Okay, so I've been searching for a way to express my affection for How I Met Your Mother here in these pages. Posting a video seemed like a pretty natural way of doing this, but there were a couple problems. One, if I were to actually post a clip of one of my favorite moments, I'd probably look sentimental. Plus I don't think those clips are available on YouTube. Two, the real joy of HIMYM is the continuity, which clips alone can't express. It's really the kind of show where you need to start at episode one and watch them in order.

Luckily, I discovered this:

Awhile back, I posted a story about Wilkes University advertising to reach specific high school students. Well, the battle rages on ... only this time, the hot commodities are teachers.

It seems Texans are so hard-up for teachers they're buying billboards in Florida to convince teachers to move to the Lonestar State.

Which naturally makes you wonder -- why aren't they trying to recruit teachers in Indiana? Then again, it's probably because we're too sexually-active.

Hope everyone is recovering nicely from the holiday weekend. During my recovery this morning, I came across an interesting Ad Age article on the controversy surrounding a change to the mermaid in the Starbucks logo. It seems Starbucks limited use of a modified version of their original mermaid logo is a little too risque for some folks.

Anyway, this naturally reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Onion articles -- "Starbucks To Begin Sinister 'Phase Two' Of Operation" -- which features the following choice cut:

Though the coffee chain's specific plans are not known, existing Starbucks franchises across the nation have been locked down with titanium shutters across all windows. In each coffee shop's door hangs the familiar Starbucks logo, slightly altered to present the familiar mermaid figure as a cyclopean mermaid whose all-seeing eye forms the apex of a world-spanning pyramid.

Ah, good times. (I think.)

Back in January of 2007, as I was mulling over news that a fourth Indiana Jones movie was going into production and lamenting that the inevitable hard-hitting dramatic themes of that film would make my forthcoming (in fact, still forthcoming) Ohio Jones and the Search for Self look totally lame for also trying to tell a story about not knowing your place in the world, I wrote:

Since my big plan for 2007 has been to shoot Ohio Jones and the Search for Self, in which a washed-up, past-his-prime adventurer must unload his emotional baggage and discover his true place in the world, my sincere hope is that the plot of Indy 4 focuses on how virulent and psychologically uncomplicated the title character is.

Well, I got my wish! You can check out my full review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls over at Wakeup Naptown. But long story short: Rocky Balboa this ain't.

So all this promotion the new Indiana Jones movie is a little unsettling.

For one thing, I can't decide if this makes Ohio Jones more or less relevant. For another, it vastly eclipses anything done for the original three movies. I mean, where were all these toys when I was a kid?

Of course, on the positive side, I'm now able to create a reasonable plastic facsimile of Dr. Tupac Jones, Jr. (Still needs an eyepatch and a glove but what're you gonna do? Wal-Mart apparently stopped selling model paint.)

Anyone else think this is kinda funny?

I just finished reading The Average American Male, which is a novel about the actual thoughts that go through a man's head as he cycles through feeling trapped in a relationship, freeing himself and finding excitement, adventure and love with a hotter girl and eventually feeling trapped again.

If that makes it sound touchy-feely, it's not. About 85% of the book is comprised of descriptions of sexual acts or thoughts about sexual acts. The author even apologizes to his parents in the afterward and hopes the publication of the book doesn't cause them to lose any friends. Personally, I hope they're proud of him -- the book is brilliant.

On a sociological level, this one's being passed around among quarterlife males who do not much read much. But because it reads like a transcription of our own thoughts, dudes are flagging down other dudes and saying, "Finally, someone expresses what we feel forced to edit."

(A personal note: the book is set in and around UCLA, so when the characters go to Fatburger or In-N-Out, I get to revisit the actual locations, which is nice since I'm overdue for a trip to LA. And, additionally, since the author was a USC film student, I get the additional pleasure of noting that now not only are those types filming their movies at the better campus, they're setting their books there too.)

I'd almost suggest that any quarterlife woman who's interested in understanding her boyfriend pick up this book, but with certain rare exceptions, I doubt you'd be able to handle it. (I know this because once I suggested to a girlfriend that the Zach Braff character's anxiety over settling down in Last Kiss was understandable and was made out to be some kind of uncaring asshole as a result.) But if you're a twenty-something dude, you should definitely give this one a read.