TRACKER JACKER WATCH: Somewhat surprisingly, Deadline burys the lede in its coverage of new Hunger Games casting. Yes, Ross and his team have wisely gone with relative unknowns for some important roles (Glimmer, Thresh, Rue), but Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket? Note-perfect. Unfortunately, fan fave idea Hugh Laurie as Haymitch (I still think he's too old--Haymitch is in his late 30s or early 40s) seems off the table since he's lined up a film gig in New Zealand while House is on hiatus.

GOOD AUTHORS WHO ONCE KNEW BETTER WORDS NOW ONLY USE FOUR-LETTER WORDS WRITING PROSE -- ANYTHING GOES: Commenter Randy spent last week on a Broadway bonanza tour. He files this report:

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We're recently back from our trip to New York -- a trip that happened in part thanks to this blog. When Matt mentioned back in December that the New York Philharmonic was going to be putting on Company with Neil Patrick Harris... well, it took us all of 10 seconds to realize that, yes, we needed to be there. So, figuring we needed to make the most of it, we ended up seeing 7 Broadway shows in the 6 days we were in NYC. Because the first night featured a dinner at Colicchio & Sons - which we recommend STRONGLY, by the way, and if you go you need to get the coconut cream doughnuts - it was actually 7 shows in 5 days. Overkill, maybe. But we didn't fly across the continent NOT to see Broadway shows. (And since four of the shows we saw are new productions – five including Company – I will have seen, for the first time ever, a few Tony nominees before the awards are handed out.)

FOR THE ALOTT5MA HOLIDAYS OF LIBERATION DESK: A question from the email that maybe we should answer?

Hi. First time, long time. I was at a Passover seder last night with some dear family friends, and for the main course they heated up for the children Kosher for Passover chicken nuggets which they had purchased from the supermarket. Intrigued (and somewhat suspicious), I looked at the bag afterwards and these were not, in fact, Kosher for Passover but just plain Kosher nuggets. (A Google search indicates that the company makes a K for P matzoh meal-breaded nugget, but this was not that.)

Two questions: should I have said something to my friends, who are not that religious? (I didn't.) And if I had realized this issue before the children were served should I have said anything? Ex ante, I'd prefer that my children at least try to keep Passover, but there'd be no way to tell them not to eat the chicken without leading to them complaining loudly and our hosts finding out why. Was it possible to be a good guest and a good Jew?

YOU'RE THE BLACK SHEEP OF A FAMILY THAT WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THREE "MIGHTY DUCKS" FILMS:  Special guest roaster Jeffrey Ross livened up the festivities as the Charlie Sheen "Torpedo of Truth" tour made its way to Atlantic City last weekend. Video is, understandably, NSFW, and mystifyingly interrupted repeatedly by a guitarist playing the role of rimshot drummer.

ONCE AGAIN, WE HAVE BEEN OVERLOOKED: Your 2011 Pulitzer Prizes have arrived, and a few things of note:

• Sorry, EmperorFranzen--you weren't even a finalist in the Fiction category, which was won by the much-acclaimed A Visit From The Goon Squad.
• Interestingly, the Drama Prize winner is "Clybourne Park," and the only show to have run on Broadway to be nominated was "A Free Man Of Color," which got widely panned.
• The NYT's work on concussions in football was a finalist in Public Service, but lost to the LAT for its reporting on corruption in Bell, CA.
• Eric Foner's recent book on Lincoln and slavery won the Pulitzer for History.

Discuss.

BOO: If read just one paean to a mediocre, mostly disliked, and largely forgotten baseball player, make sure it's this one to Johnny "Disaster" LeMaster whose only moment of greatness was that his first big league at bat was an inside-the-park home run.

AMERICA'S NEXT GREAT TELEVISION OBSESSION:  There's lots of television out there which we never, ever discuss on this site. Sell us on watching the other things that are holding your interest.

OH, SISTER, I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND: I'm not the person to give Game of Thrones the full recap treatment; thank goodness for Sepinwall. I'm not a fan of the fantasy genre, not even of the Rings movies, but on the recommendation of The Critics We Like and Mr. Spaceman I did sample the HBO premiere last night and I'm going to try to stick with it for a bit. If you're a fan of Boobies and Beheadings, oh boy is this your show, and if you're a fan of Lots and Lots of Exposition even more so.

I'm still in the "now who was that again?" mode, so the HBO guide helps me not refer to Jaime as "the guy who looks like Aaron Eckhart" who's responsible for this post's title. (Less helpful: the Salon guide, which I didn't realize just how much it was spoiling until the end of this episode fell.) But there's enough plot and intrigue to have me interested in more, if not quite craving more the way I was right away with The Sopranos or Rome. My track record of sticking with HBO shows is not the best, so we'll see if I'll be speaking Dothraki in due course or not.

[As Alan suggests, our spoiler policy is this: don't talk about plots from later in the books.]

WE HAVE BEEN LED TO DISTINGUISH TWO KINDS OF DRIVES: THOSE WHICH SEEK TO LEAD WHAT IS LIVING TO DEATH, AND OTHERS, THE SEXUAL DRIVES, WHICH ARE PERPETUALLY ATTEMPTING AND ACHIEVING A RENEWAL OF LIFE: Sometimes a Race is just a race, and sometimes it's an excuse for Flight Time to start peeing on the wall at the University of Vienna. This was an episode for music, whether it's "Hello, Dolly" (well, for those who noticed it), "Chim Chim Cher-ee," "The Sound of Music" or Generic Heroic Cowboy Music, so deserved and appreciated this week compared to the Whining of the Goths through tonight's tasks.

For whatever reason, the Amazing Task Testers goofed on one of tonight's -- making it far harder to swallow than intended (I'm guessing) -- but other than that this was a well-designed leg, so long as you didn't focus too much on the product placement.

I HOPE JEREMY BULLOCH GOT PAID EXTRA FOR THIS: Via Buzzfeed, which has collected a number of ads from this era. My goodness, I hope these kids weren't scarred:

NOT YET INCLUDED--BILL CARTER'S LENO IS KIND OF A DICK, BUT SO IS LETTERMAN: The fine folks at Better Book Titles have modified the titles on the cover of oodles of books to more accurately reflect the books' contents. My favorites include the retitling of Updike's Rabbit books, Super Sad True Love Story, and The Elements of Style. (Contains some political content, but the non-political content is even funnier, excluding maybe the retitling of The Fountainhead.)

POCKY FOR KITTY?  The latest Superchunk video ("Crossed Wires") features a video camera attached to a cat on the prowl. Things happen.

NOTES FROM THE IDOLDOME: (1) Paul McDonald, completely charming in an exit interview: "I almost would feel guilty if I had won, or gone any farther, because I kind of had my own thing going beforehand, and I know exactly who I am as an artist. I'm super thankful that they kept me around this long. But I really want some of these kids — these contestants who want it so, so bad — to win it. Because they're the true stars and I'm just hangin' out, being on their team. Cheering them on."

(2) Next week: songs of the 21st century. Will Jacob sing "The Song Otherwise Known As Forget You"? Please?

(3) A tweet from @AmericanIdol an hour ago: "Holy pride of New Jersey....BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN in the studio right now listening to the idols sing!!!!"

VEGGIE LOAF, SWEETENED WITH FRUIT REDUCTION: I don't really have anything to say, but I felt like somebody should say something about how Parks & Rec consistently proves, including with last night's episode, how you don't actually need to choose between sweet and riotously funny. Long ago, before Seinfeld, all sitcoms ended with what Wm. Stephen Humphries called "the moment of shit" -- the two minutes at the end where every conflict miraculously resolved in a way that left everybody happy and everybody could still be friends. The miracle of Parks & Rec is that it can so often maintain fidelity to that formula -- good things happen and people like each other and problems get fixed in unrealistic ways -- without ever making it appear as if the formula dictates the events in the show, the same way that Shakespearean language doesn't feel dictated by iambic pentameter.

As originally conceived, the show set Leslie Knope's incurable optimism in opposition to the cynicism of everybody around her. Ken Tremendous & Co.'s stroke of genius after Season 1 was to make the real arc of the series the way that that cynicism ultimately yields to Leslie's optimism, and it continues to pay off in spades. Dour April, aloof Ron, scheming Tom, and clueless Andy could be largely one-note characters, great for comic relief in small doses but unsuitable for anything more. Instead, tempered by their affection for Leslie and swayed by her loopy sunnyness, the characters get to grow, and the actors get to shade them. April can drop her sarcasm for sincere moments with Leslie and Andy; Ron can be paternal for Andy and avuncular for April; Andy can grow out of his Season 1 selfishness; we can see both the benefits and the costs of Tom's ambition; Donna can reluctantly take over as Ann's flirting coach (just as Ann served in the same role for Leslie), and it's all because Leslie helped them out of their comfortable shells, bit by bit over two years. So the tidy endings feel earned, not forced.

42: Sixty-four years ago today -- boxscore, NYT, Baltimore Afro-American.

ANOTHER THING THE INTERNET HAS RUINED: Every morning, my bus passes by the Apple Store on Walnut Street, and each time there are at least 20-30 folks queued up outside to purchase from that day's allotment of iPad 2s ("iPads 2?"). And I certainly remember from growing up having to wait in line for concert tickets and the like, but I can't recall waiting in line at a store for something in years, not since one of the Harry Potter release parties at a bookstore. (Goblet?)  For what purchases have you queued in recent years?

ALOTT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO: Two items. First, a request from Heathalouise:

As I've mentioned before, I'm writing my dissertation on media coverage of the Boston Red Sox. Without boring you with too much detail, it's about the intersection of mythology, ritual and collective identity and the creation of "Red Sox Nation." I have struggled with this one stylistic dilemma: How do I write the possessive of Red Sox: Red Sox's or Red Sox'? 

The use is inconsistent in the press and at Major League Baseball. Because of the theoretical slant of my work, I can't just substitute with "Boston." I'll hold off on the logic behind my preferred style (and what it is), but I wondered what everybody else thought.

I think it's a real mess if you can't say Boston's. Sox' (no apostrophe) clearly can't be right, which leaves Sox's as the better answer. Seriously, I'd do whatever I could to avoid having to answer this one.

Second: Ben Yagoda's recent Slate piece tackles "How long should we cling to a word's original meaning?", citing these examples:

Disinterested traditionally meant "impartial," and now is generally used to mean "uninterested." Presently has gone from "shortly" to "currently"; momentarily from "for a moment" to "in a moment"; and nonplussed from perplexed to unimpressed, or fazed to unfazed.

I've adopted the newer definitions for the latter three, but haven't shifted on disinterested. You?

AMERICA VOTED:  And there's at least a little to say.

CONSIDER IT A CHECKLIST FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE: Grub Street slideshows "101 dishes that we can honestly say represent the best of everything we see going on in American pasta". Among the Philadelphia entries: Amis's tonnarelli cacio e pepe, the spaghetti and meatballs at red-gravy classic Marra's, and ("of course," any Philadelphian would say) the spinach gnocchi at Vetri.

I'M HOLDING OUT FOR ELEANOR WALDORF'S APARTMENT: Do you have $9 million to spare and want a unique pop cultural curio? Well, then, you can buy the house prominently featured on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Donna and Kelly's home during college.

LOVING BOTH OF YOU IS BREAKING ALL THE RULES:  Next in our ad hoc series on the mores of modern dating, an anonymous friend of the blog seeks wisdom from the group:

At what point in one's relationship with person A does it become inappropriate to also be going on dates with persons B, C, and D? Obviously this is subjective. But what guides you? Is it how many times you've seen A? The frequency? Physical intimacy? You know it because you just don't feel like seeing B, C, or D anymore? Some other factors? Or is it "anything goes" until you have a talk and commit to exclusivity?

What I said is that (a) when it'd upset A to know about B/C/D, it's time to stop it (or when you, contra-wise, would be upset to know A was still seeing others); and (b) that as a matter of course, you'll hit a point with A that you just don't want to be spending your free time with someone else.  YMMV.

I ENJOY BEING ON THE BOTTOM, IF THAT'S WHERE I AM:  When they announced that this would be a double-Tribal episode of Survivor, I pretty much figured out what that mean. I just didn't know it would be this much fun. I can say "Rob Rob Rob Rob - please count this as 4 votes" above the fold; the rest will wait a moment.

SAIL ON, SILVER GIRL:  Tonight's Idol was a mess. The definition of "songs from the movies" got stretched from "oh, wait, that Simon & Garfunkel song was used forty years later in a Will Smith movie" to "I think Mike Tyson sang that in The Hangover" to "wait, Boomerang had a soundtrack?"

As for the performances, y'all know I'm all for idiosyncratic, personal and not-been-performed-before stuff. But, sheesh: Casey's indulgent "Nature Boy" had notes in all sorts of weird places; James's "Heavy Metal" may have had more Zakk Wylde than James; Scotty did a George Strait song which put America to sleep.

Look, if a TMZ report is to be believed, it's all Scotty/Lauren/James anyway, with James presumably sweeping up all the non-country votes to enter the finals. But let's pretend the singing matters for a minute: only Lauren and Haley did anything even marginally interesting in terms of selling a song; Stefano, Paul and Casey just didn't sing well; and when Scotty proclaims it's time to "return to his country roots" after his wildly eclectic run to date, ugh.  And the judges, of course, didn't judge (except for Haley).    A bad ninety minutes of television, and that's without wondering when will.i.am joined the cast.

Bottom line: when you sing a song titled "End of the Road" it will be, Stefano.

I DON'T FIND THIS STUFF AMUSING ANYMORE: I didn't need to know that the line about "a short little span of attention" in Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" was a reference to penile inadequacy, though the rest of this transcribed piece on the making of Graceland is cool.

But is it really a song just about midlife crisis and personal awakening in Africa? Or, is it (also) the story of an alcoholic's coming to terms with his illness -- with "Betty" being the Betty Ford Clinic and "call me Al" meaning, yes, I am willing to label myself as an alcoholic in need of your help.  (And what is a roly-poly little bat-faced girl, anyway?)

BOOING A POLITICIAN IS ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE, HE ADMITS:  Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, now weekly sports columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, presents his rules for booing.

MOVEMENT OF THE PEOPLE: Last year, they tweeted the Exodus. This year, it's a more comprehensive internet approach.