the blizzard allowed me one of my great guilty pleasures -- watching a little of "beauty by tova" on QVC.

since the days of bob ross' "magic of oil paining" are sadly behind us, i count on the demerol-like qualities of television shopping -- particularly mother angelica and QVC -- to relax me. "beauty by tova" is one of my favorite programs. look! tova has named a whole line of cosmetics after me. thank you, tova.

here's the thing about tova. she's tova borgnine. as in -- ernest borgnine's wife. i have no problem with it. he's adorable. and she, frankly, is lovely. it's just that many of tova's products -- perfumes and bath specialty products -- are designed to put you in that special mood. she talks about it a lot when she's on the air; she's put a lot of her own personal experience to work in this line, apparently. and ben and i can't help thinking: the woman is on television shilling a line of products that are specifically designed to be sexually enticing to ernest borgnine. and people are buying them.

if i have any real criticism for tova, it's that i think "body soufflé" is a terrible name for a product, regardless of what it does or what its consistency is.