Lately I’ve been listening to Lily Allen a lot.

She’ll be in Boston at The Roxy on April 7. Where will I be on April 7? In Boston! I think I might attempt to see her. Her music is pretty cool. It gets stuck in my head a lot. Her videos are definitely my favorite thing about her next to her adorableness and lovely voice
The video for Alfie is great. Definitely different, but I love the bright colors and the general sound. I recommend checking it out.

Her song and video for “Smile” is also something worth checking out. If any of you have myspace and saw my latest bulletin, the subject was a lyric from that song. I’m not really that clever, or mean.

Anywho, just thought I’d share. Let me know if any of you like her

I was reading through a blog I frequent, the Chicagoist when I stumbled upon some big news!

Rachael Ray is hosting a New York vs. Chicago Pizza Throwdown !!! The show, which will be aired sometime in April, will give either the Windy City or the Big Apple bragging rights for their pizza.

Personally, I am a bit biased. Being from Chicago and never having experienced NY pizza, I definitely vote for Chicago. I was so happy to see my favorite pizza joint: Pete’s Pizza, among the 10 finalists.

This throwdown is all part of a promotion for Delta Airlines. Delta launched seven daily flights between Chicago and New York. What better way to boost sales than have a pizza contest and encourage travelers to hop aboard and check out the competition.

While I am totally supporting Chicago…I must agree with the folks over at the Chicagoist:

They’re too different to pit one against another, and everyone has their own die-hard opinion. Wars have been started over less. We’ve had New Yorkers poo-poo our gobs of cheese, square slices and hidden toppings. Likewise, we’ve criticized NY’s lack of cheese, general flatness and even the style of eating (that’s not a Fruit Roll-up there, bub).

I’ll be in New York the last week of March and part of the first week of April. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to try some pizza and see what all the fuss is about.

I am currently reading “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach. I saw it while tutoring a classmate and immediately went to Borders to buy it after our session. It was such an impulse buy…but one that could not possibly wait for Amazon to deliver it. I am so glad I can be so impulsive and apathetic with my money sometimes because there are those very rare occasions that the spontaneous purchase you made turns out to be one of the best things ever.

The cover itself pulls me in. Mind you, I suppose it does help to have a healthy interest in the human body, its anatomy and physiology and cadavers A strong stomach may help as well. Some of her descriptions can be pretty elaborate and quite vivid. If the thought of shooting bullets into an already dead body, or a school that leaves bodies out in the sun to study decay doesn’t bother you, then I think you’ll be okay. But if you’re the squeamish type…I’d suggest not indulging.

Mary Roach is a funny author. That doesn’t seem like the right description for a book on cadavers. But her approach is not only witty, it’s very informative and extremely respectful. She offers a very unique approach into the lives (or lack there of) of cadavers as seen with this excerpt:

“Blanchard’s textbook was the first to cover arterial embalming. He describes opening up an artery, flushing the blood out with water, and pumping in alcohol. I’ve been to frat parties like that.”

Her book covers body snatching, human decay, human crash-test dummies, ballistics, crucifixion experiments, beating heart cadavers, transplants, cannibalism and more. I haven’t finished the book yet…but I know I’ll be done in the near future. It’s a great read if you’re into that sorta thing and I definitely recommend checking it out. You learn some pretty random facts. You never know when you might need to know a trivia question about cadavers when you’re on Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire!

Oh, also - for those of you who haven’t been exposed to the wonderfulness that is Air I definitely recommend checking them out as well!

Ignorant people.

I was at Target today shopping for some hair clips. There was another younger woman in the aisle with me who was also looking at all the clips. I was to the right of her, standing back a bit because I don’t need to be on top of things to see them.

Instead of looking next to her to check if somebody was there, she just crosses over and stands in my way as if I wasn’t looking at the same 10-foot strip of shelves. I move around her and stand to her left…and she crosses back over and stands directly in front of me again. I look at another woman in the aisle puzzled…she looked at me and shared my puzzled look…so I know I wasn’t invisible.

This woman was like guarding the clips. God forbid I should take the one she wanted. It’s not like there were 20 of each item. I finally said excuse me and gave her a quasi-nasty look and she grabbed what seemed like a random choice and walked away.

After all that blocking you’re going to just grab something without care and walk off? The aisle isn’t your bathroom cabinet sweetheart! Bah! People!

She’s lucky that it’s a beautiful day here in Chicago. Its about 55 degrees, the sun is shining, and I swear I smelled a BBQ somewhere. Spring is on it’s way and I could NOT be happier

Did everyone remember to push their clocks ahead an hour today? Be sure to do that!

I missed this last week, but here are Jenn’s favorites from PostSecret for this very spring-like day of March.

I’m incredibly nosy and it kills me not knowing this haha

So that’s why I have so many computer-savvy people on my friends list

Me too.

I feel like I have to tell this to former classmates!

Hahaha

Awwwwwww

Jade Dragon … possibly Chicago’s most popular and reputable tattoo parlor is being sued.

Recently Michael Duplessis, a man who loves Chicago, decided he wanted to get “CHI-TOWN” tattooed on his chest.

The problem? The artist misspelled it! The guy now has “CHI-TONW” inked into his skin. Duplessis is suing the parlor and the artist for for monetary damages after suffering what he says in his lawsuit was “emotional distress from public ridicule.”

The lawsuit accuses the artist of negligence and asks for actual damages and attorney fees. It says Duplessis “endured pain and suffering” from a procedure to fix the misspelled tattoo, in addition to a “loss of self-esteem and psychological pain.” (Imagine..pain from getting a tattoo!)

As a girl who isn’t a stranger to ink, this concerns me a bit. Why?

1. “Town” is not a difficult word to spell.
2. To switch the “n” and “w” around, one must not have been paying attention.
3. You’re stabbing somebody repeatedly with a tiny needle, a service for which they are paying. Why are you not paying attention?

And while I’m on the subject of paying…Jade is way overpriced! Just a little bit of info for ya!

Lesson learned: Make sure your tattoo artist knows how to spell.

Tattoo artist’s lesson: Find good lawyer.

One in four U.S. women ages 14-59 is infected with the sexually transmitted virus that in some forms can cause cervical cancer according to the first board national estimate.

A new vaccine, Merck’s Gardasil, was approved in June for girls and women age 9 to 26. It protects against two HPV strains believed to be responsible for about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and two other strains that cause 90 percent of genital wart cases.

There’s a debate whether or not young girls should receive this vaccination. Should it be mandatory? I heard that only 2 percent of women with the virus actually develop cervical cancer. So is the vaccination worth it? Hell yeah! Why not? I don’t know the disadvantages of the vaccination. Nobody has provided those facts yet that I know of, but I honestly don’t see a reason why girls and women wouldn’t want to be protected from this virus? More and more woman are getting this virus every day….

According to this article I red in the Red Eye
7.5 MILLION: the number of 14-24 year old females with HPV, substantially higher than in previous estimates of 4.6 million.

The more educated and prepared, the better.
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Apparently the CTA here in Chicago is just sucking more and more each day. Not only have they run out of the money for repairs, the bus drivers are appearing to be completely apathetic toward their job duties.

I recently heard that one driver pulled over to stop at McDonald’s for a coffee and a bite to eat…while leaving passengers on the bus waiting for her. Another bus driver was text messaging someone for an entire route. Something tells me that’s one person who should keep their eyes on the road.

CTA….what the hell is going on?
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O’Hare Airport along with Midway are stepping up their security another notch. They are now not only screening pilots, flight attendants and passengers, but all employees are now subject to security checks.

Everybody in these airports will be checked randomly at all hours of the day, every day of the week. I personally think it’s about time that city employees, food vendors and other airport workers be checked. Just because they work there doesn’t mean they are safe.

Thumbs up to them!
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No shocker here…

Mayor Richard M. Daley has been re-elected for a sixth term. He is Chicago’s longest-serving mayor. After this term, he will have served for 22 years, surpassing his father by one year. Daley, undoubtedly, beat out his two opponents with about 87% of the ballot this past Tuesday.

This is a man who hardly had to campaign. I only saw one commercial for him, which only repeated a few times. There were no big public rallies (that I’m aware of) and he certainly was not standing on CTA platforms harassing commuters in their busy mornings trying to get votes like his opponents. I’m sorry, but with CTA being as delayed as it is, I barely have time to tie my shoe let alone talk to a politician.

Congrats Daley…I really don’t care…but congrats.
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Having been in a sorority and knowing members of the sorority Delta Zeta I found their recent troubles quite amusing.

DePauw University recently surveyed students to see what they thought of Greek Life. Certain sororities were described as “daddy’s little princesses,” “offbeat hippies” and the sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”

Having heard the news and worrying that the negative stereotype might hinder recruitment, DZ’s national officers interviewed the chapter’s 35 members and judged 23 of them as insufficiently committed and told them to vacate the sorority house.

The girls asked to leave were the sorority’s only black, Korean, Vietnamese and overweight members! Shockingly the dozen allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men…and apparently the national officers!

There have been student protests, outraged letters from alumni and parents and a faculty petition calling the sorority’s decision unethical.

Good luck with recruitment next fall DZ!
Sincerely,
Your fellow Chi O gal!

(As a side note, I’m not all that excited about the fact that I was in a sorority…but I do enjoy knowing mine was better :P)
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And finally…

I heard that 5/22/08 will be the release date for Indiana Jones 4 ” It will hit movie theatres that day according to Fox411. Filming for the movie reportedly starts June 18.

Forgive me for not being excited.