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Just when I'd more or less curbed my serious soda habit, they hit me with this.

Pepsi and Mountain Dew are both out in limited, eight-week editions made with REAL SUGAR.

If, like me, you grew up in the 80s and 90s you may have never actually tasted a major American soda made with real sugar. But the recent demonization of (and, let's not kid ourselves, rise in cost of) high fructose corn syrup has engendered a sort of nostalgia for good old natural sugar in the major manufacturers.

You can't fault them for going with some retro design for the re-releases, either.

It's hard to appreciate just how hideous the modern Mountain Dew design is until you look at it next to the classic one.

Is it better for you? Eh, it's probably six of one, half a dozen of the other. The "Throwback" editions, as they're calling them, are still about 100 calories per 8 ounces. But the taste is not even comparable.

For years I've been a fan of Jones sodas made with real sugar - and glad that in Greensboro's Proximity Hotel you can get nothing but real cane sugar cola at their Print Works Bistro. But unless you can scam some foreign-market Coke or Pepsi (and you can locally, at the Super G Mart), it's usually pretty hard to find major soda brands made with real sugar.

Those looking for something billed as actually better for them might try "Pepsi Natural," a new formula with natural flavoring and real sugar. Then again, maybe not. I recently tried "Red Bull Cola," which also bills itself as "all natural." Not pleasant.

I'm still trying to avoid soda when I can so that I can, you know, fit into my clothing and walk up a flight of stairs without wheezing. But while this Throwback stuff is around I think I'm going to enjoy at least one a week -- in place of dessert.

So, it's come to this.

From the ad copy:

"Here's This Season's "Must-Have" iPod Accessory That All The Celebrities in Hollywood Are Clamoring For.

Just fold out the blow wand and exhale into it for at least 5 seconds. 2 seconds later, this amazing tool let's you know if you're within the legal limit to drive. It even houses a timer that can be set from 1 minute up to 8 hours in order to remind you when it's time for the next test."

I'm from the "If you're wondering if you can pass a breathalizer test, don't drive" school myself -- but if potential drunk drivers will listen to their iPods and realize it's a bad idea to get behind the wheel, I guess it's progress.

Sometimes, you just can't bear the rules of the normal world and you gotta rip off your clothes and run, literally, buck wild.

Goofing around of Facebook today (it's work, really) we ran across this ad from a travel Web site listing the top 10 places to get naked (kinda NSFW).

But if you're looking to stay more local, there's always the Bar-S-Ranch. Though you might want to wait for some balmier weather.

Remember: "Naked" is simply not wearing any clothes. "Nekkid" is when you're not wearing clothes and you're up to no good.

Have you seen these new "I'm a PC" ads that Microsoft has out there as a counter-punch to the popular "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" Mac ads?

Yeah. Apparently, they were made on a Mac.

That's how I like my irony, baby -- nice and stinging.

To reward myself for having survived moving last weekend (and this week, and the unpacking that continues), this is what I'm going to be seeing this weekend:

Good stuff with Mick, Keith, Jack White and Martin Scorsese in the latest Rolling Stone.

I am disappointed to hear, however, that they wanted to get a PG-13 rating for this and so cut the use of the F-word down to two instances. Not just by playing songs that don't require it or watching their mouths but by actually taking it out of songs -- most egregiously in "Some Girls."

I can't really follow the logic -- does anyone think kids too young to get into an R movie are going to be trying to get into this without their parents anyway? The idea that Scorsese (for whom the F-word seems to have been artistically essential to this point) and the Stones (for whom the F-word is, in many ways, part of a way of life) could make a PG-13 movie leaves me scratching my head.

Tom Ford, former creative director of Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent (and graduate of Parsons, where Project Runway takes place, as it turns out), struck out on his own in 2004.

Since then he's been shaking things up with a menswear collection George Clooney loves and swank Madison Avenue men's store...

...a Vanity Fair cover that got Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley naked (thank you, Tom)...

...and now, a cologne (one of many scents Ford has created at $165 per 1.7 oz. bottle) whose print ad campaign strips the niceties away from the "sex sells" ethic and just puts the tiny bottle between a woman's naked, glistening thighs, resting on her waxed pubis.

A not even kind of work-safe link to the actual ad here.

Even more explicit flash intro to Ford's website here.

Holy. God.

If Ford were straight I think people would be saying he hates women. Because he's not people will just accuse him of being a perverse design school guy who gets off on shocking people.

Which is, I imagine, fine with him.

Go check out shots from a new Agent Provocateur ad campaign featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary, Mona Lisa Smile)

I love this woman.