Is Victoria the woman who got cancer and forced Nikita to leave wrestling right when he was probably set up for jumping to the WWF and making millions opposite Hogan?

"but the face of the teachers’ unions was so over-the-top that I started actively rooting against teachers in general."

Foreign languages =/= diversity.

Yeah, I found that on sale years ago and it's never left my go-to bookshelf since.

The only thing he kind of touched on was the "everything you find funny comes from Toronto" bit, but he could've gone into the whole SNL / SCTV connection to bulk that up a bit.  That would've led into the obvious Russel Peters segue as the heir to that line of cultural significance, but why bother with that when…

It's true statistically - and that's not even counting the 'burbs, which turn it into a blowout. Americans just don't think it is because the proportions of african blacks and hispanics (the races Americans associate with diversity) aren't that high, but asians, subcontinentals, and people from the carribean more than…

"So therein lies the problem. In order to get past
the pompous self-importance (and come on you gotta see where I'm coming
from there) you have to have followed his entire career?"

I don't think Paula Deen or Rachel Ray have put out anything close to the quality of No Reservations, let alone doing so for a decade. So, no, people wouldn't say that about them.  And Bourdain CAN cook - heck, one of the more entertaining episodes of the tail end of NR's run was sticking him and eternal running buddy…

I think the most egregious example of that was Casey trying to make Coq au Vin.

"Sadly, he’s also much more confident in anyone else’s skin than his own. Even if he does look damn fine in a fitted Gucci suit."

Okay, I forgot my one gripe about Tony: the Toronto episode of the Layover was godawful.  He ignored the most diverse city on the continent (aside from 30-second bits about dim sum and kebabs) in favour of glorifying Queen West hipsters who were existentially wondering about Toronto's place in the world. Given TO's…

Because he's a well-liked, bestselling author who's made some of the best TV of the last decade while encouraging people to try food that they may not otherwise?

To be fair, that's the case for just about every cash-in Dubai restaurant.  You don't evaluate a chef's strengths by looking at the franchises - it's like evaluating Jacques Pepin based on a HoJos.

I don't think that Bourdain has softened his stance on Emeril so much as Emeril's come back down to earth a little bit.  The guy was an example of all of the worst aspects of late-90s Food Network, and the equivalent of the role Bobby Flay fills now - a bit of a stunt Muppet there for little more than to sell…

I don't have a problem with him serving as a judge (he had the "regular guest judge" chair on Top Chef for about two years, and he and Tom were a great team), I have an issue with The Taste being so awful.

Yes, because the goal of these types of shows is to open people's minds to new types of foods and encourage them to try something more than McDonald's.  In a culture where a large portion of the population is either obese or diabetic, we need to continue to push people to do better.

I think he's more like Bill Simmons than Rome at this point - there's some blowhard tendencies, but his influence can still be harnessed more for good than for evil (30 for 30 in Simmons' case, the PBS show and hopefully CNN in Bourdain's).

Those trips to Brazil to train in MMA don't come cheap, I guess.

Yup.  Hell, Marco Ruas, the first "modern" UFC champ (in that he could both grapple and strike) came from a Capoeira background.

Really? Bourdain did entire segments with Ramsay, has praised Boiling Point as the best food-related documentary ever (which it pretty much is, let's be honest), and loves Restaurant Nightmares UK.