Time Demolishers: Second Rate Snacks, Album Atlas and How To Nail Jello To a Wall

Some blogs offer thoughtful insight and commentary on the political process, international relations or spiritual issues. Others take you through their play-by-play on attempts to literally nail jello to a wall. This post focuses on the latter category with three fun ways to vacuum up all that extra free time you have between conference calls (note to my staff: please don't read any further)...



Second Rate Snacks
Ready to end the Ho Ho vs. Swiss Cake Roll debate? Head to Second Rate Snacks and vote for your favorite junk food. A great idea even if the lack of a hyphen between Second and Rate still bugs me as an editor. The head-to-head matches include Hydrox vs. Oreos, Pringles vs. Lay's Stax and Pop Tarts vs. Toastem's Pop Ups. For the record, the bloggers (SnackGirl and her husband Ethan) and the site's readers got all three right (Oreos, Pringles, Pop Tarts). But those were the easy ones. What about Mellow Yellow vs. Mountain Dew or Eskimo Pie vs. Klondike Bar? You'll just have to see for yourself.

Word Magazine's World: Album Covers
My favorite of the U.K. entertainment magazines (which is high praise I don't give out lightly) has created a cool new tool that helps its readers track where iconic album covers were photographed. I, for instance, learned that the spiky thing on the cover of R.E.M.'s Automatic For the People was photographed in Miami (6150 Biscayne Blvd., to be precise), but I still don't know what the object is. I also learned the exact location in downtown Atlanta of the old Rexall Drugs with the "Run Devil Run" sign that made the cover (and title) of Paul McCartney's album. And that for my favorite Waterboys record, Fisherman Blues, the band posed in front of the Spiddal House in Galway. Find your favorite album covers or add them to the map.



How To Nail Jello To a Wall
The other sites at least maintain a pretense of usefullness. The geniuses behind this webpage (the same team that brought you such gems as Does Viagra Keep Flowers From Wilting? [answer: better than vodka]) don't even pretend that they have anything better to do with their time—or yours. But I still read all the way through it. With each step I wondered, will they crack the code of nail distribution? Will bananas provide the key? I don't want to ruin it for you, but I'll give you one of their conclusions: "Jell-O + Red Vines = Crazy Delicious."

If only they'd gone to Second Rate Snacks. They could have clearly seen that Jell-O + Twizzlers would have been even better.