Amuse-Biatch Apostrophizes: Between the Finale of "Top Chef" and the Premiere of "Top Chef Masters," Bravo Chyron Loses Its Apostrophe

A screencap from the finale of Top Chef: Las Vegas, and screencaps from the first five episodes of this season of Top Chef Masters.

The Bravery of Synergy

First, possums, may we say just one thing?

When, on the premiere episode of this season of Top Chef Masters, Kelly Choi announced that the band The Bravery would be judging the Quickfire Challenge, and Tony Mantuano allowed as how he had some songs by them on his iPod, we heard but one voice in our head.

It was our heavily accented mother, gimlet eye coming through the accent as she said, “Bool cheet.” Miss XaXa’s response was a more measured, “Yeah, right,” in reaction to which we tamped down our inner mother and said, “Pull the other leg; it’s got bells on it.”

Were we like Jill Zarin, we would immediately have demanded that Mantuano pull out his iPod for inspection. Fortunately, we are not like Jill Zarin, or maybe not entirely, for we did smell a fiery-Cheeto rat.

Why, possums, why would this particular band be called upon? With the Foo Fighters on Top Chef there was at least the excuse that they were fans of the show. The excuse here was that one band member has a culinary degree, a connection that is, shall we say, tenuous at best. (In our research, we discovered, as per Wikipedia, that a couple of the band members went to Vassar, and our eyes widened. We remembered a couple of galpals in college who had boyfriends attending Vassar, and oh the stories we heard! The theory was that it had something to do with the pressure of attending a former women’s college, the first of the Seven Sisters; how else to explain the crying jags and the penchant for cucumbers in intimate situations? And The Bravery do have lesbian haircuts and a song called “Hate Fuck.” But we digress.)

Possums, the fact of the matter is that The Bravery’s record label is Island Def Jam, which is owned by Universal Music Group. “Wait,” said Miss XaXa, her voice quivering with rapidly dying innocence, “Universal, as in NBC Universal, which is the parent company of…”

Yes, possum, Bravo.

We were shocked, shocked, nay, even gobsmacked. Who knew you could buy synergy at the gas station?

It’s right next to the pork rinds, we were informed by the gas station attendant. When we asked him, “Well, wouldn’t some kind of disclosure about The Bravery have been nice?,” the attendant only laughed and asked if we wanted our car washed.

So, Chef Mantuano, politeness and go-along-to-get-along-ness and Countless LuAnn good manners are all well and good, but what would you have done if Justin Bieber were the guest judge? Hmmmm? Consider yourself pardoned but narrowly escaped.

Oh wait, never mind. Justin Bieber is also part of Island Def Jam. Carry on, Chef Mantuano, carry on.

Third Mystery Helper Elf Revealed! (We Think)

As you may remember, possums, at the end of last night’s episode, Tom Colicchio promised the remaining three finalists that they would have help for the final challenge, and for a split second we got a shot of three shadowy figures advancing through an archway. And no, it wasn’t a Watchmen promo, but there is a cartoon character involved.

At the far right is Richard Blais, one of last season’s runners-up. In the middle is Casey Thompson, one of Season 3’s runners-up (her presence is confirmed here). The most inscrutable of the shades is at the far left. At first, something about the slightly pigeon-toed walk suggested Sam Talbot, but the figure isn’t tall enough to be That Guy. We briefly considered Ilan, at the risk of our sanity. But then we remembered something we had read a few weeks ago, and it all made sense.

Now, our money’s on Season 2 runner-up Marcel Vigneron. It makes a certain kind of thematic sense for Wolverine to return--runners-up from past seasons, vous voyez? And then the details of the slightly bouffant hairdo seemed to fill themselves in. And this item from the New Orleans Times-Picayune would seem to clinch it:

Turns out some colleagues here at the paper are such big “Top Chef” fans they trekked to Commander's [Palace] on Thursday, Jan. 15, hoping to catch a glimpse of the [finale] action. They snapped [a] picture of Marcel Vigneron, runner-up in the reality show's second season. Vigneron told my friends that past contestants were involved in the episode being filmed at Commander's.

Q.E.D, possums, Q.E.D. Unless, of course, it’s someone else.

Wayward & Biatchstein Investigate: The Red Shirt Diaries, a Softcore Epic

Possums, as part of our analysis of Leah Cohen’s tenure on Top Chef, we were particularly intrigued by a statement she made during an interview with our pals at The Feedbag:

I didn’t want to be on the show anymore. Especially after the night before Restaurant Wars. They told me they had footage of Hosea and I [sic]. That had happened before that. Why would they tell me that right before restaurant wars? At that point I just felt like Bravo’s little puppet.

But…but…but on the show it looked like the marathon make-out session took place the night before Restaurant Wars. And here Leah is saying that it happened before that. Surely the Bravo editors wouldn’t deceive us or fiddle with the timeline of events? No, impossible!

This was definitely a job for Wayward & Biatchstein.

To the tape, possums.

Take a good look at the photo below. According to the chronology of the episode as aired, it depicts the night before Restaurant Wars. As you can see, Leah is wearing a short-sleeved white t-shirt and Hosea is wearing a red t-shirt. An unkempt, tired-looking and -sounding Leah says to Hosea that she is going to sleep.

Now take a look at a photo from the make-out session, which, if you believe the chronology of the episode as aired, took place shortly after this exchange.

What’s this? Leah’s hair is no longer Medusa-like, and she is now sporting a white tanktop, and Hosea is fully dressed and sporting a white t-shirt. So, if you are to believe the chronology of the episode as aired, Hosea changed his clothes, and the half-asleep Leah changed her clothes and combed her hair, just for the purpose of making out secretly on the couch.

But hark! Here is the red t-shirt again, and what is Hosea saying in his interview while he sports said shirt? “Last night, Leah and I are sitting on the couch for probably two hours, and we ended up kissing” (emphasis added).

Say what?

Again, if you are to believe the chronology of the episode as aired, you have to believe that Hosea started out the night in the red t-shirt, then changed into jeans and a white t-shirt just to make out with Leah, and then changed back into the red t-shirt the next day to say they kissed “last night.” Uh-huh, yeah.

As Miss XaXa put it, “Not hardly likely.”

In our opinion, it looks like Leah was telling the truth, and that the make-out session did not take place the night before Restaurant Wars.

In our theoretical “red shirt” timeline, the make-out session likely took place the night that Ariane Duarte was ousted for butchering the lamb on the “Down on the Farm” episode. Indeed, if you pay attention to what Hosea says during the interview bits where he wears the red shirt, he refers only to events that took place during the “Down on the Farm” episode and during the first day of the “Restaurant Wars,” e.g., the Quickfire Challenge judged by Stephen Starr. This supports the theory that Hosea’s interview took place the evening of the first Restaurant Wars day, after the Starr challenge.

Thus, our “red shirt” timeline goes something like this:

Day A: The cheftestants travel to Stone Barns and prepare lunch for the farmers. They return to New York in the afternoon, and during Judges’ Table Ariane is pykagged. As Leah told TVGuide.com, the camera people “usually leave when everyone is going to sleep.” And that night, after Ariane’s ouster, thinking the cameras had gone, she and Hosea had their make-out session on the couch (without, of course, taking their body mikes off).

Day B: No apparent remorse following the make-out session. Stephen Starr Quickfire Challenge; Leah selected as head of one of Restaurant Wars teams, hugs Hosea following positive verdict from Starr; go shopping at Pier One; return to apartment; production staff inform them of make-out footage from previous night; Hosea, wearing red shirt, talks about their kissing “last night”; Hosea and distraught Leah go over menu for next day’s Restaurant Wars.

Day C: Restaurant Wars; demoralized Leah.

Well, you may say, possums, so what? So you spent hours reviewing the episode footage and trying to figure this out, but what difference does it make?

Leah, it seems to us, casts this as a dark plot to demoralize and manipulate her (and possibly the outcome of Restaurant Wars): “Why would they tell me that right before restaurant wars? At that point I just felt like Bravo’s little puppet.”

We wouldn’t go that far. We think, though, that the real sequence of events casts a different light on Leah and Hosea’s behavior. The episode is edited to suggest, if not outright state, that Leah and Hosea were, to quote Fabio, “een a sheetee mood” on the day of Restaurant Wars itself because of morning-after remorse and regret on account of their make-out session, and that such remorse affected their performance during Restaurant Wars. It’s a much more moralistic gloss, immoral cheaters undermined by the realization of their own immorality (and, we have argued and will argue elsewhere, plays into a storyline about Leah as some sort of temptress leading stolid Hosea astray).

But look at this image from the Quickfire Challenge, which took place the morning after the make-out session (or even earlier, if the make-out session occurred before Ariane’s ouster).

Does it look like these are two people in the throes of remorse for having, in Leah’s words, “cheated” on their significant others? Again, not hardly likely.

However, if Leah’s version of events is correct, then her bad mood during Restaurant Wars was due not to natural morning-after regret, but to the fact of having been told by producers, “Gotcha!” The “love birds,” as Ariane described them, thought no one had seen their encounter, and they were wrong. Her remorse, and Hosea’s remorse, and the attendant “sheetee mood,” were a product of discovery, a realization that their encounter would be televised, and would have consequences.

We were rooting for Radhika Desai’s team, and we’ll certainly never know, but perhaps Leah’s team would have performed better had this not come into play.

Wayward and Biatchstein Investigate: Mystery Man Revealed as Fabio Viviani

‘Tis true, possums, we had very nearly despaired of ever identifying the “goatee’d, vaguely toothsome lad” in the photo with Miss Universe, but last week another anonymous possum sent a tip our way, and we’re pretty sure we have our man, as it were.

Feast your eyes upon that splendid hunk of Italian beef. No, possums, no; look to your right. Eccolo. Now, the giovanotto standing next to the fine specimen is Fabio Viviani, owner and executive chef of Café Firenze, an “Italian Restaurant and Martini Lounge” in Moorpark, California, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Granted, we’re not with the FBI or anything, but based on the comparison of a photo from Café Firenze’s website and the Miss Universe photo, we’d say it was positively the same guy.

As if by the grace of E.M. Forster himself, Fabio is a native of Florence, Italy.

But before you go all A Room with a View, cueing up “O mio babbino caro” and heading off to Porta Rossa to buy the ring, you ought to know that he’s married, to a certain Jessica (pictured below).

Lucky bitch.

(Rest assured, Signora Viviani, that we mean that in the nicest, most teeth-gnashingly congratulatory, does-he-have-a-brother way.)

From 2003 to 2005, Fabio cooked at a number of restaurants in Florence, such as “Central Park, Osteria Del Angolo, or Mariposa.” According to Fabio’s blog, in 2004 he won “the Best Steak Dish at the Sagra Della Bistecca in Cortona.” His “love of cooking Italian food…comes from [his] mother and…from watching [his] grandparents cook traditional Italian dishes made from the freshest herbs, vegetables, seafood, and meats, in a style of cooking that goes way beyond just the following of a recipe. [His] grandfather says you can have all the fancy tableware and the expensive kitchen, but if you don’t have a love and passion for your food and friends to enjoy it with, you have wasted your time.”

Viviani opened Café Firenze last year, and the local paper gave it quite a good write-up. Mind you, we were left speechless by another article about Viviani in the local paper bearing the headline, “Big Love to take on Firenze’s huge steak” and starting off with lines such as, “This won’t be Big Love’s first go at a major hunk of meat” and “‘I ate the whole thing and said, “Is that all you got?”’”

Not to worry, possums. The article merely informs us that, as befits the winner of the Sagra della Bistecca, Fabio “dry-ages his meats the old-school way.” Can you blame us, possums, for developing a taste for bistecca alla Fiorentina? We have but one prayer, though: Lord, please let him not be another Ryan Scott.

Wayward and Biatchstein Investigate: Baltimore’s Jill Snyder Identified as “Top Chef” Contestant

A little possum told us that one of the cheftestants competing on the next season of Top Chef is Jill Snyder, executive chef of Red Maple in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore. The same little possum told us that Ms. Snyder's audition video for Top Chef had been posted on YouTube, but that spoilsport Bravo had jacked Jill and made her take it down.

Naturally, we set to looking into this, and--wouldn't you know it--this video did indeed exist on YouTube on some point, but now has been mysteriously scrubbed clean from everywhere it was posted. This was all that we could find, this spoor, this tantalizing trace:








As you can see, it's rather difficult to get a close look at Ms. Snyder, but there is enough there for us to hazard a guess that the woman in the first picture on this post (from Red Maple's website, which does not identify the subject of the photo) is none other than the fair Jill. There are, to our eyes at any rate, suggestive similarities in the shape of the nose and mouth; likewise, the band in the hair is similar, and the earrings appear to be the same. This is by no means definitive, but we think it's a good hunch. Still, if you happen to have a photo of the telegenic Ms. Snyder, please feel free to send it in.

(We also discovered that Ms. Snyder's audition tape was put together by Marcus Morelli, who happens to have the following food-related video on Funny or Die, which itself has a Colicchio-sponsored, food-related partner site, Eat Drink or Die):

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

According to the restaurant's website, "[w]ith every seasonal menu update Executive Chef Jill Snyder and her staff consistently deliver gastronomic feng shui" (!!). Further, "[t]he Red Maple menu is focused on obtaining locally grown and raised foodstock while at the same time drawing upon globally influenced spicing, marinading, food prep and cooking techniques." On verra.

At any rate, possums, please keep the tips coming.

Wayward & Biatchstein Investigate: Little Mozart of the Fryolator Details Dickensian Youth of Child-Labor Law Violations

Possums, we don’t mean to hen-piccata Ryan Scott to death, but really, we can’t help ourselves, since, in trying to paint himself as a boy wonder, boy does he ever make us wonder.

After hearing Ryan boast on the season’s first episode, “I grew up in restaurants, and my parents signed the waiver for me to be able to work in restaurants….At 11, I jumped on the line with my father, and my dad fired two people after the first two or three weeks because I outcooked them at 11,” something didn’t seem quite kosher to us.

Was Ryan, er, breading the story, or had he just accused his father of blatant violations of California child-labor laws?

Part of our confusion stemmed from the fact that the soi-disant wunderkind seemed to be presenting two different narrative strands, Little Lord Fauntleroy of KQED vs. hardscrabble kitchen rat.

In the one, he is the precocious child who happens to have an almost innate love of, and talent for, cooking. To wit:

From Ryan’s Bravo bio: “Ryan zeroed in on his desire to be a chef at the early age of nine when the ‘toys’ at the top of his Christmas list included kitchen utensils, a wok and food dehydrator.”

Aw, ain’t that sweet?

From Ryan’s Bravo video: “I got into cooking from my parents. When I was younger I showed inspiration to cook, so they went ahead and ran with it, went ahead and bought me a wok and a food dehydrator when I was younger. Watching Jacques Pépin and Martin Yan was really stimulating for me as a young child.”

Aw, Lord love PBS!

From an article in The ImModesto Bee: “As a grade-schooler, he would cook his family crazy concoctions, like sloppy chili melts and herb experiments from the garden. Still, no matter the outcome, they supported him and ate his creations.”

Aw, ain’t parents grand?

But wait, at 11 isn’t one a grade-schooler? And if he was making sloppy chili melts and herb experiments at that age, just how proficient was he really when he got those two poor saps fired?

It seems a bit at odds with the impression he tries to give on the show that he grew up in restaurants.

The Bee article says only, “The journey from 10-year-old messing around in the family kitchen to one of the nation's rising culinary stars took Scott across the country. While he still was in elementary school, Scott's family briefly owned a Chubby's restaurant franchise. Then while in high school, the 1999 Los Banos High graduate began working at the Country Waffles breakfast chain.”

Mind you, no mention of being an 11-year-old line cook. And how does the fact that your family “briefly owned a Chubby’s restaurant franchise” while you were in elementary school translate into your having grown up in restaurants?

So did he, or didn’t he? Hard to tell from the available evidence. If he did, it seems plausible that it was at the Chubby’s where he became an 11-year-old line cook.

But if he did, what about the legal issues?

We called upon our dear friend, the lovely, acidic Miss Upton Sinclairol, to see if she could cut through the gnocchi-dense thicket of legal issues. She followed the trail of breadcrumbs and brought us the following information.

The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the California Department of Industrial Relations puts out a pamphlet explaining the basics of child-labor laws in California, and which, citing to California Labor Code section 1294.1, states in relevant part that “Minors under 16 MAY NOT be employed or permitted to work in the following occupations in…food service…: Cooking (except at soda fountains, lunch counters, snack bars, or cafeteria serving counters where such cooking is performed in plain sight of customers and is not the minor's only duty); Baking….”

That rather makes it sound like 11-year-old Ryan’s jumping on the line with his father was a prima facie violation of Section 1294.1. Indeed, pursuant to Labor Code section 1294.3(a), you have to be at least 14 years old before you are allowed to perform kitchen work and use “dishwashers, toasters, dumbwaiters, popcorn poppers, milkshake blenders, and coffee grinders.” That sounds like the sort of thing that Ryan’s parents would have “signed the waiver” for (or the job at Country Waffles that the Bee mentions).

Ryan said that his father fired two line cooks “after the first two or three weeks,” which suggests that 11-year-old Ryan was cooking on the line for at least two or three weeks. Labor Code section 1288(a) makes violation of Section 1294.1 a “Class ‘A’ violation” that is “subject to a civil penalty in an amount not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) and not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each and every violation. Willful or repeated violations shall receive higher civil penalties than those imposed for comparable nonwillful or first violations, not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).” (emphasis added). Furthermore, Section 1288(c) states that criminal penalties may also be imposed. Ryan, Ryan, Ryan—is that really the kind of trouble you would have wanted to get your daddy into?

In the end, though, possums, we don’t have any definite answers. The current version of the law came into effect in 1993, when Ryan would have been a little older than 11. So it’s conceivable (if extremely unlikely) that prior to 1993, California, the most liberal state in the nation where labor laws are concerned, would have allowed 11-year-olds to serve as line cooks. All we have is a tantalizing question: did the man who used to head Myth Café take the restaurant’s name to heart?

The 12 Days of Bitchmas -- Day Six: Wayward & Biatchstein Investigate

Possums, we are all too aware that we have a reputation for being suspicious and conspiratorially minded. Eh bien, what can we do?

But remember les affaires Clippergate and Fauxmicah from seasons past, and so cut us a little slack—even if only so our tinfoil hats will fit better—and listen to the question we are about to ask about two of this season’s cheftestants.

Zoi Antonitsas and Jennifer Biesty:












A couple of lesbians?

















Or a lesbian couple?

Let us examine the evidence, shall we?

We knew from AfterElton.com that, although there are no openly gay male cheftestants this season, “there are lesbian contestants.”

Then we came upon this story, which contains the following statement: “In the case of this season’s Top Chef, there’s a the [sic] lesbian couple - who don’t really shock anyone since there are plenty of lesbians in the restaurant industry.”

Curious, n’est-ce pas?

We happened onto Jen's MySpace page, which, as you can see from the screencap below, states that Jen is a lesbian and is in a relationship. Among her MySpace friends, none other than Zoi holds the prime spot.

















Curiouser and curiouser, non?

Zoi's profile status is set to private, so we were unable to find anything there. However, both Bravotv.com and Eater SF confirm that Jen and Zoi reside and work in San Francisco.

And then, rooting around Jen's MySpace page, we found what would seem literally to be the clincher, the photo of them posted above, in which they appear to be an adorable couple. Is it conclusive evidence? Perhaps not. But we're not honorary lesbians for nothing; our 'dar is a-tingle.

If these two are indeed a couple, Zoi--who in the photo reminds us of our favorite, and now-deceased, character on The L Word, Dana--is a lucky gal. Though her spelling isn't the best, Jen has excellent taste in literature; Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters are two of our favorites, and Corby Kummer of The Atlantic Monthly is a superb food writer.

Our worry is that, if true, this smacks of stunt casting on Bravo's part. It would certainly be a novelty to have a couple competing on a Bravo reality show, but it does bring all sorts of complications. Bravo senior vice president Raggaydy Andy Cohen, a well-known fan of The Amazing Race, which does just this sort of thing, has previously gone on the record to reiterate Bravo's prohibition against contestants "doin' it" with each other, for fear of STDs and liability. But does this prohibition extend to preexisting couples? Or are the producers counting on LBD? (Ask a friendly neighborhood Sapphist to explain that to you, possums.) Either way, is it fair? And what about the strain of such a brutal competition on the couple? And what about the rigors of competing against each other, rather than, as on The Amazing Race, against other teams? Oy, what a tangled web.

Still, as Jen's favorite, Jeanette Winterson, might have put it, it's a good thing that Jen and Zoi are around, because on this season of Top Chef, oranges are the only fruit.

Sam I Am? Wayward & Biatchstein Investigate

From Sam Talbot's latest blog:

What have I been doing?

...I'm also working on a book with my boy...Meeting as many people as I can. Buying too many pairs of shoes....

Sister Accent Grave: Fauxmicah's Family on What Lies Beneath

Our apologies, possums, for a headline combining a Whoopi Goldberg-film pun with a French grammar pun, but we were so gobsmacked at what we are about to reveal that we couldn't stop to think of something less postmodern and pretentious.

During tonight's broadcast of "Watch What Happens," during which, we are told, Raggaydy Andy indirectly alluded to Amuse-Biatch when discussing the Fauxmicah controversy--because, let's face it, who else posted her yearbook pictures?--we received a fascinating little missive in our inbox.

It purports to come from Micah Edelstein's sister, and from Wayward and Biatchstein's enterprising preliminary investigation it certainly appears to be genuine. However, we of course cannot and do not vouch for it. And with that disclaimer out of the way, let 'er rip:

ABSOLUTELY FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trust me, I grew up in the same house as her, she is my younger sister!

Our father is from Cape Town, South Africa, and we have been there. But we were all born and raised in Massachusetts, but we absolutely don't have the typical pak the cah accent, but neither our younger brother or me sound like Micah.

All our family and friends have no clue where she invented this from.

Ciao
[redacted], nee Edelstein

It's the Day After, and Amuse-Biatch Is Still Looking for Fireworks

Possums, do forgive our late start today (something to do with the powerful combination of Roman candles and sangria), but while we rouse ourselves, we wanted to solicit your help (though not for hair of the dog).

As you are all-too aware, the Wayward & Biatchstein investigation into Fauxmicah's meatloaf-less past was split wide open by our very own Deep Throat, a faithful Amuse-Biatch reader with a yearbook and a scanner.

In that spirit, we would like to ask any of you who might have gone to school with any of the cheftestants this season (and who have the pictorial evidence thereof), to drop us a line with the relevant evidence. Mind you, we're not looking for scandal (though if you have stories about how, for example, CJ Jacobson tattled on people during Home Ec class or Casey Thompson failed to win the Miss Sweet Potato crown, we'd love to hear them); we're just looking for mullets, braces and zits, Who They Were Before They Became for Jamie Lee Curtis the Symbol of All That Is Wrong in America.

So, possums, if you fancy being our very own little Sore Throat (Miss XaXa feels it's more dignified, and yet dirtier, than Deep Throat), we'll be sitting by our inbox nursing a Bloody Mary.

Pomp & Circumstantial Evidence: Romy & FauxMicah's High School Reunion

(Remember, possums, as with men, click to enlarge.)

Trouble Over Bridgewater: Fauxmicah Countered?

Don't blame Wayward and Biatchstein, possums. We merely followed our leads...to our inbox, that is.

As you may remember, cheftestant Micah Edelstein's Bravo bio lists "South Africa" as her hometown (whereas, for comparison's sake, the bio for Hung Huynh, who was born in Vietnam, lists Pittsfield, Mass., as his hometown). And we saw some rumblings on other blogs regarding the authenticity of Micah's South African accent, made by people who said they went to school with Micah. (And, as one reader pointed out, Micah did seem rather good at coming up with conflicting stories, e.g., telling the camera that she bought the lamb for her barbecue because it was on sale, but telling the judges that she did lamb because "we" (presumably her family, or perhaps South Africans in general) always barbecue lamb whereas Americans have hot dogs and hamburgers.)

In the interest of clearing up the confusion, we asked for documentary evidence, and Amuse-Biatch reader "T." obliged us. T. writes:

"I also went to Junior High and High School with Micah. She was in my homeroom.... We were not that friendly in school but she really didn't bother me. I have nothing against her; I just want to set the record straight. It is sad that she seems so ashamed of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, as to lie that her hometown is South Africa. Bridgewater is actually quite a town here in New England with a premiere State College that was actually the first teachers college in the country. Bridgewater is also home to a state prison, which has a mental hospital that is one of the best in the state. It is a very quaint New England town, which has grown a lot in the last 20 years but has been able to retain its charm. It is a much sought after town to live in and thus has very high housing prices.

....

I don't remember Micah having the accent in high school, but she didn't have a true Boston Accent either, just no accent. She has been well travelled her whole life; I remember her talking in home room about going to Europe and stuff when we were in Jr. High. I found it very interesting to listen to her tell others of her travels, since the majority of us never went anywhere past Cape Cod, New York or Florida to see grandparents.


She hung out with a lot of the popular/smart kids in school. I just think it is interesting seeing someone from my past on TV. She has always had this worldly cultured way about her so I am not surprised of how her life has gone. I wish her luck but hope she doesn't forget where she really came from because it is a place, though not exotic also not a place to be ashamed of."

Now, we should make it clear that it is Bravo, rather than Micah, which has listed "South Africa" as her hometown, so there's no proof that Micah is lying (well, except about the lamb). It's entirely conceivable that Micah mentioned Bridgewater, Mass., and Bravo opted for the more exotic place; or perhaps it was Micah who omitted Bridgewater. We simply have no way of knowing.

However, what most fascinates us is the glimpse into Micah's high school past because, for one, her high school had much better yearbook photography than ours. According to T, Micah was on the soccer and tennis teams. Check out the following pictures, possums (click on each picture for a larger version). And consider this Wayward and Biatchstein investigation closed.