I have just started reading Michael Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking. I know the litterati will scoff when I say that I normally avoid introductions and prologues like the plague but I think it’s important to read Ruhlman’s introduction, written by pal and Bottom Line fav Anthony Bourdain, to understand the intent of the book. It appears as if Ruhlman set out to write something of a reference book for novice chef. Notice that I don’t use the word beginner because I think, as it has been pointed out, Ruhlman’s book has a tone that suggests that he assumes a certainly culinary knowledge has been attained by the reader prior to picking up Elements. That being said, Ruhlman’s writing is informed, concise and passionate. It conveys quite well that cooking and teaching people to appreciate cooking is something he cares a great deal about. For the home cook serious about making good food, it’s definitely worth a read (thus far).

www.michaelruhlman.com

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Playoffs?!?!

NFL playoff time, boys and girls, in between watching a few movies and catching up on my TiVo, I’ll be consumed by Wildcard Weekend. My picks are as follows:

WASHINGTON over Seattle

JACKSONVILLE over Pittsburgh

NEW YORK over Tampa Bay

SAN DIEGO over Tennessee

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BCS DEBACLE

I speak, not of the system as a whole (though it could be said a similar description would be fitting), but of my .500 percent BCS batting average after Wednesday night’s Fiesta Bowl and last night’s Orange Bowl. My hats off to West Virginia and especially to Kansas, both of whom I thought had virtually no chance of winning their bowl games.

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OUTDOOR HOCKEY IS AWESOME!

Had it not been for a gripping Capital One Bowl, I surely would have watched the entirety of the Buffalo Sabres/Pittsburgh Penguins Winter Classic game Tuesday afternoon. It’d be hard to believe that one game could put the league back on the game but the NHL has gotten more press as a result and that’s never a bad thing for a league that plays the majority of its games on Versus.

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WHY WAS RICH RODRIGUEZ AT MICHIGAN’S BOWL GAME?

I thought this was absolutely classless. While many of the coaches who have taken jobs with programs playing in bowl games, most had the sense to stay away from the games and let the seniors and the outgoing coaching staff finish their season. Or at the very least not be filmed on the sidelines at the game, let alone interviewed during the game. Given how long Lloyd Carr had been at Michigan and that the bowl was his last game, I thought it was a low-class move for Rodriguez to try to steal the spotlight for a second. It’s not your team yet, Rich, stay away.

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I like…

USAToday’s Pop Candy blog has a cool story about the pen pal relationship between John Waters and a young Fred Armisen, now a cast member on SNL.

Arctic Monkeys have released some new tracks under a fake name.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley tears into the BCS.

Spin has a cool interview with Mike Doughty.

Anthony Bourdain is returning to work the sauté station at Les Halles in New York for a night. Working the grill station? Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin. Might not be a bad time to think about booking a table at Les Halles in the near future.

The new Chronicles of Narnia trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To view the trailer in HD, head on over to Yahoo! Movies.

I don’t like…

BCS Coordinator and SEC Comish Mike Silve says increased parity in college football won’t change the BCS.

The Sabres have ended their 29-year relationship with the Rochester Americans.

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While the Ohio State/LSU match-up seemed inevitable after West Virginia and Missouri lost Saturday, the omission of such teams as USC and Georgia in the national championships — and select members of the media – calling for a complete overhaul of the system. While I think a playoff, particularly this year, would be great television and a ratings monster but it will never ever happen.

That being said, I have to quibble with the inclusion of LSU, “the best team in the country in regulation,” in the title game. Twice this season LSU owned the top spot in college football and twice they gave it up. LSU, without a doubt, benefited from not having to play Georgia, both in the regular season and especially in the SEC Championship. I think in this case, regardless of how many overtimes were played, the timing of any one of a team’s losses should come into consideration. If Georgia can brush off the BCS snub, they will be able to handle Hawaii, who have struggled when playing on the mainland.

BCS defenders will say that if the argument wasn’t about who is number 2, it would be about numbers 4, 8 or 16. But at the end of the day, isn’t that a better argument to have? If you’re sitting at number 9, you have to accept that somewhere in the course of the season you dropped a game that cost you a chance at the playoff. But arguing over the second best team in an America is an entirely different subject altogether. This season, more than 5 teams (Oklahoma, USC, Georgia, LSU, Virginia Tech) had a legitimate argument for that number two spot. Why aren’t the presidents of those conferences screaming for a change in the system? Because there is too much money in the current system to change it. While a playoff would be a great thing for the fans, the current bowl system is a cash cow for the universities and for the conferences and until you can prove to the university presidents and the BCS head honchos that a playoff can make them more money then they are making now, they will continue to tell anyone stupid enough to believe them (Lee Corso) that everything is hunkie dorie.

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MAC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP - Miami (OH) at Central Michigan - 12:00

I’ll take the defending MAC Champion Chippewas and QB Dan LeFevour in this one. LeFevour recently won the MAC Offensive Player of the Year award after setting school records for completions, attempts, yards and total offense this season. Still, the game could be interested. Miami of Ohio does possess the conference’s best passing defense, best rushing and scoring defense. The question will be if the Redhawk offense, which ranks 10th in the conference in scoring, can put points on the board. I’ll take CMU.

CONFERENCE USA CHAMPIONSHIP : TULSA AT UCF - 12:00 P.M.

Tulsa has one of the best offenses in the country and UCF has one of the best running backs in America. I’ll take UCF in this one for any number of reasons, not the first of which is that my girlfriend is a Knight. The game is being played in Orlando, at their new Bright House Networks Stadium on campus so for that reason alone, I’ve gotta go with George O’ Leary’s squad. Not to mention that last week, Tulsa gave up over 700 yards of total offense, 541 threw the air. This could be a shoot out and is definitely worth your time. I’ll take the formerly Golden Knights of Central Florida.

ACC Championship - Virginia Tech at Boston College - 1:00 p.m.

I’ve been on the BC bandwagon and I don’t intend to get off despite that they face off against a much better Virginia Tech team than the one the Eagles beat earlier this year in Blacksburg. I think the game will ultimately come down to how well Tyrod Taylor/Sean Glennon is able to lead the Virginia Tech offense against an underrated and fast Boston College defense. If VT is able to move the ball effectively, it could be lights out for BC’s BCS dreams but I don’t anticipate that being the case. I’ll take the Eagles in a close one.

SEC Championship - Tennessee at LSU - 4:00 p.m.

In what could be Les Miles’ last SEC game as the head coach of LSU, I’ll take the Bayou Bengals coming off a heartbreaker last week against Arkansas. Tennessee has been one of the most hideously inconsistent teams in the SEC and I don’t think that the UT offense has what it takes to hang with the hard-hitting, lightning-quick LSU defense. LSU had better get creative on offense and not rely on the Hester up the middle, Keiland Williams to the outside, Matt Flynn on QB Draw that we’ve seen too many times this year. They need to spread the field and keep the ball away from Tennessee freshman cornerback Eric Berry who makes his Atlanta homecoming Saturday. I’ll take LSU by at least 10. The Tigers are just thankful they’re not playing Georgia.

Big 12 Championship - Missouri at Oklahoma - 8:00 p.m.

There’s an awful lot riding on this game for Missouri. For Mizzou QB Chase Daniel, it’s his chance to snatch the Heisman Trophy away from Tim Tebow, who’s been sizing up a place on his mantel for it for weeks. A great performance in a win against Oklahoma and the award for the nation’s best college football player is his. Bigger than that is that Missouri is playing for the national championship Saturday night. Beat Oklahoma and they’re in. I was asked earlier today by our publisher who I liked in this one. I explained that I would have taken Oklahoma had it not been for the announcement earlier this week that Sooner running back DeMarco Murray is done for the year with a dislocated kneecaps. Murray was the team’s most consistent running back and best offensive player, save wideout Malcolm Kelly. The key for Oklahoma will be forcing turnovers and getting on top early. If Mizzou gets in an early hole, maybe 10 or 14 points, I’m not sure they can come back from that against a pretty tough Oklahoma defense. Sam Bradford’s performance is huge for the Sooners. If he gets careless and starts throwing Favre-ian interceptions, it’s over for Oklahoma and we are looking at a Missouri-West Virginia National Championship. I am going to take a flyer on Bob Stoops and the upset-minded Sooners.

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No notion could possibly be more preposterous. To suggest that the ESPYs mean serve any other function than to further exalt ESPN to its rightful place as the Worldwide Leaders in Sports is completely ridiculous. Say some punt returner wins an ESPY for Play of the Year. If that same player were to go to his respective team when his contracted expired and say, “Hey, I think I deserve to make this much as an ESPY winner.” Chances are he’d get laughed out of the room. Now if an actor won an Oscar or an Emmy, their value to studios or networks increases exponentially and it can be used as a bargaining chip. The ESPYs are nothing more than a completely contrived product of ESPN and should not be taken seriously in any way, shape or form.

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No, seriously…

You should really get rid of any drugs on your person before asking the cops for a ride home.

A Florida woman complained to a cop that a man had sold her bad crack.

A man crashed into a South Carolina police officer with 43 pounds of marijuana in his car.

Telemarketing isn’t for everyone.

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Newsweek’s Devin Gordon questions the role ESPN plays in today’s sports landscape.

Carson Palmer points out some of Ed Reed’s weaknesses as a safety.

NFL commish Roger Goodell reduced the 4-game suspension of Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen to just two games to match his two drunk driving arrests.

New Orleans is trying to convince the NFL to move the NFL Draft to the Big Easy.

South Carolina freshman quarterback Stephen Garcia is real close to getting himself kicked off the team. This kid can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble and as far as character issues are concerned, he has to raise about every red flag there is. I guess if you can throw a football 60 yards on the fly, it doesn’t matter if you key a professor’s car.

The finale of the Fanhouse’s best quarterbacks of the SEC.. guess who’s number 1?

On the night of the NBA draft, the New Jersey Nets reportedly passed on a deal that would have sent Jermaine O’Neal to the Nets for Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic and Jason Collins.

Madden champions might be awarded championship rings.

The Baton Rouge Advocate’s Scott Rabalais warns not to expect any changes to the BCS anytime soon.

A nice story about Deion Sanders in today’s Dallas Morning News.

The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee is expecting 800 to 1,000 corporate jets to descend on area airports when the Super Bowl is played in February.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who hates ESPN’s stupid ‘Who’s Now?’ tournament.

Sports blog Awful Announcing explains why so many people hate ESPN.

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Well-rounded news…

Slate questions Toyota’s “Little Deviants” ad campaign. I felt the same way the author of this piece does when I first saw this spot. It was before a movie and I was sitting there thinking, “Wow, this is really violent and inappropriate.” I think whoever greenlighted this campaign could end up paying for it with their job.

Robert De Niro’s next foray into directing will be a depiction of the 1949 Chinese Revolution.

Fox is keeping a very tight lid on the new Simpsons Movie and most critics won’t see the film until three days before it hits movie theatres everywhere. I’ll be very interested to see how this film does. I don’t think that anyone I know watches the Simpsons with any regularity but I still think the popularity of the series is undeniable and I think the movie will do very well… not Harry Potter well.. but it will rake in some box office bucks..

Johanna Bennett, ex-girlfriend of Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, talks about how the pair co-wrote the band’s infectious “Fluorescent Adolescent.”

The fourth season of Bottom Line fav Top Chef will be shot in Chicago.

Bravo will premiere eight, one-hour episodes of “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” starting in September. They’ve ordered another season of Project Runway but last I’d heard it was not certain that Gunn would return for a fourth season. Just a memo to Bravo, no more Shear Genius or Top Design, no one’s watching and those shows are garbage.

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