Tuesday Megalinks: Not-so-elderly Woman Behind a Laptop in a Large Town Edition

Today, Pearl Jam is reissuing Ten, the greatest, bestest, seminal-iest album of my adolescence. I had it on cassette, and listened to it so much you could hear Side A’s music when Side B was playing. To celebrate its 18th anniversary (lord, I’m old), today’s megalinks include a few of my favorite songs from Eddie and the boys.

Consumerist: FTC To Require Advertisers Using Testimonials To Show Typical Results
Man, what a development! From now on, businesses will have to portray the actual, average results of their product, meaning they won’t be allowed to show a person who lost 400 pounds and then add a tiny “results aren’t typical” caveat at the bottom. Needless to say, corporations aren’t happy because they’ll lose the “aspirational” allure of the product, which will drive away customers. Crazy.

Epi-Log: Recession Dining – The Numbers Battle
Prep your calculators, folks. There’s lots of exciting math in this one: “So is the recession bad for the restaurant business and good for home kitchen appliances? Or is it the other way around?”

Globe and Mail: Picky Eaters Can Be Converted
How? By sitting down together and eating dinner as a family. Veddy interesting. (Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Healthy Eats: Healthy, Kid-Friendly Snacks
Fruits, veggies, food on sticks: it’s a cornucopia of child-sized snackage in alluring rainbow colors. Collect them all!

Jezebel: Study Finds Obesity May Be As Bad As Smoking
Severe obesity – sporting a BMI of 40 to 50 – will take a decade off your life, according to a recent study. Is not so good. (18.5 – 24.9 is considered normal.)



Jezebel: Sugar Now Being Branded As a Health Food
Look, here’s the thing: sugar isn’t particularly bad for you in moderation. Neither is high fructose corn syrup. But we (Americans) don’t eat either in the amounts we should. We consume massive quantities of both substances, ignoring healthy foods in the process. So this whole sugar v. HFCS debate? Is nothing but smoke and mirrors. We’re missing the larger point by concentrating on minor details.

The Kitchn: Have You Ever Had a Dish That Changed the Way You Thought?
Oh, yes. Two cauliflower and one red cabbage dish. In the last month alone. Life is good.

The Kitchn: A New Kitchen Garden for the White House
Super-neat blueprint for the Obamas’ new veggie garden. Apparently, there will be LOTS of room for spinach. Popeye will be pleased.

LA Times: Can two people eat on $67 a week?
This should be called “Can two gourmands eat on $67 a week?” The answer is: essentially yes. Fun lessons are learned.



LA Times: Student obesity linked to proximity to fast-food outlets
UC Berkeley took a look at some McDonalds. Then they looked at some high schools. Then they tried to figure out how close they were to each other. Then they came up with this: “The presence of an outlet within easy walking distance of a high school -- about 530 feet or less -- resulted in a 5.2% increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths.” Thanks, hippies!

Money Saving Mom: How to Save Money When Eating Out
Nothing you haven’t seen before, but it’s nice to have all the tips in one place. Worth revisiting if you’re restructuring your meal plan, as well.

MSN Smart Spending: DIY -Homemade pizza is easy, delicious and cheap
To paraphrase Mugatu, “Homemade pizza: it’s so hot right now.” Karen Datko explores the trend, and comes up with a few different recipes to match our citizens' different tastes.

New York Daily News: Great meals and deals: Dine in Brooklyn program serves up three courses for $23
Yo! Youse guys in BK! It’s freakin’ restaurant week! Grab a Hamilton and getcherself ta your favorite brunch place. What? You don’t got no dough? FUGGEDDABOUDIT. (These geographically-based accent stereotypes were brought to you by: the letter L and the number 2/3 train to President St.)

New York Times: Eating Food That’s Better for You, Organic or Not
Mark Bittman sounds off on the organic debate. His verdict: forget labels and just eat some vegetables, dagnabbit.



New York Times: Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
The food-conscious Obama administration could very well usher in a new era of sustainability, health, and awesome cooking. (The revolution will not be televised! Unless you eat dinner when you’re watching TV.)

Readers Digest: Healthy Eating Begins at the Supermarket
Like the MSM post, this isn’t anything new. But it goes the extra mile with the tip explanation, making them simple and attainable for just about everybody.

Serious Eats: 30 Things To Do With Leftover Salsa
#31: Put on head. Pretend it’s vulture poop. Shock family into believing there are vultures in Manhattan. Giggle with evil.

Serious Eats: Alice Waters on 60 Minutes
The Slow Food Queen recently spoke with Lesley Stahl, and came off … less than populist. (Snobby, is what I’m saying.) Serious Eaters have opinions.

Serious Eats: Reducing Food Costs – Cooking with a Friend
Note: this is about cooking WITH a friend. Not COOKING a friend. I read the title too fast at first and thought it was going to devolve into a Silence of the Lambs situation.



Serious Eats: Urban Chickens in the Bronx
And you thought New Yorkers only kept tigers and alligators in their apartments.

Slashfood: What Nutritionists Eat
If you guessed, “nutritious food,” you get a gold star. But there’s other stuff, too.

Zen Habits: 17 Arse-kicking Strategies to Stick to Your Diet and Get Fit
Really solid list of inspiration, presented in ways you might not be used to. Zen Habits is a great blog to get into in general, but Leo’s food and fitness posts tend to be particularly stellar.

CHG was included in two blog carnivals this week, as well:

• Festival of Frugality #170 at Money Ning
• Make it From Scratch at Funny About Money