LUCK o the BLOG

HAPPY GREEN! Here's some shtuff.

JOHN MAYER CANCELS TOUR
Over the weekend, JOHN MAYER announced that he's canceled his spring tour because his vocal cord problems have flared up again. He didn't have any NE Ohio shows, btw. It was a rather small-scale tour, it seemed.

John had surgery in October to remove a granuloma. That's basically an "enlarged nodule".

Then last week, he went to the doctor after, "something didn't feel right in rehearsal." In a post on his website, he added, "A scope of my vocal cords revealed that the granuloma has grown back where it had mostly healed.

"This is bad news. Because of this, I have no choice but to take an indefinite break from live performing...I'm completely bummed, especially for all of you who started making plans to see a show."

John described the problem like this: "A granuloma forms and continues to snowball because it's in a spot where the vocal cords hit together and there's no way to really give it a chance to heal without a good stretch of time and some pretty intensive treatment. In short, it's one giant pain in the ass."

He'll have to have another surgery at some point. His new album "Born and Raised" will still come out on May 22nd, and he's going to use his downtime to begin writing his next album. (You can read his full statement at JohnMayer.com.)

ADELE had the same surgery to repair a vocal cord hemorrhage back in November. She and John have the same throat doctor, but it sounds like their diagnoses aren't quite the same.








BRITNEY/X-FACTOR RUMORS
The BRITNEY SPEARS / "X Factor" rumors are heating up AND cooling down...depending on who you ask. Here's the latest:

E! News and Deadline.com are reporting that Britney has a $10 million offer from SIMON COWELL to be a judge on "X Factor's" second season. However, that might be OLD NEWS.

TheWrap.com claims Britney turned down a $10 million offer three weeks ago...and is holding out for $20 MILLION. The site doesn't think she'll get that, and says Britney has shifted her focus to scoring a residency at a Las Vegas hotel. (Usually artists do that once they've more-or-less retired from recording music. Think Celine Dion)

For what it's worth, E! News stops short of saying Britney rejected $10 million, but says she'd take $16 million.

As outrageous as that seems, it might not be out of the question. "The Voice" is paying CHRISTINA AGUILERA $10 million...and JENNIFER LOPEZ got $12 million from "American Idol" for her first season, and $20 million for this season.

None of this is official yet, and it probably won't be until the two sides are done negotiating. Britney and Simon haven't commented.

Britney would definitely bring the show "star power"...and she has the so-called "X factor" the show is all about. But can she JUDGE?!

Since she isn't exactly known for her actual voice or her ability to recognize talent, is she more legitimate than former judges PAULA ABDUL and NICOLE SCHERZINGER? And it's not like Britney has a lot of experience singing LIVE.

Britney would be a fun mentor, who could say goofy things and teach the contestants about performing and stage presence. But as a judge...









20-MOST ANNOYING THINGS OTHER DRIVERS DO
As you know, everyone's horrible at driving except you. You're perfect. "Consumer Reports" just released the results of a survey where people ranked the 20 most annoying things other drivers do on a scale of one to 10.

And the most annoying behavior is...texting while driving. It got an average score of 8.9 out of 10. That puts it just ahead of able-bodied people parking in handicapped spots, which got an 8.7.

The least annoying thing was the only item on the list connected to the radio, because radio is a fantastic and flawless medium. At least Q92 is. People who crank the volume on their radio too high only averaged a 5.7 out of 10 for annoyingness. So, turn Q92 up!

Here's the full list of the 20 most annoying things other drivers do...

#1.) Texting while driving, 8.9 out of 10.
#2.) Able-bodied drivers parking in handicapped spots, 8.7.
#3.) Tailgating, 8.4.
#4.) Drivers who cut you off, 8.3.
#5.) Speeding and swerving in and out of traffic, 8.2.
#6.) Taking up two parking spaces, 7.7.
#7.) TIE: Talking on the phone while driving...not letting you merge into a lane...and not dimming high beams, 7.6.
#10.) Not using turn signals, 7.5.
#11.) TIE: Slow drivers in the passing lane...and jaywalkers who walk in front of your car, 7.3.
#13.) Excessive horn honking, 7.1.
#14.) Rubbernecking at accidents, 7.0.
#15.) Not turning on lights when it's raining or about to get dark, 6.8.
#16.) Drivers who are indecisive about where to turn, 6.6.
#17.) Slow drivers on a two-lane road who won't pull over, 6.5.
#18.) Not going when the light turns green, 6.1.
#19.) Bicyclists who don't let you by, 5.8.
#20.) Cranking the radio volume, 5.7.








REALLY?
A SHOCKINGLY HIGH number of men admit they've pleasured themselves WHILE DRIVING. How high? Try ONE IN FOUR. I can HONESTLY say...never have.


A new survey found that 24% have had their way with themselves behind the wheel...31% have done it at work...31% have done it at their parents' house...and 10% have done it at a party. Less than half of guys have never done it in any of those four locations.









Y U NO HAVE DOLLAR FRIES?!
So, McDonald's is REALLY playing with fire here.

Before the end of the month, they're removing the $1 small fry and $1 small soda from the DOLLAR MENU, and replacing them with ice cream cones and cookies.

The fries and drinks will move to something new called the "Extra Value Menu" with items over $1...but mostly under $2. It'll have things like snack wraps, double cheeseburgers, and 20-piece McNuggets.

A spokesman said, "Those choices have been available for quite some time, we're just making it easier for customers to find them."

Um. And to make MORE MONEY off of them!










BUT NOT A REAL GREEN DRESS, THAT'S CRUEL
If you're all about '90s music, you're gonna wanna hear this: BARENAKED LADIES are touring with BLUES TRAVELER, CRACKER and BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS this summer.

There are more than 30 dates, beginning July 6th in Toledo!! Here's the full list: http://barenakedladies.com/blog/barenaked-ladies/201203/12-last-summer-earth

It's called "The Last Summer on Earth" tour, and here's why:

Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson says, "I'm a man of science, and therefore put zero stock in all of the disastrous predictions about the year 2012.

"But just in case, I think everybody should come out and see one last great summer concert tour! It can't hurt, right? Here's hoping the Mayans just got tired of chiseling!"








WE'RE SO GLAD IT'S CHRISTMAS VACATION...
There's a new "Vacation" movie in the works. It'll be about an adult Rusty Griswold...the son of CHEVY CHASE and BEVERLY D'ANGELO'S characters, Clark and Ellen Griswold...and his misadventures with his own family.

The filmmakers say there's an opportunity for Chevy and Beverly to make an appearance...and obviously, they're hoping it happens.

They also haven't cast Rusty yet. (But come on...it's GOT to be ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL...who played Rusty in the original "Vacation" back in 1983. How do you NOT do that?)

If it matters to you, the guys who are writing and directing the movie also wrote the screenplay for "Horrible Bosses".








WATCH YOUR POLITICS...
When you post something political on Facebook, believe it or not, you're actually ANNOYING a lot of people. I shouldn't say "actually", I don't find it very surprising.

A new survey found that 73% of people say they either sometimes agree, or NEVER agree with their friends' political posts...meaning you annoy THREE-QUARTERS of your Facebook friends when you start posting about politics.

More than one in 10 have de-friended someone over political posts.








ONLINE DATING IS BAD FOR YOU...MAYBE
Online dating. A great way to have casual sex with a LOT of random people in a short time frame. And that's causing a little problem...

Everyone's getting syphilis. And chlamydia, too.

These stats come from Canada, but they probably translate pretty well down here too. Since 2000...when online dating really started catching on...syphilis cases are up 1,000% (!!!) Chlamydia is up 66%...not quite as much, but still a lot.

One of the biggest causes is all the OLDER PEOPLE who use online dating...and NEVER use condoms. Sure, younger people have STDs too...but older people who are divorced or widowed don't think about disease like young people do apparently.









BRUNO DOES PLAYBOY
BRUNO MARS graces the cover of the April issue of "Playboy" magazine...making him only the 10th man to do so since the magazine was founded almost 60 years ago. And he's in some ELITE company too!

Here are the other nine men who've been on the cover of "Playboy", and the issues they covered...

Peter Sellers, April 1964
Burt Reynolds, October 1979
Steve Martin, January 1980
Donald Trump, March 1990
Dan Aykroyd, August 1993
Jerry Seinfeld, October 1993
Leslie Nielsen, February 1996
Gene Simmons, March 1999
Seth Rogen, April 2009









CHEATER CHEATER
This totally fits the stereotype about how women go after other women: Men punch other men in the mouth...women gossip each other into the ground.

The info comes from the website Cheaterville.com...which is one of the many, many websites that let you out people as cheaters. It's also the website that broke the story about JESSE JAMES cheating on KAT VON D.

Even though, statistically, men have affairs more often than women, 81% of the alleged cheaters who've been outed on Cheaterville are female. And...40% have been outed by OTHER WOMEN.

James McGibney is the founder of Cheaterville. Here's his theory on why women out other women. "I think women who out other women are fed up that they are faithful while their friends are not, and they're disgusted."









FINGER-LICKIN' GOOD...
Man, the people at "U.S. News & World Report" must have a death wish. Because if there's one thing Americans will cut you for, it's telling them their city doesn't have the country's best barbeque.

The people at "U.S. News" ranked America's top seven cities for barbeque, and the list includes some major cities and some smaller ones. Here are their picks. Please try to contain your rage.

#7.) St. Louis, Missouri.
#6.) Nashville, Tennessee.
#5.) Austin, Texas.
#4.) Lexington, North Carolina.
#3.) Kansas City, Missouri.
#2.) Lockhart, Texas.
#1.) Memphis, Tennessee.










SPRING CLEANING
A survey by something called the American Cleaning Institute found that if it wasn't for spring cleaning, one in eight people would NEVER clean their home. Here are the five places people focus on most during spring cleaning:

#1.) Windows: 72% of people make sure they deal with their windows during spring cleaning.

#2.) Blinds and curtains: They're a spring cleaning target for 67% of people.

#3.) A tie, between ceiling fans and carpets: 65% said they clean both in the spring. Which makes sense...because after you dust off your nasty ceiling fan, you'll probably NEED to clean the carpet.

#4.) Closets and drawers: 63% of people go through their clothes to tidy up.








WHAT IS CHEATING, WHAT IS NOT
We think it's worthwhile to know what the majority of people do and don't consider CHEATING. Even though it may be different than the definition of cheating in YOUR relationship, and won't be considered reasonable evidence when you fight.

A researcher at the University of New Brunswick in Canada is working on his psychology thesis and conducted a major survey of people 18 to 67, asking them what they do and don't count as cheating. Here are the results.

CHEATING. Anything involving sexual contact, from kissing to sex. The majority of people also include sexual conversations, sexting, and sending nude photos, even though there's no physical contact.

NOT CHEATING, BUT WORTH FIGHTING ABOUT. Flirting, dancing closely, browsing a dating website, holding hands, and watching a movie alone with someone of the opposite sex at their home aren't cheating, but WILL lead to serious discussions.

NOT CHEATING. The majority of people say that watching porno by yourself, having dinner with someone of the opposite sex, and receiving emotional support from a friend of the opposite sex do not count as cheating.

But if you LIE about doing any of those things...like you have something to hide...THEN they cross the line into requiring a discussion.









WOULD YOU RATHER
Would you rather have another $10,000 in debt...or gain 50 extra pounds?

The results are actually REALLY close. In a new survey, 54% of people say they'd rather take on the extra debt than the extra weight...46% would rather gain the 50 pounds than the $10,000 debt.