Ze GuideThe latest parody by Jim Downey...

Ze Guide

The latest parody by Jim Downey and Tom Connor, authors of “Is Martha Stuart Living?” and “Martha Stuart’s (Better Than You at) Entertaining,” is “Zeguts Ridiculous Restaurants” (Kensington; $9), based on the Zagat restaurant guides. Imagine restaurant reviews by Mad Magazine and you pretty much have the picture.

Much of the parody is right on the money--the kinds of restaurants that wind up in Zagat (bizarre fusion cuisine cafes, pig-out palaces, places whose owners are “characters”), the jerky one- or two-word characterizations from nameless contributors--but this sort of thing works best in small doses, so read only one or two cities’ worth at a sitting. Best gag: a restaurant (or rather, bar) named 50 Ways to Use Your Liver.

Other Shoe Drops

OK, the last $10,000 diamond ring certificate has been found. Godiva Chocolatier had hidden three in chocolate collections for Valentine’s Day. The last was found by Ray Shellabarger, a telephone repairman, who bought one of the last available boxes at the Godiva boutique at Topanga Plaza, actually one of the boxes that had been in the window. His odds were 1 in 98,333.

The Credible Edible Egg

Chocolate eggs beat real eggs, reports an Easter-oriented study sponsored by Nestle. For the Nestle Nestegg Challenge, a panel of 15 children performed the following series of experiments: dropping a foil-wrapped chocolate egg and a hard-boiled egg (in one case, a raw egg), unwrapping a foil-wrapped egg and a hard-boiled egg and finally a comparative taste test. The results (which could have been published in a periodical called Duh: The Journal of Predictable Findings) heavily favored chocolate.

One experiment not performed: leaving a chocolate egg and a hard-boiled egg in the back seat of the car during Easter dinner to see how your parents react.