Dark Chocolate?

TASTING PANEL
We tasted chocolate - so you don't have to


The Times Tasting Panel met recently to evaluate chocolate -- with the aim of finding chocolate bars that would be great both for baking and eating. We picked up everything we could get our hands on (the one criterion was that the chocolate have 70% to 75% cacao content): stalwarts such as Valrhona and Scharffen Berger, organic chocolate such as Dagoba and Green & Black's, newer brands such as Chocovic and Theo, and supermarket stock such as Ghirardelli. Joining me on the panel were restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila, Food editor Leslie Brenner, columnist Russ Parsons and staff writers Amy Scattergood and Charles Perry.

In all, we tried 23 chocolate bars. Some have been excluded from the following list; if there were two different bars from the same chocolate maker (for example, Chocovic's "Ocumare" and "Guaranda"), the one that panelists preferred is listed. Prices are included, but they can vary widely from retailer to retailer.

I have to disagree with this review of dark chocolate. I am a big fan of chocolate from white to milk and even dark but this reviewer claimed that all 23 dark chocolate bars they tried were delightfully surprising. Meaning they enjoyed each and every one they tried. This I don’t agree with. I have tasted a few of the chocolate bars in their sample and I must say that some of them tasted like dirt. Although I did agree with some of their opinions, most of them seemed bogus because they chocolate bars they found surprisingly good I found disturbingly disgusting.

Narrative Story - Naughty & Nice

Naughty and Nice

This story is about a very interesting ballerina named Melissa Barak. It describes the path she took as a dancer. It tells how her differences led her to become the success that she is today. She brings burlesque into her ballet, which is the main interest of this article. She is now a performer and choreographer for the Los Angeles Ballet.

Gas Price Editorial

Over the past year gas prices have soared and are continuing the trend.

Recent reports state that gasoline is up to $99 a barrel and they don’t plan on coming down any time soon. This is a catastrophe beyond words. Especially during a season of holidays and traveling.

Must we all buy fuel efficient and electric cars to survive? Is that our only option? Even the Toyota Prius, which is rated one of the top fuel-efficient vehicles of 2008, costs about $33.00 to fill up. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t seem to be enough for me. When I bought my Honda I was told that it would get great gas mileage but that doesn’t mean much when it costs me about $50.00 to fill up the tank.

We’ve tried the boycott days when people aren’t supposed to get gas but ultimately that doesn’t work because we just end up going to the gas station for a fill up the day before or even the day after. Oil companies still make their money and it’s costing us a fortune.

Traffic doesn’t help us at all either. We all know how congested the 405 freeway can get. My question is, where are all these people going and why cant they just carpool?

In my opinion gas stations will continue raising their prices as long as we continue pumping gas. The problem is that we need our gas and there is nothing we can do to change that.
The best solution to this long awaited problem is carpooling. That’s really all we can do. Save money, buy less gas, and waste less oil. Once the oil companies profits begin to feel the pain of lower sales, they will have no choice but to lower their price per barrel which will ultimately lower our price per gallon, which can I mention is up to $3.50 in Los Angeles.

Public Documents Online

1.) I went to lacity.org and typed in agenda staff reports in the search section. Then I pressed the link to the PDF file. Here is the staff report: Click Here

2.) I did a google search of the United States General Accounting Office and found the link, www.gao.gov. Right there on the front page of the website were a list of reports. Here is one I found interesting: Click Here

3.) This time I did a yahoo search and the first item listed was a PDF file of the California Public Records act: Click Here

Sheila Kelley's S Factor

The most amazing workout I have ever done was when I took an intro class at Sheila Kelley's S Factor in Encino, Ca. This was more of a fun hobby than an exercise mechanism. I really and truly recommend that all women try this at least once. However, I must warn that you could get addicted and classes are definitely not cheap. This is a two-hour class that entails, yoga, palates, aerobics and most importantly pole dancing. Do not call this a stripping class because that is exactly what it is not! Its just a really fun and innovative way to get your body moving. I honestly felt muscles that I didn’t even know I had. I was extremely sore for a whole week after and still couldn’t wait for my next class. Here is the link for more information on the fabulous S Factor.

Internet Treasure Hunt

1. California Assembly Bill (AB 381) is for Medi-Cal provider reimbursement
http://www.totalcapitol.com/?people_id=438

2. 2007 effort to recall L.A. Councilman Jack Weiss has raised $68,355
http://ethics.lacity.org/efs/public_2007RecallEffort.cfm

3. The movie "The day the earth caught on fire" was release in 1961 and directed by Val Guest
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054790/

4. Expert on Water Rationing
http://www.highbeam.com/about/contact.hbr

5. Southern California's Median Age
http://www.scag.ca.gov/publications/pdf/2006/SOTR06/SOTR06_Population.pdf

www.TheSuperficial.com

One of my favorite blogs is thesuperficial.com

Its a celebrity blog, that dishes out all the dirt on celebs. Its full of great pics and its a hilarious read. The blogger really doesn't sugar coat anything and says all the things that the media wishes they could about some of the craziest celebrities.

Here is the Link.

It's pure comedy, and although most of his punchlines are untrue, the pictures are all real. It's fun to let your imagination run wild sometimes, even if its at Paris Hilton's expense. The blogger even writes the funniest headlines to each of his blogs. I just cant get enough of this stuff!

Here are some recent posts:

Britney Spears slept through drug test – twice

Part of the reason Britney Spears lost her kids is because she failed to follow the judge’s instructions and take a drug test. But why did she skip those tests? Was she negotiating world peace? Reading to her kids? Aw, no, wait, she was sleeping. Hey, it’s hard work letting nannies watch your kids while you drink Frappucinos. E! Online reports:
Sources close to the proceedings told the Los Angeles Times that Spears' assistant twice informed the testing lab that her boss was asleep and then on another occasion told the technicians that Spears would be unavailable to take a test at home.
I catch a lot of flack for the Britney loves fast food comments. But, seriously, at this point I’m just trying to help. Had somebody took Britney’s hand and offered to take her to Carl Jr.’s if she peed in a cup, all of this could’ve been avoided. She probably would’ve filled a bathtub if you threw in a trip to the DQ. The woman has a weakness for fast food. She loves it more than her kids. Use her weakness for good. Train her. Mold her. Or you can just sit there and let Britney make a music video (above) where she pretends to be a stripper. Except no one has the heart to tell Britney she’s the type of stripper that makes a guy get up and leave - because his penis is crying.
NOTE: Above is Britney Spears' new music video for Gimme More. So either 'you're welcome' or 'I'm sorry.' I can't figure out which is appropriate here.


Charlie Sheen may have some issues, just a few

Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards are in the middle of a heated custody battle. Denise recently filed some documents regarding Charlie’s behavior which Page Six got their hands on:
Pictures of Sheen's "erect penis" that Richards says he used for his profile on sex sites are also included, which Richards claims he e-mailed to "approximately 30 women."
"I'd love to give it to you any time," Sheen wrote to one woman under the screen name "mrjonze55."
Richards says Sheen even visited gay pornography sites - "which I found even more disturbing because I felt that the boys looked underage.”
Charlie is also very adamant about breast-feeding:
Richards accuses Sheen of punching the headboard of their bed once in a rage, and telling her that by no longer breast-feeding, she was causing their daughter, Sam, to "become retarded."
"He took a large wedding photo off the wall. He had it placed in our garage. He sawed the picture in half and took spray paint and sprayed 'the dumbest day of my life.’”
Charlie Sheen tore his wedding picture in half and wrote “the dumbest day of my life” on it. That is freaking hilarious. Oh, it’s disturbed, but, seriously, who does that? Outside of a five-year-old? I can just see him arguing in court: “Your honor, my ex-wife Denise doesn’t deserve to have custody of the kids, because, well, she’s just a big poop-head. Also she’s super-retarded.” Honestly, Charlie Sheen should be a lawyer. He’d win every case. You just can’t compete with this level of word-play.