Wait'll the Jogging Lobby Hears About This

posted by Zach Patton

Hey, you!  How did you get to your desk this morning?  Your own two feet?  Well, congratulations! You just participated in the newly designated Official Exercise of the State of Maryland: walking.

In case you didn't know, as of Wednesday, walking is the official exercise of Maryland. So, dust off those walking shoes and get ready to show state pride. ...

Maryland holds the honors as first state in the nation to designate a state exercise thanks to the efforts of Delegate Bill Bronrott, D-Montgomery.

All the walking inspired by the new state designation is supposed to combat cardio-vascular disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity.

We've written before about states going overboard in declaring "official" items -- a dance, a type of dirt, a fish, etc.

Maryland's new salute to ambulation seems to fall into that category...

Carey Torrice Allows "Sexy" and "County Commissioner" to be Used in Same Sentence

posted by Zach Patton

Carey Torrice is a commissioner for Macomb County, Michigan.

Carey Torrice is also, according to her official bio, an actress.

And a private investigator (!).

And she was also named by Hollywood gossip site TMZ (not usually known for its coverage of Michigan county commissioners) as maybe the hottest politician in the U.S. of A.

But the real reason you should get to know Carey Torrice is her amazing, amazing official Web site.

It's chock full of photos that...you, uh...well, you don't normally see on a a county commissioner's Web site.

To wit:

"Carey Torrice stresses physical fitness"

"Carey Torrice modeling gloves to donate to police departments"

More photos -- including one from something called "Hottiefest" -- after the jump.

(Via Wonkette)

Pop Goes the Soda

posted by Zach Patton

That dark fizzy drink -- what do you call it? Soda? Pop? Cola? Coke?

It all depends on where you're from.  Check out this great map (via Strange Maps, which I've written about before). It charts the -- surprisingly strong -- regional differences when it comes to what exactly you call a soft drink.

As someone from the south (Tennessee), I can definitely attest that we called everything "a Coke."  Seriously.  Here's a typical exchange at a restaurant -- an exchange I must have had hundreds of times growing up:

Customer:  "What kinds of Coke do y'all have?"

Server: "Coke, Diet-Coke, 7Up, Sprite..."

Customer:  "I'll have a Coke."

Server: "Okay.  It's Pepsi.  Is that all right?"

Customer:  "Yeah, sure."

To the Dogs

posted by Josh Goodman

Sure, state and local governments are slashing spending, announcing hiring freezes and imposing travel bans. But the dire state of municipal budgets didn't really hit home until I read this article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

Las Vegas city marshals soon will say goodbye to some of their best friends: the city's highly trained police dogs.

The city's K-9 program, which started with one dog in 1998, is being eliminated to save money and was being scrutinized even before the city started looking for ways to trim expenses last year.

"We realized that canines are a tool, and it was a nice thing to have. But not an absolute," said Karen Coyne, director of the city's Detention and Enforcement Department.

"It's not a popular decision, but it's the best end. These animals are going to be transferred to other law enforcement agencies and continue to work as police animals."

What Color is Your Town?

posted by Zach Patton

Ever wondered what your town's identity might look like based on color?  (No, not skin color.  We've got Census data for that.)

What about the color of your buildings?  What's the palette of the houses in your community?

It's a question that intrigued artist Samuel Yates. He has created a public art project, called "The Color of Palo Alto," that seeks to catalog all the colors of the houses in the town, average them out, and arrive at a definitive set of tones for the city. From the New York Times' By Design blog:

...Yates photographed each parcel of land in the city of Palo Alto, Calif., seven days a week for one year.

A software program was designed to calculate color traits for each digital photo (such as average pixel colors). In a democratic manner then, each photographed parcel in the city will contribute one “vote” of average mean color toward a final Color of Palo Alto. The resulting shades, based on Yates’s 17,729 photographs will be sold at hardware stores as “The Colors of Palo Alto.”

Colors obtained by averages taken from particular streets, seasons and months were also developed. As three colors were determined to be mathematically and statistically the “Color of Palo Alto,” Yates is putting the final decision between light, medium, and dark to the public. (You can weigh in at The Color of Palo Alto.)

Here's a nifty video trailer about the project:

What would be even neater would be to compare this with similar efforts in other cities. Wouldn't it be interesting to compare the results from Palo Alto to, say, Miami, or Seattle, or Santa Fe, or Portsmouth?

Although, given that the extremely detailed and complicated Palo Alto project has taken Yates seven years -- and counting -- to produce, I'm not holding my breath for another city anytime soon.

Photos from The Color of Palo Alto, via NYT

Vermont's Looking For A Boring Cow Name

posted by Zach Patton

So the Vermont Agency of Agriculture wants you to help name the state's new dairy mascot: a Holstein cow wearing overalls.

Which is fine, of course. Cute.

But here are the three choices you can vote on: Buttercup, Clover and Daisy.

Come on, Vermont! Seriously? My grandma could come up with less-stale cow-name ideas. You need to jazz it up! Throw something crazy into the mix!

I mean, you're the home of creatively named dairy products!

WTF?? More License Plate Drama in North Carolina

posted by Zach Patton

OMG! What if your license plate had a swear word on it (or at least the slang-y approximation of one)? 

It's an issue in South North Carolina, where about 10,000 residents have a randomly generated plate ID that begins with "WTF." Until a few years ago, of course, those were no more than three random letters.

Today, though, WTF is pretty common Webspeak for, well, an expression of surprise:  "What the f...?"

The state's letting people with WTF tags switch to new plates for free, if they want to.

I guess it'd be doubly awful if "WTF" ended up on one of the state's forthcoming Christian license plates.

UPDATE: Uh, hi.  I guess I need to get my Carolinas straight.  As 13th Floor reader Chip points out, this occurred in NORTH Carolina.  Oops. 

South Carolina Will Be First State to Get "I Believe" Plates

posted by Zach Patton

South Carolinians will soon have the option to express their Christian faith via that most sacred of religious media: a vanity license plate:

South Carolina's lieutenant governor announced Thursday that he is willing to put up $4,000 of his own money so his state can become the first in the nation to issue "I Believe" license plates with the image of a cross and a stained glass window.

Gov. Mark Sanford allowed the bill creating the plates to become law without his signature, noting that the state already allows plates for any cause, so long as enough people get together and put up the money to buy them.

(Although something tells me the state wouldn't stand for an "I Believe" plate with the face of Satan on it...)

(image via Pam's House Blend)

Shave and a Haircut: $150,000

posted by Zach Patton

The city of Houston has had a ban on beards and goatees for its cops since 1993. Now, though, four officers are suing the city to overturn the ban.

The officers say the no-beards rule is discriminatory:

The officers say the prohibition on beards and goatees is unfair for men who suffer a skin condition that reacts negatively to shaving. The condition can cause severe irritation, rashes and ingrown hair.

The city's set to defend the rule, but it's gonna cost a pretty penny:

The Houston City Council on Wednesday unanimously authorized spending up to $150,000 to defend the city in a lawsuit challenging the no-facial hair policy.

The Smart Car on Steroids

posted by Zach Patton

Smart cars are here (even if they're not exactly setting the world on fire). So maybe they're not as fuel-efficient as people expect, and maybe cities aren't snapping them up and adding them to their fleets.

Maybe what they need is a little amping up?

(Apparently this is a little old, but it's new to me.)