I’ll have to read it some time.

Writing a memoire seems to be easy and popular.

Maybe I can become famous by writing mine. Italian American, alcoholism in the family, eating disorders, suicide attempts, murder, abortions, divorce, mental illness, pregnancy-adoption.

Oh that’s right, I’m not a writer.

So, when are you going to do another show with Tony Bourdain? Vegas was real funny.

Ruhlman, you are a tornado of bullshit (you know where I stole that from)

You do, and did mean what you said about vegetarians. You hate them, they are a pain in the ass to cook for and they always have a fucking cold or some other malaise.

Or, was that just me?

There, I said it.

I love my vegetarian friends but I really don’t want to cook for you.

As I am safely tucked up in Canada, I was aware, in a passing manner, who Mr. Bruni was and what power he held. None of it affected me directly but I like his writing and tried to keep up.

Then, I seen him being interviewed on “Charlie Rose”. He didn’t look like the mean old curmudgeon that I expected but a young, handsome, fit, intelligent and thoughtful man. He looked and sounded like many of my friends — Not the scary scary man who will shut down your restaurant.

After learning about his past disfunctional relationship with food and the hurdles he has encountered, my respect grows.

I have always grappled with the necessity of Food critics. Some are good and do a great job and some are well — assholes without portfolio.

Mr.Bruni, I wish your book the best of success and I look forward to reading it.

you guys are so sensitive!

(kidding)

i’ve always sensed, from observing, not asking, that gay guys cared more about their appearance than straight guys, as a rule, and am curious about it. But I didn’t mean to make any careless generalizations. Just curious.

I mean, I used to be sensitive about being thin as a bean-pole. One-forty-five on a six-two frame is unnerving. Then, some time in my late-thirties, my metabolism shifted, I gained fifty pounds in one year, and suddenly found a whole lot more confidence in myself. But none of that had to do with my being gay. That was just about being overly skinny. (For the record, my dad went through the same weight shift at just about the same age as I did, and went through the same confidence-finding shift. It gives us another thing to talk about, I guess. That, and being in healthy, happy relationships, but I digress…)

But, I can understand Bruni having issues with his weight/appearance. We’re all fed these lies about what we should look like, mostly by the media but also by people believing the media stereotypes. If we don’t resemble what we see in the ads and on the screen, there must be something “wrong” with us, right? Remember when you never saw a non-white face anywhere but on the streets? Same issue, really.

Or how about being bald, or having a receeding hairline? Hair Club for Men is making a fortune… but Jason Statham is HOT! (Same hairline on Alton Brown is… well, I’m not sure what it is, but at least he isn’t pretending to be something he isn’t.)

I don’t mean that weight cannot be a health issue, but that’s not the same thing as a body-image issue, and those can be just as unhealthy as the health thing. And those issues can hit anybody, gay or straight.

So, is it a gay thing? I don’t think so.

(Bows politely, and steps down from his soapbox.)

I think they should just send TAL, This I Believe, and StoryCorps archives. And David Sedaris books. Oh, and PHC. And Car Talk. Aaaah, what the heck – send all of NPR. And some music.

And a BLT.

(Oh yeah – Bruni’s thing looks interesting, too…)

I read the excerpt of this book a while ago when it was posted online. I’m excited to read the whole story. I normally stick with fiction (my husband teases me about it, like fiction is somehow less wholesome entertainment than nonfiction) but I love a good biography. You can’t make up some of the stories that play out in people’s lives!