“Connie Chung Tonight” on The Zone, on Monday

I saw a teaser for Monday’s Connie Chung Tonight. Apparently as is vogue for slow newsrooms, they’ll be evaluating diets including The Zone (or, at least that’s my understanding from viewing the teaser without sound via the overhead tvs at the gym).

I know that some of my friends are looking to lose weight or get in better shape. The Zone isn’t difficult, and you won’t go hungry either (in fact, snacks between meals are required). I’ve been sticking with it since the summer, and it’s easy to stay with it.

Connie Chung Tonight airs weekdays on CNN at 8/7c and repeats that day’s episode at 10/9c.

Chicago-style Pizza in Dallas?

From time to time, I have a hankering for a good pizza, and I especially enjoy Chicago-style pizzas (mmm, so much sauce and cheese — delicious!). But, are there any such restaurants in Dallas? (I don’t know of any yet)

After some brief searching, I found BJ’s Chicago Pizza & Brewhouse. They have a few restaurants in Texas, but I’m not sure if any are near here (Clear Lake? Lewisville?). Their Addison location is listed as opening “early 2003”, so maybe that’ll be available soon.

If all else fails, Pizza Hut also now offers Chicago-style pizza:

According to Evans, Chicago-style pizza is different from other pizzas: Chicago-style pizza has a flaky crust with tall sides. The dough is made with a hint of corn meal for taste and texture. The build of the pizza begins with a thick layer of sliced mozzarella cheese. It’s filled with an abundance of toppings, shredded cheese and then chunky marinara sauce is poured on the top of the pizza. […]

They talk-the-talk, but I’m not convinced yet. It’s not that I dislike Pizza Hut's pizza, but I’m concerned whether the cooking-speedups necessary for the delivery environment may have an impact on the quality or flavor :-/.

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event – February

The DFWBlogs Cocktail Event was held this evening at The Cavern down on Lower Greenville. Their namesake is apt — it’s just like a dungeon cavern in there.

It was dark, but pleasantly so. They had scattered accent-lighting made up of colored (but shade-less) light bulbs. I saw their intention, but they ended up being a bit bright at times (in the same way that car headlights in your eyes can be bright without illuminating the general area). It would have made a great level for Doom (really).

Interestingly enough, they had no beers on tap (just by-the-bottle). Of the dozen-or-so beers on display behind the bar, I recognized many of them and it was a bit hard to decide. I knew I couldn’t go wrong with Newcastle, but Boddingtons also caught my eye. I recalled seeing it on RateBeer.com’s Top Accessible Beers list (and a quick tap-tap to the mirrored version in my Palm confirmed that it was on the list).

For a moment, I was leaning towards ordering the Boddingtons, but I hesitated and went with the Newcastle instead. When trying new beers, especially ones that might be more expensive than average, I prefer to buy some at a store for drinking at home — that way, I get much better value (even an $8 six-pack is still better value than paying $4/each for two beers).

Ebert (and Roeper) Liked Daredevil

I watched Ebert & Roeper this evening (as I do every week) and this week’s show featured a review of Daredevil. Considering Affleck’s recently lame track record (though not lame altogether), I didn’t have my hopes up. But, the duo rather liked it:

The movie is actually pretty good. Affleck and Garner probe for the believable corners of their characters, do not overact, are given semi-particular dialogue, and are in a very good-looking movie. Most of the tension takes place between the characters, not the props. There is, of course, a fancy formal ball to which everyone is invited (Commissioner Gordon must have been at the rival affair across town). […]

During the show’s segment on Daredevil in particular, they compared Daredevil to some of the darker comic book adaptations such as the first two Batman movies (and in contrast to the happier existence of Spider-Man).

And, I see that as a good sign since Spider-Man (and X-Men) were less than I had hoped for. Perhaps their PG-13 ratings were too restrictive, but maybe that’s not the case with Daredevil.

Saturated Fat May Increase Risk of Alzheimer’s

According to a study by doctors at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, diets high in saturated fat may have a higher risk for Alzheimer’s:

People who consumed the most saturated fat — the kind of fat that comes from meat, poultry, dairy products and palm or coconut oils — had 2.3 times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared with those who consumed the lowest amount of saturated fats, the researchers said. […]

The news doesn’t bother me much, as I don’t have much saturated fat in my diet anyhow. Catfish, which I often eat for dinner, has 1g saturated fat (the remaining 3g fat are presumably good fat).

And, I’m not sure what kind of tuna goes into canned tuna, but it also is fairly low in saturated fat. I generally have tuna (and apples) for breakfast and lunch and, for whatever reason, I haven’t really tired of that over the past few months ;).