Good news for all you Hawaiians…and all you wanna-be-haole-imports…Hurricane Flossie has now been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, while passing south of the Big Island overnight.

Hawaii is vulnerable to a unique set of natural disasters - and it’s one of the few places that uses air raid sirens on a regular basis (another thing to thank the Japanese for).  It was always kind of cool to miss school when there was a tsunami or hurricane warning, expect of course for the hours spent preparing for the disaster…securing lawn furniture, taping glass, etc.

And that reminds me, I really need to get a gun.  Over here people spend so much money on disaster preparedness kits, but in reality if there was a huge earthquake where I live, I would get robbed by mexican gangsters in a second…and if they were smart (big if) they would take my preparedness kit as well.  But if I had the gun, the it would be me doing the robbing, and me not having to do the preparing.  And I live near lots of gun control loving liberals, so the whole town would be mine for the taking.

I was once in a Safeway when the power went out…and there is about 10 seconds between the time the main lights go out, and the emergency lights come on.  It just made me wonder if I should start filling my pockets with shit and run outside the store.  I didn’t, since I was at Safeway, but I probably would have considered it if I had been in, say, Gamestop.  Those guys are practically robbing their customers anyway.

Spoiler alert.  One thing I love about Hell’s Kitchen is the final episode.  Once the final service is finished, the remaining two chefs stand are placed in front of two doors.  One door opens to their new restaurant, while the other is just locked.  They try to open their doors at the same time, only one door opens, and that’s your winner.  Pretty dramatic, no?  I only wish they had a camera on the face of the losing chef…but still, the metaphor works.

If you’re not familiar with Hell’s Kitchen, check out the wiki.  In many ways it is a basic cooking competition.  But the show centers around world famous chef Gordon Ramsay, who basically yells at chefs when they f-up.  And it’s big time yelling - in this season he called a few of the girls bitches to their faces, shoved a plate of food in the chest of a failing chef, and threw some food at a chef on his way out of the kitchen.  It is pretty intense…I mean, they clearly play off on the “chef ramsay is mean” factor, but I do believe that it’s not all for show.

This season’s finale came down to Rock and Bonnie (pictured).  Rock is an executive chef, while bonnie is a nanny and personal chef…which means, I believe, that she cooks for the kids.

The finale was actually not very dramatic…I mean, executive chef versus nanny?  It was no contest.  Rock did a good job of managing his team, he had a decent menu…although I have to say the rib eye was a bit boring…and he managed to get his food out mostly on time with few complaints, even though a member of his team was very very incompetent.

Bonnie on the other hand had a tough time managing her team, and seemed to run into the women-hating-women-wall a number of times.  Basically, Bonnie’s team was all women - she actually picked it that way - but a couple of the girls really didn’t respect her at all, and one just flat out refused to follow directions at times.

The girl who gave her the worst time was this black girl Julia, who got really close to the final 2.  Julia was clearly ticked off that she didn’t make it to the finals, crying for much of the first part of the finale and generally throwing fits.  Then, she wouldn’t listen to Bonnie, and was being a pretty big pain in the ass.

Ladies, is it just me or does this seem to happen a lot on reality TV?  Women just hating on other women, bitching behind each other’s back, and overall making things difficult.  I mean, I know it’s sexist, but this is the stereotype, and there do seem to be a lot of backstabbing girls out there on TV.

So, yes, Bonnie lost.  Although, she was one of the most likable people on the show.  She seemed genuine and was mostly positive.  She did cry a lot in earlier episodes though, at once seemed ready to quit.  But she amazingly beat out several girls with way more professional experience than her.

Rock on the other hand was kind of a front runner from day one.  His skills seemed above average in most shows, and although he did have his share of fuck ups, he really came on strong in the final month of the show.

Rock’s prize is a restaurant in the Green Valley Ranch, an off-strip hotel/casino that books at $300 per night.  I believe it was featured in the reality show American Casino.  The winner also receives a quarter million dollar salary.

And I have to say this, it would be very hard for Bonnie to run a non-reality show kitchen.  For one, she is a small, blonde girl that is moderately attractive - I don’t think she would stand a chance in the male dominated restaurant industry…at least how Tony Bourdain describes it.  She barely was able to control her team of fellow female reality show contestants…imagine her trying to deal with a kitchen filled with rough edged kitchen workers and mexican immigrants.  Again, quite sexist, but true.

Season 3 itself was okay.  One thing is that Fox really de-emphasizes the food aspect of the show, instead focusing on chef ramsay getting mad.  It’s unfortunate, because it is a food show after all, but it does fit Fox’s MO.

The show is also waaaay over-produced.  You can tell that they try to make each competition close, cutting out scenes or using scenes out of place when necessary.  Again, annoying, but this is reality TV on Fox.

I also got the feeling that the competitors this year actually weren’t very good chefs.  In Top Chef, for example, you have several chefs who do pretty amazing things with the food.  In Hell’s Kitchen, there was maybe two people that were better than average - no clear cut standout, and not really a high level of competency among most chefs.

But OK, it is what it is.  An entertaining season.  Glad Fox brought back Ramsay, and from what I understand Season 4 is already in production.  One thing though, if you’re more interested in cooking, check out Top Chef on Bravo…it’s a much better show, and will be much more interesting to foodies.

A few weeks ago we reported on a large recall of Fisher Price toys that were made in China with potentially dangerous amounts of lead.  Today, the AP is reporting that the head of the Chinese manufacturing company that made the toys has committed suicide.  Apparently in China this is common practice for disgraced leaders - kind of like the Japanese.

Not only that, but in May China sentenced its former top food and drug safety administrator to death after he pled guilty to corruption charges.  This apparently is part of China’s push to improve the perception of its food safety.

I have to say, although China draws a lot of flak for health issues, they really do crack the whip when they want too.  I suppose it’s some sort of remnant from communist China, but in any case it seems pretty effective…if a bit harsh.  But I have to think how much less corruption we would face if a simple guilty plea on corruption charges equaled a death sentence.