CheshireCat

Agreed. As far as I know, you're not supposed to wear white as to not to upstage the bride or groom when they wear white.

No, it only "goes away" if the country the diplomat is a citizen of waives immunity. But I recently read that the US tends to request such waivers if the crime is serious enough so that the prosecutor would normally recommend charging the individual for the crime they committed were it not for diplomatic immunity. There are also different levels of who has diplomatic immunity when. (Eg, there are diplomats who can be issued traffic tickets but they don't have to pay, others who can't even be issued traffic tickets etc). It's apparently all detailed on ID cards diplomats get issued. I also read recently that US citizens don't have diplomatic immunity in the US if they work for a foreign embassy or consulate. I would imagine that being a spy complicates things, though.

You're so right. I don't know what it is with this season but I can't keep the names straight. (Should be getting better now that there are fewer contestants, though). I noticed that, too, and the strange thing was, he only sounded stuffed up during the second judging, not the first. Even if that happened, more likely than not, he'd tell the customer that it's too late, the cake is nearly finished or being packed up for delivery or out for delivery. Additionally, any changes would change the price. At the very least, the customers would have paid a down payment at this point, if not the whole price, so I doubt that any baker would actually make any changes to a cake a couple of hours before delivery. Speaking of twists, I didn't see anything that looked like it might have been the twist in tonight's episode. Judging from the pictures they showed, Sabrina is definitely really good at it. She would also have been right that it was a timing issue; she said the cake wasn't as cool as it should be and it's those things that mess up 3D cakes. What I think she should have realized is that the cake wouldn't have enough time to chill. Maybe, though, she thought they'd manage. I wonder why they didn't make a sitting elephant. That way, they could have supported the head on the cake board. One other thing I noticed was that the rice cereals looked really dry. I don't work with them as I don't eat them and I've always found a way to make it work without them but I wonder if she could have used some more marshmallows, too. I agree that it was right to send her home, though. She was responsible and I felt like she acknowledged that, too. As far as the first challenge was concerned, with the exception of Nikki's, the doughnuts all looked very dark to the point where I wondered if they might taste slightly burned. Since none of the judges said they did, I guess they didn't. Still, I think that the bakers might have chosen to make the oil hotter than it should have been so that their pastries baked quicker. I was surprised that one of the bakers used Pate a Choux. I don't know if she had experience with that dough and frying but it's not something I'd choose.

I agree. I'm also not sure it's a fair challenge because making a dessert that is inspired by something is basically making modern art. Not everyone sees the same in modern art, so why should it be different for a dessert? Some see the inspiration, others don't. How do you judge that, though? As far as I know, it's a variation. Putting it in the oven, torching it and dousing it in alcohol are all acceptable ways to do it. I believe a hand pie is also a foreign pastry. In this case, the terminology seems to be different, though, whereas I think that for many other pastries, Americans use the same word for the pastry as in the country of origin. (eg, Pate a choux). But you're right, he could have asked to make sure he got it right.

To be fair, it's really hard to decorate a cake with meringue and it's probably even harder when you don't have much time and are decorating in such a warm environment. With that said, I was underwhelmed by the decorations in both episodes this evening. The cocktail/bubble cakes looked great, some of the envelopes looked really good as well and a couple of the bugs desserts were good. Overall, I felt like the desserts the bakers did in the first two episodes were more impressive. The cakes from the first episodes all looked really good though. As in, once they were cut, they all looked well-structured and very appetizing. I've never made one either. I have a recipe in a cook book, however, the recipe seems to be for individual desserts and not a cake. But I googled because I was curious and the first pictures that popped up showed one layer of cake, a dome of ice cream and a layer of meringue about as thin/thick as icing would be at the sides and slightly thicker at the top. Did they announce a twist in either episode today? I noticed the flags each baker had added to the baked Alaska and since they didn't necessarily fit with the theme of the cake, I wondered if that might have been the twist for that bake? I have no idea what this kind of pastry would be called in French but is it possible he didn't know what a hand pie was and thought it just had to be a hand-held pastry? I don't think the first bakes count towards the elimination, so I think he was lucky. Likewise, Steven who didn't have much luck with his bug dessert. Generally, I kind of wish they would have continued with the two hour episodes, at least, for the first one of tonight when they still had ten bakers. Even I felt rushed by how rushed the judging was, especially for the first challenge. 😄

I'm happy they gave them more time. I still think a little more time for the second bake wouldn't hurt but it already makes a difference to have 3 hours for it. They may not be showing it. I remember that during one of the championships last year, we all thought that there was no twist and I believe one of the posters then found something online that there was and they had apparently edited it out or something along those lines. I wouldn't have remembered the twist if you hadn't mentioned it; I'm so with you. I didn't miss it at all. Yes, you can get tangerines until well into spring but I know them as a winter flavor as well. I'd never associate them with spring. (I find spring tricky in general. The first strawberries come out in late May and carrot cake is popular for Easter but all the other berries are summer or late summer fruit as are peaches, nectarines and cherries and I can't think of anything else for spring).

I loved that rehearsal scene, from the dialogue between Josh and CJ to the comments Bartlet made about the typos and how the staff tried to urge him along. I always laugh at it; thanks for the reminder.

Happy I could help. 🙂

With the exception of Michael's (I felt so sorry for him), I thought all of the first round desserts looked amazing. Some were a bit more spectacular than others but they all looked like restaurant desserts. While Sabrina's (it was Sabrina, wasn't it, I was doing something else while watching?) was one of the less spectacular ones, the dessert was rolled so cleanly and evenly and I thought the colors were appetizing, too. From the look of the dessert alone, I probably would have given the win to the baker who made the coconut. That was incredible, she even put some of the dessert in the top. I was really surprised by the winner of the cake challenge. It wasn't that the cake looked bad, it just looked rather simple in comparison. It must have tasted beyond amazing to have won. The waterfall cake was stunning! And I think it was even more stunning by the fact that she had originally wanted to do something else and then had to do damage control. I don't know if they changed the application criteria or if they are giving the bakers more time now but I feel like the talent of the bakers has gone up for the past few championships. I was really impressed by all of them. I also appreciated the constructive criticism the judges gave. Yes, Nancy did mention "it looks like spring" several times, still, she also said other things. I was pleasantly surprised by that as she normally doesn't give that kind of criticism or it's edited out of her criticism. I don't know if she's changed her approach or if that's due to the two hours but I actually liked that they had more time for the judging. The judging didn't feel like "blink and you miss it"; there was time for the judges to say more than one sentence and time to take in the cake. To me, the entire show felt a little calmer and less rushed and I wouldn't mind if it was always like that.

If you have a US TV provider, the last five episodes are available on the CBS website. 🙂

The show ended with Callen and Sam in Morocca, reconnecting with Nell, Nate and a former CIA agent looking for Hetty and yes, the office is still very much operational. It was actually his son, although, I don't remember if he was already a fighter pilot or still in training. He was cleared of being suspected of having sabotaged his flight and returned to either the military base or school. If memory serves, his daughter was still attending the naval academy an Annapolis when the show ended.

I'd prefer to call it something along the lines of "Best of the Seasons" but I really like the idea. They had all of the past winners on Christmas Cookie Challenge this past season and they came up with some awesome creations. I would also enjoy seeing how they have grown as bakers.

It's been a while since I've read it and I don't remember the eating disorder. I'll have to go and re-read it. Yes, I think the group of friends running the business was one of the things that appealed to me. I also liked the dynamic that the author had created between the characters. They had a great kind of friendship and it felt true. One other Trilogy that I remembered that I enjoyed was the Key Trilogy. I don't know anything about Nora Roberts, so I have no idea about her as a person and I haven't read any of her recent books. (As much as I enjoyed some of her books, the newer ones that I read all started to read the same, so I stopped reading her). So, it's possible that her characters are more diverse by now. But in all the books that I've read, I remember only one LGBTQ character and he was a friend of a main character (and while I don't remember which book he was in, I remember I liked him and had hoped that the next book in the series would maybe be about him). To make a long story short, I think in order for her books to be attractive to someone like Shonda, Roberts would have to agree that the producer could make certain changes. If she were willing to do that (and as I said, I don't know anything about her, so it's entirely possible she would be) then I think you're right, they'd be perfect for young actors and actresses and it would be great if a big name producer bought the rights. Although, I feel like either Lifetime or Hallmark did use a plot or two from her books. I know Hallmark has Debbie Macomber movies and I believe she's an author, right? And there's a Chesapeake Series and I've meant to look that up to see if that's based on the Mariah Stewart books and I keep forgetting. But I thought that some time within the past two years, I'd seen an announcement for a movie based on a Nora Roberts book, too.

My favorite Nora Roberts books are the Wedding Quartet Series and the Inn Boonsboro Trilogy. Those were characters who I really cared about and who I wouldn't have minded to read more of and about. (Eg, I would have liked if more than one story had been told about each couple).

I think Major Crimes did a lot of that and it's one of the reasons I loved that show. It's kind of contradictory. The show got so many things right with regards to how society views women and Rusty's attitude and his relationship with Sharon and then they treated Sharon the way they did... I also loved how Sharon responded. At the beginning, she was understanding and allowed him to be angry at her but then there was the point where she had enough. It felt natural and right. I also liked how she would often guide him by asking questions rather than telling him what the right or wrong thing to do would be. I think she demonstrated really good parenting.

I would imagine that she has some stuff left in the US. So, she would probably have taken the small suitcase with things she wanted to have immediately and the rest would have been in a container, waiting to be shipped back to the US. I agree with both. I think she provided a perfect balance to Scott and she actually was my favorite character, so I'm kind of bummed she left. At the same time, I can't say I'm surprised. While she did provide a good balance to Scott, they also seemed to not know what to do with her after she and Scott decided to call it quits. Almost as if they had defined the character through her relationship to Scott only which is a pity. And yes, no more office romance, please. Although, I don't mind it per se, it simply seems that so many shows feel like they have to have characters hook up and they don't. There are a lot of good stories to tell without involving romance.

Air date: Jan 29, 2024

Short answer: the rule book 🙂 The difficulty levels are determined by a combination of things. As far as I know, for spins depends on the spin position themselves (there are positions in which it is more difficult to maintain speed/rotation of a spin than others), how well speed is maintained, how many rotations there are and how many changes of position are included. For step sequences, it's the steps that are involved (like with spin positions, some steps make it easier to maintain or gain speed than others), depth of edge (at least for ice dance, I'm not sure about pairs and singles), change of direction and, I believe, change of height level, too. I'm not sure but I think if you include a step where you drop low on one knee then get back up and continue as if you never dropped down it raises the level. Kind of like the jumps that some skaters do after they've dropped down to one knee. For ice dance, how close two skaters are matters as well. Same for twizzles, by the way. The closer they skate together, the more difficult it is. And I think dance holds factor into it as well. I don't know if speed is a factor nowadays, too. I remember back when they first started with the new judging system, it didn't matter how fast you executed the step sequence. If the sequence was complex enough, you'd get the difficulty level (which led to some very slow step sequences). I may be missing some thing but I think that's generally it.

The latest round of TV Line spoilers include a filming update on The Night Agent.

New cast members update https://tvline.com/lists/the-night-agent-season-2-release-date-cast-spoilers/

Can you imagine what he would have had to say about AI generating content. Everyone around him would never have heard the end of it 😆

I hardly agree with anything that was written and as shapeshifter said, did the author actually watch the show? As others have pointed out, cases are almost always unrealistic on TV, Alexis wasn't really involved in police business until that last season (which gave her a character and personality change anyway) and consenting adults can have casual sex and in the end, Castle was a lot more mature than he let on. It seems that the author of the article didn't quite understand that this was mostly a personality Castle portrayed to the outside and that's why we got the scenes at home where we were shown that there was a lot more to him than the playboy mentality he let the world see. The author does have a point about there not having been any development for the supporting characters. At the same time, that is how this show was structured. The show told Castle's and Beckett's story. The others were indeed just "supporting characters" and their stories only mattered in so far that they interacted with Castle's and Beckett's story. It's not right or wrong, it's just a matter of preference. I'm not sure what point the author is trying to make about the police procedural format. Yeah, the show was a mix of procedural and serialized. So what? I have no idea how realistic it is that a civilian would be involved in police investigations. I'm under the impression that they do use civilians. Not on such a regular basis, then again, this is TV and not a documentary. As far as Castle's and Beckett's relationship is concerned, the comment gives the impression that the author didn't actually watch the series again. Castle was not as immature as he let the world see. And Montgomery also said in season 3 that he had allowed Castle to stay with Beckett because Beckett could use some loosening up (paraphrasing). I'm not sure why the relationship wouldn't be healthy especially since I think we're clearly shown how it comes to be and how Beckett gets to the point where she can admit that she's in love with Castle. The author does have a point with the last point they're making. Some of those obstacles were ridiculous and unnecessary and were the lazy way to do things. Interestingly enough, there was the same thing about Pretty Woman on German radio recently. Someone was looking at it through today's lens and just like this article, it sounded like the radio person didn't get the message either.

So cute! But how did you get the large ones to stay upright? 😲

Depends. When I'm in the US, I usually don't weigh the two sticks. Only if I have time, a stick that's not used up and feel like using it. I do weigh things like a stick and a half, though, even if there are measurements on the paper. In Germany, butter comes in 250 g "bricks", so most of the time you have to weigh butter. Since the metric system is based on numbers that multiply by ten, almost all if not all recipes use measurements based on numbers that multiply by 5 and increases happen by 25g. So, 75g of butter, 100g, 125g etc. If a recipe calls for something like 80g of butter, you'll likely find that it's translated and converted from another language and weirdly enough, you're hard-pressed to find a recipe that calls for something like 105g or 110g or 115g of anything. I have one cookie book that has a mixture of Imperial and metric measurements. For example, the butter is given in grams and most of the recipes in the book call for too much butter. I believe that's because one stick is 113g but the recipe calls for 125g. And 10g of butter (almost a tbsp which is roughly 14g to give you a visual) make a huge difference if the flour isn't adjusted accordingly. (My guess would be that they simply converted and translated the recipe but didn't actually try them out). Once I figured that out and reduced the amount of butter, it actually worked.

I'm the opposite, I find US/Imperial so inconvenient because of the extra step(s) involved. Eg, if you weigh the ingredients, all you have to do is put the bowl on a scale and weigh. But for US/Imperial you have to get out cups and maybe a spoon and put the ingredients into that and if you have an ingredient that's sticky like honey, sour cream or cream cheese it sticks... Way too much work for me 😉 I have the cutest snowman cup set for Christmas time but I never use it because I've converted all of my US recipes to grams.