Herding Cats: Our Favorite Savings Stories for the Week of January 3rd

Welcome to our first roundup of the new year! Just to warn you, one of my picks is kind of gross/disturbing and one of them devolves into a rant that you probably won't be able to relate to.

Apologies!

The Big Money: How Does Feces Get Into Soda Fountains? - Let's just get the bad news out of the way first: half of the fast-food restaurant fountain machines in a recent study were infected with fecal coliform bacteria. Delicious. I definitely enjoyed a small drink from Jack-in-the-Box on my drive up to Santa Monica this morning. But since the researchers only tested 90 beverages from 30 different machines, I'm going to go ahead and deploy the trusty "small sample size" denial method. My stomach feels better already!

Consumerist: South Carolina Cops Rewarding Seatbelted Drivers With Chick-Fil-A Coupons - More fast food-related news! One of my good friends is living the bachelor's life in downtown Charleston, SC until he starts law school in August, and I posted this on his wall the second I read it. His response: "You really do not understand how good Chick-Fil-A is though. SO GOOD. I'd wear two belts." If they did this in California, would our cops give out In-N-Out coupons? People might start duct-taping themselves into the driver's seat.

WiseBread: Watch All The Documentary Movies You Can Handle, Free Online - It always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to suggest ways of absorbing entertainment media that don't involve piracy. I counted 172 titles available on this site. One that's not on the list: "Dear Jack," a film made by Andrew McMahon, lead singer of two of my favorite bands (Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin), that documents his battle with leukemia in 2005. If you have the opportunity to watch it for free--don't! All the DVD sales go straight to his cancer research foundation.

LifeHacker: Vacuum-Seal Your Electronics For Temporary Protection - This is a pretty cool idea if you know you're going to be out all night drinking or something, but that's not what got me excited. One of the commenters realized that because we now have inductive-charging, wireless-syncing, and Bluetooth, the door is wide open for a waterproof smartphone. The day I can go swimming with my brand new iPhone 4G, will truly be the future.

WalletPop: Debit Card Debate... Use A PIN Or Sign? Either Way It Will Cost You - The fact that Bank of America hits the jackpot every time I use my debit card makes my stomach turn. If I didn't hate carrying cash so much I'd probably shove the thing into a paper shredder. But alas, it looks like they'll continue to profit from my expenditures...for laziness and impatience shall always trump my hatred of banks.

SmartMoney: 10 Things The NFL Won't Tell You - I picked this one a few hours ago, back when the world was happy and joyful and the future was bright. Since then it's been announced that Pete Carroll is leaving USC to coach the Seattle Seahawks. Looks like I'll be stuck at work for a while because Los Angeles freeways will be clogged with our prized high school recruits trying to get as far away from the Coliseum as possible! Haha! Wow. Football is dead to me.

Hopefully you're off to a better start in 2010 than USC's athletic programs, which is definitely not saying much. Until next week, keeping wearing that seat belt and quit using your debit card!