But I still have 94 monkeys to go

tridad:

Picks need to be in by tip-off today…

That time of year….

March Madness:

I can’t remember who won the Tridad NCAA Tumblr Bracket last year, so I’m going to go ahead and say it was me.  I won.  I won big.  Will this be there year Amie finally wins?  Or, will it be another time when Kirby comes from nowhere and topples Aime like Arte Johnson on a tricycle (as your parents about that reference).  We know Karen won’t win, but this could be your year.  But you have to enter to win!

Enter here:  Tridad NCAA Pool

Password is: tumblr2013

There will be a small prize (not cash) for the winner.

Picks must be in by tip-off on Thursday!  Enter now!!

I apologize to everyone I am about to school at this.

Personal trainer Bryant Johnson watches his tiny client pump her body up and down on a green yoga mat, spotting her with his hands at her waist in case she falls. As “PBS NewsHour” blares in the background, Johnson counts down the first of two sets of 10 push-ups.

“Way to go, Justice,” cheers the man building the biceps of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

By day, Johnson is a records manager in the clerk’s office of the District’s federal court, curating obscure files and trying to avoid paper cuts. In the evening, he drives up the hill — Capitol Hill — to do squats with Ginsburg or take punches from her colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, in the Supreme Court’s ground-floor gym.

I am not much of a soda drinker but here are some things you should know about the now embattled NYC soda ban:

• It excluded alcoholic beverages over 16 ounces (because those have no calories as we all know)
• It excluded some upscale coffee beverages over 16 ounces if they contained “at least 50% milk” (say, Coolattas)
• It excluded grocery-store purchases (why? lobbyists, I think) and drinks above “70% juice”
• It also excluded bodegas and 7-11s, so Slurpees are just fine, right?
• It excluded 40s, part of this complete breakfast

I think that’s what the judge meant by “arbitrary and capricious” in his ruling today. It is possible to agree with the intent of a law (to get people to realize how caloric liquids are, and that soda has no nutritional value) and disagree with it in practice. I think I care as much about the health of the city as anyone else.

In my view, adding calorie counts to everything in NYC chain restaurants (get ready rest of the country, it’s coming for you!) has been a lot more useful in terms of spreading health information than just banning stuff. This ban, as seen above, would present a temporary inconvenience at best for would-be giant soda drinkers.