Top Chef Chicago

The cable is working again (at least for now) and not a moment too soon...Top Chef Chicago debuted tonight.

Let's see what Des has to say about it:

First of all, I liked the commercials. Finally, an ad for boxed wine! It was Fish Eye, though, which I have never had and don't think I'd ever buy. But boxed wine is great - if you get something other than White Zinfindel or Franzia, it will be good. Try Pinot Evil, a good boxed pinot noir, or the Black Box Shiraz or Cab. Last season some of the commercial products were featured on the show - who knows, maybe they'll use boxed wine!

I don't have too much to say about the episode. I don't like Lisa - I don't like the way she looks or how she reacted to being told that she poached her egg better than the other guy - she acted like she was so superior just for poaching an egg better. Now, poaching an egg well can be hard - too short of a cook time and the white part is slimy, too long of a cook time and the yolk isn't runny (Steve sometimes has problems with poaching eggs; my dad is good at it if I remember correctly). But still.

The two people I do like are Mark and Andrew.

Mark is from New Zealand, so I'm getting my New Zealand fix until Flight of the Concords is back and I can listen to Bret and Jemaine. And Andrew seems like a tool, but I like him anyway. ("Yo, casa motherf***s, like fatness." - he's like the celebrities from the Geico commercials.) He reminds me of Adam Goldberg in his intense, spastic, and hyped up on cocaine way. Although it seems like he may be a jerk and co-contenstants will not like him, he will be entertaining.

I'm glad Nimma went home.

Now lets see what Steve has to say:

It seemed like the judges (Tom, Padma, and guests Rocco DiSpirito and Anthony Bourdain) were really impressed with the four finalists from the elimination challenge. Stephanie ultimately won with her duck a l'orange. On the other side of the challenge, Des and I held our breath as our favorite, New Zealander Mark, faced elimination for his own duck a l'orange, but ultimately Nimma's oversalted shrimp scampi flan-kenstein sent her home.

Two things I noticed with Bravo's positioning strategy: It seems that they made a point to bring in more corrosive personalities than before...I think it took at least a few weeks for people to start hating Howie last season, but I think I already see a few smacked-asses. Also, the product placement and brand plugs appear to be saturated into the programming more than ever before, following the general trend of the industry.

One last point. I have a feeling the lesbian couple situation won't end well, but we'll all enjoy watching the train wreck.

All in all, it looks like the Top Chef formula is still working, it will be interesting to see what they do to keep things fresh. My early pick for this season's winner: Richard, whose smoked crab cake wowed Chef Colicchio.

Reminder

Top Chef starts tomorrow at 10 on Bravo!

By the way - cable still not working. But we did have a record 3-day run during which it did work!

If McCain can do it, so can I!

I've always wondered if I could be President. Today I found out that I can (in 9 years).

Apparently there is a debate going on about whether John McCain is eligible to be President. Article II of the Constitution provides that to be eligible for the Presidency, you need to be a natural born citizen, or a citizen, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution; 35 years old; and a resident of the US for 14 years. McCain was born on an army base in Panama. Statute, not this constitutional provision, makes people born abroad on army bases citizens. So I guess the issue is whether a person made citizen by statute is a natural born citizen; or, depending on how you interpret "...a citizen, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution", whether an army-base citizen is a type of citizen the framers of the Constitution may have envisioned in 1786. There are other interpretations too, but I won't get into those.

So anyway, it seems that most, except some far right wing Republicans, don't really think there is a problem with McCain's eligibility. So, as I was born in Germany on a base hospital, I too will one day be eligible to be President.

I've always wondered about this. My Certificate of Birth Abroad, opposed to a regular birth certificate, always confused the Tee Ball coaches during registration... but it looks like I'm alright. Watch out 2020!

D

Food Rocks!

Last night Steve and I went to Yeats for karaoke with my sister, Mallory. Someone sang Bohemian Rapsody, and it reminded Mal and me of our favorite Disney attraction:Food Rocks!

Mal and I have been going to Disney World with our parents every year since I was in middle school or something like that. My favorite park was/is EPCOT, I always made sure to see my two favorite attractions multiple times. First, there is Space Station Cool (or something like that), where you can taste sodas from around the world. Italy's soda was gross, but Japan's Vegitabeta was great!

The second and best attraction was Food Rocks. It was a musical benefit show about nutrition featuring Pita Gabriel, the Peach Boys, the Refrigerator Police, and others, who changed lyrics to famous songs to talk about nutrition ("I wanna be your...high fiber" - Pita Gabriel). Anyway, they closed down the show about 3 years ago and replaced it with a new ride - Soarin' or something like that. Soarin' is a pretty cool hang-gliding simulation, but I couldn't believe they took away Food Rocks! So it had been about 3 years since I had heard Food Rocks until last night when we heard Bohemian Rapsody at karaoke. At the end of the Food Rocks concert, the U-Tensils and all the other acts sing along to Bohemian Rapsody. So we came home and found Food Rocks on YouTube. Enjoy (and make sure to watch both parts)!





D