Earlier today I enjoyed an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, which my TiVo had recorded the previous night. The entire three-person panel was British, providing a very interesting spin of the discussion. At some point during the discourse, one of the panelists mentioned how forty-three would not be able to last even five minutes if the Congress had an equivalent of Prime Minister's Questions. The idea of having the President thrown before Congress and subjected to brutal questioning sounds mighty fun. For one thing, it would show people just how much of a dunce the current commander-in-chief really is. Of course, I could just be misunderestimating him.

However, the potential benefits of Presidential Question Time reach far beyond making George W. embarrass himself live on C-SPAN. For one thing, it would probably generate a lot of interest in politics. Watching Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons is far more entertaining than falling asleep to Bill Frist's explanation of some nonsensical graph about weasel populations in Kansas. During Prime Minister's Questions energy is high, insults are fired back and forth, and occasionally the chamber gets invaded by angry disillusioned fathers in super-hero outfits who throw purple powder at people. Presidential question time could give MTV a run for its money.

Subjecting the head of state to grueling questions on a regular basis would also ensure the president elect is both competent and articulate. While the possibility would still exist another Gee Dubaya to get "elected," but their chances being effective would be less than zero. On the flip side of this, a President who could really command the floor during questioning would have considerably more credibility than otherwise.

So George, es-tu prêt ?

My first attempt at soup to school proved to be a failure. The French onion soup, which tasted fabulous right out of the pot, turned out tasting abysmal when reheated and kept in an insulated cylindrical container (hey, I don't want to endorse a particular brand). So, this weekend I decided to have another go at the soup to school thing. I made this great Italian pasta and bean soup. 'Tis excellent. I can only hope it survives the chill and reanimation process.

However, in my quest for stupendous soup there were many things in need of chopping, such as onions, garlic, and pancetta (pancetta is ridiculously good stuff). It proved to be rather more difficult than it should have been because my knives are mind numbingly dull. Even after running them though my so-called "knife sharpener" they were dull. I have been saying the knives need to be professionally sharpened for months, but nothing has happened.

Also of note, as I was thumbing through my website statistics I ran into some keyword strings people had typed in to get to my website from search engines. Most of them were obscure, or put my website on the ten millionth page of results. However, one string, "emeril lagasse is annoying," on MSN search puts my Haute Hoopla page as the tenth result. Pretty crazy.

Many people - though - in my experience - mostly adults over thirty - seem to leap to the conclusion that if a driver makes a mistake, they are using their cell phone. It is possible the person who just made the mistake is driving and gabbing simultaneously. However, it is not fair to the other person to assume they made the mistake simply because they were talking on their cell phone. Maybe the person is tired. Perhaps they are having a bad day. For all one knows they made a genuine mistake.

So why are people breathing down the necks of these poor drivers who make small mistakes ? When I drive, I occasionally make minor mistakes, even though I am not using a cell phone. It would really irritate me if someone started screaming insults at me every time I made a mistake. People really need to calm down when they drive. Missing a green light is not the end of the world. At the most it might mean a fifteen second delay. Big deal.

After my rather hectic day at school, very few things could possibly be more relaxing in the evening than some delicious hot chocolate and some Debussy. Something about the impressionistic style of Debussy's music relaxes one in no time. My favorite work by Claude Debussy simply has to be his Suite Bergamesque. Of course, the hot chocolate I prepared did not hurt either. The trick to the hot chocolate comes in the form of Bensdorp Cocoa from Holland. I buy mine from Dean & Deluca. Quite excellent stuff.

After five years it was inevitable. My blog has been spammed ! Granted, if you haven't visited my website in the last few days you probably won't have noticed it. I cleaned it up very quickly. However, in order to curb the incredible amount of spam I had been receiving, I have turned on comment authentication. This means anyone who wishes to comment will need to register for a TypeKey account from Six Apart (who does the Movable Type software I use for this blog). This should only be a temporary precaution until I can find time to upgrade to Movable Type 3.2 and find some less annoying methods to stop spamming.

Knitting is not my thing, shall we say. Which is why I decided not to stay in the house while the Knitters Convention descended on the living room. Instead, I went in search of food in the ever perilous wilderness that is the lifestyle center.

Weathering the superficial exteriors and silky smooth jazz playing on bushels of speakers lining the immaculate sidewalks was no easy feat. However, food was eventually found in the form of over-pepper-flaked pad thai. However, all of this adversity would be rewarded with hidden jungle treasure: the Design Within Reach store.

As with knitting, furniture is not usually my thing. For all I care about most furniture stores, the Pottery Barn could be a barn with pottery inside. Imagine that.

Design Within Reach is another story. Everything in that store is fantastic. From the comfy angular couches to the expertly designed product literature, every detail appears to be contemplated at length. Even the product placards were expertly designed. Each item was adorned by a simple white card displaying the price, description, the designer's name with black and white photo, no less. While I did not make any major furniture acquisitions, they did get me interested in some nifty cubitec shelving. Injection-molded polypropylene, three colors - what more could one ask for ?

In stark contrast to Design Within Reach there is the Container Store. Initially I had moderate to high hopes for the place. Everyone who had visited described it to me as an oasis of organization. Some reports indicate they had a band for their grand opening. A band! Of course, the Container Store would have been better suited to store real cargo containers holding things like hybrid cars, chocolate, or even those little umbrellas people put in drinks.

Nearly everything in that store was poorly designed and weird. Does anyone actually need styrofoam shelving? Absolutely not. What is the point of anti-wabble table and chair wedges? It would be easier (not to mention less lurid) to just fix the chair. Contain Yourself is a very appropriate slogan, catch phrase, et al. I had to work very hard to contain my ill thoughts of the store.

Come to think of it, this is just like the wonderful world of chocolate. A chocolate from Moonstruck Chocolate (wonderful little chocolate chain) tastes as good as it looks. Brand B's Big Brown Bar on the other hand, could use a little work.