The Daily Valet. - 4/27/23, Thursday
✔️ Priming the Pump
Thursday, April 27th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
What’s your least favorite food? Personally, I hate celery. Just can’t eat it.
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Today’s Big Story
Summertime Gas Prices
The pumps May Have Already Seen Their Summer Peak, New Analysis Shows
I was today years old ... when I learned that we have a different blend of gasoline for the summer. It turns out, gas has a greater chance of evaporating from cars during the warmer months of summer, which can create smog and exhaust. So in 1990, Congress amended the Clean Air Act to require an annual switch to summer-blend gas.Now, the EPA requires petroleum refiners to reduce the “vapor pressure” of gas during the summer. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told Axios that “this type of gasoline is required in the warmer months because it helps or contributes to less low-level ozone.”There are different blends of summer gasoline and it depends where you live on the kind you'll find at the pump. Larger cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have a more stringent type called reformulated summer gasoline, De Haan said. But those cleaner components, “things that are better for the environment are often slightly more expensive.”But OPEC's unexpected production cuts earlier this month also caused the price of gas to go up recently. The average cost for a gallon of regular gas is up 21 cents from just one month ago, North American analysts are reporting, but 46.4 cents lower than a year ago. The good news is that the worst of it might be behind us. De Haan also spoke with Yahoo Finance and said that gas prices typically peak in May and June, but since the oil market is weakening, we may have already seen the summer peak in prices. So bring on those summer road trips.
Meanwhile:
Here’s why gas prices jumped 15 cents in Florida and nowhere else, according to AAA.
Would You Eat It?
An online quiz reveals an awful lot about how we think about other people's food habits
Call it the Myers-Briggs for your stomach. An online test that aims to tell you your level of tolerance for food-related triggers that can cause disgust is getting a lot of attention and ping-ponging around the internet. Have you tried it yet?What about bread that had some mold cut off—would you try that? Essentially, this test tells you how grossed out you are by certain foods and food-related situations, using eight categories to do so: animal flesh, hygiene, human contaminants, mold, fruit, fish, vegetables and insect contaminants.Are you okay handling raw meat? Eating raw seafood? Do you let your friends eat off your fork? What if your water glass had some gunk in it? According to Food & Wine, this isn't really about yucking anyone's yum, but rather about getting to know yourself a little better (and maybe even uncovering some long-forgotten childhood trauma). Fun!
My Results:
I took the test and found out my “food disgust is very low” (18%), and dealt mostly with “hygiene”.
Partner
Treat Mom to something that elevates her everyday experience. An item that's meaningful and built to last.
Republicans Pass Debt-Ceiling Bill
McCarthy beats the odds with debt ceiling nail-biter, Paving the Way for a Clash With Biden
The House on Wednesday narrowly passed Republicans' bill to raise the debt ceiling. The vote could not have been closer. In the end, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost just four Republicans—one less than he could afford—in his bid to force Biden to negotiate. According to the New York Times, the legislation would raise the debt ceiling into next year in exchange for freezing spending at last year's levels for a decade—a nearly 14% cut—as well as “rolling back parts of Biden's landmark health, climate and tax law, imposing work requirements on social programs, and expanding mining and fossil fuel production.”Biden has threatened to veto the Republican bill, and at a press conference Wednesday reiterated his position that he will only negotiate with McCarthy on spending cuts if they are de-linked from raising the debt ceiling. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware argued that passage of the House bill would have no impact in the Senate, where, he said, it's “clearly dead on arrival.” Coons said the legislation could become a basis for negotiations in a separate government funding bill later in the year, but he insisted Democrats won't haggle over whether to pay the bills Congress has already racked up.
Dig Deeper:
How a “lesson of 2011” shaped Biden's no-negotiation stance on debt limit.
Do You Know What’s In Your Sleep Gummies?
Potentially dangerous doses of melatonin and CBD found in wide variety of gummies being sold
There's something about gummies that seem so harmless right? You don't worry about them quite the same way you do with, say, pills. Which is why I was accidentally taking a double dose of melatonin because I simply assumed “a dose” was two. It was not. Turns out, I could've been taking even more than the 20mg I was drugging myself with.New research has just revealed that the majority of over-the-counter melatonin gummies contained different amounts of the commonly used sleep aid than they advertised. Which means what you see on the label isn't always what you get. And even though melatonin supplements have long been “thought to be relatively safe,” the FDA doesn't regulate supplements as strictly as they do over-the-counter drugs. Which is how the manufacturing can get so ... sloppy.“One product contained 347% more melatonin than what was actual listed on the label of the gummies,” one of the study's authors told CNN. A jar of gummies might also contain ingredients you didn't count on, Cohen said: “One of the products that listed melatonin contained no melatonin at all. It was just cannabidiol, or CBD.”
FYI:
To be safe, look for supplements with a third-party verification stamp from U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) or NSF International, which test and approve certain manufacturers of supplements.
In Other News
A historic move in the 2,000-year life of the church.
Have you heard about ...
Partner
Make Her Gift Meaningful
She certainly deserves it
Moms give so much and get so little in return. Treat her to something that elevates her everyday experience. An item that's meaningful and built to last. These are the kind of items that Huckberry specializes in, from small indie makers to respected global lifestyle brands. From modern turquoise jewelry and the internet's favorite pan, to some classically chic sunglasses that look right on anyone. Here's just a taste of what they've got on offer this year for Mom.
Berry terry cloth robe, $180 by OAS
Arizona sandal, $140 by Birkenstock
Charm necklace with diamond, $80 by j.Bee
Ynez sunglasses, $150 by Raen Optics
Lightweight hiking fleece midlayer, $188 by Hikerkind
'Flamingo Estate: Friday's From the Garden', $75 by Richard Christiansen
Want More Ideas?
Shopping
What We’re Buying
A Shoulder Bag
Is this the bag you need this summer? The internet seems to think so. UNIQLO's surprisingly simple “round mini shoulder bag” has earned the top spot on The Lyst Index, a quarterly report that ranks the trendiest products and the most popular brands. The big draw, of course, is the price. But it's also a sleek, simple and functional design—the sloped style looks akin to high-end designer bags and it packs a surprising amount of gear into the lightweight pouch. Plus, it comes in a range of colors (but the black or navy will always be a smart choice).
Get It:
Round shoulder bag, $19.90 by UNIQLO
Morning Motto
Don’t worry about the future or stress about the past.
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