You wake up late for school man you don't wanna go. You ask you mom, "Please?" but she still says, "No!"

Quick Hitters and Random Thoughts

--Posting this while watching another 30 for 30: Straight Outta L.A. Another good one, but holy crap it makes you wish you were watching on HD when Al Davis comes on the screen. He is the scariest monster in television history. John Clayton looks like Don Draper compared to Al Davis.

Please Darth, please give him your mask and helmet.

--Heckuva job this past week NFL, AP, and, of course, Brian Cushing. None of you embarrassed yourselves.

--Suns? Western Conference Finalists? Wow, nicely done. Nobody saw that coming. Happy to have someone to root for against the Lakers. How boring has this 2nd round of NBA and even NHL playoffs been?

--I don’t like Derek Fisher, but Jazz fans you’re delusional. First, Derek didn’t wrong you or lie to you. Second, Derek Fisher adds exactly what these days anyway? It’s not like you’re a Derek Fisher away from NOT being swept out of the playoffs.

--Teri Hatcher is the type of person who has such thin skin (old age + plastic surgery?) that she'd get her lawyers to harass a simple blogger, let's call him Vanny Dara, eight years ago because he retold a story about her from The Sun. I mean really I had like four readers then (readership doubled now!) so this is a problem I have your lawyers calling me about? Anyway this lovely lady has teamed up with Disney Family (is the excitement overwhelming you?) for gethatched.com. You know, if you're into stupid ass blogs that have "chick's guide" in the title. F'n hag.

--Nice to have the Friday Night Lights girls back on the tele.


--A nice catch-your-breath episode of Breaking Bad this week. I guess Jesse is back to normal (Steve Nash-like busted eye notwithstanding) with his, “tell your brother-in-law to go toward the light” smack. I’d like to live my entire life without ever having a legless Mexican assassin fall out of his hospital bed and crawl towards me with murderous intentions. Now get to cookin’ Walt before Jesse contaminates every piece of equipment in search of a bj.
GQ with all the real Albuquerque spots B. Bad uses.

--One more episode left of The Pacific thankfully. I say thankfully because I’m just happy we end with an episode that has the boys going back and actually at home. I’m not sure how much of Snafu we’ll see stateside, but he and Sledge delivered powerful scene after powerful scene on Peleliu and Okinawa. To survive those hellish places is damn near miraculous and incredibly lucky. It’s been a great series and deserves to stand on its own and not always have to be compared with Band of Brothers. Natural comparison for obvious reasons, but largely a different story to tell.
The University of Auburn has a collection of Sledge’s letters and photos that’s pretty interesting to scroll through.

--The combination of Betty White, Women of SNL and Jay-Z, not surprisingly, got SNL its best ratings since 1998. I think the best compliment I saw was from Warming Glow which said something to the effect of it being the first time he actually watched an entire Scared Straight sketch.

--I don’t read as much as I used to, but I love reading Bill Buford books. Apparently Heat has been optioned to become a movie. The subtitle says it all: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany.
Great book especially if you are a Mario Batali fan and how could you not be? Molto Mario is hands down my favorite cooking show of all-time.

--Great TV Squad guide to the 25 best Lost guest stars. Six have traversed both the Lost and Deadwood worlds. I totally forgot Julie Bowen was also on Weeds. I also forgot Nathan Fillion was Kate's guy before he was Captain Hammer.


--I thought I was being nice buying my dad the $60 Rossini burger at Burger Bar. Boisdale in London offers up a £90, $135 omelet. As you might expect lobster and truffles are involved as are crabmeat, asparagus and a splash of champagne. The eggs? £5 each. They’re from the black-headed gull and they are gathered only six weeks out of the year by licensed collectors.


--Since the first show I hated the American version of Kitchen Nightmares. Fairly interesting read on what happened with one writer who attended a Nightmares dinner in Miami at Fleming which was featured on last week’s show.

--Treme is aight, but dammit if it doesn’t take me three days to get that theme song out of my head.

--Margarito and Pacquiao?! Umm, no thanks. Manny/Floyd or really the sport can just call it a day for any chance of a super fight within the next several years.

--Ken Griffey Jr. asleep in the clubhouse when needed to pinch-hit? Yeah, that’s about right. Time to sit down or lay down and call it a career Jr. It’s over.

--I’ve been trying to find a decent video of Tom Lawlor’s ring entrance last weekend, but can’t so we might as well go to the original…


--Damn David Wright, 9 straight strikeouts?! Roman from Party Down thinks that's a lot of strikeouts.

--The Nationals nearly have twice as many wins (18) as the Astros (10). That's just wonderful.

--Apparently there are a Chef Smurf and Baker Smurf with Wolfgang Puck and B.J. Novak voicing those respectively. Nice to see Colicchio, Chang, Dufresne and Ripert at that restaurant in Treme. More focus on the restaurant and Kim Dickens and less on Steve Zahn is fine by me.

--Burn Notice comes back the first week of June and Burt Reynolds guest stars. Nicely done Burn Notice.

--I came across this article from Fast Company Magazine via eater.com about Darden which owns Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse (none in Texas) among others. Very interesting stuff. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to any of those places. The software aspect in the front of the house and back of the house is pretty cool.

Questions, comments or if you’re going to Austin this weekend and you can’t wait to throw down more House Pizzeria...