• As promised from last week, Sam The Cooking Guy made an appearance on the Today Show.  Be sure to enjoy the clip of the segment below as he rushes through several dishes.



• Random, and way cool (if you like maps) -- The Common Census Map Project.  American cities' spheres of influence, in visual form.
• Moonshine hunting (video), in South Carolina.  More Americana, heh.
  

Perhaps a regular feature, perhaps not, it's toe-in-the-water time with this.  And the name could probably use some pep.  Suggestions welcome.

• Craft beers are a gift to mankind -- enjoyed in moderation, of course.  For years it's been almost impossible to make or sell them in the state of Alabama.  The state's legislators have wrestled for years about whether or not to raise alcohol limits that would allow for greater variety of beer into the state.  Some legislators are hopelessly clueless.  Watch the video for more background, but scan to 5:33 for an entertaining speech from Rep. Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery).  (H/T: Get The Picture)
  
• Enjoy this 14-part stroll through North Korea (aka "crazyland"), made by the brave folks at VBS.tv.  Seriously, carve out some time in your day to watch this series of videos.

• Emo emu

• College Gridiron Boss emails in with his playoff take: "Nobody Will Ever Be Satisfied"

• Sam The Cooking Guy has gone big-time.  Sam Zien will be on the Today Show April 1.  Who is Sam The Cooking Guy?  He's someone who should be on FoodTV with his own show, but until recently was an incredibly obscure cooking show host playing before county television audiences in San Diego.

The Discovery Health network snagged his show and re-tuned it with a healthy angle (ehhhh, but its a promotion).  Good guy, interesting show, and someone with the potential to be really embraced nationally.  Check out some YouTube vids of Sam doing his thing.  Update: Sam's appearance was moved to Thursday.

• Coming next week: New Blogs.  Like, 100+ of them.  If you've emailed me in the last three or so months, this is probably the moment when your blog gets linked, woo hoo!  If you're not listed and want your blog up, now's a good time to send an email my way with a link and stuff.

• Also: I get a fair amount of emails to sites, blog entries etc. that I simply cannot accomodate into the normal theme of this blog.  This space may be a good place to direct such entries, so if you've tried before with little effect to get one of your entries mentioned on here, try again.  Casual Friday or whatever this will be called is a little more open to such efforts.