Kierstyn

When the Commander asked Chris "where do you want to end up?" (or something to that effect), my mind immediately flashed back to the Wire. I'm pretty sure it was Lester Freeman (and it was a delight to see that actor in this episode) who told McNulty that he knows he is in trouble if he get asked where we wants to land. Lester just wanted to be a beat cop, but since he expressed that, as a punishment he got stuck in that evidence room for a dozen years. And McNulty used that wisdom from Lester to get his job on the boat, when he got tossed out of Homicide and Major Crimes. So now I am terrified for poor Chris - without a Lester to give him advice, did he just lose any chance of ever becoming a detective? Is this a call back? Or am I reading too deeply into it?

There are definitely gods in this story who can turn into birds, but don't assume they all can. But based on who Wednesday is, he has two specific birds - crows - that are part of his power. So when Sweeney is gabbing at the crow, he was passing info back to Wednesday via that specific crow.

My husband just nominated this for the NONAC, and I can't disagree.

Looking at it I wonder that it inspired Prince Charles to use (have custom made) a similar sapphire and diamond engagement ring when he proposed to Princess Diana. That ring is currently being worn by Prince William's wife Kate Middleton. Thank you for the clickable link. It's from a great website. I'ma total Splendor junky! I'm usually a lurker, but I do participate whenever she has one of her polls, or 'readers favorites' events.

I am loving how well they are handling the jewelry on the show. That sapphire brooch Victoria is wearing in the big picture at the top of this article, is a great replica of the actual sapphire jewel that Albert gave Victoria the day before their wedding. Queen Elizabeth still wears it, regularly.

I'm sorry to be that kind of internet pedant, but the royal character is not King George III, it's his son. I believe this is set in 1814, during the reign of George III, but he was already deep in the throes of dementia by then. The Prince Regent, aka Prinny, the man who would become King George IV, was depicted in that scene. Taboo did a pretty good job of depicting him as a grotesque, which is how many historians depict him. It's worth it to check out the political cartoons of the day - they have a lot of say about his appearance (he wore stays to hold in his belly), his intemperance, and his vanity. http://www.thamesandhudson.com/George_IV/9780500251270

That was some impressive voice work there, David T. Cole! Very nice Dr. Claw!

holy crap, Joe and Sarah, I am so excited about Love/Hate in the afternoon! (hope I got that name right) Can't wait to hear it! I may no longer watch soaps, but they still hold a very special place in my heart. Yay, soaps! Yay soap podcast from my favorite podcasters!!1!! (exclamation point, eleventy, etc)

Since Nick brought it up, here are some numbers, for what it is worth... Diana Gabaldon's been working for longer, and indeed much harder (by page count and book count) then George arr-arr. So let's agree that she has some standing from which to throw that shade! George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Books: first published - August 1996 number of books - 5 number of cumulative pages - 4,451 Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books: first published - June 1991 number of books - 8 number of cumulative pages - 7,212

Nice chart, Nancybeth! And good point - I want to see the treatment of the the Princess Margaret/Peter townsend situation as well! That should be juicy... And teddysmom - you are right that she just doesn't go out and "hang." I would imagine there are considerable security concerns with that, and with hundreds of engagements a year, I doubt there would be time to do so. But that said, there are a number of chances for regular folks to meet or get a handshake or a few words in. Many events conclude with her doing a bit of meet-and-greet. Granted, it tends to be just a few front row people on the way from the event to her transportation.... but she is out in public.

oy - couple of typos in there, sorry! Kind George VI and Queen Mary didn't "have their residence hit"... that makes it sound like it was on purpose. They lived through a bombing of their home is what I meant.

teddysmom - not sure what you mean by the Queen is not seen in public. Last year she had over 350 public appearances. She does not travel internationally very much anymore, the last time (if I remember correctly) was last year to France, for the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe... which was fitting for a last trip, as both she and her husband served/volunteered during that war. She does have a lot of the other royals perform duties abroad. But she is out in public ALL the time... and so are a number of the other fulltime royals in the UK, like a few of her cousins, her children, daughter-in-law Sophie, and now her grand-children (who are not quite full-timers yet, but who are being groomed, certainly). When there is talk about the royals having a duty to serve the country, these days it seems best to see it as a image of the nation's morale, or perhaps as a role model. They give their time to charities, pick causes (like Princess Diana famously did with land mine awareness, Prince Charles has done with environmental issues and sustainability, and Queen Elizabeth has done with the health and continuing relationships within the Commonwealth). They serve on boards of organizations, and bring attention to those causes by their presence. They even fundraise for their charities. And example of what I means as image of morale is found in the time of the current Queen's parents: they made a point of continuing to reside inside of London, during the blitz, even having their personal residence hit, to show solidarity with what the people of their nation were experiencing. And as for the Queen herself, she is the official head of the state religion, and takes those duties seriously. As for myself, of COURSE I will be watching this series - it is completely up my alley. The reproductions of the jewels looked smashing - particularly the Grand Duchess Vladimir tiara! I am a little worried about the dynamic they are showing of QE2 and Prince Philip... looks like they are really amping up the drama/conflict between them in a way that does not appear to reflect reality... I can see myself getting irked by that. But other than that, this looks great. The lady they got to portray Wallis had the hair and head tilt down like a champ! Can't wait to find out the release date. Can you say binge?

My husband has an amazing theory about Donna's weird eating style. He thinks that they probably had to do a million takes, and it would have been easy to fill in the middle of a tart shell and pop a cherry on top for each new take. But if Donna chomps down on the pastry shell, then they have to get a whole new one. One can imagine someone with Tori Spelling's "stuff" skills needing more than a dozen takes on a scene, and maybe they only bought a dozen tarts.

There was a lot of commentary on EHG this week about the lack of humor on this show. I finally got around to watching it last night, and I thought there was a quite a bit of humor, but it was all in the fight scenes. Bits (like the guy ending with his feet by his ears; or the caught bit of glass flung back into Ajax's eye) were so silly that it caused out-loud laughter, which released tension and made the rest of the grimness easier to handle.

I feel like that Dan Florek bit was filmed within the last two weeks, once they knew the show was cancelled. And I think that the one writer who was pulled back to sketch it out got bored of working on it and just sat around and happened to listen to Dan Savage's Lovecast a few weeks back (follow me, here). Savage's advice on talking dirty for beginners was "say what you are doing, say what you did, then say what you will do." That is the EXACT construction of Dan Florek's scene. First he laid out what was going on with the 'debriefing', then he recapped Barbie's goofy account of what happened, and then he told Barbie/Big Jim the story that was going to be released to the public as soon as people agreed to commit to it. Voila, no need to work that out with any greater complexity when you can apply the advice of a sex advice columnist to your season finale! That's some nice work, guy.

That game time was fabulous, but Sarah's tiny-voiced "Heathers" in response to the "gay son" comment - which everyone talked over - was my EVERYTHING!

Count me in the Zac fan group. It was a quick little moment, but did any of you catch the little happy leap he did when he got a close-up of the waist detailing on Ashley's dress? It was completely adorable, and I would have GIFed it if I were not so technologically slow.

Dave, I know. That was less of a complaint and more of a whiny "man, I thought of that too." Since none of my games have been successful, I was just being infantile. His version was way more fun, anyhow!

I know this makes me the whiniest whiner who ever whined, but I submitted a variation on this game time over a year ago... except it was all people who started in shows now but who had their start in soaps. But it was nice to see the mixed-up name game plan used.. even if it was not my own. derp - people who currently have STARRING roles, but who STARTED in soaps... I can't spell.

Attica - thank you, I came here to say that! It was TOTALLY a Steve Perry wig. That's what the husband and I decided last night. To answer an earlier question posed by Dowel Jones (I think, and I am too lazy to scroll back and look), the reason for the South African op is actually to prevent violence, believe it or not. This Venter guy is actually pro-Apartheid... but he is going to American college campuses, recruiting moles to join the anti-Apartheid movement, and then getting them to do violent and disruptive terrorist actions in order to discredit the anti-Apartheid movement. So the Center found a way to lure Venter out (by importing Ncgogo to act as bait) so that P&E could capture him. As was earlier pointed out, Venter had his own kidnapping van all set for Ncgogo, staffed by the now-aerated South African lady lugging a shopping bag. Elizabeth neatly foiled that with her Bindi shot. It was all very well paced, kind of complex, and beautifully planned. I adored that scene!

PaulaO, I'm not an authority on this (so corrections welcome) but my understanding is that sponges are quite different from yellow or white cake. I have only made them a few times, but there is much less flour in a sponge, and almost all of the leavening comes from the treatment of the egg whites. you are practically making a meringue and then introducing scant amounts of flour. the end result is quite flexible. I'm in the mid-Atlantic, and we don't see sponge cakes all that much around here. the only standard baked goods that I see around here that use sponge cakes are jelly rolls and pumpkin rolls. Next day edit - I was being a bit hyperbolic last night when I mentioned making a meringue. You are not separating the egg whites in the making of a sponge, but you *are* whipping the eggs to bring in a good bit of the lift of the sponge.

I did not like this at all. I feel like the whole show up until the death of Twisty was building in a great way, but after that point things went down hill in a big, awful way. There were just so many loose ends, squandered opportunities, and dumb decisions. The whole back half of the season felt lazy, as if the writers (does RM have a room to help him?) all collectively gave up and started half-assing it because they got obsessed by Minecraft or Fantasy Football or something. Quote of the night at my house at 11:18 PM, from my husband: "well, I'm probably going to break my phone tomorrow, because I don't think I can possibly press the 'I did not like this episode' button on the Previously particle page hard enough to express how much I hated this episode without cracking the glass."

I am such a sucker for people breaking into hysterical laughter. It probably explains why I like the Pete Holmes podcast so much. But really, that just made my day. And I have not been so glad to work from home in a long while, because I lost my composure completely. My suggested movie duo redux - Gary Oldman and Benedict Cumberbatch. I loved their interactions in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I think I would want to turn the mentor/mentee relationship from that movie on its head, though. Perhaps Oldman as a man dealing with senility and Cumberbatch the long estranged next of kin who is brought back into his life because of the illness? I would imagine this would do best in a BBC series context, with just a handful of long shows.

Did anyone else catch the headline on one of the clippings in the file Charlotte found? "Why David Clarke did it - and why!" No, I'm not kidding.

Wilkin: "I was always under the impression that an Eiffel Tower involved a high-five, not kissing." Oh. Maybe the meaning has changed a bit since I was in college...? it had a different connotation back in the 90s (my husband is roughly my age and his impression was similar to mine). Now I feel old. And dumb for putting my aged understanding of sex-slang onto my impression of this Scandal episode.