Who knew? According to a fascinating overview in the Washington Post, when it comes to the esoteric domain of food editors testing out recipes before publishing the guidelines in daily newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle and LA Times continue to lead the way.

In the case of the Chronicle, it’s all because of Michael Bauer. After the journalist came over from the Kansas City Star in the mid-1980s, he was able to convince the Bay Area paper to build a test kitchen and culinary complex that is “the envy of the industry.” Meanwhile, over on the LA Times side, there is some rich kitchen history:

Russ Parsons (pictured), veteran food editor at the Los Angeles Times, joined a paper with a long tradition of recipe testing, dating to the early 20th century. These days, the Times has a sprawling test kitchen overseen by manager Noelle Carter, a professionally trained chef.

Read more

Mixed Media: Read this Patt Morrison blog post and then riddle us this: How many sci-fi films feature compasses? “Whatever Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Republican gentlelady from Minnesota, said or thought about Barack Obama‘s patriotism — and in the course of a couple of days, her stated viewpoint has evidently swung like a compass needle in a sci fi film — one thing she said in her own defense raises questions about whether she’s ready for the majors.”

Congrats, Russ Parsons! Yesterday’s Readers’ Rep blog gave a shout out to Russ Parsons for winning the Association of Food Journalists’ Best Newspaper Food Feature award — and for the entire Food section winning Best Food section of its size in the country. The American Assn. of Sunday and Feature editors also voted the LAT one of the top 10 feature sections in the nation. The Travel section won the Lowell Thomas Gold Award. Congrats, all around.

Huh? The LAT sends out e-mail blasts with the day’s top stories. Except when they don’t. Today’s “Top of the Times” e-mail blast contained two Carina Chocano reviews that were published last week. Don’t get us wrong, we’re into recycling and we’ll take all the Carina Chocano we can get — but maybe your other NEWspaper readers would prefer something, um, new.