Important news for fans of Chef

I will resume my reports on my trip to Ireland shortly. But here's a piece of news that simply cannot wait.

If you, like me, felt that the premiere episode of South Park's 10th season,"The Return of Chef", was a little (well, a lot) hard on Chef and, by extension, Isaac Hayes, you may take heart in this article from Roger Friedman at FOX News* (found by way of this Wikipedia article):

Isaac Hayes Is No Quitter

I guess people missed this on Monday, so I will again state Isaac Hayes’ case. He had a minor stroke in January and is now at home for rehab and recuperation.

As close friends told me over the weekend, he did not resign from "South Park" or issue any kind of press release to that effect. Although headlines like "Hayes Gives the Shaft to 'South Park'" are funny, they are inaccurate.

Here’s the problem: Hayes is no longer managed by Bruce Garfield at Avenue Management. All of the communication from him comes through a woman named Christina "Kumi" Kimball, a fashion executive for designer Craig Taylor, another Scientologist.

Kimball herself is a devoted member of the Church of Scientology. She even maintains a Web site extolling its virtues. If any announcement was made about Hayes and "South Park," it came from her.

As I wrote on Monday: Hayes loves "South Park" and needs it for income. He has a new wife and a baby on the way.

Before the public and the media buy this whole brouhaha, I beseech everyone to take a step back and see what actually went on here. Many times, things are not as they seem. And that is definitely the case with this story.

The only good news in this story is that Isaac, according to friends, is doing very well. He’s attending to business and getting back on his feet. Hopefully, he’ll be dishing up Chef like a gourmet again in no time.

So, will Darth Chef break free of his mental bondage, use his lightsaber-spatula to destroy the evil forces of the Super Adventure Club, and return to South Park? Only time will tell.

*Normally I wouldn't trust anything from FOX "News", but in this case this is something I want to believe. And if that's good enough for our Maximum President, it's good enough for me.