I'm easy to impress. I could watch a bright, shiny object all day. Or "Shawshank Redemption." That movie is like a tractor-beam for the eyes. ...more

July 23, 2008

WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune and TBO.com have been honored with six awards in the 58th Annual Green Eyeshade competition. Presentations were made Saturday night, in Atlanta. ...more

July 20, 2008

Tasty Morsels On TV This Week "Fried Green Tomatoes," 6:45 p.m. tonight, HBO Signature ...more

July 16, 2008

Along with the grand tradition of holding presidential elections every four years, the United States also holds dear the practice of making a quick buck from the passions surrounding those elections. ...more

July 16, 2008

BOWLED OVER Seems like every time we chop lettuce, it looks like some sort of vegetable serial killing has taken place on the counter, what with all the wayward lettuce. This Good Grips Salad Chopper and Bowl by Oxo aims to help the salad lover chop with a minimum of flying debris by using a dual-edge rolling slicer inside the bowl. Plus, the 5.5-quart bowl can be used at the table. Cost: $24.99; available at www.oxo.com. ...more

July 9, 2008

Being a Bering Sea crab fisherman isn't the anonymous, faceless job it used to be for Keith Colburn. When your face appears on TV dozens of hours each week on the Discovery Channel's reality series "Deadliest Catch," fame becomes part of the gig. ...more

July 9, 2008

"Meat: A Love Story," by Susan Bourette (Putnam $24.95) ...more

July 9, 2008

Tasty Morsels On TV This Week "Guy's Big Bite," 2 p.m. today, Food Network ...more

July 2, 2008

IT'S FUN BEING TRASHY First thought: Has it come to this, people? We're so germ-phobic and lazy that we need automated trash cans? Second thought: Where do I get one of these things? Nine Stars Motion Sensor Trash Cans has a battery-operated infrared sensor that detects movement within 10 inches, triggering the lid to open for you. (For the obsessively compulsive, you get 10,000 openings and closings on one set of batteries. Happy now?) Cost: $39.95 to $99.95, depending on size. Available at www.ninestarsusa.com. ...more

July 2, 2008

Most big companies have a Great Wall of Vending in their break rooms. At the Tribune, we have a Soft Drink Treadmill, in which a rotating belt raises up to the bottle before sliding and lowering it into a dispensing pocket. We also have the Carbohydrate Free-Fall, from which an assortment of snack foods wedged in a corkscrew are pushed to their doom from various heights. We also have a rotating carousel of refrigerated entree items that I call the Wheel of Death. The WOD offers food that should never be sold in a vending environment. Like Riblets (described on the wrapper as "boneless pork rib-shaped patties). Like Lonesome Cowboy Sandwich. (Mmmm, tasty cowboy.) Or the creatively named So Good So Good. (It looked so bad, so bad that I didn't buy it.) Last week's lowlight: a Fried Chicken Snacker. Not sure what part of the chicken the snacker comes from, but it tasted like it was swathed in a soggy Kleenex. ...more

July 2, 2008