I am disappointed that no one acknowledged how well Sherea does in the challenges.

True, but I can't stand her. She's one of those people that Survivor excels at casting--the "you didn't let me ignore everyone else and do what I want so that means that you are X (bossy, patronizing, etc.)". At least now that the wrestler is gone she being more out in the open about it, instead of all that insidious whispering she was doing before.

I would really love it if for once they didn't merge when they thought and the rest of that tribe actually had to survive on their own.

I also loved James' talking head about Jean Robert and the hugging warn-off to crazy Boss Dave. James is da man and I am interested to see more sides of him as the season unfolds.

I loved finding out that Todd has been a fan of the show since the beginning--it explains his gameplay. I am enjoying the wily little guy.

Denise talking about the food, and clearly amazed and moved by it but not having the words to describe it kinda broke my heart. She is getting everything she can out of this experience.

sumi, it's no problem. I happen to think their paper is superior to ours.

Do you like Shinsei?

It's good, but honestly nothing beats Teppo for me. That may have less to do with the quality of chef though, and the overall quality of restaurant.

Abacus is in Uptown which kinda has a rep for overrated clubs and restaurants. That may have colored some people's experience. I'm pretty sure it has better ratings than Shinsei.

This week's WNTW is nice -- she's a philosophy PhD student, so has the full gamut of issues: I don't know how to do this/it doesn't matter anyway/my hips are so fat! And she looks great at the end.

Next Iron Chef: How fun that they got to use the high tech equipment and industrial chemicals!

How rough to expect them to turn out a really excellent dish using that stuff after only 90 minutes practice.

Also, I really thought that there wasn't going to be a winner because of the way they went through the candidates.

How rough to expect them to turn out a really excellent dish using that stuff after only 90 minutes practice.

And none of the dishes came out excellent or even all that good -- but what made it an interesting challenge was the way it took all of them out of their comfort zones, with none of the usual "oh, yeah, so-and-so's The Seafood Guy" advantages. I continue to love this show.

1. Harold was on Better Half???

2. some tidbits from Grub Street including a video demo of Hung's knife skills.

OMG, Rich's video-in-lieu-of-recap for last week's ANTM might be the funniest thing I've seen all year. [link]

Yay, Danielle. She's still so pretty

Oh, Tyra. Ice skating . . . you do love me.

Lisa really does look like a poodle with that haircut. And Bianca's bitch is back. Right on!

I gotta post about Survivor right now! Even though I've had a glass or so of wine, this demands discussion!

To some extent, I admire the strategy-- taking a big risk in Survivor, playing the game qua game, is really what it's about. But I don't think I would have agreed with Peih Gee (aka P.G.). It assumes way too much-- it assumes that the merge takes place at ten (why not eight or nine?); it assumes Frosti and Sherea don't get turned, and it assumes that Aaron and James can't be turned. I just think it's *always* a mistake to put yourself in tribal council. Your strategy at base has to be to avoid going to tribal, to avoid drawing votes. I've never seen a team come back stronger from tribal-- they always come back stronger after *winning challenges.* Maybe I'm wrong, and this strategy is too conservative.

Just this: never throw a challenge!