TV cooking contest shows

[Blarg]

Yeah. I don't blame him for letting loose at the end, but I do blame him for playing a bigger part in the problems of the team than he was letting on.

When I saw him after the talk speaking with the other contestants in the room, snapping around, out came the usual Howie at a remark of CJ's: "I don't want to hear it." Howie doesn't realize that not wanting to hear it is a huge fault he has, and that it is hobbling him. It turns his partners into his enemies by default, rather than his allies, which they perhaps could be, or who knows.

But central to Howie is that he doesn't want to find out. It's fear. He needs to control so much because he is afraid things will get out of control if he works with people. He doesn't trust them or himself around them, so he short-circuits chances for both failure and success at the same time by locking them out. It's a coward's solution.

If Sara didn't contribute much, Howie can look at himself for the reason why. Did he even give her a chance? I saw one -- when she wanted a kind of pasta he didn't. His response was to immediately cave in, but with plenty of resentment. That's not a fair chance. He didn't make his case to her, but he sure went on about it to the camera. Great going, hero. And then he completely stopped communicating from there on out. This is how Howie handles conflict. It's not a productive way to work with people.