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and researching it made me want to try making it! First I've got to get my hands on some recado (black, and maybe red as well) - certainly not going to try to make my own! Local folks are mostly from Michoacan or El Salvador, so might have to go online for it, but Amazon only has recado rojo (from a company in Vermont), and Kalustyan's doesn't have it, so I guess it would take some digging.

Dom's problem wasn't being bland so much (that can be worked on) - it's that he still hasn't figured out how to deliver under pressure. You can't flake out and walk off at an event, or leave dead air time, or swear on a live morning show when you screw up (or instead stand there stammering or stagestruck) if you want to be a TV chef. Maybe it will come with practice, but it was pretty obvious he still had those same problems that he did before.

I was wondering, too! Googling "black dinner" without knowing what cuisine it might be from was initially not that helpful - although I did learn about an event in Scottish history known as the Black Dinner (supposedly inspiring the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones). However, I'm thinking it may be this thing from Belize that showed up in google images and variations on which are discussed here: http://www.belizeans.com/forums/showthread.php?22790-Black-dinner (the image example from that discussion): http://www.belizeans.com/forums/attachment.php?s=48b9c8b2733606ed5619019ea2543c92&attachmentid=4137&stc=1&d=1221673144 I think if it's tasty and you added some appropriate greenery (cilantro? flat leaf parsley?) and, if they complement it, red peppers or chiles or something, and/or possibly some foil for it - tortillas or rice or something masa-based? - you could dress this up to get people to give it a try. And maybe call it pollo negro, or pollo con recado negro (that's what the black ingredient is here) or some such, instead of black dinner, on the menu, with an enticing explanation (traditional black stew from Belize with recado negro made using our own house-charred organic chiles and other exotic flavors, or some such) I guess it's of Mayan origin and also served in the Yucatan and other nearby areas. Or according to the text around this one, you might call it relleno, but then I think Americans would expect battered green chiles filled with cheese. A cheerful bowl helps, as illustrated in the discussion on this page: http://ambergriscaye.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/447433/relleno-black-dinner-w-homemade-flour-tortilla.html But maybe it's some entirely different form of "black sludge"!

Hmm. I like three of them! Might be fun. I think all of these shows are in part auditions to see who if anyone develops a natural on-air persona or following. Thus, I don't mind so much the repeat customers showing up on FN Star - Cutthroat Kitchen & Chopped can function in part as tryouts, warranting additional on-air tryouts & development. It also allows the network to see who is easy to work with, and who is a PITA.

Here, here! In general, though, I'd like a thumbs up option rather than just a love option. Sometimes you want to acknowledge the post for hitting the nail on the head, but love is not the right word for it.

Interesting, Rick Kitchen. Maybe also has to do with the community's experience in how to start out economically in the US. A lot of Indian immigrants to the US who weren't among the professional class gravitated toward running hotels, for example - once a few had been successful at this, others followed their example. Dry cleaners and specialty grocers are another case of business areas that attract immigrants. All of these are things where the language barrier - in a family business in particular - doesn't pose as big of a problem as it might in the wider job market. Russian and other Eastern European immigrants with less than stellar English may do just fine in mainstream kitchens if they choose that path. Also, Sacramento with its warm climate is not perhaps the best place to be serving a lovely warm winter borscht, and of course the US has the historic antipathy towards the USSR & Russia, which could make many Eastern European cuisines a hard sell for a mainstream audience. Immigrant cuisines with low costs and vibrant tastes that are exotic enough to seem like an adventure I think probably have an edge. I could see Hungarian getting a foothold, though. I also suspect there wasn't as much experience with starting up and running a business among those who came from the former Soviet bloc, whereas in other cultures people are quite familiar with how to go about it. People tend to stick with what they know.

History & immigration patterns, I think. We've got more great hole in the wall Mexican restaurants, and they have more Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi ones. And in any part of the US where there are enough immigrants to get it started, we've got Thai, Vietnamese, Eritrean, etc to go along with the more widespread Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc. Even BBQ outside the south is largely a product of people moving around within the country - Texas to Oakland, CA, for example.

I haven't seen this yet, so I don't know what he said (west coast) but I wonder if the ASL translator's intonation made it sound more cocky than intended. It's not his voice you're hearing, so the delivery may be off. Actually, I mostly just check in here these days to see who got tossed, and watch occasional excerpts in the recap - and lately they haven't included the comments, just the dance.

So long as they know their place, I guess. Would he ever have worked for one?

I haven't watched yet - do they say season finale next week or something? Wikipedia says there are six episodes this season, same as 2014 and the second of two seasons in 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Do_You_Think_You_Are%3F_(U.S._TV_series)#Episodes (edited to fix a cut and paste error)

I'm glad Rob won, too! Thought his was the best, and he certainly had the strongest season. You got me curious about flashlights. Looks like they were invented in 1898 or 1899, and became practical and popular in the 1920s. (googled flashlight invented and ended up with the wikipedia page for history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashlight)

I got my sister what I thought was a really interesting book about infant development when she was pregnant, not realizing that she might take it as a critical guide to how to do things right! When actually my takeaway from the book is that so long as you're not running a Romanian orphanage, and care about your kids, they'll be fine. She was somewhat mollified, and in my defense it really is kind of fascinating what's going on with their brains before they can communicate much to you. (I'm not saying bad parenting can't have an effect, but that was never going to be an issue with my sister.) I say all that because my instant reaction to how Jenelle was treating Kaiser was, "she's running a Romanian orphanage!" As in, she has next to no loving interaction with that child. Probably just feeds him so he'll shut up and nobody will criticize her for failing to do so. (i would expect that he may have a strange relationship to food because of this - it will have been a more reliable source of comfort to him as a baby than his mother, that's for sure - but attachment and trust issues are bound to be more important. I hope he's getting some good interaction somewhere that he can latch onto as how things ought to be.) (Romanian orphanages in the Ceausescu era, that is. Nothing against Romanians in general, but there was a systemic problem there for a time.)

I see nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home Mom (and not doing a whole lot other than that) if they can afford it, at least while the kids are little - this used to be the norm for most families in the mid 20th century, and not because anyone was being lazy; the issue, though, is that Jenelle and Leah are terrible stay-at-home Moms. Actually, I don't think Jenelle qualifies as being one at all. She's not being a mom, she's being a self-centered party girl who pays about as much attention to her son as she does to inconvenient pets.

Nah. It's like eating potato chips. You're not supposed to remember every single one.

I went back to check my memory and he said three seconds; wouldn't have had the precision if he'd just said "a few". And besides, I think for characterization they'd want his baseline heart rate low and his "stress" heart rate (for standing around in a waiting room, anyway) to be more in the range of 70, or at absolute most 85 or 90. My take is that they didn't really think about how the math worked out at all.

Does nobody think about the meaning of a line like this and realize they got it wrong? (Reid tells Morgan "your carotid tells a different story - I've counted 10 heartbeats in the last three seconds - that's about 20% higher than your usual when you're under stress" - well delivered line, but - ahem. 10 beats in 3 seconds is 200 beats per minute. I initially was thinking, maybe the line was written as 3 beats in 10 seconds, but that makes for a total of 18 beats per minute, which is also preposterous. Maybe it was supposed to be 3 breaths in 10 seconds, which at 18 breaths/minute is a little on the fast side, but then he wouldn't have mentioned the carotid . . . . Or more likely, nobody even thought about the math or the physiology, but maybe just that three and ten are numbers that people understand that don't divide easily into one another and so in the abstract they sound good. But it immediately took me out of the moment, as I immediately recognized that as utter nonsense (and was extra funny because of the contrast with the sober, calm, caring delivery of supposedly "technical" information so preposterous that somebody capable of the reasoning behind it would never say it). Should have been immediately obvious to anyone on staff who was supposed to review that and any other medical lines for basic plausibility, too. Smacks of everyone being so intimidated by numbers and the prospect of doing even second-grade level math, as to fail to recognize that his line was solemnly delivered nonsense, or so focused on blocking and tone of voice and so on as to forget that words have meaning. And so, we have the savant delivering mathematical word salad.

I think she's doing what's called in recovery circles, "pulling a geographic" with each move. You change your surroundings in an attempt to make things right, when really what you need to change is not your surroundings, but your own approach to life. When you have a lot of money (ok, in her case, at this point it's her mother's money), you can keep trying this over and over again, continuing to hope that if you just find the right place/get things right this time, everything will be ok. But of course it won't be, because the stuff, the place, other people, etc., aren't the problem. (I'm not saying she has a substance abuse issue, although she clearly has an adjustment to life problem - but it's one of the unsuccessful things people try to do to solve an alcohol or drug problem, or any other problem that's actually one that has to change from the inside, so you learn to recognize the pattern).

Samantha did have six looks, despite the review article saying she had five - she also had one with dark blue/peacock shorts and a red top and one of her jackets. I liked her stuff a lot and thought second was correct - Maya was amazing, and while I generally loved Peytie's vision, it was a little all over the place for me in the finale. Too many ideas, some too short and too much fringe and what not. Love the colors and use of patterns though - I get ideas from her, and from Samantha, but ultimately Maya was just a clear winner to me. I see Zachary's strengths but it did feel old fashioned to me - I'm 52 but I can see myself dressing like the three girls' "girl" would dress at 25 or 30 or 40 (in terms of fabric choices and general aesthetics, not trying to pretend I'm younger than I am, but age-appropriate with similar sensibilities and inspirations), but would have had no interest in dressing like Zachary's woman at any age, 16, 25, 30, 40, now, or at 60 or 70 or 80. I guess I can imagine someone who is now 70 wanting to dress like that when they were 20 or 30. And some of this silhouettes are just not something I can imagine anyone feeling attractive or even interesting in, whereas I'd want to talk to the women who are wearing the three girls' outfits, and for the most part think they looked great, to boot!

I always just assume that they don't want to be at the mercy of somebody else's mistakes (although plenty of them do go on about wanting to show who they are - and given that they are paid only in exposure and experience, that's somewhat understandable). But if they look at it as an extended job interview/audition for every other job they will get in their life in the industry, seems like a good idea to show that you are not impossible to work with!

re: Swatch - he's certainly still featured on Mood's webpage and facebook page, so I'm guessing he's fine. He must be getting up in years, though. From one of the website blog posts (tips for new visitors to the store): • Swatch, the Boston terrier who is Mood’s mascot and a star of Project Runway, is frequently in the store. He is a very mellow dog who loves people, especially children. But, if dogs are not your thing, just let us know when you arrive and Swatch will go to one of his spots where he is away from customers. http://www.moodfabrics.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/561612_10152234684505147_1200625212_n-225x300.jpg FB post from October 6: "What is Swatch's favorite fabric you ask... We'll [sic] here is the answer complimentary of the ‪#‎MoodGuide‬." Cute picture to accompany, with the answer: https://www.facebook.com/mood.fabrics/photos/a.10150552790660147.644384.134465660146/10156095429995147/?type=3 And so that I'm on topic, I agree - more Swatch! I have no other suggestions beyond those others have mentioned, with allowing enough time to do good work being high on my list. Also, if you have to choose, I prefer designers who have ideas but aren't top notch sewers over excellent sewers who have no ideas.

I'll give it a shot: https://twitter.com/TM2LeahDawn/status/658456623212535809 (edit: yup. That worked. @WhosThatGirl, what I did was click on ". . . " ("more") to the right of the retweet, etc options (as if!), then clicked "copy link to tweet"; then just pasted it here. I don't know how to pretty them up, but I do know how to cut and paste, so I'll leave it at that.)

He's a regular supporter of the arts, that one.

What I'm trying to figure out is how they stretch this season all the way to December 4th. They skipped last week, they're doing a clip show this week . . .and they've still got six weeks after that to stretch out the end somehow. Talk about going out with a whimper. When it's done it'll be like finally saying goodbye to a party guest who just wouldn't go home long after it was clear that it was time.

I'd like to see what Elyse Sewell could do to fill the niche! How to keep your sanity while getting paid poorly and erratically as a working model in Hong Kong, Seoul, Santiago de Chile, Turin, etc., while entertaining yourself by embracing and/or observing the cultures and bizarre foods and mangled English language signage you encounter, and how to get along with your very young model roommates from Slovenia or wherever, in your tiny little apartment, or as Elyse would say, hovel. How to poke fun at the ludicrous work you did today but be asked back again anyway. Call it, Modeling: The Real World. (but don't cast people for their propensity to hook up for camera time - more like the original Real World seasons, where people who actually had a reason for being in NY, LA, SF, London or whatnot tried their hand at actually making a go of it, sometimes failed and sometimes flailed). Elyse could be their mentor and advisor a la Tim Gunn (well, Tim Gunn at his ideal typical best, that is), while periodically reminding them that modeling isn't exactly coal mining, no matter what Tyra Banks might say, but instead just requires genetic luck and maybe a certain amount of entrepreneurial pluck when your agency isn't getting you anything more than the occasional gig for the South Korean equivalent of the Home Shopping Network, rather than any particularly rare set of skills beyond ability to put up with fashion people and follow directions.

Apparently I was never going to stop watching no matter how bad it got, so I'm thankful somebody else is pulling the plug on it for me!