Today's Reading - 11/01/07

● An Extra Hour of Halloween Daylight? Thank Politics

This would've been more appropriate yesterday, but since back spasms had me laid out as flat as a coffin for most of the day, I couldn't get around to it.  (No, that didn't stop me from posting on my Detroit Tigers blog.  The painkillers were working then.  And they're working at this moment, along with heat pads.)

Anyway, is it true that Daylight Savings Time was moved back a week to sell more candy?  Apparently, the candy lobbyists are quite powerful.  Next, we'll be hearing how a candy bar a day will help regulate your cholesterol or whatever.

● In short: 49855

My fellow Detroit Tigers blogger, Kurt Mensching, has a neat new gig blogging for his newspaper, the Mining Journal of Marquette, MI, and his first post went up on Tuesday.  I'm eager to see what he'll choose to write about.  (Yesterday, he profiled a local high school volleyball player.)  Anybody that references Richard Ford has to be pretty interesting.

● Two Pigs

So are you a better, more morally upright carnivore if you know exactly where your meat is coming from?  If you helped raise the pig or cow that will yield the pork or meat you'll be eating for dinner?  Does that make you more in tune with nature or give you a healthier respect for the meat?  I don't know the answer to those questions, but some people feel that way.  I think buddying up to my swine would make me a vegetarian.

● Vegans vs. Vegetarians: What kind of diet is best for the environment?

Speaking of vegetarians, would they be helping the environment if they pushed a little further and became vegans?  (So asks the meat-eater.)  It seems like a no-brainer, but as is often the case, the truth is a little more complicated.  For instance, certain types of land aren't suited to growing particular kinds of vegetables.

● The Worst Football Coach in the Universe

Maybe the greatest fraud perpetrated on sports fans in the 2000s was the idea that Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis is some kind of genius football coach.  Weis should be sending checks to his old boss, Bill Belichick, and quarterback, Tom Brady, for creating the impression that he was some kind of strategic mastermind.  Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish are likely stuck with this guy after giving him a 10-year (!!!) contract extension last year.