Lately I’ve been waking up in the morning scratching my eyeballs out in celebration. We’re officially out of winter because things are growing. I know things are growing because my throat is also itchy in the morning. And if I’m “lucky”, sometimes my nose is itchy too. I guess I could just look outside and see mini sprouts of weeds in my backyard to know that things are growing 😑 

The history of allergies dates back to the 1500’s when an Italian man realized he could not eat a pizza with white sauce without breaking out into rashes. I’M JOKING - what kind of sicko puts white sauce on pizza?? However, an italian man was in fact the first European to describe symptoms of allergies from being around roses. It was later discovered he was actually around pollinating plants…duh.

Seal already taught us a kiss from a rose is safe - c’mon now.

Allergies aside, I want to point out that if you live in a climate where it will eventually get cold again later this year, you probably have a good 6 months of nice weather ahead of you. How’s that for positive vibes on this fine Friday. Happy Friday, Happy Weekend, happy whatever they sign off with in their emails in the corporate world.

This week's issue is a 4 minute read:

🍽 You can grill all that and a bag of chips

🍦 Your childhood dreams have come true

🎬️ Netflix’s service you forgot about

Prepare to be grilled…on grilling

We’re getting tastes left, right, and center of what “nice” weather feels like. And all I can think of is what we should be barbecuing for dinner. If you have kids then you know how boring the nightly menu can get. In our house it’s spinning the wheel of picking a protein, then picking a vegetable, and then rice, pasta, fries, or garlic bread.

For some reason I find dinners become way easier in the summer when you can barbecue. Maybe it’s because the food is cooked quicker? Multiple things can be grilled at a time? Or maybe it’s because I don’t set the smoke detectors off in the house while trying to cook a steak on the stove and have to open every window when it’s -10 outside - true story.

Outside of the typical burgs and dogs, there’s so much more you can do with your grill. Maybe you’ve done the whole grilling pineapple thing at a korean bbq place? I bet you didn’t know grilling watermelon was a thing! What about cabbage or caesar salad?

A quick Google search opened my eyes to all these new possibilities: okra, beets, apple pie (although done on a cookie sheet) and one that I’m going to try in the near future - potato chips! May we never wake up in the morning to the house smelling like meat ever again (at least for the next 6 months).

Ice Cream = Healthy??

If you’re like me then you’re probably a headline reader. You see the headline, make up the article in your head, and move along in your day until someone brings up the article and asks you about it. And then you’re like, damnit, why didn’t I just click the link! 

Remember in the 90’s and early 2000’s when chip companies tried to make it sound like chips were healthy because they were now made with 0g of trans fat and people started to think chips couldn’t make you fat at all? That’s what this whole eating ice cream thing sounded like for me.

However, from a harvard study researchers were able to determine that dairy foods like yogurt and skim milk lead to a lower risk of diabetes. They tested ice cream in that group of foods and found it was even more effective than yogurt. That said, the researchers found it hard to believe that ice cream could be as effective as “healthier” dairy options and so poor ice cream was left out of their conclusions at the end of the these studies even though their data showed the effectiveness of ½ cup of ice cream daily on the body.

½ cup of ice cream is like barely one scoop - I know, I was excited too.

All I could conclude from reading about these studies is that the data could be skewed because food intake studies tend to be done via a self reporting survey where external factors such as exercise and activity may not have been accounted for. But don’t take it from the guy who made a big deal over buying a toothbrush in Japan, read for yourself.

I’m pretty sure the age old saying of everything in moderation reigns supreme here anyway. But if you dreamed of ice cream being its own food group as a child, who am I to stop that dream?

Digital Video Disks & Netflix

🚨 FYI people - Netflix still ships DVD’s if you want to rent one 🚨 

They’ll be doing this until September 29th when they ship out their final rentals…and hopefully eventually have them returned. Since Netflix’s DVD delivery launch in 1998 aka when Netflix actually launched, they’ve shipped 5.2 billion DVD’s to 40 million customers. And you thought the bookshelf of DVD’s in your basement was impressive!

To give you some more numbers, Netflix’s DVD library boasts over 10,000 titles compared to about 6200 on the US version of the streaming site. As a result, a lot of these titles are movies that you may never see on Netflix.

The one question I have is what will happen to all of these DVD’s? Do they pack them up and put them out on the lawn with a sign that says “PLEASE TAKE THIS”? Do they sell them to cottage country’s around the world - since that’s the only community I know that purposefully owns DVD players. Or do they give them to Blockbuster and say, “second time’s the charm”?

Either way, we’ll know better in September when those red envelopes stop shipping, bringing the end to another era. I still say they bring back the old website though!