Switching web hosts...
I'm switching hosting for the GLC so some things may be a little wonky as everything changes over. Sorry for any issues that may make the site broken/unavailable over the next 24 hours, but feel free to check out some of my other projects. Thanks for stopping by! Posted at 1:06 PM Central Time

Why the hell not?
Hello friends of Dave Barry! Glad to have you, take a look around. Posted at 1:33 PM Central Time

Memories of grocery stores are all that remain from years ago
"Everyone has to eat and it seems that most people have stories about where their food came from, especially stories from many years ago when both Denison and Sherman were a lot different. Almost none of the grocery stores of the earlier days still are around and memories of where they were located are all that remain. The grocery employees were like an extended family." Posted at 7:53 PM Central Time

Finders keepers, losers weepers?
The GLC got a very quick mention in the Boston Globe last week: "Finders keepers, losers weepers? Not any more -- Web's lost and found has broad sweep, local appeal." Posted at 7:11 AM Central Time

Husband eats 50-year-old chicken
"A man celebrated his golden wedding anniversary by eating a 50-year-old tin of chicken. Les and Beryl Lailey, of Denton, Gtr Manchester, were given the chicken in a hamper on their wedding day in 1956. The Buxted Chicken tin remained in their kitchen cupboard until the couple marked 50 years together this month. 'We kept it safe, and I always said 'on my 50th wedding anniversary I'm going to eat that chicken' -- so I did,' said former soldier, Mr Lailey, aged 73." Posted at 10:18 PM Central Time

Completely unrelated to grocery lists...

WANTED: THE WORLD'S COOLEST ROBOTS, PIRATES AND MONKEYS

I'm working on a project and I need your suggestions for the coolest robots, pirates and monkeys ever. Now, of course I've got C-3PO, Blackbeard and Curious George on the list — I need suggestions that might not be part of the fabric of popular culture. Or RPMs that are more underground. Or whatever.

So send me your ideas! You get bonus points for including a useful web link, but it's not required. Everyone who contributes will have their name put in a hat and one random winner will receive a cool set of prizes (which will somehow include robots, pirates and monkeys).

The deadline? It may change, but let's say March 15. Thanks! Posted at 9:57 PM Central Time

Grocery Gamer
"I was going to wait and post about this until I was further along but changed my mind. I am so excited about this right now. Grocery shopping has now become a lot of fun. I've taken to collecting coupons and then I consult this weeks LIST for which coupons to play and which to save for later. The LIST matches your coupons and rewards with the sales at the local store for the week and then tells you which combination are Rock Bottom." Posted at 9:37 PM Central Time

February is Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
"Most grocery stores have seen it: a forlorn shopping cart miles away from the store, complemented by a shrinking supply of carts. Often, stores count their losses and move on, knowing a missing cart here and there is expected, but perhaps that trend will reverse this month and people will actually return stranded carts they've taken or found about town: February is Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month, which includes milk crates and bread trays, according to the U.S. Census Bureau." Posted at 7:42 AM Central Time

Test: Butter and margarine
"Margarine's now a 'spread' and butter can come from the fridge soft enough to spread on your toast. But when you're faced with so many different spreads in the supermarket dairy cabinet it's hard to know which is the healthiest." Posted at 10:53 PM Central Time

On the Edibility of Very Old Food
"The oldest of all edible foods might be a 5,600-year-old ear of popcorn that archeologists dug up in New Mexico in 1947 (though it may date back as little as 1,752 years). It still popped. More recently, researchers in Utah found 1,000-year-old popcorn that was still perfectly fluffy and delicious." Posted at 7:30 AM Central Time

A Praise for Lists
"I like lists. Correction -- I looove lists!!! I love them so much I have lists of lists sometimes. I think lists if not a great organisational tool than at least a wonderful tool to trick yourself that everything is organised and nothing forgotten, so you can peacefully go to sleep at night without frantically making the lists of things to do in your head trying to remember if you missed something. It's a great thing to make your life easier." Posted at 7:27 AM Central Time

Free books: It's the February GLC giveaway!
FREE BOOKS! | Food is culture, even if the culture is white trash! The first person to write in and request one of the two very different books linked below gets it for free. Limit one per person and you must request a specific book and send me your mailing address (although we won't use your email or postal address for anything other than sending you the book). If you've won a book here in the past please give someone else a chance to score these titles. Email me for a free book while they last!

Gone! Sent to Adele of Rosetta, Australia
Food Is Culture | By Massimo Montanari: "Elegantly written by a distinguished culinary historian, Food Is Culture explores the innovative premise that everything having to do with food& mdash;its capture, cultivation, preparation, and consumption -- represents a cultural act. Even the "choices" made by primitive hunters and gatherers were determined by a culture of economics (availability) and medicine (digestibility and nutrition) that led to the development of specific social structures and traditions. Massimo Montanari begins with the 'invention' of cooking which allowed humans to transform natural, edible objects into cuisine. Cooking led to the creation of the kitchen, the adaptation of raw materials into utensils, and the birth of written and oral guidelines to formalize cooking techniques like roasting, broiling, and frying. The transmission of recipes allowed food to acquire its own language and grow into a complex cultural product shaped by climate, geography, the pursuit of pleasure, and later, the desire for health." —Amazon.com (List price: $22.50)

Gone! Sent to Elizabeth of Manchester, New Hampshire
White Trash Gatherings: From-scratch Cooking for Down-home Entertaining | By Kendra Bailey Morris: "With a respectful nod to Ernie Mickler's original WHITE TRASH COOKING, Kendra Bailey Morris pulls open the back door of her Granny Boohler's kitchen to chronicle the next generation of cookin' and socializin' the Southern white trash way. Bubbling over with treasured family recipes, entertaining ideas, and crafty decor suggestions, WHITE TRASH GATHERINGS has the perfect dish for every occasion, whether it's potlucking, just havin' 'em ovah, headin' home for the holidays, or creating a holy gatherin' from scratch. Next time the kin sets down to Sunday supper, serve it West Virginia style, and make sure there's plenty, 'cause when Maw Maw and Paw Paw come from down 'round Possum Hollow, they'll be expecting to leave with a belly-full." —Amazon.com (List price: $19.95) Posted at 9:46 PM Central Time

Grocery shopping for college students
"You are now living alone or with roommates, and you have to be constantly thinking of stocking the fridge and the pantry in the most cost-effective manner possible. It's easy to think of the fridge back home, full of all your favourite food, and the home-cooked meals that went along with it, but you're here now -- and your parents' fridge and kitchen are a long way away. For those students living alone for the first time, with no idea how much a box of cereal costs, we are here to provide you with a budget guide to get you through the month..." Posted at 8:25 AM Central Time

Nailing jelly to a wall: Is it possible?
"We've all heard the old saying 'it's like nailing jelly to a wall' to describe a task that is very difficult or impossible. But is our view of the difficulty of this task justified? Has anybody actually tried nailing jelly to a wall? In this experiment I attempt to establish, one way or the other, the validity of the old proverb... (Attention Americans! What you call 'jello', we call 'jelly'. What you call 'jelly', we call 'jam'. That's the long and the short of it.)" Posted at 6:33 AM Central Time

USDA Offers Food Safety Advice for Your Super Bowl Party
"As millions of Americans mark Super Bowl Sunday with friends and family, making it the second highest day of food consumption in the United States after Thanksgiving, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service is offering some practical food safety tips to help prevent foodborne illnesses. 'While football has the 'two-minute' warning, the world of food safety has the 'two-hour' rule," said USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond. "One of the biggest food safety mistakes people tend to make during these types of gatherings is that they let perishable food items sit out for far too long.'" Posted at 11:34 AM Central Time