Here is the one-hundred-and-thirtieth edition of Tom Nob’s Thursday Notes. TN2 serves as a brief summary of what good humor we have found during the past week plus some suggestions for the upcoming weekend.

New Stand-Up

The Benson Interruption – The Podcast:  Episode 11

New TV Show

Inside Comedy

New TV Season

Archer – season three

And Finally

Pity poor Michael Williams.  All the Caddo (Louisiana) Parish Commissioner wanted was to go to Wal-Mart, hobnob with the greeters, and maybe take advantage of the everyday low prices.  What he got, however, was a group of layabout young men wearing pajama pants which failed to hide the junk of at least one male.   Mr. Williams took this as a sign that “the moral fiber of our community is dwindling…its pajama pants today, next it will be underwear tomorrow” so he is proposing to introduce an ordinance that would ban the wearing of pajama pants in public.  There is some precedent in the parish as the city of Shreveport enacted a ban on sagging trousers in 2011.    While enforcement of such a ban would certainly prove problematic, Mr. Williams has proposed that violators be required to perform community service.  Our take on this is that it is probably more of an issue of the quality of the cotton fiber rather than the moral fiber and that the presence of underwear would probably prove to be quite helpful.  Besides, people who don’t feel any motivation to change out of their pajamas as they proceed with their day are poorly “suited” to be providing community services.

Here is the one-hundred-and-twenty-ninth edition of Tom Nob’s Thursday Notes. TN2 serves as a brief summary of what good humor we have found during the past week plus some suggestions for the upcoming weekend.

New Stand-Up

Doug Loves Movies:  Live in Las Vegas

New TV Show

Unsupervised

New TV Season

Being Human (Canada) – season two

And Finally

How do you want to be remembered when you leave this mortal world.  Will your legacy be a name on a building, a product or company  you created, the genius of your progeny, an oft-repeated quote, a work of work, or a piece of fruit?  We’ve been thinking about this since hearing recently that the American rock band The Velvet Underground is suing the family foundation of the late Andy Warhol over the licensing of one of his works.  A good friend and early supporter of the band, Warhol provided a silk-screen-styled yellow banana to serve as the cover of the 1967 “The Velvet Underground and Nico” album.

Despite the fact that it sold poorly and was largely ignored by music critics, the album has since grown in reputation during the intervening decades and is now routinely included in lists of greatest rocks albums. Thus, when the band learned that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts had licensed the banana image to a maker a cases for iPads and iPods they filed a lawsuit in federal court. In short, the band’s argument is that the banana belongs to them by virtue of 45 years of association. While the band is due their 15 minutes in court, theirs is an uphill journey and a slippery one at that.

Here is the one-hundred-and-twenty-eighth edition of Tom Nob’s Thursday Notes. TN2 serves as a brief summary of what good humor we have found during the past week plus some suggestions for the upcoming weekend.

New TV Show

Napoleon Dynamite – season one

Are You There, Chelsea? – season one

New TV Season

30 Rock – season six

The Game – season five

Let’s Stay Together – season two

New Stand-Up

Tom Papa: Live in New York City

New Books

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel

And Finally

We’re almost two weeks into the new year which means, if past is prologue, that many of the resolutions that were made to improve our less-than-perfect lives have already gone by the wayside.  Typically one of the first to be formulated on that brand new morning is to drink less alcohol.   Chances are, according to a spate of agency data from around the world, even if you succeed in experiencing fewer alcohol-fueled fiestas, the number of drinks you consume on each occasion will remain quite high.  Government poindexters have deemed such events as “binge” drinking.   Social binge drinking traces its roots to 17th century England when well-heeled university students and barristers-in-training formed drinking societies where they were expected to drink copious quantities of alcohol yet still be able to retain their wit.  Today the phenomenon of  binge drink has permeated virtually every society and social class but in ways that may surprise you.  While the English have retained their reputation as binge drinkers par excellence, the true “champions” may be South Africans, a third of whom reportedly begin drinking early afternoon on Friday and do not stop until the workday starts on Monday resulting in a rather precarious rush hour.  Back here in the United States where binge drinking is considered the purview of the college students and cheese-topped residents of the Badger State, the Centers for Disease Control just released a study which found that the income group with the most binge drinkers were those who made more than $75,000 per year and the age group that binge drinks most often being those 65 years and older.  Clearly this cohort has taken to heart the witticism offered by their generation’s bards, the Grateful Dead, who sang:  “Too much of everything is just enough.”  A toast to their health.

Here is the one-hundred-and-twenty-seventh edition of Tom Nob’s Thursday Notes. TN2 serves as a brief summary of what good humor we have found during the past week plus some suggestions for the upcoming weekend.

New Film

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same

New TV Show

House of Lies – season one

Angry Boys – U.S. debut, season one

Work It – season one

New TV Season

Portlandia – season two

The Increasingly Poor Decision of Todd Margaret – season two

Shameless – season two

Californication- season five

And Finally

Nasty, brutish and short. This ellipse of unrelenting gloom from Thomas Hobbes (not to be confused with Calvin’s sidekick) can be aptly applied to the pudgy, petulant pipsqueak promoted to power in Pyongyang but it is probably just as fitting in describing the attitude of millions of kiddos in California on New Year’s Day.  We are referring to a change in law that took effect on January 1 in the Golden State that requires all children to remain in car booster seats until they are 8 years-old or reach the height of 4-feet-9-inches.   This change is not going down well with an estimated 1.1 million 6- and 7-year-olds who thought that booster seats were a fading image in the rearview mirror of life after reaching the previous requirement of 6 years or 60 pounds.  And so their parents, who managed to survive childhoods of riding unfettered on plastic-encased bench seats while inhaling lungfuls of leaded gas fumes and second-hand smoke, must re-elevate their little princes and princesses back onto their thrones kicking and screaming or face the threat of fines in excess of $425.  While all of this change is being made in the name of safety, the California Highway Patrol reports that 75% of car seats inspected have been installed incorrectly.  Their grim new reality can be best summed up by Calvin, BFF of Hobbes (not to be confused with that killjoy T. Hobbes), who lamented:  “Life’s disappointments are harder to take when you don’t know any swear words.”

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