• WHAT: An easy way to stay ahead of the "what is there to do?" question
• WHY: Easier than trying to dig up cool things to do on your own
• COST: Totally free (carrier text messaging charges apply)

Step right up, kids... it's time to play that eternal, annoying and ever-important game, "What's new in town and what the heck am I going to do this weekend?"  Yes, it happens about once a week - that near-panic moment when you realize you have a date, or time set aside with the kids, or are alone in a city you don't know anything about and the only thing you can come up with is a movie and dinner <yawn>.  The winners of this game are bestowed the highly desired status of hip, in-the-know or uber-cool (depending on which generation you hail from) and the non-winners (hey, who likes to be called a "loser"?) follow the trail of those so cool that they leave a sprinkling of icicles in their path. 

But thanks to a free service and your trusty cell phone, Blackberry or Treo, you can enter the ranks of the uber-cool without lifting a finger - other than the one you need to click "Read" when a text message arrives.  

It's easy when you take a bite of Daily Candy's mobile edition.  Daily Candy has become the secret source to the savvy and the tipster to hipsters via email in dozens of cities around the world.  It's been a way for people to stay on top of the fun things to do, buy, eat and see - but you needed to collect your email to do it.  Now Daily Candy has introduced a text messaging edition that drops the latest find right on your mobile without you having to do a thing. You can get a special edition for your area (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, L.A., Miami - even London - and several more), one for travel, one for great deals and one just for kids - or all of the above. 

Daily Candy is kind of like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.  Just the past week, using L.A. as an example, there was a suggestion for completely off-the-wall party games using iPods, dice and plain paper bags, a weekend guide with suggestions for a multimedia art show, a unique tanning salon and a totally weird health drink that sounds like a mojito on fruit steroids.  It's always a treat opening it up... somedays it's completely irrelevant and I just trash it but other days it's the "Ah-hah!" moment for the weekend. 

Signing up for Daily Candy's text edition is simple - just visit their sign-up page  and select which edition you want, enter a mobile number and off you go.  You can arrange to get them sent by email, too, which will give you more detail, links, graphics (if you want them) and more information in generaly.  But the mobile edition is handy and quick. 

There, now... it's easier to be hip than you thought, isn't it?