New Theory

Post-derby party/julep bacchanalia, a friend said to me that too much brown liquor brings out the self-doubt in people. Hm. Been pondering this important thought...I sure know that the brown stuff makes the irrational angry rear up, but is it all liquors or just the whiskey that does it?

Taxis Going Hybrid by 2012

I oddly enough don't have a strong opinion about Mayor Bloomberg one way or the other, but you certainly can't fault him for his measures in taking baby steps toward a healthier, greener city. And smoking friends, I'll admit it: I love smoke-free bars and restaurants. Although the transfat ban is a a little too nosy.

NEW YORK - Every yellow cab in this city will be a fuel-efficient hybrid by 2012, and stricter emissions and gas mileage standards for taxis will be phased in starting next year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.

There are now 375 hybrid vehicles among the 13,000 taxis rolling on New York City streets. Under Bloomberg’s plan, that number will increase to 1,000 by October 2008 and will grow by about 20 percent each year until 2012.

The standard yellow cab vehicle, the Ford Crown Victoria, gets 14 miles per gallon. In contrast, the Ford Escape taxis get 36 miles per gallon.

Automakers said hybrids are uniquely well-suited to be taxis. Many of them, like the Ford Escape, run solely on battery power while stopped or at low speeds, so they don’t cough exhaust while navigating through city traffic. At higher speeds, the gas-powered drive system kicks in and the two work together.

Darkest Before the Dawn

The dawn in this case being: VEGAS, Baby...I'm off tomorrow evening for 4 nights in Vegas at the Golden Nugget with many of my dearest, oldest and bestest friends from across America in attendance for Ms. Anne Miller's wedding.

The past two weeks have been harsh, so it truly couldn't come a better time. I always seem to get black this time of year, with winter taking me down with its final gasps of the season. Add a several-month romance finally going south after a few weeks of pretending it wasn't, and the continuing struggles to find new ways to deal with the reoccurring problems of being HUMAN (dammit!), beyond shutting it out with weed, have made the recent days no fun. That said, my friends have been amazing as I find a new way. I know that taking a few positive steps, including being a fascist about the musts of regular exercise, will pay off with a little time. And you gotta love the anxiety taking off any extra winter weight.

Let the sun shine in and let the gambling heal my wounds.

Detox 101

Today I started this detox diet plan, where I don't eat bread/wheat, dairy, eggs, meat, sugars, yeast, processed food of any kind or alcohol. This is harder than I thought it would be, seeing as how I live on cheese and bread much of the time. I seriously don't think I've ever gone a week without cheese - and I mean, in my whole life. Dairy is the really hard one for me to cut out. But I've been feeling sluggish and my body is just "off" so I figured I'd give this a try for as long as I can. I'm off to San Francisco for 10 days next Saturday, and that will have to be when the detox ends - there's lots of socializing to be done while there, plus too much good food to be on a restricted diet.

There's lots of stuff to read on the inter-web about doing a detox, and opinions really vary as to whether or not this does any good for a body. I tend to think that if you eat healthy most of the time, you are fine anyway, but it also sure can't hurt to try it for a week and see what happens.

What I can have is nuts, all kinds of veggies, brown rice, lentils, tofu, seeds, beans, fruits, herbal and green teas, and loads of water. Of course, fruit has lots of sugar, but there's really no way I could do this without fruit. I'm taking Vitamin C and Milk Thistle to stimulate the cleansing process. Basically, I'll be laying around the house this weekend feeling light-headed and a bit tired, but totally self-righteous while planning my next exciting meal of nothing. We'll see how I feel in a couple days. My stomach's rumbling.

One Vice Down

I went to the dermatologist a couple weeks back because even though I am 36, I am apparently doomed to get ugly, painful, cystic acne for the rest of my life. Well, Miss Smarty-Pants-About- Everything-Skin learned something new: coffee can cause skin problems. Since I've been drinking a strong cup or two of coffee daily for about 20 years, wouldn't it be completely genius if something so simple was causing the problem?

I decided to do something good for myself, and switched over to the much-touted miracle drink, green tea, about 2 weeks ago. Jury's still out on if it's doing anything for my skin, but at least I won't get about 6 kinds of cancer, heart disease, or gain weight. Maybe its special powers will give me that long-hoped for superpower of teleportation. Plus, it's apparently cool, and a great interest (obsession?) to have if working in Chinatown. A million different kinds of green tea in every store. Proving to be very fond of Lemon Green Tea. The caffeine withdrawal from super-charged espressos wasn't even that bad, at least if you don't count sleeping through an entire weekend.

Do you think this offsets the Jameson's and sodas I had by the gallon over the weekend?