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Ferdi's Creole Restaurant (394-2244) is a funky, dusty, delicious Cajun spot nestled into a nondescript stretch of Broadway Avenue (/Obama Way) in Seaside that's only open for a 10am-2pm lunch and, even then, seemingly reluctantly, as the aging attendees appear to care little whether you get that fork or can of Diet Coke quickly or more along a post-Katrina FEMA-style timeline.

But goods like the Big Easy burger, blackened chicken sandwich, mufaletta, jambalaya and watermelon milkshakes all provide a lesson: Sometimes there are more important things than cloying customer service.

Another lesson furnished by the red beans and rice (pictured above): Stuff's just better with hot links. (Sure the garlic bread is good, but that comes with it either way.) I repeat: Order the RBR with the hot link. Do it.

Further proof: the following hot links, which range from the disturbing to the inspiring, never fail to intrigue, and thereby upgrade your existence. I've been collecting them over the past few weeks until we had a nice six-pack to share. Cue the links:

• Wherein a man begins picking off neighborhood cats to supplement his diet. The best part from the video: When his plea for forgiveness on the grounds of hunger is rejected by a local dude who says, "I saw him buy a case of beer, so, if you can afford a case of Natural Light, you can get some Top Ramen."

• Wherein our cultural cupcake obsession—which has already pushed Weekly editor Mary Duan to equate it with a spreading disease—has led to cupcake vending machines. Somebody stop this—is hating on cupcakes like kicking a kitten or something? This has gone far enough.

• Wherein Alice Waters raps on the Chez Panisse at 40, the obesity epidemic and edible education. She spoke on Monday at the East Bay Women's Conference, but that sold out. Here were her candid thoughts ahead of that event.

• Wherein Los Angeles Times writer Jessica Gelt ponders the preeminent modern dining dilemma: What wins between cell phones and dining courtesy? Required reading—hold on, I've got a text coming in, OK, we're good—for contemporary culinary cats.

• Whereby beer writer Jay Brooks meditates on the true definition of local beer. It's a question that's particularly relevant here, where we enjoy only a handful of breweries like Peter B's or English Ales, and beer czar Jeff Moses of Post No Bills and Monterey Bay Beer Festival brews in San Jose, where Brooks reports.

• Wherein Mother Nature shows us some love.

• Whereby a man turns a Canadian neighborhood into his insane ski-land. This clip rolled at last week's Banff Mountain Film Festival screening at Golden State Theatre in downtown Monterey. If you missed it, don't worry. OK, it's not a link, but this was by far the best part of the night: