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How about a bunch of carrot sticks, or pre-peeled baby carrots, celery sticks, bell peppers cut into strips and some hummus. You can find good hummus at Whole Foods, and surprisingly, the Sam's near me has a really good one. Not everyone likes it, but it's one of my favorite snacks. You can also get pita chips and some baguette bread cut up into small slices to serve it with as well. Add some calamata olives and some bruschetta topping, which is roasted peppers in olive oil, and I think you'll have a hit that is not just the same old same old.

Meat consumption usually means beef, pork, or chicken. Mutton and venison are common also. My favorite Indian restaurant avoids both beef and pork for religious reasons, but sometimes offers goat as an alternative to chicken. In the past few years, rising food prices and concerns about the environment are leading people to try new and different sources of meat. Here are five you may have never thought about.

Raccoon meat is cheap if you know of a local trapper. In Kansas City, raccoons go for $3-7 dollars each, and a whole animal will feed five adults. Preparing raccoon meat isn�t easy or quick. Frozen meat must be thawed, then parboiled, then stewed. The cooking time is measured in hours, but those who have tried it love the taste. That is, if you can get past thinking of raccoons as vermin, roadkill, or cute little masked bandits. You�ll find one reminder: trappers remove the head and three paws, but leave one paw behind to prove the animal is not a dog or cat.

Camel meat is quite common in the Middle East, and is reportedly quite tasty. Australians are now encouraged to try camel meat as the continent�s million-plus wild camel population is growing out of control. Camels are destroying the delicate ecosystem of the desert, and they burp huge amounts of greenhouse gasses into the air. You can find camel recipes if you look, but beware that some recipes are more serious than others.

Eating squirrel is nothing new in America. Just a few years ago, advice came from the University of Kentucky that people should not eat squirrel brains because they may contain a variant of Mad Cow Disease. The rest of the squirrel is fine, if a little stringy. Now squirrel meat is being promoted in Britain due to an overpopulation of gray squirrels. The American invaders are edging out the native red squirrels. Brits who resisted squirrel meat for centuries are now patting themselves on the back as they eat gray squirrel and do their part for the balance of nature. You�ll find plenty of recipes for squirrel online.

Yattle is the name given to a crossbreed of yaks and cattle. Yak meat has less fat than beef, because yak fat is near the skin, where it helps keep the cold-climate animal warm, whereas beef cattle distribute their fat throughout the meat. First-generation yattle are the result of mating between a yak and a cow or bull. Male yattle are sterile, but females can breed with bulls, resulting in a 25% yak ancestry for second-generation yattle. Yaks, and yattle, consume less food than cattle, and produce valuable fiber to make sweaters. Yattle meat is supposedly indistinguishable from yak meat.

Kangaroos are both plentiful and meaty, with a low percentage of fat compared to beef. They are also less damaging to the environment than cattle. However, kangaroo meat is slow to catch on in Australia. After all, most nations don�t eat their national symbol! Some European countries consume more kangaroo meat per capita than Australia, possibly because of Mad Cow Disease fears. Environmental groups encourage people to eat kangaroo because the animals do not burp or fart and therefore do not add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere -strangely the opposite reason people are encouraged to eat camel meat. Kangaroo meat is used in sausages, stews, steaks, burgers, and sandwiches.

www.healthmad.com/Men's-Health/Circumcision-of-Males-in-America-and-How-it-is-Viewed-by-American-Women.541911

Apparently women are responsible for infant male circ's? Well, perhaps they are - perhaps they aren't - but what is so wrong in circ'g. Isn't that recommended by docs??

The Meaning of R.S.V.P.

Let's Clear Up the Confusion

I hope that this week's tip will benefit hosts and guests alike, because there seems to be a lot of confusion about the meaning of the above term.

Lack of RSVP's - A Growing Problem

I hear more and more often, and have found in my personal experience, that hosts often do not receive firm indications whether guests plan to attend their parties, even if R.S.V.P. is clearly printed on the invitation. This could mean either one of two things. First it could mean that rudeness is a growing trend in our society. Or, as I would prefer to believe, people no longer understand what the term means. Assuming the best, and that the decline in R.S.V.P.'s can be attributed to ignorance and not rudeness, I will clarify this for the record.

What RSVP Means

The term R.S.V.P. comes from the French expression "r�pondez s'il vous pla�t", meaning "please respond". If R.S.V.P. is written on an invitation it means the invited guest must tell the host whether or not they plan to attend the party. It does not mean to respond only if you're coming, and it does not mean respond only if you're not coming (the expression "regrets only" is reserved for that instance). It means the host needs a definite head count for the planned event, and needs it by the date specified on the invitation.

Why It's Inconsiderate to Not RSVP

An incomplete list of respondents can cause numerous problems for a host including difficulty in planning food quantities, issues relating to minimum guarantees with catering halls, uncertainty over the number of party favors and difficulties in planning appropriate seating, among other things.

So the next time you see R.S.V.P. on an invitation you receive, please call your host and respond promptly.

I read this a short time ago and thought it was interesting: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/VictoriasSecretBossWereTooSexy.aspx?page=all

Ford says CEO will work for $1 to get loans

The Meaning of R.S.V.P.

Let's Clear Up the Confusion

I hope that this week's tip will benefit hosts and guests alike, because there seems to be a lot of confusion about the meaning of the above term.

Lack of RSVP's - A Growing Problem

What RSVP Means

Why It's Inconsiderate to Not RSVP

So the next time you see R.S.V.P. on an invitation you receive, please call your host and respond promptly.

Wal-Mart: We're not afraid to say Merry Christmas

No. 1 retailer has decided to abandon its generic 'Happy Holidays' greeting in favor of 'Merry Christmas.'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart has told its employees that it's OK to once again greet shoppers by saying "Merry Christmas" this holiday season instead of the generic "Happy Holidays."

CNN confirmed that Wal-Mart will announce Thursday that it plans to use the phrase "Merry Christmas" in products and around its stores this holiday season.

The announcement comes a year after religious groups such as The American Family Association and The Catholic League boycotted retailers including Wal-Mart last holiday season for excluding the word "Christmas" from products sold in stores.

"We, quite frankly, have learned a lesson from last year," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Linda Blakley told USA Today in a separate report. "We're not afraid to use the term 'Merry Christmas.' We'll use it early, and we'll use it often."

Besides resurrecting its Christmas pitch, the retailer is also determined to be the leader in this year's holiday price wars.

The November-December holiday shopping period is a critical time for merchants since it can account for as much as 50 percent of their profits and sales.

To that end, Wal-Mart was the first out of the gate to chop prices on toys and electronics much ahead of its competitors like Target (Charts), Toys 'R Us, Costco (Charts) and others.

To support its Christmas deals, the report said Wal-Mart will launch TV ads next week that trumpet "Christmas." It's changing the name of its seasonal decorations department to "The Christmas Shop" from "The Holiday Shop."

Moreover, Wal-Mart stores will play Christmas carols throughout the holiday period and about 60 percent more merchandise will be labeled as "Christmas" rather than "holiday" items, the paper said.