1. Pace of the Game – As life has sped up over the years, so has the pace of recreational activities and entertainment for many Americans. Adrenaline junkies that we’ve become, we crave a game with more action, less down time. Despite frequent commercial breaks and time-outs, football enjoys a much faster pace than the pastoral plodding pace of our national pastime.
2. Time of the Season – Baseball as a spectator sport suffers in popularity by virtue of being played during summer months. People tend to be outdoors and more active. Football is played on weekends during the fall and winter, when more people are indoors.
3. Length of the Season – Or more specifically, the number of games played. Football seasons are just 16 games long, and so each game has greater importance individually than baseball games, which are played nearly every day for 6 months. One game in a 16-game season carries more weight than one-of-162, so the former tends to be more of an event with viewers.
4. Gambling – Football also happens to be a huge favorite with Vegas odds-makers, so the betting public does its thing around the gridiron far more so than any other team sport venue. So naturally,  if you’ve got money on a game, it stands to reason it’s going to mean a lot more to you.
5. Short Attention Span Theater – Let’s face it, Americans have a hard time staying interested in anything that lasts longer than 30 seconds without something blowing up. Fans want to see more action and less strategy. Football delivers, while baseball deliberates.
6. Cheerleaders vs. Cartoon Mascots – OK, so a bit simplistic, but you get my drift. Football is just sexier. It’s hard-hitting, fast-moving, heart-pounding, testosterone-pumping action. Baseball, conversely, is the honor student that “my kid [football] beat  up” in the iconic bumper sticker.
7. Stress Relief – Distasteful though it may be for some to admit, there’s a visceral sense of gratification one gets from vicariously joining in the gridiron mayhem that baseball simply can’t duplicate.
8. Parity – At the professional level at least, there is a better balance of power among teams. In the NFL parity has become the rule, whereas MLB still suffers from a large gulf between the haves and the have-nots.
9. Marketing – The NFL is a marketing machine. Whether it’s NFL films, endorsement deals, or Madden NFL, this league knows how to sell its product. Think about it. For a sport that’s played in helmets with face masks, the average fan can probably identify more football players than baseball players.
10. Rule Changes – The NFL has come under attack of late by many football purists because of some decisions the league has made regarding player safety. You can argue all day about how some rules could change the very essence of the game, in favor of saving a few brains from turning to mush. That’s fine. The bottom line, though, is that the NFL is more willing to adapt its rule book to adjust to the times. Major League baseball too often is paralyzed by tradition, to the detriment of the game’s appeal to the modern fan.

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1. Creativity – Watching television is a passive activity. You may be able to learn things from what you watch, but you are not actively involved in any thoughtful creativity when watching television. Parents will sometimes ban television from their homes to encourage their children to be involved in more creative home activities.
2. Reading – For many kids, television has replaced the reading of books that used to occupy many children. Reading helps develop vocabulary skills, deeper learning and use of the imagination. Without a television, children are much more likely to turn to books for entertainment and learning.
3. Morality – Some homes ban television for moral reasons. These families desire to limit the exposure of their children to examples of immoral behavior that can be found in a simple scan of television channels.
4. Religion – For some, it is more than morality, it is a mandate of their religion. Some religions, such as the Amish, do not allow any modern devices, others have specifically banned television in the homes of their members.
5. Time management – Families are very busy these days and some have found that removing the television, or at least limiting its viewing time, keeps them from being distracted from more important tasks such as homework, music and sports practice and family activities.
6. Financial – Some choose not to have a TV in their home for financial reasons. It may that their funds are extremely limited; or it may be just a commitment to live a more frugal lifestyle that eliminates nonessentials.
7. Information control – Parents often times that don’t have enough control over what is entering the minds of their children through television programming. These parents will either ban the TV or closely monitor and limit what their family watches.
8. Dependence – Television can easily become the home ‘babysitter’ for parents. To break themselves of this habit, some parents have chosen to remove the television from the home. This forces them to be more creative and interactive with the parenting of their children.
9. Family relationships – Families have found that television can become a distraction that inhibits the interaction among the different members of the family. Removing the television or limiting its viewing times can help the family develop stronger relational bonds.
10. Punishment – A ban on television viewing is sometimes used as a disciplinary measure. This is particularly prevalent as a punishment for receiving poor grades in school.

For every home that is without a television or limits its use, there are many more that have multiple sets in operation most of the time. Others have simply converted their ‘screen time’ to the computer instead of the television.

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1. North by Northwest: Starting back in 1959 with an Alfred Hitchcock favorite, North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant, was filmed in Illinois, South Dakota and other locations. It received a New York Time’s Critic’s Pick and was said to have the year’s most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase. 
2. Dances With Wolves: Starring Kevin Costner, and winning seven Academy Awards (one for best picture) and the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture in the Drama category, Dances With Wolves was filmed in South Dakota and Wyoming.  In 2007, it was considered to be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, meeting the requirements of the National Film Registry, and so was selected to be preserved.
3. Armageddon:  Armageddon received mostly mixed reviews from film critics, and did not win any of the four Academy Awards for which it was nominated, but this movie, filmed in South Dakota, was an international box office success. It became the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. The special effects and sound track, which includes “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” by Aerosmith, are two of the more memorable parts of this movie.
4. Fargo: Fargo, 1996, was filmed in North Dakota, the same state as the location of the title city, and several locations in Minnesota. Apparently, the winter of 1995 was a fairly dry winter, so while the filming of Fargo was underway, the crew moved constantly in order to find snow covered landscape. This film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won two.Roger Ebert called this his favorite movie of 1996.
5. Grumpy Old Men: Set in Wabasha, Minnesota, Grumpy Old Men was a surprise hit at the box office grossing almost double what it spent to make the movie. Part of its popularity was seeing Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon reunited on the screen once again.
6. The Blues Brothers: This movie, starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, Saturday Night Live Alums, is probably the most famous movie to have been filmed in Chicago. It was released in 1980, and while it did not receive any recognition from the Academy Awards, it did make its way onto Total Film magazine’s “List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time” and Bravo’s “100 Funniest Movies”.
7. Spider-Man 2: Another Academy Award winning movie, Spider-Man 2, was filmed in Chicago and other national locations. It was nominated for three Academy Awards and won for Best Visual Effects in 2004. It was also the second highest grossing movie at the box office that year.
8. The Dark Knight: Filmed in Chicago and other global locations, The Dark Knight, 2008, was the most successful film ever made in the Midwest. So far, it has earned over $1 billion. It also had record breaking numbers for its first week showings. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two, one of them being awarded posthumously to Heath Ledger for Best Supporting actor.
9. Terms of Endearment: Filmed in Nebraska, Terms of Endearment won five Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. With Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, and Jack Nicholson in the starring roles, and a story with strong themes of love and responsibility, this movie is sure to bring up emotions so it is easy to see how it could remain number one in the box office for four weeks running during its first 10 week debut in 1983.
10. Gran Torino: This movie was filmed in at least three Michigan locations. This will very possibly be Clint Eastwood’s last acting role, but probably not his last role as director. While the film was basically ignored by the 81^st Academy Awards, it was nominated for at least six other awards, including the Golden Globes for Best Original Song.  

When a movie director takes his or her crew out to the actual setting to film a movie, great things can happen. This list is proof, and it’s only a start.  

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1. Trick-or-Treat – University students in England tested a Formula racing car that ran on fuel made in part from waste chocolate from a Cadbury plant. No word on whether-or-not the car was eaten after testing was completed.
2. Gobble Gobble – For turkey-lovers (Ben Franklin suggested, tongue-only-partly-in-cheek, that the turkey would make a more noble national bird than the eagle), the idea of  putting a Tom into the gas tank might seem anathema, but viable fuel can be made from virtually all parts of the bird.
3. Starbucks In the Tank – Coffee grounds, which contain a lot of oils, make a bio-fuel that is relatively cheap and clean to produce, comes from an abundant source, and, of course, makes the morning commute a much more aromatic experience.
4. Paper or Plastic? – Both paper and plastic can be made into fuel, and each comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, though the future may show us many new ways to recycle waste products in a green manner.
5. Blow Me Down – Wind turbines have been mounted on vehicles, and they have been used to charge batteries that then power the vehicle. This system works best for those who live in tunnel-free expanses of windy salt-flats.
6. Mulch for the Minivan – Not as strange as it sounds, wood chips and sawdust are prime ingredients of what are called “bio-mass” fuels, which are foreseen by some as the most likely replacements for petroleum-based fuels.
7. Styrofoam – With as many styrofoam cups as we see littering our highways, it would be a nice thing to see if economically feasible methods of converting those cups into useful fuels can be developed.
8. Dung Beetles? – Methane gas, available in all your friendly neighborhood cow-patties, can be rendered into fuels that can run an automobile.
9. Beans, Beans, They’re Good for Your Car – Beans, soybeans in particular, are used to make bio-fuels, and are among the few sources that show real universal promise.
10. Lend Me Your Ears – Ears of corn, that is; ethanol is a fuel already in wide use around the globe, and can be made from crops such as corn, potatoes,sugar cane and the ever-popular manioc (known more commonly as “cassava”, one of the most-eaten sources of carbohydrates on the planet). Henry Ford was using ethanol in his Model T’s as early as 1908.

You won’t be able to run your car on tap water any time soon, but hydrogen (the “H” in H2O) is seen as a leading candidate to replace world dependency on fossil fuels. Stay tuned.

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Seagal,Van Damme and Stallone aren’t the only typecast actors in predictable movies; joining them here are other notables who rarely get to break the mold.

1. Steven Seagal / Jean-Claude Van Damme / Sylvester Stallone – The macho man’s macho men; the movie titles don’t matter much,the stars are pretty much interchangeable. All three are set to star, together, in The Rocky Streetfighter Above the Law IV. It’s possible I’m kidding, but it wouldn’t be by much.
2. Seth Rogan – Usually a semi-loveable slob who often, incongruously, ends up with the hot chick. His vehicles include: Funny People, Pineapple Express, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
3. Jim Carrey – There were no special effects used in The Mask,Carrey’s face really does all that stretching, as in: Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Pet Detective and Bruce Almighty.
4. Hugh Grant – The somewhat shy and awkward British charmer, who bumbles his way through: Nine Months, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sirens and Love Actually.
5. Samuel Jackson – Samuel Jackson is a baad, baad dude, and his baadness is a predictable thing in: Shaft, Snakes on a Plane,The Negotiator and Pulp Fiction.
6. Angelina Jolie – Hard, sexy and cynical, she provides a female counterpart to the macho men. Her films include: Gone in Sixty Seconds, Tombraider and Wanted.
7. Morgan Freeman – The Voice. His voice glides, calms and soothes, even if he’s telling you he’s about to kill you. God may have given him this voice just so he could play God, in Bruce Almighty. The roles might vary, from God to a sadistic killer, as in Se7en, but whether he’s showing you the pearly gates, or the other gates, he will assuage your nerves.
8. Adam Sandler – Gets the most out of zero social skills and a borderline certifiable insanity, most notably in: Mr. Deeds, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer.
9. Cameron Diaz – Plays the blind bombshell to a “T”. No, not “blonde bombshell”, but “blind”. How else can you explain a girl who looks like she does, but still ends up with  Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller. She has starred in: There’s Something About Mary, The Mask, Very Bad Things and Shrek I, II and III.
10. Will Ferrell – Over The Top, when used to describe Will Ferrell, may be classic understatement. He reprises himself as a clownish oaf in: Elf, Anchorman, Zoolander, Austin Powers and Blades of Glory.

The movies may have different plots and titles, but when you know who’s in them, you can pretty much tell where they’re headed.

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1. Cockroaches – There are thousands of species of roaches with varying life expectancies, but the American cockroach has the longest lifespan of 1 to 2 years. These tough buggers can live without food for over a month and without air for up to 45 minutes and will probably outlast humans as a species.
2. Ants – These picnic pests can also inhabit your home and cause all kinds of problems. Even though their average life expectancy is only 90 days, the queen can live up to 30 years and workers up to 1 to 3 years.
3. Mice – Even though these pesky rodents only live about 2 years, they can reproduce exponentially in that amount of time. They are capable of producing a litter of 10-12 offspring every 50 days. That means one female mouse can produce 150 to 175 more mice in her lifetime!
4. Rats – These disgusting rodents are like mice on steroids. They’re larger in size and can live up to 5 years in captivity. I guarantee their life expectancy would be much less if I found one anywhere near my house.
5. Spiders – With over 40,000 different species of spiders there life expectancy varies, but most live only 1 to 2 years. However, the tarantula can live up to 20 years. Female spiders can lay up to 3,000 eggs at a time, so even though we live longer, they far outnumber us.
6. Termites – These pests like to eat houses and can be really hard to get rid of. They live in colonies that can number from the hundreds to the millions and have a life span of 1 to 4 years. I think they could devour a good sized house in that amount of time.
7. Flies – Even though these pests can be very annoying, they only live for about 2 days. The problem is they spend their entire lifetime annoying people and reproducing. Flies that bite, like the horse fly and their cousins the deer fly, are the worst.
8. Mosquitoes – These pesky blood-suckers have a life cycle of 4 stages. The first 3 aquatic stages last from 5 to 14 days and adults live up to 8 weeks. During their lifetime the male mosquito hangs out supping nectar while the females are out for blood so they can reproduce and spread diseases.
9. Wood ticks – These creepy, crawly critters are found in wooded areas and also like to suck your blood. Their life expectancy is about a year, but ticks can carry diseases that can really shorten ours.
10. Bedbugs – Clothing made overseas and increased foreign travel has revived the bedbug population in the United States. These tiny nocturnal pests like to hide out in your bedding during the day and come out to feed at night. With a consistent source of food they can live up to 10 months.

Even though these pests have fairly short life expectancies, we would like to make them even shorter. They are all called pests for very good reasons, because in their short lifetimes they can be very detrimental to humans. Besides being annoying, they can spread diseases and destroy property. Since they reproduce so quickly and in such great numbers, they are not likely to ever be eradicated, but we definitely want to do our best to control their populations.

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1. Dish – You have to have one of those satellite dishes attached to your house or located somewhere on your property if you have satellite TV. Thankfully, they are much smaller now than they used to be, but you still can’t exactly hide it. It needs to be out in the open to get reception.
2. Rural – Most people that I know who use satellite TV providers live in rural settings. They don’t have the option of cable TV, so they’ve opted for satellite TV to give them multiple channels.
3. Internet – Most satellite TV providers also offer internet access at an additional charge to their customers. Again, these customers don’t usually have the option of cable internet but may have DSL or dialup options available for internet service.
4. Weather – It seems like satellite TV providers aren’t able to quite eliminate weather interference with the signal reception. Although it appears to have improved over what it was in previous years, and is not as big of a problem.
5. Selections – Subscribers to satellite TV are known for having many more television channels to select from than cable subscribers. This seems to always have been the biggest positive aspect of satellite TV.
6. Record – Recording options seem to be provided to satellite TV users in many of their packages. It also seems that I hear more of their clients referring to the use of these features, as well.
7. Receiver – In addition to the exterior dish, satellite TV users also have a receiver box located inside their home and connected to their television.
8. Contract – Unlike the month-to-month billings, people experience with cable TV, satellite TV customers have a more detailed contract to deal with. The contracts also seem to run for one or two years, rather than just a month at a time, as they do with cable.
9. Installers – Because of the positioning needed for the installation of a satellite dish, satellite TV installers seem to require more time than is normally required for the simpler cable hookup.
10. Package – Most satellite TV providers advertise their different ‘packages’, almost using the lowest priced package as their example in price. Cable TV providers do the same thing of course. It seems like there are always ‘new packages’ being advertised by both.

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1. Gazebo – This seems like it would be an ambitious undertaking, but you’ve just got to love the results. Whenever I see a well-built, ornate gazebo sitting in someone’s yard, I’m (at least momentarily) inspired to build one for my own. What a great place it would be for reading, bird-watching, entertaining guests, or just relaxing. I want one.
2. Water Wheel – These things are so attractive, and their mechanism so soothing, that they’re almost hypnotic. The chance to build a water wheel might even provide me enough incentive to first build one of these:
3. Koi Pond – I have seen examples of these, built by friends of mine, and was surprised at both  the simplicity of their construction and the hardiness of the Koi fish. They cannot only survive, but flourish, even when the pond has literally frozen over in winter.
4. Footbridge – I’ve seen footbridges that spanned garden ponds and streams or small gulleys along walkways and wood trails. They make a wonderful accent or centerpiece in a garden or courtyard.
5. Observatory – No, not one of those huge rotating domes. These are backyard observatories that resemble a common tool shed or child’s play house. The difference here is that it’s constructed with a concrete-anchored mount for a telescope, and a retractable roof . You can stargaze year-round, impervious to the adverse optical, as well as physical, effects of temperature changes and wind conditions.
6. Tree House – How great would it be to have a get-away like a tree house right in your own backyard? It’s the perfect antidote for children who’ve become tethered to their computers and game consoles. And there’s no better venue for the young – or not so young – explorer and adventurer.
7. Brick Barbecue Pit – I’ve already got a gas grill and two smokers; nevertheless, I have always wanted to have a brick BBQ pit. It seems like everything just tastes better when grilled on a brick pit.
8. Tiered Landscaping – This is a terrific option for property that is on a slope. Using landscaping timber – or, alternatively, decorative stone – you can create a tiered effect that is not only supremely attractive, but easier to cultivate and navigate than terrain with an unbroken slope. Add some plants, a vegetable garden or even a waterfall for a fabulous look and feel.
9. Wagon Planter – You can find plans for wagon planters of various sizes online. They give a marvelously rustic appeal to your yard, and make an ideal – and portable – display for your green thumb’s handiwork. As an added bonus, your plants and flowers are placed at a convenient height for maintenance and watering.
10. Pergola – You can build a pergola inexpensively with reclaimed lumber such as barn wood, or and create a sun-filtered, ivy-covered shelter for outdoor dining or entertaining. There are some very inventive yet easy to follow plans available.

So it looks like I’ve got a busy spring and summer in store for me. So many magazines to browse, and so little time.

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1. Extra Help. Perhaps your child just is having problems with a given subject. Attending summer school can provide a chance to refine some skills or improve in a particular subject.
2. New In Town. If you have just moved to a new city, having your child go to summer school can give them a start on making new friends. It will let the transition to the new school year come with much fewer problems.
3. Alternative To Television. Having your child go to summer school can help prevent the situation where all summer gets spent playing video games or watching television. It can give them a chance to learn instead of just being entertained.
4. Exploring Special Skills. Maybe your child has some skill that can be given a chance for refinement and benefit from summer school. You can check the offered classes to pick some subjects that give that opportunity.
5. Finishing School Early. Sometimes your child can take a required class in the summer, when the course is shorter. It can allow for a chance to complete the classes required early. This can let your child finish earlier, and move on to the other choices after graduation.
6. Unique Classes. Perhaps your child has some interest in a given subject, where some study time and class instruction will give a chance for that interest to grow.  Summer school can be the means to stimulate and inspire.
7. Keeping The Knowledge Alive. With some subjects, such as English or History, where your child is going to take them for several years, then summer school lets them keep the knowledge alive. They won’t have the chance to forget it all by fall. This can be very helpful in critical subjects.
8. Different Programs. Schools are changing their summer school programs to make them more diverse and helpful. They are adding courses that assist kids with new ideas and subjects, even creative activities they would enjoy.
9. Playing Catch Up. If your child just got too far behind in some class during the school year, then summer school can give an opportunity to make up for those problems.
10. Work On Behavior Problems. This doesn’t have to be a case of punishment. It can simply be a case of giving your child more of a chance to learn how to cope with any relational problems that came up during the school year.

More parents are coming to appreciate how summer school offers advantages.  It is no longer just a time for babysitting or used as some form of punishment.

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1. Illegal in some places – It is illegal to use radar detectors in the State of Virginia. In Canada, the use of radar detectors is illegal in seven out of the nine provinces, although it is still legal to own a radar detector in more than half of the provinces.
2. Range – The range of radar detectors varies with the type and model, but some of the best models can detect police radar as much as 14 miles away.
3. Money Savers – Many people see radar detectors as an expensive piece of equipment. However, if you’ve ever received a speeding ticket, you know that the overall cost of that ticket is much more than the cost of a high quality radar detector. In addition to fine, you must pay for the ticket. It generally also means a rise in your insurance rates for several years. Those higher insurance rates are what is truly expensive.
4. Different types – Not all radar detectors are created equal. There are dash mounted units that must be plugged in. There are also cordless models, battery powered models and remote detectors.
5. False Alarms – Many radar detectors have a tendency to sound false alarms in urban areas. Often times they are picking up the signals of door openers and burglar alarms rather than police radar frequencies.
6. Bandwidths – There are only four bandwidths that law enforcement use with their radar scanners. Radar Detectors that promote the fact that they cover more bandwidths than those four are not really providing you with any additional protection.
7. Laser detection – Some radar detectors advertise the fact that they look for laser scans in all directions, not just in front and behind the vehicle. This is another meaningless feature. The only directions you need to be concerned with for police laser scanning is in front and behind your vehicle.
8. GPS based detectors – These radar detectors have the advantage of being able to warn you about known speed camera locations ahead of time. They also are able to accurately sense the speed that you are going and adjust their sensitivity to the appropriate level, which can decrease false alarms.
9. Pop Mode radar detectors – Although these short burst radar guns do exist, there are very few of them in use any more. These pop mode radar readings are also not acceptable as evidence to warrant a ticket. Therefore, detectors which list this as one of their selling features, are again, blowing smoke.
10. Display and Sound – The types of displays and sound alerts available on the different units can make a big difference on the effectiveness of a radar detector. If you can’t read the display in bright sunlight or can’t hear the warning sounds over traffic noise, they don’t do you much good.

As you can see, there can be a lot of useless hype related to radar detectors. This doesn’t mean that they can’t or don’t do the job. It just means that you need to do your research so you aren’t paying for features that have little or no value.

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