American Cooking Team Could Be Contest Winner

The New York Times reports that the American team in the famed 2-day Bocuse D'or cooking competition has a good chance of winning this year's biennial contest for the first time ever.

The Times reports, "The contest follows rigorous rules. Contestants must prepare 12 portions of both a meat and a fish dish in 5 hours and 35 minutes in small, identical, kitchen cubicles with picture windows that face an audience of more than 1,000 cheering, flag-waving, bell-ringing, foot-stomping, anthem-singing spectators."

Talk about pressure!

The American entrant, a sous-chef in the famous French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley named Timothy Hollingsworth, never attended cooking school and has been training 40-50 hours a week for the past three months. He is being assisted by a 22-year-old female apprentice.

Go team go!

[The full article can be found here]

I WAS ON TV!! I WAS ON TV!!!!!

.....and i didn't even know it. check it out: i'm in the first 3 seconds (literally)

This interview is so awkward/wonderful!

My latest lover- Mr. Silas himself is interviewed by Chelsea Handler in what i can say turns out to be a highly embarrassing interview to watch even when one is alone in one's dorm room. But I recommend it. This vid is rollin in the lolz.

Hannah Montana Drug Party

Amy Winehouse Saves the Day!

From Perez:

Good to hear that she's not too cracked out to save a soul!

According to new reports, Amy Winehouse saved the life of a woman who was thrown out of a boat and hit a rock off the coast of St. Lucia, where Wino's been vacationing.

The survivor, Louise Williams, told the British media, "A six-foot wave caught the boat and I went flying and hit a rock. Amy was on the beach 20 metres away and she ran across immediately and said, 'Let's have a look at you'. I was bowled over by her kindness. She went out of her way to help me… It shows there's another side to her."

If it wasn't for Amy the lady said that a wave could have swept her away into the sea.

When questioned about her life saving skills, the singer simply said "I thought she was going to drown."

The Next Amy Pohler: Aubrey Plaza (updated by G!)

Check out the UCB's next great rising star, Aubrey Plaza. Aubrey will be Amy Poehler's sidekick on her new show. She will play Poehler's intern at the department of parks and recreations in Pawnee, Indiana. Watch as she plays an outcast teenager who transforms into a mythical sea hag in "Teen Hag." My favorite clip is this spoof of MTV's "Next" called "Kaplowee."

Currently Reading...

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I know, pathetic. But I had to see what all the fuss was about. Check out the movie trailer and then a hilarious parody of it below.

Just Finished...

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

It was fabulous and I highly recommend it. Sittenfeld's third novel following the NYT bestseller Prep, this novel is a fictional portrayal of Laura Bush's life. Of course nowhere in the book does it mention the name of Mrs. Bush or anyone related to her which allows Sittenfeld to delve into the depths of what she imagines Laura's life to have been like without worrying about having to deal with the White House.

“A well-researched book that imagines what lies behind that placid façade of the first lady…Ms. Sittenfeld was not out to sensationalize but to sympathize."
–Maureen Dowd, The New York Times

“Brilliant…[A] triumph…Curtis Sittenfeld has provided a plausible secret history of an American embarrassment – and a grand entertainment.”

–Joe Klein, Time Magazine

“A smart and sophisticated portrait of a high-profile political wife…Sittenfeld has an astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers’ heads.”

–Connie Schultz,Washington Post Book World

“Sittenfeld boldly imagines the inner life of a first lady…an intimate and daring story…American Wife is a vicarious experience, an up-close portrait of the interior life of a very complicated woman…cinematic.”

–USA Today

“The novel, Sittenfeld’s most fully realized yet, artfully evokes the painful reverberations of the past.”

–New Yorker

“Compelling...enormously sympathetic...Sittenfeld’s remarkable gifts as a storyteller draw you back into the fictional world of Alice Blackwell. She writes in the sharp, realistic tradition of Philip Roth and Richard Ford–clear, unpretentious prose; metaphors so spot-on you barely notice them. Sittenfeld may have lifted the set pieces from a real woman’s life, but in the process she has created a wise and insightful character who is entirely her own.”

–Time Out New York