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The sketch in the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special that caused food to shoot out of our nose: Bill Murray as lounge singer Nick Ocean singing the love theme from Jaws. (Remember his theme from Star Wars?) Here he is, introduced by Maya Rudolph’s spot-on Beyonce.

The musical number that made us shut up and listen: Miley Cyrus singing Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. In the lower register, none of that screeching every pop singer now resorts to. Her country style really works for the song. When she tires of being an easy target, that singer must be taken seriously.

In other music news, here’s an astute analysis of Madonna’s increasingly desperate attempts to get attention: Madonna Kisses Drake. It was recommended by our friend who has just realized his “mother” is fallible.

It’s like having your aunt kiss you at the graduation party. You know, the creepy old one who wears too much makeup and winks at you when you’re in the kitchen… The one who’s unmarried and seems to want to sleep with no one so much as YOU!

I get it Madonna. There’s ageism in the music business. But you can’t complain about it if you don’t ACT your age. You’re acting like a twenty year old. With all these publicity stunts, getting the brain dead press to fawn over you, because you give them access.

Don’t lose your head, Neddy baby. Bring me a sweater, I think winter is coming.

Drogon likes attention, hugs, and parkour.

Happy Birthday, Drogon Targaryen-Targaryen Hiddleston Cumberbatch! The vet says he was about a year and a half when he joined our household and we picked a birthday for him. It’s also the birthday of Koosi, who would’ve been 16 today.

Koosi

Whenever our feline masters celebrate their birthday they deign to read your future. This week Drogon is The Oracle. To ask a question of The Oracle, you must go out and feed the first stray cat you encounter. Then look into Drogon’s eyes and post your question in Comments and await his reply.

White Walker-blue eyes.

We have readers who ask the same question every year (pertaining to acquisition of boyfriend, more desirable employment, or both). If you want a different answer, try rephrasing it.

Readers used to own Game of Thrones, or as we fastidiously put it, A Song of Ice and Fire. Having read the books we had an advantage over mere viewers of the HBO series, who were unprepared for the beheading of Eddard Stark, the Red Wedding, the Purple Wedding, and other traumas in Westeros. Part of the genius of showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss is that they make terrible events so much worse. It hurts to watch this series. I know people who are still recovering from the sight of Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, stepping too close to a behemoth who wasn’t quite dead, and getting his head crushed like fruit.

But with the series catching up to the events in the books, the showrunners having jettisoned entire chapters and plotlines that slowed down the action (Goodbye, Lady Stoneheart), it will soon be in uncharted territory. In interviews, Benioff and Weiss have announced that the series will likely end before all the books—we are awaiting the sixth of a projected seven volumes—are published. Meaning Game of Thrones is in a weird existential bind in which the series will spoil the books it is based upon. Here be dragons.

Read our TV column The Binge at BusinessWorld.

Waiters, Alfred Eisenstaedt

Tipping is confusing, and paradoxical. We tip some people who provide services but not others who work just as hard for just as little pay. It is insulting to leave any tip in Tokyo but offensive not to leave a large one in New York. It is assumed that the purpose of tipping is to encourage good service but we leave one only after the service has been given, when it is too late to change it, often to people who will never serve us again. Tipping challenges the sweeping generalisations of economists and anthropologists alike. To understand how and why we tip is to begin to understand just how complicated and fascinating we human beings are.

Read To Tip Or Not To Tip in Aeon.

Do you tip waiters? How much? In some places you have to leave a 15 percent tip or the staff will run after you. Some argue that since Manila restaurants already add a 10 percent service charge to your bill, you don’t have to tip. Others say that if you eat there regularly and don’t tip, hala ka. And what do you do about a really obtrusive waiter who interrupts your story as you’re getting to the punchline, to ask, “How is your food, sir?” Or a waiter who seems to be listening too closely to a very private conversation?

A pencil sharpener in the shape of a tennis racquet…

that also projects pictures of a Disney princess. Is that Cinderella? For 25 bucks!

A metal pencil case with a smaller metal pencil case in it. 100 bucks.

A set of Sharpies in 5 neon colors for defiling personalizing stuff, Php299. Single colors, 38 bucks.

New Limited Edition Moleskines: Batman and Alice in Wonderland. Available in pocket-size (Php1160) and large (Php1580), lined and unlined.

The pocket-size unlined Alice carnet features artwork from the first edition.

*Prices quoted are from National Bookstores.