I really, really wanted to like Food Detectives. I figured it'd be a nice combination of two of my favorite shows, Good Eats and Mythbusters. Alas, it just doesn't make it for me.
The problem? The host. I expected Ted Allen to be a much more natural host (I like it when he's a judge on Iron Chef America), but he was just awkward and stiff, and looked as if he wasn't sure if the camera was rolling. Did you ever have a substitute in like sixth grade who obviously was used to teaching Kindergarten? That's kind of the way Ted seemed.
With Mythbusters, you've got a voiceover narrator who carries much of the, well, narrative load. The actual Mythbusters don't even really interact with the camera much. They're mostly there to interact with each other, and the camera just happens to be rolling. It's quite informal.
On the other hand, on Good Eats, Alton brown does the narration and the hosting, but he pulls it off with a quirky, geeky and-yet-somehow-cool flair.
Oh well. It's not like I needed to add another Food Network show to my list.
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Ethan and I attended the last couple of hours of the Oregon Air Show yesterday. I principally wanted to attend in order to see a new air-demonstration team. Growing up near an Air Force Base (Elmendorf), I've seen the Blue Angels several times (I remember when they flew A-4s), the Thunderbirds, and even the Snow Birds (Canadian team). So I was delighted to break in a new team.
This time, it was a civilian team, the U.S. Patriots. They did not disappoint. Although it's a civilian team, that just means that the pilots are not currently active members of the military. But the makeup of the team is still top-notch, with one of the pilots being a former member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.
The aircraft they fly, the L-39, is not as high-performing as the Thunderbirds' F-16 or the Blue Angels' F-18, but there was a nice side-effect of this: They aren't quite so loud.
We still got a nice mix of group maneuvers and close fly-bys. Very good show.
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Yesterday, during the 9am service at which I sang, most of the musicians were in the greenroom. There, we were treated to a delightful example of videos which may come under subpoena during the inevitable trial, The United States v. White Men With Video Cameras. I speak of Tyler's Techno dancing video. I particularly like the part where Tyler collapses to the couch, then starts doing an arm-only dance, then pops back up with an unexpected burst of energy.
I toyed with the idea of posting this for Too Funny Tuesday, but couldn't wait.
(video embedded)
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I've got a great memory. It's a gift and, sometimes, a curse. Like when I read the "quotes" page on IMDB and think, "Those quotes are wrong." My son seems to be blessed with the same affliction. It's not just movie quotes. I also remember basically everything I learned in Survey of Art and Concepts of Lifetime Fitness, in spite of my desire to lose some of those memories. I found out on Friday that I also have a pretty good Olympic Memory. As the torch relay was concluding, I mused (aloud) to The Fair Elaine (paraphrased), "I wonder if that gymnast from the L.A. Games will get in here. What was his name? Li Ning, right?" Ding! I have no idea where I pulled the name out of, but five seconds later they handed the torch off to him, and he proceeded to go all Neo on the Bird's Nest. That was cool.
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This morning, on my way to work, I approached the traffic light at 10th and Oak. A green light. Were cars moving? Not the left lane. The right lane was attempting to move, but the truck over there came to a screeching halt, too. Ambulance? Police? Family of geese? Nope.
It was a moron. Specifically, a teenaged girl, strolling across the street against the light. Nice. Well, I hope she learned her lesson from all those big, nasty cars sitting there, watching her illegally and dangerously crossing the road. Um, folks in those cars, got a horn? Seriously, this is exactly the kind of situation in which some actual teaching should be going on. And by teaching, I mean thoughts along this line: "Sorry about blowing your eardrums out, but you could be getting killed right now, so I think you'll understand and maybe not do this kind of stupid stuff again, like ever."
Problem is, people are afraid to use the horn. We don't want to be thought of as (gasp) aggressive drivers!!! (visualize - with your ears - a blood-curdling scream). So, the road is ruled by idiots who either drive dangerously or like 110-year-old women (BTW, I'm criticizing those who drive like old ladies, not the ladies themselves). I'm not sure what the solution is here. There's no acceptable way for people who actually want, you know, to do 45 (or even 48) in a 45-zone, to communicate to the lady doing her makeup while driving 32-ish that we'd really like to go just a bit faster. Can't tailgate (not that it stops me), can't flash our lights (see previous), because that'd be like mean and stuff.
One day I'm going to write a lengthy, 200-word essay titled "In Defense of Tailgating." It'll be my magnum opus.
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Last minute addition...a new word for the Heasley lexicon.
stinkumference - the radial expression of body odor centered around a smelly person. Decreases with increased distance. Alternately, a measure of a person's level of B.O. (Example: "Wow, Tim has a serious stinkumference going today.")
I've been thinking about coming up with a word for this for some time. This morning, on my way back to my cubicle from the lab, I ventured dangerously close to the event horizon of such a phenomenon. Dude...