I give.  And Uncle.   :-)

Bingo!!  I completely forgot about that frozen scallop debacle.  That must have been 8-10 competitions ago.

LOL.  I love Chopped and think my original problem with it was that I was watching because I actually wanted to learn something.  As in…my brother and his pals drop in unannounced and they're hung over and famished and what can I whip up in 30 minutes that will satisy and impress them?  And since I rarely stock…

@jago - oops and you're so right.  He's standing on a riser or something; burrell has her leg propped up on it.  Still a wonky pic, though!  I'm not familiar with Hughes but so far he seems quite nice; this could be because so many of these other chefs can be very unpleasant (to me).  I'm hoping he's a nice one.  I…

You're right.  I'm a Hoosier and it's very difficult to place an Indiana accent; some of us sound like Gomer Pyle and others of us sound like - ummm…Kim Kardashian.  But that's more an age thing, I guess. 

@jago - Well, I didn't say he didn't do well.  I said he didn't do as well as everyone appeared to THINK he would. In many of the confessionals prior to the first episode, a few of the chefs said things like "SUSUR LEE!!  God!! Is this fair??!!".  And in HIS first confessional he said something to the effect of he'd…

Susur Lee was the odds-on fave at the beginning of the season but he didn't do nearly as well as apparently everyone had thought he'd do.  And in the end, he lost - to samuelsson

@evilisgood - I'm with you; cannot aBIDE this woman.  Granted she's a damned fine cook but so are most of these folks.  On her TV show her persistent crowing "NObody butchers a pig like I do!!" and "I SOOOOO rock!!!" gets so wearying and I wish she'd stop; also, her billing and cooing to her cuts of meat is incredibly…

I've never seen Chopped get dumped on before; but then again this writer loves The Next Food Network Star, which is abominable and embarrassing.  TRULY embarrassing, on every level.  So..anyway.  I do wish Chopped would pull back a bit with the dumb ingredients like jujubes and sheep's balls, though.

I've liked zakarian for a while; he's not as nasty as some of the other CHOPPED judges (hey, scott conant - eff you and your effing onions) and he's displayed a pretty keen sense of humor on occasion.  He's also not averse to laughing at himself and the entire "celebrity chef" process, which is nice.   I'd love to see…

Yes, I'd always thought symon was from chicAAAHgo but vaguely recall hearing he's from…cleveland?  cincinnati?  And Anne Burrell - gag and gag.  Not sure why I so thoroughly detest her but just ugh.  Go, Zakarian (because he was robbed of the Chopped Champions crown and because he's getting up there and because the…

Agreed.  I think Alex's personality started taking a nose dive as her ass began to spread.  Wow.  Who knew?  Since we never see her when not seated (chopped) or standing behind her workspace (alex's day off).  BUT. To me the very weird thing about the photo is the spectrum of chef sizes!  Samuelsson looked very short…

hmmm.  I didn't pick up on the condescension somehow.  I think that truly WAS the best they could come up with, which is sort of sad.  I'd rather hear this than nasty snark…

Wow.  I think I will and merci.

ITA!  I rarely actually laugh during TAR (since I missed the cheese-rolling-down-the-hill episode), but cindy's slowly caving underneath that bed was pretty good.  She just sort of accordioned.  And the best part, to me, was that she actually laughed.  It was nice to see her having fun for a change, and Ernie's…

I may have been having flashbacks to the strobey opening credits, but I thought that when tate (dressed as rubber man) had vera's little sister pinned against the basement stairs (whew), he was moving in a jerky, roboty, strobey way.  She looked like a human girl; he looked digitally enhanced somehow.  And skinnier…

Oh, for shit's sake.

I guess I should be embarrassed to divulge that back in the day I had a huuuuuuuuuuge and aching crush on dylan macdermott.  But…I'm not.  Can't for the life of me remember WHY I had a crush on him, though.  Must be that jawline.  Clenched or not. And the semi-squinty eyes really sent me.

And

The dog's been sleeping in his basket for these two weeks, maybe so we don't become too attached to him.  As it's clear from the previews that his days are numbered; if they don't off him next week, they sure want us to think they do.  Larry even does a little whistle, or a "Here, doggie!" thing with a creepy…