Funny/clever images goes here

I, however, am saying he's a douchebag and as reprehensible as you can find.

I don't know the guy and he certainly doesn't look like the kind I'd watch on tv, but that article hardly paints a clear picture with the addendum at the bottom.

According to Wikipedia, he goes a hell of a lot more places than California. Not to mention that using "California" as a catchall for big city livin' is bullshit, since the very first episode sees him in Baker, CA. Population: 735.

Sure, he goes to populous areas, but the entire conceit of his show is: "Look, this is where NORMAL people eat. The chef is a down to earth kind of guy and it's his family business. You can afford to eat here, and you'll probably love it. See these people sitting around the tables? Average salt-of-the-earth folk. Just like you. Now watch me eat this giant hamburger! MMMMMMOHGODDRIPPINGDOWNMYFACE"

It's the antithesis of the fancy food snob shows, and it's there to provide a balance so they can reach out to a wider demographic audience.

Enh. I've little taste for haute cuisine, I'm just calling it like it is.

I've caught a few episodes, and that's not really what I see. What I usually see is: "Here's the dish they're known for, and here's a vague description of how it's made with a wink-wink nudge-nudge secret ingredient we'll never reveal! Now watch me eat it!" It's food porn. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, I just kind of prefer to know that I might be able to recreate what I'm seeing on screen at home from time to time.

This is why people should never mention food in a non-food topic.

See, I like haute cuisine, and yet I find a place for DDD in my viewing schedule. I'd love to eat at a lot of the places he goes, because they often employ really good cooking techniques or fresh and great ingredients in the service of making affordable but awesome food. How is that a bad thing? Yeah, it's food porn. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

As for secret ingredients, they definitely don't give away quantities, but the vast majority of the time, they name every ingredient. If you're paying attention, you could pen a recipe for 9 out of 10 things they demonstrate. But then, I'm not watching the show to learn how to cook, I'm watching the show to see what restaurants in different parts of the country make food I want to go out of my way to find.

When you change your name, you can pronounce it any way you like. Fieri was his Grandfather's last name, it's pronounced with a rolling R, something Americans (like Guy) suck at, so it sounds more like a T or a D.

His late sister was gay, the one who's name he has tattooed on his arm. I'll take the he-said of a spurned producer and the producer's lackey with a grain of salt.

Also, Italians in certain areas (such as South Philly) pronounce an R surrounded by vowels as a T.

Yeah, I grew up eating in a restaurant called Firenze, which I learned quickly was pronounced in a way that almost sounded like "Fid ren zeh."

That vaccine image has been going around Facebook, and it's amazing to read the comments. Especially the ones from the anti-vaccination crowd. My favorite was one who said "Yeah, well, there have been a lot of improvements to medical centers and hospitals since prior to those vaccines. Don't you think those improvements account for some of these numbers?"

Yes. Yes they do. Improvements such as "stocking the medical center or hospital with vaccines" do indeed account for some of these numbers.

Someone should make one up for contraction rates, when you see a big fat zero on smallpox, polio and diphtheria and fractional percents for MMRs you can't claim it's simply improved survival rate.

From Cracked photo shot contest: http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_529_21-web-browser-features-we-desperately-need_p21/#20

The only thing I don't like about it is that where I've seen, it's attributed to CDC figures, but it doesn't at all attribute the years for each category. I just wish it included citations like most great infographics.

This looks like the Batcycle from the Batman: The Animated Series.

I'd rather see Captain America's flying motorcycle, to be honest.

So I'm down with vaccination, and that info-pic is neat, but... were there really ~4 million people in the US dying anually from chicken pox prior to the invention of its vaccine in 1974, which according to wikipedia was first available in the US in 1995?!

I'm skepticial...

Digging a bit, I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varicella_vaccine

Which seems much more plausible.

Now I'm left doubting the rest of the info-pic. :-( Vaccination is serious enough business you shouldn't mess around when making such things, lest you give ammunition to the virulent anti-vaccination movement.

It doesn't say mortality it says morbidity which is a fancy word for the rate of incidence of a disease. The figures you quoted were correct.

Many cultures and languages pronounce letters differently. For instance, in Portuguese my name sounds completely different because the R has kind of an h sound to it, which can be confusing. You just don't appreciate the profound cultural diversity of a Columbus, Ohio upbringing that Guy Pirelli brings to the table.

you mean brazillian. in portuguese your name sounds just fine ;)

What Talorc said. Also:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthew...ves-home-how-vaccines-have-changed-our-world/

And this is where the guy got his numbers from:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/appendices/G/impact-of-vaccines.pdf

Brazilian Portuguese is just Portuguese. You mean Portuguese Portuguese. I do the same thing for British English. WELCOME TO THE COUNTERHEGEMONY.

I don't always change my mode of expression, but when I do it's based on the advice of organic intellectuals of the subaltern.

the squealing of neonationalist "intellectuals" in portugal now that the date for the Ortographical Agreement changes has kicked in really *really* is something to behold.

Yeah, he does. That's the point. He doesn't just cater to "flyover country" (which I guess now means everywhere in the US that isn't a big city). He visits restaurants in just about every part of the country, from tiny towns to the major metropolitan areas.

Now you see, this is actually a completely accurate portrayal of the show's premise (as opposed to "going to shitty dives people have in East Bumfuck and stuffing his face"). But apart from you not wanting to see people eat giant hamburgers or whatever, I'm struggling to understand what your problem with it is?

If you want an entertaining cooking show try and root out some of Keith Floyd's shows. The guy was the living embodiment of a gourmand. He regularly cooked, ate and drank his way around the world.

Ah, true! Something about the way it phrased the right hand column made me assume differently, even though it'd be odd for the columns to be measuring different things.

Which should have made me skeptical of my skepticism I guess!

Now take yer high-falutin two doller words and git. ;-)

This doesn't make sense with this:

My point was that it's TV catered to the audience that exists in flyover country. As with all media, the demographic is fuzzy and can extend beyond that core, but that's what it is. I suppose I have a "problem" insofar as it's a show taking up TV space where something I'd rather watch could exist, but that's true of at least 90% of television so I wouldn't single out DDD for that.

7 new punctuation marks we need...I guess these guys never heard of the sarcmark.

Elaborate.

Well I guess normal people do exist in "flyover country", so I suppose that's sort of an accurate statement, right? I'm just glad that you've stopped with the "east bumfuck" and "shitty dive" since that's clearly not accurate.

He caters to flyover country. That's his demo. It's the Larry The Cable Guy demographic. You're claiming that he doesn't cater to that demographic because he spends a lot of time in California, and I continue to assert that this is a false premise. There are plenty of end-of-a-strip-mall dives in California.

What's the name of his show, again? Because all this time I thought we were talking about Diners, Drive-ins, and DIVES.

Here, watch this segment about the food at a joint that I eat at all the time. I'll let you tell me if the food at this place appeals to "flyover country" or not.

Let's see.

Less than a minute in, and there's shit talk about tofu.

Quick cut of a guy saying it's "Inexpensive."

Quick cut of a guy talking about cheesesteak sandwich.

"Good prices, good food."

"Cozy. Homey."

"It's a nice little mom and pop restaurant."

Yes, they talk about eggplant and organic wild rice and some of the food is pretty unique and not typical diner fare, but the way they edit and the quotes they pull tells the story. Sure, the food seems a little fancy, but this is the kind of cozy, homey, mom and pop place you can bring your middle-america family to for a good cheap meal.

And why exactly is that a bad thing? In a world full of chain restaurants and fast food, isn't highlighting places that offer viable alternatives that are locally owned and operated a net good?

That salmon burger is one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth.

Hey Jibble RyanMM heloder et al - I don't suppose you guys could obsess about cooking shows in a thread dedicated to cooking shows? Clearly there's enough interest to merit a thread to talk about them, assuming we don't have one already.

Meantime, here are some cool overclocked hard drives.

You keep using that phrase, and I'm starting to really want you to actually define it so I know what you're talking about. Yesterday I thought when people said "flyover country" they meant the rural plains and midwest areas. You seem to be implying that it means anybody who isn't a wealthy suburban/urbanite. I just always thought those were called "normal people".

Maybe they should change the name to Shitty Diners, Shitty Drive-ins, and Shitty Dives.

I'm willing to just let it go at this point, since the conversation is stagnating and I don't see much purpose in expanding it to a full blown thread. Consider my thread shitting complete, apologies all around.

No apologies necessary, and please don't just stop talking about it because I mentioned it. It sounds like a topic that several people have a lot of interest in, so it could be useful for you guys to be able to discuss that interest in a thread that won't keep getting interrupted by random pictures of goofy things.

I LOVE Floyd! I would buy the entire Floyd On _______ series if I could find it on DVD. My personal highlight was when he got literally stumbling drunk cooking for a rugby team and dropped a tray while carrying it over, picked it up and said "They'll never notice."

Calvin and Hobbes, photoshopped over real world locations.