hollywood

The tipoff on Ronstadt was that she would do this giggly between song patter.

i agree. on a related note, thomas keller reportedly doesn't even taste his food. that, i never quite understood. perhaps just hype? [i'm guessing there will be some mis-directed pro-keller tirade on the way which will have little to do with this comment.] Isn't this the Dilbert theory of management?

Were you at that concert, too? I was loaded as well.

I was thinking Royale with cheeeeese.

Right. About the same level of creativity as the beach cologne or the coffee table coffee table book. Actually, less.

Sushi Ike in Hollywood serves discs about an inch thick. Great stuff.

Fine Cooking publishes every other month (as does CI) but for the past couple of years has added a special holiday baking issue. That's the 7th. Thanks for filling me in.

I'm intrigued as to why there are 7 issues per year. This seems different from the norm. Is there 1 special issue? You're forgetting the annual Cooks Illustrated Swimsuit issue.. Right, but Cook's only does 6 issues. It's Fine Cooking that does 7.

I'm intrigued as to why there are 7 issues per year. This seems different from the norm. Is there 1 special issue?

Welcome aboard, nolatara. BTW, do you think it would help for an out of towner to claim to be a local in making reservations? Or, is there a better strategy for getting a good meal?

Some pretty good selections. But when it comes to columnists, the list is off. Fat Guy doesn't get picked at Elle. Denby gets picked at New Yorker instead of Lane. Still, better than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised to see Q and Mojo on the list.

What were you thinking???? Wine at the .99 Store? Have you ever looked at the expiration date on the canned and boxed food goods in there? Just remember - you get what you pay for You are correct. The one I tasted was a voignier from Saint Helena. Oddly, each bottle is numbered as one of about six or seven thousand.

On a whim, I bought 2 bottles of wine at The 99 Cent store yesterday. Based on one I tasted (endured), definitely not the place for wine.

Drouhin got me to take pinot noir seriously.

Thinking about this some more the retail price is not a fair comparison. That's because there's significant cost externalization in the petroleum world. In addition to the pump price, we pay the cost of air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, aggravation of lung problems due to smog (which in turn gets us into aesthetic costs), not to mention various tax breaks such as the (27%?) oil depletion allowance (to enable the petro companies to find alternate energy sources--still waiting on that). And, if you are really cynical, you can throw the cost of going to war over oil on the pile as well. As far as water goes, I can't think of many additional costs society has to pay in the bottled water arena except for the bottle recycling/disposal cost. So, gas definitely costs more. Just my opinion.

There is a health overlay in the water. When the MTBEs from gasoline are leaching into the water supply, paying a few cents more for purer water doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Hey! I was behind you all the way. (But out of range of your knife.)

My head is starting to hurt. Where is that farmer's daughter?

the farmer? Actually, I was hoping for the farmer's daughter.

Maybe it should go like this: if you're satisfied at the end of the meal, you can say My compliments to the chef. If not, Who the hell's in that kitchen anyway?

Don't softeners work using sodium? That can be a problem for some folks.

There was a followup on the recycling of plastic water bottles in California on NPR the other day. Story said about 35 % of plastic bottles in California are recycled but only about 15 % of water bottles get recycled. So the proposal is to double the CRV (deposit) from 2.5 to 5 cents a bottle to give consumers more incentive to recycle.

Good episode. I agree with the people you've spoken with. The other folks you mentioned are called cooks.

It would if it was a civet. How so? Might have SARS.