This time kicks off with Merlin's torpor, then continues with FU on miscrediting _Synecdoche, NY_, recommendations on the making of _Fury Road_, and an extended meditation on the social psychology of web commenting.

Then on to the scintillating topic of the week: _food and cooking_. In which we learn that your hosts and their families are both/all screwed up **and** hopeless in different ways. All involved are, as they say, _chopped_.

Merlin is weird, but not bulimic; John is picky, fretful, and hopeless; and children continue to be a problem that cannot be solved.