Let's Talk About It

One of the shows I watch weekly, but have yet to talk about it is Talk Sex with Sue Johanson. The show is on Oxygen, Sunday at 11PM. If you have never watched before, you need to see it. You don't have to watch the full hour to get it, just 10 minutes is enough.

Talk Sex is a call in show. Viewers call in and ask sex related questions to Sue. Sue is not a doctor, nor does she hold herself out as one. When a caller refers to her as Dr. Johanson, she corrects the caller most of the time. The times she doesn't, I think she missed the "Dr." part. The calls on this show range from the retarded to the weird. One caller last night wanted to know if she could get pregnant from "having anal sex in the butt." There are so many problems with that question. First of all, who would think you could get pregnant from anal sex? These are people who vote!!! And secondly, anal sex means in the butt!!!

In addition to the questions, during every show Sue reviews a sex toy from what she calls her "hot stuff" bag. The toys are given charcoal briquettes on the hibachi of love. Seeing a 78 year old woman showing sex toys is a little scary.

Sue often uses dildos and dolls to show viewers what she is talking about. Sometimes she gets very animated and borders on being scary. Unlike Dr. Ruth, she does not have an accent to make her amusing.

More About My Meeting

Last night I was still high on meeting Giada so I was not able to give a detailed recounting of the experience. So, let me share that with you now.

The Event, Sweet, was Food Network's kick off to the New York Food and Wine Festival set to happen in 2008. Upon entering the loft space you were greeted with trays of champagne, Evian and Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The atmosphere was festive, the music great (lots of 80's pop) however it was VERY crowded, uncomfortably so. On both sides of the event space were tables with dessert samples from some of New York City's finest restaurants and various wines to go with the desserts. Some of the desserts were very good, but overall, I was less than impressed. When it comes to dessert I am all about simple. I don't understand the need for roquefort mousse or goat cheese cheesecake. But I digress.

As we walked through the space, I was scanning the crowd for a glimpse of Giada. We eventually made it 3/4 of the way through the space and came to the photo-op area. When we got there Michael Chiarella was there taking photos with fans and the Ferrero Rocher girls. I asked a woman with a clipboard if Giada had been by yet. I figured that she would know because she has a clipboard and was wearing a headset. She told me Giada was there earlier but was likely now in the VIP area. Needless to say, I was crushed. I was ready to leave at that point. But we finished our walk through the space. We reached the end and turned around to head out.

We were about 2/3 of the way back through the event when the heavens parted and a ray of light shone done. Right there in front of me was Giada. My heart started pounding and my legs turned to jelly. I turned to my hubby and said, "she is right there, get the camera!!!" Giada was talking with someone so I patiently waited, edging my way right up to her. As soon as she was done I tapped her arm and asked if I could take a photo with her. I told her I am a huge fan, I have all her books, watch all her shows and have made many of her recipes and they are all fantastic. Yes, I was gushing, but I had just regained the power of speech (for a moment I lost it). She was very gracious and said yes to the photo and thanked me for watching. My hubby snapped a few shots, I thanked her and she moved on.

For the rest of the night I was grinning like an idiot. I was in heaven. This was truly one of the best moments of my life. Giada was just like you would want someone you were dying to meet to be like. Not at all snotty or curt. She seemed genuinely grateful to me for watching and being a fan.

This is a moment I won't soon forget.

Oh what the hell, here is the photo again.









Now I just need to get her to sign it.

And She is a Judge?

Fact: Heidi Klum is beautiful.

Fact: Heidi Klum is a judge on and host of Project Runway.

Query: What the hell was she thinking wearing this?













Yes, from the front it is fine. She wore this to a Victoria's Secret party, so it is totally appropriate that it is short, sexy and sparkly. However, the rear view is a little disturbing.












Butt cleavage is NEVER ok. Sure she has the figure to work an outfit like this. And after 3 kids nonetheless. But still... Before she critiques the designers on PR, perhaps she should rethink her own choices.

One Step Closer

Yes, I met Giada tonight!!!! As we were leaving the event tonight she was right in front of us. She is even prettier in person. She was very gracious when I asked to take a photo with her and thanked me for watching her shows. I was totally star struck...and still am. Remember when Marcia Brady met Davy Jones? That is exactly how I feel. I talked to her and touched her. It was beyond amazing. My legs were shaking when I saw her, I almost lost all power of speech.

I am now one step closer to cooking with her. It will happen.

Thanksgiving

I love the Food Network, you all know that. I love Thanksgiving. However the combination of the two is a little too much. Every show now is focusing on Thanksgiving dinner. Here's a little advice for anyone cooking Thanksgiving dinner - if you are not a cook or have never cooked before, Thanksgiving dinner is NOT the time to start. That said, pretty much every family has their traditional family dishes. You learn how to make them over the years, that is what makes them traditional. I am all for trying new things, but Thanksgiving is not a meal to mess around with. Occasionally a change is good, like when my brother took over turkey duty and started deep frying it. This was a great change. But all these recipes for new twists on the meal is over kill and in my opinion not a good idea. Maybe change one or two things, but for the most part, leave it as is. This of course assumes your traditional meal is good. If it isn't, then go crazy and change things.

Many of the cooking shows are giving new ideas for seasoning the turkey. I say there is no need. People like the good old fashioned roasted turkey. Keep the southwest seasoning away from it.

Cranberry sauce, either open the can or make it, but when recipes start calling for things like mustard, RUN the other way.

Try one or two new side dishes, but just let the rest be.

Tomorrow

I am hopeful that tomorrow I will be posting a photo of my goddess and me. Tonight is the kick off to Food Network's New York City Wine & Food Festival. Giada is slated to be one of the guests in attendance. I will keep my eyes peeled and camera at the ready. The event tonight is titled, "Sweet." It is a 4 hour dessert fest with lots of wines and champagnes to go with the munchies. I will post about it tomorrow...with a photo of me and you know who. And as I head off to meet Giada and eats lots of foods that I will have to spend extra time at the gym working off think about this: Stressed spelled backwards is desserts...coincidence? I think not.

We Wish You a Hairy Christmas

As stores are already putting up holiday displays, I figured I would join the club and start putting up holiday videos. As we just met Bear Force 1, I thought I would start with their Christmas single.



I promise more holiday videos just as good as this one.

Brace Yourself

I just saw a clip on Logo for an item to be discussed on their news program on Monday. It is about a new boyband. However this is not just any boy band, it is a boy band made of bears. The group is called Bear Force 1. I googled them and their site lead me to Youtube. I found two videos of theirs that I just had to share.



I don't know if they are actually singing or if they are Milli Vanilli-ing it.

It's Sew Time

That is the tag line for this season's Project Runway. Season 4 of the show premiered last night. As Tim said, this group is the most talented one so far. Unlike the 3 prior seasons, this everyone competing this season is a fashion designer. It necessarily follows that the people will have more talent in this area.

I love this show. Watching the designers start with nothing, but an assignment and creating a dress in less than 24 hours is amazing. I don't always like the creations, but I can respect the talent and creativity. As long as there is some creativity. I'd rather see something hideous but truly creative than something pretty and safe. These 15 people have the chance of a lifetime. They should take advantage of it. The first challenge of the season was for each designer to create a outfit that represented his or her point of view. They had no restrictions and all the fabric they could grab. Sophie had the honor of being the first designer aufed. Why? She played it much too safe, the dress was boring and poorly constructed. The judges are often will to overlook poor construction as long as the garment rocks. Unfortunately, hers didn't.

In the "this season on Project Runway" we saw clips of what we can look forward to this season. In one clip, Tim announce that Jack, one of the designers has something to tell everyone. I am guessing that he is going to say he is HIV+. Contrary to what some think, this is not something I read as a spoiler on a blog. It is simply a guess.

Fans of the show need to check out the quintessential blog about Project Runway http://www.bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com/

of course is there is also Project Rungay http://projectrungay.blogspot.com/

and Project Yawnur http://projectyawnur.blogspot.com/

This season there are a lot of tattoos on the show. I can somewhat understand one, subtle one, but some of these people are covered in them. Not pretty. And what is with this season's Uber-Bitch Christian (that is his name, not a religious comment). He has this just rolled out of bed hair thing going on that you know he spends hours working on to get it "just so". His coif makes his entire head look lopsided. I didn't think his design was all that good either - it looked very 1980's to me. Retro, but not innovative. He seems to have nothing good to say about anyone but himself. Do people on reality shows not watch them? Do they have any idea how they are going to be perceived? Why on Earth anyone would want to come off as a piissy queen is beyond me.

Our same judges are back this season. It must be noted that Michael Kors is much less orange this season. It is nice to see Heidi not pregnant again. After two seasons of baby bumps, it is good to see her back to model shape. I cannot look at Nina Garcia now and not think of the Big Gay Sketch Show's parody of PR.. Check it out here, it is the second clip on the list http://www.logoonline.com/shows/dyn/big_gay_sketch_show/videos.jhtml

Of course Tim is back. Here is some advice designers, when Tim questions something about your garment, LISTEN!!! He cannot directly tell the designers what to do, but when he strongly questions something, that is his way of saying, "get rid of it." Had crunchy girl Elisa listened to him and cut the monstrous train off her dress, she would not have been in the bottom 3.

Carmen, the token black designer this season, looks like a woman, but when you hear her speak you would swear she's a man. It like like listening to Bea Arthur or Suzanne Pleschette. I would not be shocked to find out she was born a man.

The winner of last night's episode was Rami. While his dress was beautiful, it didn't seem (no pun intended) to require much in the way of sewing. He draped the fabric beautifully and understood how it worked, but it was like calling making a tossed salad cooking.

I am truly looking forward to this season. I am so happy the show is back on.

Drastic Plastic

Today, Dr. Jan Adams, host of Discovery Health's Plastic Surgery Before & After, came forward as the surgeon who worked on Kanye West's mother Donda right before she passed away. If you are familiar with this show you know that Dr. Adams narrates and provides basic information on the procedures patients are getting. Only one time on the show did we actually see him operate and the results were awful. If those who can't do, teach, I guess those who can't teach, narrate. Obviously on a show displaying before and after images of plastic surgery patients, one would think the doctors would select their best outcomes. If the patient of Dr. Adams' that we saw was his best work I would hate to see his worst. Oh wait, we did, Donda West.

On today's Huffington Post information about Dr. Adams' past came to light. This is why you should thoroughly investigate your doctor. The following comes from The Huffington Post:

* According to TMZ, the medical board wanted to suspend Dr. Adams' license this past April following multiple DUI convictions. Moreover, Donda West was on the operating table for eight hours last Friday, twice as long as planned. She then went home, instead of staying in a medical facility, and died the next night. Dr. Adams is not Board Certified with the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

* Dr. Jan Adams lost two malpractice suits in 2001, according to Entertainment Tonight. He was ordered to pay judgments of $250,000 and $217,337.

* Dr. Jan Adams was sued again in June 2007 for malpractice, according to TMZ

* In December 2005, a lawsuit against Dr. Jan Adams alleged poor post operative care, false credentials and a botched tummy tuck, according to TMZ.

* Yet another lawsuit claims a botched boob job in August of 2005.

* A sixth lawsuit has been uncovered by TMZ. The plaintiff alleges that after a botched tummy tuck and arm lift, Dr. Jan Adams paid house calls. While she was medicated from the surgery and intoxicated, he told her he loved her, had sex with her and got her pregnant. That suit settled out of court.

* In another lawsuit, in October of this year, a patient who got breast implants claims Dr. Adams and Euclid Outpatient Surgery Center were responsible for "mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering" according to TMZ.

* Another lawsuit has emerged. Dr. Adams had to pay $100,000 to a woman over a botched breast augmentation, during which he left a sponge inside, reports TMZ.

I know over the course of a doctor's career he or she can be expected to be sued at least once. However, this many suits is very disturbing. This man should not be allowed to carve a turkey much less hold a scalpel. How DHC put him on the air as an expert is beyond me. What happened to background checks? All of this information should have been detected before they allowed him on the air. I hope they pull the show off the air, including reruns.

I'll Say It Again

Any recipe of Giada's, if followed as written will work.

The other day I saw a rerun of Everyday Italian in which Giada makes her version of an Oreo. When I first saw the episode I thought I would try it. However, when I looked at the reviews of the recipe, they were not good. Not good at all. Lots of problems with the recipe, many people did not like the texture, and some said the cookies were too buttery. So, I passed on making them. Upon seeing the episode again, I decided, to try it anyway. But, against my better judgment, I followed the changes the reviewers suggested.

I have no clue who these people are, but their suggested changes resulted in a shortbread like cookie, not at all what it was supposed to be. These were dry and crumbly. Not horrible, but not at all what it was supposed to be. I scraped that batch and started over, following Giada's recipe. And of course, it worked fine. I experienced none of the issues these reviewers encountered. The cookies did not all spread together, they were not hard to get off the cookie sheet, they are not too buttery. I don't know who these people are, but I would be terrified to try their cooking if they think their changes helped this recipe.

Moral of the story: Giada is right. If you want to make one of her recipes, she has laid it out for you. Just do what she says and it will work. You want to tweek the seasoning to your palate, go ahead, but don't totally change the recipe if you want to make what she makes.

More on (Moron) the Boobies

In my prior post about RHOC I neglected to discuss an important item. Homophobia. One would not expect such a thing to occur on a network like Bravo, but it was there on RHOC both last season and this season. It came in the form of Jeana's sons Shane and Colton. The two of them call each other gay as a way of putting the other one down.

I am all in favor of the First Amendment and I will steadfastly defend a person's right to speak freely. HOWEVER, when the speech is hate speech I draw the line. While many people would not find this offensive, imagine the uproar if these kids used the "N" word. All hell would break loose. For whatever reason, derogatory comments towards the LGBT community is still tolerated.

Making comments like these kids do is bad enough, but for Bravo to not edit them out or at least bleep them is even more offensive. Bravo is generally the most gay positive network around. So for them to air such comments is puzzling. I contacted GLAAD about this and they told me they spoke to Bravo about this same issue last season and Bravo refused to censor the comments.

I will still watch some shows on Bravo (PR starts next week!!!) but RHOC is out. Not in a gay way, but just out.

They Lie

The people at Maytag lie. We all know what the Maytag Repairman is supposed to look like. However, today when I had him come to repair my microwave, he was not a 6'2" white guy in a blue uniform and cap. Instead, he was a 5'10" black guy in a black jacket and ball cap. He did a great job repairing my microwave and did it in about 3 minutes. But I was a little disappointed that he didn't look like he was supposed to. It would be like going to meet the Jolly Green Giant and finding a purple midget. At least make them wear the uniform. This is a pop culture icon. You gotta give the people what they expect.

The Fake Boobies are Back

Last night was the season premier of The Real Housewives of Orange County. For those of you not familiar with this show, RHOC is a reality show following the lives of 5 housewives in Orange County, CA. This is not a good show by any stretch of the imagination, which is of course why I watch it. However, last night's premier was really bad. It is not like I cared about these women before and now I don't; I never did care about them. There was a certain train wreck aspect of the show that was addicting. Unfortunately, it was just more of the same crap last night, but worse in someways.

I am all in favor of having money and being able to buy anything you want, as long as you can afford it. These women can afford anything they want. The most tragic of the women to me is Vicki. She uses money as a way of controlling her children and then gets upset when they aren't thrilled to see her. She is not a parent by any means. Last night she bought her 20 year old daughter a new Mercedes as a present. She then was upset that her daughter wasn't as excited as she was about it. Lady, you can't buy love, no matter what the salesmen tell you. Vicki tries to control every aspect of her children's lives to the point where she told her daughter, who doesn't live at home, that she couldn't go to a concert in Washington. Hello, she is an adult. Get your own life. You wonder why your son wasn't happy to see you when you decided to surprise him at college last year and why your daughter isn't your best friend. I'll give you a little hint - YOU ARE NOT THEIR FRIEND. YOU ARE THEIR MOTHER!

All the women on this show are about as deep as a puddle. Perhaps if they were not surrounded by the opulence of the OC things would be different. However, for all of them it appears that their biggest concern is where to shop. A few of them do actually work, but it seems to be a way of filling their days. Unfortunately they are passing these "values" along to their children. Almost none of these kids show any kind of responsibility. Aside from Vicki's daughter who is in nursing school, none of these kids seem to have any plans for their future. OK, Jeana's sons are pursuing careers in professional baseball, but should that fail, they have nothing to fall back on.

While I am slightly envious of them having the ability to not worry about money, the effects of this lifestyle are truly upsetting. There is no sense of responsibility in anyone on this show. No feelings of gratitude for what they have. No recognition that they are not the norm.

I doubt I will continue to watch this season. I just am so bored with them.

No Dancing Around It

Last night on Dancing with the Stars the snooty judge in the middle said to one of the dancers, "Just because you are from Brazil doesn't mean you will be good at the Samba, just like being from Texas doesn't make you a good President." I love that shows today are not pulling punches. I expect comments like this from Nora on Brothers and Sisters, but when a judge on a live show makes a comment like this, I am stunned. Thrilled, but stunned.

Television is no longer a place to escape from one's problems. When non-scripted shows start making political statements, it is time for the politicians to pay attention. Admittedly, they should have been paying attention much sooner.

The judge's comments have drawn criticism from some saying that as a visitor to the US he shouldn't be making rude comments about the President. But that is the point of living in this country, anyone is free to express their opinions. And equally as important, the man is correct.

As said on Brothers and Sisters, it is these differences of opinions that make the USA the USA. Anyone who thinks everyone should think and feel the same doesn't belong in this country.

HUGE Giada News!!!

The goddess is going to have her own little sous-chef soon. Check out the article from People

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20158225,00.html

That is going to be one well fed kid.

Congrats Giada!!! Oh, and you too Todd.