odd celebrity (?) spotting

as a lover of bad talk shows from the 1990s, you can imagine my excitement when we walked into mexicana mama in the west village last night to be seated next to the one and only ricki lake.  while i thought she had retired from her show biz life (i.e. vanished from the public eye), a quick google search tells me that nicki minaj gave ricki a little shoutout in one of her latest songs, only to give my friend ricki a quick shot back in the spotlight.  she spent the meal on her blackberry (is that something that living in LA does to you?) which basically meant i got bored and stopped paying attention to her.   besides, my dinner companions (yeah gregg and ali) were much awesomer than any 1990s talk show host (except maybe geraldo).