Top Ten Links of the Week: 9/3/10 - 9/9/10

Ed. Note: Sorry about the glitches. Thanks again for your patience.

1) NY Times Diner’s Journal: What If Restaurants Stopped Hiring Illegal Immigrants?
This post asks a touchy question at the heart of our country’s immigration quagmire: who will do our low-wage work? It is followed by some thought-provoking comments across the opinion spectrum.

2) Casual Kitchen: Breaking Your Own Frugality Rules
A lesson from just about every school of thought: You have to know the rules in order to break them. And as Dan sagely points out, once your frugality rules are in place, you have, by virtue of your good judgement, earned the right to break them as you see fit.

3) Treehugger: Local Cream Travels 340 Miles to Arrive Back at Its Own Doorstep
A creamery in the Cornwall ships its goods to a distribution center to Bristol which then sends them all over Britain, including Cornwall, where the clotted cream is labeled local. A Harris Teeter in North Carolina was busted labeling its Mexican tomatoes local. Caveat emptor, locavores.

4) NY Times: A Taste of Home in Foil Packets in Powder
via The Kitchn
This slide show takes a sobering look at what troops from around the world eat while in the field of battle. My youngest cousin began basic training on Tuesday. I hope she never sees one of these.

5) Science Daily: Commercial Organic Farms Have Better Fruit and Soil, Lower Environmental Impact, Study Finds
via The Consumerist
A study on California strawberries showed that the organic fruit beat out conventional in every category: taste, appearance, nutrition, shelf life, and soil diversity. Go hippies!

6) Treehugger: Adopt-a-Farmbox Builds Mini-Farms for NYC Schools
A green design firm is raising money to put mini-farms in inner-city schools to teach urban kids about agriculture and introduce them to produce they might not otherwise encounter regularly. More kids eating vegetables? Works for me!

7) Hyperbole and a Half: The Trouble with Coupons
While we love coupons at CHG headquarters, H & 1/2 reminds us that they are not appropriate in all situations.

8) Slate: How Does Booze Extend Your Lifespan?
A new University of Texas study shows that even heavy drinkers out live teetotalers, possibly because the alcohol increases good cholesterol (HDLs). And you don’t have to stick to red wine either. New data indicates that any booze will do.

9) Salon: The Burger that Won’t Rot
Just like Twinkies, Mickey D’s grub will apparently survive Armageddon; but it’s not just the salt. High fat and low moisture contents play big factors. Long live the Happy Meal?

10) Smithsonian: Spilling the Beans on the Origins of Food Idioms
via MaudNewton.com
A fun and fascinating read about the origin of many food-related idioms. I won’t spill the beans, but Shakespeare gets his props. Enjoy, you nutty kids.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Lifehacker: Drink a Glass of Milk to Neutralize Garlic Breath
Similar to capsaicin, the chemical in chilies that burns your face off, garlic needs fat and water to wash it away. File under: who knew?

NY Times: Patient Money--Food Safety Tips for the Budget Conscious
A mostly common-sense but worth-reading collection of tips on food safety. It never hurts to be reminded, especially when food safety issues are in the news every other day.

Gizmodo: This Altoids Tin BBQ Grill Can Still Cook Dogs and Burgers
Cute! Fire me up a teeny veggie burg, please.

AND ALSO
Stuff You Missed in History Class
Sarah Dowdy and Katie Lambert host this fun and fascinating podcast that covers topics from sad royal children and historical ghosts to medieval torture devices and lost treasure. I’ve been listening weekly for over a year and fill the gaps in my week with the back catalog. Greatest hits include "Into the Ghastly Blank with Burke and Wills," "How Gandhi's Salt March Worked," "What Happened to Cleopatra's Children?", and "Did Marie Antoinette Really Tell French Peasants to Eat Cake?"

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