Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic is a culinary school graduate that writes about food and television. What's not to love? She's best known for her scathing, funny, and exhaustive coverage of several shows over at Television Without Pity, where she uses the nom du plum of Keckler--we'll be the first to admit (as we have before): her coverage of Top Chef is second to none. She's also a regular at where we first met her), and has her very own food-centric bloggie, The Grub Report. Check out our recent discussion for details on an a cup of salsa's epic journey, a bit on being a cheese archivist, the ressurection of our favorite word from Top Chef Season Two ("craveable"), and some insight into the challenges in writing loads and loads about television at the very popular TWOP. ...

Since I can't remember half the stuff I spewed out this year (I barely know what I'm writing half the time anyways), here, instead, is a few of my favorite things. Best TV Show (drama)- "Battlestar Galactica" Why I like this show is because it thinks big-- big themes, big action, big drama, big story, big music, big everything. At times (like the episode where they finally get off New Caprica) the show feels almost movie big. But the best part of it is that it's also small in it's way. Shows like "24" or "Lost" might have interesting characters, but for the most part, the characters react to the action. That's not necessarily true on "BSG" because often the action comes because of the characters. For instance, the driving force in the Cylon's occupying New Caprica was partly because a few characters discovered what love means. Which yes, sounds kind of lame until you consider that the whole occupying thing was kind of nasty and that one character plotted the destruction of mankind, another shot Capt. Adama, and the third blew herself and her ship up with a nuclear warhead. Awesome. ...

With every major pundit picking the Dems to take the House this fall (better pitching), a lot of attention is heading our way as the media starts trying Nancy Pelosi on for size. Of course, we think the whole Dems Take the House thing is just a set up for a Benitez-style choke job, but nobody asked us. So this week, Time Magazine has a big feature on our very own Congressperson. Wonkette already summed up the gist of the article, but they did miss the fun fact that she likes to watch MTV late at night when she can't sleep. That would explain the PelosiInDaHouze" who always posts on the Television Without Pity "Laguna Beach" boards. ...

The schedule for Barry Bonds reality show, "Bonds on Bonds", has been announced. It will air on ESPN 2 on Tuesday afternoons at 4 and will be half an hour long. The first episode will be an hour long and airs at 5 PM on April 4th. ...

Yes, our beautiful city and it's congressional representative once again made the "Daily Show." Yay! And could we be more provincial? Anyways, the bit was on latest political meme being that despite all the Republicans troubles caused by committing the three biggest sins of politics-- bad war, bad governance, bad ethics-- the Democrats are once unable to shoot straight. Or even fire their guns without blowing themselves up in the process and winding up looking like Daffy Duck taking on Bugs Bunny and having their beak blown up to the other side of his head. So Stewart and the gang went through a variety of recent statements by Democratic leaders to illustrate the point. ...

We had to go to the Television Without Pity recaps of The Bachelor to figure out which one new Niner Jesse Palmer was. Oh, yeah, that guy. We thought he was kinda hot in a very International Male way until he started talking, and then we didn't any more. And not that we think every romance needs to have a wedding, but to end up offering the winner a plane ticket to New York?......

They should just lease below-the-fold on the front page of the Chron's Bay Area section to Supervisor Chris, no? (At rent-controlled rates, we'd hope!) We'll get to a Television Without Pity-like recap of today's installment of As The Chris Turns after the jump, which involves Daly's ongoing beef with the Sentinel's Pat Murphy (scroll down and check out the excellent pics), but before we get to that, can we just savor the fine flavor of the following quote from the Chron? "After his comments [to the Board about the Sentinel], Daly stared at Murphy and said, 'That's how I roll.'" "That's how I roll"??????? Paging Swizz Beatz! Will there be Fred Durst car-driving dancing in the Board chambers next? It's the new progressive catchphrase! That's how we roll! Buy the t-shirts! Check out the underground hardcore British dance track! And is anyone else thinking of that scene in Clueless where Brittany Murphy hits her head at the party and then learns how to sing the Coolio track "Rollin' with the Homies"? Chris Daly, are you a virgin who can't drive? Roll with the Political Junkie..... to after the jump! Picture from Limp Bizkit's Rollin' video...

We've loved Wendy McClure almost as long as we've loved the internerd, from her appearances on the late, great Hissyfit site, to her recaps at what we now call Television Without Pity, to her personal site, Pound, to her column in Bust. When we heard she wrote a book we thought about hitting her up for a review copy, before we decided to go out and spend our own money on it, library-abusing cheapskate......

To all those people out there who love nothing more than posting inflammatory comments on message boards, be careful cause you never know if the FBI might find out. Especially if you post away on AOL. Case in point is local San Francisco woman, Dera Marie Jones, who went on an AOL message board recently and typed these words about Michael Schiavo, ex-husband of Terri: "If she dies I will kill Michael Schiavo and the judge. This for real!" Awoops. And totally been done. ...