Some of the sweetest rock ballads were inspired by daddy's girls: Billy Joel's "Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)," Bruce Springsteen's "When You Need Me," Phil Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart," and other emotional tracks you'd find on a father-daughter dance compilation album.

Music being the universal language of love, Bono even covered Lady Gaga's "Telephone" at his daughter's 21st birthday party.

From models and DJs to actors and musicians, meet the new crop of muses of the most celebrated rock stars.

Alexa Ray Joel, 27, is the singer daughter of Billy Joel.

Alexa Ray released an EP, "Sketches," in 2006 and was the face of Prell hair care, which previously employed her supermodel mother, Christie Brinkley, as its spokeswoman.

Jemima Kirke, 28, is the actress daughter of Free and Bad Company's Simon Kirke.

British-born Jemima was an artist before close friend Lena Dunham convinced her to audition for the role of free-spirit Jessa in HBO's "Girls." 

Jessica Rae Springsteen, 21, is the horseback-riding daughter of Bruce Springsteen.

Jessica Rae (L) is a junior at Duke University and a champion horseback rider, placing first in her jumping division at the 2013 FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival.

On Wall Street, you work long hours, so a coffee addiction is almost inescapable.

It's not just that you need that caffeine, it's that it's a part of the job's culture. When you start out as a young analyst, the boring hours between spreadsheets and pitch books are spent going on Starbucks runs.

Unless you can get the interns to go get it, of course.

Our love of coffee noted, it's very possible to drink too much coffee, and that can be harmful to your body. Research shows that ingesting too much caffeine (500-600 milligrams or 5 or more cups of coffee) can cause anything from restlessness to muscle tremors.

So keep all this in mind when you order your next double shot of espresso.

A University of Melbourne study called caffeine "the most commonly used psychoactive drug," and said drinking more than 5 cups a day can have you hearing things.

From A 2011 story published in The Daily Mail:

Professor Simon Crowe, of La Trobe University in Melbourne, said: "We also told them that within the white noise there may be parts of the song White Christmas and if you hear it, press a button. We didn’t include White Christmas in the white noise but found that more people who were very stressed and had high levels of caffeine thought they heard the song. The combination of caffeine and stress affect the likelihood of an individual experiencing a psychosis-like symptom."

High levels of caffeine can damage your liver, especially if you take pain medication regularly as well.

According to studies by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

It can raise your blood pressure.

That's according to a 2012 Carnegie Mellon study which also says that coffee can stimulate the heart and cause shallow breathing.

Restaurateur Danny Meyer is taking his food to the skies: The force behind Gramercy Tavern and Shake Shack is partnering with Delta Air Lines to provide food on certain trans-Atlantic flights.

Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group announced today that it will create "BusinessElite Express Meals" for Delta’s three daily flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and London-Heathrow.

The menu will be devised by chef Kenny Callaghan and Chef de Cuisine Jeffrey Held of Meyer's Blue Smoke barbecue restaurant, though there's no word yet on whether barbecue will be featured.

Blue Smoke is known for its "low and slow" barbecue cooked over hickory and apple woods. The Gramercy restaurant serves up brisket, ribs, and pulled pork, which would make for delicious — if messy — in-flight fare.

The new menu, as well as a specialty cocktail, will officially debut in February of next year.

This is also not the first time Delta has expanded its culinary team to evolve its in-flight food. The airline currently has specially catered menus for flights to Latin America, Mexico City, between New York-JFK and select California cities, as well as on West Coast flights to Japan.

SEE ALSO: The 20 Best Airlines In The World

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For most students, the college experience is not limited to their time in the classroom. Much of what a school has to offer can be found on its campus — from great libraries to standout career services to, simply, beautiful surroundings.

We looked at 11 campus-related categories from The Princeton Review's 2014 college rankings to determine which colleges offer the best campus experiences.

Click here to read our complete methodology.

There was no discernible connection between the colleges that came out on top, as they represented everything from Ivy League universities to small liberal arts colleges to technical schools. Perhaps more telling of the list's diversity is that each one of our top five schools came from a different area of the country.

Our list does include half of the Ivy League schools and three of the five Claremont Colleges, including our top ranked school — Claremont McKenna College. Although Claremont McKenna didn't rank as #1 or #2 in any category, it placed high in several, including Best Quality of Life, Best Career Services, and Great Financial Aid.

#20 Stanford University

Stanford, California

Stanford may be known to some as "The Farm," but its 8,000+ acre campus — planned by Fredrick Law Olmstead — more closely recalls California's distinct Mission Revival architecture. 

The university was also recognized by the Princeton Review for its libraries, which host collections from the Hoover Institution and R. Buckminster Fuller.

Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

#19 Pomona College

Claremont, California

Pomona's 140-acre campus also recalls the Mission Revival Style that designates much California architecture.

The Claremont Colleges member got recognition for its dorms, the largest of which has a sundeck for students to take advantage of their SoCal surroundings.

Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

#18 Kansas State University

Manhattan, Kansas

Kansas State is the number one employer in its hometown of Manhattan, Kansas, which may explain its number two spot on the Town-Gown Relations are Great list.

The city also hosts an area known as "Aggieville," which is filled with college bars and stores.

Source: The Princeton Review. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

TripAdvisor just came out with a list of America's top 10 cities for pizza, and New York City was ranked a lowly number four.

Somehow beating out NYC — which is famous for its slices— were San Diego, Las Vegas, and Boston.

Chicago, another city with die-hard pizza fans, didn't even make the top 10.

Even worse, the glowing praise of number one seed San Diego's pizza was ironically that it was "just as good as being home in New York."

Second place Las Vegas pizzas were declared "Brooklyn pizza in the desert" by one TripAdvisor reviewer, whose opinion was featured on the travel site's ranking as well.

The results were compiled based on reviews and opinions from TripAdvisor travelers for all restaurants that serve pizza in the U.S.

Check out the (dubious) full ranking below:

1. San Diego, California

2. Las Vegas, Nevada

3. Boston, Massachusetts

4. New York, New York

5. Seattle, Washington

6. Austin, Texas

7. San Francisco, California

8. Indianapolis, Indiana

9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

10. Phoenix, Arizona

SEE ALSO: 10 American Pizza Joints Worth A Road Trip

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If you're in the market for vintage sports paraphernalia, vegan jewelry, or flower headbands, Etsy is the place to go. The site has a reputation for attracting talented amateur artists with unique wares to sell, and is perfect for anyone looking for one-of-a-kind or handmade items.

But some of those one-of-a-kind items toe the line between unique and creepy, and some are insanely overpriced.

From $14,000 magic wands to eerily-lifelike squirrel wedding cake toppers, we rounded up the weirdest and wildest that Etsy sellers have to offer.

A photo that "proves" Nicolas Cage is a vampire

Price: $250,000

"Nicolas Cage is a Vampire:

Original c.1870 carte de visite showing a man who looks exactly like Nick Cage. Personally, I believe it's him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, et cetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so. 150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host. Guaranteed to be an original 1860s-70s photograph and not a modern reproduction, copy or photo manipulation."

See it on Etsy here.

A ridiculously expensive teapot

Price: $250,000

"Multiple ash, orange tea glaze and crystal matt with celadon liner on porcelain teapot tea pot 6.75" x 7.25""

See it on Etsy here.

A genuine sorcerer's stone

Price: $200,000

"The Thelema Stone:

A genuine stone dating from 19th century used by the infamous Aleister Crowley. The stone is very rare and very dangerous to use! Used right, great and terrible things can be achieved. Sir Aleister Crowley used the stone for Scrying. Scrying has been used in many cultures in the belief that it can divine the past, present, or future and summon Spiritual creatures for personal purposes. A genuine chanting phrase and details how to set up will be included."

See it on Etsy here.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once wrote a short story in only six words — “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”

It was a fantastic demonstration of how simple language has enormous depth, and can capture the wonderfully complex.

Now, on social media, people have applied that sentiment to modern warfare.

Taking to Twitter with #sixwordwar, and through a Tumblr page that collects submissions from veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, people have explored the subtleties and complexities of modern combat in just six words.

The poems range from funny to tragic, from motivational to political.

SEE ALSO: 80 Years Ago A Marine Major General Explained The Ugliest Truth About War

"What's the forecast today? Steel Rain."

Source: @JohnRegan12

"General, Sir, we shouldn’t go outside."

Source: sixwordwar.com

"I’ll never be this cool again."

Source: sixwordwar.com

In today's housing market, running into competition is par for the course – and the weakest bids won't survive. 

Luckily for less well-heeled house hunters, there's more that goes into winning a bidding war than throwing money at your opponents until they buckle. 

"If you are serious about buying, it becomes a bit of a part time job," says Zillow.com real estate expert Brendon DeSimone. "This is your home and your only investment." 

We asked DeSimone to clue consumers into how they can make their bids stand out.

1. Don't wait for the open house. DeSimone is quick to advise clients to see as many houses as possible on weekends––whether or not they're invited. "With the Internet, information moves so quickly. [Sellers] could do a private showing Wednesday [days before a scheduled open house]" he says. "If it looks good online, go see it."

2. Don't be intimidated by higher bidders.  Investors and average joes alike are flocking to snatch up deals on homes. Don't let them psych you out, DeSimone says.  "Don’t spend too much energy trying to figure out what’s really going on with the other offers. If you love the property, keep moving forward, but at your own pace. Make the offer you’re comfortable with, and only when you’re comfortable making it."

3. Pick a broker who's local and well-known. That's because 80 percent of business is done by just 20 percent of brokers. The more respected they are within the community, the better shot they have at wooing listing agents. "My clients (win) because the listing agent knows me," DeSimone says. "In a competitive situation, working with a known broker will make the listing agent feel better and boost your chances, especially if two offers are close."

4. Get in the listing agent's good graces. Why? Because the listing agent is the only person who meets all the parties involved in a sale. "Though the seller ultimately decides and signs a contract, the listing agent has a giant say in who gets the property in a competitive situation," DeSimone says. "If you make a good impression with the listing agent, you are in much better shape. Acting like a jerk to the agent tells the sellers to work with another offer."

5. Line up an appraisal even before making an offer. "One thing I once did was to have the bank try to get an appraiser lined up and on their calendar before an offer was made," DeSimone says. "That way, the buyer could tell the seller that the appraisal would happen within x days of signing a contract. If you tell the seller two or three weeks, your offer looks weaker." 

6. Look for the ugliest house on a great block. It may sound counterintuitive, but you're better off looking at a fixer-upper than going for the McMansion next door. Chances are competition won't be as fierce.  "You can always improve the property and therefore increase its value,"says DeSimone. "And because it’s on a great block, improvements you make to the home will be practically guaranteed to give you a top return on your investment."

7. Know your neighbors – and what their homes are worth. Getting to know the neighborhood you're hoping to call home one day goes far beyond scoping out local schools and seeing who prowls the streets at night. "When you are ready to seriously write offers and compete, you should know what is going on with the local neighborhood market," DeSimone says. "Follow what has recently sold, what was competitive and what was not."

8. Hire an inspector within two days of submitting your offer. "Order the inspection before you write the offer. It doesn’t necessarily have to be two days but your offer should show the seller that you are prepared to move quickly," DeSimone says. "If you wait two weeks and then the inspector finds something and you walk away, the seller is left out to dry.  The seller wants to know this is out of the way quickly."

9. Sweeten your bid with cash. More often than not, most homebuyers simply can't afford to plop down $180,000 in cash on a new home. But when it comes to sweetening your bid, offering to pay at least the deposit in cash could push you over the edge. "The more you offer, the better," DeSimone says.

SEE ALSO: This MBA student is learning to flip a house the hard way

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While recently perusing a recent Reddit AMA for a female sushi chef, we stumbled on a picture of a sushirrito.

This sushi roll of epic proportions captivated our New York Office: It was hard to conceive that the creation — the size of a burrito and eaten with your hands — was real. It sounded too good to be true.

And yet, there's an entire company called Sushirrito that sells them at three locations in San Francisco, and has been in business for the past two years.

The Asian-Latin fusion restaurants make some amazing varieties of sushirrito: There are seven different kinds, including the Geisha's Kiss with yellowfin tuna, Sumo Crunch with Surimi crab, and Mayan Dragon with Japanese-style fried chicken.

This sushi-burrito combo would not be out of place next to similar food mash-ups like Dominique Ansel's cronut and the recent Ramen Burger.

Here's hoping the company expands to NYC soon.

If you've tried a sushirrito, drop us a line at thelife@businessinsider.com. We'd love to see your pictures and hear what you thought.

SEE ALSO: 10 Fast Food Items That Combine Lunch And Dessert

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The rise of beards and stubble is the reason why — for the first time ever — men's shaving will no longer be the largest men's grooming category.

Nicole Tyrimou, a Beauty and Personal Care Analyst at Euromonitor International, recently wrote an in-depth piece titled "Civil War in Men's Shaving" on why the segment has lost its dominance.

By 2013, men's toiletries will be earning the same amount as men's shaving products, which Tyrimou attributes to the decline in razors and blades in men's shaving sales.

For instance, Procter & Gamble, which owns both Gillette and Schick, has taken a recent hit with unit sales of Schick razors dropping 10%.

She attributes that decline to the current popularity of stubble, the growing acceptance of beards in the work place, and the fact that shaving and razors continue to grow more expensive each year.

In short, shaving less frequently and more cheaply has become the norm in Western Europe and America.

Thanks a lot, hipsters.

Ultimately though, Tyrimou thinks the men's shaving industry will bounce back. Now that the current trend is stubble and/or beards, she foresees a growth in manual and battery-operated trimmers, beard and mustache dyes, styling gels, and products to "nourish and smooth facial hair."

Here's hoping we'll get some great ads out of it.

SEE ALSO: 11 Hot Products From Amazon's Brand New Male Grooming Department

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>Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is trying to come up with ways to plug the city's estimated $18.5 billion debt problem.

So this week, he announced he had engaged Christie's to appraise the city's art collection. 

The move has generated controversy — both from those who say the collection should remain untouchable, and from camps who believe the city should never have owned the works in the first place.

Unusual among major cities, Detroit owns the entire collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The Detroit Free Press reached out to art dealers in May to provide a rough estimate of the collection's overall value. The group came up with a final tally of at least $2.5 billion. 

We wanted to dig into the collection to get a better sense of what the city could end up losing.

"Visitation" by Rembrandt (1640). Produced in Rembrandt's prime, this painting is actually quite small, which makes its detail even more stunning.

"Mary And Child With Angels" by Fra Angelico (~1425). Fra Angelico helped kick off the Renaissance with enigmatic depictions of classic religious subjects.

"Self-Portrait" by Vincent Van Gogh (1887). Van Gogh painted this self-portrait just a few years before he committed suicide — and you can tell.

With stock prices near all-time highs, investors have grown increasingly uncomfortable about where the markets may head in the near-term.

Perhaps the better idea is to think long-term.

In a new report titled, "The Search for Creative Destruction," the analysts at Goldman Sachs do just that.

"We showcase eight secular disruptive themes that we believe possess the potential to command greater attention in the coming years," wrote lead analyst Robert Boroujerdi. "Indeed, these stories through product or business innovation are poised to transform addressable markets or open up entirely new ones, offering growth insulated from the broader macro environment and creating value for their stakeholders, in our view."

Goldman's themes cut across all industries from manufacturing to finance to tobacco.

We've put together the most important data within each "destroyer," describing what it does and quantifying its growth potential.

Thanks to Goldman Sachs for giving us permission to feature their charts.

Creative Destroyer 1: E-Cigarettes

Goldman's Judy Hong describes e-cigarettes as basically all the good stuff about regular cigarettes but none of the bad. "Imagine a product that is possibly >99% less harmful than cigarettes, delivers a similar user experience and offers a better economic bargain—this is the proposition of electronic cigarettes (e-ci gs)."

Source: Goldman Sachs

E-cigarettes could grab a tenth of the entire tobacco market.

E-cigs yield higher margins for manufacturers and retailers as they aren't subject to excise taxes or settlement payments. Hong estimates they could hit $10bn in sales over the next several years, compared with more than $1bn this year, while grabbing 10% of the overall tobacco market (and 15% of market profits).

Source: Goldman Sachs

Here's Hong's growth outlook for e-cigs.

Most of us are familiar with Mark Zuckerberg’s story — brilliant Harvard student who dropped out sophomore year to create Facebook, a move that changed the face of social media entirely. What a mouthful, right?

However, the dropout entrepreneur archetype didn’t start with Zuckerberg. In fact, many entrepreneurs carry surprisingly limited higher education credentials. Their accomplishments go beyond degrees, and can instead be measured by the global impacts they have made. The visionaries shown in the slideshow are recognized for their million dollar ideas, and had the nerve, talent, and skill, to bring them to life.

All of the entrepreneurs in our list have taken the gutsy and lesser-taken path, forsaking degrees and choosing to bank on their own ideas. However, what was once a risky move has come to be seen as a formula, and some are trying to reproduce similar results by attempting to test out the formula.

In 2012, billionaire and venture capitalist Peter Thiel funded 20 promising young talents, paying them each $100,000 to drop out of college for at least two years to become a “Thiel Fellow.” So is success really as easy as giving bright minds the money to fuel their ambition? The verdict is still out on that one.

In the meantime, check out the wildly successful entrepreneur dropouts that struck gold.

Rob Kalin, Founder of Etsy

At the age of 25, Rob Kalin was a high-school dropout-turned-furniture designer just hoping to make a living selling his goods online. After hours of surfing the net, Kalin had an epiphany. He envisioned a community marketplace in which artisans could sell their wares and people could purchase handcrafted items online directly. With the help of two techies and $50,000 investor, Etsy went live in 2005, and become a hit immediately.

As of 2010 Etsy was valued at $300 million. Though Kalin stepped down as CEO in 2011, he is still seen today as the visionary of Etsy. Kalin had dabbled in half a dozen colleges before finally graduating from New York University with a major in the classics.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter

Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter and founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payments company, dropped out of New York University and hopped between jobs before landing at Odeo,the forerunner of Twitter.

In 2008 he was named as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35 by MIT Technology Review.

Last year he was given the "Innovator of the Year Award" for technology by The Wall Street Journal.

Dean Kamen, Inventor of the Segway

Inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute for two years before dropping out.

He now holds more than 80 U.S. patents, and has become famous for his Segway PT, an electric, self-balancing human transporter complete with a computer-controlled gyroscopic stabilization and control system.

He is also an illustrator for many EC Comics publications, including Mad and Weird Science.

In a morbidly ironic twist, 62-year-old millionaire and Segway Inc. owner, Jimi Heselden, died in a Segway-related accident in 2010 when he accidentally drove the electric scooter off a cliff and into a river.

Tiger Woods is the most recognizable name in golf today.

Everyone knows Woods; partly because of his scandal, partly because he's one of the best golfers to ever take the course, and mostly because his presence cannot be ignored.

Photographers at golf tournaments can't seem to ignore him either. They find ways to photograph Woods that are beautiful and artistic, and end up not just being about golf.

The PGA Championship kicked off Thursday and Tiger finished his round 1-over, hopefully he kicks it into high gear for the weekend.

The British Open, Gullane, Scotland—2013

The British Open, Gullane, Scotland—2013

The U.S. Open, Ardmore, Penn.—2013

It could be easy to assume that those living on the streets of New York City don't own any gadgets, but that's not always the case.

Over the course of two weeks, we interviewed dozens of homeless people, to find out what kind of consumer electronics they own — and more importantly, what they use them for.

From laptops and iPhones, to government-provided phones and everything in between, it quickly became clear that many homeless people use gadgets to stay connected, aid in job searches, or pursue their own creative interests.

Note: All people shown have given their permission for us to take their picture, though some requested we not show their faces.

This is Calvin, who owns both a Dell Inspiron laptop and a Samsung smartphone.

Calvin uses his phone mostly for listening to music, and if he turns down the graphics settings on his laptop, he can run most modern games. "I can run 'Oblivion' or 'Skyrim' just fine," he said.

"King" is originally from Virginia. While he has been in New York for most of his life, King is trying to change that. "I'm trying to move away as we speak," he said. "I would like to go to North Carolina."

Tim Cook, speaking about Steve Jobs earlier this year, said, "He would flip on something so fast that you would forget that he was the one taking the 180 degree polar [opposite] position the day before."

The idea is that one of Jobs' great strengths was that he could change his mind. By not being stuck on one idea, he could pivot from idea to idea, finding something great that works for Apple. 

However, despite his ability to flip-flop, there are certain things that have happened to Apple since he died that we don't think he'd be thrilled about. 

Apple killed skeuomorphism in iOS.

Jobs was a big fan of creating illustrations that look like real life objects. He loved the fake Vegas gaming table in iOS's Game Center. Apple just killed all of that. It's going with a flatter look that removes all the life-imitating graphics and animations. 

Apple is phasing out rounded rectangles.

This is sort of a silly one, but Jobs loved rounded rectangles. There's a story in his biography about someone questioning his decision for rounded rectangles in the early Apple days. He dragged the guy for on a walk around the block to show how many rounded rectangles there are in the everyday world. Apple's new iPhone software has more circles in it than ever. He wouldn't like that.

Jobs said he was anti-small tablets, but Apple made the iPad Mini.

Jobs went on a big rant about how tablets that are smaller than 10-inches were going to be dead on arrival because they provide a terrible app experience. He said companies selling tablets ought to include sandpaper because users will need to sand down their fingers to use the tablets. Apple has since released the iPad Mini, and people seem to love it. Oops. 

“Breaking Bad” week is in full swing.

After nearly a year's hiatus, meth kingpin Walter White (Bryan Cranston) makes his big return to AMC Sunday night. 

If you haven't noticed, we're hugefans. 

To get pumped for the series return, we're counting down the most unexpected moments from the series (so far). 

Don't confuse this list with the overall best moments of the series (There are plenty of fantasticmonologues and montages that would make that list). Rather, these are the jaw-dropping moments you didn't see coming that made each hour-long episode worth viewing. 

Let's begin!

[MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN ALL FIVE SEASONS!]

16. Walt's first kill.

Season 1 | Episode 1 : “Pilot”

Not only do we find out in the pilot episode that a nerdy, meek chemistry teacher by the name of Walter White wants to start cooking meth, but in the same hour he winds up murdering one guy — and seriously injuring another — with mustard gas. 

He then devises a plan to get rid of the body with hydrofluoric acid! We didn't think the guy had it in him.

15. Walt goes berserk on Tuco's hang out.

Season 1 | Episode 6 : “Crazy Handful Of Nothin'”

After Walt sees Jesse battered and broken in a hospital bed at the hand of unstable, mental case Tuco Salamanca, he decides to pay him a visit.

We know the chem teacher has something up his sleeve, but no one expected him to blow the place up with highly explosive fulminated mercury.

Lesson learned: Don't mess with Walter White.

14. Hank turns the tables on his twin assassins.

Season 3 | Episode 7 : “One Minute”

After Hank receives a creepy warning call about two men out, we figure this is the end of the series run for the DEA agent.

Never count Hank out. Just when we think he's about to get axed (literally), he's able to get the best of his assassin.

Hong Kong officials this week seized more than $5 million worth of illegal ivory, rhino horns, and leopard skins — a large and macabre haul of contraband.

The illegal items were hidden in 21 crates on a container ship going from Nigeria to Hong Kong. This contraband obviously wasn't hidden well enough.

Other smugglers who have also gotten caught have gone to even more creative lengths to sneak illegal items across international borders.

These items include illicit animal parts as well as drugs and live animals hidden in extremely creative places.

Here's the massive haul of skins and tusked seized on Aug. 7, 2013.

Earlier this summer, 213 bear paws were confiscated on their way from Russia to China, where they are a delicacy.

In March, another kind of bear was seized en route from Norway to Germany.

After 17 years in the NBA, Kobe Bryant is still one of the best players in the league.

And there's one reason why — his insane work ethic.

Even after going down with a devastating Achilles injury at the end of the 2012-2013 season, Kobe kept working, and now he says he's way ahead of schedule on his recovery. In fact, he says he "shattered" the timetable for recovery from his surgery, and that he should be back for preseason instead of missing games well into the 2013-2014 season.

But that's just Kobe for you.

We picked out our favorite Kobe stories that illustrate just how hard he works.

They include marathon workouts, playing teammates to 100 after practice, and refusing to eat the junk food he loves the most.

He decided to lose 16 pounds for the Olympics in 2012

Kobe has never been out of shape, but he decided to change himself as a precautionary measure. He told the Guardian:

"With summer basketball leading directly into the season — and I'm expecting to play until next June — I have to take some load off my knees. I've got to shave some of this weight."

Source: Guardian

Showed up at 5 a.m. and left practice at 7 p.m. ... in high school

Source: SI

He'd make high school teammates play one-on-one games to 100

Kobe played a bench warmer to 100 multiple times when he was in high school.

In Kobe's worst game, he still won 100-12.

Source: SI

At Le Pigeon in Portland, OR, the profiteroles come with foie gras and the duck is served “moo shoo” style, with plum chutney and mushrooms. These once-unthinkable deviations from French tradition are the creations of chef Gabriel Rucker, who has won over critics and diners alike.

Click here to see the best French restaurants in the US >

Le Pigeon is part of a national shift in the definition of what makes a great French restaurant. Yes, thick sauces still exist (thank goodness), as do venerated haute cuisine kitchens like those of chef Joël Robuchon. But French cuisine has also become more accessible, and increased access to exceptional local product means that bistros like Maison Giraud in Los Angeles and brasseries like Niche in St. Louis dish out high-quality French fare in more down-to-earth environs.

“French gastronomy is based on the ingredients themselves and on detailed, careful preparation of the food,” says Robuchon. “I truly believe, as is exemplified in my restaurants around the world, that the simpler the food, the harder it is to prepare it well. You want to truly taste what it is you’re eating, and that goes back to the trend of fine ingredients.”

Technique still counts, of course, and many American chefs have spent time in France learning to flambé, sauté, and julienne, as well as about sauce preparation and a structured kitchen system in which every person plays a crucial role.

The results are on display at the best French restaurants across the U.S., from Les Nomades, in a romantic Chicago brownstone, to the outdoor patio of Anis Café & Bistro in Atlanta.

More from Travel + Leisure:

• America's Best Cities For Ice Cream
• The Best Chinese Restaurants In The US
• America's Best Museum Restaurants
• The Best Italian Restaurants In The US
• The World's Most Visited Museums

Mélisse - Santa Monica, CA

Santa Monica may be on the beach, but Mélisse is a true fine-dining destination, with two Michelin stars and the refined look of smoky purple walls, white tablecloths, and handblown French crystal sculptures.

The dining room sets the stage for exquisitely prepared contemporary French-California cuisine that pays homage to the nearby Pacific. Onion soup with coconut and Dungeness crab, Santa Barbara prawns, and Kona abalone are just a few of chef Josiah Citrin’s dishes. The stellar wine list reflects the best of California and France.

Le Pigeon - Portland, OR

Carnivores and adventurous eaters will appreciate chef Gabriel Rucker’s creations, which add whimsy and decadence to traditional French recipes. Beef-cheek bourguignonne, rabbit-in-a-pig-blanket, and foie gras profiteroles are among the quirky edibles.

The chef’s counter puts diners ringside in the busy kitchen, and the brick-wall dining room’s three communal tables are often filled with both locals and international clientele. Le Pigeon’s first cookbook comes out in September 2013—for you try-it-at-home types.

Les Nomades - Chicago

Linger at this romantic brownstone in Streeterville for a memorable Parisian-style tête-à-tête. The restaurant’s motto declares, “A fresh expression of French cuisine,” and the menu heeds the claim with clever twists on classics such as the sautéed Hudson Valley foie gras, banana water, and Granny Smith apple purée appetizer.

The wine list includes an excellent champagne selection, worth a toast whether you’re celebrating or not. lesnomades.net