs, tuna, and beans for lots of great, inexpensive meal suggestions.

Get Rich Slowly: My Mid-Year Financial Checkup: I Am Spending Too Much on Food
Brave, brave JD breaks down his going-out-to-eat expenditures, and the results aren’t pretty. Read and sympathize.

Get Rich Slowly: Saving at the Supermarket: 15 Great Grocery Shopping Tips
Um … I wish I wrote this?

Jezebel: Is the Obesity Epidemic Messing With Kids’ Minds?
Oh wow, of course. With all these conflicting messages about weight (Don’t be too fat! Don’t be too thin!), how are kids supposed to know what’s what? And that goes doubly for teenage girls.

The Kitchn: Shopping for a New Kitchen – What’s Important?
If this were titled “Shopping for a New Kitchen in New York – What’s Important?” the answers would be:
A) Walls
B) Shelf
C) Floor
D) Lack of wildlife
E) Colder-than-room-temperature box in which to store goods

F) Mechanism with which to warm said goods
G) Maybe a window

New York Times: The Best Foods You Aren’t Eating
Beets! Blueberries! (Battlestar Galactica!) This list of seldom-sought-out groceries is a handy guide next for your next shopping trip, when you can’t decide between romaine and something a little more daring.

New York Times: Food-Shopping Tips Direct From the Store Manager
Pair this with Get Rich Slowly’s article, and you’ll never need to read another grocery shopping-themed blog post again. (Um … except all the ones here. You’ll need to read those.) (…D’oh!)

Newsweek: Let’s Shoot the Speculators!
Who are the mysterious financial dudes supposedly driving up food prices? Financial columnist Robert J. Samuelson explains.

Philadelphia Inquirer: I do … want that mixer
Soon-to-be-married folks! Heed the wise words of this newspaper! It’s a fantastic cheat sheet detailing what to include on your registry. Cutting board? Yes! Mango pitter? No! (Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Serious Eats: Cheap Local, Sustainable, and Organic Food: Is It Out There?
SE’s head honcho/resident foodie-on-a-diet lists simple ways to buy quality chow as inexpensively as possible. His third tip can not be emphasized enough: buy local at the peak of the season. A blueberry purchased in July is tastier, cheaper, and has less of a negative impact on the environment than one bought in December.

The Simple Dollar: The Minimalist Kitchen: What You Need (and Don’t Need) to Set Up Your First Workable Home Kitchen
Oh wow – Mark Bittman picked up TSD’s original minimalist cooking post (Which – awesome. Congratulations, Trent!), so here he expands to the kitchen. Nice.

Slashfood 8: Homemade frozen treats
Nice, brief list of gourmet-ish frozen pop recipes. (Rejected titles: Pop Culture, Pop Stars, Pops Rock, Pop in the Name of Love, Don’t Pop Believing, Pop! Or My Mom Will Shoot … okay, done now.)

Slashfood: McDonald’s is being sued by Devo
Q: Are We Not Men?
A: We are Devo! And We Do Not Appreciate Having Our Signature Upside-Down Planter Hats Placed on Happy Meal Toys!

(Photos courtesy of Ronald McHummer Sign-o-matic, Facebook Apps, Cherylspelts.com, and Mr. Wever's Blog.)