STILL, BETTER THAN SUPER MARIO BROTHERS: I agree with most critics about Zombieland. It's a heckuva a lot of fun, and features some impressive visual stylings, and a spectacular cameo (and seriously, the less you know about the cameo going in, the better--I was about 60% spoiled, knowing who it was and half of the character information). Yes, there's not a whole lot of plot there--four mismatched people try to get from point A to point B while evading zombies. Why are they going there? Well, we're given dirty reasons for 3 of the 4 characters (not sure why Harrelson's character wants to go there). But what surprises me in how little it's been remarked upon, is how, even though it's not based on a video game, the movie owes far more to a pair of video games than anything else (yes, including Shawn of the Dead, its obvious forebear).

First is Left 4 Dead, in which four survivors fight off hordes of "infected" (primarily using guns) as they strike to get to a "Safe zone," climaxing in a big environmental firefight. The movie's structure feels like a L4D "campaign," down to a final firefight in a cool and tricky environment with survivors running out of ammo, and I'd be shocked not to see a mod for the game that's based on the movie. The second is Dead Rising, in which a photojournalist fights off hordes of zombies in a mall using whatever comes to hand--several of the more inventive zombie kills in the movie (Harrelson's improvised weaponry in a grocery store in particular) draw directly from DR, which lets you kill zombies with garden shears, plates, baseball bats, and anything else you can imagine. If you enjoy the movie, check out the games--they're good fun.

HONG KONG PHOOEY: Other than being a tiny bit sloppy with travel times - LA - Utah - Stakeout - Firefight - Arson - Investigation - Home for Supper - and things seem to be recovering a bit too easily from the event itself, but another fine episode of Flash Forward for my money. A few spoilerific thoughts in the thread.

"Sexual Favor Fail" by Sarah Schneider on CollegeHumor

NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF GILBERT LOWE WERE STILL IN CHARGE OF THE GREEK COUNCIL: Sexual Favor FAIL. [HT: @OWillis.]

[I'm trying to find a way to tie this to the whole Tufts Sexile issue and failing; we tossed it around at ALOTT5MA HQ for an afternoon earlier this week, with much discussion not only of the importance of enforceable background rules to minimize transaction costs but also the less-discussed 72-hour waiting period on overnight stays (p38, PDF). If there's interest, we can still get into all that.]

BUDDY MAKE A BIG NOISE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM: Soon, you'll be able to get fully in touch with your inner Freddie Mercury, Jeffster!, or McKinley High School Glee Club member, with a 10-pack of Queen coming to Rock Band as downloadable content. No "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions," but the idea of "playing" the riff for "Under Pressure" alone makes this a good time.

HOW I MET THIS GIRL NAMED SUMMER: Michael Ausiello is reporting that we may have casting of the other title role on How I Met Your Mother in the form of Rachel Bilson, who'll appear in the series' 100th episode in a role that they've hinted might well be Mrs. Ted. Perhaps even more exciting is that the episode will also feature "an enormous musical number that we’re going to spend way too much of Twentieth Television’s money on" headlined by NPH.

SOMEWHERE IN THE THIRD WORLD NEXT WEEK A LARGE SHIPMENT OF CHICAGO 2016 T-SHIRTS WILL BE ARRIVING: We're still waiting for the final vote to see if it's Rio or Madrid in 2016, but in a stunning upset the IOC decided Chicago was not their kind of town to host the Olympic Games. Apparently that John Malkovich and Dennis Franz sketch held a lot of sway.

Update: Her name is Rio and she is going to host the 2016 Olympics. Required viewing this weekend, City of God.

YOU'RE NOT A LOSER 'CAUSE YOU HAVE SEX, BUT IF YOU WEREN'T HAVING SEX, WE COULD DEFINITELY DEBATE THE ISSUE: We've done this before, but since it came up in the Sepinwall-Simmons podcast yesterday, and since we now have Doodle to do the heavy lifting ("we can rebuild him -- we have the technology"), let's settle this once and for all now. If you were to pick your four favorite seasons of television -- your Mount Rushmore of television seasons, to use ESPN's annoying phrase -- what would they be? I'll put what appear to be the contenders into a Doodle poll and we'll hash this out, wisdom-of-crowds style.

Mine, in no particular order: Deadwood, Season 2; Freaks & Geeks; Arrested Development Season 1; Friday Night Lights, Season 1.

Update: The poll is live. I just put everything that was mentioned more than twice into the poll. Vote here, vote early, and vote often, where often is less than or equal to four seldom.

Annoying Update: Only four votes per person. If you vote for more than four things, I will delete your entry. If you get deleted, feel free to go back and vote for only four. Tara and Abby G, try again. Your Mount Rushmores had too many presidents.

Thoroughly annoying update: I accidentally typed "Office S2" as "Office S1." If you already voted and you want me to change something to "Office S2," let me know in the comments.