Altoona, PA to change its name?

Do you agree with me that this kind of publicity stunt is silly and ridiculous?

ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY -- 'Toona town and the railroad city. Altoona has lots of names, but none quite this long; "Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Pennsylvania."
That will be the city's new name for 60 days starting April 27th. City council approved a resolution Wednesday night. It's the title of a movie by renowned filmaker Morgan Spurlock that the Sheetz corporation was recently involved in.
Spurlock is paying the city $25,000 to temporarily change the name.

http://wearecentralpa.com/wtaj-news-fulltext/?nxd_id=266657

Couldn't 25K have been (better) used some other way? Is the city this desperate for the money? How much time did city council spend discussing this resolution? I'm guessing, not very much.

The Frothy Fast For Lent

This story stuck out to me today, for a couple of reasons. http://money.blogs.time.com/2011/03/11/the-frothy-fast-giving-up-food-but-not...

I have a feeling that if the monks of the 1600s broke their fast on Sundays, they didn't break it with anything too substantive. They probably just pulled out their blender and threw together a yummy smoothie of some kind.

Whoah, news flash...17th century monks had blenders? How cool. I wonder how they kept them secret from everyone else until the 1920's? ;)

Two days in, Wilson awoke with headaches.

Perhaps Mr. Wilson is normally a coffee or caffeinated soda drinker when not observing his frosty lenten fast. The story neglects to elaborate in detail his "normal" consumption habits. Quitting caffeine cold turkey can lead to serious physical side effects, like headaches. It could also be that he's drinking the wrong beer. Who hasn't had some headache inducing batch of liquid bread in their day?

Reagardless of the facts in this case ,you can get more insight into this guys "adventure" at his blog. http://diaryofaparttimemonk.wordpress.com/