Just last night, Miss Possible and I ventured into the city to go to a show with one of her co-workers and a few friends. We got the invite last week, but I neglected to read through the description — didn’t really matter, I knew we’d have a good time. The show was called “Madame: A comeback from abroad” featuring the “puppet” shown to the right.

I knew I recognized this character from the get-go, but couldn’t place her. Turns out, she used to be on Hollywood Squares as well as Solid Gold. Perhaps you remember her? In any event, it’s actually an interesting story. The original Puppeteer, Wayland Flowers, passed away in 1988 of AIDS and so too went Madame. Eighteen years later, the Flowers estate decided to revive the character and held try-outs for various puppeteers to take over. Joe Kovacs was chosen, and thus began the revived life of Madame.

The show was extraordinarily entertaining. Despite not really being a ventriliquist, after a few brief minutes you soon forget that he is even there and get fully engrossed in Madame’s character. She’s a feisty, bitter and perverse old woman with a ton of great one-liners. Overall, we had a fantastic time at this performance, and unfortunately is the last one on the series for Madame. She’s off touring for a while around the country, but will probably be back sometime. We definitely recommend checking her out, as the show was fantastic.

In this month’s New York magazine, there’s a great article about Urban Etiquette. That covers everything from elevators, to ipods & cellphones to online dating etiquette.

Excellent read, even for those that don’t live in the Big Apple.. My particular favorite section is that written by David Cross (Tobias) about how to handle a celebrity encounter.

For quite some time now Miss Possible and I have been discussing our future and marriage. We’ve gone ring shopping, surfed the net for ideas, etc.. After getting a good idea of what she wanted, I was able to go to a small jeweler in Hoboken to custom-design a similar ring to Tiffany’s example that she had found — making a few adjustments to the stones, etc. Fortunately for me, the jeweler opened at 6am, which allowed me to leave for work a few minutes early and conduct all the business in the morning — so that MP was unaware that anything had been done.

Over the course of this month time, I struggled come up with the appropriate time and place to do this ceremonial presentation — as she had been expecting to receive the ring during our two-week camping trip next month. As it later turns out, she had even ruled out this expectation as she had thought that I had made no progress in terms of the ring at all. In order to surprise her, I had to come up with another adventure in which I could propose.
» Read more: Pop goes the question

I’m not sure what’s worse.. first there was Matthews Advertising Escapades and now there’s the Sudoku master.

On my way into work this morning, I passed a wall full flyers advertising various things (Matthew was not on there). One blue sign caught my eye, which was someone selling Sudoku lessons. “For the low, low price of $35 per hour, I will teach you too to become a Sudoku master. Ever see people playing this addictive game on the train or on the bus and want to learn how to play too? Now’s your chance.”

There were 5 tabs of paper missing from the bottom. Hoboken must be full of suckers.

Well, I’m happy to be back here at Diatribe Headquarters. Things on the west coast were crazy, and coming back was even more hectic. I’ve learned that Red-Eyes have to be the least exciting way of travelling (especially when they’re delayed until 1AM, and arrive more than 2 hours late at their destination). Not to mention the ridiculous amount of turbulance, sheesh.

So, I spent the day pretty much in a fog while trying to wake up from the two Tylonol PM’s I had taken to sleep on the flight, and managed to make it through the day. Only to get to work on Friday, and promptly leave after coming down with either food poisoning or a stomach virus of some kind. Still not sure, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

I did end up missing the Hobokistan St. Patty’s Day Ritual (2 weeks early? You figure that one out), and witnessed the entire town dress up in green and start drinking at 10am. The relentless “WOOOO!’s” and bagpipes outside our window was impressive. Didn’t get to participate, but, so it goes. There’s always next year to act like an idiot, to celebrate a holiday two weeks early — that I don’t usually celebrate anyway.