On less important topics, after finishing an essay for a forthcoming issue of a quarterly magazine, I've spent my afternoon spying on the websites and MySpace profiles of the Top Chef chefs. With the exceptions of Cliff, Sam, Elia and Ilan, it seems to me that everyone from Candice on up from season 1 could cook the shit out of the season 2 crowd. God bless Miguel Morales, whose delightfully exuberant website gives me everything that I'd want from Chunk Le Funque. Lee Anne, in her MySpace, definitely comes across as a sweetheart. Here's Marisa from season 2. From these guys you can find most everyone on TC, and so I'll stop coming across like the obsessed fan I am.

I'm warming to the Scanners record after not liking it for a month. The first song, "Joy," is pretty crummy, but it gets a lot better. Similarly, the Blow might be my new favorite band from 2006, and they should be yours too. They're fast becoming a Kriston Capps favorite, judging by his facility to turn an ordinary broom into a guitar and play "Pile of Gold."

Currently reading Yglesias' copy of Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor and enjoying it a great deal. The rest of the house is feverishly preparing for UnfoggeDCon tomorrow, while I do precious little but troll the internet for Top Chef effluvia. See everyone tomorrow evening.