... so let's start off by eliminating that particular slam at this story, shall we?

As others have pointed out, it's People , for god's sake. One page cheering a celebrity's weight loss, the next circling pictures of their cellulite. Let's not get our collective knickers twisted until this is on the cover of the New York Times .

That being said, I think the article managed to convey that it took a lot of work for Ms. Bertinelli to get into exceedingly good shape, and that she worked extra hard preparing for the photo shoot. Nothing wrong with that; many of us go that extra mile where our appearance is concerned when we have a big event coming up. It was sort of refreshing to read a celebrity admit to the hard work it takes to achieve a weight loss goal.

Kirstie Alley seems to have become a typical example of the "results not typical" part of weight loss. She will be mocked, no doubt, by the same publication now celebrating her Jenny Craig successor, and that's too bad. It also proves that a food addiction and weight loss problem cannot be solved by wealth, despite the opinions of several posters here.

. . . as anything the average poodle could have told us, so thanks .

I made myself type his name rather than refer to him as "that poor man". He is a person who the US government has treated like an animal.

He is a person with a family who worked for The Red Crescent. Who knows what he thought of the US in 2001? Any guesses as to what he thinks of you now?

Just so long as he's not talking about his own...

When the server brings our entrees to the table, he or she almost always sits the salmon salad in front of me, and the pulled pork sandwich (with fries!) in front of the boyfriend. Naturally, it's the other way around.

The piece was meant to be light, but it does bring up a point. Many women (more than men in my experience) have removed the pleasure from eating. Sure, you can eat with gusto and passion and still eat really healthily, but the fact that we moralize about "bad" foods is fairly strange, and not something I ever hear men do.

There are no foods that are morally corrupt. Just eat a variety, and indulge occasionally. You won't have to eat those rice cakes if you don't want to, and you won't go to Hell for eating a slice of cake.

Sarah Palin has made a point that will be repeated ad nauseum until it becomes true to the people who want to believe it.

As Glenn Greenwald constantly points out, most mainstream journalists are actually stenographers, so I won't hold my breath waiting for stories calling out the governor or fact-checking her statements.

Sad, but true.

Barack Obama Senior would be the real Antichrist, right?

But all he managed to do was get a Master's from Harvard and die in a car crash. Where's the End Times drama in that???

Ok, I'm really no fan of Nora Ephron's movies, but the book Heartburn is a sharp read filled with great recipes. I still have a yellowing copy I bought as a teenager in the 80s and I can't tell you how many great things I have made from it! Simple things like Potatoes Anna, Key Lime Pie, and a rockin' cheesecake- all completely delicious.

As for Julia, she exuded warmth and the joys of imperfection. French food may be fancy , but it doesn't have to be perfect . (Martha Stewart, I'm looking at you!)

I once met a chef who had cooked dinner for Ms. Child; she remarked how sweet the lady was. I look forward to Meryl Streep's boisterous interpretation.

Peace everyone, and please stop hating on the pleasures of food :)

As a few posters have already said, this piece of garbage should never have gotten out of prison after his first vicious felony.

A larger societal and legal discussion needs to happen- about what sort of crime calls for what sort of punishment. In the US (and here in Canada), rape continues to be punished as though once a felon has "paid his debt to society" he won't re-offend. Clearly this isn't the case. I'm sure there's a drug dealer or armed robber who went to jail at the same time as Garrido and who is still behind bars. Time to change that.

This stuff just doesn't end.

At least the Lawyer-Dentist (and real estate broker!) gets to her main point: Obama could have been born on top of the Washington Monument on the fourth of July, and to her he'd still be ineligible for the office. She claims it's because Daddy wasn't a citizen, but I think we all know what her real issue with Daddy is.

The issues that rile up the uneducated masses can always be boiled down to one thing: fear. They incessantly question Obama's legitimacy, citizenship, and patriotism (not his intelligence, interestingly) because they are afraid to have a black man running the country; they fight against choice for women because they fear the idea of gender equality.

All of this could be solved with a decent education system, but seeing the problems you folks are having with health care, I won't hold my breath for that one.

Here I am going to an office job every day and using my brain, like an idiot, when I could be pursuing my Natural Calling, what with the double Ds I've had since I was 16. I guess tomorrow I'll quit and rush off to join the porn industry.

Idiotic comment, Ms. Clark-Foley.

Bad editing on my part.