Monday Open Thread

Filed in National by on April 19, 2010

Welcome to your Monday open thread. Are you ready for the week to start? My weekend, once again, felt extremely short. Has someone been messing with my clock?

Editing fail!

An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with “salt and freshly ground black people.”

Penguin Group Australia’s head of publishing, Bob Sessions, acknowledged the proofreader for the Pasta Bible should have picked up the error, but called it nothing more than a “silly mistake.”

“We’re mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don’t know,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald for a story printed Saturday.

“We’ve said to bookstores that if anyone is small-minded enough to complain about this … silly mistake, we will happily replace (the book) for them.”

I agree it’s a silly mistake but I can certainly see why someone might complain. Complaining is not “small-minded.” What is it lately with all this PR fail?

Healthy eating!

KFC’s Double Down Sandwich, an in-your-face collection of bacon, cheese and something called Colonel’s Sauce betwixt two fried chicken “buns”, is making waves for its unapologetic gluttony, compelling reviews out of everyone from the New York Times’s Sam Sifton to the Onion’s Nathan Rabin. But is it really the caloric monstrosity that it appears?

So instead, let’s start with the Double Down’s calorie count: 540 calories for the crispy “Original Recipe” version and 460 for a grilled variant. Those seem like big numbers, but by fast food standards, they’re pretty mild: the Burger King Chicken Tendercrisp weighs in at 800 calories, for instance, and Jack-in-the-Box’s Ranch Chicken Club will set you back 700. Calorie counts for burgers are even higher: 1,320 for a Hardee’s Monster Thickburger, and 1,350 for a Wendy’s Triple Baconator. Even the humble Big Mac, a lightweight by modern standards, contains 540 calories, exactly the same number as the Double Down.

Here, the Double Down’s credentials are more impressive. Those 540 calories contain 145 milligrams of cholesterol (more than twice that of the Big Mac and about half of the USDA’s daily allowance) — along with 1,380 milligrams of sodium (the USDA recommends no more than 2,400 per day) and 32 grams of fat (65 will keep you slim, says the government). So, for getting only about one-quarter of the calories that you need in a day, you’re exhausting about half your budget of “bad stuff”.

The conclusion of the article is that the Double Down isn’t all that shocking in terms of calories but contains the most “bad stuff” (cholesterol, fat, salt) and the least good stuff (fiber) per calorie than any other sandwich out there.

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Opinionated chemist, troublemaker, blogger on national and Delaware politics.

Comments (22)

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  1. John Manifold says:

    Department of Why Didn’t We Have This?

    http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100419/OPINION03/4190301/1004/OPINION/Justice+Holland+s+ground-breaking+textbook

    Former News-Journal reporter David Hoffman, a Concord HS and UD graduate, wins a Pulitzer Prize. Fact goes unreported in N-J until Harry Themal scoops his former colleagues six days later.

  2. Geezer says:

    JM: He’s probably the only one still there who recognized the name.

  3. P.Schwartz says:

    makes as much sense as blaming it (earthquakes not promiscuity) on global warming…

  4. Joanne Christian says:

    But isn’t David Hoffman running Coons campaign?

  5. P.Schwartz says:

    if we throw AlGore in the volcano will it stop emitting greenhouse gasses?

  6. delacrat says:

    moosy

    This Delaware, not Florida.

  7. And so if the death threat against a Congressperson takes place outside of Delaware, it is not of interest to you? What about the discussion of the “climate of violence” caused by “right-wing hate speech” that allegedly led to all of the “threats of violence” against Democrats? That was certainly discussed here.

    Could it be that there is a “climate of violence” created by all of the “left-wing hate speech” against conservatives engaged in by liberals? After all, we’ve had leading journalists call us “seditious”. the term “Tea Klanners” has entered into the liberal political vocabulary, and false charges of racial slurs were made by members of the CBC. Seems to me that you folks on the left may not have intended it, but your words have provoked just such a violent response. Maybe you guys need to follow Bill Clinton’s advice and watch your words.

    Or is it just that violence against Republicans is supported here?

  8. Violence is not supported by anyone here. I’m sorry I can’t be around 24/7 to report the news that you want to hear. You can go wallow in your right wing sites all on your own.

    The threats against Congresspeople are caused by the right wing hate speech. I’m not surprised that Republican Congresspeople have also got caught up in it.

    As far as false charges – the false charges are from video faker Breitbart and all the idiots who read him. Breitbart’s a liar and a faker.

  9. Jason330 says:

    The thing is, a climate of violence caused by right-wing hate speech led to all of the threats of violence against Democrats. Facts are facts.

  10. It sounds like the man who threatened Brown-Waite thought she was a Democrat:

    Pidrman further advised that if that was him, he is very sorry and embarrassed,” according to the affidavit. He allegedly said he is not mad at Brown-Waite, that he has health care coverage, and that “he did not do any particular research in regards to how members of Congress voted on the Health Care Reform Act, but ‘it’s obvious Brown-Waite is a Republican.'”

  11. Jason330 says:

    It is odd UI. These wingnuts like to pretend that they are not the only ones celebrating Timothy McVeigh’s terrorist attack. Why don’t they just embrace the violence like their leaders?

  12. anonone says:

    “Tea Klanners” – that’s about right.

  13. Given that the guy is an Obama donor, i think we can chalk that up to Democrat threatening Republican.

    And since this is a site that had a contributor advocate the execution lf Republicans (I believe that is called “eliminationist rhetoric”), I don’t think that you can really say that no one here celebrates violence against their political opponents.

  14. I hope you’re all watching MSNBC right now. The McVeigh Tapes are on right now.

  15. I’m not — more left-wing hate speech designed to incite violence against peaceful conservatives by tying them to violence that they did not commit and with which they disagree.

  16. Pointing out Republican hate speech now counts as hate speech. Good one.

  17. Jason330 says:

    Other patriot republicans have manned up and owned the violence. If they weren’t so vile, I could almost respect them for thier honesty

  18. Von Cracker says:

    that’s one crazy, stupid floridian who wanted health care reform compared to scores of whiny tea partiers Bu$hCo dead-end voters who threatened violence over things that do not exist!

    Even-Steven?

    Claro! Wheeeeeee!

    You got your justification/vindication, Moose. Congrats!