HE LITERALLY HAS TO GIVE UP THE FUNK: In order to satisfying a $1M+ debt to his former law firm, George Clinton has been ordered to turn over the Funkadelic master sound recordings of “Hardcore Jollies,” “One Nation Under a Groove,” Uncle Jam Wants You,” and “The Electric Spanking of War Babies.”  The district court opinion is here.

TO PROFESSOR HENRY WALTON JONES, JR:  The University of Chicago has received a mystery package.

THAT WASN'T HERB TEA ... THAT WAS HERB!  The wacky hijinks of NBC's Night Court will always remain in a dear place in my memory, so I regret to inform that its creator, Reinhold Weege, has passed away at age 62. Weege also wrote more than 100 episodes during the show's nine seasons, which balanced the madcap with the sentimental (and far too many real-life deaths) with aplomb, and made a star out of John Laroquette while giving Harry Anderson the platform for which the show was always intended. Also: Mel Tormé.

YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO FILL A MAN LIKE THAT WITH AMBITION:  Nominating The Newsroom and Smash for Best TV Drama and Best TV Comedy instead of Mad Men and (Parks & Rec or Louie) suggests just how poorly today's Golden Globe nominations will go over as an assessment of merit, even in the Yemen (see Sepinwall), but since they have some predictive power on the film side it's worth discussing, if only to hear the titters of glee from the far corners over Jack Black's nomination for Bernie.

added: First Fey-Poehler hosting promo.

HARRY DRANK DEEPLY. IT WAS THE MOST DELICIOUS THING HE'D EVER TASTED AND SEEMED TO HEAT EVERY BIT OF HIM FROM THE INSIDE: Two-and-a-half years after its opening, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando has served its five millionth butterbeer.  For those keeping score at home, that's 5,506 butterbeers daily.

'NOT YOUR FATHER'S OLDSMOBILE' JUST PISSED OFF ALL THE FATHERS WITH OLDSMOBILES: There are two (probably an infinite number, actually, but I'll round down to two) ways to look at Windows 8. One is that Microsoft, distracted by the shiny bauble that is the iPad money-printing machine, has moronically and belatedly decided that everything it makes is going to be either tablety or appy. The other is that Microsoft is internalizing the lessons of Blackberry and trying to make sure that when the generations to whom iPhones and iPads are native technology finally graduate to business tools, Windows-based computers will be both familiar and exciting to them.

Whichever you believe, Windows 8 is a pretty upsetting change for those of us who have a lifetime of accreted Windows knowledge and a firm dedication to the old separation of church and state: the iPad is mostly for fun; the laptop and desktop are mostly for business.

IT'S 12/12/12, AT 12:12:12:  Last chance we'll get to do something like this for the next eighty-eight-plus years, until the first hours of the year 2201 2101. So name a favorite "twelve" or "dozen".