Super Bowl coverage, body hair removal, healthy snacks, affordable specs and intriguing reads – find them all in this week's edition of OnMilwaukee.com recommends.
Sunday sports coverage – Sunday is a great day for sports. Be sure to tune to ESPN at 1 p.m. to watch No. 25 Marquette face off with No. 12 Louisville. Rick Pitino's Cardinals were, at one point, the No. 1 team in the land and the preseason favorite in the Big East. Yet it is the Golden Eagles in a tie for first in the conference and this game will go a long way in proving just how viable a threat this team is on a national level. Then, of course, switch over to CBS for the Super Bowl. It's a great day to spend in your favorite local establishment or on the couch at home. – Jim Owczarski
Braun shavers – All my life I've been a blade and shaving cream man. I've used everything from the latest Gillette had to offer to a fine English straight razor. I've used shaving cream out of a can and the kind you make from soap and a fine brush. But I've grown sick of it. I don't know why, but the idea of standing in front of the mirror, scraping whiskers off my face is driving me mad. So I decided to go electric. I've had a rotary blade electric in the past but was never satisfied. This time I've gone to a Braun 360. It is unbelievable. Smooth. Easy. Great results. I want to say no more blades in my life. But as the man once said, never say never. But from now on for awhile at least, its an outstanding shaver named after the best left fielder in baseball. - Dave Begel
"To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings" by John O'Donohue (Doubleday) – I get stressed out faster than anyone I know. I wake up stressed out. So when I find something - a phrase, an adage, a piece of advice - that helps me return to that calm, quiet mind space, I hold onto it. This book is a collection of just those sorts of phrases, and I find that reading them is like taking a deep mental breath. O'Donohue was a gifted poet who died in 2008. In this collection of blessings - which read like a beautiful hybrid of poetry and prayer - he focuses on a broad Celtic-based spirituality. Some titles include "For the Artist at the Start of the Day," "For Failure" and "In Praise of the Earth." – Colleen Jurkiewicz
Zenni Optical – Numerous friends ordered prescription glasses from Zenni Optical and had good experiences so I finally decided to give the overseas provider of dirt-cheap prescription glasses a try. The glasses – meaning both the frames and the lenses, unless you need bifocals, which are then about $20 more – range in price from $6.95 to $40, with most under $20. You have to obtain your prescription and measure the distance in millimeters between your pupils. Then you are ready to upload a photo of yourself and virtually try on glasses to see which pair(s) work for you. This part is extremely fun and can be a total time suck if you let it because Zenni has thousands of different styles for men, women and kids. The shipping was a mere $4.95 and I got the glasses as promised in about a week. I must admit, I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but at this point, I cannot believe what an amazing deal I got. I really like the glasses and they seem to be fine in quality. The prescription is right on, too. I will definitely try Zenni again, most likely for my kids' specs. – Molly Snyder
"Never Leave Your Block: Adventures in Urban Living" by Scott Jacobs (Wicker Park Press) – A former Sentinel reporter, Jacobs has long lived in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood and has seen it change over the years. And he's written about the changes all around him for "The Week Behind." This book collects those essays, which are slices of life from a Chicago neighborhood. There's a bit of history, a bit of sociology, a bit of urban studies. But most of all these are snippets of everyday life. Some are witty, some are poignant. All are engaging and offer little insights into how we live together in our big cities. –Bobby Tanzilo
Baked kale chips with sea salt – I was suspicious of this superfood snack, but my mom made a tray of baked kale, and I was instantly sold. Amazingly, this relative of broccoli tastes an awful lot like potato chips when baked. And it's infinitely better for you, with tons of vitamin K. Here's how you make it: Wash a bunch of kale, de-spine it, then tear it in a bite-sized pieces. Toss it with some olive oil and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Watch it carefully, though, because it can go from chips to cinder very quickly. – Andy Tarnoff
