Women's purses. That's right. A new study found that a woman may be carrying around a lot more in her purse than lipstick. To find this, researchers from UK company Initial Washroom Hygiene swabbed women's handbags. They found that one in five purses had sufficient bacteria to pose a risk to human health, and that the dirtiest items found inside the average purse were bottles of hand moisturizer. The hand cream containers were found to house more bacteria than an average toilet seat. Lipstick and mascara containers were also found to contain high levels of bacteria. One expert says, "Handbags come into regular contact with our hands and a variety of surfaces, so the risk of transferring different germs onto them is very high, especially as bags are rarely cleaned." Researchers suggest wiping down purses with antibacterial wipes or gel to prevent cross-contamination. (Daily Mail)
I just got on board with Netflix (I know, I'm Mr. Late To The Party). One of our favorite shows to watch is the Netflix original series "House Of Cards", the political drama starring Kevin Spacey. I hadn't heard that the congressman he plays is from Upstate South Carolina, so this scene caught me by surprise. It was a good laugh!
I've been on a handful of cruises, all in the past five years, and enjoyed them all. I like that you just get to the port, and the rest of the vacation is pretty much hassle-free. No worrying about directions, accomodations, where to park, where to eat. I even tolerated the one cruise when the seas were rough and people were losing their lunch. It's also great for the kids if you can afford to take them along. If they're old enough, there's plenty for them to do on their own while you chill by the pool or go to a show. You can see different ports and not have to spend hours driving between cool places.
But then a story like the Carnival Triumph comes along. It was headed back to Galveston last Sunday when there was a fire in the engine room. The flames were quickly contained and no one was hurt. But the ship lost power. So quickly, a party ship becomes a quest for just a reasonable level of comfort for 4,000 people. No air conditioning in those tiny cabins, few working toilets, long waits for food. And no way to get away from it. At this writing, they hope to be towed back to port by Thursday.
I know, very few cruises have this kind of trouble. But I do like the idea that if the vacation goes bad, we can get in the car and go home.
I don't know if you're watching the new series "Nashville", but there's some pretty cool music on the show. Like this one from the end of the pilot. It's actually a cover of a song by The Civil Wars, a folk duo. They also had a song featured on Grey's Anatomy. Enjoy!
Partly Cloudy and 55 Degrees. Remember the White Christmas of just two years ago? Well, don't get your hopes up. It's not in the cards for this year. In fact, a White Christmas in Greenville-Spartanburg is very rare. The last one before 2010 was in 1963. So, we're not due for another 45 years or so. Hey, the way things shut down around here when it snows, maybe it's just as well. Merry Christmas!
It seems like it's been more than a year since Whitney Houston died. But it was just last February. It also seems hard to believe that Whitney Houston was the top trending search for 2012 on Google. But, when you consider that Gangnam Style was # 2....
OK, so the Gamecocks and the Tigers didn't quite make a BCS bowl game this year. Clemson will play LSU in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta on December 31st. And, South Carolina takes on Michigan in the Outback Bowl in Tampa January 1st. But when have the Gamecocks and the Tigers both been so strong in the same year? Both finished 10-2 and stayed in the Top 15 pretty much all season. Congratulations to both teams. Let's hope they can win their bowl games and perhaps both finish in the Top 10. We're college football crazy around here, so it's nice to have the teams to back us up!
It is fascinating to watch the behavior of normally rational people when the Powerball Jackpot reaches a certain level. This week, it climbed to $293.7 milliion, according to the last figure I saw. What does that mean? It means people go nuts. At one point Wednesday, 130,000 tickets per MINUTE were being sold. Nevermind that your odds of winning part of the big prize were 1 in 175 million. You're about 16 times more likely to be attacked by a shark. We had comedian James Gregory on one of our radio shows a few years back, and he was amused by the way sales grew as the jackpot got up to 50 million or 100 million. What, you can't use 25 million? It's been said the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. How many Facebook or Twitter posts did you see from people talking about how they were about to win? I know, they were just having some fun. But, you'd better believe, they loaded up on tickets! You have to be impressed by the way the lottery can captivate a nation's attention, at least for a couple of days. Now, on to the next big thing!
