Thanks Brenda!

What an ass.

Finally saw Top Chef. Brief notes:

1. Howie is such a dick. And not bulldoggish at all. This is a slur on bulldogs, who are stubborn as all hell, but mostly incredibly sweet-natured and affectionate and not Howie-like at all. Can we call him rat terrierish instead (marginally tractable one-on-one, agitated and snappish and bitey in large groups), please?

2. He so should have gone home instead of Sara N, except that she sounded in her interview like she'd just hit a wall and gotten so weary and so done with it all that she was relieved to go. Still, he should have gone. Howie gone probably would have gone a long way toward restoring her spirit.

3. OMG I love Ted so much. The thoughtful and classy apology in his blog was lovely on its own, but almost as good was "Two words: Ba. Con." Now I'm all mournful and missing Queer Eye all over again.

4. Tre in a wifebeater and apron, making beautiful comfort food at aught-o'clock in the morning: GUH.

4. Tre in a wifebeater and apron, making beautiful comfort food at aught-o'clock in the morning: GUH.

Oh yes. Bunk.

Tre in a wifebeater and apron, making beautiful comfort food at aught-o'clock in the morning: GUH.

Yes. This alone should have won him the challenge.

I agree with what you said about Howie cf bulldogs. Howie is a much more bitter and angry creature and more difficult to work with. Possibly more of a snapping turtle.

Yes. This alone should have won him the challenge.

Seriously. From the way the show was edited (completely unnecessary but hot scene of Tre talking about taking off his shirt), I think the powers that be knew that too.

Hmm.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Part of the problem I have with the challenge was the way in which it sexualized and effectively demeaned the women. I'm not altogether comfortable with sexualizing Tre's cooking here as well. Or I guess, if I'm going to do that, I better not rant about the women's clothing.

Adding a post to say, I don't mean to harsh anyone's squee. Tre is a fine, fine looking young man, and also, I would eat his bacon wrapped shrimp on cheesy grits any day, and by that I mean food.

But I was getting ready to get all shirty about the women's clubbing gear and sexualization, and I guess I'd better get all equal opportunity shirty.

Obvously, the producer's should have brought working clothing to the site so that they could all change.

Also, I really thought that they were going to go out and be caught to do the elimination on their way back after clubbing.

Yeah. I think it would have been a better challenge that way, with at least a minimal amount of gratification for the subjects of this psychological experiment that is reality competition. But I figured they didn't want to in case everybody got wasted.

But then, Tom commented that they wouldn't stop anybody from drinking whilst in a challenge, so maybe that wouldn't have been an issue for them.

There's a difference between grabbing a drink in the middle of cooking and going out DRINKING and then being thrown into the kitchen, though.

I thought Casey's statement about how she wouldn't even want her coworkers to see her dressed to go out was weird. Would she flip out if she ran into someone randomly?