Paging Dr. Suresh?

I'm a big fan of NBC's Heroes. Cool show. Fun characters, fun concepts. I love me some superheroes. That's just how I roll.

Anyway, I thought I spotted something in last week's episode, "Godsend" (still haven't watched this week's show yet, although it's on my TiVo).

There's a moment about halfway through the episode, when Hiro is in the museum and slows time so that he can steal the sword. As he slows time, we see people walking around him, and one of the people--on screen for just a few seconds--looks like just like Erick Avari (Dr. Chandra Suresh) to me. I've replayed the moment and he *still* looks like Suresh to me.

Did anyone else spot this? Am I nuts?

I had trouble getting a screen capture, so high-tech Rob paused the show and took a digital photo of the screen.

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Have you seen Nepal?

Picture this poster: A beautiful landscape. A dramatic mountain range cutting into a cloud-filled sky. Ancient ruins surrounded by vibrant green grass. The headline? "Have you seen Nepal?" Makes you want to pack a bag and head to Nepal, right?

The problem? The poster, developed by Royal Nepal Airlines, actually depicts Machu Picchu. Yes, that Machu Picchu. The one in Peru.

Oops. Yes, someone was fired over this one.

You can read more details here.

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Rigatoni Roberto

And now for something a little different. A recipe I tossed together a few months back and have repeated several times. Dina likes it, I like it, a few guests have liked it, and I hope you'll like it, too. Not exactly a healthy choice meal, granted, but I think it's pretty tasty.

Rigatoni Roberto (serves 4 to 6)

1 lb. bacon
1 bunch fresh asparagus
1 pint of cherry/grape tomatoes
1 lb. rigatoni
1 to 3 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. olive oil
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. butter
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste

The trickiest thing about the meal is that you're basically doing several things at once to get it ready. I've separated the various pieces out, but they'll all be mixed together at the end, and you'll want to mix the sauce as close as possible to when the pasta is finished.

Early preparation: Halve the tomatoes. Trim the bottoms off the asparagus spears and cut them into 2-inch pieces.

Bacon: Cook the bacon until it's crisp, reserving 2 Tbsp. hot bacon grease. You'll want to crumble the bacon before the pasta is finished cooking.

Tomatoes: Heat the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan on high. Add the tomatoes and then cover the pan and reduce the temperature, simmering for at least 10 minutes, until the tomatoes soften. As some of the moisture comes out of the tomatoes, this will be fairly moist.

Pasta and asparagus: Cook the rigatoni as recommended on the box. 3 minutes before it's time to remove the pasta from the boiling water, add the asparagus to the boiling water. Drain them together.

Sauce: Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stovetop. Mix the egg yolks, the hot butter, the 2 Tbsp. of reserved hot bacon grease, the Parmesan cheese, and the heavy cream.

In the pot or a large bowl, mix the pasta, asparagus, sauce, crumbled bacon, and tomato mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste; you might also want to add some additional Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

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Scorpions on a plane

In a story reproduced from Excite:

Man OK After Airborne Scorpion Bite

Jan 9, 4:00 PM (ET)

By DAVID GRAM

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The scorpion bit David Sullivan on the back of his right leg, just below the knee, crawled up through his crotch and down his left leg, he thinks, before getting him again in the shin. Not what he was expecting on his flight home from Chicago to Vermont.

Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder from Stowe, was aboard the United Airlines flight as the second leg of his trip home from San Francisco, where he and his wife Helena had been visiting their sons. He awoke from a nap shortly before landing and noticed something strange.

"My right leg felt like it was asleep, but that was isolated to one spot, and it felt like it was being jabbed with a sharp piece of plastic or something."

The second sting came after the plane had landed and the Sullivans were waiting for their bags at the luggage carousel. Sullivan rolled up his cuff to investigate, and the scorpion fell out.

"It felt like a shock, a tingly thing. Someone screamed, 'It's a scorpion,'" Sullivan recalled. Another passenger stepped on the two-inch arachnid. Someone suggested Sullivan seek medical help.

He scooped up the scorpion as a specimen and headed to the hospital in Burlington. Mrs. Sullivan stopped at the United counter and was told the plane they were on had flown from Houston to Chicago. The Sullivans surmised the scorpion boarded in Texas.

"The airlines tell you you can't bring water or shampoo on a plane," Mrs. Sullivan said, referring to recent security restrictions. "All the security we go through" apparently didn't apply to the scorpion, she said.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the incident "is something that we will investigate and look into. We're very sorry for what happened. Our customer safety and security is our No. 1 priority."

Scorpion bites are rarely fatal, most often only to babies and older people with other medical problems, said Dr. Stephen Leffler, director of emergency services at Burlington's Fletcher Allen Health Care hospital.

"We don't see many scorpion bites in Vermont," Leffler said. Last week's prompted him to do some research. To a healthy adult, a scorpion bite can mean numbness or shooting pain extending out from the bite, or flu-like symptoms, which Sullivan said he had the next day.

"You're much more likely to die from an ... allergic reaction to a bee sting," the doctor said.

Sullivan said he was taking the experience in stride. "I've traveled enough in tropical climates, Argentina, South America, to know about the risks from insects and animals and microorganisms. ... It's a dangerous world out there."

He said he hadn't seen the recent movie, "Snakes on a Plane," starring Samuel L. Jackson. "I'm pretty selective about what I see," Sullivan said. "Maybe I have to see it now."

Makes me want to run home and watch my Tail Sting DVD!

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