I had a random thought earlier that might be an interesting one for you to ponder, perhaps pose the question to your readers: Is there a pair of people who share the same name who are as collectively awesome as James Brown (the Godfather Of Soul) and James “Jim” Brown (the NFL Hall of Famer)? I was brainstorming and couldn’t think of a better example. Do George Washington and George Washington Carver count? I don’t think they do. Michael Douglas and Michael Keaton (born Michael Douglas) don’t measure up, nor do Kenny Rogers the musician and Kenny Rogers the pitcher. Albert Einstein and Albert Brooks (born Albert Einstein)?

– Josh, via email.

Here’s the thing: Even if The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Mr. Please Please himself, the Star of the Show James Brown didn’t share his name with perhaps the best player in NFL history, it’s a common enough name that there are plenty of people he could be paired with. And in any possible case, even if the other James Brown were pretty damn lame, it’d still be the greatest pair of people ever in terms of collective awesomeness. It’s like how Hank and Tommie Aaron hold the Major League record for most home runs by a set of brothers even though Tommie only hit 13.

The Albert Einsteins are nice, I mean, people really like Al Brooks and Albert Einstein came up with a lot of smart stuff. But as far as I know neither ever recorded The Payback.

A suggestion via my man and near-homonym Ted Burke, perhaps for a distant second place: Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s and Dave Thomas, not-Rick-Moranis-guy in Strange Brew. Anyone else?

He is the host of “Sports Show With Norm Macdonald,” which makes its debut on April 12, and which Comedy Central excitedly hopes will do for professional athletics what “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” did for politics.

His relentless candor as a joke teller and his all-over-the-map career trajectory have given Mr. Macdonald, a relaxed and casually vulgar comedian who grew up in Quebec City and now lives in Los Angeles, a reputation for rebelliousness that he says is undeserved. Though it may not be evident in his material, he says he is mellowing.

– Dave Itzkoff, N.Y. Times.

I’m using someone else’s computer at work today so I’m seizing this opportunity to read his entire allotment of New York Times articles for the month. Is that how it works? If so, sorry bro.

Anyway, good feature on Norm MacDonald, who — as you might have figured out — is something of a hero to me. The article discusses briefly his ousting from the Weekend Update chair, but doesn’t mention how terrible Colin Quinn was in Norm’s stead. I was a big Kevin Nealon fan and I didn’t love Norm at first so I thought I’d eventually warm to Quinn, but it never happened. The segment went from being the highlight of the show to the low point every week.

I also like that Norm’s calling the new show “Sports Show,” which is basically the anti-joke we’re going for — but never really selling — with “The Baseball Show.” Consider me psyched. TiVoing the hell out of this.

Neighbor Debra Ross was so worried she called 911 and went outside where a nearby home had its windows blown out, was crawling with dozens of SWAT members in full gear, armored vehicles and a bomb robot.

“When the tank came in and pushed the wall over and you see what’s in there, and all it is, is a bunch of chickens,” Ross said.

In a massive show of force on Monday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant and arrested the homeowner, Jesus Llovera, on charges of suspected cockfighting.

Llovera was alone in the house at the time of the arrest, and he was unarmed….

Thousands of dollars in damages were made to the property and 115 birds were euthanized on the spot.

– KPHO.com.

Sometimes it’s really difficult to choose which part of an article to excerpt for this site. I don’t want to go overboard and just grab the whole thing, but every single sentence in it is amazing and hilarious and worth reading. Go read the full report and come back here, why don’t you.

Long story short: An Arizona sheriff used a tank to bust up an illegal cockfighting ring, and Steven Seagal was in the tank.

Then, while enforcing a law presumably created to protect animal welfare, the sheriff and his men killed 115 roosters in the dude’s cock stash. And you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that the guy who took a tank to an unarmed man’s house put those roosters down in some sort of humane fashion. In fact, you’re going to have a hard time convincing me he didn’t somehow use the tank to kill the birds.

Look: I get that forcing roosters to fight isn’t a very nice thing to do to roosters. But neither is massacring them, far as I can tell. Isn’t there some farm in the country to which Steven Seagal could dispatch all these liberated cocks?

Also, if you happen to know of an illegal cockfighting ring in the New York area and can get me in, shoot me an email. I’m not advocating cockfighting, but at the same time I won’t tell the cops or show up in a tank or anything. I just think a recap would make for a pretty interesting blog post.

Link via Deadspin.