we watched Lidia of Felidia cooking on TV sunday so when monday rolled around we went right in for lunch. great wine list with lots of super estates but its an expensive place to drink, we settled in on a bargin 1994 Knoll Gruner Smaragd for $66 bucks, awesome!!

I just finished reading Kitchen Confidential. It was a fun read, but I'm wondering how it was received in the biz.

That’s all, folks.
Animator Chuck Jones is dead.

I'm amazed and pleased to learn that Laura Miller, a muckracking journalist of many years (not the Salon book critic), has just been elected Mayor of Dallas in a runoff vote. Dallas is the heart of Bush Country, a city run behind the scenes by righteous conservative businessmen. Miller's in for the fight of her life, but that this can happen in Dallas, now, gives me hope that there may be enough populist anger about Enron, etc., to evict Bush and the other thieves come 2004. The odds against her winning were simply unbelievable!

Oh, those tabloids!

When I saw the giant Daily News headline SARAH! I thought they were congratulating our friend Sarah Macfadden on her big jewelry sale to toney retailer ABC Carpet & Home, but our Sarah's not that big (not yet): it was surprise gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes of Long Island. She's also on the front of the Post, under a big headline screaming MURDERED, which made me start, until I saw that it was an unfortunate congruence with the sad story of captive Wall St Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. You know these editors are agonizing over what is the real news. But the best line was on the back of the Post, where a picture of fallen favorite Michelle Kwan was tagged NO KWAN DO!

I like the fractal tree. Very bauhuaroque!

im listening to a radioshow which asked, "whats the worst tv spinoff of all time?"

1) The Ropers
2) Enos
3) Fish
4) Flo
5) afterMASH



they disqualified joanie loves chachi because they thought it too obvious. others mentioned were a jeffersons spinoff for the housekeeper, carmine apparently had one from laverne and shirley, three sanford and sons spinoffs, two whats happening spinoffs and gloria and archie bunkers place from all in the family. any favorites?

whats the deal with ultra wideband, not to be confused with the average white band?

Hey Alex, have you seen this: Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter?

Still haven’t come up with that LOTR movie review. Probably should see it again; first time around I was preoccupied with comparing it to my own imaginings. It measured up pretty well, but what about Tolkien’s vision? Well, here’s a good presentation of Pictures by J. R. R. Tolkien, which includes most of his illustrations for LOTR, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion. He wasn’t a great artist, but an effective illustrator, and his renderings must be considered definitive. In line with his prose, he excels at landscape, which he lovingly describes in the books (these pictures were clearly studied by the filmmakers), but he could barely draw figures. Just so, his written descriptions of persons are often vague and general, which leaves room for your own imagination, but is rather frustrating for the geek who wants to know what an Elf really looks like. I can only find one picture with Elves, and while it’s one of my favorites, it’s not much help. It’s like a Claude Lorraine: the figures are just a foil for the landscape. Still, you can see (try this oversized version) that these Elves wear culottes and pointy shoes! In fact, Tolkien’s conceptions are much closer to Victorian fairy art than today’s sword and sorcery fans would probably like.

AI Nailed

Justine Elias, in the Village Voice's 2001 Films in Review:

This is the image in A.I. that to me sums up the team of Spielberg and Kubrick: The fugitive mechas escape to Smut Island or whatever it's called, which looks like the Food Court at a 1970s shopping mall, and Gigolo Joe, the Kubrick figure, is happily pointing out the sights—"Here's where I ply my sleazily robotic trade!"—which would be totally perverted if the sex talk weren't sailing right over the head of little RoboBoy, Steven, who's going, "My mommy told me to look for the Blue Fairy! I love my mommy!"

One Last Pathetic Lie from a Dying, Former Free Internet Service Provider

"AltaVista's free Web-based e-mail is the last of the portal-like services that the site offered, and, as many of you became aware of AltaVista's pure search focus, usage of the service has waned. As stated in our e-mail, the company will no longer support free e-mail after March 31st, 2002."

Translation: "As more and more of you saw flies hovering over our company..."

No, wait! I see what they mean. "As more and more of you realized how incredibly good the AltaVista search engine was getting, you guessed that email couldn't possibly be a priority for the company, so you began seeking out services for which you would have to pay." Right?

Or, maybe it means, "As our pure search focus improved, you began spending more time surfing the web and less time sending email..."

Hard to know which half-truth actually applies here. But hats off to the copywriter for such well-crafted BS.

timeline

the hardest part about a review is when you drank a wine for 5 years from $45 to $65 and tonight its $160, (even if its worth it), but the smart person over looks and dives smack into the 78 Sfursat for $45...another night at Manducatis, and a great night at that!!

another part of ratings is personal bias, i love Italy and Italian wine, last night we ate at Lupa for the first time in about a year!! (party of 4 completely blown away, they sent out these lightly batter fried squid covered in a hot pepper sause that was "to live" for, the Bavette, a new dish of Farro Spagetinni(sp?) with tuscan chick peas (cecci's) and Bottarga (tuna roe), sardines with citrus peel, a pasta special with duck and blood orange etc ragu, the date dessert!!!--WOW!!!!--brilliant food, fab flavors, very nice wine list, awesome prices......

The 2002 edition of the SF Chronicle's annual survery of the top 100 local restaurants is now on the web. Only seven are south of SF. The other 93 are in SF, Berkeley, Oakland, and points northward. Yet another disadvantage of living in the "South Bay".

how would i rate a restaurant??
innovative brilliant food, and unique texture and flavor are top, presentation is somewhat an issue but surrondings are not, wine either BYOB'd or off the list is important part unless beer goes better with the food, price value ratio is a final point....
thats why below Willi's beats out Veritas, the food is way better at Veritas but the 3 bottles of wine I drank at Willi's costing $190 inc tax and tip would cost $800 at Veritas, hence Willi's is better IMHO, and thats why GSIMidtown could be so high up, the food is brilliant and I can bring whatever level of wine I want, no charge....

I've been having a series of lunches for slackers. Whoever cooks typically does a multi-course meal from scratch. Dishes range from souffle to fried turkey.

My Mardi Gras week lunch featured pane'ed shrimp, tilapia and okra (with light coating of Cajun spiced breading) over roasted corn/lime salsa and brown rice with a splash of fish stock, and a dab of remoulade on the side. But the star was the dessert.

Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding

serves 15

• one loaf sweet french bread, stale, crust removed, cut into 3/4" cubes
• eight eggs
• one pint skim milk, one pint heavy cream
• 1 lb Scharffen Berger semi-sweet, chopped into chips
• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup Gran Marnier
• 1/2 cup Irish whiskey
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• unsalted butter
  
  
• melt 1/3 of chocolate chips
• let milk, cream and eggs reach room temperature, let chocolate cool
• whisk melted chocolate into eggs until smooth
• whisk liquor, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon into mixture until smooth
• whisk milk and cream into egg mixture until smooth
• fold bread cubes into mixture, let stand for 30 minutes
  
  
• pour mixture into large deep pan, or several smaller deep tins (large pan yields custardy center with more cake-like exterior, smaller pans yield more consistent texture)
• while pouring mixture, add layers of the remaining chocolate chips
• sprinkle cocoa on top
  
  
• bake at 350 until set in the center, 50-60 minutes
• finish under broiler for 5 minutes, about 4" from hot broiler
  
  
• let cool for 5 minutes
  
  
• serve with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, whiskey, or whipped cream
  
  
• make note to self about increasing aerobics for a couple of days

warholizer

Welcome to the home of extreme ironing - the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.

geek love

Valentine's Day Special
Through the magic of the internet, I've located my first crush, or at least a picture of her.
It's Sandy, from Butternut Square, a Canadian kiddie show I watched in the mornings when I was five years old. I was crazy about her, but then they packed me off to school and I never saw her again.
Sigh…

Country Outlaw Waylon Jennings is dead.

Anyone who cares about visual art knows that the Guggenheim is the worst major museum in town. A child's imitation of modern marketing, their Soho failure and Basque boondoggle only distract from the fact that they rarely mount a worthwhile show. The museum that had the first Ryman retrospective, where I first saw a Beuys show, has been reduced to a joke. Jerry Saltz in the Voice states the obvious.