Surviving the encounter (?)

• Bronstein vs. Botvinnik
• Capablanca vs. Ilyin Zhenevsky, Bukharin vs. Stalin, Fischer vs. the USSR (all here)
  
• Anwar vs. Umno
  

To these unequal battles between the noble, artistic, under-resourced loner and the monstrous, immense, amoral Other, we may now add:

• Anthony Bourdain vs. Sandra Lee

Bourdain, still among the living (just barely), describes his encounter here. One of many choice bits:

Sandra is talking. I know this cause her lips are moving and she's saying--overtly anyway, nice things. Like "You're a very naughty man," and she's chatting amiably with my wife. But one hand is picking over me like the meat buyer at Peter Luger selecting a rib section--like some demonic bird of prey is poking and prodding, deciding where the weakest, most tender point of entry is...