Epinions Recent Reviews for cwainwright

How to Make a Damned Good Waffle

Sun, 3 Dec 2000 01:39:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I like food. Starchy, satisfying food like cookies and cornbread, bagels and cupcakes, pizza and pasta and pretty much anything from the hallowed halls of the La Brea Bakery.

The waffle, however, has always eluded me. As a vehicle for butter...

Just in time for Earth Day!

Mon, 20 Nov 2000 14:41:28 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - In my previous life as an advertising executive, I helped market a variety of gleefully overpackaged "convenience" products, including: (a), a 8"x10", injection-molded "lunchbox" containing several doll-sized portions of...

Dead sexy.

Thu, 9 Nov 2000 02:31:30 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I’ll probably never own a Mercedes or BMW, but I’m intimate with the fetishistic devotion they inspire. You see, I’m on my third Braun automatic coffeemaker. And the second one wasn’t even broken.

Of course, the carafe lid was wearing a...

Get in touch with your inner hussy

Wed, 13 Sep 2000 16:33:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright -

If Maybelline itself packages pots of color in uppity-M.A.C.-clone black (note to our more northerly-American cosmetic cousins: we're over it, already), why buy a marginal mascara in a tube designed to coordinate with bad golf-getups of the...

The last word on heartache

Tue, 22 Aug 2000 21:16:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - When I am queen, three things will require royal dispensation: driving an SUV; wearing spandex outside of athletic pursuits; and covering a standard tune by any recognized genius of musical composition, including—but not limited to—Gershwin, Arlen,...

Buca di Burp-o

Sat, 19 Aug 2000 16:11:12 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I wanted to hate Buca di Beppo the moment I realized this lively, loopy, family-owned restaurant was really a chain. Not that I haven’t dropped a few nickels on the laminate-topped tables of some our finest national franchise restaurants. It’s...

Like angels who enjoy a good knock-knock joke

Sat, 29 Jul 2000 22:26:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - If great art is polarizing, The Roches—whom most listeners liken either to a heavenly choir or to Alvin & The Chipmunks—must be great artists.

This familial trio from New Jersey has been recording together since the mid/late-1970s; Maggie...

How a grown, childless woman became a baby-wipe crusader

Fri, 21 Jul 2000 18:07:35 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - For those of you who don’t listen to The Howard Stern Show, Jessica Hahn, in one of the overly informative segments that the show is famous for, admitted to extensive baby wipe use in her own (a-hem) Southern Hemisphere.

Like Ms. Hahn,...

Date other printers; marry an Epson

Wed, 19 Jul 2000 14:49:13 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright -

Inkjets aren’t sexy. Buying one is about as personally fulfilling as paying the monthly gas, water & electric bills. Worse, the price has dropped so low on these puppies that they’re in danger of being viewed as commodity items like soap or...

Wahl Wet-Dry Personal Trimmer: Buy it for someone you love

Mon, 17 Jul 2000 15:47:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I’m unclear as to the biological purpose of nose hairs whose length exceeds a utilitarian 1/8”, but the fact remains that, as a human of a certain age, they are here to stay until I see fit to remove them.

Being the frugal, prudent consumer my...

Somebody shoot me—twice

Fri, 14 Jul 2000 16:42:59 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright -

The only thing I hate more than watching a bad movie once is watching it twice.

And paying for it.

Both times.

Unfortunately, since I can’t seem to keep the various drop-off times of my several video purveyors...

Luck had nothing to do with it

Mon, 10 Jul 2000 18:49:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Keenly evocative of place and mood, Hard Eight has an uncanny handle on what it means to want with a capital “W”.

The film opens with a stark shot of a destitute loner, John (John C. Reilly), sitting outside a diner in the Nevada...

Sprint Mobile Phone Service in New York: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Cell Phone

Thu, 6 Jul 2000 19:41:37 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - My first cell phone was just that: an unwieldy, analog behemoth that looked so unlikely a techno-forward acquaintance nicknamed it “My First Fone.”

The long hunt for a new service provider landed me in an even longer line at the Beverly Hills...

An Ostrich Comes Up for Air

Tue, 20 Jun 2000 15:14:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - When the Hollywood marketing monster kicks into high gear, I bury my head in the sand. And the hype surrounding The Sixth Sense sent me deep under cover. "Suspense not seen since the likes of Hitchcock!" "A star turn by a precocious...

Tomato Soup for the Soul

Tue, 20 Jun 2000 13:38:12 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Mary Tyler Moore was hot.

Back in the '70s, every little city girl I knew wanted to be Mary Richards when she grew up—at least, once we found out the woefully slim odds of drawing a paycheck as Catwoman. Hot-dish Mary had it all: cool pad,...

Cafe du Village: The best-kept French secret in L.A.

Thu, 15 Jun 2000 19:22:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - It's no wonder French restaurants aren't big with the hoi polloi. The less-than-charming treatment that many of my fellow Americans, ugly or no, received at the hands of too many Parisian waiters fomented the popular opinion in this country that (a) all...

Il Cielo--or, "Dinner on Dad, Part I"

Thu, 15 Jun 2000 15:31:15 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Dinner with my father can be a tricky proposition. Outside of some curious areas of overlap--Benihana of Tokyo, Jerry's Deli and a fantastic rib joint in, of all places, Beverly Hills--I have some difficulty finding a place here in Los Angeles that...

It's a Fab, Fab, Fab, Fab Flick

Thu, 15 Jun 2000 14:09:19 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Like grape Nehi, circus peanuts and Bugles, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has assumed a somewhat lower position in my ever-shifting pyramid of earthly delights. It's easy to see how a movie so full of honest-to-god gags-- from a...

A Peruvian Taste of L.A.

Sat, 10 Jun 2000 21:00:25 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Despite the tantalizing array of dishes I've had paraded under my nose while at Mario's Peruvian & Seafood Restaurant (and if you visit on a weekend, prepare to watch the parade for a good 25 minutes), I cannot get past the Saltado de...

A beautiful city with an ugly secret

Fri, 9 Jun 2000 19:38:29 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - At first, Krakow seemed like the dream stop on our Eastern European vacation. It's a beautiful, old city surrounded by beautiful countryside; it's dirt cheap; the food is good & plentiful (did I mention dirt cheap?)

While the churches seem...

L.A.'s finest at their finest

Fri, 9 Jun 2000 18:41:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I have a peculiar affinity for this hokey old chestnut, with its stilted dialogue and singularly stiff delivery. Perhaps it stems from my love of a bygone Los Angeles, former City of Promise. Or perhaps from the fact that my parents met, fell in love and...

The fine work of a drunken bum

Fri, 9 Jun 2000 17:39:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - I discovered Charles Bukowski at a time when I was deeply unhappy with my job, and found a kind of comfort I haven't found since. (Believe me, I've looked.) What an angry, 23-year-old, Chicago copywriter had in common with an alcoholic, Angeleno...

Phillipe's--Almost Heaven

Fri, 9 Jun 2000 16:18:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - Stepping out of the blazing, downtown heat and into the brick-walled cool of Philippe's is akin to stepping into a cathedral, albeit one with a steam table instead of an altar and neon beer-signs in place of the saints.

As a transplanted...

Brilliant insight, served with a twist

Fri, 9 Jun 2000 14:07:29 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author cwainwright - The standard by which all other snappy-patter movies must be judged, this enduring comedy is witty, incisive and drop-dead elegant.

Bette Davis dazzles as aging Broadway diva Margo Channing (a role that fits her like a glove), Miss Marilyn...