Blog Crush II takes aim at Gregg Easterbrook. It’s way too mean to be a simple drive-by. My guess is that the Christmas Ape knows Easterbrook and requested the hit.

Still, it’s kind of awesome:

I’m So Classy, I Say Cognomen Instead of Nicknames: Reader Frank Johnson of Greenwich, CT, writes, “TMQ, you are so smart. I wish I could be smart like you. But I’m not. I want to hang myself. Anyway, in an attempt to sound as erudite as you, I propose nicknaming the Denver Broncos the Denver Kimchiwannawannnadingdongs, which is ancient Mandarin for ‘horses that run’. I’d also like you to use this nickname at all times so that readers won’t know what team you’re talking about.” Mr. Data, make it so!

Here’s the giveaway line, though, that shows a tiny bit too much insider knowledge of TMQ:

Wacky Food Of The Week: Last week, TMQ ate at Citronelle, a four-star restaurant in DC that commoners like yourself wouldn’t be allowed in. But, since I’d like to identify with you, I want to tell you about the wacky things on the menu! Like the venison with truffle ragout! Doesn’t that sound crazy?! It sure does to TMQ, though TMQ knows damn well that venison and truffles are an inspired pairing. Your haute cuisine frightens and confuses me, Mr. Chef man. But not really.

Oh Ye Mortals, Trifle Not With The (Clearly Christian) Football Gods: Pittsburg of Kansas ran up the score again! TMQ is fucking pissed! Football is for learning! The coach of Pittsburg is clearly a point-grubbing Jew.

Are Milan’s opera fans worse than Philly sports fans? You be the judge:

MILAN, Italy (Reuters) — Top tenor Roberto Alagna stormed off stage after he was booed in the middle of a performance at Milan’s La Scala opera house, forcing a costumeless substitute to replace him and drawing criticism from organizers.

“There has been an obvious lack of respect towards the public and the theatre,” La Scala’s artistic director, Stephane Lissner, said in statement on Monday, calling the incident regrettable.

French-born Alagna, known as “the fourth tenor” and hailed by some critics as the new Pavarotti, had been playing the lead male role in Franco Zeffirelli’s lavish production of Verdi’s Aida, which launched La Scala’s new season last Thursday.

But minutes into the show’s second performance on Sunday night, a small section of the audience began booing Alagna, who had just finished singing an aria, apparently displeased about comments he had made about La Scala’s demanding audience.

The 43-year old, already upset by some of the reviews he earned for his performance on the opening night, raised his fist defiantly and walked out, leaving stunned fellow singer Ildiko Komlosi to sing “a duet on my own.”

After a few moments of embarrassment, with some in the audience shouting “Shame on you!”, understudy Antonello Palombi jumped in and carried on singing wearing a pair of jeans and a black shirt for lack of a costume.

Bet La Scala doesn’t give up Alagna for Jerry Stackhouse and Austin Fucking Croshere.

Remember back in July of 2005 when Money magazine named Moorestown, NJ the #1 town in all of America? I went on a somewhat unbecoming tirade because, while I love my hometown and would suggest it as a great place to live and have a family, it clearly isn’t the best town in South Jersey, let alone America. (There was a part 2 to the tirade. Just for good measure.)

On Saturday, The Pig sent along this story about drugs in Moorestown’s high school:

A search at one of the most elite public high schools in the region turned up “significant” amounts of cocaine, amphetamines, diet pills, marijuana, prescription drugs, and drug paraphernalia, school authorities said last night.

The drugs were found at Moorestown High – a school flush with Advanced Placement courses, where 94 percent of students go on to college and where most participate in extracurricular activities.

After an investigation by school officials, six students were questioned by authorities Wednesday, searched, and given drug tests and arrested, interim district Superintendent Timothy Brennan said. . . .

“I sense that the results of the high school administration’s investigation are an indication of a larger problem,” Brennan said.

The mood in Moorestown High, which has about 1,300 students, was edgy, Brennan said.

“There’s been more of a sense of unrest at the high school,” he said. “Some of the students are upset and surprised that this happened at their school. Some are wondering what the future holds.”

I’ll be the editors at Money are thrilled this morning that they didn’t name Moorestown America’s #1 town this year.

Bonus: If you want more dish, there’s a Fark comments thread on the story.

Galley Brother B.J. sends a link to this story with the advice: “Never go swimming in Corpus Christi. Ever.”

Sounds about right to me.

Here’s Jane Espenson talking about the two episodes of BSG she’s written.

I need a cigarette.

The great Todd McCarthy reports:

“All Quiet on the Western Front” was about Germans in World War I, but from a pacifist p.o.v.; “Tora! Tora! Tora!” included the Japanese angle on Pearl Harbor; the central characters in “The Blue Max” and “Cross of Iron” were Germans. Scattered other examples certainly exist. All the same, there are few moments in Hollywood cinema of any era as oddly unsettling as the one here, in which an American Marine charges toward the protagonists and is so manifestly perceived as the enemy.

That unfortunate young man is bayonetted to death by his Japanese captors. But the film’s true intent comes across the second time a Yank is nabbed by the doomed members of the Imperial Army, when the injured grunt movingly establishes an unlikely bond with his aristocratic Japanese interrogator. There were compelling reasons why the war was fought, but the unusual focus of “Letters” is the humanity of the Japanese soldiers who longed for home just like anyone else, knowing they would never leave the tiny strip of land alive.

Naturally, U.S. war films of the era painted the Japanese as the most maniacal and barbaric of fighters, and many veterans and historians, Americans, Chinese and others, insist this was true. Pic might have done well to mention the emperor’s endorsement of the “Death Before Surrender” edict of early 1945. But “Letters” makes the case that even the Japanese were divided among themselves.

Fug Girl Heather on some actress you’ve never heard of:

She looks a bit like the eccentric costume master of a high-school drama department, who is method-prepping for this year’s production of Oliver Fame–the heartwarming story of an orphan and his merry band of pickpockets who are punished for trying to rob a bakery by being tossed into a prestigious song-and-dance academy. Oh, sure, it damages their street cred, but slowly these young rapscallions melt under the tutelage of Debbie Allen. They stop stealing cash and start stealing hearts, learning important lessons about honesty, rhythm, the true meaning of family, and jazz hands.

Blog Crush sister blog With Leather sends us to this unbelievably vile, incredibly funny, skit. As they say, this is technically safe for work. But wow . . .

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCVbJu8050]

Robert Smigel is going to wish he’d come up with this first.