I love a good sandwich. I mean, it’s nature’s perfect meal, right? So I was drawn to this article in Esquire purporting to have done the research and determined which were the very best and where we could enjoy them. So here, unranked, unimpeachable and incomplete, is Esquire’s coast-to-coast list of the finest meals on sliced bread. No burgers allowed. Sadly, none of the recommendations are in my local area… except one:

You can get a chicken sandwich anywhere, which may explain your low expectations. Boneless breast. Bun. Blah. But down south, there lives an eye-opener. A come-to-Jesus sandwich. The Chick-fil-A. Seasoned, breaded breast served on a toasted buttered bun with dill-pickle slices. No mayo. No sauce at all. Deceptively simple, yet transcendent. The hook is the breading: spicy, with an intoxicating crunch. The meat is always juicy, never chewy. The bun is like lingerie — there, but not, providing delicious support without obscuring the main flavor. The first bite changes everything you think you know about chicken. And about the need for condiments.

Check the Esquire website for the rest. Included are the Cuban Meat Sandwich at Paseo in Seattle, the Italian Beef at Al’s #1 Italian Beef in Chicago, and the Cubano at Latin America Cafeteria in Miami.

Hungry now? Me too!

Here’s your chance, music lovers, to own the purported “world’s largest record collection” — more than 6 million songs on 3 million records and 300,000 compact discs — being auctioned on eBay with a minimum reserve bid of $3 million.

Paul Mawhinney, the Pittsburgh-based publisher of the Music Master record price guide, started the collection about 50 years ago with a Frankie Lane record. His plan hit a rough patch as the collection passed the 160,000 mark: His wife told him that either he had to go or the records did. He stayed, and the records went into a climate-controlled warehouse.

Mawhinney is seeking a buyer such as “a museum, library, university or charitable foundation” that can keep the whole collection together, saying that “cleverly arranged and displayed, and surrounded by additional cultural memorabilia, the collection could even become a tourist attraction.” That could be especially true in 10 years or so, when only hard-core music fans listen to physical music formats.

More on Mawhinney’s website.

Forever in search of the secrets to entrepreneurial success, the editors at Forbes peeked into the inspirational lives of five whiz kids who built million-dollar enterprises before the age of 20. While their peers were out making trouble, these young achievers were making bank.

The five teen millionaire entrepreneurs partnered with friends, siblings and mentors, or did the work on their own. Three are from the U.S., two from the U.K. All started at age 15 or younger—and one before he broke double digits. Their common thread? Preternatural business sense and demon drive to turn ideas into reality.

It’s an inspiring article that proves the point: Anyone can do it. You’re too old, you say? Not so! There’s no rule that says you have to be a teen to succeed! This article describes, in words and pictures, exactly how these young entrepreneurs took their ideas and turned them into success. It’s a good read!

If you think iPods are just for listening to music, you haven’t been keeping up with technology. The Apple-developed music player features all manner of accessories to help you study and developers are rushing to adapt their offerings to the ubiquitous device. Pre-teens to adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them, from downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications. Learning on the go has never been easier.

To help you discover the myriad ways to transform your iPod into a learning device, The iPod Hacker has compiled a list of 100 ways to use your iPod for education. Pretty impressive for what appears to be a first post on a new site!

Movie audiences gasped when Roger Moore’s 007 took his white Lotus Esprit for a surprise dip to evade the enemy in the film The Spy Who Loved Me. The famous scene, shot using a model, triggered the imagination of countless gadget-lovers, who wondered if such a car could be made.

Well, it can and it has been. Rinspeed will present its new sQuba, the worlds first diving car, at the Geneva Motor Show March 6-16. The car is not only able to drive on roads autonomously (without a driver, passenger or further assistance) with a push of a button, it can also transform into an amphibious vehicle which can be submerged in water up to 33 feet (10 meters). An electric motor with powerful torque drives the rear wheels, while the propulsion on the water is ensured by two propellers in the stern and two powerful jet drives in the bow propelling the vehicle under water while diving. When underwater, the driver and passenger are enclosed in the vehicle thanks to light weight body components made of futuristic Carbon Nano Tubes and are supplied with fresh breathing air by the self-contained on-board system.

Q would have been proud - 30 years after James Bond disappeared under the waves in his specially adapted Lotus, car designers have done it for real! More…

The Pentagon announced Thursday that a Navy warship has been tasked with shooting down a failing United States spy satellite that, if left alone, was expected to hit Earth within weeks.

In a joint news conference, NASA administrator Michael Griffin and Gen. James Cartwright, the No. 2 officer at the Defense Department, announced that an SM-3 missile, designed to hit inbound ballistic missiles, will be fired from a Navy cruiser or destroyer as early as this Thursday to obliterate the inbound spacecraft. The idea is to break apart the satellite to rid it of toxic fuel onboard by smashing its tank, which is the largest intact piece left. If successful, it would be the first direct U.S. test against a satellite since 1985, when an F-15 climbed to 80,000 ft. to fire a three-stage missile at a defunct solar-monitoring platform in low-Earth orbit. More…

The odds were in favor of the satellite crashing in the ocean after losing much of its sensitive equipment during reentry. Perhaps the chance to use our ballistic defenses against a real-life target was just too good to pass up.

Today is Presidents Day, at least in California. It falls, awkward and confusing, on the federal holiday designated by our federal government as Washington’s Birthday. And when I talk to friends and relatives around the country, I’m always reminded what a blurry and diminished holiday it has become. Here’s why.

Presidents Day (or Presidents’ Day), is a commonly used but erroneous name for the federal holiday officially designated as Washington’s Birthday. It is also the official name of a concurrent state holiday celebrated on the same day in a small number of states on the third Monday of February. To further muddy the water, some states call it “Washington’s and Lincoln’s Day” and other variations. Some spell it “Presidents” Day, some spell it “Presidents’” Day.

As the official title of the federal holiday, Washington’s Birthday was originally implemented by the federal government of the United States in 1880 in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices. As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday, February 22. But on January 1, 1971 the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an ill conceived idea in my opinion that created long weekends but significantly diminished the meaning and significance of the affected holidays. Adding another layer of confusion, a draft of the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 would have renamed the holiday to Presidents’ Day to honor both Washington and Lincoln, but this proposal failed in committee and the bill, as voted on and signed into law on June 28, 1968, simply moved Washington’s Birthday.

In the late 1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term Presidents Day began its public appearance. The theme has expanded the focus of the holiday to honor another President born in February, Abraham Lincoln, and often other Presidents of the United States. Although Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents Day”, “Washington and Lincoln Day”, or various similar designations.

But, at least from my perspective, today honors only George Washington. It is, and should continue to be, the day we honor the accomplishments of the man who has been referred to, for over two centuries, as “The Father of his Country”. Celebrated for his leadership in the founding of the nation, he was the Electoral College’s unanimous choice to become the first President. He was seen as a unifying force for the new republic and set an example for future holders of the office.

The federal holiday is also a tribute to the general who created the first military badge of merit for the common soldier. Revived on Washington’s 200th birthday in 1932, the Purple Heart recognizes injuries received in battle. In 2007, the country celebrated both Washington’s 275th birthday and the 75th anniversary of the rebirth of the Purple Heart medal.

Since 1862, there has been a tradition in the United States Senate that George Washington’s Farewell Address be read on his birthday. Citizens had asked that this be done in light of the approaching Civil War. The annual tradition continues with the reading of the address on or near Washington’s Birthday. For many, the revisiting of Washington’s Birthday is a strong reminder of the many contributions made by a great man to the early republic.

And so with that said, I’ll be taking the rest of the day off. Enjoy the holiday and we’ll see you tomorrow!

This is a particularly interesting self-portrait, in part because it was taken by an astronaut of himself in space, but even more so because of the reflection in the glass of his helmet. Visible in the image, working in from the outer borders, are the edges of the reflecting helmet of a space suit, modules of the International Space Station (ISS), the Earth, the arms of Expedition 15 astronaut Clay Anderson, and the digital camera used to snap the image. This picture was taken during the shuttle orbiter Endeavour’s mission to expand the space station last August.

In his January 31 post, Kevin Kelly writes:

(There) are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them “generatives.” A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.

He goes on to explain these eight generatives — immediacy, personalization, interpretation, authenticity, accessibility, embodiment, patronage, and findability — building blocks of new products and services that are required reading for anyone who creates products or offers services in today’s digital economy.

You can read more at Kevin’s site.

Thanks Mike!

Claire sent this after my post earlier today about the Valentine’s Pig with heart-shaped markings. (Click each thumbnail to enlarge.)

This cute little long-haired Chihuahua, named “Heart-kun”, was born in May in Odate, northern Japan, with this heart shaped pattern in his coat. Shop owner Emiko Sakurada said that, of a thousand she has bred, this was the first marked with a heart. And before you ask, she says she has no plans to sell him.

It must be a sign that this is going to be a very “special” year!

Sometimes, guys, even the best laid plans for a perfect romantic evening fall flat…

The first known association of Valentine’s Day with romantic love is in 1382’s “Parlement of Foules” by Geoffrey Chaucer, but the earliest origins of the holiday can be found hundreds of years earlier. The date was likely named in honor of a priest who was clubbed, stoned and then beheaded in the 3rd century for marrying young couples in contravention of Claudius II’s edict forbidding marriage. Hardly the sort of cheery story one might expect for the origin of a holiday devoted to romance and love!

Although we still celebrate it today, Saint Valentine was actually removed from the calendar of celebrated saints’ days in 1969 – perhaps due to the array of “unfortunate” events that have occurred on the date throughout history. Weddingpaperdivas wants us to be aware of the “darker” side of the holiday, offering their list of the 14 most unsavory events in the history of Valentine’s Day. Continue reading…

Is this cute or what? The 13-day-old Gloucester Old Spot piglet christened “Valentine” - what else? - is one of a litter of seven born at Byford’s Farm in Taynton, near Newent, Glos. Story

Dawn told me about this yesterday. She’d heard the song clip on one of our morning drive time talk shows and couldn’t wait to share it with me.

Now, I wasn’t familiar with Sarah Silverman (I don’t mean that figuratively) but she’s apparently got a show on Comedy Central and is appearing this month in Las Vegas. The shorter song video clip has gone viral since her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s January 31 five-year anniversary TV show, but because I thought she was so funny, I’m posting the longer version which includes her intro. Enjoy!