Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?

Wayne Brady holds a special place in my heart. He has been a part of some really funny pop culture moments, and seems to have an excellent sense of the ridiculous.

Here’s his epic Chapelle Show appearance:

And a recent Funny or Die skit that he did with Mike Tyson, where they did a frame by frame recreation of Bobby Brown’s 80s-licious video for “Every Little Step I Take.”

For comparison’s sake, here is the original Bobby Brown video:

Things like this are why I always smile when I think of Wayne Brady.

(Via New York Magazine)

Hot Guys Reading Books

Yes, please.

Every now and then, tumblr justifies its existence.

There’s some middle place between lashing and shrugging

The story of the Polish Neo-Nazi couple who learned that they were Jewish is really interesting to me. I wonder what it would be like to discover that you are the thing you hate. I applaud Ola and Pawel for turning their lives away from hated and crime, and think it’s fascinating that they now practice Orthodox Judaism. But some of the quotes that appear in this article about them make me uncomfortable.

“I’m not saying I don’t have regrets but it’s not something I walk around and lash myself over,” said Pawel. “I feel sorry for those that I beat up … but I don’t hold a grudge against myself. The people who I hurt can hold a grudge against me.”

And Ola said that while she wasn’t proud of her past, she wasn’t embarrassed either. Really? I could be embarrassed over it. They stopped being Neo-Nazis because they realized that they were Jewish, but they’re not embarrassed about the spewing hatred and beating up people part of the movement? Eh, these two seem like extremist joiners, so maybe they see any endeavor that advances their current belief system to be okay.

I’m going to watch the documentary when it airs, and maybe I’ll come away with a different understanding of this couple.

I feel like I’ve read every awful romance novel ever

But somehow I missed these doozies. Maybe it’s because I try to stay away from “the clinch,” but whatever it is, I’m thanking my lucky stars and adding these all to my Not To Be Read list.

So long, farewell

As I mention from time to time, I’m fairly obsessed with books. I get a lot of them from the library, but I buy even more. Some books I only want to read once, and then I’m done with them. Others I keep forever and will reread as the mood strikes me. Sometimes it’s not immediately clear which category a book will fall into, and it’s necessary to keep them around for a while to figure it out. Once I’ve decided that a book is not a keeper, I try to make its purchase pay off for me, anyway. There are a few book-swapping web sites that I belong to. The first, Paperbackswap, is the one I’ve been with the longest (over 3 years!), and I’ve had a good run over there. I joined the other two sites, SwapTree and Bookmooch, this year.

I was pretty happy with both of the newer services when I first joined them, because I got rid of a lot of books really quickly. Even paying postage on so many books didn’t discourage me. Of the three services, SwapTree was the only one where books were exchanged on a one to one basis. With the other services, people would request books from me and I would accrue credits by sending them. At some point in the future, I could use these credits to redeem books that I wanted from other users. Since the whole point of this exercise was to get rid of the books cluttering my house, I figured that I wouldn’t use SwapTree too much, but I actually did about as many trades there as I did on BookMooch.

Then, toward the end of the summer, SwapTree went through a lot of changes. It got a new CEO, and a new name, Swap.com. And just a couple of days ago, I received an email from them stating that they’re going to start charging members a fee for each transaction (on top of postage). Excuse me? Why would I pay to get rid of my books? I could take them to the library, list them on eBay, or try to sell them at a used bookstore. If I wanted to, I could have all of those books out of my house today, at no real cost to myself. I give a big BOO! to Swap, which I’m quitting (and a lot of other people seem to be, too).

This weekend, as if the universe wanted to tell me that I was heading in the right direction, I received two Paperbackswap requests. Take that, Swap!

Whew!

Yesterday a friend and I decided that we wanted Vietnamese for lunch. Thai restaurants in Englewood are plentiful, but there’s only one place to get Vietnamese food. We walked down Palisade Avenue to the restaurant, but were met with a weird sight when we arrived. The awning still said “Saigon Republic,” but there were sloppily placed construction paper cutouts on the window that spelled out “Asia Time.” Despite the fact that this has got to be the most generic name ever for a restaurant that serves Asian cuisine, we went inside anyway. They’d changed the decor (for the better, actually), and we still weren’t sure whether this place was a new restaurant or simply redecorated, until we received the Asia Time menu with the Thai food and relatively high prices. We thanked the hostess, asked for and received a lunch menu, and went to Kratiem, a tried and true Thai restaurant up the street.

I was really bummed that Saigon R was no more, and checked ye olde Google to find out what was up. And, happy day! it turns out that the restaurant is just moving to Tenafly (as per the owners’ web site). Even though we’ll now have to go to Tenafly to get it, their yummy duck will be worth the trip!

Damn, I just made myself really hungry.

One of these things is not like the other

Laughing at the stupid fears that prompt people to take out bizarre insurance policies is all fun and games until the article mocks one that actually sounds rather reasonable: Thai riots. A quick google search will show you that yes, this is a more legitimate fear than being impregnated by a deity or abducted by aliens (I think). I do want to visit Thailand in my life, and no, I wouldn’t buy this insurance, but it’s not like I don’t see why other tourists would consider doing so.

Something to aspire to

Today is a sad day for rock fans (and a certain Skinner family), as the New York Times has reported that Leonard Skinner, whose name was liberally disemvoweled to help out rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has passed away at age 77. Anyone who is in any way related to Sweet Home Alabama is a-ok in my book. Plus, it’s awesome to be immortalized in the name of a band. I can’t wait until the economy picks up again and Nic0le’z N0nsense (attention musicians: name still available) goes on their first tour!

Honesty has never been so awesome

Ian McKellen, an actor who has spent my lifetime (and then some) playing interesting characters (and been knighted for it), marched in an anti-Pope rally in London. I don’t know what his particular difficulties are with the Pope, but my take on this is that he should wear some version of this shirt every day.

From The Onion News Network: A change I can believe in

Obama Releases 500,000 Men From U.S. Strategic Bachelor Reserve