THINGS THAT BOTH SUCK AND BITE: Look, we've whined copiously about EW's excessive coverage of Twilight (the 5 covers in the last year, the keeping the books on the bestseller list for "adults" even when categorized as YA elsewhere), and I get the argument for why they're doing it (it sells magazines on the newsstand by the boatload), and, indeed, there's a pretty good argument that New Moon belongs on the cover of the Fall Movie Preview, since it's one of the few sure things on the Fall movie calendar. But can we all agree that two covers in the span of three weeks is well more than enough? The "Vampires" cover story of two weeks ago had no real hook to anything current (save True Blood), and was clearly gratuitious. I could deal with it, since it was in a week where there weren't other big cover options--Funny People was the only major release, there's no new TV, no big music news, etc. But if they knew that they were using Twilight yet again for Fall Movie Preview, why not adjust it a bit? The "fall movie" season doesn't begin for another few weeks, so why not change the covers up--have a cover last week for GI Joe or Julie and Julia, use the District 9 cover (which seemed somewhat sparklevamp inspired, with the glowy eye and all) this week, and push off this one a week or so?

PREVIOUSLY, ON MAD MEN: Smoke, drink, cheat, impregnate, marry, return, exchange, charm, menace, harass, impersonate, conceal, deny, pimp, freelance, fire, overrule, overachieve, subsidize, paw, apologize, self-loathe, promote, frolic, collapse, recover, collapse, promote, deflect, transfer, swelter, blackmail, panic, fail, abort, acknowledge, copy, crash, betray, entertain, mock, author, insult, insinuate, seduce, flail, fix, underestimate, preach, vomit, separate, mourn, register, road-trip, disappear, urinate, relapse, insurrect, rape, trump, cuckold, reconcile, drink, smoke.

This recap brought to you by Draper Herbal Essence: Philander, rinse, repeat. Set your DVRs for August 16.

RAW BAR IN THE RAIN? I'm assuming Adam, our usual correspondent on matters Top Chef, couldn't catch this week's episode, but there's demand, and a few thoughts to kick us off:

• Seriously, a chef specializing in Asian food who cannot identify Hoisin Sauce by taste? In fact, all these "Masters" did pretty damn poorly in the taste-test. (Half couldn't recognize peanut butter?)
  
• Rick Bayless continues to be awesome, as does Hubert Keller, though the panel's man-crush on Keller is all-too-evident.
• This was the first time this season that personal drama took the front seat, rather than the cooking. Did that make for better or worse television?
  

I'LL TAKE POTPOURRI FOR $600, ALEX: Adam and I are both on the road the next few days, so we're running shorthanded, but two stories from yesterday that I suspect there's desire among our readership to talk about:

• Michael Vick has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. Adam loudly proclaimed last night on C-SPAN that "Donovan McNabb is my quarterback," but perhaps there are differences of opinion here, or just a desire to echo Adam's sentiment.
• Guitar virtuoso and technical innovator Les Paul died yesterday at 94. The obit gives a nice description of Paul's achievements, and notes that up till less than two months ago, Paul was continuing to play a weekly show at a small jazz club in Manhattan. Pretty damn impressive.

Consider this an open thread.

TOTALLY VIOLATING OUR NON-COMPETE CLAUSE WITH SHONDA: Me. C-SPAN. Tonight, probably around 9pm. May involve political content; God willing will involve humor as well. Check your local listings.

MAKEUP TASTES GOOD: Via warmingglow, a video that dares to ask: two untrained dogs on a live TV news pet-adoption segment -- what could possibly go wrong?

CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO GET: After a couple years on hiatus, the Cosmopolitan family has returned to Sesame Street. When we first started watching it with Cosmo Girl, Mr. Cosmo and I spent way too much time deliberating the differences between the Street of the '70s and the Street circa 2005. (Resolved: This House Likes Elmo's World.) But it's actually just as interesting to see how the show has changed just in the few years between Cosmo Girl and Cosmo Boy. Animated (claymated?) Ernie and Bert instead of "Journey to Ernie"? No more singing pipe organ for the number of the day? Really, really long Street sequences at the top of the show?

But Cosmo Boy's absolute faaavorite aspect of Sesame Street is something that I gather is new this past season: Murray Has a Little Lamb. Murray is the "What's the Word on the Street" monster, whose relevance I had questioned whenever I saw him in passing last season. (Apparently he's the crossover monster who hangs out in the real world. Kind of like International Grover only sticking to the five boroughs instead of, say, Bangladesh.) But now he's got his own gig with little lamb Ovejita, who I gather beat out Rosita, la Monstrua de las Cuevas, for the role of primary spanish-speaking muppet. (I smell a Title VII lawsuit.) There's actual stuff going on in the sketches, for which muppet wiki can give you the deets, but the thing that has Cosmo Boy rolling in the aisles is Ovejita's tendency to run into the camera frame unexpectedly, much like the mahna-mahna guy does. Some stuff is just funny, whether it's 1979 or 2009. The song is catchy, too.

(Sorry, no youtube at my office, but I suspect that one of my co-bloggers can help a monster out.)