ON THIS DAY
On this date in 1838, the U.S. mint in New Orleans began making dimes.
In 1894, New York became the first state to require licenses for dogs.
On this date in 1913, the IRS began collecting income taxes.
In 1972, the Goodyear Blimp flew for the very first time.
Freddie Prinze Jr. turns 34 and these days, appears in "24."
Mickey Dolenz, the drummer from "The Monkees" turns 65 today.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed a U.S. Airways plane last year in the Hudson River, has retired.
- It'll be one and done for Drea de Matteo. One year of playing "Angie" on "Desperate Housewives" is going to be enough. She'll be exiting the show in May, that's all they'll say.
- Eric Dane and wife Rebecca Gayheart are now the proud parents of a baby girl. She arrived last Wednesday.
- The funeral for Marie Osmond's son who committed suicide last week will be held today.
- Amazing Race winners, Cheyne Whitney and Meghan Rickey, who won the 15th season in December, are now engaged.
- Meredith Viera has received a one-year contract extension with the "Today Show."
- Martha Stewart is doing a new show called "Help me, Martha"... where real life people get to have her help in pulling off some kind of domestic crisis.
- Michelle Rodriguez will make another visit to the set of "Lost" one more time before the show finale in May.
- Sex symbol Megan Fox says she's only slept with two different people -- ever. "I can never have sex with someone that I don't love, ever. The idea makes me sick," she told People.
- A new book is coming out that claims Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and Angelina Jolie had quite the torrid affair, starting back in 1997.
A recent survey by ShopSmart magazine finds that 76% of American women enjoy shopping, but one-third say the most stressful part is waiting in checkout lines, followed by 29% stressed by interacting with salespeople. The average woman, says the report, spends 385 hours annually shopping. The ShopSmart Opinion Poll found that:
- 87% of the female shoppers agreed that getting the best price was the most important thing to them
- 25% would rather save time than save money
- The most popular common non-grocery product purchased over the past three months by 95% of women was clothing (77%), shoes (58%), cosmetics (56%) and vitamins or supplements (52%).
- 57% of American women find the best bargains at discount department stores like Wal-Mart and Target, while only 17% felt that the best deals were to be had on the web.
- 56% of the shoppers said that price is least important when purchasing lingerie
- 55% said sporting goods, 53% said auto repair and vitamins or supplements,
- 51% thought that price was least important for cosmetics.
- However, 72% of women said that price is key when purchasing clothing/groceries, 70% said travel, and 69% said house wares/small appliances.
Shoppers relied mostly on friends and family (45%) as trusted sources for shopping and products to avoid buyer's remorse, while the least trusted sources of shopping advice were sales people (39%), and advertising (31%).
If you're too sleepy for sex, you're not alone. When asked in a poll NBC's "Today Show" and Zogby International how often they would rather sleep than have sex, 44% chose sleep at least some of the time with 8% choosing it always. All of which is not particularly surprising after the poll also revealed that nearly half of us don't get enough sleep and roughly 25% get fewer than six hours a night. It's been headed this way for more than two decades, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. We work and play equally hard, leaving less time for rest.
Oooh! Flip flops may be comfortable, colorful and contaminated with bacteria! Yes, and that includes the potentially deadly germ Staphylococcus aureus. If it seeps into your skin via a cut, Staphylococcus aureus can enter the bloodstream, making you very sick or even kill you if left untreated.
Do you heed expiration dates on the food in your cabinets and fridge? A Slate.com poll finds:
- Yes, I'm vigilant (43%)
- Sometimes I forget (26%)
- No, I totally ignore them (31%)
If your lover is sending e-mails or instant messages late at night and revealing intimate details about love, life and work, chances are he or she is betraying you. That's the word from psychologists at Scotland's Glamorgan University. They discovered that the top indicator of a virtual affair is sending those type of messages late at night.
When it comes to their hair, more than two-thirds of women prefer it to be straight rather than curly reports Britain's Daily Mail of a poll of 2,500 women. The recent poll also found that the hair color most women prefer is brunette (43%) followed by blonde (33%) and red (12%). And get this, the average woman plunks down almost $70,000 in her lifetime on hair products, styling and coloring, as well as just under two years of her life washing, styling, cutting, coloring, crimping and straightening her hair at home and in salons. In a single day, the typical woman spends about 40 minutes on her hair.
