She's My Cherry Pie

So I'm sitting here working away, doing a little bit of writing for my side job, and I've got Top Chef on for entertainment. The host, Padma Lakshmi, just announced which of the two worst chefs from this week would be moving on to the finale, and which would be packing up and going home. Only she communicated this by saying, "One of you are going to the finale, and one of you are packing your knives and going home." That means she said "one of you are" twice, without self-correcting -- indeed, with her trademark marbles-in-the-mouth solemnity -- and then evidently did not fight a battle to the death to ensure the deletion of the footage.

Maybe it helps if you know that Padma Lakshmi is Salman Rushdie's soon-to-be-ex-wife. Oh, and she looks like this:



(That's really her.)

And Salman Rushdie looks like this:



I think everyone's cynical motivation is now perfectly clear, yes? Not that I had much remaining respect for Salman Rushdie (who is close friends with the loathsome Hitchens and whose prose I find unreadable anyway), but it's a little like the Senate. I was ok with the fact that they've caved on the war, because with 49 votes (at best) there's not much you can do anyway, but when they apparently have the time, energy, and unity of purpose to start passing motions condemning MoveOn's Petraeus ad, that's just fucking rubbing my nose in it.

By the way, Padma's got a cookbook coming out. Because she eats, like, ever.