If you’re serious about cutting down on your food expenses, then the Kansas City Star recommends learning how to butcher a chicken. And in today’s paper, they show you how. Buying a whole bird costs about 60 percent less than buying boneless chicken breasts and offers you more than just the “marquee pieces.” VIDEO

The NFL has approved a proposed change to the overtime rule. The change addressess the reality that, under the old rules, winning an overtime coin toss often meant winning the game. The LA Times says the “uncommon speed and decisiveness” of the NFL’s decision was perhaps due to a game last season when Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings lost in overtime to the New Orleans Saints, who won the coin toss.

With all the back and forth about health care reform, it’s hard to know exactly how the legislation will affect the average American. Well, the New York Times has a concrete example of something that will change for everyone. The bill that President Obama signed yesterday requires all the nation’s fast food chains to post calorie counts on their menus.

Graffiti has gotten geeky says the Chicago Tribune. A student at the University of Chicago has spent the last two years chronicling the words scrawled inside the school’s biggest library. And she’s come to some conclusions. A list of the things U of C students love includes “Milton Friedman, chemistry, silence, Allison, the University of Chicago, tiramisu, life [and] chocolate cake.”  Chemistry, finals and themselves make the hate list.

A record number of students applied at the nation’s colleges and universities this year - about 2.9 million. Some will be accepted and others will open the mailbox to find rejection letters. But the Wall Street Journal says they are in good company. The paper has a list of famous people, from Warren Buffett to Meredith Viera, who were also spurned by the colleges of their choice and offers advice on how they turned their rejection into success.

The Chicago Tribune has either some good or some bad news for women in today’s paper, depending on what your attitude about exercise is. Experts have just released a way for women to keep their weight in check without dieting as they age: exercise 60 minutes every day for the rest of your life. On average, American women gain about 1.5 pounds a year between the ages of 25 and 55.

Call them “hegans.” The Boston Globe says going vegan is not just for “yuppie, tree-hugging, emaciated weaklings” anymore. A growing number of men in their 40s and 50s are embracing the diet as a way to “look better, rectify a gluttonous past, or cheat death.”

The LA Times points out something I noticed while watching the footage of President Obama signing the health care reform bill yesterday: the proliferation of pens. Apparently using multiple pens is a White House tradition. The paper says the president will keep one for himself, two will go to the presidential archive and the other 19 will be given out as mementos. I can only imagine what Joe Biden will say when he gets his.

Collectively, we just have too much damn stuff. USA Today interviews author Annie Leonard, whose popular film, Story of Stuff, has now been expanded into book form. Leonard says sharing with your neighbors is a good way to cut down on clutter. And so is turning off the TV, where enticements to buy, buy, buy bombard us all day long.

Bipartisanship is so 2008. The lead editorial in today’s Washington Post says what we saw yesterday when President Obama signed health care reform into law was an example of “hyper partisanship.” Not one Republican was present at the signing, because not one voted for the measure. Ditto the latest overhaul of the financial system. The paper asks lawmakers to return to “pragmatic cooperation” and urges them to encourage “sensible ideas” regardless of what side of the aisle they are generated from.

Boomers are staying put. The Miami Herald reports that fewer elderly people are moving to the Sun Belt states when they retire. Experts say after taking a battering in the last recession, many want to stay close to big cities - and dynamic job markets - in order to improve their chances of working beyond the age of 65.

An article in the Wall Street Journal says it’s impossible to get cell phone service outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan after dark because Taliban forces have issued a decree “that aims to prevent villagers from passing tips to coalition forces.” According to the paper, the Taliban makes cell phone companies disable their towers after dark. If they don’t comply, their towers are torched to the ground.

Outing Tiger Woods seems to be the thing to do these days. The New York Daily News has details on the golfer’s alleged mistress number 15. She’s another porn star, who says she met Woods “just minutes before a three-way.” The 29-year-old entertainer says Woods paid her and the other woman involved $2000 each for “dirty” sex. She also says their relationship continued for several years.

Two Connecticut sisters in their 80s are suing for their share of the Powerball. The 87-year-old sister won. Her 84-year-old sibling says they should split the $500,000 jackpot. The Hartford Courant says the sisters had a history of gambling together and then sharing their winnings. They even went so far as to draw up a joint bank account for their winnings. But that was five years ago, before Powerball.

Craig Ferguson doesn’t want David Letterman’s job. The New York Post says watching NBC’s failed succession is part of the reason. Said Ferguson of the situation: “I think the [NBC] situation was a triumph of terrible f- - -ing management, the same middle management jerks that brought down the car companies and banks not thinking it through, I don’t think it was the fault of Jay or Conan.”

The New York Daily News calls them “heels for hippies.” Yes, that’s right. There are actually high-heeled Birkenstocks on the market. Stella McCartney designed them and they sell for about $625 - that’s roughly $500 dollars more than the originals.

It wasn’t another New Deal. It was, according to Joe Biden, a “big “f———deal.” That’s what the vice president had to say after President Obama signed health care reform into law yesterday. Even though he’s known for his loose tongue, the press went crazy. But there were some who agreed. The New York Daily News says Biden got a virtual high five from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, when he tweeted “And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right.” VIDEO

For some Americans, the census is proving to more difficult than just ticking off boxes. The Arizona Republic says question nine asks responders what race they are and offers the following choices: White, Black, American Indian, Alaska native, various Asian descents, Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders and “some other race.” Census officials say they excluded Hispanic from the list because they consider it an ethnicity, not a race.

The San Francisco Chronicle profiles a 14-year-old boy with some serious game, chess game that is. While there have been many prodigies in the history of chess, none have quite been like Daniel Naroditsky. Not only was he named a chess master at age 11, he’s written a textbook about the game.

Chris Richards reviews the new Justin Bieber CD in today’s Washington Post. After singing the 16-year-old’s praises for “giving young fans something worth screaming their lungs out for,” Richards says Bierber’s new album fails to deliver. Instead, he writes that Bierber has traded his signature soul to move toward the “gooey center” of American pop music.

Is there life after “Twilight”? The LA Times says the success of vampire series may have sucked the life out of its actors. Despite hoards of “Twi-hards,” Kristen Stewart’s new Joan Jett bio-pic failed to pick up any momentum during its opening weekend. Robert Pattinson also recently released “his first mainstream movie in which he doesn’t play a vampire” to middling box office numbers.

For the uninitiated, acupuncture can seem like a bunch of hocus pocus. But the Wall Street Journal says researchers are using modern technology to document how the ancient healing method works. And in some cases, they’ve found striking similarities to Western medicine.

The Obama administration gave the state of Florida $1.25 billion to develop a high-speed rail system to connect Orlando and Tampa. But the New York Times says with its five planned stops, the train will only shave about 30 minutes off people’s morning commutes. And then there’s the problem of what to do when they get there. Because of a lackluster public transportation system in both cities, the paper says “travelers may discover that they have taken a fast train to a slow bus.”

The Atkins Diet has been reworked. The New York Daily News notes that vegetables are now allowed. The doctors responsible for reworking the controversial weight-loss regimen say by subtracting fiber intake from a dieter’s daily carb intake, the new plan “promotes good, healthy food like vegetables.”

Did Tiger Woods have a nanny? A new book claims that promiscuous men are often that way because they had a nanny growing up. The ever clever New York Post puts it more succinctly: “Chasing Fanny? Blame Nanny.” According to the Times of London, the psychiatrist who penned the book claims hiring a nanny for your son may inadvertently send the message that it’s OK to cheat in your grown up relationships.

One of my favorite movies is 20 years old. The New York Post looks back at how “Pretty Woman” became such an enduring part of pop culture. Daryl Hannah, Molly Ringwald and Jennifer Jason Leigh all turned down the lead role, which turned Julia Roberts into a big box office star.

There’s an election next week in Massachusetts. Only problem is that no one’s running. The Boston Globe says for residents of Hawley, a small town in the Berkshires, it will be a “no-horse race.” But it’s not because people are protesting the passage of health care reform or anything else - it’s just that they have no interest in politics. That means the winner of Hawley’s election will likely be a write-in who “must be named on at least two of the paper ballots.”

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article this morning about breaking up with friends. The Journal says friendships often become “victims of routine life events such as moves, job changes, divorce or a divergence of interests.” Problems can arise because there are no rules governing a friend breakup - no counseling, no joint custody, no divorce lawyer.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has quite a few gavels. We all saw her pictured with an oversized model on front pages yesterday after the historic passage of the health care reform bill. And today, the Washington Post has an interesting look at the history of the gavel in American politics. While gavels that work in the Senate only have to be replaced every 100 years or so, in the House, there’s a large box of them: “The House does a lot more pounding than the Senate.”

I’m often asked how I can drag myself out of bed at three in the morning each day. The simple answer is that I make sure to get enough sleep and insist on a daily nap. People sometimes seem disappointed when I don’t offer a strategy for surviving on two hours of sleep. Why? Well, according to an opinion piece in USA Today, Americans aren’t as sleepless as they claim. While research shows that we get about eight hours a night, when asked about their sleep patterns most people only cop to six.