I recently learned about a restaurant named Watercress Asian Bistro.  While I have not eaten there, its name alone raises warning flags.

Let's break it down:

If this seems like idle speculation, check out what today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer has to say about a similarly-named-but-probably-entirely-unrelated restaurant:

Cilantro Asian Cuisine, with the third-highest number of red violations this year, was closed in May after "cockroaches were found crawling on cooked vegetables that were stored on a shelf," according to the inspection report.

The inspector also found shrimp stored in used containers and stacked with the bottom of the containers on the shrimp in the container below, a non-functioning oven hood and a dishwasher that wasn't sanitizing the dishes.

That was one of three inspections in which the health department found serious problems at Cilantro. Other problems included "raw fish on top of cans of soda," "dried blood on the floor" and a customer complaining of a cockroach in his or her takeout.

For contrast in both name and cuisine, consider the estimable Malay Salay Hut.

Though the TV and movie writers union is on strike, the actual effect of their absence is somewhat abstract because almost all of the affected shows have shut down production.  Without replacement writers to provide a basis for comparison, there's no tangible sense of what writers actually contribute to the production of a television show.

That's why I found it illuminating last night to watch some bonus material on the Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show DVD, specifically the interview with Jeremy Piven.  Piven, who is best known today for his brilliant, steal-every-scene performance on Entourage, is borderline incoherent in the interview.  Practically every other word is "y'know", with a liberal sprinkling of "like".  In between the filler, most of what he had to say was how fabulous and amazing everyone was.

Perhaps he was having an off-day when he taped that interview, but the difference between him there versus when he has the benefit of Doug Ellin's words to say could not be more stark.

The perpetrator of the greatest non-violent crime of the 20th century has been granted the ultimate recognition by his peers.

How anyone can be rewarded for deserting Brooklyn for the West Coast is beyond me.