Foiled by French

In a total gag, I participated in a charity fund raising spelling bee, a la the Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway. There were about 40 people in on this. I survived the word “treatise” but got knocked out on the word “chauffeur” – needed to buy a vowel. I would have done much better if it were a vocabulary bee, and not a spelling bee – I think I knew the meanings of all of the words. Oh well – it went to a good cause.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year in… Las Vegas? Hmm.

And, in Wednesday’s NY Times’ Food section: Mark Bittman, the Minimalist, does pudding. Check out the demonstration video that’s posted – he raises the good point that instant pudding is — well, ok, chemical-filled. But, my childhood was all about that artificial coloring! 😉 As Bittman notes at the end of the video, who wouldn’t miss the Yellow No. 5 (or whatever the number is; well, okay, Bittman meant it sarcastically). His vanilla pudding at the end there though – ooh, looks so good!

Thanks to the three-day weekend, I caught up on “Ugly Betty.” Good stuff – Daniel’s trying to get a handle on having a brother-who’s-now-a-sister (umm, yeah; got to give Rebecca Romijn credit for trying the role – but her character really is that naive for not expecting how difficult the gender transition would be); Daniel retains Grace “the Chin” Chin to be his dad’s defense lawyer (played by Lucy Liu – playing yet another lawyer? Well, at least this one is slightly that much more believable than her “Ally McBeal” incarnation – her Ling Woo character irritating me); and Betty’s trying to figure out her feelings for accountant Henry – only to realize that it might be too late.

At the very least: yay for the portrayal of fictitious Asian-American lawyers on tv.