“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
The food bracket has returned…with ice-cream flavors. What better way to wind summer down than with an out-and-out brawl at the freezer case? Keckler and I can’t think of one.
The main tourney-update page is here (or to your right, top of the sidebar). Our commentary for Flight 1 and the Flight 1 polls go up tomorrow, Thursday August 14.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Hey. I don’t know what we do now either. I DO know that we’ll need each other going forward, as we always have, for support, mutual aid, and information on where to get high-quality wide-calf …
Poor red bean. Poor olive oil. Both so good, and both so getting eliminated in the first round.
I can’t choose between salted caramel and mexican chocolate!! Never! :)
I love the inclusion of some of the great asian flavors like red bean and green tea. Yum to the olive oil but it will get creamed by the vanilla, sadly.
Of course this just makes me hungry for ice cream. I might have to make some of these flavors just for scientific tasting purposes.
When you first mentioned this I thought, hey that could be fun. But now that I see the bracket I am so psyched – this is gonna be awesome! Ice cream is possibly the greatest food in the world. Followed closely by bacon. Bacon ice cream? Wouldn’t be my first choice, so I can’t wait to see your write-ups! Brilliant idea!
Wow, there are some intriguing flavors on there! Who makes the honey-lavendar, olive oil, and salted caramel flavors? I may have to plan my next vacation around sampling some of these ice creams. I’m pleased to see that spumoni is a bottom seed. Now, I just have to decide which one is the Gonzaga of ice creams before the voting starts.
Since my all-time fave coffee Oreo didn’t make the cut – I’ll have to support Cherry Garcia all the way – which pulled an awfully tough competitor.
I think I know what I’m having for lunch.
I will be sorely disappointed if this whole thing comes down to chocolate vs. vanilla. Can’t wait, though!
@Jen: cookies and cream is in there, I’m positive. Generic verzh, but it’s there.
No Moose Tracks?
Some interesting choices. Only in NY, I guess… no way I’m getting bacon or salted caramel or honey lavender ice cream here unless I decide to channel David Lebovitz, buy a used Donvier, and make some. Ditto to most of the more exciting B&J flaves….
Waaah. This bracket’s only going to make me bitter. I could get most all of the _cheeses_ at my dear old Fancy Deli.
I was disturbed in the cheese tourney how few I had sampled. I am more disturbed by how many I have sampled in the current tourney.
*Bacon* ice cream? Really? And I thought green tea and red bean were the limit. (Though I once had a pineapple and basil gelato that was so good I almost got goosebumps.) Now, I more or less live by the dictum “Bacon makes everything better,” but it never would have occurred to me to create an exemption for ice cream.
Can’t wait for the sticky melty throwdown. (Apparently I’ll be digging out my ice cream maker over my vacation.)
Looking at the flavors made me realize just how badly Ben & Jerry’s has been creaming Haagen Dazs. If this bracket were made 10-20 years ago, Vanilla Swiss Almond or Rum Raisin would probably be sitting in the place of Chubby Hubby or Americone Dream. Not that I’m complaining about any of the 64 chosen (I never liked Rum Raisin); it’s just I never expected looking at ice cream flavors to make me feel old.
Oops; missed rum raisin. Now I’m having senior moments in my late 30’s. [/grumpy old man voice]
Damn you! Why did you have to do this NOW after I have started a crash diet with an eye to getting into a bridesmaid’s dress at the end of September (and yeah, thanks to the bride for the 7-week notice. Bitch.)???
*shakes fist*
*roots for Cherry Garcia*
*weeps sad tears of sadness*
Bacon ice cream sounds like something Apprentice contestants would come up while brain storming. Remember lobster ice cream? I think that was Blinking Marie, Season 2.
Red bean really should just stay home, and practice its “it was nice just to be included” speech.
So, I love that the great rocky road vs. heavenly hash debate got settled by just putting them both together.
@Rab01 – oh, but remember Frusen-Glaje? Before Ben met Jerry, HD killed that brand, and I was soooo sad.
I predict the final: Cookies And Cream versus Peanut Butter And Chocolate. None of the other blends has the mass-market appeal to go the distance; they’re all cult flavors, strongly favored by their fans and completely unknown to anyone else.
peanut butter and chocolate – FTW!
Aw man, tho. I do love me some Chubby Hubby. I foresee some agonizing decisions.
@AmyK, does Moose Tracks actually exist beyond Kawartha Dairy?
I like the bracket, though as expected, several of my faves aren’t there. This may be because a) they are obscure, b) I have weird taste, or c) both. But I’d like to suggest for next year that you hunt down & include a maple/ maple sugar crunch (walnut-free version), Greg’s Ice Cream’s Roasted Marshmallow (come to Toronto, I will feed you lots) and Kawartha Dairy’s Muskoka Mocha, which is an intense coffee/fudge swirl with chocolate fish. Yep, fish.
Btw, Sars, which one is your doomed fave? Or do we have to wait for the write-ups to find out?
@ Cayenne, I’ve never heard of Kawartha Dairy, but I’ve seen at least one (and probably more than that) other company with Moose Tracks (or their version: Denali Moose Tracks).
There’s a problem with the way the bracket’s configured. The #1 seeds shouldn’t be playing #2 seeds in the 2nd round. They shouldn’t face each other until the round of 8. #1s should have the easiest paths through the tourney. Check out the NCAA tournament bracket for reference- http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/mayhem/brackets/viewable_men
@Angela – red bean is not losing. Not if I have my say.
@SARS – not open to voting yet? SADNESS! I’ll have no internet access all weekend (going grapes of wrath with two cats – fun times) ;_;
@Liz C: Comet to San Francisco. Bi-Rite and various restaurants make those ice creams. A place called Izzy’s in St. Paul, MN makes salted caramel, too. Oh, and Haagen-Dazs did come out with Salted Caramel this year, too, it’s one of their “special” flavors.
Re: Bacon ice cream, I know it sounds bizarre but it’s amazingly good. Especially when you follow Pecan-Brown Sugar Bacon Ice Cream from the cookbook “Seduced by Bacon.”
I’ll adjust the bracket order.
…Lord, the 64 Round set-up is a pain.
Grab a pint of Oregon Blackberry for your troubles, Bunting.
Okay, it’s rejiggered. Let me know VIA EMAIL if it still looks hinky or I biffed a ranking.
“None of the other blends has the mass-market appeal to go the distance; they’re all cult flavors, strongly favored by their fans and completely unknown to anyone else.”
Huh, I never thought of Heath Bar Crunch or Java Chip as a “cult flavor.” Nor Mint Choc. Chip. Or, like…a whole ton of others. (Rocky Road, Gold Medal Ribbon? What is 31 Flavors if not mass-market?) I could go on and on but it seems rather pointless looking at the bracket.
Here in upstate NY, we have both Moosetracks and its twin, Panda Paws. Small chocolate peanut butter cups (like mini-Reese’s) and huge fudge swirls/chunks in vanilla ice cream. Even if you have to opt for the lower calorie/lower fat slow-churned version, it is equally tasty … Another upstate fave is Top Shelf, an ode to the Buffalo Sabres. Small peanut bits, chocolate swirls and chocolate-covered waffle cone bits. YUM! Is that what Americone is like? Please let me know so I can vote my little heart out for that one… Devil’s work, that stuff…
And now I have to wipe the drool off my keyboard….
I’m predicting a major upset by Olive Oil over Vanilla. I mean, let’s face it. Vanilla is so………vanilla.
Given that one of my favorites is slightly obscure, I will start the campaigning now for inclusion of Rosewater ice cream in the 2009 tourney.
I’m thinking George Mason-esque dark horse status.
That being said, go Chubby Hubby!
@Meltina — I’m with you. Red bean all the way!
*Headsmack* Rosewater! Yeah, that’s the feta of this tourney. So common in Persian restaurants, I should have thought of it.
“Vanilla is so………vanilla.”
@BSD: Not that I’m predicting a sweep by underdog vanilla, or anything, but it always makes me a little sad that the word “vanilla” has become synonymous with “boring.” How does that happen to a flavour that’s derived from the cured seedpod of an orchid, for heaven’s sake?
Now, banana, on the other hand: Bananas and I have a non-aggression pact.
Okay, some of these ice creams I have never heard of but would gladly make a meal out of with their ingredients (e.g. bacon, olive oil).
It is going to be so difficult for me to vote if Dulce de Leche goes up against Strawberry. Could they just combine and make one super Awesome Ice Cream.
Coffee made the bracket? Awesome. Hopefully, there are people outside of Rhode Island willing to vote for it. (Or against black cherry, as the case may be.) I despise coffee, but I love coffee ice cream. Preferably made into an Awful Awful. But the pint I have in front of me right now will suffice.
I love chocolate chip cookie dough, too. So very much. Not so much any store-bought kind, but the local ice cream shop makes the best I’ve ever had. B&J’s version is good in a pinch.
Dude, I predict that by including Americone Dream in your bracket, you are all but assuring yourself a mention on the Colbert Report. I will be watching just to see if I’m right!
@ Carrie, from your lips to Colbert’s adorably wonky ear.
I think Movenpick ice cream (in Switzerland, I don’t think it’s in the states yet, too bad) has my most I-wanna-try-it flavor: Single Scotch Whiskey and Shortbread. Can you just say Happiness In A Cone???
I happen to live in Colbert’s home town, so I’ll make a mention to him. :-)
I simply can’t believe Sars left my absolute favorite flavor, Baseball Nut, off the bracket! I was looking forward to voting for Raspberry-cashew goodness. Sigh.
I have died and gone to heaven – ice cream is my favorite dessert. I love trying new flavors.
Bye bye, waist line! It was nice knowing you!
If by some fluke it DOES end up on the Colbert Report, just take it off the bracket immediately because the tournament is effectively over otherwise. Replace it with rosewater or something, note that the new block of voters makes the outcome no longer in doubt, and proceed without it.
S…s…s…single malt and shortbread ice cream?
*swoons*
Colbert didn’t make a peep about TN during the Donors Choose drive; I tend to doubt he would do it now. But we can (AmeriCone) dream, I guess.
Avocado ice cream! No way. My city in Southern California was the birthplace of the Haas avocado, and there is an annual Avocado Festival in the park nearby my house. The firefighters always sell avocado ice cream as a fund raiser. The best thing about avocado ice cream is the firefighters who scoop it.