For reasons passing understanding, earlier today the office was abuzz with discussion of our collective fear of spontaneous human combustion. It's not that we'll suddenly burst into flames. No, that rarely happens. It's this slow smoldering from the inside. Anyhow, there are, of course, books on the subject (Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion to name one) and even t-shirts are available.

Lest you forget, tickets for several concerts go on sale in a matter of moments or hours.

• Michael Buble at the Taft
• Keller Williams at Bogart's and a host of other shows including Saves the Day and Metric.

Dear Mount Lookout Cinema Grill,

If I were you, here's what I'd do:
- Reopen. (Please?)
- Forget new releases - if people want to see King Kong, they'll do it in stadium seating with dynamic surround sound.
- Instead, buy up prints of classic black-and-white movies, cult favorites, blockbuster hits of the past - anything people might want to see on the big screen again. Think quirky; think retirees and college kids. Think: the original King Kong. Think Casablanca during the day, Raiders of the Lost Ark at night, with an old newsreel and cartoon for good measure.
- Don't worry about serving food. Popcorn and candy - that's all you need. The megaplexes serve everything you used to, plus funnel cake. Your focus is on the movies; later, you can consider expanding your menu.
- But, for the love of God, do NOT give up your liquor license! Do you have a bar? You don't? Get a bar - heck, put one in each theater so people can get refills without having to miss any of the movie.
- Consider late shows. You have a potential built-in clientele in the people who spill out from MLT, Millions, Zip's and the Stand every weekend. They don't have to go home, but they can't stay there ... so maybe they'll decide that your 2 a.m. showing of Attack of the 50-Foot Woman is just the thing.

If you did this, you would totally be my dream theater and I would tell all my friends about you.

Love,
Kelly

You like it, you love it - you may even have had it - and now, we want you to tell us all about it.

The second CiN Weekly "Sex in Our City" survey is coming this upcoming Monday, Jan. 23 (visit CiNWeekly.Com, keyword: sex survey). Our annual probe into the hearts (and the bedrooms) of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky follows our inaugural (and revealing) fact-finding endeavor, which you can read about by clicking here.

We can't to see what you've been up to - and based on last year's results, we're pretty sure you can't, either.

Maybe it's my Boy Scout training, but I don't like to see American flags left out in rainy weather or overnight without being illuminated.

So imagine how I felt when I looked out of the window of a coworker's office on the 20th floor of the CiN Weekly building (OK. So it's actually the Enquirer building if you want to get technical) and saw this tattered U.S. flag that fell off its pole on the roof of the building across the street at 209 W. Fourth St.

According to the county auditor's Web site, the building is owned by "BSF III-B LLC" in Columbus. If anyone knows someone over there, show them this picture. It's been like this for months.

Enough of my ranting. Who else has a complaint to file?

Just so you have the background, holiday samplers show up occasionally, usually for photo shoots and the like. Earlier this week, as we were cleaning out, one box in particular caught our eye.

Dave Drinks - The Movie and quicktime, if you need it

So we get random e-mails all the time. Usually they have handy helpful information, such as letting us know that a restaurant is in Deerfield Township, not Symmes Township.

Some e-mails are more interesting than others - like the one I got from China today. The writer is looking for a high school classmate whose picture we ran in CiN Weekly 18 months ago. Since he was just eating at a restaurant, I have no idea how to reach him, but maybe someone else does. Normally I wouldn't do this, but this is from China, not Westwood! So here's the e-mail.


Hi everybody, I just want to ask the guy "Patrick Cua-from the Philippines" on the Cafe Istanbul introduction picture. Can you please tell me how I can contact him? He is a classmate of me 17years ago that I lost contact with. I would really appreciate it if you can give me a helping hand on this case.Thank you very much!
Johnson, Xiamen, China (my-emails@163.com)

Here's the picture and the original story.

Back to the world of editing!

To celebrate the playoff appearance by our Bengals we've decided to publish a pair of bad-a** covers this week. Grab one of each....nobody is gonna say anything.