Ah, Carnival: Mardi for the Party

For much of Latin America it was the season of Carnival and what a party.
What does 'Carnival' mean? Well, there is some dispute by some say it comes from the Latin expression carne vale, which means "farewell to meat," which is what Catholics gave up during the Lent season.
Nowadays, especially in Brazil, it's all about the party.

The average size of a U.S. woman: 14

The media's refusal to acknowledge the invisible woman is crazy. Who is the invisible woman? In America, she's a size 14 and 162 pounds, on average (The L.A. Times article says the average U.S. male is 189 pounds). The first inclination is to say, whoa, somebody's been eatin', but on deeper inspection you have to remember: The average American woman today is a multicolored, multiethnic hodgepodge of the world's greatest people, most notably, African-American, European-American, Asian-American, Mexican-American, and so on. All these different people have, historically and culturally, different eating patterns, metabolisms and what not. Of course, we can't underestimate the power of McDonalds as well.