if the Petticoat Tea Room is open, they should have. Also, Bertha's did. And One Eyed Mikes, if they're open for lunch, has had in the past.

Ejiofor is about a month younger than me, so he won't be pushing 40 for a while yet. He's 33.

I don't know how old Charles Malik Whitfield is, but I think he could play that age range.

I saw Lance Reddick (also of The Wire fame) on some Law & Orders this weekend (SVU, I guess), and was glad to find that I no longer think of him as the undercover guy on Oz, which was a barrier in watching The Wire for a while, for me.

But isn't the role more a younger man in his 20s/early 30s?

Sidney Poitier was 34 when he played Walter Lee. Danny Glover was in his 40's.

In fact, I think that it gives the role a different depth when played by an older actor. The desperation of Walter Lee to "make good" takes on a whole new meaning with an older actor.

But doesn't he make reference to being only 24 when he married Ruth? And then being married to her for 11 years to Mr. Lindner?

If anyone saw Air Guitar Nation, I had like the greatest L&O sighting on SVU this weekend: world champion C-Diddy, doing a scientist-who-exposits-test-results dayplayer role. There was a conspicuous lack of Hello Kitty breastplate under his lab coat.

Aimee, I can't recall. It's been a while since I read it. I should rectify that.

It's gonna get added to my Book List. I hope this doesn't come as, I don't know, dumb or somethin', but I really need to expand my African-American reading. I have to read Roll of Thunder for my Children' Lit class, but thus far, all I've ever read by any African-American author is Beloved. And that was in high shool. It's part of the reason I watched "Raisin" last night.

Don Cheadle? Harold Perrineau? Chiwetel Ejifor?

Yes, please.

...oh you wanted serious discussion?

Nutty, you can have all of them as long as Michael Ealy finds his way to me.