One of my favorite tv commercials ever. Done by Ogilvy & Mather, from the late 90s. The music is “Female of the Species,” by Space, from their album Spiders.

“Responsibility,” my teenaged son opined recently, “means being the person everyone yells at.”

Illustration by mitopencourseware

Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, which recently celebrated its 1-year anniversary, continues to impress me with its no-b.s., conversational, audience-participation format. Writer / actor / comedian / Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson sat down with Pollak on June 20.

The resulting 90 minutes must surely be Ferguson’s most personal, frank, revealing interview ever. Sure, he talks about Shark Week and The Drew Carey Show and his own late night show – but he also talks about sobriety, fear of flying, his mother and WWII, and much more. If you’re a fan (I am, obviously) – it’s riveting stuff.

From the KPCS site, you can use the pull-down menu on the right to access any  of the other shows from Pollak’s 4-dozen-plus episode archive. He interviews actors, writers, musicians, executives, poker players, with no project-plugging in sight. Previous guests include Hank Azaria, Craig Bierko, Felicia Day, Annie Duke, Eddie Izzard, Liza Loeb, Curt Smith, and Titus Welliver. You can also get the show in podcast form from iTunes and on TiVo (if your setup permits).

Those following this blog for some time know that my husband and I try to follow a predominantly animal-free diet. We do this for health reasons. We occasionally and selectively enjoy cheese, ice cream, and very occasionally some seafood, poultry or meat. But our preference is for fruit, veggies, legumes and grains.

Our college-student son, however, is pretty firmly ensconced in the “I’ll have a milkshake and a burger” camp. And since he only spends a few months out of the year with us, we try to find eateries that will let all of us dine according to our preference. That’s not always easy. But today we found a great option that’s been under our noses all along: Swingers.

Sure, it has all the diner ‘tude and all the diner staples: shakes, fries, BLTs, pancakes, chilis. But it also has a multitude of tasty vegan and veggie options, including wraps, salads, even vegan pancakes. You can check out their menu online if you’re interested.

Swingers has two locations: one in Santa Monica (Lincoln & Broadway) and  another on Beverly about midway between the Beverly Center and The Grove. We’ll be back!