Vignettes:-- I've been reading Jeffrey Steingarten's The Man Who Ate Everything. Regular viewers of Iron Chef America will instantaneously recognize Steingarten as the curmudgeon rarely content with the food he eats. That, however, does not prevent him from polishing off each plate presented before him. He is the living embodiment of the adage to never trust a skinny cook.
Steingarten is an attorney and food critic for Vogue. He is every much the curmudgeon in his book that he is on the show.
Steingarten is never above reducing the talent of any first-class chef/owner of a Michelin rated restaurant (exceptions made for only Bobby Flay) to that of a short-order cook of a construction site roach coach. Neither does he spare criticism of his fellow judges; he has likened the insensitive palate of a fellow judge to a center field fan at Wrigley Field who just swallowed his third hot dog and guzzled his fifth beer. The guy's wit, honed at Harvard Lampoon, is as sharp as the knives in Kitchen Stadium.
He, however, is an excellent teacher of how to appreciate food.
-- We were supposed to have dinner with Nikki on Friday night before she went back to school. Nikki cancelled because she didn't want to drive in bad weather. It deprived us of her company and me from borrowing a movie over the weekend.
I texted her to express my disappointment- "Fredo, you broke my heart."
She called me a few minutes later and started off with "Who the heck is Fredo?".
Then, a couple of weeks ago, Hilary came over to watch Desperate Housewives with us. Every time Julie comes on-screen, I sing "The Rainbow Connection" because I think she looks like a Muppet. Hilary was vaguely familiar with Ms. Piggy and Kermit but didn't know what a Muppet is.
I forget that they are just kids.
- The second season of Rome started last night. Melissa and I have eagerly been waiting as the first season ended in November of 2005. Octavian is smarter and more calculating; Antony is more arrogant and cruder; Atia and Servilia meaner toward each other.
If I had to pick only one show to watch this season, I wouldn't even consider another.
