crashdown

It wasn't bad wagering. I'm going to paste in something from the Jeopardy subreddit, because it elegantly explains what was going on with those wagers much better than I ever could: And a response to that from another redditor:

I found this change.org petition urging changing the meaning of the word "several" to "seven." 161 people signed it. Human beings never cease to amaze me! This reddit thread also takes up the question "why doesn't several mean seven?" My favorite response is this:

I'm 57, and I thought the same damn thing. I was insulted!

There's not much reason to name drop either Tom Riker or Sito if they're not going to factor into the season finale in a major way. I'm very excited! Lower Decks plays so well with canon, and the whole Nick Locarno/Ensign Sito thing is ripe for picking up--it hasn't been used by any other Trek series and isn't likely to be. I wonder if they'll have Wesley come back from his wanderings, too.

That's not just a random callback--I think it's Big Fucking Deal. I really think that Nick Locarno is planning a rescue mission of Sito and that SHE'S ALIVE. I'm beyond geeking out about this! And P. S. Why the hell is this forum marooned in "Kids and Animation" and not grouped with the rest of Trek? Lower Decks is the most Trek show out there right now!

The point of it was to demonstrate that Cory grew up being traumatized by a crazy, hate-filled mother and that, all things considered, it's amazing that he's as okay as he is. Bradley had to come along as a buffer, because when you go to visit your trauma-inducing, hateful parent, you want to blunt the effects as much as you can. I thought it was a great moment that really deepened Cory's character, but then, I've always had a distinct soft spot for Cory.

Came here explicitly to complain about macarons/macaroons and see if anyone else was commenting. What’s the world coming to?

As a religion Ph.D., I should be duty-bound to find this all fascinating. But . . . yawn!

That's true, and that means that they'll get a bit more than the fifty percent ratio I mentioned. Or maybe they'll turn into zombies, which would be a very interesting and unexpected twist!

I never liked this show the way many people around me seem to like it, which I partially chalked up to a general squeamishness (cannibalism is not my favorite topic) and the fact that I didn't go to high school in the 1990s and so am not susceptible to the nostalgia pangs that a lot of fans seem to have. I think it's a muddled mystery box show that really could have benefited from more episodes per season (a la Lost) to allow us to deepen our understanding of the characters, and it lacks the kind of delving into the complexities of human connection that I always appreciate in shows (like, for example, The Last of Us) that become favorites of mine. But that said, after the finale I can say confidently that I do appreciate the following: 1. The show's humor in all of its forms, dark and campy. This is an unexpectedly funny show, and the comedic aspects of it are reliably delightful. 2. Shauna, Jeff, and Callie's weird, dysfunctional, supremely loyal little family. If there's anything about genuine human connection among any of the characters, it's with these three. I just love them. 3. Misty and Walter--I've been a fan of Elijah Wood for many years, and he and Christina Ricci just knock it out of the park in their interactions. They're hilarious, and Walter is very well-written. 4. Lauren Ambrose as the adult Van (teenage Van bores me). I've loved Ambrose ever since Six Feet Under, and she was just born to play this role. She's doing a great job making adult Van both sympathetic and creepy. And that's really enough to keep me watching next season. I'll never be a rabid fan, but that's actually a good thing. I have more than enough obsessions in my life to add one about cannibalistic teen-age soccer players!

I'm pretty sure it would just include the liver, which is the only organ traditionally eaten (sometimes people eat kidneys, but that's not really common). I'm sure it doesn't include the heart, brain, etc., which nobody (except Travis) eats and which weigh a lot.

In case anyone is interested in this gruesome tidbit (I raise sheep for the meat market), with animals (and I presume with humans) you get about half of the live weight as usable meat. So if Javi weighed 140 pounds (I'm bad at estimating weights), he would have yielded about 70 pounds of meat. There seem to be ten of them left, counting Coach. If they each ate 4 ounces of Javi a day, they'd eat 17.5 pounds of Javi every week. So Javi could feed them minimally for a month before they'd need a new victim.

It was an instaget for me, and I never would have thought that my eighth-grade obsession with all things Arthurian would ever come in handy! (I may or may not have tried to read Malory in middle English just for kicks. I was a deeply weird kid!)

The chemistry among all of them (including Ken) is just off the charts--they all really love each other, and it's just made for wonderful television. I don't think the Jeopardy PTB will ever be able to replicate exactly this magic in another tournament again. Sometimes, the stars just align and something really special happens on TV. Who would have thought that it would happen in a gimmicky prime time Jeopardy tournament?

I'm not crying. You're crying! (Man, this tournament . . .)

Nah. It's definitely Evan. He's the one who's there, and he's the one who said "Hi, Mariana." When the show comes back, we'll see that he's suddenly remembered everything, but Mariana is freaking out and seeing Silas everywhere. You heard it here first!

One nice thing is that there's still snow in Boston in 2039. Global warming hasn't destroyed us yet!

I don't believe that dinner was in the present while Gary was dying--I think it was a flash forward to a later time when they were all remembering fond stories about Gary. That was definitely my feeling when I watched; I'll rewatch to confirm. If not, it was tonally nuts. (Nope, I was wrong--I rewatched carefully, and they're all wearing the same clothes that they had on earlier in the day (except for Eddie, and that was probably a continuity error). So, the funny stories WERE as they were waiting for word of the death. I can wank it that they decided that Gary would have wanted them to be happy and they tried for his sake, but it doesn't make sense that they would have pulled it off so easily. Also, Katherine brought out a huge fruit salad, which is one reason I thought this was in the future at a planned event. Why would she have so much food lying around for a crowd?)

The Department of Temporal Investigations thanks you for your concern!

Your bolding is wrong. They were asking about this type of movie shot, not this type of movie. Here's some more about a dolly shot.

I agree, and I'm sure that THEY would both agree, in hindsight. "Mistakes were made."

Donna and Cameron were both right and both wrong. In my opinion, they needed to listen to each other and compromise, and they couldn't do that. The real thing that killed Mutiny was the reliance on the Commodore 64 as a sole platform (and one that would soon be obsolete). That was Cameron's insight, and they never should have gone public without diversifying to other platforms. On the other hand, Cam wanted to tinker and make everything absolutely perfect before talking about the IPO, and that wouldn't have worked either--as you say, competition would have killed it if they did that. The fact that they couldn't really hear each other killed the company.

It wasn't daylight. They left the Mayday folks at sunset.

Yes, exactly. It was also foreshadowed in that first episode by June's becoming unmoored at the fact that she wasn't going to be punished for Fred's death by the legal authorities. She says something like "There can't be no punishment," and the Canadian officer answers that "That's between you and your deity of choice, but the Crown has no quarrel with you." That broke June's ideas of retributive justice in which you commit a crime, you're guilty of that crime (that crime is "your fault!"), and you're punished for that crime. I think both Syl's speech and June's not being punished for Fred's death start to set June up for her ultimate actions and attitude in "No Man's Land." One other thing that I wanted to say about this episode, now that you've given me the chance, is that I really appreciated the subtlety of the interactions between June and Serena in the "I didn't want to" scene even more on rewatch. When June first starts talking about how Hannah had a hard time nursing, Serena isn't really listening--she's just besotted with Noah, and June isn't really on her radar. But midway through June's speech, Serena suddenly becomes really *aware* of her: she stops looking at Noah and just looks at June as June says that sometimes she had to miss work because of Hannah's colds, sometimes she couldn't miss work, and sometimes (this one delivered as a confession) she didn't want to miss work. What June is saying is really a tentative olive branch to Serena, since it's something that they both care about (how work is important to both of them). Serena takes that olive branch and is finally able to ask why June didn't kill her when she had the chance, and (after a little deflection), June answers with the "I didn't want to" delivered more honestly and vulnerably than anything June has said to Serena ever. It's just like a little onion of honesty peeling layer by layer, that scene. It's just brilliant.

It also was consistent character writing for Serena. Throughout the series, no matter what abuse she herself might bestow upon June, Serena *never* wanted anyone else to hurt June. (Even after their knockdown drag out at the Lincoln Memorial, Serena's first instinct is to help and protect June when she sees her practically out of her mind in the hospital a couple of episodes later.) This season, for instance, I thought it was amusing in the third episode, when Mackenzie says that June is a cancer that needs to be cut out. Nick has as much of a "Yikes!" look as his impassive nature allows, but Serena looks practically as stricken at the idea. I've always imagined a little thought bubble saying "Hey! That's *my* cancer, not *your* cancer!"