Zanzibar

When my husband (who is a Caltech engineering grad and science geek) and I were first dating, we played Hangman. By first dating, I mean probably the second date. He noticed that when it was my turn to guess a word, I had a habit of calling all the vowels right at the start, so he decided to pick a word that did not have a-e-i-o-u in it. He was greatly amused by my mystified look after I chose the last of the vowels. The word he was using? Syzygy.

Yes. She has been in 24 of the 30 seasons.

I'm married to a Caltech grad, and I can tell you there is a healthy rivalry between Caltech and MIT. The premise of Sheldon tweaking Howard about his degree being from MIT isn't really that out of line. While I don't think most grads of MIT or Caltech take it to the extremes Sheldon does, Caltech is known for pranks on MIT, as you can read below. https://www.admissions.caltech.edu/pranks Caltech is also smaller than MIT. My husband's incoming freshman class was 210 students.

Yes, the show started with two groups of six baking teams. Up until now, the groups have been on alternating weeks. Half of the 12 teams have been eliminated now, so the remaining teams will be combined into one group with the next show.

There are episodes where it is so obvious that the owners are going to love it before we even get to the reveal, exactly because it has been so customized to their work. I'm thinking of the woman who sold her mother's art prints, and Hillary designed a work space with very specialized drawers for her. Or the doctor who needed a dark space to view x-rays. Then there was the episode where the husband secretly gave Hillary more money to buy the countertop his wife wanted as an anniversary gift to her. And the episode where the couple's sons chipped in to buy their parents a hot tub. There is no way those homeowners are going to list after those very personal and/or sentimental touches.

Yes, "College Road Trip." One of her co-stars was the Masked Peacock himself, Donny Osmond. Donny has been posting about each episode of this season, and made this comment about the Black Widow: "You're brave to tackle a Whitney song, but you nailed it! Great job my friend, whom I haven't seen since college. Yes, I think I know who you are."

Robin Williams was on an episode of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" with Wayne. In the fox's clue package, there's a drawing of the fox in front of three stools. "Whose Line" had a skit, Make a Date, where they are seated on stools (and stools were often used in other skits).

I didn't give any thought to "that book is too easy for Amy at that age." I was a fan of the Little House books growing up and read them over and over for years. I read them with my daughter, and just re-read them a couple years ago, and I'm in my 50s. My thought was, of course they show Amy reading that book, she loved that series. My quibble with Amy's part of that was that there was next to no detail in her room. Each of the other characters had highly detailed rooms, but Amy is just shown in bed reading a book with a flashlight. I felt like they skimped on her part of that scene.

I am married to a Caltech grad. I assure you, it is very selective and difficult to get into Caltech as an undergrad. My husband's freshman class had only 210 students in it, and not everyone managed to complete their degrees there. He did. Sort of like Sheldon and the others, he didn't really feel like he fit in until he went to Caltech and met more people like himself. You most definitely need to be a very serious math and science student to get into and survive at Caltech. My husband is brilliant and very, very smart, but fortunately has way better social skills than Sheldon does. As for this show making Caltech more known to the average American, my husband used to travel frequently for work, and often wore a Caltech sweatshirt while traveling. A TSA agent noted his shirt and said, "Caltech. That's the fictional school from the Big Bang Theory, right?"

Weird Al would be great, but assuming they keep to the same filming schedule as last year (filming during the summer), he won't be on the second season. He is touring from June 5 to September 1.

The bee is not Chaka Khan, IMO. In the Bee's first appearance (I think), she was asked what decade she started performing, and the Bee's reply was the fifties, which matches Gladys' bio. Chaka was born in 1953 and her career didn't really start until late 60s/early 70s.

Donny Osmond has Welsh (Wales) roots. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/showbiz/donny-goes-back-roots-merthyr-2407195

Of course Rumer is denying it. Joey Fatone has denied he is the Rabbit as well. If they haven't been revealed yet, they likely contractually have to deny that they were on the show. I wouldn't take anyone's denial of being on the show as proof they are not on it.

In regards to Donny and Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" video, I'm guessing you all are talking about Weird Al's finished video. If you haven't watched the "White and Nerdy - Take 1" video, you should. It is the first take of Donny's entire dance with Weird Al. When I met Donny for the first time, I asked him about the "White and Nerdy" video. He said it was all ad libbed, and he had a great time doing it.

I don't know about altered, but I wouldn't be surprised if the singers themselves alter their voices a tad. When the Peacock gets to the lower notes, it's usually much lower than Donny Osmond typically sings. I didn't recognize Donny at first because of that. But on the higher notes, and when he holds notes or ends phrases, it definitely sounds like Donny to me.

You must be quite tall yourself. I am 5'9" like Donny, and I don't consider myself anything close to short. I've also seen Donny and Marie's shows in Vegas several times, and they put on an amazing show. They are very giving of their time during the meet and greets, too, and are very easy to talk to. My daughter and I have also attended two of Donny's fan get-togethers in Vegas (which I don't think he does anymore) and had an amazing time. Donny was our tour guide to Hoover Dam, and he sat on our laps on the bus trip back to Vegas from the dam. He is very down-to-earth, funny, and appreciative of his fans. His entire family (wife and children, as well as Marie) participated in those fan weekends. My daughter and I feel like we've seen Donny do the dance move that Peacock did after he came down the steps from the lift during "Counting Stars." Peacock also covers nearly the entire stage when he performs, something that Donny does as well when he sings in Vegas.

"East Bound and Down" was the theme song for the Smokey and the Bandit movies. Terry Bradshaw was in Smokey and the Bandit II. "The higher the hair, the closer to God" is likely some sort of reference to hairspray. Not sure if that is an actual quote from the movie or not, but Ricki Lake was in the movie Hairspray.

But taking them at their word, the Deer therefore cannot be Peyton Manning, assuming there are just two football players on this (and I think the consensus is that the Hippo, who was Antonio Brown, and the Deer are the only two football players on here). Peyton has two Super Bowl titles, Antonio has zero. Terry Bradshaw has four. The Deer also said, "I like horses," and Bradshaw owns a horse ranch. Gladys Knight, Donny Osmond, and *NSYNC have stars on the Walk of Fame. Not sure who the fourth star would belong to among those who are rumored to be on the show.

Just watched the episode where Mary and Adam got married. I like that Mary was able to get a lovely French manicure on the prairie prior to her wedding...

New York's fourth win in seven pageants. 2013-2015 were New York (Mallory Hagan, Nina Davuluri and Kira Kazantsev), followed by Georgia (Betty Cantrell, Miss America 2016), Arkansas (Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017), and North Dakota (Cara Mund, Miss America 2018), and now Nia Franklin, Miss America 2019 from New York.

Betty Cantrell (Miss America 2016) really did buy that last dress she tried on and wore it at her wedding.

Per IMDB, Courtney Henggeler (Missy) had a baby in early 2017. No mention of her expecting a baby this year.

She was going into a toe loop, as she reached back and used her left foot to vault into the jump. I just can't with Tonya. Something about the way Adam moves while dancing reminds me a bit of Evan Lysacek.

Due to the NCAA basketball tournament, I think there will not be any new Big Bang Theory episodes for a couple of weeks. It may be April before we see anything on a vanity card.

Yes, Kripke does know he has an impediment. In Season 7, episode 10, Sheldon makes fun of him by calling him Bawwy. Kripke replies, "Is that a reference to my speech impediment? That's pretty hurtful. I can't control it."