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Two sad deaths this week - Tony Award winners Ron Silver and Natasha Richardson.

I loved Silver on The West Wing

Silver, who was 62, was buried Wednesday after a two year battle with esophageal cancer. Ed Rollins remembers him here.

Here's Richardson and husband Liam Neason talking about Eugene O'Neil.

She was just 45.

Best reason to watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon so far?

The Roots.

The Village Voice has one-upped the viral audio clips of Barack Obama reading hilariously out-of-character phrases from his books.

Their entry: Bill O'Reilly reading passages from his creepy, hilariously bad thriller novel Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder.

The Voice writes that the 1998 book is "about an O'Reilly-esque TV journalist who is trained by an Irish Republican Army terrorist to kill the people who deserve it the most: the broadcast news bastards who interfered with the O'Reilly character's career. It's personal on the political level, too -- his victims include a powerful 'bitch' named Hillary and a fat 'slob' named Martin Moore."

Some are shocked that O'Reilly -- a self-styled moral arbiter who has criticized the coarse language, sex and violence in movies, on television and in pop music -- produced a novel full of coarse language, sex, violence and sexual violence.

Those people have got to be kidding, right?

Anyway -- the audio clips are pretty priceless. They include (among many others) O'Reilly voicing a crack dealer who says to his underage girlfriends:

"Say baby, put down that pipe and get my pipe up."

"Off with those pants."

It has been said, and I have to agree, that it will probably be a matter of hours before we're seeing dance remixes of this stuff in the wild.

Originally a Catholic Feast Day celebrating the life of a Saint who probably did not drive any snakes out of anywhere, it's now down to drinking, wearing green and spotlighting any Irish heritage you can claim, however remote or tangential.

And why not?

Best news item I read all weekend: Steve Martin is financing an off-campus production of one of his plays because some parents at the Oregon high school where it was being staged have thrown a nutty about its "adult content."

The play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, is about an imaginary meeting between Einstein and Picasso at a bar in Paris as both men are on the verge of great achievements in art and science.

Martin explained his reasoning in this letter to the La Grande observer.

Choice bits from the letter:

"I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as "people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects." With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling Hamlet a play about a castle."

I predict that the experience will not be damaging, but meaningful.

Mr. Martin -- you have officially made up for those Pink Panther re-makes.

In celebration, I offer this banjo breakdown with the Muppets.

In case you missed it: Neil Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods) appeared on The Colbert Report last night to promote his new children's book, The Graveyard Book.

The book's out tomorrow, and I may now have to read it. You should too.

Fred Gregory of Greensboro asked me to post this photo on Culture Shock, offering it without comment. He says it speaks for itself:

I love a good detective show.

I love a quirky detective show.

I especially love a good, quirky detective show.

But with Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars canceled out from under me, The Mentalist really failing to live up to its initial potential and Lie to Me beginning to feel like little more than a good premise I am getting a little discouraged with the genre.

But not so fast! Now comes Castle, a detective show about (wait for it...) an eccentric writer who helps the police solve crimes! Starring Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible Fame!

Check out the first 13 minutes.

What do we think?

Don't forget: Tonight is the first "Midnight Madness: Beer and a Bad Movie" night at The Carousel.

The show: The infamously, hilariously awful Troll 2.

The time: Midnight at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas at 1305 Battleground Ave., Greensboro.

The price: $5 (includes a ticket and three beers from local brewery Natty Greene's - or popcorn and soda for those under 21).

Our video interview with event planner Joe Scott here.