American Idol Season 10 — New judges

Mark your calendars for January 19^th, 2011.  This is the premiere show for American Idol Season 10. 

This year Randy Jackson is the only judge to return to the show.  Two new Judges, Steven Tyler nicknamed “Demon of screaming” and the lead singer of “Areo-smith” will be one of the new judges.  The other new judge will be Jennifer Lopez nickname “J.Lo”.  In looking at the promos on the America Idol web site it seems that these two new judges should do just fine.  Up to this season we always liked Simon’s input because he was the most consistent and even though we did not always agree with him, he did seem to give honest answers.

  The comments by the judges after a contestants performance is always something we consider, but the final decision comes from the viewing audience voting.  There were some times last season when we did not agree with any of the judges. We just give our opinion and let you folks out there in cyberland make the decisions.

  We have nothing else to report except to report that American Idol ex-judge Paula Abdul will be premiering a new show called “Live to Dance” on CBS January 4^th.  The show looks to be a mix of “So You Think You Can Dance” from Fox and “America’s Best Dance Crew” from MTV.  We plan to check it out and report back next week.

Fast Food Hamburgers — Here is what you are eating

 If you are reading this blog after stopping by your local fast food restaurant and getting some burgers “to go”, you might not wish to read on.  The following information came from “Yahoo Health” (Click here for the site being quoted).

THE FAST-FOOD HAMBURGER
The great American staple. Don’t worry, burgers really do come from cows—but have you ever wondered how those giant chains process and distribute so much meat so cheaply? And . . . are you sure you want to know?

The Truth: Most fast-food hamburger patties begin their voyage to your buns in the hands of a company called Beef Products. The company specializes in taking slaughterhouse trimmings—heads and hooves and the like—that are traditionally used only in pet food and cooking oil, and turning them into patties. The challenge is getting this byproduct meat clean enough for human consumption, as both E. coli and salmonella like to concentrate themselves in the fatty deposits.

The company has developed a process for killing beef-based pathogens by forcing the ground meat through pipes and exposing it to ammonia gas—the same chemical you might use to clean your bathroom. Not only has the USDA approved the process, but it’s also allowed those who sell the beef to keep it hidden from their customers. At Beef Products’ behest, ammonia gas has been deemed a “processing agent” that need not be identified on nutrition labels. Never mind that if ammonia gets on your skin, it can cause severe burning, and if it gets in your eyes, it can blind you. Add to the gross-out factor the fact that after moving through this lengthy industrial process, a single beef patty can consist of cobbled-together pieces from different cows from all over the world—a practice that only increases the odds of contamination.

We have nothing else to report except we are going to think twice before ordering our next burger.

New Years Resolution List 2011

Now that your Christmas List has been completed, it’s time to start your New Year 2011 Resolution List.  This is a tradition for the AAN Team and by January 20^th most of the resolutions have been thrown out the window, but we do manage to complete a few items during the year.

To assist you in making your New Years List we are including three links to the top 10 New Years Resolutions.  Please click on each for hints of items you might like to include on your list:

(About.com) List #1, (Goalsguy.com) List #2, and (Listverse.com) List #3.

We have nothing else to add at this time except that the AAN Team has a list of 40 items and we are now voting for the Top 10 for 2011.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open File…..

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open File by Nat King Cole <Click

On of our all time favorite Christmas songs…click and enjoy

We have nothing else right now. Merry Christmas to all!

“Decision Points” by George W. Bush

A few weeks ago we were channel surfing and came across a program where George W. Bush (GW) was driving a pick up truck around his ranch in Texas with Sean Hannity as his passenger.  Because the program had already started we did not know what was going on we assumed that given the state of the economy GW left us with, he was starting anew business venture, sight seeing tours of his ranch.

We came to find out that this was a prelude to a kick off of GW’s new book coming out and this was a Sean Hannity Special Program to help promote the new book and the first stop on what was to be a series of talk show appearances to “push” the book.

We watched as the two of them were chatting about the book and why GW decided to write the book.  GW said he wanted the American public to know why he made some of the decisions that he did during his eight years.

The program consisted of Sean asking GW a question and letting GW say just about anything he wanted.  Sean did not challenge GW on anything he said as they drove around like two “good old boys” on a Sunday drive.  GW did come across as a “good old boy” but it was way too much of a stretch for Sean, even though he gave it the good ole college try.  The only way we can compare Sean’s style of this interview is Piglet interviewing Winnie the Pooh, you will not get any deep questions or challenges to any answers.  We did notice Sean did a great job in “kissing up” to GW and this must have worked because a few days later GW was one again on Sean’s show for a segment or two.

We don’t plan on reading the book here are a few links to some recent reviews on GW’s new book:

N.Y. Times

Los Angeles Times

The Huffington Post

The Independent

We have nothing else to report except to apologize for not posting Ben Laden’s review of GW’s book even though we did attempt to “google” it.

 

Cold and Flu Season — Our suggestion for getting through it

We have to tell you all out there in cyberland that we are huge believers in getting flu shots.  For several years we have gotten our yearly flu shot and when we talk with other folks some of them say, “We don’t get flu shots because when we do, we usually get the flu.”  Up to this year we thought that was a myth, but this year after we got our flu shot we got the flu a few days later.  (Our bubble has been burst).  It wasn’t a full blown case, just a sore throat followed by a head cold.  Enough to start looking at the commercial remedies we usually take when a friend recommended “Umcka”.  “Humm”, we thought as we threw away or third box of Kleenex. 

 The usual brands basically mask the symptoms without us feeling any better and we normally just stop taking the product and suffer through the remaining virus.

 This time we went ahead an used the “Umcka Cold and Flu” Product and “Guess what?”, “It worked!”  After following the directions the very next day we felt much better.  The sore throat, cough, and runny nose were gone (Kleenex stock went down two points).  We were totally surprised and then made a big mistake.  We stopped taking the “Umcka” and should have continued for another day. (Keep this in mind if you try it).  So the next day when the symptoms came back, we started the “Umcka” and continued until we felt better for more than one day.

  A few weeks later we were at the local Whole Foods and bought anther bottle of “Umcka” and when we were in the check out line we noticed the person in front of us also had a bottle of “Umcka”.  I said, “Look they are also buying “Umcka”. The person buying it turned around and said, “It works!”

   We have nothing else to report except to ask you to come back and post a comment if you decide to try “Umcka” for your cold or flu symptoms.  A shared experience is worth a thousand words.

Here is a link to the “Umcka” web site if you would like to review all the products. < click here >