... then check out this image, sent from my friend Mario. In his words: "Nuff said."



What caption works best?

Hillary Must Go! ... Hillary Going Out of Business ... (Help me out here, guys)

Okay, maybe "boy band" is pushing. It's more like a "man band." But they sound great.

This pitch-perfect insta-hit is the first single from Hardly News, the newest best online source for news -- starring among others, my longtime friend, Renaissance Man Vance DeGeneres.

Since 1964 Benihana has defined "Eatertainment." There are 80 restaurants world-wide. (Strangely there are more Benihanas in Venezuela than in Canada! And only one in Japan. Romania also has one.)

Clay Aiken is a longtime devotee of Benihana's. We spoke a lot about the Claymate phenomenon, which extends to Japan, where fans naturally are called Claysians. (Fans in Kuala Lumpur are Maclaysians, which sounds a little fast food-y.)

Much of our chat, which included a discussion of Pan-Claysian cuisine, didn't make it into the video below. Still I hope you enjoy...

Iron Man vs. Made of Honor: Seems more lopsided than Obama vs. Clinton. What would it take for you (all of you, not just superdelegates) to choose Made of Honor at the multiplex?

Ferris Wheels. They're quaint, some say outdated. Like bustles and daguerreotypes.

I happen to prefer Rollercoasters, but this isn't about me. The 180 Either/Or Series is about you making difficult and important choices.

Special thanks to the two hobos who made an exclusive appearance via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Time Machine.

So here is the report I did for CBS News Sunday Morning on XOS, the real-life "Iron Man."

Today on CBS News Sunday Morning I reported on the real-life "Iron Man": a robotic exoskeleton that amplifies the strength of the person wearing it up to 20 times.

I confess that I'd never even heard of Iron Man when producer Anthony Laudato approached me about the project. I assumed this was his own private obsession. (Anthony is such a robot fanatic, he's on the steering committee of the National Robot Museum, set to open in Landover, MD in 2011. And no, I'm not purchasing a ticket to their "steel tie" gala fundraiser.) But once I began reading about Tony Stark, Iron Man's womanizing, hard-drinking genius inventor, I was hooked.

The real-life exoskeleton is named XOS and is the brainchild of Dr. Stephen Jacobson's team at Raytheon Sarcos in Salt Lake City. Jacobson is the man behind the Utah artificial arm, created in 1983 and still the standard for casualties of war. XOS is being developed for commercial, medical and military purposes. (One intriguing goal is for XOS to be used by medical personnel to help move patients.) What was most extraordinary to me was the near instantaneous reaction of the suit to the user's movements -- i.e., if the guy inside of it moved his right arm upward ever so slightly, XOS moved right with it. (One problem with XOS's various predecessors is that the exoskeleton would take more than a split second to follow along, thus creating a drag effect that exhausts the user ... and defeats much of the purpose.)

Here is a photo from the shoot:


Mercy!

***

Readers of this blog know that I am a long-time fan of Mormon singing. So the ouster of golden-voiced songstress Brooke White from American Idol last week was both shocking -- and clear evidence of prejudice. Had she remained in the competition, a staggering 50% of the remaining contestants would be LDS members. Surprising, yes. But so what? Every great American show tune composer, with the exception of Cole Porter, has been Jewish. And I wouldn't sacrifice one bar of Gershwin, Kern, Berlin, Rodgers, Loesser or Sondheim in some wrongheaded attempt to "spread the wealth."

Whether or not the elimination of Brooke White qualifies as a hate crime is something for lawyers to sort out. The producers of American Idol should sigh relief that Mormons tend to be less litigious than other Christian denominations. (They're too busy singing and trying to improve their dancing.)

In any case, my trip to Salt Lake City to report on XOS meant a stay at the hip Hotel Monaco. I'd stayed there before and really didn't notice the personnel. But this time, I couldn't help but notice something peculiar: Every employee's name tag had a mysterious designation right below their names. The spiky-haired blond desk clerk's tag read "Brian," with "Sponge Bob" written on a second line. His colleague's tag read "Whitney," with "Purple" just below it. (My producer Anthony is terrified of the color purple. He pretended not to hear her when she offered to check him in and instead waited for Brian.)

What were these special inscriptions? Were they nicknames? Biblical citations? Second Life avatars? My initial instinct was simply not to ask. I'm sensitive to all religious traditions. And many of my dearest Utah friends are still reeling from the Utah War, the bloody conflict between federal authorities and the Mormon militia that ended in July 1858. (If anyone knows of sesquicentennial celebrations for the end of the Utah War, please write. We'd all like to know!)

But I also knew that not asking might constitute a sin of omission. What if the employees were members of a cell, communicating through their own secret language of name tag code? I wanted to ask Chelsie (alias: "Coca-Cola"), but she looked terrified when I glanced at her tag. Was Chelsie strapped to a bomb against her will? Set to detonate when I got too nosy?

Finally I asked Buddy, the valet (alias: "Love").

"They're our guilty pleasures," he said. "They show another side of us."

Love is a guilty pleasure? Huh? I understood how Chelsie's Coke habit constituted a guilty pleasure, what with the Mormon prohibition against caffeine.

"Did these have to be approved?" I asked. "I imagine some were too racy."

"Oh, yeah," said Buddy. "Jake's guilty pleasure was cougars," he said referring to women who like men 10 years younger. "That wasn't going to fly. He managed to get 'cougar' singular put on his tag. But the boss was still bothered."

So what did Jake (another valet) end up with?

"Tulips," said Buddy.

Is it just me, or does "Tulips" sound dirtier than "Cougars"?

Ever since federal authorities raided the YFZ (Yearning For Zion) Ranch in Southwest Texas, the country - or at least everyone who watches Larry King Live - has been gripped by the images of polygamist wives in prairie dresses. It's easy to snark at their hopelessly outdated couture. (So '90s ... as in 1890s.)

But only one man can offer constructive advice...

Below, a written recap on my nightclub act debut. But first:

Last night if you were watching NBC and you didn't blink, you saw me on Law and Order: SVU. The shoot was remarkable for two reasons:

1. A climactic scene was shot right in Grand Central Station. (I played the leader of a flash mob that froze on my command. The extraordinary incident on which it's based has been seen over 11 million times on YouTube.) But what was happening off camera was other-worldly. As soon as Chris Meloni stepped on to the floor, women from all corners of the station's vast interior dropped their things (bags, briefcases, babies) and began walking zombie-like towards Chris Meloni. Most had no idea what was drawing them. They hadn't seen us, hadn't seen Chris. They just sensed him and his pheromones ... and abandoned whatever responsibilities they had. In at least a couple of cases elderly relatives were left on their own, struggling to make their trains without the aid of their entranced daughters. (In one other case, a woman rose from her wheelchair and made her way to Meloni.)

Women of all shapes and sizes were soon pawing, gnawing, mauling Chris. Yearning not for Zion, but for Meloni. And he was gracious to every one of them.

Did you miss me? Did you?! Well if you didn't, you're in luck. I'm going back into hiding for a few more days, after which point I'll catch you up on dinner with Dick Cheney, the Pope in New York, the employees of Hotel Monaco and the young Haitian actor who redesigned my shoelaces on the set of Law and Order: SVU. In the meantime...

My nightclub act is playing New York's Birdland this Monday. (Ticket information here.) It's called Mo Rocca 'Cross America and it's my celebration of our states through song.

Anyway my nightclub act features the incomparable Charlie Osgood, host of CBS News Sunday Morning. And that's not all: There's Annaleigh Ashford (currently Glinda in Wicked), Stanley Bahorek (a co-star of mine from Broadway's Spelling Bee), jazz singer and impresario Julian Fleisher (proprietor of my favorite podcast), my bestest pal and triple threat Brian O'Brien (from a zillion Broadway shows), plus a surprise mystery guest.

Here's a preview of a rehearsal for my act, with coaching from the incomparable Bebe Neuwirth:

Please come. And tell all your friends!

Continuing our "clip show" week here at Mo Rocca 180:

For our "man on the street" pieces we occasionally perform what I like to call an "ambush" piece, in which Mo present a pair of options with no context to see the first, barely-considered response from the interviewees. It's terrific fun, and always surprising. The reactions are so natural and real that I'm not sure it matters how relevant the choices are. Here's a recent one which is one of my favorites -- "Fried dumplings or steamed?" People are just as if not more opinionated on such matters as they are on presidential candidates.

Plus I love the stonefaced guy at 1:02. "Steamed" he soberly muses, nods, then walks on.

We here at Mo Rocca 180 are proud of many journalistic accomplishments, and among these is our coverage of interesting CLOMs (Cat Ladies of the Month). Oh cat ladies, how you compel us! And it's not just us who are fascinated! Florida newspapers report that a woman has been fighting her neighbors are the law for her right to keep her 150 cats. That reminds us of the Russian woman who happily kept 130 cats (check out the video of her feeding them at that link).

Fascinating both -- but neither as interesting as the Mo Rocca 180 original CLOM (Cat Lady of the Month), Judith Bernstein. See our first interview with her below, and then after that our follow-up story where we investigate the troubling news of cats on drugs. And remember as long as there are strong and interesting women possessing an interesting quantity or quality of cats -- we'll be there.

The firm that designed Disneyland is developing a theme park for Baghdad. Despite the problems of building an amusement park in an area that is in middle of a war, the firm's chairman says he believes such a theme park would have a positive psychological impact on the area. Perhaps, but Disneyland and other theme parks do not inspire only positive thoughts. Earlier this year a woman tried to scatter her husband's ashes in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Mo Rocca 180 hit the streets to ask which rides YOU'D prefer your ashes scattered in.

This is Producer Will Hines again, filling in for Mo while he continues his week-long sabbatical.

Today is April 22 or "Earth Day," a well-intentioned holiday that helps raise awareness of important environmental issues. But ironically, Earth Day itself feels inorganic to me -- forced and even rote. Better that then nothing when it comes to protecting the world, I know.

Still, much more interesting to me is "4/20" -- the unofficial celebration of marijuana which occurs two days before. I don't partake of marijuana -- we here at Mo Rocca 180 are notoriously unadventurous when it comes to drugs. But I am fascinated with successful civil disobedience. On Sunday at the University of Colorado, thousands of students gathered and smoked marijuana in public with no reports of other recklessness or lawbreaking. There were police on hand, but seeing that they were outnumbered, simply allowed the kids to smoke marijuana while making sure the gathering was otherwise safe. That's a smart, pragmatic decision which I respect. It gives me hope that there's a chance to have non-violent protest without having police or other authorities feeling threatened.

That, and stoners are hilarious. We didn't go so far as to administer a blood test, but the seemingly affected young men that Mo interviewed in this piece on Mitt Romney were two of my most favorite interviewees (they first appear at 26 seconds in). And they certainly seemed to be keeping their world "green."

Greetings folks! Mo Rocca is away from the office this week. We're not 100% sure why. He mentioned something about an unfinished dissertation about the effect of man-on-the-street pieces on post-modern literature and then grabbed his fishing poles and hustled out the door.

Regardless, we here at Mo Rocca 180 are not ones to question our tasks but simply to dive in blindly. So prepare for a week of choice re-runs of past videos. On some days our choices will be a thoughtful reflection on the day's news, bringing fresh insight with yesterday's comedic angle.

On other days, like today, I'm just gonna run stuff that I think is funny. Please enjoy my favorite piece from the vaults, "If You Could Have One Bionic Part..." which we first ran in honor of the short-lived Bionic Woman remake.