Brown 'N' Serve Links

'Cause I feel compelled to post something tonight (why I don't know) and yet don't feel up to a comic review, book review, comment on this week's very funny Mad Men, or haiku...here are some things that caught my eye today (really it's yesterday now, isn't it?)

• I say let's give Amr Waked his own action franchise with helmer Michael Bay. That's the best way to stick it to the frakin' Egyptian Actors' Union.
• I thought it was funny when Jonathan Franzen sorta dissed Big O. And again when she got embarrassed by "bad boy" James Frey (who's about as tough as Tucker Carlson). But hoo-boy is this story from The Times Picayune's Chris Rose hilarious. "AS NOT SEEN ON OPRAH!" via Levitt and Dubner
• Had lunch with my buddy Jared today. We hadn't gotten together in a few months and it was great catching up. Did not hurt one bit that our itty-bitty tight and toned waitress had Tinkerbell tattooed on her limber lumbar just above her sacred sacrum. A vast improvement over the last waitress we had at this restaurant (not her fault: she was sorta cute, but the restaurant makes the girls wear the skimpy miniskirt and skanky mini-shirt even if they shouldn't). We chatted about a wide variety of things and he mentioned his interest in blogging on his commuting tactics. It may sound lame, but he manages to go 25 miles in 30 minutes on the 101 in rush hour traffic. (This is AZ, not CA. Let's not be crazy here.) I told him I thought that would make a nifty post. See for yourself, here. I swear, he's not even the slightest bit Asperger-y.
• Wil Wheaton's got a problem with DirecTV. Great. I've already been pissy for two years now that I can't upgrade to a new TiVo because I've got the one and only HD DirecTV-TiVo box ever built (and those two don't like playing nice together anymore). I'm very worried that we're going to have to go to cable when it's finally time to replace the TiVo (or worse...use whatever shit DVR DirecTV had built in Hyderabad). Now, I've got to worry that my next TV will only have HDMI inputs instead of composite and I'll have DRM issues. DRM issues. With a TV. That's cracked.