Valentine's Day!

Whether you like the holiday or not, Valentine's (Vamlumtimes, anyone?) Day is here, and there's nothing you can do about it.

So you might as well embrace it!

Here are my suggestions for stuff to do/get for your significant other/someone you'd like to be your significant other/someone you generally care about/yourself:

• Lovey-dovey salt shakers!

A-frickin'-dorable.

There are plenty of places to find stuff like this, but these specific shakers I found here: http://www.marysholidaysps.com/valentine/index.htm (prices are listed there, though it seems like the ones I showed have sold out).

• A visit to a salt spa!  (Described in my last post.)
• A romantic dinner with lots of salt in it!
• And end* the night with a hot, relaxing bath with bath salts (not the drug!).

*(Further activity may follow that also has something to do with salt (in a couple ways), but this is a family-friendly blog...)

So there! Whether you're dating, married, single, or whatever else -- find something fun to do on Valentine's Day.  And make it salty.

Floridians, Rejoice!

If I lived in or near Jacksonville, Florida, I'd be pretty excited right now.  Why?  Because a new salt spa opened on Jacksonville Beach just yesterday.

Perhaps this news is a bit locally-specific, but it's also temporally relevant.  Plus it's a jumping-off point to talk about salt spas in general.

Salt spas are a basically spas that incorporate salt therapeutically, but the defining feature is the salt cave.  Consider the following image:

Is this what Heaven looks like?

That's the Williamsburg Salt Spa in Williamsburg, Virginia.  According to their website, they're the first salt spa on the East Coast.  Which is saying something.

Now, I'm a little skeptical of alternative medicine, but relaxing for an hour in a room full of salt just makes sense.  They even give massages.  Awesome.  To quote Lauren Riddick (no relation to Vin Diesel), an employee at the Jacksonville Salt Spa: "It's a breathing treatment, so if you're in halotherapy, you're taking in the salt. It attaches in your lungs and helps to excrete naturally the mucus in your body."

We're not talking just regular salt, by the way.  At the Jacksonville Salt Spa, they've imported salt from under the Dead Sea that's been untouched for over 250 million years.  It's completely free of pollutants (except for maybe dinosaur pee) and infused with over 85 minerals.  Essential minerals, to boot.  Again, awesome.

So, if you're ever feeling under the weather or just want to feel refreshed, perhaps try a salt spa near you.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Always relevant.

Links:

• http://www.news4jax.com/news/Salt-spa-opens-at-beach/-/475880/8602288/-/k98q1bz/-/
• http://www.jaxsaltspa.com/
• http://williamsburgsaltspa.com/ 

Wal-Mart Reducing Salt?!

Okay, fine.  My triumphant return wasn't all that triumphant. It wasn't even a return.  More like dropping in for a brief "hullo."  And now, in a boy-who-cried-wolf sort of way, this time won't be quite so triumphant.  But I'm fine with that.

As most of you know, I kinda dig salt.  It's sorta my thing.  I also like ginormous corporations that provide cheap goods at the expense of small businesses.  That's Capitalism.  That's Wal-mart.

But guess what?  Wal-mart is cutting down on the salt, sugar, and fat content in 165 of its private label foods.

 

But wait, Mr. President!  Wal-mart said last year that it was joining Michelle Obama's initiative to fight obesity, and, well, this is how.  So no complaining.

Now, I can live with the less sugar thing.  Sugar's overrated.  It's unhealthy.  But to lump salt in with sugar, just because it's white and granular?  Bollocks. 

Of course, all this means is that products sold under the Marketside and Great Value labels will have less sugar, salt, and fat.  Big deal, right?  (I can just never buy those products again...)

In conjunction with this reductive measure, Wal-mart will also be labeling foods with a "Great for You" icon if they meet a certain nutritional criteria.  Customers will also find that many healthy products will be priced cheaper.  For example, whole wheat pasta is now the same price as white pasta, and some healthy dairy products have seen price reductions.

Which is actually pretty nice.



Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-07/wal-mart-to-reduce-sugar-fat-salt-in-some-private-label-foods.html 

The Glorious Return!

To those who read my blog, it may have seemed like I fell off the face of the Earth.  Well, I did.  I hitched a ride on the turtle that carries the planet on the elephants on its back, and let me tell you, turtles are slow creatures.  Even giant space turtles.  That's what took me so long.

Some very interesting things out there in space, you know...

So I have a lot of catching up to do.  A big long list.  For example, I missed writing about New Year's.  One of my resolutions was to commit to a schedule for this blog.  Guess what?  I didn't.

I was also going to write about, for anyone resolving to eat healthier this year, how salt isn't as unhealthy as it's often made out to be.  Well, January 1st was 25 days ago, and I have no idea what those articles were.  I'll find them.

What's happened since I've been gone...?  Ah, yes!  SOPA finally got the attention it deserves, and the people of America -- nay, the WORLD! -- secured a temporary victory.  Unfortunately for me, all of the attention SOPA was getting eclipsed the attention given to a different bill, which, as luck would have it, spelled out the same acronym.  SOPA, or the "Salt On Pretty much Anything" bill was lost amid a flurry of protest.  I'm actually surprised that it didn't go through, considering so many people on Capitol Hill are old and salty (not to be confused with old salts).

Anywho...

Not just any who -- Cindy Lou Who!

But actually, anywho, this post isn't terribly substantial.  It's just an indication that, well, I'm back.

So there.