It's been a long time since I've done one of these, but it's that time of year when I must bestow the coveted My One Favorite Thing award of 2009. Last year, you may recall, Cottonelle Wet Wipes Toilet Paper won the 2008 MOFT, just edging out Barack Obama.

This year, there are so many worthy candidates. Certainly Obama was in the running again, as his January inauguration provided one of the more stirring moments of the year. But while infinitely better than what we had at this time last year, the Prez has been just a bit disappointing to me, so he'll have to settle with his consolation Nobel. [Read more]

I have to apologize for my prolonged posting absence, but things have been getting hectic. And with several trips upcoming, including two jaunts to Vegas (one my bachelor party!!), a pre-wedding party in my hometown St. Louis, a wedding (with still a millions things that need to be done), a minimoon, and various other things happening all in the next couple of months, I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better. [Read more]

As devoted deadman blog readers with photographic memories know (a surprisingly slim sample size), I've never been a fan of being barefoot.  [Read more]

I'll get back to the regularly scheduled My One Favorite Things soon enough, but right now I got a bone to pick with my cell phone company, T-Mobile.

I mostly have positive vibes toward T-Mobile as their customer service has been very helpful and their network seems to have continually improved in New York City, but I'm annoyed with the numerous 'surcharges' the company tacks on to my monthly bill.

T-Mobile probably isn't alone here, but I think it's a crime that these charges - which earn the dubious award of being My One Least Favorite Thing of the week - now add up to more than $10 a month, approximately 21% of the cost of my plan. [Read more]

I'm usually an easy customer. It doesn't take much to please me. Just treat me fair and show me respect. Work with me if you've made a mistake. Just basic, simple stuff.

Do this and I'm yours forever. Because I'm loyal, too. I'll return over and over again to your business and I'll sing your praises to everyone I know. Amazon.com is a company that fits this bill. If I can find it on Amazon, I'm buying it there, even though they include sales tax now in New York and their prices are rarely the best available. In years and years of buying stuff on Amazon, they have rarely done me wrong, and when they have, they quickly made it right. [Read more]

You've seen a lot less of me on dagblog lately, and while I'd love to put all of the blame for my absence on my Beyonce and the wedding plans which have been set in hot and heavy motion (It's mostly painful, stressful stuff, but registering at Target was hella fun - come to Papa, Wii!!), but there is a much bigger badder beast than Mrs. All-Consuming Wedding at work here - and its name is PokerStars. [Read more]

I've been a very bad dagblogger of late, but I'm full of good excuses for my badness. First, there was the whole engagement to plan and pull off (and already a fair amount of wedding madness), and then right after that I had to help plan my brother's 40th birthday party, which included a week-long visit from the folks (a surprise to my brother). The folks stayed at my pad, which was just a real treat and a great time, and now that they're gone, it feels a little bit empty here (why does it often take us so long to appreciate mom and dad??)  [Read more]

Sorry for my extended absence the last couple of weeks, but the excuse is a good one: I'm engaged!!

So as much as I may have wanted to make the clementine My One Favorite Thing of the Week - I mean, really, it's got all the health-filled, sunshine-y goodness of the orange but with more sweetness, less seeds and all in an adorable little easy-to-peel package to boot - it's only fitting that I bestow that honor instead on the amazing girl who finally convinced me to give up 35 glorious years of singlehood. [Read more]

My One Favorite Thing this week is Scramble, an anagram word game on Facebook that is basically the online equivalent of the old board game Boggle.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the basic idea is you are given a bunch of letter tiles laid out on a square board and you must string adjacent letters together to form words of at least three letters long, racking up more points for longer words.

It's quite the simple premise ... and also dangerously addictive. [Read more]

Just a few weeks ago, I fell in love with singer Ingrid Michaelson while watching her perform an amazing concert.

After 35 years of living, I had my first celebrity crush.

Well apparently, celebrity crushes come in bunches because I already have another one ... and this time, it's for a man, baby. [Read more]

Every Tuesday night after my weekly basketball game, I pick up some Mickey D's for me and Ms. Deadman (or Deadwoman, if you prefer) to eat at home. It's a classy tradition in the Deadman household, one that we both totally look forward to, with the main source of our enjoyment being the Filet-O-Fish sandwich that always makes up the entree portion of our meals. [Read more]

I finally have a celebrity crush!

For the first time in 35 years, there is finally a woman out there whose posters I want to plaster all over my bedroom walls, whose biographical trivia I want to accumulate like so many rare golden nuggets, whose live and TV appearances I want to schedule my life around (while still respecting all applicable stalker laws, of course).

The object of my intense affection and the clear winner of this week's My One Favorite Thing award is singer Ingrid Michaelson. [Read more]

It was a tough battle for the My One Favorite Thing award this week, with some noteworthy candidates. Certainly, jilted bachelorette Melissa Rycroft, who was forced to undergo a breakup on national TV a  mere six weeks after being proposed to on national TV (live by the reality show sword, die by the sword, I guess) was a top runner-up.

You see, Miss Rycroft was a cast member of the latest season of The Bachelor which just ended this past week, and the ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader deserved a much better fate. She's beautiful, fit, great with kids, sweet, sensitive, and apparently totally unlucky in love. [Read more]

The first time I remember seeing a Reddi-wip can was on a camping trip during a high school summer when some of my friends tried to get high by snorting the nitrous oxide gas inside it. Even back then, a 'whippit' sure looked like a stupid, only mildly effective, thing to do.  [Read more]

Can there be any question as to what My One Favorite Thing this week was? Could it be any more obvious?? I mean, clearly, it was Rick Warren's Invocation Speech. Duh. What a beautiful testimonial to the goodness of god, the power of prayer and the righteousness of Scripture! [Read more]

It doesn't take much for a bank to make me happy. Give me online access, a good interest rate, a bunch of branches, and I'm all good. Heck, lately I'm just thrilled when my chosen banking institutions don't implode and go boom.

But just because I'm easily satisfied doesn't mean a bank often gets my juices flowing. Yet that's exactly what happened this week as my main bank, JP Morgan Chase, installed sweet new ATMs that take the latest MOFT (My One Favorite Thing) title. I don't know if Chase used TARP money to finance these new contraptions, but if so, consider it money well spent! [Read more]

I don't think 2008 was a very good year for pop culture.

The Hollywood writers' strike seemed to have lingering effects, delaying the return of some of my favorite TV shows past the point of anticipation all the way to indifference. Probably can't blame the strike, but most of the year for movies was also generally a disaster, with the summer slate being a particular disappointment (I was even let down by The Dark Knight).

It was miss after miss on the reading front for me as well, with several much-hyped books, like Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and O'Neill's Netherland leaving me cold and unsatisfied. And our most exalted Prophet has admitted that it wasn't a particularly great year for new music, either. [Read more]

Ok, so 2008 won't go down as one of the best years in recent memory. We've had a financial collapse of historic proportions, a housing meltdown, a credit crunch, a $50 billion investment scam, a failing U.S. auto industry, dramatic oil and food price shocks, deadly terror in India, continued mayhem in Iraq and Afghanistan, genocide in Africa, voter turnout scandals, Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich, and to cap it off, a re-emergence of violence in one of the most intractable conflicts of all-time (Congrats, Israelis and Palestinians, for once again proving how stupidity and inhumanity know no borders!) [Read more]

I'm keeping this one short but My One Favorite Thing this week is Weather.com's short-term forecasting, offered in hourly and even fifteen-minute intervals. (Here's an example for New York, NY)

OK, this MOFT may not seem as life-changing as great-tasting, sugar-free, crystal-meth-like gum (oh be quiet, Orlando, you know you're still jonesing for your next pack), but these short-term forecasts are stupid awesome for a couple of reasons.

1) The short-term forecasts are eerily accurate.  [Read more]

My One Favorite Thing this week is Raspberry Sorbet-flavored Ice Cubes gum from Ice Breakers. It's a fucking party for your mouth every time you pop one of these babies in.

I've never seen crack cocaine or crystal meth up close and personal, but this gum looks like what I envision you'd get if you combined those two drugs, all white and shiny with tiny little red speckles of mad flava baked in, and probably twice as addicting. [Read more]