Here’s a video from UnitedHollywood.com that features the writers of The Office explaining why, as showrunner Greg Daniels puts it, they’re “trying to shut down our own show.”

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According to the website, The Office has closed down.

“The Office has shut down for good. Around 2:00 pm Tuesday. The crew has been asked back Wednesday to strike the location, but there will be no more shooting. This is thanks to a complete staff picket from 4:15 am to 3:00 Monday (when they called the day) and 6:45 am Tuesday until they shut it down. It is also thanks to a number of WGA members/actors making principled stands and not reporting to work.”

I like…

A hardcover, 240-page book of the Heroes graphic novel was released today.

Seth Myers and other Saturday Night Live cast members have joined the picket line for the WGA strike. While the strike spells trouble for shows that I love like Heroes, Lost and Pushing Daisies. Myers and the rest of SNL’s cast and writers can remain on strike indefinitely. That show is awful right now. I tried to watch it when Seth Rogan was hosting and the show was borderline unwatchable. Take your time out there, fellas, really. 

Heroes creator Tim Kring called Entertainment Weekly to apologize to fans for the show’s stagnant season 2 start.

I don’t like…

Our sister paper, the Northwest Florida Daily News, lost its sports editor Perry Ballard yesterday. Ballard, 52, was found dead at his Fort Walton Beach home and his passing has left many in the Florida Freedom family grieving today. Our hearts go out to Ballard’s wife, his friends and his extended family at the Daily News. He will be sorely missed.

With all due respect to Vic Carruci of NFL.com, a great sportswriter who I grew up reading in the Buffalo News, he’s out of his mind.

Pittsburgh is for real.

In an article today on NFL.com, Carruci writes that he is unmoved by Pittsburgh’s complete dismantling of Baltimore on Monday night and is not willing to include the 6-2 Steelers among the league’s elite. And I think he’s nuts.

For me, it wasn’t that the Steelers obliterated the Ravens, it was how they did it. For me a perfect encapsulation of the personality of this team was when Hines Ward went right at Ed Reed, arguably one of the league’s best defensive players and de-cleated him. This team isn’t afraid of anyone. Not New England. Not Indianapolis. Not anyone.

An offense that is coming together nicely is paired with the league’s best defense. Check the books. 1st in points allowed, 1st in yards allowed, 1st in passing yards allowed and fourth best in the league against the rush. If Ben Roethlisberger can string together games like the one he had Monday night, a game where, irrespective of the touchdowns he threw, he played within himself and was accurate, this team is going to be very scary come playoff time.

Mark it down. If the Steelers have to travel to the RCA Dome in January to play the Colts. They will beat them. Soundly.

Either way you cut it, Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville is about to get paid handsomely.

Rumor has it, Tuberville is one of the leading candidates for the Texas A&M job, which will soon be vacated after the Aggies buyout the contract of current head coach Dennis Franchione.

First things first, the reason that Franchione is being ousted at A&M has very little to do with the scandal over his newsletter, where boosters paid thousands of dollars to receive inside information about the team, including injury reports and the like. It has everything in the world to do with the team’s dismal record against rivals Texas and Oklahoma on his watch.

Being mentioned as a candidate, let alone the leading candidate, for a job like this is a perfect scenario for Tuberville. Either way, he’s getting paid. If Texas A&M comes in with an offer that ole Tubby can’t refuse, he’s off to coach the Aggies in the weaker Big 12 where the only games he will be pressured to win are the games against Texas and Oklahoma. He may also be able to leverage an offer from Texas A&M against Auburn to get more money to stay as the head coach of the Tigers. It’s worked in the past, just ask Steve Spurrier, who got a fat new deal when his name was even mentioned in connection to the Alabama job.

While the A&M job is nowhere near as presitigious as his current gig, Tuberville has a much higher chance of BCS success in College Station. No longer will he find himself fighting with Nick Saban for recruits in Alabama, fighting with Phil Fulmer for recruits in Tennessee or fighting the entire nation for the best of the best in the state of Florida. He will be recruiting in Texas, one of the nation’s richest recruiting pipelines and coaching in the Big 12, a conference that, aside from the monoliths that are Texas and Oklahoma, has been far from the schedule of landmines Auburn has been playing annually in the SEC.

If the money is right, I’d suggest Tuberville hit the road and gig ‘em.

_________

Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said he thinks that if Texas A&M comes calling, Tuberville will listen.

I like…

The New York Times has a great article about Wylie Dufresne and the molecular gastronomy movement.

The Consumerist has a list of the Top 10 least on-time airports in the country.

Judd Apatow talks to IGN about the writers’ strike.

The New Yorker has a review of ‘Pushing Daisies.’ What is particularly interesting about this review is how the reviewer shares my belief that the show will have a short lifespan.

“”Pushing Daisies” probably shouldn’t last longer than a season; fairy tales aren’t supposed to go on forever. It will then take its place proudly beside other worthy efforts that lived fast, died young, and left behind a beautiful DVD.”

.. is also the third best competitive cooking show on television.

I speak, of course, of Food Network’s Next Iron Chef America, which has found a home on my TiVo for the last six weeks and has kept me entertained throughout. The premise of the show is one you might recognize. Take some of the best chefs in the country, test their culinary skills through a variety of challenges and one by one (for the most part) send them packing; leaving one to remain to be the next Top Chef Iron Chef.

While I poke fun at the laughably unoriginal premise of the show, it’s actually a pretty good watch. The pacing of the show is quick and brisk, just enough time to develop your own personal favorites and not enough time to tire of the “Chairman’s” completely cheesy theatrics and martial arts exhibitions and Top Chef copycat challenges. The show, and this week’s finale, features some familiar faces to foodies: chef Michael Symon of Cleveland’s Lola and chef-turned Katrina activist chef John Besh of Restaurant August in New Orleans. Judges Michael Ruhlman, Andrew Knolton and Donatella Arpaia provide a refreshing break from the uber-machismo of Tom Colicchio, the relatively vacuous Gail Simmons and the ridiculously melodramatic Padma Lakshmi. The comparisons to Top Chef are unavoidable and it seems the shows creators haven’t tried to avoid them, even making the chefs cook airplane food, a challenge done on Season 3 of Top Chef.

What I think Next Iron Chef does better than Top Chef is the show’s ability and seemingly its desire to showcase the culinary personality of each of these chefs, whereas on Top Chef, you really get the sense that the competition itself and to some extent the judges are the show’s stars and the competitors are set pieces. On this show, you don’t have Michael Ruhlman stalking around the kitchen, asking the chefs what they are working on and weighing in on a dish in the early phases of its conception and execution. The judges do not come into play a moment before the dish is set down in front of them for tasting and I think that is much to the show’s credit.

Next Iron Chef is the Eli Manning to Top Chef’s Peyton. Unassuming, kind of dopey but still pretty darn good.

Someone, anyone, explain to me what, in God’s name, Emmitt Smith is talking about.

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1. Ohio State - I’m a believer, a hesitant believer but I believe in this Ohio State team. A young offense is counterbalanced by a tough, consistent, solid veteran defense. While it could certainly be argued that coach Jim Tressel could do no wrong in the state of Ohio, he does have to redeem himself and the program after last year’s national championship no-show.

2. Oregon - Beat USC, Arizona State and Michigan and you get to be number 2. The Ducks appear to be all contender as they continue to dominate every opponent standing in their way. It doesn’t hurt that they have the Heisman trophy frontrunner under center and that Johnathan Stewart is having the breakout year that most expected.

3. LSU - Perhaps the luckiest team in college football, the Bayou Bengals survived a trip to Tuscaloosa thanks to John Parker Wilson’s butterfingers, still have a shot at the national championship. Obviously, the road gets a little easier from here for Les Miles’ Squad with Ole Miss and Arkansas remaining and then the SEC Championship game in Atlanta the week after. I don’t think the Tigers, who have now won at least two games they probably should have lost, deserve the nod over Oregon.

4. Kansas - I still think the Jayhawks are pretenders. A laughably weak non-conference schedule, a conference schedule that doesn’t include Oklahoma are all the evidence you need to explain Kansas’ poll position. I see them possibly losing to Oklahoma State this weekend in Stillwater, definitely losing to Missouri in Kansas City the last week of the season and, if they make it there, getting obliterated by Okahoma in the Big 12 Championship. Play somebody and then come talk to me.

5. Oklahoma - You never know what Oklahoma team is going to show up week to week and that’s why I can’t put them above a Kansas team that I think they will inevitably beat. Oklahoma will end up winning the Big 12 but not without some challenges. They have a trip to Lubbock next weekend to face Graham Harrell and that explosive Texas Tech offense before finishing the game with Bedlam game against Oklahoma State in Norman.

For your right…

to PIIIIIIIIIIICKET!

Tina Fey picketing outside 30 Rock as part of the WGA strike.

Whitney Matheson over at the wonderful Pop Candy blog on USAToday.com has a plethora of links of stories trying to figure out how the strike will affect television junkies and moviegoers.

I like…

The hilariously funny Zach Galifianakis has landed two upcoming movie roles.. regrettably one of them is opposite Ashton Kutcher.

I don’t like…

The WGA strike may cause season 2 of Heroes to end next month.

Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson is taking a leave of absence from the program for undisclosed personal reasons. Olson has been a class act and a great ambassador for college basketball and let’s hope that whatever is to blame for this leave resolves itself quickly and painlessly.

Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio has been named one of the sexiest men alive by People Magazine. This obviously spells disaster for the next semi-sharp looking dude who happens across the judges’ table. It won’t end well — just ask season 2’s Sam Talbot.