Fakir Audingas

What day is it?

Tuesday is National Lollipop Day, according to those suckers at the National Confectioners Association.

Speaking of sweets

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark say employees who do their work on computers consume an average of 230 more calories per day than their non-computer-using counterparts. The explanation? That computer work somehow makes users crave more sweets. Great. First there aren’t enough jobs. Now they need to come with warning labels.

Word of the day

‘Refudiate’

Malapropism used by Sarah Palin, first last week on Fox News and then again Sunday on Twitter — “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.” After some uproar from pesky linguists, the Tweet was removed and resent with “refute” in its place, followed by another in which Palin compared herself to Shakespeare. And, while still not entirely correct in context, “refute” is at least a real word.

Dis-Honest-Tea

Last week we told you of the unattended Honest Tea stand, set up by the tea-maker to test the honesty of various cities’ residents. Chicago, fail. Lagging well behind Boston (93.3 percent), New York and Atlanta (both 89 percent), only 78 percent of Windy City tea-drinkers paid. Clearly, it’s not just our governors.

The number

500 million

Total users that online social network Facebook is expected to surpass this week, a number achieved in roughly 6 1/2 years.