Author: Steve DiMatteo

I always knew I was throwing around the definition of “food” loosely when it came to Lunchables, but I’ve got two small kids and every now and then, they have served a very useful purpose. That is, until Consumer Reports called for the removal from Lunchables from U.S. schools after alarming levels of lead were found in the packaging of Lunchables sold in stores. Awesome! (Over the past few years, the amount of concerning information about food packaging, microplastics, ultra-processed food, and more has made it seem impossible to make any truly realistic lifestyle changes, but finally eliminating Lunchables from…

President-elect Donald Trump has wasted no time in making his appointments, and it looks like South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is slated to become the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem, the first female governor in South Dakota history, is a rising conservative star and was once floated out there as a possible vice presidential running mate for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. That never came to be, but this appointment will only further grow her stature in the party and could very well propel her to a presidential run in 2028. So What’s This About…

As I was getting ready for my second trunk-or-treat event (sometimes known as “a Halloween tailgate”) – and third different trick-or-treating event of any kind ahead of actual Halloween this season – I began to wonder: When in the world did this all start? Whatever happened to just going all out on Halloween night? Aside from it being another opportunity for Big Candy to separate you from your money, let’s take a look at the rapidly growing Halloween tradition that is trunk-or-treat. When Did Trunk-or-Treat Start in the United States? The concept of trunk-or-treat doesn’t necessarily have a singular origin…

I took my wife to plenty of weird movies when we were dating. And because we were in our dating days (this extended into our early years of marriage as well), my wife likely felt obligated to entertain my movie choices, ones that she would swiftly shut down after ten years of marriage. But back then? Alien: Covenant? Why not? Sabotage on my birthday? You bet! Riding our bikes a total of 14 miles there and back to see a late evening showing of X-Men: Days of Future Past? Hell yeah! (To be fair, we still talk about how much…

The United States’ religious makeup continues to shift, as nearly a third of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, which could include describing oneself as atheist, agnostic, or simply “nothing in particular.” According to the recent Pew Research Center findings, the number currently stands at about 28 percent, which is actually lower than what was found in recent years – in 2022, the estimate stood at 31 percent. However, even with the slight dip in year-to-year numbers, the long-term trend is stark: Since 2007, the number of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated has grown from 16 percent in 2007 to…

Minor league baseball is a treasure trove of bizarre promotions, and one of the most popular traditions in recent years has become teams rebranding as special, alternate identities for a series of games each season. Many of these rebrands are food-related, while others run the gamut of having some sort of local connection to just being plain weird. In the case of the Double-A Somerset Patriots (an affiliate of the New York Yankees), they’ve gone with the former for 2024, rebranding as the Jersey Diners (at one point, the name “Greasy Spoons” was considered, which might be even better). New…

In the college football world these days, it doesn’t really even matter who plays in the postseason bowl games, which will become even more evident as the playoff format is set to expand. As you might expect, the proliferation of college football bowl games – often featuring teams with losing records at this point – comes down solely to how much money the NCAA can make through bowl sponsorships. This has never been more evident than what happened in the 2023 Pop-Tarts Bowl, which featured a live Pop-Tarts mascot that made a tremendously grand entrance, danced, and partied its way…

No doubt we’ve all thought about jumping into those giant aquariums at Bass Pro Shops, but rarely have any of us acted on it. However, one Alabama man finally let his intrusive thoughts win this past week – possibly aided through the use of alcohol and/or drugs – and did a full-on cannonball into a Leeds-area Bass Pro Shops aquarium, swimming in it for about five minutes before police arrived. The 42-year-old nude man, who also took some time to stand under a waterfall, got out of the water to yell at a couple police officers on the scene, then…

If you’ve ever been to a Dunkin’ location and visited the bathroom, you know you’re probably putting your life into some sort of jeopardy. The things often seen in there weren’t meant for human eyes, but it’s unfortunately something we’ve all had to deal with in our own way. In Winter Park, Florida, one man has perhaps experienced the worst a Dunkin’ bathroom has to offer, as an exploding toilet in one of the chain’s restrooms left him with “severe and long-term injuries,” according to a recently filed lawsuit. The explosion, which happened in January of 2022, left Paul Kerouac,…

If you’ve been out on the road and seen a Jeep in recent years, you’ve probably noticed the army of rubber ducks on its dashboard. Walking through a parking lot, you might feel an army of rubber ducks watching you from all sides, monitoring your every movement. Your eyes don’t deceive you, and you aren’t going crazy. “Duck duck Jeep” is totally a thing, and here’s why. What Is Ducking? The process of “Ducking” is pretty simple: It’s a show of respect between Jeep owners, where one Jeep owner will leave a toy rubber duck on another Jeep owner’s vehicle,…