A death of note this morning...and it's not Terri Schiavo's.

According to HowardStern.com, Mitch Hedberg has passed on. One of my favorite comedians of the last 5 years, Mitch had the uncanny ability of finding the right humor in all the high places. Through his two CD's, multiple TV appearances, and club dates, it was easy to find someone laughing hysterically at his jokes. It was probably me.

The cause of death is unknown, but rumors point to a heroin overdose (Update: According to this St. Paul obituary, his family was told it was a heart attack). He used to do drugs. He still did use them, but he used to, too. He was 37.

Have I ever told you the story about some water at a pho place? Well, it was at one of those pho restaurants on Capitol and Silver Creek (don't worry, not in business anymore) and we asked for water and tea. Disgustingly, one of the cups of water had keys in it, so when we showed it to the server, he just laughed and replaced it with a new water (or he could've just fished them out, I don't know...I stuck with the tea).

Now comes word of a different sort of object in food, this time a bowl of chili at Wendy's on Monterey near downtown where a couple seems to have found a human finger. When it was brought to the attention of the workers, they thought it was just a vegetable, but it has been confirmed otherwise. The last sentence in the Mercury News article really had me laughing though.

Asked whether they were still selling chili, Irving said they had run out of it that evening but planned to continue selling it today.

Hostage
After a failed hostage negotiation, Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) chose to leave the job of negotiator and take the position of police chief in a small Los Angeles suburb. But everything he left would soon come back to him in the form of three teenagers with an eye toward an Escalade who hold a rich family hostage at their hilltop house. While he passes the case onto other authorities, he's forced upon the situation by an unknown hooded mob, which needs a disc inside the house, who holding his own family hostage. So Talley needs to use his wits to solve two separate hostage situations before everyone potentially loses their lives.

The situation is very interesting and it would have made for a great movie if not for the stupidity of all involved. The teenagers, who apparently have a history of carjacking (if so, why are they driving such a beat-up truck?), instead break into the guy's house and force him to give up the keys? They do realize they could be tracked with GPS right? (I'm sure the car has it, this rich guy seemed to have everything.) Plus, they're up on a hill. Probably one access road that could easily be blocked. Then they give up Kevin Pollak as good faith? Man, they need to watch some of those hostage movies that are part of the rich guy's collection. Then Talley comes up with a plan that involves all three teenagers to come out to the front. Gee, they're dumb, but they're not that dumb. Then this mob comes up to invade the house parading as the FBI. Why didn't they do this in the first place? Haven't they seen Die Hard? They could have just taken over and not needed Talley's help whatsoever. It's also a letdown that we never see who holds Talley's family hostage, seeing as how they knew so much about him. I must admit the whole ordeal is kinda thrilling, but if you're looking for a smart thriller, look elsewhere. 2 stars

Sources inform me of a new place serving pho and it's somewhere where you'd least expect.

Fresh Choice is introducing an Asian flavor to its dishes with the introduction of pho as a soup to serve in its soup and salad buffet. The picture on the web site doesn't make it look too appetizing. There are carrots on top and the noodles look way too big. (or do those look like bean sprouts?)

The important question is how does it taste? I don't know, but I'm game if you are.

Gee, and I thought Berkeley's administration was messed up. It seems SJSU is 10 times worse. Ever since my sister began there, from a records standpoint, it has been awful. Lost transcripts, lost financial info., re-send transcripts, scheduling difficulties, etc. But this one takes the cake.

My dad was worried that he hasn't received the 1098 tax form yet from SJSU. It gives tax credit for tuition. So my dad called up the cashier's office and gave them my sister's info. First question they ask?

Is she a U.S. citizen?

It was at this point my dad went off. "Of course she is! How else could she be in school?" could be heard from the semi-yelling. He goes on to recite SSNs and birth location and date. But to no avail. All they said is to use a printout of what you paid to use for the tax form.

As for the U.S. citizen question, they apparently didn't have her SSN on file. How can this be fixed?

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On the heels of Hai's B-day yesterday is Steves' birthday today. Happy 23rd.