Ron Johnson

Miguel, I am very interested in your thoughts about your recent meal at Vivant Table. I have reservations there, but have heard very mixed reviews.

No need to take cover. Your insult is noted, and is one of many in a consistent theme of portraying those outside of the cultural mecca of NYC as a bunch of braying morons. Frankly, I am fucking sick of it.

Going to be in Pittsburgh for work this week, staying in the U. Pitt area. Any good dinner recommendations? I've done Primanti, home of the absurdly huge (and good) sandwich. Looking for something else this time.

not at all. baseball is my preference actually. but you're completely misreading the thread. I'l say again what I've said many times: in most American cities sports (or a sport) is one of the two or three primary threads of civic culture. in NY there are no primary threads, instead there are multitudes. it's really a very simple point. That's not what you said. What you said was "NY is sports averse" those are two different things. either way he is wrong. Only in NYC are there more than one or two "primary threads of civic culture" beyond sports? Come on. That's just of

not at all. baseball is my preference actually. but you're completely misreading the thread. I'l say again what I've said many times: in most American cities sports (or a sport) is one of the two or three primary threads of civic culture. in NY there are no primary threads, instead there are multitudes. it's really a very simple point. That's not what you said. What you said was "NY is sports averse" those are two different things. either way he is wrong. Only in NYC are there more than one or two "primary threads of civic culture" beyond sports? Come on. That's just of

I have found it to be very watery.

just paler.

No brainer. Bone it, cube it, and make blanquette de veau.

Depends on what you are seeking. Lyon is quaint with good, if typical and traditional cuisine, (that's a positive in my book) and most places have really solid wine lists. Marseilles is probably not what you are expecting. It is a rather gritty, industrial, working, port city. Lots of grafitti, buildings in need of repair, and a fair amount of petty street crime. I don't think it is dangerous, but it is not Aix or Nice by any stretch.

This is absurd and patently false, but I am not surprised you are ignorant of the fact that many, many cities and towns have lots of establishments that are bars first and foremost and not restaurants.

hey, Popeye's is the bomb for fast food chicken, but no doubt it doesn't stack up to homemade.

Probably only the mystics and mediums. And who knows, maybe they do.

AND you didn't have to clean the stove! I agree, Popeye's is pretty good for a quick fried-chicken fix. Popeye's chicken is really good, and so are the red beans and rice.

Next you are going to tell us that Outback Steakhouse does not really serve the cuisine of Australia. I wonder how many people go to Texas Roadhouse for the first time expecting to see Patrick Swayzee working as a bouncer.

Looks good Daniel. Is the honey on the fried chicken a northern thing? I've never seen it on fried chicken down around these parts.

The term "sea change". Please stop using it.

Oh I don't know ... Is throwing paint on a piece of plasterboard in a seemingly random fashion, art? Is heaping a pile of pennies in a corner, art? Are a bunch of Campbell soup labels painted on canvas, art? Are a couple of pipes attached to a ceiling and painted blue, art? Click for example. It might not be art to you, but it is to someone somewhere out there. so much for avoiding the debate on aesthetics. we might as well throw in Duchamp's urinal, and then we can apply for credit from the philosophy department.

no kidding, and each one triggers an archive edition of Fresh Air with Terry Gross where she had interviewed the recently deceased many years ago. oddly, she neglected to ask Sargent Shriver if he was gay. Maybe that question wasn't in her wheelhouse back then?

he didn't say no chefs were artists, and you didn't say that all chefs were artists. got it.

See Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef and The Soul of a Chef for a pretty extensive argument about the difference between craft and art in the context of cooking. I tend to agree with Ruhlman that very, very, very few chefs are artists. Please reread my post taking special note of the bolded phrases. So you think the chef that created this dish, for example, is not an artist? He's also the same person who designed this bowl, btw He didn't say NO chefs were artists, he said very few were. I tend to agree that cooking is a craft, but we needn't hijack Teddy's threa

There's your mistake. He is not 4-1 in playoff games. The team is 4-1 in playoff games. The last two games have seen brief experimental interludes where he is permitted to throw the ball over, under or around his receivers. The rest of the time he hands it off. Yes, he does complete some passes - nobody is arguing, I think, that he can't play his position - but they are usually short and easy. Are there certain criteria that need to be met in order to state that a quarterback is 4-1 in the playoffs rather than the team he plays for is 4-1 in the playoffs, or are you saying that it is

the latter I want to try making it that way. I have seen recipes for layered cauliflower gratin that require thin sliced of cauliflower, but it sounds like a pain in the ass. did you have any problem with cauliflower releasing a lot of water while baking and diluting the bechamel?

was this a layered dish or was it vegetables in a casserole with the bechamel/cheese poured over and then baked?

her phrasing and rhythm were just perfect for the time and the songs. she intepreted a lyric in a way that made you feel as though you should be wearing a dinner jacket and dangling a martini stem from your fingers.

AB, of course you are correct from a statistical analysis perspective, but you and I both know that 99.9% of the folks out there watching college football don't think that way and never will. Plus, the comments by the media only fuel the fire. Bottomline is that if your conference goes into bowl season or march madness and loses game after game to other conferences, the public perception will be that your conference is not as strong. that's just people.