What is on the menu for Americans?

by Jennifer Nespoll features editor

So what did you have for breakfast?

If it was Cap'n Crunch cereal, don't be ashamed. You're not the only one.

How do you feel about cranberry sauce? Corn bread? Chile? These are America's favorites, according to a new survey by John Lehndorff.

The top 25 foods don't mention anything about cheesesteaks-in fact, Philly cheesesteaks don't appear until number 91. Even English muffins beat out Philly's most famous food.

The good news is that pizza, soft drinks and fried chicken are all in the top 20 foods, so .lhe cafeteria and the food court can be content that they are serving what are apparently America's favorite foods.

The survey was based on Lehndorff's personal tastes, and the tastes of bis friends and family.

It was also based on a book by John Marian called "Dictionary of Amer-ican Food and Drink" (Ticknor and Fields). The 100 foods in the list are ranked in order of importance, according to Lehndorff.

Read on to see if your favorite foods rank in the top 20 in the survey.

1. Hamburger and cheeseburgers, with variations including McDonald's Big Mac, White Castle, etc.

2. Pie, specifically apple, blueberry, pumpkin, cherry, lemon meringue and pecan

3. French fries

4. Cold cereal (with milk), including corn flakes, Cap'n Crunch, Life, and Cocoa Krispies

5. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich

6. Southern fried chicken, including fried chicken nuggets and fingers

7. Barbecued pork. beef and chicken done Kansas City, Caroline and other styles

8. Cranberries, especially cranberry cocktail and cranberry sauce, jellied and whole

9. Ice cream. specifically ice cream cones, sundaes, hot fudge, soft serve, a la mode

10. Soft drinks, specifically Coke, Pepsi, root beer, Mountain Dew, birch beer

11. Chili (or chile), including red Texas chili (chili con came), New Mexico green chili and Cincinnati chili

12. Hot dogs, also wieners and frankfurters, on hot dog buns with condiments. Also com dogs

13. American cheese, including "singles," Velveeta,

Cheez Whiz and the grilled cheese sandwich

14. Tex-Mex dishes, including ~cos, nachos, fajitas and enchiladas

15. Sub sandwiches, including hero, grinder, po'boy, hoagie, Dagowood. Cuban

16. Corn bread, spoon bread, johnnycake, cornbread stuffing

17. Pizza

18. Popcorn, including theater popcorn, Cracker jacks

19. Roasted, buttered corn on the cob

20. Pancakes with butter and maple or pancake syrup

All the information in this story was takenfrom www.phi/lynews.comldaily_news/98/Sepl/6/features/FCOVI 6.htm. Visit this website to view the rest of the list. Thefood pictures in this story appear somewhere on the list. (Photos by Jen Nespoli)

Shop 'til you drop no longer. Now you can sit in the comfort of your home or dorm room and shop until your ,clicking finger drops. If you are tired of walking through malls, don't have a car or don't have a lot of time, online shopping may be the answer for you.

Othersitesfor Shoppingonline

Clothing www.ae-outfitters.com www.gap.com www.llbean.com www.landsend.com www.boscovs.com www.jcpenney.com www.kaysnet.com (women's clothing)

MUllc/MOVlel www.cdnow.com www.towerrecords.com www.muslcblvd.com www.blockbuster.com

Books www.amazon.com

by Adam Greenberg staff writer

Interested in shopping at the mall, but do not have the time? Or maybe no transportation? Try browsing the Internet for those musthave items. Clothing, computer games and even airplane tickets are just some of the products that can be bought on-line.

Two of the most popular web sites for Internet shoppers are CDNow and Amazon.com.

CDNow offers a huge selection of music and music-related merchandise. Besides CDs and tapes, they carry import releases, Tshirts and vinyl.

Want a good book? Click over to Amazon.com. From the latest Stephen King novel to obscure titles, they have it all, including sheet music, DVDs and audiobooks. Depending on the availability of your item, both sites can have your order delivered in about a week.

What about the prices? The good news is that most sites offer excellent discounts on their products. For example, Amazon.com offers up to 40 percent off hardback books and CDNow sells CDs at an average price of $11 to $15.

The bad news is that some of those great savings disappear when the cost of shipping and handling is added.

However, the convenience of taking care of your shopping needs with a few qu~ck keystrokes may prove to be invaluable.

Payment can be made for items by submitting your credit card number. But how safe is that information out in cyberspace?

Gerald Satlow, associate professor of computer information science, believes that sending your credit card number over the Internet is as safe as any other way of transmitting that information.

Satlow said that people have an unwarranted sense of insecurity on the Internet. When a cashier takes a credit card or if the number is given over the phone, there is no guarantee that the informa- tion will not be misused. This is also true for the Internet.

"I buy over the Internet and personally have no problems with it," said Satlow.

He suggests buying from sites that have established a good track record.

The main reason students would not make on-line purchases seems to be the issue of safety. No one likes the idea of typing in their credit card number because they feel it may be easily stolen.

Many on-line shops are secure, which usually means that your transmission is encrypted.

"No system is absolutely secure," said Satlow, though he believes that it would be difficult for the information to be stolen. Someone would have to be able to break into the destination system and then they would have to crack the code, which Satlow said would be hard to accomplish.

If security is a major concern, Satlow said that many sites offer traditional means to buy their products, such as mail or phone orders. He also said that the Internet can be useful simply for comparison shopping or just to get more facts about an item before making a purchase.

With hectic schedules and limited cash flow, shopping on the Internet may be an attractive option for students to consider.

Cdnow

www.barnesandnoble.com www.act.com (science fiction/fantasy)

Travel www.thetrlp.com www.dlsney.com www.twa.com www2.traveloclty.com

Concert/Theaterttckeb www.tlcketmaster.com

Miscellaneous www.sears.com www.dlsney.com www.buysafe.com

*Trytyping any store or catalog name with www.before it and .com after

CDNow, which sells all types of music, is one of the most popular online shopping sites. Amazon.com (at top), which sells books, is another popular site. Online websites sometimes offer discounts off the regular price.