In my Greasy Remote column this week, I picked a handful of quasi- semi-, somewhat-food-related programming coming to our televisions in the next week.

An excerpt:

“Daytime Emmy Awards,” 8 p.m. Friday, ABC

Food Network is the big non-soap opera goliath this year, with eight nominations. Giada De Laurentiis‘ “Everyday Italian” series is up for three of those. (Then again, ”Bindi the Jungle Girl” and “FETCH! With Ruff Ruffman” are also up for three, so, jump to your own conclusions about the prestige factor.) Other notable food nominations: Rachael Ray in the Outstanding Talk Show/Entertainment category and Food Net’s “Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee” for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling. We’re not kidding.

Sure enough, I got a complaint e-mail.

From Mr. Ruffman. At 1:19 a.m.

You knockin’ my show, Jeff?

You tell Giada that three nominations have plenty o’ prestige in ‘em. Especially when they win.

I’d ask you to step outside, but I’m animated.

Ruff Ruffman

p.s. Let me know when you find a good Moo Shoo Pork recipe. My take out bill’s puttin me in the dog house. Pun intended.

Wow. Okay. I just got e-mail from a cartoon. More accurately, it was from Jim Conroy, who provides Ruff’s voice on the PBS show. A brief swan-dive into the Internet Movie Database revealed that Mr. Conroy’s credits include work on “Saturday Night Live” and “Mr. Pig & Mr. Duck,” “Kenny The Shark,” and “Celebrity Deathmatch.”

So I wrote him back.

Let me preface by saying that it was 1:30 a.m. I had insomnia. I was a little cranky.

McGruff called. Said he’d kick your ass in a dark alley.

That’s not me talking. I’m just passing along a message.

To which Mr. Conroy responded:

You tell that crime dog to name the time and place!

He’s had it comin’ too!

lol

At this point, I decided to push my luck. I mean, how often do you unexpectedly brush unsolicited against cartoon celebrity?

I tapped a few keyboard letters and clicked “send.”

You wouldn’t say that if you saw what he did to CatDog. Dayum.

At this point, Mr. Conroy no doubt regretted his decision to engage me, since I clearly had overstepped my boundary by responding to his response of my response.

How do I know this? Intuition. And the fact his e-mails stopped coming. Not sure that I blame him.

Anyway, here’s a sample of his work, even though we likely won’t become BFFs: