Monitor Picks

Open Mike

Funnyman Mike Birbiglia is Italian. Not real Italian, he likes to say; more like Olive Garden Italian. People may have trouble pronouncing his name now - on a recent standup tour he was introduced as Mark Barbagula, Matt Birbuglio, and Mike Bahuglia - but perhaps not for long. The Boston comic has been called the next Jerry Seinfeld. See for yourself on his new "Comedy Central Presents" special Friday, March 3. (It's pronounced bur-BIG-lee-uh, by the way.)

If there's no one at the watercooler to chat with about last night's TV show, log onto ew.com, the website of Entertainment Weekly. The magazine's stellar writers offer witty and insightful playbacks on the previous evening's episodes of series such as "24," "Lost," "Veronica Mars," and the latest in reality TV. It's like a text version of TiVo.

The Olympics have already seen high drama: Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis showboating her way out of a gold medal. The Austrian ski team raided on suspicion of doping. The Italian ice dancers not speaking to each other right up until their long program. This Saturday should provide more fireworks as American short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno tries to best his nemesis, Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea.

Advice for new fathers has long been bereft "of truly dad-friendly perspectives," says Greg Allen, a new pop. So the New Yorker started daddytypes.com, a blog for frazzled fathers (and mothers, too) to compare notes on everything baby related - advice on strollers to thoughts on home birth. And if you're wondering where to find the rare changing table in a men's restroom in New York City, look no further.

Now that history has handed Hollywood the perfect ending by unmasking Deep Throat as former G-man Mark Felt, All the President's Men is worthy of a DVD re-release. The thriller about Watergate, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, is still a smart civics lesson, and all the extras, including one about Felt, are captivating.