Richard Blaise, whom I've always thought was a leeeedle full of himself, apparently shares my opinion of Grayson, the chef I talked about on this blog the other day.
Here is link to his comments about episode three of Top Chef: I Have to Call it the Way I See it and Taste it. He refers to her as playing with a "chip on her shoulder." Good observation, Richard!
In other Top Chef news, here is a great, entertaining blog about it, written my Max Silvestri
Showing posts with label On the TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On the TV. Show all posts
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
The Right to Die & Being Prepared for the End of Your Life
So lately I've been recording the Dr. Oz show and watching it at my leisure. Good stuff on there most of the time. But today I watched yesterday's episode about the Right to Die debate, and it's been walking around with me ever since.
There was a woman on the show that suffers from a terminal illness and I can't really get her out of mind. Here is a clip from her part of the show. She is bound to a bed or wheelchair all of the time. She is not able to do anything at all but speak. She wants to die because she's tired of fighting for life. She doesn't seem to be in pain. She seems to have full capacity to speak her mind.
I AM a proponent of the patient's right to ask that they be allowed or assisted to die. But I wish this woman hadn't been one of the examples of someone who would use that. When I think of someone who wants to end their own life, I think of someone that is in horrendous pain. Or someone that is reliant on feeding tubes and respirators to continue living. Or both. Not someone that can still have the capacity to finish raising her children, albeit from a bed. Not someone that can help her family with important life decisions...how to deal with relationships, how to choose a college, whether to take a job or not, or even whether to wear purple socks with a red sweater. I don't think of someone with perfectly coiffed hair and the ability to communicate clearly with others without pain.
I think of someone in Montel Williams's situation. He talks about it here. And worse. (If you haven't watched "You Don't Know Jack," you really need to.)
I certainly don't want anyone to think I believe the other woman is not suffering. Clearly she is. But to me, she still has a lot to offer right now.
That said, Dr. Oz touched on another subject that is very real. He didn't spend much time on it, but that other subject is that of preparedness. No matter who you are, no matter how young or old you are, you really need to keep your affairs in order and up-to-date. You need to have a living will and you need to be sure you have the right beneficiaries set up for your assets. Recently an acquaintance of mine passed away tragically. It was discovered after his death that he never transferred his beneficiary information on his retirement benefits to his wife. Those benefits are assigned to another family member who, it appears, does not plan to turn them over to her and their children.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE for letting these details slide. NO. EXCUSE.
There was a woman on the show that suffers from a terminal illness and I can't really get her out of mind. Here is a clip from her part of the show. She is bound to a bed or wheelchair all of the time. She is not able to do anything at all but speak. She wants to die because she's tired of fighting for life. She doesn't seem to be in pain. She seems to have full capacity to speak her mind.
I AM a proponent of the patient's right to ask that they be allowed or assisted to die. But I wish this woman hadn't been one of the examples of someone who would use that. When I think of someone who wants to end their own life, I think of someone that is in horrendous pain. Or someone that is reliant on feeding tubes and respirators to continue living. Or both. Not someone that can still have the capacity to finish raising her children, albeit from a bed. Not someone that can help her family with important life decisions...how to deal with relationships, how to choose a college, whether to take a job or not, or even whether to wear purple socks with a red sweater. I don't think of someone with perfectly coiffed hair and the ability to communicate clearly with others without pain.
I think of someone in Montel Williams's situation. He talks about it here. And worse. (If you haven't watched "You Don't Know Jack," you really need to.)
I certainly don't want anyone to think I believe the other woman is not suffering. Clearly she is. But to me, she still has a lot to offer right now.
That said, Dr. Oz touched on another subject that is very real. He didn't spend much time on it, but that other subject is that of preparedness. No matter who you are, no matter how young or old you are, you really need to keep your affairs in order and up-to-date. You need to have a living will and you need to be sure you have the right beneficiaries set up for your assets. Recently an acquaintance of mine passed away tragically. It was discovered after his death that he never transferred his beneficiary information on his retirement benefits to his wife. Those benefits are assigned to another family member who, it appears, does not plan to turn them over to her and their children.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE for letting these details slide. NO. EXCUSE.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
24: The Chloe Watch
Favorite line of the week:Motobo: "Are you an FBI agent?"
Chloe: "No. I'm just a stay-at-home mom."
Friday, May 30, 2003
Gone to Carolina Archive: Amazing Annoying Racers
I've decided to take a month-long "sabbatical" from blogging. Today will be my last post until after July 4. Click on the envelope anytime to send me emails, though, to keep me posted on your doings. If you know my personal email address, of course that would be good one to use.
I watched "Amazing Race" last night. I really like this show...rooting for people I think are most deserving. Right now I'm leaning toward the NFL wives. They got a bum rap near the beginning, with some other teams telling a bus driver not to open the doors to let them on. I'm not sure they made the right decision using their Fast Forward on the first day, considering they had the fat & forty couple and the bimbos on their bus in last place with them. I think they could have beat them easily.
The only thing that really bugs me about the show is how they describe each team. "Father/Son" or "NFL Wives" are okay. But the fat & forty couple were just labeled "Married Couple" and then we had the gay couple that they labeled "Married". Considering gay marriage isn't recognized in most states, I think the show might be making a political mistake with that one. And besides, one would think those couples would have more about them that would be more interesting to describe. Like the "Air Traffic Controllers" (I thought fer sure they were doomed) and the bimbos, who they labeled "Models". The "Dating 12 Years/Virgins" title was a bit off-putting too. Maybe they just want to make a statement to Gen X that being a virgin is cool. That could be a good thing. But to point out that they've been dating 12 years? And he's on camera saying he's afraid of marriage? Why not just tatoo "Loser" on his forehead? Or her forehead, for that matter! At first I was worried that maybe their parents were losers...they look like they are only 22. Do the math. But checking out the "Amazing Race" website, I see they are 28 and 29. She's an environmental teacher at an Aquarium. That sounds like an interesting job. They could have worked that into their label.
Still on the labels...I just looked up the "Fat & Forty" couple...they have GREAT JOBS...he's a news director for a radio station and she's a director at an ARTIST'S COLONY! Cool! I'm sorry to see them go. They really tried hard. I thought his crying over not taking a hotel room right away was a bit weird. He felt he'd neglected his wifey-poo. I turned to Mensa Boy and said "sheesh! She should just tell him to get over it!" I'm not much into name calling, never would call Mensa Boy a name, but a well-placed "idiot" might have worked in that situation.
But by far the biggest disappointment to us was the couple from SoDa. All that bleeping while she's on camera...I really wish they'd get the boot soon, if only because listening to her language and the bleeping is Sooo annnnoyyyying. The least they could do is not "bleep". Why can't they just blank out her f-words? Just leave dead space? She talks fast enough most of us middle-agers wouldn't catch it anyway.
So that's my review of "Amazing Race". Click on the envelope and send me an email. I won't be posting any comments, but I'd definitely love to hear from you!
While I'm sabbaticalizing (?), I'll be reading Artemis Fowl, Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, and my "Cooking Light" and "Fine Cooking" magazines. I'm sure there will be many other items, as these will only last me until Sunday or Monday. I've decided to listen to An Hour Before Daylight and Ghost Soldiers on CD...I've read Ghost Soldiers but Mensa Boy hasn't, so that will be a good one to listen to. I'll also be watching several Netflix. I think "Antwone Fisher" is coming and so is "Amelie" and "The Prisoner, Vol 1".
Cheers! Keep in touch via email. I'll post again in early July!
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Gone to Carolina Archive: Marathon Training
I didn't write yesterday because I was in training for the marathon. The Alton Brown marathon was on FoodTV today from 2-8pm. I was a bit worried that I couldn't make it that long. So yesterday I practiced by watching 5 hours of FoodTV yesterday. I'm proud to say I stayed with the pack today from start to finish. The Nyquil helped me stay put. |
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Our Practice
Twins 15-15 Braves 20-11
Comments from yesterday: Lil mentioned that the Star Tribune had information that last night's episode of The Practice was to be the series finale. I watched the last half of it. Seemed final to me. Good. She mentioned a show she likes called Everwood. I'd never heard of it. She describes it like this: Everwood is about a very successful neurosurgeon from NY who leaves the big apple after his wife dies and moves to Everwood, CO to see if he can put his life back together. Son is a talented pianist---quit playing after his mother dies, but is finally getting back into it. While in NY. his dad was too busy saving other people's lives to get to his recitals etc. He opens up a clinic in Everwood and doesn't charge. There is another Dr. in town who has a daughter that Ephraim, the pianist son is interested in and she is interested in Ephraim also, but she feels responsible to support her boyfriend who was in an accident and was saved by the neurosurgeon. Have to watch it to get into it. It's on the same channel as 7th Heaven.
Yesterday I had a brief conversation with a fellow church member who expressed concern that the church might not be big enough or have enough programs to hold onto our family, or to attract new families. Our church has about 90-100 regular attenders. We came from a big inner city church in Minneapolis.
The comment took me by surprise. It has never occurred to me that our church seems too small. It's home to us. We joined and pledged to support it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service. Kind of reminds me of the wedding vows we took 20+ years ago. We made neither pledge lightly.
We joined our local church because it seemed like a place where we could learn and teach. We could support and be supported. Just as we stick together in sickness and health, we'll stick with our church during times of stress and growth.
Our little church is right on the crossroads of change. We have a huge development going up right down the road and lots of longtime residents who feel disenfranchised and shut out by the new changes. We will have many hard decisions to make in the future as we strive to be available to our newly-diverse community while still maintaining our identity as a people of Christ.
Church change is not really new to us. We helped to plant a brand new church in Eagan, MN in the early 80s. In the 90s we changed to a church in our neighborhood in Minneapolis. We only made that change because we had a new baby and wanted him to grow up in a church in the neighborhood. Our new church then was right on the brink of change. Much the same type of change as we have going on here. In Minneapolis, Minnehaha was getting older and not getting many new, young families. Mensa Boy and I were there just as we started making changes to programs and the building to accomodate young couples and kids. And programs were added later to reach out to the poverty-stricken in our community. Today Minnehaha is a growing, diverse church with an emphasis on inner-city outreach.
Are MB and I movers and shakers? By no means! Did we even have much to do with the changes in last church? No. We were busy with 2 young children. We didn't even like some of the changes. In some cases we were wrong about the viability of some of the ideas for change.
But we stayed. That was our family. We learned with them and grew with them. We found little spots where we could make a difference and where we could grow. It's not about the service times. It's not about the building. It's about the people and sincerity and desire to serve God.
We'll do the same at our little church down the road. We're here to stay. They are our family.
Comments from yesterday: Lil mentioned that the Star Tribune had information that last night's episode of The Practice was to be the series finale. I watched the last half of it. Seemed final to me. Good. She mentioned a show she likes called Everwood. I'd never heard of it. She describes it like this: Everwood is about a very successful neurosurgeon from NY who leaves the big apple after his wife dies and moves to Everwood, CO to see if he can put his life back together. Son is a talented pianist---quit playing after his mother dies, but is finally getting back into it. While in NY. his dad was too busy saving other people's lives to get to his recitals etc. He opens up a clinic in Everwood and doesn't charge. There is another Dr. in town who has a daughter that Ephraim, the pianist son is interested in and she is interested in Ephraim also, but she feels responsible to support her boyfriend who was in an accident and was saved by the neurosurgeon. Have to watch it to get into it. It's on the same channel as 7th Heaven.
Yesterday I had a brief conversation with a fellow church member who expressed concern that the church might not be big enough or have enough programs to hold onto our family, or to attract new families. Our church has about 90-100 regular attenders. We came from a big inner city church in Minneapolis.
The comment took me by surprise. It has never occurred to me that our church seems too small. It's home to us. We joined and pledged to support it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service. Kind of reminds me of the wedding vows we took 20+ years ago. We made neither pledge lightly.
We joined our local church because it seemed like a place where we could learn and teach. We could support and be supported. Just as we stick together in sickness and health, we'll stick with our church during times of stress and growth.
Our little church is right on the crossroads of change. We have a huge development going up right down the road and lots of longtime residents who feel disenfranchised and shut out by the new changes. We will have many hard decisions to make in the future as we strive to be available to our newly-diverse community while still maintaining our identity as a people of Christ.
Church change is not really new to us. We helped to plant a brand new church in Eagan, MN in the early 80s. In the 90s we changed to a church in our neighborhood in Minneapolis. We only made that change because we had a new baby and wanted him to grow up in a church in the neighborhood. Our new church then was right on the brink of change. Much the same type of change as we have going on here. In Minneapolis, Minnehaha was getting older and not getting many new, young families. Mensa Boy and I were there just as we started making changes to programs and the building to accomodate young couples and kids. And programs were added later to reach out to the poverty-stricken in our community. Today Minnehaha is a growing, diverse church with an emphasis on inner-city outreach.
Are MB and I movers and shakers? By no means! Did we even have much to do with the changes in last church? No. We were busy with 2 young children. We didn't even like some of the changes. In some cases we were wrong about the viability of some of the ideas for change.
But we stayed. That was our family. We learned with them and grew with them. We found little spots where we could make a difference and where we could grow. It's not about the service times. It's not about the building. It's about the people and sincerity and desire to serve God.
We'll do the same at our little church down the road. We're here to stay. They are our family.
Monday, May 05, 2003
Twins 15-15 Braves 20-11
I took the weekend off from journaling (journalling?). My friend Lois A was here for the weekend. She and her husband are from Iowa and Texas. They live in Texas most of the year and then come back to Iowa for the summer. She is on a month-long tour of the Eastern US and part of Canada. She arrived here on the Amtrak Thursday night and I took her back to the station Sunday morning. I guess I already mentioned on Friday that she gave me a bunch of piano lessons. She's gone now and I'm still not playing any ragtime, but she did leave me a book and I'm going to dabble in it while I work through John Thompson's Second Grade piano book.
Comments came in over the weekend:
From Julie A-D: John and I watch American Dream every week. It is a really great show. We are Practice watchers too. I think Lindsey is whacky. At least thy are making her seem that way. We didn't watch that last week either. We were hooked on Boston Public for a while. Now that has turned into a show where every episode has to be about sex. Yes, that does seem to be something we can come to expect about every show these days. I'm going to be very sad when CSI does that.
From faithful Julia (of the sister variety): I know what Cassie and Peggy mean about 24, but there are only 3 hours left!!! I did enjoy doing the first season as a marathon, but I love watching it every week and live for previews for next week. It's the best show on tv. She also wrote later to mention that Jessie is starting on some ragtime too.
And now to the random part of my blog. Today will be totally random thoughts.
1. For the record, contrary to my son's belief, I DO NOT eat 3 snacks each day. He throws this up to me whenever I tell him he can't have a snack. I couldn't figure out where he got this notion, since I rarely snack in front of him anyway. Then I realized that he may have arrived at this conclusion because I'm home all day. I think he figures if one is home, then one gets a 10 am snack, a 3 pm snack and a "midnight" (bedtime) snack, just like he did when he was home all day. I will admit, however, that Saturday evening I had a Krispy Kreme donut for supper and Edy's Grand Ice Cream for dessert. I have no excuses for that.
2. Mensa Boy called Saturday morning to ask if he is still the nicest person I've ever met. Our "brothers" Doug and Lis introduced him to a guy from "Discipleship Journal" by saying something along the lines of "he's so nice his wife told us he was the nicest person she'd ever met after they'd been married 12 years". I told MB yes, that even though it's been almost 21 years now, he still is the nicest person I've ever met. I'd have to say Tony might be in there too, but I might think that because Tony reminds me so much of MB.
3. My brother-in-law Jim is a pastor in New Sweden, Maine. I talked to my sister-in-law Anne on Saturday morning and they are doing everything they can to support the Lutherans during this terrible time with the arsenic poisoning and shooting and all. They are staying away from TV cameras as much as they can.
4. Seen on the back window of a car parked in the grocery store parking lot on Saturday: "What if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?"
5. Click and Clack, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, writers of the Car Talk column and radio show on NPR, point out that gasoline is NOT actually over-priced. In fact, it's quite UNDER-PRICED. Last weekend they compared the price of gasoline per gallon to the price of Nyquil, bottled water, milk and other items per gallon. I felt rich after hearing that!
6. The best way to survive NPR's "Guilt Week" is to pledge on the first day.
I took the weekend off from journaling (journalling?). My friend Lois A was here for the weekend. She and her husband are from Iowa and Texas. They live in Texas most of the year and then come back to Iowa for the summer. She is on a month-long tour of the Eastern US and part of Canada. She arrived here on the Amtrak Thursday night and I took her back to the station Sunday morning. I guess I already mentioned on Friday that she gave me a bunch of piano lessons. She's gone now and I'm still not playing any ragtime, but she did leave me a book and I'm going to dabble in it while I work through John Thompson's Second Grade piano book.
Comments came in over the weekend:
From Julie A-D: John and I watch American Dream every week. It is a really great show. We are Practice watchers too. I think Lindsey is whacky. At least thy are making her seem that way. We didn't watch that last week either. We were hooked on Boston Public for a while. Now that has turned into a show where every episode has to be about sex. Yes, that does seem to be something we can come to expect about every show these days. I'm going to be very sad when CSI does that.
From faithful Julia (of the sister variety): I know what Cassie and Peggy mean about 24, but there are only 3 hours left!!! I did enjoy doing the first season as a marathon, but I love watching it every week and live for previews for next week. It's the best show on tv. She also wrote later to mention that Jessie is starting on some ragtime too.
And now to the random part of my blog. Today will be totally random thoughts.
1. For the record, contrary to my son's belief, I DO NOT eat 3 snacks each day. He throws this up to me whenever I tell him he can't have a snack. I couldn't figure out where he got this notion, since I rarely snack in front of him anyway. Then I realized that he may have arrived at this conclusion because I'm home all day. I think he figures if one is home, then one gets a 10 am snack, a 3 pm snack and a "midnight" (bedtime) snack, just like he did when he was home all day. I will admit, however, that Saturday evening I had a Krispy Kreme donut for supper and Edy's Grand Ice Cream for dessert. I have no excuses for that.
2. Mensa Boy called Saturday morning to ask if he is still the nicest person I've ever met. Our "brothers" Doug and Lis introduced him to a guy from "Discipleship Journal" by saying something along the lines of "he's so nice his wife told us he was the nicest person she'd ever met after they'd been married 12 years". I told MB yes, that even though it's been almost 21 years now, he still is the nicest person I've ever met. I'd have to say Tony might be in there too, but I might think that because Tony reminds me so much of MB.
3. My brother-in-law Jim is a pastor in New Sweden, Maine. I talked to my sister-in-law Anne on Saturday morning and they are doing everything they can to support the Lutherans during this terrible time with the arsenic poisoning and shooting and all. They are staying away from TV cameras as much as they can.
4. Seen on the back window of a car parked in the grocery store parking lot on Saturday: "What if the hokey pokey really IS what it's all about?"
5. Click and Clack, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, writers of the Car Talk column and radio show on NPR, point out that gasoline is NOT actually over-priced. In fact, it's quite UNDER-PRICED. Last weekend they compared the price of gasoline per gallon to the price of Nyquil, bottled water, milk and other items per gallon. I felt rich after hearing that!
6. The best way to survive NPR's "Guilt Week" is to pledge on the first day.
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Practice Jumping the Shark
Twins 12-14 Braves 17-10
I think the TV show "The Practice" has really Jumped The Shark now. Actually...last week.
"Jumping the Shark" is when a TV show has reached it's peak. It's all downhill from there. You've enjoyed it all along, maybe there were some episodes that were a little questionable, but for the most part you keep watching.
But then the show makes a change and it never seems the same again. Maybe they kill off a favorite character, like Jimmy Schmits on "NYPD Blue", or add a new person, like Shemp on "The Three Stooges". Remember when they added Cousin Oliver to "The Brady Bunch"?
"The Practice", I think, took a 3 step approach to jumping the shark. First, the shark started thinking about going up to see what the world was like when they moved the show from Sunday night to Monday night. Then, they broke up the partnership of Lindsay and Bobby. She moved across the hall and started up on her own. That was the shark taking the leap.
But I think the shark hit the top of his leap into the air last week when Bobby slept with the old girlfriend. That episode actually wasn't too bad until the very last camera shot, showing him in bed with her. Up to that point we had a serial killer killing another serial killer and Lindsay forsaking attorney-client privilege to save a life. Not bad.
But I'm done. Didn't even turn it on this week.
I only have 5 shows left to watch now. "American Dreams", which I'm afraid is doomed because it's just too good and I don't know anyone else who is watching it...like "Homefront" was. I'm still watching "West Wing", "Survivor", "CSI" (not the Miami one) and "Without A Trace".
Bad thing is, when there are so few that I watch, I am able to keep up with them all winter. So this summer I won't be catching any other shows on reruns.
Cassie and Peggy are considering dropping "24" because they can't take it anymore. They said they end up every episode with big headaches because each episode ends in a big cliffhanger. My advice to them is: wait until it comes out on DVD. Then just have a big marathon.
I think the TV show "The Practice" has really Jumped The Shark now. Actually...last week.
"Jumping the Shark" is when a TV show has reached it's peak. It's all downhill from there. You've enjoyed it all along, maybe there were some episodes that were a little questionable, but for the most part you keep watching.
But then the show makes a change and it never seems the same again. Maybe they kill off a favorite character, like Jimmy Schmits on "NYPD Blue", or add a new person, like Shemp on "The Three Stooges". Remember when they added Cousin Oliver to "The Brady Bunch"?
"The Practice", I think, took a 3 step approach to jumping the shark. First, the shark started thinking about going up to see what the world was like when they moved the show from Sunday night to Monday night. Then, they broke up the partnership of Lindsay and Bobby. She moved across the hall and started up on her own. That was the shark taking the leap.
But I think the shark hit the top of his leap into the air last week when Bobby slept with the old girlfriend. That episode actually wasn't too bad until the very last camera shot, showing him in bed with her. Up to that point we had a serial killer killing another serial killer and Lindsay forsaking attorney-client privilege to save a life. Not bad.
But I'm done. Didn't even turn it on this week.
I only have 5 shows left to watch now. "American Dreams", which I'm afraid is doomed because it's just too good and I don't know anyone else who is watching it...like "Homefront" was. I'm still watching "West Wing", "Survivor", "CSI" (not the Miami one) and "Without A Trace".
Bad thing is, when there are so few that I watch, I am able to keep up with them all winter. So this summer I won't be catching any other shows on reruns.
Cassie and Peggy are considering dropping "24" because they can't take it anymore. They said they end up every episode with big headaches because each episode ends in a big cliffhanger. My advice to them is: wait until it comes out on DVD. Then just have a big marathon.
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