You can take your nieces and nephews trick-or-treating, you can veg and watch Hocus Pocus, or you can party it up like it’s the last Halloween you’ll ever spend in Provo. (Oh, wait! It is my last Halloween in Provo! Woot!) There are too many options for activities and parties. I still haven’t made up my mind — it’s fantastic! Here’s a list; thanks to Summer Heat for the help.

Friday, October 30th

FREE Haunted House (*)
@ 918 N on 50 E. Provo, 9pm-12am (Free)

Electro Hallows Eve Eve Dance Party (**)
@ The Red Door, 10pm-1am (Free)

Spark All Hallows Eve Event (**)
@ Spark Restaurant Lounge, 10:30pm-1am ($11)

Beautiful Nightmare (***)
@ Alpine Village, 9pm-1am

Thriller Dance (***)
@ UVU, 10pm-1am ($12-15)

Saturday, October 31st

Halloween Parade (*)
@ Condo Row, 11:30am-1pm (Free)

Dead Ball (**)
@ Velour, 7pm-12am ($7)

Haunted House Dance Party (**)
@ 50 E 842 N, Provo, 9pm-1am ($1 or canned food donation)

The Haunt (***)
@ The Loft, 9pm-1am

Pirate Island Masquerade Ball (*)
@ Pirate Island, 8pm-12am ($10-12)

The Dark Night II (**)
@ Studio 600, 8pm-1pm ($10)

The Howl — Utah’s largest and closest-to-a-real-party-as-you-can-get–in-Utah Halloween Party (****)
@ Utah State ($15-25)

Stars denote the scandaliciousness of the event: one star is not scandalous, four stars is outrageously scandalous.

Kristin Clift is an event correspondent for Rhombus.

Today’s horror movies will make you jump. They’ll startle and even disgust you. But this Halloween, if you’re tired of watching movies that are more “horrific” than genuinely frightening, you might take a look at some of Hollywood’s classic scare-fests. Though old movies might lack the jarring edits and industrial sound effects of more modern fare, their hair-raising stories and inventive (often low-budget) techniques literally wrote the book on how to shock an audience. It’s also no surprise that classic horror movies packed theaters for decades as perfect date movies.

Below are five films for a frightening Halloween. This list is not for people content with watching Saw VI or whatever other faux-horror sequel Hollywood is trying to pawn off this year. However, if you want to watch spine-tingling, atmospheric tales of terror that will leave you looking over your shoulder and turning on all the lights in your apartment, check out some of these films. All of them can be found on Netflix, but if you don’t have a subscription, check the Orem Library, which has one of the best movie collections in Utah County.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920): The oldest and only silent film on this list, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari tells the story of the eponymous doctor and his sleepwalking servant Cesare. The film unfolds a tale of murder, insanity and prophecy, with a particularly strange surprise ending. This film also exerts a strong influence on later horror movies, and is notable for its expressionistic and disconcerting sets.

The Invisible Man (1933): Adapted from H. G. Wells’ novella of the same name, this film follows Dr. Jack Griffin’s (Claude Rains) descent into insanity and violence. After experimenting with the fictional drug monocane, Griffin has become invisible, and unfortunately his invisibility wreaks havoc on his psyche as well. Of course, this story would go on to be remade again and again, but surprisingly none of the sequels ever managed to be as compelling as the original. The film also includes some impressive, un-cheesy special effects.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Another movie that has been remade a number of times, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about aliens that come to earth and, well, snatch bodies. Though technically more sci-fi than horror, this film nonetheless feels like a noir-ish zombie movie and Cold War critique. Originally, the filmmakers wanted to end the film after one of the most desperate and unnerving scenes, but the studio execs felt such an ending would simply be too terrifying. Still, this film will leave you wondering if the people around you are your friends or zombie pod-aliens bent on world domination.

The House on Haunted Hill (1959): No horror movie countdown would be complete without Vincent Price, and The House on Haunted Hill displays in grand style everything that Price was most famous for. The film tells the story of Fredrick Loren (Price), who invites five people to stay in his supposedly haunted house for one night. If they last the night, they win $10,000. If they don’t, they die. Not surprisingly, a whole series of ghastly things happen, but the ending may not be what you expect.

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961): The second Vincent Price film on this list and the only one shot in color, The Pit and the Pendulum is a classic low budget B movie. The film is based on an Edgar Allen Poe story of the same name and tells the story of Francis Barnard’s (John Kerr) visit to his brother-in-law’s castle in 16th century Spain. Barnard is there to investigate his sister’s mysterious death and, as the story progresses, intrigue and subterfuge ensue, eventually leading to one character’s complete insanity and a number of deaths. As is the case with all the films on this list, this one went on to influence generations of filmmakers.

Jim Dalrymple is a popular culture correspondent for Rhombus. He will probably not be watching Saw VI this weekend.

A rather light day in the news today, so we’ll start with the good stuff…

Popular Culture

Friday Night Lights is back! Hallelujah! This criminally under-watched show about life in a small, economically recessed Texas town is one of the best shows on television, hands down — and it’s finally back from a break that seemed far too long for its die-hard fans. If you haven’t seen FNL, you must remedy the situation. (After all, the DVD sets are only $20 at Wal-Mart. How can you afford not to?) Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are two of the best, yet most underappreciated actors on television — something I hope will change as the show takes big steps into a constantly evolving and uncertain future. Get psyched for season four with James Poniewozik’s great preview article. [Time]

Also, ABC’s Modern Family rounded into their sixth episode of the season tonight. I’m not a huge fan of ABC (I generally loathe their programming as a core principle), but Modern Family is the best new show of the fall TV season — and I love Community as much as the next guy. It just seems to me that Modern Family is a little sharper and has a little more heart. Tonight wasn’t their best episode, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t pretty great. As per usual, The A.V. Club has their customary recap. [The A.V. Club]

Sports

If you consider yourself a sports fan and you’ve never read any of Bill Simmons work, well, I just feel sorry for you. One of the best (and certainly the funniest) sports columnists around, Simmons effortlessly blends a fan’s perspective of both sports and pop culture to absolute perfection. If you’re not familiar with Simmons, you need to be. If you already are, then you’ll probably find this video (with Kenny Mayne) to be pretty funny. [ESPN]

I’m 99 percent sure this is a huge joke, but it’s not a laughing matter: J.J. Redick should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to record a rap album. I don’t care how semi-ironically hilarious his blog is. [J.J. Redick]

Politics

A slow news day in the political realm today, but there was some worthwhile commentary.

Andrew Sullivan thinks those dastardly Democrats have really put the GOP between a rock and a political hard place with their “opt-out” version of the public option. He may be right. [The Atlantic]

And Richard Wolffe probes the depths of Joe Biden’s new found unpopularity — and his potential similarities to the Sith Lord himself, Dick Cheney. [The Daily Beast]

That’s all for today. As always feel free to leave your comments below.

Steve Pierce is the co-founder and editor of Rhombus. He publishes the Reading List, a daily digest of the best content from around the Internet, Monday through Friday.

If I’ve learned one thing about football this season, it’s that Peyton Manning is even better than anyone thought. If I’ve learned two things, the second is that life and football are significantly more enjoyable when you pledge allegiance to no team.

I grew up in a home where, because my dad went to BYU, everyone in the home was a BYU fan. For years I was raised on Cougar football and schooled in the ways of passing attacks and the overratedness of having a good defense and special teams. (Full disclosure: turns out having a good defense and special teams is not overrated.) I’ve lost my voice many times over the years of attending BYU games in Cougar/LaVell Edwards Stadium. I’ve seen every Mountain West Conference team at least once, and I’ve seen out-of-conference opponents as well. On the flip side, I’ve been to two Utah Ute football games in my life — a win against Wyoming and a win against Utah State.

While I am a fan of the big three professional sports (and trying to be a fan of hockey and soccer as well), I’ve lost almost all interest in college basketball because nobody around here is really any good and college basketball is, for the most part, sloppy.  I can’t stand watching NBA games because of the referees. Star treatment in the NBA is real and more out-of-control than our national debt and the BCS combined. Soccer and hockey are rarely on TV and not worth paying for an Internet viewing subscription. Sadly, I don’t have much time to watch a full baseball game anymore. Hence, football has become the sport I watch most, and I have no problem with that. I try to catch a few NFL games each Sunday and I never miss a Colts game if it’s available, but I love college football and I’ll watch just about any game I possibly can.

I’ve put a lot of time and effort into learning more about football and becoming familiar with a greater variety of football programs around the country. I even took a class on coaching football. Understanding the game on an in-depth level makes it easier to appreciate what you see a team do on the field and, for me, it’s made it impossible to dislike teams. I’ve found that I have a greater appreciation for the amount of work it takes to execute a game plan, especially when we’re dealing with students who also carry a full-time school schedule.

In the social sciences, we are taught to look at everything from an objective point-of-view and remove all bias from our analysis and conclusion.  As a student of the social sciences, I try to apply this pattern of thought to everything I’m involved in, and that includes football.  I’ve been able to drift out of my mental block and realize that BYU would only be the best team in the Mid-American Conference (maybe), and that there are so many other fantastic teams out there that I can appreciate and wish great success for.

This category now includes the University of Utah. Aside from being a truly great academic institution, the football program has done phenomenal things in recent seasons. Anyone who is unable to recognize, appreciate and support the Utes’ success  might need to 1) take a break from football to consider what’s really important in life, and 2) devote some time to learn more about football, and see if your perspective changes a little bit.

There came a point when I realized that I had no reason to “hate” the Utes and that the only reason I was a Cougar fan was because that’s just what I was told when I was a kid. I took the time to learn and decide for myself and, based on a variety of factors, many of which I won’t take the time and space to get into, I concluded at a certain point last year that I had no need to choose between the two teams.

This paradigm shift takes root in a BYU-Utah matchup a few years back, when Utah rolled into Provo, embarrassed BYU in the first half, and fought off a Cougar rally in the second half to win in overtime — with a backup quarterback, nonetheless. Let’s just say I expressed my frustrations with an unnecessary display of anger which was both embarrassing and thought-provoking. How can I dislike a team whose coach is a fierce competitor, deemed by Urban Meyer as the best assistant coach he’s ever had? How can I dislike a team who year after year, despite their record, plays absolutely out of their minds to try to beat their rivals at BYU? How can I dislike a team who has fought through past seasons of mediocrity to build the program into what can arguably be called the premier program in the Mountain West Conference? True, they don’t bring in elite quarterback recruits and pile up gaudy offensive statistics, but they manage to be efficient and remain capable of lighting up the scoreboard when necessary. This is a program who focuses on defensive and special teams dominance, and they have achieved it.

I feel like the Cougars have reached their peak. It is realistic to believe that they’ll go many more years with two or three losses, sometimes perhaps just one — but because of recruiting philosophies, they’ll never have the elite athletes it takes to inflict true dominance on other great opponents. Although BYU deserves all the credit in the world for an inspired performance against Oklahoma this season, recent significant games show that the Cougars do not match up well against very athletic teams.

I will admit, though, that I got caught up in the hype just like everyone else after the Oklahoma win. Turns out we were all mistaken. BYU will always be a fun team to watch. They have a system in place which allows great success for the offense, and most people probably agree that watching a good offense is the best part of watching football. Occasionally, there are great defensive players who come through Provo, and they make big plays and earn chants from the home fans.  There is a pretty good coaching staff in place (although Bronco was BYU’s fourth choice, he was probably the right choice) and there is ample reason to believe that BYU will continue to compete for the MWC title each year. There’s just not much reason to believe they’ll ever play in a bowl game not in Las Vegas. (Anyone else getting really tired of that?)

My purpose here is not to talk people out of being BYU fans and converting to Ute-ism. I’ve found a way to have optimal enjoyment of college football, and it works really well for me. Of course, rivalries would not be rivalries without fans saying really stupid things to each other via the media! Although, I do wonder if fans of other teams around the country are capable of saying things that are quite as idiotic as what is exchanged between Ute and Cougar fans. I’ve often heard peopel say, “I hate Utah/BYU because of their fans.” Every team in the world has a number of fans who suffer from an age-inappropriate level of maturity and intelligence, people. If you need to hate a team because of their fans, don’t tell anyone else about it.

Anyway, back to my main discussion.  I can’t help but wonder how many closet Ute fans there are out there who perhaps relate to my sentiments here. I might be called a bandwagon fan, and that’s fine if you feel that way. I don’t consider it to be an issue of bandwagons. I knew Utah would be experiencing a learning curve this season and wouldn’t bust the BCS, and I also knew BYU would get trounced by TCU. I still wish the best success possible for all three of those teams. I would love nothing more than for TCU to play in (and win) a BCS game, especially over Boise State! I would love for BYU to start consistently winning bowl games, but mostly I would love to see them play somewhere besides the Las Vegas Bowl and against someone not from the Pac-10. I fully expect Utah to continue their streak of bowl victories. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it’s now at eight.) From the successes of these teams and the hopeful rise of programs such as Air Force and San Diego State, the Mountain West Conference will keep climbing the ladder of recognition in college football.

Keep your allegiances if you must — but, based on the reactions to a BYU loss I read all over Facebook this last weekend, I must make one recommendation. As football fans, we all owe it to ourselves to make an effort to expand our field of knowledge and learn as much as we can about the game. Not only will football be more fun to watch, but you may even gain an appreciation for some of the great programs around the country (including your rival).

Football has so much more to offer than just a team to love or hate. It is a coach’s responsibility to make football a life-lesson learning experience for his players. Well, I say, as fans, it is our responsibility to make football the same thing for ourselves. It is then and only then, no matter who our teams are, that we can be the greatest fans in the world. Now, go forth and learn.

Adam Stevens is an occasional sports correspondent for Rhombus. He will be hiding out in a cave for the foreseeable future to avoid the death threats he will surely receive in response to this column.

This past week, ESPN’s wildly popular Saturday morning pre-game show, College GameDay, made its first ever trip to Provo as BYU took on the Horned Frogs of TCU. While the game may not have lived up to the hype, many people camped out Friday night in order to get into the show’s live taping at 8:00 a.m. For those of you unable to make it, Rhombus correspondents Jake Welch and Ben Wagner were on the scene to offer you a glimpse into the GameDay experience.

Jake Welch and Ben Wagner are sports correspondents for Rhombus. Follow them on Twitter @jraywelch and @ben_wagner, respectively.

In the immortal words of that guy from the Monday Night Football intro: “Are you ready for some Rhombus Reading List for October 27th?” (I don’t think that’s necessarily accurate, but it’s close enough.)

Politics

Ol’ Joe Lieberman is at it again! He’s being all mavericky and such, saying he’ll filibuster a health care bill that includes a public option. Unforunately, despite all his bluster about his “principles,” it turns out that everything he says about the bill has pretty much been proven false. [Firedoglake]

But that’s not what it’s really about anyway. It’s not about principles with Joe Lieberman; it never is. As Nate Silver points out, this is all about attention — which could still be a potentially scary thing for Congressional Dems. [FiveThirtyEight]

It’s interesting that Lieberman, a senator from a liberal state that strongly supports the public option, would choose to a) oppose the policy in the first place, and b) do it now, as national support for the policy continues to rise. [CNN]

Also, if you’re one of those that’s agonizing of Obama’s supposed “War on Fox,” try to remember such tactics aren’t especially new. I mean, George Bush did the same thing with MSNBC just two years ago. But one president really makes Obama, Bush and even Nixon look positively press-friendly. You want to know how to conduct a full-on war against the journalistic opposition? Just ask FDR (a.k.a. the greatest president of the 20th century). [Slate]

Oh, and George W. Bush is apparently a motivational speaker now. His words of wisdom? “Don’t worry about popularity.” Well, we know he certainly took his own advice. High comedy. [CNN]

Popular Culture

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, now just five days away, The A.V. Club has an excellent interview with America’s premiere pop culture guru (and my favorite writer) Chuck Klosterman about his own personal fears. (Klosterman’s new book of essays, Eating the Dinosaur, was released last week. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. [The A.V. Club]

Also, Adam Lambert has officially created the world’s worst album cover. Silver lining: It’s a ready-made last-second Halloween costume. [Movieline]

Sports

H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger (he of Friday Night Lights fame) takes to the pages of The New York Times to excoriate the NBA’s age limit policy and advocate for the reintroduction of college-skipping high school phenoms into the league. And, at the rate David Sern and the NBA are losing money, there’s no possible way any such change could make things worse. You can only go up from here. [New York Times]

As always, feel free to share your thoughts below — and check back tomorrow for another edition of the Rhombus Reading List.

Steve Pierce is the co-founder and editor of Rhombus. He published the Reading List, a daily digest of the best content from around the Internet, Monday through Friday.

The "public option" of breakfast cereals.

The Great Health Care Debate has produced enough bantering material over the last few months that it seems pretty trite to write yet another piece on the subject. As health care reform rounds more corners in Congress, though, here is yet another opinion on the matter, specifically the hope that somehow, some way, the public option doesn’t get passed over in the discussion.

It seems as though, in both houses of Congress, leaders of health care reform talks are making the public option a top priority. Rhombus columnist Randal Serr recently wrote a piece about Arizona’s functional public insurance plan that stood, in my mind, as a fascinating precedent for this particular component of reform. Earlier this summer, as health care reform began to get serious attention (attention which, by the way, escalated into a literal blogosphere nightmare riddled with outrageous propaganda), I also wrote a column suggesting a public option might provide the functionality needed to save a severely dysfunctional and unsustainable health care market.

There are two general criticisms of the public option. The first is cost. Recent scores by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, however, have put the cost of the most expensive version of the public option in the neighborhood of $871 billion. Or in other words, close to the same amount as the Senate Finance Bill, which included no public option.  This $871 billion proposal is also well below the $900 billion price line set by President Obama in September. Not bad, I would say.

The other (and more legitimate) skepticism of a public option is the belief that the government could run everybody else in the insurance industry out of business by collecting tax revenues, which would allow them to keep their premiums below industry standard. What I’d like to suggest, though, is that facet of the public option is far from the destruction of privatized insurance — and may actually end up being great news for the rest of us. (You know, unless you’re the CEO of CIGNA or Blue Cross and Blue Shield).

While some may scream about the public option representing the government sneaking in through the back door of socialized medicine, it may seem surprising to realize that we actually have some evidence right before our eyes that a public option would not, in fact, lead to the destruction of the private health insurance market. That evidence, my friends, is Malt-O-Meal cereals. Seriously.

The two industries have more in common than you may realize. Consider the fact that, in both cases, the public option and off-brand cereals share some sort of competitive advantage that allows them to charge a lower price than their competitors. Government health care can collect tax revenues to cover cost, while generic cereals pay almost nothing in advertising. They don’t have to — Lucky, Cap’n Crunch and Toucan Sam do all the heavy lifting for them. Then when people saunter down the cereal aisle looking for a magically delicious bowl of Lucky Charms, they see a dog food-sized bag of the comparable Marshmallow Mateys for a fraction of the price. What would you choose? What do you choose? Me too.

But here’s the big secret: Despite this supposed undercut of the market, Post, Kellogg’s and General Mills are still in business. How do we explain this? Well, however we do, we can (with confidence) use the same logic and apply it to the health care industry, since now we see a public option working in Arizona as our functional example.

Essentially, this new competition of off-brand cereals results in three types of purchasing decisions with three distinct types of buyers:

• First, those people that buy the generic stuff because it is all they can afford. My wife and I, impoverished newlyweds that we are, fall into this category.
• Second, those who prefer the taste difference in the name-brand cereals and can afford to buy them, so they do (or maybe they feel buying Frosted Mini-Spooners as opposed to Frosted Mini-Wheats is below someone of their societal position — either way).
• And third, people that could afford to buy name-brand cereals, but are more than satisfied with the generic copy, because they see it as practical to save money for a comparable product, and choose to do so.

What are the results in the cereal industry? The name-brands are forced to lower prices. They can’t quite ever get prices as low as the bagged stuff since they have a different cost structure, but they have to at least stay in the ballpark. Again, this is good for the consumers of name-brands, because they’re now available at a cheaper price. Are profits as large as they were before? Of course not — but in every economic transaction there are winners and losers. If you’re an executive at General Mills, you hate competition from Malt-O-Meal. If you’re one of the hundreds of millions that aren’t said executive (and assuming you eat breakfast cereal), you love Malt-O-Meal.

And this is the fundamental basis of the public option idea. Some will use it for health insurance, because it’s all they can afford. Others will instead be able to pay for the best medical treatment money can buy, and they will. And still others will find the public option’s health coverage perfectly adequate and opt for it, even if they might be able to afford better. Profits will go down and the health industry and pharmaceuticals will lose since they’ll have to lower prices to stay in the ballpark, but millions of Americans would win. As in Arizona, this would prove not to be the demise of insurance companies — they still exist in the state, even after 25 years of a competition from a public option.  Rather, it would become a benefit for citizens looking for solutions to the current, untenable system of privatized health care.

Daniel Anderson is Rhombus’ resident armchair economist. He needs to write more columns comparing public policies to breakfast foods.

WEEK 9 — THE THAI KITCHEN

After a week in which our Munchers snacked on the burgers of the giant fast food chains, they decided to go back to their roots and hit the streets of Provo in search of some good grub. Instead of going for the usual burger and fries on a Saturday night, the Munchmobile crew of Jake Welch, Ben Wagner and Steve Pierce desired some flavor from the Far East, leading them to The Thai Kitchen.

The Thai Kitchen, located on the corner of 300 South and 300 West in Provo, is a locally owned and operated business that doesn’t have a lot of pizazz. The place was recommended to a few of our Munchers on the fact that it was fairly decent Thai food for a reasonable price. For a long while, our Munchers really only had these two things on their radar. If a place offered quality food that wasn’t going break out bank, then it was a winner.

This was the situation until their experience at The Thai Kitchen, where the element of service was called to their attention. In the restaurant business, the service can be the deal breaker. An honest and timely serving staff can give the costumer that extra motivation to return, while a lackadaisical or difficult one can scare off the costumer, no matter how good the food may be.

In the case of The Thai Kitchen, our munchers didn’t have good things to say about the service. Maybe it had to do with the food being served almost an hour after they ordered. It might have been longer if they didn’t speak up and mention how long they had been waiting. It turns out there was only one chef working in the kitchen on that particular Saturday evening. This might be normal protocol for a Tuesday afternoon, but should never be the case on a Saturday night.

There were other things that took place during the Munchmobile’s stop at The Thai Kitchen, but we’ll let the crew speak for themselves as they discuss and rate their meals.

Jake Welch — Pad Thai

I am not super familiar with Thai food with the exception of the dish Pad Thai. I usually go with this selection because it is usually a safe bet for a good meal. In the case of The Thai Kitchen, the Pad Thai was too safe. I can understand that sometimes certain restaurants want to cater to the community by “Americanizing” their foods, but the lack of flavor in their Pad Thai is truly a disservice.

I thought the noodles and chicken were well prepared, but there wasn’t much else to it. I found it sad that this “authentic” restaurant was not able to compete with a Thai chain out in California called Thai Spice that offered very flavorful food at about half the price. I would even go so far as to say that my dad’s homemade Pad Thai was on par with this stuff. Just for the record my dad has never set foot in Asia and was raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Sure, Costco might have helped with the meal, but still, I expected more from The Thai Kitchen. 2 out of 5 elephants

Ben Wagner — Chop Chop (sort of)

I too am not overly familiar with Thai food, but I have had mostly positive experiences every time I have partaken. That was not the case at The Thai Kitchen. I was in the mood for something with noddles so I ordered a dish whose name escapes me at the moment. Up till this point, I was not as wholly dissatisfied with the service at The Thai Kitchen as some of my fellow munchers: the waitresses were friendly (perhaps overly so, but that’s another story) and courteous. The food did take quite awhile to arrive and would have taken longer if Mr. Welch hadn’t spoken up, but I was enjoying myself.

The waitress brought out a dish announcing it as being the “chop chop”, which was the dish ordered by Rhombus’ illustrious editor Steve Pierce.  He, of course, took the food and began to eat it. A few minutes later, another waitress arrived with a dish that was also announced as being the “chop chop.” Of course, this was the real chop chop and the first dish was actually mine. Unfortunately, it was long gone and, as we had already been there an hour, I wasn’t about to send it back; therefore, I ended up eating what I had not oredered. This is a deal breaker for me — the fact that I had to pay for something I did not order pushed my level of customer dissatisfaction over the top. The chop chop, in and of itself, was somewhat bland and not anything to write home about, but it wasn’t what I ordered so the experinece was ruined for me. Safe to say I won’t be returning to the Thai Kitchen anytime soon. 1 out of 5 Buddha statues.

Steve Pierce — Whatever Noodle-laden Dish Ben Ordered

I am a patient man. Really, I’m not one to get all uppity over small things. I generally take things as they come. However, I cannot condone waiting an hour for one’s food at some makeshift Thai restaurant, then having the orders be wrong and having it all taste like you’re eating moistened strips of cardboard.

Perhaps this is the influence of my wife (who works at a restaurant and is extremely conscious of these things), but poor customer service is inexcusable at an eating establishment — especially when it is as awful as our experience at The Thai Kitchen.

To be honest, I can’t even remember any specifics about what I ate that night. I suppose it was probably fine, but it certainly wasn’t anything memorable. But even it was, it wouldn’t matter. I could have eaten the world’s juiciest steak drizzled in edible gold and I would have still left profoundly disappointed. Memo to the staff at The Thai Kitchen: Service is king. Zero out of 5 solo Thai chefs.

In conclusion, if you ever consider opening up a restaurant, just remember that it doesn’t matter if you have the best food in the world; You will ultimately fail miserably if you don’t have an adequate service staff. Hopefully the owners of The Thai Kitchen can learn that in the future. 1 out of 5 misplaced orders.

For suggestions on where you’d like to see the Munchmobile head next week, leave a comment below, send an e-mail to rhombusmag@gmail.com or send a message on Twitter to @rhombusmag.

Ben Wagner, Jake Welch and Steve Pierce are correspondents for Rhombus. Follow them on Twitter @ben_wagner, @jraywelch and @steve_pierce, respectively.

I read. A lot. In fact, I spend most of my day on the Internet, reading various things about a myriad of subjects. It takes a lot of work.

I’ve often wished I didn’t have to spend so much time scouring the Internet for pertinent tidbits. Why couldn’t someone just show me all the good articles worth reading? Why does being well-read have to be so stinking hard?

Full disclosure: I realize the Drudge Report offers a comparable service to the one desired above — except that would mean that I’d actually have to a) read the Drudge Report, which would in turn require me to b) not find everything about Matt Drudge’s sensationalist (albeit convenient) brand of non-journalism repugnant.

So, instead of giving into the Drudge monster, I’ve opted to continue my long, hard slog as a news-slave, shackled at all times to my RSS feed reader, waiting oh-so-patiently for the next juicy bit of writing to be tossed my way.

Someone should benefit from this situation — and that someone is you.

That’s why we’re starting a new feature here at your favorite local online magazine: the Rhombus Reading List. Here’s how it works: each day (okay, as often as possible), I will share with you my take on the top news stories, best columns and most interesting features I found somewhere on the interwebs that day, separated by subject and complete with appropriate links for your personal viewing pleasure.

So, in reality, it’s a digest of sorts — a compendium of pieces that I found interesting, relevant and worth passing on to you, our benevolent readers. Feel free to disagree with me; I’m sure you often will. But that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that you’ll have a steady list of interesting reads waiting for you each day, hopefully saving you some time sifting through the online scrap pile.

So, let’s give this a spin and see how you like it. If it works, great; If not, it shall go the way of the late Song of the Day and the many other defunct features that have come before — that is to say, to the stupid feature graveyard. Included below is the Reading List for October 26th. Give it a try, leave a comment with your thoughts in the space below, and we’ll be back with another edition tomorrow.

Politics

After a summer’s worth of screaming and yelling in all corners of the country and countless proclamations of its death, the public option lives! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you probably spent the past few months feverishly decorating that lovely rock you live under — or you just don’t care about politics. (In which case, why are you reading this section?) ANYWAY, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced today that he will include a public health insurance option in the final Senate bill, causing progressives to breathe a heavy sigh of relief and conservatives to strap on their socialist-name-calling battle armor. [Huffington Post]

Washington Post blogger and resident policy wonk Ezra Klein seems to think the version of the public option supported by Reid (which includes a provision allowing states to opt out of offering the program) represents a rather conservative compromise made by Democrats. [Washington Post]

Needless to say, the GOP doesn’t quite feel the same way. [Talking Points Memo]

Regardless, Paul Krugman, America’s most influential columnist and an on-record liberal skeptic of Congress’ health reform efforts, thinks (for once) that things might just end up okay. [New York Times]

And speaking of Harry Reid, the most powerful Mormon in American politics, a lot of his fellow brothers and sisters apparently don’t like him. In fact, many question his faith and religious commitment because of his political policies. An interesting profile of a man with as tough a job as any, even before he gets criticized by the guy sitting next to him in the pew. [Salt Lake Tribune]

Coincidentally (ironically?), the LDS Church also released a comment on the need for civility, particularly in political discourse. It also contained this gem:

Furthermore, the Church views with concern the politics of fear and rhetorical extremism that render civil discussion impossible. As the Church begins to rise in prominence and its members achieve a higher public profile, a diversity of voices and opinions naturally follows. Some may even mistake these voices as being authoritative or representative of the Church. However, individual members think and speak for themselves. Only the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles speak for the whole Church.

Is that a veiled reference to Glenn Beck (rhetorical extremism, renders civil discussion impossible, often mistaken as authoritative by the LDS faithful, etc.) or am I entering my own personal realm of Beck-style insanity? Methinks it is the former. [Church Newsroom]

Popular Culture

It all hit the fan on Mad Men (i.e. the best show on television) last night, with the show finally reaching the contentious climax it’s been building to for two-and-a-half years. The most important questions that now remain are: a) where does it all possibly go from here? and b) why aren’t you watching yet? As always, The A.V. Club has a splendid recap of the action. [The A.V. Club]

However, almost more enjoyable than actually watching the show is reading Movieline’s excellent weekly feature, the Mad Men Power Rankings. Ordering the series’ characters according to their performance in each episode, the Power Rankings are some of the most consistently hilarious writing on the Internet. There is seldom a week when I don’t come within inches of wetting myself with glee. If you watch Mad Men, this column will make your life complete. [Movieline]

In similarly hilarious news, comedian David Cross (okay, let’s be honest, Tobias) is doing his best to convince us all (and probably most of Washington, D.C.) that production on the upcoming Arrested Development movie should have started, like, yesterday. [Movieline]

Weezer further bolsters my theory that they haven’t made a good album since Pinkerton – has it really been 13 years since 1996? — and won’t be making another in the foreseeable future. In a word and a completely unnecessary initial: Kenny G. Need another? Chamillionaire. [Pitchfork]

And finally, it looks like Lil’ Wayne will soon be enjoying his cough syrup cocktails in a cinder block cell. But really, who didn’t see this coming sooner rather than later? [Spin]

Feel free to share your thoughts below. Check back tomorrow for another (probably briefer) edition of the Rhombus Reading List.

Steve Pierce is co-founder and editor of Rhombus. Follow him on Twitter @steve_pierce.

Friday morning I thought my Internet connection had been disrupted. My Facebook home page looked all wrong and surely, I thought, Facebook wouldn’t have tried yet another unwelcome “update.” After expectantly refreshing the page a dozen times, however, I discovered I was wrong; America’s favorite social networking site had been ransacked once again by it’s own revision-happy programmers.

Like all Facebook revisions, this one has sparked a fair number of “change things back to the way they were” groups. And, like all revisions, this one will remain in effect whether people like it or not. Still, the Facebook execs’ indifference doesn’t mean that disgruntled users aren’t right: many of the changes genuinely aren’t particularly intuitive or logical. For example, users can now see a “Live Feed” that includes real-time information about friends’ activities, or a greatest hits-esque “News Feed.” Just who determines what makes it onto the News Feed is unclear but, in my case, switching between the different feeds produced two very different lists of information. Consequently, I now have to click back and forth to avoid missing something or, more likely, simply get used to the idea of missing stuff. Unfortunately, both options are annoying and dubiously mitigate old problems by adding complexity.