Coming Out of the Closet

2008 may very well be the biggest year ABBA ever had. In July, Meryl Streep stars in the Film Adaptation of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!--which has been seen by over 30 million people worldwide and has raked in over one billion dollars.

Every where you go, ABBA is inescapable. YouTube proves it conclusively. Even watching a basketball game. Here, Gus Johnson, network sportscaster sings Dancing Queen.

Here, John McCain's Waterboarding Testimony is juxtaposed with ABBA's Waterloo:


Here, every political candidate still running for president is mashed up with ABBA's Take A Chance On Me:


And on current television shows like "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," fictional characters use ABBA as part of their plot. "The Office" recital of Take A Chance On Me has become so popular that the cast of the office felt compelled to recreate the sing-a-long at their recent convention in Scranton, PA:


And it goes beyond that. In Hollywood movies for the last 10 years, ABBA's Mamma Mia! has been featured prominently. If you have kids and you watch movies such as "Enchanted," the scene where Giselle (Amy Adams) enters our world by passing through a manhole cover into New York's Time Square has the backdrop of the "Mamma Mia!" billboard up in lights. When I saw that with my niece and nephew in the theater I laughed out loud hysterically. I thought: "Mamma Mia! Indeed!" Trust me, it's there, go turn on your DVD player and check it again.

It's time to come out of the closet everyone. You've listened to ABBA all your lives. Someone has to be driving their increasing popularity, and chances are it's you. Let's here your ABBA stories...I know you've got them. If Gus can sing Dancing Queen at a basketball game on national television, if Bono can sing Dancing Queen live on the 1992 U2 Tour:

and have the whole stadium singing along, if Mamma Mia! can suck the whole world in for two and a half hours of pure carefree escapism, you can confess as well.


Confess that you like ABBA here. Do it today. Do it now. Let's hear your stories!

ABBA Nice Day!

Thanks for reading.

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"Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Cards Act"

If you live in the United States and you don't pay off your credit cards in full every month, you are probably subject to predatory interest rates and unfair practices by the issuers of your credit cards. Abusive practices by credit card companies are widespread, well-entrenched and unlikely to end without a legislative ban.

As Chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) has been working to end unfair credit card practices. This morning he testified before a House of Representatives subcommittee considering legislation to curb such practices.

The "Stop Unfair Practices in Credit Cards Act", which Senator Levin introduced in the Senate, now has ten cosponsors and has been endorsed by consumer groups, labor unions and the National Small Business Association. This bill, if passed, would:

• Prohibit charging of interest on debt that is paid on time


• Stop credit card issuers from charging cardholders a fee to pay their bill by Internet or by phone


• Require payments on credit card debt to be applied first to the debts with the most expensive interest rates


• Prohibit interest rate increases on cardholders who pay their bills on time


• Stop credit card issuers from charging interest on their fees


• Cap penalty interest rate increases at 7 percent in event that a cardholder misses a payment or exceeds a credit limit


• Stop credit card issuers from hiking an interest rate and then applying the higher rates retroactively to pre-existing credit card debt

This morning Senator Levin discussed the details of the legislation as well as some of the cases of credit card abuses that the Senate investigation uncovered, and urged the House Subcommittee to move their legislation forward. You can read his full prepared testimony HERE.

The Senate investigation has resulted in some credit card issuers voluntarily changing some objectionable practices. But it is clear that strong legislation is necessary to ensure fairness for so many people who are just trying to keep up with their bills and play by the rules. Senator Levin promises to keep working to have this legislation enacted into law by Congress.

If you believe this legislation is the right way to go, I urge you to let your elected US Representatives and Senators know and ask them to support Senator Levin's Legislation.

Thanks for reading.

Million Dollar Cookie

Today, Maggie over at the blog Ramblings of Maggie, is my hero. Why is this you ask? Because Maggie posted a blog entry regarding the winner of the Pillsbury Bakeoff, and more than that, because the winner is the Peanut Butter Cookie you're staring at right now!

Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I'm always on the lookout for REALLY GOOD Peanut Butter Cookies. This one just won the contest and it's creator $1,000,000, so it's probably not bad, right?

And, at my request, Maggie posted the RECIPE! I'm in heaven.

Check with me later and I'll let you know how the cookie is, but if you're like me and you love peanut butter, don't wait. Go whip up a batch yourself!

Thanks for reading.

MonDak Update: Bakken Oil Field is Legit

"The U.S. Geological Survey just published today its official results of a groundbreaking study" reports Energy and Capital.

Its report confirmed a massive oil reserve in an area the locals have nicknamed the "Bakken," which stretches across North Dakota, Montana and southeastern Saskatchewan. The new USGS study estimates a whopping 3.65 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken... but here's what they didn't mention:

The reported 3.65 billion barrels of oil mean estimate is for 'undiscovered' oil only, and doesn't include known oil, such as reserves. In fact, the study reports a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered... compared to the agency's estimate back in 1995.

Discovered over 50 years ago, the Bakken deposit--once impossible to extract--is now being hailed as the single largest oil find in US history. That's because, today, thanks to breakthrough drilling techniques like horizontal drilling, the Bakken's oil shales can be extracted relatively cheaply. When that happens, this light, sweet oil will cost Americans just $16 per barrel according to the report.

I think this is great news, but I'm not holding my breath on the cheap oil.

Thanks for reading.

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Olympic Architecture

Yesterday while hopping around on the Blog Promotion Widget EntreCard, I came across a blog post on David Jackson's Is A Man's World featuring the Water Cube, which is the building in Beijing built for all the swimming events in the upcoming Olympics.

For some time now, I've been fascinated with Olympic Architecture. It seems that in the last 20 years or so, cities hosting the Olympics have used the Olympic Games as an opportunity to revitalize their cities and in many ways turn them into worldclass venues. But the cities haven't been content to just build functional facilities. In the modern world, form matters just as much and the Water Cube and other buildings constructed for the Beijing Summer Games are indicative of that.

When it comes to the Olympics however, there is no structure more iconic than the Olympic Torch, and I believe the following examples illustrate how host countries are pulling out all the stops to out-do each other every two years.

Albertville Games, 1992


Atlanta Games, 1996


Nagano Games, 1998


Salt Lake City Games, 2002


Athens Games, 2004


Turin Games, 2006

This blog will look at more Olympic Architecture and delve into some of its history as the year moves on leading up to the Beijing Games in August.

Thanks for reading.

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