Yesterday’s seemingly innocuous gas rant somehow morphed into the blog equivalent of the McLaughlin Group. While I’m flattered to host such politically informed opinions on this blog, I knew I wasn’t fast-witted enough to contribute.

So I thought I’d pass along some money-saving info instead.

Go to this site and enter your zip code. It’ll give you the current prices from all the gas stations in your area, ranked from cheapest to most expensive. Best of all, it’s updated every evening.

Because…like a good neighbor, nicoleMART is there.

SERIOUSLY?

I’m THIS close to busting out the Big Wheel and foot-powering my way to work. Dude, shelling out $100 for a tank of fuel?? It’s a miracle that matters haven’t turned violent yet!

DISCLAIMER: I’m not necessarily ENCOURAGING anyone to take the gas pump into their own hands. So I don’t want any angry messages from station owners or police officers crowding my inbox.

I’ll admit, though, I admire the following fools for their ingenuity…

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Thieves Reprogram Pumps To Steal Gas
Police: Gas Station Owners Were Left Unaware

BALTIMORE — Two Baltimore area gas stations lost gas and money after thieves got a hold of a master key to reprogram the pumps to steal gas. The gas station owners said the reprogramming was done in such a way that the transactions didn’t register inside the station so the owners had no idea that the gas was gone until they got their weekly totals.

At one of the stations, Riaz Ahmid, the owner, said over 2,800 gallons of gas was stolen costing about $9,000. And at a BP Station on Russell Street, the owner, Majid Hussain, said about 900 gallons was taken valued at about $2,700.

And witnesses said at one of the stations, a person was seen standing at the altered pump collecting money from people. The owners also had to incur additional costs to change the lock system on the pumps and upgrade their security systems.

Baltimore City police said no one was caught in either case and the owners don’t know if it’s the same person or people involved. They also said it may be difficult to track down the people responsible for pumping the gas or the people who bought the gas illegally.

Copyright 2006 by nbc4.com

Tons of work + complete lack of originality = hella boring.

Since I won’t get the chance to sit down and author a respectable post today, I thought I’d give you something fun to do for a couple of seconds. After you’re done, all I need to know is whether you passed or failed the following vision test.

Tip: If you cannot decipher anything, try pulling the corner of your eyes.

Okay, maybe just a little.

The final Man List is rather, er, INTRIGUING to say the least. Some of the additions were surprising but even more so were the retractions. But hey, beauty (or the lack thereof) is in the eye of the beholder.

Well then, behold your new and improved nicoleMART 100: Man Edition. Let me know if I overlooked any changes that should have been made — I did my best!

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Remember last week when I posted the questionably official list of the 100 Unsexiest Men in the World? We all found flaws in that list — it included Osama Bin Laden but didn’t include Tom Cruise — so it’s obviously not definitive.

Well, I’ve got a solution to this societally crippling problem: we’ll create our own list.

It’ll operate ALMOST (but not quite) like a Wikipedia article where users are able to make changes to the content. I’ll start off with a basic, alphabetical list of 100 unpretty, male celebs and you guys can make edits in the comments section. I’ll close off comments at midnight tonight (just like we do with Furious Five entries) and tomorrow I’ll post the new list so we can compare it to the original. Likey?

Oh, and it would be helpful if your suggestions consisted of statements like “remove Adam Brody and add Oral Roberts” or “substitute Tom Clancy for Stephen King.” (No, RW, you don’t have to literally change THESE names around. Just try to make your directions pretty clear because I’m slow in the head.)

And, if you can, try and keep this list focused on well known and relatively “current” celebrities. We’re pretty up-to-the-minute here on nicoleMART(tm).

Big ups to: Tara, Cara, Cristina, Lakisha and Jennifer for helping me come up with the starter list.

So lets get crackin’!

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I can’t wait to see where this goes by the end of the day…