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August 26, 2007

Sunday linkfest

1. "[F]or 40 days and 40 nights, there has been no showering, no hair washing, no teeth cleaning and no deodorant."

Noah's Ark? No, just some moronic British chick who's decided to ditch all her toiletries, lotions, etc., to do "the first scientific experiment of its kind, designed to find out how she will look and feel without the aid of the avalanche of expensive modern beauty products."

Sure, people can overdo the make-up and "beauty products," but whatever happened to Aristotelian moderation? Is it always all or nothing? Extremism in the defense of poor hygiene is a vice in my book.

And from the "Way Too Much Information" Department: "Before starting her experiment, Nicky called in scientists from the Skin Research Centre at the University of Leeds. They took swabs from her armpits, mouth and groin to test levels of bacteria and yeasts, the results of which would be compared with identical swabs taken at the end of the six weeks." (via HotAir)

2. Normally, given my compulsion to write about the death penalty, this would have received its own post: "Private eye gets five years for fake documents in death row cases." But I'm afraid I'll have to leave the analysis to you. It's pretty self-evident, anyway. Oh, by the way, the fake documents were in aid of the murderer, just in case that wasn't clear. I wonder how many "innocent death-row defendants" are not so innocent, after all.

Bonus: Ken Starr makes an appearance.

(via Patterico, and check out some of the comments there)

3. A few weeks ago, my wife and I, who rarely watch TV, decided to watch a couple of cooking shows, including one with the famous Emeril character. We missed this one, which was mentioned in the N.Y. Times:

Ingrid Hoffmann, the latest arrival on the Food Network — her show "Simply Delicioso" is shown on Saturday mornings — seems to be quickly staking her claim as the country's pre-eminent cleavage cook.
I'm struggling to avoid asking how you cook cleavage -- bake it, roast it, or simply warm it gently.

Anyway, I still haven't seen the show, but I did check the Food Network page about it. If you're really interested, go here and check out some of the short videos.

This is how I knew the Times article was written by a woman, without even checking the byline:
Ms. Hoffmann cooks with her whole body, as if every occasion to chop some cilantro were also an opportunity to show how well she might fare as a backup dancer for Rod Stewart. She appears less covered up to marinate a chicken than Ms. De Laurentiis does to go jet-skiing.
And if you think I'm being mean, consider this and tell me I couldn't tell:
It is a hallmark of the contemporary cooking show, of course, that no failures are acknowledged. "Wow, I must have overdone this pork loin because it tastes like an old Volkswagen": that is the sort of comment we never hear emanating from TV kitchens. But even in this context, Ms. Hoffmann's self-regard is annoyingly hardy. It isn't simply that she finds fault with nothing. She finds everything she makes uniquely amazing, "yummy" and "delicioso." And yet it appears to the viewer as mediocre takeout.
No man would ever write that about a woman. Am I right?

4. I thought this N.Y. Post headline about the Lisa Nowak case would be the best: "Space Gals in a Close Encouter," but Court TV's headline definitely had it beat: "Astronaut's lawyers want diapers, weapons in her car kept from jury."

Here's a description of the action in court. More: The detective who searched Nowak's car came under attack by her lawyer:
Detective Becton stood by his methods and said he had fully informed Captain Nowak of her rights. He called his hours with her the hardest interview of his career.

“I realized I was dealing with someone who was more intelligent than I was, and more educated,” he said, and added, “I felt like I was playing a game of chess” with an opponent who answered his questions with questions and tried just as hard to extract information from him.
Answering questions with questions, eh? Now I know why I've had visitors based on searches for "Lisa Nowak Jewish."