Snow, Simpsons, Seafood

The weather stinks. It's snowing...AGAIN.

Thoughts on Sunday night TV.

The Simpsons (new episode):

Springfield legalizes gay marriage to help improve tourism. Homer performs ceremonies for any and all couples, gay straight or brother and sister (oh, come on, like anyone was surprised about Cletus and Brandeen). Sadly, the episode was right on about a couple of things about the issue: First, many people will always change opinions given the chance to earn a little extra money. Second, it's one thing to discuss an issue in abstract, but regardless of your viewpoint, it's entirely different when it involves someone you know.

However, I think I may be permanently scarred by the dream scene of Homer married to Homer complete with Homer on Homer action.

The Simpsons (rerun):

For a contest that is difficult to get into, it certainly does seem that almost everyone we know is involved. There were even entries involving and entire fish on a pizza and a roadkill armadillo. Bart start up a "Playdude" mansion in his treehouse. Homer eventually has to explain the facts of life to him. Is this ever not traumatic for any children? Somewhere between 75-99% of all kids would like to think that their parents have never done that and hearing it directly from them is just too much. James Caan getting killed at the toll both, a la Godfather, was an absolutely hilarious ending to the episode.

Iron Chef America:

Morimoto is the Iron Chef battling tonight. The secret ingredient is...Crab. And it's not dead yet. It's not fun to have to prepare food that's trying to fight back. The introduction of living secret ingredients does bring some of the fun of the original series back. The challenger just spoke directly to Alton Brown, the host. I miss having a panel of commentators trying to figure out what's going on rather than simply having the chefs tell us. The thing that amazes me about this show, regardless of version, is how much they get done in an hour. I can barely even get a sandwich made in an hour. If I only had an hour to prepare food for the judges, they'd end up with a can of soup and microwave popcorn.

Another difference between the original IC and ICA is that no one makes completely outrageous things. Just once, I would like to see Bobby Flay or Mario Batali making some cod soft roe ice cream, as Sakai once did. Of course, that ice cream didn't go over so well with the judges.

This episode was probably the best so far, but the lack of urgency makes the new version of the show occasionally border on dull.

Enough of my rambling for one night. I started posting a book review earlier this weekend, but IE crashed in the middle of it, and I haven't been able to remotivate myself for that yet. When I get the motivation, the book review should be coming soon.

Until later...