Coming to you this Friday, the second in the continuing series that is Celebrity Remote. Our second channel surfer is none other than author, editor, and soon to be screenwriter, A.J. Jacobs. If you remember a little while back, I mentioned finishing his fantastic book, The Know-It-All : One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.

A.J. was also a writer for Entertainment Weekly and is currently an editor at large for Esquire.

Why are you still reading this blog and not reading The Know-It-All already? You had better hurry up, there will be a quiz on Friday.

Here, for your pleasure, is A.J. Jacobs’ Friday night Celebrity Remote:

I’m apologize in advance for this. But I thought I’d put you through an intellectually rigorous night of TV watching. Because, well, I suffered for a year reading the encyclopedia. Time to make someone else suffer.

At 7 p.m., go to channel 34, Animal Planet. You’ll be watching an episode of Meerkat Manor entitled “Boys Will Be Boys.”To prepare
yourself, you should know that a group of meerkats is called a “mob” or a “gang,” which gives them a lot of street cred among their fellow small mammals.

Next, channel 17 at 7:30, where PBS is airing a half-hour show called “Nietzsche on Hardship.” Personally, I think reading Nietzsche is itself a hardship. In college, there was a guy in my Nietzsche seminar raised his hand and said, “If I listen to one more minute of this, I’m going to go crazy,” then promptly stood up, walked to the back of the class, and jumped out the window. It was a ground floor window. But still. It was memorable.

At 8:00, turn your TV set to channel 49, the Sci-Fi Channel, where you’ll see a documentary called Quest for Atlantis: Startling New Secrets.You’ll learn about new “scientific” evidence that supports the existence of the mythical lost city. Personally, when it comes to lost civilizations, I prefer Lemuria, the supposed precursor to modern-day Madagascar. One of its “discoverers” was Madame Blavatsky, an occultist who appears to be the L. Ron Hubbard of her day. She said the island was inhabited by spiritually clean hermaphrodites who later angered the gods by engaging in bestiality. Just so you know.

And finally, for a cerebral cooling-off period, try Camp Lazlo on the Cartoon Network. Here, the campers “vie for the lead role in a play about poisonous sandwiches.” I might add that Jack the Ripper used poison grapes to murder a prostitute whom he then disembowelled. You won’t find that on the Cartoon Network.