Watched an episode of Top Chef last night in which contestants had to build Po-Boy sandwiches, and it made me nostalgic for my new friend Lloyd in Baton Rouge and his roast beef masterpiece. Sigh.

Here are some less lethally tasty midday news/views bites:

* Nation‘s Ari Berman provides details of new Sensenbrenner/Conyers/Leahy Voting Rights Act “fix” legislation, aimed at repairing damage done by Supremes. More about this later.

* California gubernatorial candidate and anti-immigrant vigilante Tim Donnelly puts out by far the weirdest campaign ad of the cycle so far.

* TNR’s Jonathan Cohn debunks cynical conservative claims that anti-death-spiral provisions of Obamacare a “bailout” for insurers.

* TAP’s Paul Waldman predicts marijuana legalization will be big 2016 issue–but only for Democrats.

* The Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson argues that Netflix will survive the demise of the FCC’s current “net neutrality” rules just fine.

And in non-political news:

* Oscar nominees announced; American Hustle, Gravity and 12 Years a Slave garner most nominations. Awards will be made on March 2.

As we break for lunch, here’s an anti-prohibition song from the very year of its enactment: Nora Bayes with “Prohibition Blues.”

Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.