Random Notes from a Crank

As I was surfing channels Sunday night, I discovered that Tiffani Thiessen now has a cooking show. Now, I'm an agnostic, but if there is any proof that there is some divine entity and that being likes me for some reason, a show that combines Tiffani Thiessen and cooking might be it. I'm willing to thank the gods or whomever for this show.

Speaking of the alleged Food Network, here's a thought. Why don't you have shows that are cooking shows rather than cooking competitions? I'd much rather see Alton Brown, Tyler Florence, and other chefs doing now old-fashioned cooking shows. In the meantime, I'll be watching the Cook's Illustrated cooking shows on PBS. 

While I'm skeptical of how rational humans really are, Paul Bloom's "The War on Reason" in The Atlantic gives me hope. As he says, "… such scattered and selected instances of irrationality [based on research studies] shouldn't cloud our view of the rational foundations of our everyday life." In the closing paragraph, he really brings it on home: "Yes, we are physical beings, and yes, we are continually swayed by factors beyond our control. But as Aristotle recognized long ago, what's so interesting about us is our capacity for reason, which reigns over all. If you miss this, you miss almost everything that matters."

I started reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, a graphic novel that I finally got around to checking out. I'm enjoying it so far.