Archive for January, 2010
What is a growing economy?
News stories are touting that the U.S. economy expanded in the 4th quarter of 2009 at a pace faster than any quarter in six years. All told, the economy grew at a rate of 5.7%. But what does that mean? The rate increase refers to the increase of Gross Domestic Product. Not sure what Gross [...]
Obama’s State of the Union – Family Feud
If you didn’t watch last night’s State of the Union address, you didn’t miss anything revolutionary, but it’s still something you should be aware of. One of President Obama’s main stances was to provide help for small businesses, through tax incentives and extended credit thanks to a reported $30 billion in recovered TARP money. Currently, Obama’s government [...]
Apple’s new tablet is called… the iPad
In geeky gadget circles, Apple’s tablet has been hyped for months (years, by some) with speculation about it’s name, the operating system it will use, how it will get us to Mars quicker, etc. As a Dinner Topics reader, though, you just want to know what it does, what it costs, and well… what it [...]
American Idol, age limits, and some pants on the ground
By now, you’ve probably heard or seen the oddly infectious song “Pants on the Ground” by American Idolcontestant Larry Platt. If not, the video is below. What you need to know is that American Idol has an age restriction. Only contestants between the ages of 16 and 28 may participate, but Mr. Platt looked every [...]
Nicholas Sparks
Take a look at the NY Times best seller lists, or just sneak a peek into any woman’s stack of books next to her bed, and you’re likely to find a book written by Nicholas Sparks. The name is probably familiar to you, but unless you love heart wrenching tear jerkers, you might not know [...]
Pringles are crisps, not chips
Unless you’re un-American, you love Pringles: those uniformly yet oddly shaped potato chips that come in a long canister and taste like a salty heaven. Strangely, though, they’re technically not potato chips, they’re “potato crisps.” Why the slight change in designation? First of all, you really didn’t think that only the Pringles company was able [...]
Who is Scott Brown?
By now, you probably know that Scott Brown, a Republican, won the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy in a huge upset of an election in Massachusetts the other day. Being an avid reader of Dinner Topics, you also know that as a Republican replacing a Democrat in the Senate, the Democrat’s supermajority in [...]
Leno and Conan situation summary
By this point, the late night saga is over a week old, but many people are starting to take sides in the matter without knowing the facts. People who like Jay Leno seem to want to blame Conan for taking The Tonight Show into a ratings tail spin while Conan O’Brien fans want to blame Leno [...]
