SPECIAL TUESDAY GRAMMAR RODEO (WHOPPERS JUNIOR DIVISION): Those of you with long memories will note that today's Mardi Gras marks the 10th such celebration since Philadelphia's 2001 Mardi Gras riots, chronicled on our pages in 2003 and preserved on YouTube as well.

But I couldn't help but wonder: what's the plural of Mardi Gras? If I wanted to say "I still can't believe what happened ten [MGs] ago," what term would I use?  Mardis Gras?  Mardi Grases?  Something else?

ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS LEGITIMATE THAN THE GOLDEN GLOBES: In addition to Shawn Michaels, the WWE Hall of Fame this year will induct Hacksaw Jim Duggan, a man whose loquacity, in-ring versatility and fondness for garden tools have few peers in sports entertainment.

IF ONLY HE HAD AN APROPOS LYRIC REGARDING MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR MISTAKES, SO THAT I COULD HAVE A WITTY TITLE TO THIS POST: According to Phil Collins's U.K. rep, he's only taking a break from music and is not retiring.  But then he found out he was wrong when he thought he was right -- according to a statement by Collins on his own website, he is "calling it a day" but wants you to know he's conscious of the fact that in recent interviews he "ended up sounding like a tormented weirdo who thinks he was at the Alamo in another life, who feels very sorry for himself, and is retiring hurt because of the bad press over the years," none of which, he insists, is true. Need I say we care?

MORE LIKE DOUBLE POSITIVE: A little while ago someone -- perhaps Matt? or perhaps not -- mentioned that Sepinwall had identified "Donald Glover crying" as something that is never not funny. I think that Sepinwall also had long ago named "Donald Faison dancing" as something that is never not funny (though it may just have fallen into the slightly broader category of "never not enjoyable").

It got me thinking -- what else is never not funny? I'd say "Leslie Knope listing things" tops my list, though "Raylan Givens talks people out of gunplay" and "fake band names by anybody" are up there too.

I MARCHED THROUGH IT LIKE GENERAL SHERMAN, WITHOUT THE TORCHES: When I noted I’d be going to Atlanta for a long weekend, there was some interest in some bullets as to my culinary and cultural adventures in the Deep South’s biggest metro area (Atlanta itself is surprisingly small population-wise, but there are tons of “pocket cities” and suburbs). Since you asked, I deliver:

• The World of Coca-Cola—Neither as cheesy nor as fun as you might have hoped. Particularly disappointing is the “Coke In Pop Culture” gallery, which makes space for some Coke-driven Pop Art, the “Coke Couch” from Idol Season 5, and only a single small case on the New Coke debacle. The origins gallery and the tiny bottling plant were cool, as was the chance to sample not just international Coca-Cola products, but also the new “Freestyle” machine, which dispenses several new specialty products (Orange Coke? Raspberry Coke?). Touristy, but worthwhile, especially with kids, I’d expect.
• Georgia Aquarium—A very well done aquarium, notable for three things—its size, the size of several of the animals kept there (it’s one of the very few aquaria large enough to house whale sharks, which, amusingly, are neither whales nor sharks), and the large number of touch pools offered for kids. Pricey, but if you’re into marine life, worth it.
• The Varsity—An Atlanta institution, this “world’s biggest drive-in” isn’t worth it for the food (greasy burgers and chili dogs, mediocre fries, though a nice fried peach pie), but the atmosphere is interesting (someone made the mistake of ordering a Pepsi while I was there, and the cashiers have a prescripted, very loud, rant for that). Not haute cuisine, but you get why it’s an institution (being crazy cheap and located basically on the Georgia Tech campus also helps).
• Flip Burger—Commenter Amy joined me for lunch at Richard Blais’ burger joint. Unsurprisingly, few of the burgers are straight up. I was a bit underwhelmed with the burger—I opted for one that was a burger patty topped with chopped/shredded BBQ brisket and house BBQ sauce. The sauce was a bit thin and overly spicy, tasting more like a house spice sauce like Tabasco than a BBQ sauce, and the combination was too dense for its own good—a veritable meat tornado--some cheese to break it up would have been a good idea. The sides, on the other hand, shined—the fries and onion rings were solid, but most impressive was a roasted cauliflower, which was spiced to perfection and got eaten far more quickly than you might expect. Of course, this being a Blais joint, the large tub of liquid nitrogen in the back has to get used, and it’s used primarily for milkshakes—I opted for one based on Nutella with torched/toasted marshmallows on top, which was excellent. As one might expect with Blais, not every experiment works, but when they do, they really do.
• Center for Puppetry Arts—Amy and I then headed to this Atlanta institution—we passed on the puppet shows, but did the Jim Henson tour, which tours the collection of Henson puppets and related things donated to the museum, including original Kermit, Ernie, Big Bird, Rowlf, Dr Teeth, and Pigs in Space puppets, as well as a bunch of stuff from other Henson projects—Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth, the La Choy Dragon. Included in the tour is the “tunnel of arms” from Labyrinth, which was staffed not with puppeteers, but with extras. One would hope they are now very proud of having had the opportunity to grab the young Jennifer Connelly’s ass and get paid for it. The other part of the collection is less impressive, and the “random puppet heads” room is seriously creepy. The Henson stuff is very well done, and I hope they find the space to show more of it.
• Watershed—This restaurant (out in Decatur) is a well-regarded temple to traditional southern cooking co-owned by Emily Sailers. As you’d expect from a Sailers-owned restaurant, the vibe is light and airy, rather than a crowded mess.While they apparently brought in a new chef about a year and a half ago to replace the highly regarded former chef, who left to pursue other interests, the food was quite solid—a massive pork chop was thick, meaty, but still tender (though a touch salty, which is often unavoidable when working with pork), the mac and cheese excellent, the collard greens good (I am not a fan, but these were nicely buttery), and the Very Good Chocolate Cake lived up to its name.

Not all of the trip was high points (the nearly 9 hours from checkin at the Atlanta airport till return to my home due to a weather mess in NYC last night was less than fun, and it was chilly all weekend), but still, a worthwhile trip.

COME BACK, KIM DELANEY! Via the AV Club Philly, six films shot in Philadelphia but set elsewhere.  Left out: Jimmy Smits's Outlaw (a/k/a Sh*t My Ghost Lawyer Dad Says), where his "DC" apartment in the pilot is on the same block of Delancey Street as Winthorpe's home in Trading Places and the NPH The Best and the Brightest shoot highlighted in the link, and in which the Franklin Institute's front steps become a courthouse's.  Also, why does Philadelphia sub in for Cedar Rapids in Cedar Rapids?

A fuller list of Films Shot Here is here.

POSSIBLE WORLD EXCLUSIVE - MUST CREDIT ALOTT5MA:  At about fifty-six minutes into Eddie Murphy's Coming to America (1988), Prince Akeem of Zamunda is introduced to two American myths presented as fact -- a competitive St. John's basketball team and a gratuitous hand-job from his date for the game, Patrice McDowell, sister of his eventual bride Lisa (accompanied to the game by Darryl "Soul Glo" Jenks, played by ER's Eriq LaSalle). Inspired by recent research on Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Town, I wanted to try to determine: what game was it?

As it turns out, this wasn't that hard to determine: the Redmen were facing the Marist Red Foxes at the Garden, something they did twice in the years preceding the filming. Indeed, Marist's Rik Smits (#45) is immediately recognizable during the sequence, with the Dunking Dutchman delivering the kind of powerful 7-foot-plus performance the silver screen would not see again until Shawn Bradley's work in Space Jam nearly a decade later.

And pretty clearly, it's the December 28, 1987 game, the first round of the 36th ECAC Holiday Festival Tournament. The players we see match up with the box score -- including Boo Harvey (#3), future NBAer Shelton Jones (#31), and future NBAer/defendant Jayson Williams (#11). Most tellingly there's a scoreboard ad for "Knicks vs. Phoenix, Tue. Jan. 5 - 7:30 P.M" -- a game the Knicks indeed played (and lost).

In conclusion, as Akeem said at the game: Yes! In the face!