Author: Tanya Bennett

Top 10 Things to Know About Tanya Bennett She met Lou Reed and Woody Allen during the same visit to New York City. She collects pulp fiction and loves detective novels, particularly anything by James Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Josephine Tey. She plays bass and sings in a band. http://www.minkvalley.com Her favorite top ten list so far: Top 10 Reasons Why Ex-Party Girls Make Great Mommies Her favorite top ten list by another writer is: Top 10 Worst Named Cities Major influences: Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, Peter Hook, Lucille Ball, Raymond Chandler, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, Jim Henson. Her two daughters are named after cartoon characters - and live up to their namesakes! She’s a fan of film noir flicks. Her guilty pleasures are Gossip Girl and pretty much any food item sold from a trailer at a street fair, rodeo or amusement park. She has a huge crush on Dean Wareham and Slash. Bonus Fact:You can contact her through tanya (@) toptenz.net. Oh, and she’s secretly one of the Royal Tenenbaums…

This list encompasses the top 10 hot Christmas toys of all time. When I say ‘hot,’ I mean the ones flying off the shelves, that every kid just HAS to have, the kind of toy that brings out the best in everyone. Kids (and some adults) spend their time feverishly begging and pleading for the…

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I hate to be a New Years Eve party pooper, but I thought you should know that approximately half of you will make New Years resolutions today, but only 8% of you will successfully achieve them (statisticbrain.com). In the interest of turning these dismal results around, I’ve come up with some alternative resolutions for you…

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Thermic vegetables, also known as free or negative calorie vegetables, burn more calories than they contain: “Your body requires on average 150-250 calories to digest your food, depending on your weight, gender and activity level. If you eat something that has a caloric content of 100 calories, you will actually burn more calories than you…

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If you work 9 to 5 from Monday to Friday, chances are you eagerly look forward to the weekend. Yet, superstitions from all over the world paint a very different picture. Instead of getting excited as the week days pass by, you should be afraid… very, very afraid. Or at least careful. Some of these…

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Playboy magazine launched in 1953, reaching its largest circulation in 1972 when it was distributed to 7.2 million readers. Today, it has over 1.5 million readers and over 5 million people visit playboy.com each month. Owner Hugh Hefner has described Playboy magazine as a “handbook for the urban male.” Each issue contains articles on politics and culture,…

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It looks like the first televised top ten lists appeared on The Dick Clark Show in 1958. Every Saturday night, Dick Clark would feature a list of the top ten records of the week. More than 30 years later, David Letterman aired his first top ten list on Late Night (September 18, 1985: “Top 10…

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I used to have one of the items on this list painted on my bass guitar case – a gift from an ex-boyfriend. I confess this to prevent readers from getting their cartoon boxers in a knot as they try to justify how classy they really are. 10. Trucker Style Accessories First let me point…

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The first zombie movie was 1932’s White Zombie. It’s not very funny (at least not intentionally funny) and it definitely isn’t scary. Since then, there have been hundreds of zombie movies made, and I think the best ones are a combination of both. Some use funny moments to relieve the tension between zombie attacks; others use…

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This list is dedicated to all of the flabbergasted readers of my previous list, “Top 10 Things Better Than Sex.” If you can’t think of one thing that is better than sex, then I hope will enjoy this list about nymphomaniacs. “Some things are better than sex, and some are worse, but there’s nothing exactly…

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Both my parents were born in Germany. They moved to Canada and then had me, so I’m about as German as a Canadian can be – which probably explains my weakness for sauerkraut, oom-pa-pa, and marzipan. I also have a love for the German language. Some people make fun of it, but I grew up…

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This list was first published in 2008. Seems a good time to revisit it. A good Mascot is a symbol of the spirit of the Olympics in general; while, at the same time, teaching the world something about the country where the event is taking place. I also feel that mascots should exude a positive…

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Shamus, sleuth, gumshoe, P.I., private eye, private dick… We have so many names for detectives and so many great characters in literature, movies, television, and radio. Anne Iredale’s Top 10 Literary Detectives inspired this list.  It made me think of all of the great TV detectives. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the earliest…

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Do you ever have really, really weird dreams? I do, and I don’t need professional help to figure out the source – usually that salami sandwich or entire cheesecake I ate right before I went to bed. Recurring dreams, on the other hand, demand more of my attention – often because they are scary. In…

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FACT: You use most of your body when you are sitting at a computer typing on a keyboard – not just your eyes and fingers. Your muscles allow you to sit in an upright position and all of your organs are working (sometimes, even your brain). Sadly, despite this amazing fact, surfing the Internet does…

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I can think of lots of reasons why people may be interested in ‘robbing the cradle’. Perhaps the cradle robber is in denial about how old he or she really is. I know I often realize with a shock that I am over 30… imagine what it would be to be 60… or 80? Others…

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What’s the story with tribute bands anyways? Often the musicians playing in tribute bands are amazing musicians in their own right so why are they devoting their energy to copying someone else? Is it the ultimate compliment, a cash grab, or just a lack of original material? Playing in a tribute band takes more dedication…

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10. The following Saturday cars loaded with kids keep cruising by your house. They slow down with hopeful facial expressions until they see you peering through a crack in the curtains and then they speed off. 9. You go to get a glass of water before bed and all of your glassware is missing. Several…

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