I am the only person who likes Cedric! I agree with everyone's criticisms of him and the judging, but I find him scrappy and lovable. Also he is frickin amazing at what he does, and that is more exciting to me than, say, break-dancing or Pasha. But what do I know, I didn't think Pasha's substitute partner was really all that last night, though clearly I guess she should have been.

I like Cedric, I just don't think he should have made it this far in the competition.

Oh, I love Cedric and I will be the happiest person in the world if the Debbie Allen scholarship actually pans out. I just don't think he is right for this show.

As for Pasha and Melanie last night, I think in part what happened with Melanie is that she was stuck doing a routine choreographed to play to Jessi's strengths and weaknesses, so there were a lot of times where she was just standing around wriggling and trying to look sexy when she could've been doing a lot more intricate work . . . and she wound up having to try to do lifts with Pasha that were designed to be done by a 25 year old dancer.

SYTYCD - I would feel bad for Mia that she had to deal with Cedric, except she's fought to keep him in so she has to deal with it. I don't think Cedric is a bad person or a bad dancer, he's great at what he does but he's extremely limited and he's been kept in even though he's limited.

Top Chef - I only watched half and I can't remember what all the comfort/home cooking food and I haven't read the contraversay about Micah -- are people saying she's not from South Africa at all or just claiming she should have more exposure to American food than she's claiming?

I think comfort food is fairly regional in America. One of the first things I think of is turnip greens and corn bread, country fried steak, fried okra, cheese grits, stuff like that. I've never had chicken a la king before and lasgane was a special occasion type of thing.

Top Chef:

I still think anyone should be able to make some kind of meat lump taste good.

While I wouldn't disagree with the above, I'm not sure that this was the challenge. I thought (and I'll admit that I'm gonna be lazy and not look this up) that the task was to reinvent one of the typical home cooking/comfort food dishes and make it a great tasting, low cholesterol option. A Chilean chef could make a great crudo using ground beef and it would taste wonderful and fully represent a typical meat lump dish that tastes good from that culture. And I think fairly low cholestorl given that it's raw and all. But it wouldn't be at all meatloaf reimagined.

But it wouldn't be at all meatloaf reimagined.

Oh, I think it totally could be sold as such, though. Not that the Elks would buy it, necessarily, but for chefs? Sure. It would be more so than Sara's chicken skewer thing!

Although I don't know that cooking or not cooking changes the cholesterol level of meat.

people saying she's not from South Africa at all

People are saying she's not from South Africa at all, and that the accent is affected. Which? Beats me.

Addenda:

OK, according to this interview, her background is actually more complex: "She was born in America at her mother's insistence, but the family traveled and lived throughout the world, which helped to expand her culinary curiosity and skills, Micah said."

Which is not unheard of, and I think explains some of the seeming contradictions.

sytycd

Oh, I love Cedric and I will be the happiest person in the world if the Debbie Allen scholarship actually pans out. I just don't think he is right for this show.

A world of this. I was really impressed with his attitude, and loved the way Nigel pushed the scholarship on Debbie Allen. I think Cedric will actually do better in school, though. I think Cedric thinks that at this point, and don't think he would be upset to be cut.

And given the short notice and other points mentioned above, I thought Melanie was fantastic. Just imagine how she would do in a dance choreographed for her own strengths and, you know, more than a couple of hours notice.

Oh, I think it totally could be sold as such, though. Not that the Elks would buy it, necessarily, but for chefs? Sure. It would be more so than Sara's chicken skewer thing!

Although I don't know that cooking or not cooking changes the cholesterol level of meat.

I can see that. Maybe I'm just being too literal (much like our chefs last night). I also have no idea if crudo would have lower cholesterol. Then again I had peanut butter cup ice cream pie for lunch, so . . .