Archery

Oh, I thought that was one of the troupe dancers in rodeo clothes! I was already wobbly hearing Simone's story (and relieved that it wasn't "2016, when I reinvented gymnastics"), but lost it completely when I realized she was using one of my favorite CCM songs, "Good, Good Father" ("You're a good, good Father, it's who You are, and I'm loved by You, it's who I am"). That felt to me so much more organic than Mr. T's Amazing Grace waltz.

I don't think Det. Zippo inevitably wants to prosecute a killer. She just wants to know who did it, and it irks her that the women are lying about such an obvious thing. The detective gets that it was some sort of unplanned act, self defense or defense of other -- the mystery to her is what happened exactly. As for why they would lie: an accident is always better than a homicide of any type. When I think back on all the ways Perry isolated Celeste (hovering whenever she was on the phone or had a conversation with someone; freaking out that she would dare go to orientation without him; pouting that he couldn't go to Frozen on Ice with the moms), it doesn't surprise me that she would not have a lock on her phone. When he sped up in the car, I really though he was going to crash it and kill them both. In the end, the most gratifying part of her story is that she had already decided to leave, and had acted on it, before Perry's death. She wasn't let off the hook by some deus ex machina. I love that Maddy had that side-story about her affair, that had an impact on her interactions with her husband and her daughter -- and looking back, probably accounted for some of those pensive expressions while driving -- because nobody ever has only one thing going on in her life at a time. While I kind of wish Perry hadn't been the rapist (that felt too tied-in-a-bow), those wordless conversations were everything. I loved every single one of those children. It's so rare that shows or movies get that wise immaturity right.

Usually I am all about rooting for the underdog contestant: the older dancer who is game for anything; the non-show-biz person; the person with a disability, weight issue, or even just a normal person body. I rooted for Mark Cuban, Bill Engvall, Marlee Matlin, and even Ty the Rodeo Guy who stepped in at the last minute for his wife, Jewell. And I am on record as being "in the tank" for Keo and hoping he finally gets a chance to go deep. But Charo is EXHAUSTING to watch -- I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with her shtick for hours on end in a competition. So as much as I want Keo to not go out second or third this season, I...just can't with Charo. Free Keo!

Figure skaters (and, to a certain extent, gymnasts) position their arms for balance, aerodynamics, and momentum. That's different from holding your arms to form a dancing "shape" that looks graceful.

Well, of course, Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret. And this obscure one: The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations. Not easy to say why, but I identified with both main characters, outsiders and awkward and not fully buying into the accepted narratives of their lives.

Not a fan of Dr. Phil's but I love his totally dismissive, "Siddown, siddown," as he waves her back to her seat with his index card.

I think is my favorite season so far. Change LCK to blind judging, and this show would be near perfect as a competition. Can someone clarify for me: Shirley said her dessert was sticky rice pudding without the rice. I couldn't figure out what that meant--any ideas?

Thank you legaleagle53 and merylinkid for that geeked-out law moment. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When Alyssa Milano left after introducing the Georgina reel, I thought, "These kids only know her from Project Runway. They have no idea that she was on Charmed or Who's The Boss!"

Heh. No, Paige and Henry (which is at least a royal name).

My memory sees both "Dr. You Two Are Adorable" and "Dr. Your Dad's Not Leaving" as Asian, but I'm pretty sure neither was white.

Loved that the whole story was told through the perspectives of black people, and that, aside from Jack in the flashback, there were no white people in the episode. That blew my mind.

They wouldn't need to be super James Bond-y, just able to have access to files and documents any low level government staff would have. And, having had a full background check in the mid-1990's (and re-ups periodically since then), I know that your parents' background isn't delved into more than superficially unless they are foreign-born. Philip and Elizabeth's 30-year cover would totally hold up for Paige to become a civil servant at the Department of Defense.

I'll anchor you here. Steve Carrell in "Dan in Real Life" legit breaks my heart, while I'm laughing just a little bit.

Taraji P. Henson's Katherine Goble losing it at the NASA administrator and everyone in the room generally when she's called on the carpet for being away from her desk for chunks of time--because she has to run across campus to use the "colored" ladies room. The whole movie, you're waiting for her to snap, because the forced deference and swallowed pride she has to show throughout the movie is so painful.

I haven't read Kitchen Confidential, but I thought that Tesar had an alcohol problem. Does he not? And I guess I got distracted by what would happen if a chef in the F4 could not or would not drink alcohol. Would the show just "too bad, so sad" that disadvantage? Maybe it's come up before and I just don't recall.

I really like LCK. Its elimination/QF combo is exciting, and it addresses the problem of "great chef, bad day" or "great chef/bad team" that was so frustrating in earlier seasons. Every chef in the finale will have competed in the same amount of elimination challenges (the LCK may have been in 1-2 more), so it's fair. The only thing I would change is that the judging should be blind. I get it that Tom C. has the last word, and that's fine. He just shouldn't explicitly know ahead of time who cooked what. He probably would figure it out pretty easily, but it would level the playing field just a bit.

Shirley's voice is very high, so the minute she speaks loudly, it tips right over into shrill and goes through you like a knife. Not something she can really help. I was kinda impressed by Padma cooking for the cheftestants. Something like that could really open her up to ridicule or at least shade since (a) she's not a chef, (b) someone may have hard feelings because of some of her critiques, and (c) it might not have turned out as well as she'd hoped. They might not have said anything on camera, but social media after the fact is a thing of its own. I give props to anyone who'd put him or herself out there like that.

I hear that EVERY time!

The construction workers and the wooden door don't appear in the 90-second commercial that aired. In addition, from the WaPo story linked above: So those of us who watched the ad during the game were left asking, "What product was that for?" There was no lumber in the ad.

Weird that in the end the product that they're advertising doesn't make it into the ad.

I. . .oh, dear. My panties just threw themselves at my computer screen. Awkward, cuz I'm at work.

Yes, Sylva mentioned it (and they showed harrowing video) during the set up for Restaurant Wars. He said RW was bittersweet because he had just progressed to the stage of picking cutlery, etc., for his restaurant when an arsonist burned it down. He experienced such stress about it that he lost his hair (over a picture of him with his former gorgeous long locs.)

I think the critique had more to do with balance than with saltiness. I'm one who picks the salt crystals off of pretzels I get from the vendor, but I can tell when a food does not have enough salt. It tastes, as my grandmother would say, flat. It's really obvious if you taste regular oatmeal that has been cooked in salt water and oatmeal that has not. Salt adds, for lack of a better word, dimension. It's like when Gail comments that a dish needs a bit more "acid" -- she's not looking for a pucker experience, she's saying that the taste elements are out of balance.

From the recap: This trick comes from the very excellent movie, Traitor, with Don Cheadle. If you are interested in how people can be "disappeared," I recommend the Jane Whitefield series by Thomas Perry (beginning, I think, with Vanishing Act). Most of the books are pre-2001, so some of the techniques wouldn't work now, but they are compelling reads. I definitely would re-read the whole series and take copious notes before signing up for this show.