Sir RaiderDuck OMS

Iron Chef Japan, no question. Better chefs (ICA's Morimoto is arguably superior to his ICJ incarnation due to his additional years of experience, but Sakai, Chen, and Michiba kick the ass of anyone on ICA except Morimoto or Batali), better commentators (Alton Brown's not bad, but Hattori runs his own cooking school), better set, and a MUCH better Chairman (the less said about Mark Decascos, the better).

How exactly did he feel compromised? I always wondered why he left. Flay's a twit and Zakarian's just a loathsome human being. Batali, Cora and Morimoto are my favorites.

I can't remember which specific episode it was, but I remember Ramsay asking a typically clueless owner if his obviously not-fresh food was really fresh like he advertised. His classic response: "It IS fresh. Fresh-frozen, that is. Well, fresh-frozen-canned." Ramsay's incredulous look was priceless.

I understand Amy buys her cakes and pies from Safeway, and basically charges as much for one slice as she paid for the whole cake. This also explains why special orders aren't allowed.

There was one exception that I know of in the US version: While the food at Blackberry's was typically awful, the cakes (made by the owner's mother) were so good that Ramsay actually walked around the counter, hugged the mom, and told her how much he'd enjoyed his slice.

The E Street Band got in because Dave Marsh (who helps run the HoF) is a big, big Bruce Springsteen fan who's written something like 6 or 7 biographies of the guy. Marsh also hates KISS and single-handedly kept them out for years, only relenting when their continued exclusion became a bigger story than the Hall itself. The picking and choosing the Hall has practiced towards which band members are allowed in is a little ridiculous. Heart, like KISS, was only allowed to induct its members from the 1970s and none from the 1980s (when they had a commercial resurgence with some big hits). The Grateful Dead, on the other hand, got to induct everyone who'd ever played with them and were even allowed to include songwriter Robert Hunter, who was never in the band itself and never played with them in any album or concert! Similarly, Nirvana was allowed to induct original drummer Chad Channing, whose recorded contributions consist of part of their debut album.

I assume he meant that Piper comes off as sheltered and innocent, and in Virginia she'd be sharing her new prison with lots and lots of Pennsatucky types.

The big problem there (and I say this as a straight man with a lesbian sister-in-law who's the "ask me anything" type): both characters are butch. Butches don't usually get together romantically, just as femmes usually don't. As always in matters of the heart, there are exceptions. Agreed. The Larry storyline is boring and there's no point in continuing it if he and Piper are not involved.

It may well have been the iPad theft. There are apps available that will track a mobile device using its built-in GPS, and Cindy wouldn't know enough to uninstall them, given that she didn't even take the basic step of erasing the owner's pictures from it. If the iPad were tracked down in her daughter's possession, Cindy's mother (who was completely fed up with her antics) probably would have no problems telling the authorities that Cindy had given it to the girl; it wouldn't be hard to then connect its owners reporting it missing from their luggage after a flight where Cindy had access to the bag. Bottom line is that Cindy would have NO legitimate excuse for that iPad having ended up in her possession.

As an ex-Christian, I gotta call BS on Ingalls being excommunicated. Thrown out of the order, sure. But excommunicated from the Catholic Church? That usually requires some heavy-duty heresy. Simply admitting to an affair with a Central American guerilla wouldn't go anywhere NEAR that threshold.

Gotta love Piper's epic smackdown of Red: "What are you gonna do? Not feed me?"

Ahhh. Didn't catch that she meant the Litchfield laundry room. Chalk it up to me watching the premiere after an 11-hour workday.

How did Lori Petty go from being Geena Davis' younger sister (in A League of Their Own) to looking like Geena Davis' mom? OK, show, we get it. People in prison are weird, quirky and mildly psychotic. You don't need to demonstrate it again with a whole new set of inmates we'll never see again. How would Alex (in a metropolitan detention center in Chicago) know what happened to Pennsatucky and what her current status is? And ITA to everyone who says that somebody would have told Piper where she was going and why.

Methinks the late Roger Ebert (whose battles with cancer left him disfigured and unable to eat or speak for the last 7 years of his life) would have some very pointed things to say about Unser's "cancer."