I read this article on Slate this morning before coming here and had a similar reaction. On one hand, I understand that the Pros are frustrated: Poker is a game of skill, but you can win in the short run with luck. If a amateur goes on a run with good cards, he'll beat the best pro in the world. Hell, the pros get lucky sometimes. Hellmuth got knocked out of the '03 WSOP when another pro drew a straight on the river and turn after going all in. Phil was something like a 97% favorite to win the hand after the flop, but lost.

The point is this: luck is involved, and GOOD players are successful over the long haul because they can do more than just paint by the numbers. The outcome of one tournament isn't really the benchmark of success in Poker, even less so now that 10 years ago, before Rounders made Texas No Limit Hold Em so popular.

As for the articles point of "poor ESPN, struggling for ratings with a bunch of no-names" that's crap. Part of the appeal of WSOP is seeing if the amateurs can beat the pros. I was cheearing for Moneymaker to win in 2003, even thought Sam Farhah is one of my favorite Pros.

What ARE you talking about?

I'm sorry I missed it, but I'm sure there'll be some commentary on TWoP. Congratulations! That's really cool. And I'm glad Lester Holt was a nice guy--he was an anchor here in Chicago for a long time, so it was a big deal when he left us to go national.

I wish I had gotten to see it, but I don't get MSNBC (and I was at work at the time). I did want to say that if the makeup artist got you believing in undereye concealer, you have to get the Clairins Instant Light Perfecting Touch. I cannot explain to you how much I looooove this stuff, because I get huge dark circles (never get enough sleep) and this makes them vanish. Fabulous!

I'm glad it went well, and I wish I could have seen it. That said, I believe I could have rivaled your TV pucker with my "presentation blinking" I do for some strange reason. You know - the constant blinking that drives people crazy? I do that when I give presentations for some odd reason.

Congrats Miss Alli. I'm sorry I'm just now finding out about it after the fact. A month or so ago I was on Jeopardy and when I watched it after the fact, I was really surprised at the wide array of total-freakshow facial expressions I apparently use all the time. So if you just had a TV pucker you're doing fine. I'm sure you charmed everybody's pants off.

Oh, and visiting and bonding with the makeup guy was just about my favorite part.

That scheduled time seems perilously close to when Mom will be calling for dinner.

I am back at the hotel awaiting the appearance!

Hoorah! Cool appearance!

(Feh, back to documents)

Linda (through TWoP and F&D) will always be my first crush. But I think that I am slowly falling in love with Poolboy.

Well, since I missed it, what *do* you think about Fantasia?

If that was your first tv appearance, it didn't show at all. Very professionally done! Congrats

I am such a colossal imbecile for not seeing this and/or TiVoing it. I would have loved to see you in action, rather than just reading your words and putting my image of you together that way. Dumb, dumb, dumb am I. And do you know why? (Well, actually, for a litany of reasons, including that I apparently think eyelash-curlers are heated.) Because I've been checking out your site regularly ever since you redesigned it and somehow I managed to miss the fact that you'd be on Lester's show.

Word to that. I think it completely went over the falls during this recent "competition" mode wherein contestants are competing to have their mortgage paid off. There were all sorts of "challenges" to make things harder, such as ugly paint, etc. Yay, fuschia paint in my yellow room. Or the challenge where they had to obtain a kitchen table wihtout buying it, borrowing it from anyone they knew, or going to any store and begging. So they were out there in the trash. Once couple used a skid (or flat, whatever you want to call it -- you know, those wooden slat things that hardware stores stack bags of mulch on so they're not on the ground). Yes, just what I want my kitchen table to be made out of. The worst wood possible.

Eh, Trading Spaces pretty much died to me as soon as I discovered Changing Rooms. With TS, you had Vern (and maybe Laurie) as the designer you weren't terrified of, whereas on CR there's not one of them that doesn't generally produce rooms that I could love.

I'm actually suprised that it didn't happen sooner. Vern is so much better than the other designers on TS. Plus, TLS destroyed TS with having it on. All. The. Time.

No...I tried to watch once and got utterly squicked out by the "surprise" ingredient which was eel bladder or something equally gross--and that cured me of any curiousity I ever had for that program.

Yes! I've watched it on and off for years. But this new "American" version is no good--it's like the remake of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick. Nothing can beat the original, with somebody rattling off in Japanese for 5 minutes and the English dubbing being something like, "Yes! How true!"

I'm so disturbed by the American Iron Chef in general that the Battle of the Masters had me in cringing awe the whole time. I sometimes think the food they make should be served on Fear Factor. Case in point: Trout Ice Cream. Blech.

I actually enjoyed this new iteration quite a bit. (It has nothing to do with, and nothing in common with, the abortive Shatner monstrosity that was on for about 7 minutes a couple years ago.) Most of the cheese is focused on the new Chairman (whom I find, dare I say, quite hot), and otherwise it's fairly focused on the food, as it should be. I mean, you couldn't ask better than Alton Brown as commentator. Maybe they should just let it go at these 4 hours (plus the behind-the-scenes preview), though, and not spin it into a series.

Me too on the trout ice cream. And most raw fishy-type things as well. I would make a lousy judge on this show; fortunately, they're not likely to ask me.

Like Rinaldo, I am glad that this new Iron Chef America washes the memory of the USA network's version out of my brain. I thought FN did a pretty good job of coming up with a backstory for the new Chairman. After all, anyone is going to be a letdown after Kaga, so they might as well make him completely different.

However, unlike Linda, I think a lot of the food they make looks mighty tasty. Perhaps it's my California upbringing or the influence of my Japanese relatives. I would kill for some Morimoto shabu-shabu with Kobe beef, and don't bother poaching the eggs. Mmm!

I'm with Susanna. I think that a lot of the food looks mighty tasty (although some theme ingredients squick me out completely, like natto).

The fried whole fish is something I've been eating with relish for more than 20 years. When properly done, you can't tell that the fish was fried (no excess grease, in other words), and the flesh is totally tender. Also, flash frying for some reason seems to drive the flavor of herbs and stuff into the fish flesh, which is the closest you are going to get to the effect of marinating fish (unless you are after ceviche).

Count me as the third person who loved that this Iron Chef America helped me recover from that Iron Chef USA crapfest.

First off, Sakai was robbed.

I know, I know, I don't want to eat trout ice cream either, but how can anyone contend that a menu that doesn't include trout fucking ice cream is just as original as one that does, I'll never know. Goldfish! In ice-cream form! Blech, maybe, but certainly original.

And did you see him peeling an apple with a chef's knife? Or taking the top off a raw egg with its tip? The man is a master. He certainly kicks the ass of Bobby "I can't remeber my own menus, so it's a good thing my entire repetoire consists of battering things in blue corn masa and throwing some mango salsa on top" Flay.

Yes, I do watch a little too much food network. Just a little.

P.S. Funniest line, bar none? Alton: "Well, Jim, if I'm not mistaken your jacket there is made out of polyester, so best step back from that grill, 'cause that'll go up like a ball of napalm. "

After football, Iron Chef is absolutely the best show on television. Love the way the Japanese guys always win.

Banzai!