What would you want to eat if you knew you were going to die the next day?

A fairly simply question that author Melanie Dunea asked 50 of the world’s greatest chefs in a book that’s out this week. Included in the book, which features an introduction from Bottom Line fave Anthony Bourdain, is Eric Ripert, Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Thomas Keller, Masa Kobayashi, Jamie Oliver and Jacques Pepin.

It seems like a really insightful book into the greatest culinary minds of our generation and I’ll be very interested to thumb through it. Time has a slideshow of some of the chefs and their choice of dish.

A new daily addition to the Line. It’s the playlist, basically five tracks that come up on my iPod here at my desk that I think everyone should be aware of.

1. Death Cab for Cutie - Why You’d Want to Live Here? - The John Byrd EP

2. We Are Scientists - Worth the Wait - With Love and Squalor

3. Ray LaMontagne - Jolene - Trouble

4. Belle and Sebastian - I’m a Cuckoo - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

5. Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry on Their Own - Back in Black

Here a couple of things I think we learned from a pretty eventful weekend in college football.

Jeff Tedford is the most overrated coach in college football

Two losses in two weeks to two bad teams. Say what you want about UCLA’s undefeated mark in the Pac-10, UCLA is a horrifically inconsistent football team. And lest we forget, one of the Bruin’s two losses this season came at the hands of Notre Dame AT HOME. The same Notre Dame team that got shut out by 38 in South Bend this week by USC. Cal has become the Iowa of the Pac 10. Every year, there is a lot of hype surrounding the program and every year they come out and tank. When watching Cal, I am left with this thought: Can you imagine how electric DeSean Jackson would be if he actually had a decent quarterback throwing to him?

Tim Tebow will either revolutionize the NFL or join the long line of Gator quarterbacks that fizzled at the pro level.

Tim Tebow is every bit as good as advertised. But quick, name one NFL team that runs anything that closely resembles a spread offense? Can’t do it? That’s because there aren’t any. When I was watching Tebow slice and dice the Kentucky defense en route to 256 yards through the air and another 78 on the ground, I couldn’t help but wonder what his NFL future would be? Let’s make one this unmistakably clear: The numbers are deceiving, Tim Tebow is an exponentially more effective runner than he is a passer. Will his athleticism be enough to woo NFL execs into looking past the ugly-looking balls he throws and his awkward throwing motion? I’m not sure but he is, hands-down, the most unique mix of a running quarterback that the NFL has maybe ever seen. He is going to have to learn to be more of a pocket passer at the next level because, even with his frame, the punishment of an NFL season, taking the hits he’s taken this season could make for a short professional career.

We still have a shot at the LSU/USC Championship Game

For those of us who have been itching for an USC/LSU battle for the BCS Championship since Les Miles opened his mouth this summer, hope is very much alive. Don’t worry about Ohio State, they’ll lose this weekend at Penn State or at The Big House the last week of the season. Boston College, as much as I love that team, may not survive a trip down to Blacksburg this weekend. And if Oklahoma plays down to their competition, like they did this week at Iowa State, you can forget about the Sooners. Still, LSU must survive a trip to Tuscaloosa next weekend and the SEC Championship game. But hope is still alive for that epic showdown between the Tigers and the Trojans.

This story of USC’s harrowing flight into South Bend really reaffirms why I hate flying and why I sweat like I’m being interrogated every time I get on an airplane.

In yesterday’s Boston Globe, Matthew Gilbert criticized NBC for trying to overstuff — and ostensibly ruin — the only shows on NBC that are worth watching. Two of said shows are really close to my heart, I speak, of course, of Heroes and my beloved Office.

From  the time it was announced that the first five episodes of the much-anticipated fourth season of The Office would be an hour, as episode to the brisk 22-minute run-time of normal episodes, I felt some trepidation. Trepidation that was confirmed when the premiere of the fourth season dragged on worse than Syriana or every single Peter Jackson movie. Gilbert pleads with NBC in his column not to ruin what was best about The Office.

I wonder if this doesn’t go back to a conversation I was having with a friend of mine about a month ago about what happens when a show makes it. It costs so much money for the networks to develop these shows and so when a show finally hits, the networks (particularly NBC, who has been starved for a hit since Friends went off the air) freak out and over promote the show. It kind of mirrors how I feel about the NFL anymore. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Just because I really like something, like The Office, like Heroes, like the NFL, doesn’t mean that I want to see it every minute of every day.

No more hour-long episodes of The Office. No more bad writing and dead end plot lines on Heroes and please talk about college football on PTI.

If you really think that the football teams from South Florida and the Ohio State University are the best two teams in all of college football, you need to get your head checked for bumps. After tonight, one of those teams will drop to the latter half of the top 10 where they belong.

South Florida will lose at Rutgers tonight. Mark it down.

I like this story as much as the next guy. I thought it was cute when the Bulls went to Auburn and beat the tragically offensively challenged Tigers. I was relieved when Jim Leavitt and Co. rocked the vastly overrated Mountaineers of West Virginia. But enough is enough. I, in no way, shape, or form, want to be watching USF play for the National Championship (ditto for Ohio State).

This game will come down to defense. If USF is able to shut down Ray Rice like they shut down UCF’s Kevin Smith, then it’s up to Rutgers’ much-improved quarterback Mike Teel  and underrated receiver tandem of Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt to win the game for the Knights.

The real question of the game is will Greg Schiano’s defense be able to slow down Matt  Grothe, who has two consecutive 100-yard games to his credit. Pass rushing has been Rutgers forté in recent years but taking advantage of over-aggressive defensive ends and blitzing outside linebackers is what Grothe does best. Rutgers will need to play a near-perfect game defensively to win this one.

Make no mistake, USF hasn’t played in an environment this hostile all year. Yes, they went to Auburn and won but that stadium was asleep. They weren’t jacked up for that game the way those fans in Piscataway are already jacked up for tonight’s game.

It’ll be close but I’m taking Greg Schiano and Rutgers, he has a way of getting his team and his campus pumped for the big ones.

First of all, let me say that I love television. Not as much as I love sports but I am a shameless television junkie and the addition of a TiVo to my life hasn’t helped to curb my addiction any.

After a recommendation from the guys on the Totally Radio Show  http://www.totallyradshow.com), I decided to give the new ABC show Pushing Daisies a try. Let me start by saying that I love this show but have real serious problems with. The reason I bring this up is because the third episode of the season is on tonight (unfortunately the same time as the endlessly-entertaining Kid Nation) and in the absence of any sports of import or Top Chef, it is something that I think is well worth an hour of your time.

The premise of the show is great. The show’s protagonist Ned (played subtly and masterfully by Lee Pace) has an ability that allows him to bring people back to life with a simple touch but the catch is that the person can only be alive for a minute and if he doesn’t kill them again with his touch then someone else must die to take his place. The show is very well-written, clever and has a very whimsical, fairy tale feeling that makes watching it a real delight.

The show’s supporting cast, Kristin Chenoweth, Chi McBride and Anna Friel are all really great and the show would be hands-down one of my favorite shows on television if not for the show’s blood-sucking, trite narrative voice-over. The voiceover is so on-the-nose and obvious that it really gives things away that should be left to the viewer’s imagination. It has the opposite of the problem that I have with another of my favorite shows, Lost. With Lost, the writers don’t tell you anything and make you figure out everything on your own. Not so, with Pushing Daisies. I really want the show to let me figure some things out for myself but the over-indulgent voiceover really prohibits that entirely.  It’s terrible. Really, truly, terrible and the show would do well to get rid of it altogether.

While I love this show, I really wonder if its premise lends itself to a long life on the air. I think the story’s underlying plot points really restrict it in a way that will make it very difficult for me to continue to love and be amused by this show. I guess I’ll just enjoy it while it lasts.

This bafoonish display by the Dallas Mavericks’ Josh Howard in a PRESEASON GAME is a perfect example of why, try as I might, I can’t stop hating the NBA and all stories NBA-related.