snarktini

True! But I'm not sure calling Californians douchey works against him in a popularity contest. (And I think it was the LA accent, specifically.) Snarking on CA seems to be a national sport. ;) (Speaking as a long-time CA resident. Proud to be a left coaster, and one of the fruits and nuts!)

I have an ex-bf named Louis Joseph Manfredi. Every time Joseph Manfredi was on screen I thought of my ex. Except Ken Marino is a lot more compelling. :) I liked them as an evil couple. Too bad she went cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

Me neither. And I studied French for 8 years, and minored in it in college! I did a little digging. I hate to say anything too definitively because language is tricky, but this is an exception to typical rules -- usually an is ending is an ee sound. Even among native speakers, there appear to be a lot of mixed opinions, though. Apparently old French pronounced more of the silent letters, so this is an earlier pronunciation of the word that is formally correct but not everyone is aware of. Possibly this particular world held onto its old pronunciation because it's a homonym of lit (bed). That sounds a little like a myth, but it's an explanation. The Lys spelling is also an older version (v. Lis) so that may be what signals the s is to be pronounced.

I just had a flashback to my 30th birthday... I hosted a fancy dinner party and cooked boeuf bourgignon. Most plates were empty, but a few came back with one vegetable left on each -- one person picked out all the carrots, another mushrooms, and one the onions. To this day I have no idea which friend hated carrots. Huber Keller can cook for me anytime.

Earlier, the PR lady said Renard should be running for office. (Red light.) Then she asked Renard to stay up on the stage after his intro. (FLASHING RED LIGHT.) Third, she stepped off stage to "take a call". (OH SHIT.) Clearly the sniper was waiting until Renard finished speaking to take the shot. He was still loading and such while Renard talked and wasn't in any hurry. Since Renard was in the photo shown to the sniper earlier, I assumed -- we were meant to assume -- Renard was the target. When the sniper took his time, my guess was he'd hit Renard in a shot "meant for" the candidate. Guess I was wrong on that? Clearly we don't have all the info yet. Now my bet is on her wanting Renard to step in to the race, as others have guessed. But why would he need to be on stage for that? Super disgusted they put Nick and Adalind together. As a character I like her ok and she has changed, but that's just too much history to overlook. I kept saying NOOOO at my screen, hoping for a fantasy sequence.

I can't keep any of them straight except for annoying Daughter/Daddy. To be fair, I think it's because I don't give a toss about any of them. Throughout the cave scene I was clutching my pearls. Don't get me wrong, I have on rare occasions canoodled with a guy I just met... but nowhere near a television camera, a group of onlookers, or my FATHER. This blink-and-you-miss-it moment was awfully important information for us. Bad scripting not to make that more clear.

Yes! It's called an ostrich pillow. Can get them on Amazon. http://www.ostrichpillow.com

Joan dressed more in street wear early on, relaxed urban chic. Now I find her wardrobe fussy. The costumer said they wanted her to look more "sophisticated" this season to reflect her growing status and confidence. While her wardrobe looks clearly expensive / high-fashion, to me all the peter pan collars and neck bows and tiny ties and mini skirts feel more school-girlish than strong. (How many bows can one woman own?!)

I don't care for the toast craze any way around it. (While it started in the Bay Area, where I live, I had a hard time believing Padma that it's "taken the nation by storm" or whatever she said. If so, I offer my sincerest apologies to all of you.) But I thought they missed the point -- they all made what I see as crostini or whole-meal-on-a-shingle. Most of the "fancy toast" I see is a little more simple, more like what Marjorie did. What Amar did completely obliterated the bread, which was supposedly the star of the show. Then again, Tracy des Jardins didn't note that so maybe I'm off base. Now I have to go pop corn and wait for commenters who were irritated to see that Marjorie wore a very nice dress and heels to dinner with Hubert Keller, after wearing jeans as FOH in RW. From all accounts I've read, Keller simply decided to move on. It's telling that recently he turned 60 and his business partner passed away. Locals: Take note he owns the building. Can you imagine what he's going to make on that after 30 years?! http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2014/06/05/fleur-de-lys-to-close-this-month/

Schrödinger's Squint

Right? They showed Crane open a bottle at the beginning of the sequence (not even bothering to remove the foil before pouring) and then he uncorks a second bottle when Abbie comes in. Either a continuity error, or he downed a bottle of red! Damn, man! Get him a wine cardigan, stat.

I didn't see this get answered... he was a red herring. They explained it very briefly. Not sure I can do this well, but I'll try: The cops assumed that Mutter and Rose would be alerted that they had the chip. So the cops set up a "real" plan and a "decoy" plan. The plastic surgery guy was the decoy, so Mutter/Rose would think the cops were busy watching him supposedly meet with Rose. Then Rose would feel safe visiting Luisa, who was faking an emergency to lure her out. The audience was supposed to be fooled, too, thinking they were doing one thing when they were really doing another. The narrator said he was so relieved to tell us what was really going on, but couldn't earlier because he didn't know who to trust. That was cute.

It's starting to feel like Jeremy is this year's Lisa... on the bottom but saved by a worse failure. Every time.

Except for Asha and Alexander, the other 3 seemed to have very mixed reviews (overall) considering they were high and low. They loved Sam's (Kini's) shoulder detail but didn't like the pant fabric and they barely had nice things to say about Kini's. And same for the bottoms -- there was a whole lot of undeserved praise mixed in there with the negatives. My only guess is the guest judges had a lot of sway, and that contradicted the regular judges, which left a mixed bag. Kini and Sam should never have been in the top over Dom and Ken! How is that possible? And I thought Emily and Valerie (or was that Layana?) deserved a bottom spot, too.

Ken Marino has been acting steadily since the 90s -- more than a HITG, maybe not quite a household name. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0547800/ I finally learned his name from Reaper and Veronica Mars. Loved Vinnie Van Lowe! Lots of people also know him from Party Down.

The end isn't working for me because it feels more like the first half of a story, not a cliffhanger. I think good cliffhangers are ones that reach some understanding / resolution AND THEN something else happens that is open-ended -- a plot twist or a question to be answered. Like, they catch the super powered villain, then our hero is sucked into a portal another dimension. Or, our heroes have triumphed in a shootout but then we see a stray bullet hit the best friend. There's a "OMG?!" moment, but the viewer is not left with more questions than answers. Here, hardly anything was answered or resolved. They just stopped the story halfway through.

I didn't really hate or love either one ... either one is an interesting tv show, but they aren't the SAME show. I have whiplash. Overall, I tended to prefer the more campy COTW episodes back in the day so I had the most fun with the standalones in this season. That doesn't mean I think they were better, nor what I would have spent a limited 6 episodes on. I could not believe this was all crammed into one episode! The fall of the civilized world, multi-state driving trips, and vaccine development, all in 24 hours. It seems like episodes 1 and 6 are the story they came back to tell, and it would have been plenty for 6 hours. So why didn't they do that? Like I said, I like the sillier stuff, but now looking back I feel like the middle eps were killing time to get to the real story.

I know Killer Fatigue is an Amazing Race phenomenon, but the paratha seemed like Marjorie's KF moment. It was an extraneous element that wouldn't have affected her dish in any way to hold back... and she still sent it out. They're always lectured about editing, but it's often not possible to edit after the fact. This was a rare case when she could have. Total unforced error. I'm assuming the food was fairly good otherwise, medium rare notwithstanding. I thought it would be Jeremy's turn based on the critique, but they all seemed to have some pretty big negatives.

Wait, why do Jack's sandwiches have nails in them? (If it's a nail, that's what was said above. I couldn't tell.)

One of my loves: How Gus nearly always plays along with whatever ridiculous story Shawn spins, even when he's annoyed. It sometimes strikes me as clever writing more than a clever character -- no amount of improv training in the world prepares you to follow that well -- but I always find it delightful. But where it does fit the character is that no matter how annoyed or reluctant Gus acts, he really does love that Shawn drags him into the crazy. He's all in. Example: "This is my associate, MC Clap Yo Handz" and Gus chimes right in with a little clapping routine. "With a Z." http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=16VrqUEdyTE I'm absolutely terrible at lists because I rarely notice episode titles or what season I'm in. But I just rewatched the Anyone...Bueller episode, and it's one I love if only for Shawn's 80s references and the Breakfast Club dances on the roof.

This! It was like they didn't even notice he was there. Since pretty much only Barry could free himself, you'd think the others could have turned their attention to the other guy who needed their help.

^^^ oh HELL no

Backing up a bit -- maybe even to the previous episode? -- Phillip said he said he runs FOH in both of his restaurants. This implies he's not running his kitchens. He could be creating menus and keeping an eye on things, but his cooking time in the kitchen would have to be impacted if he's divided between FOH/BOH at two different sites. (And he's no Emeril, who had decades to learn how to do that!) No wonder he's struggled in Top Chef. ETA: Having two other chefs makes sense. He's playing restaurateur, and someone else is working in the kitchen. Which, again, is why he'd struggle in a chef-ing competition.

They way overdo peplums on PR, but they do have their place in the real world, I swear! I have several and dread the day they go out of style. Particularly jackets. Look to the 40s to see how peplum jackets create a beautiful shape. I'm a pear, and most tops aren't cut with the curvy or a-line shape I need to fit both waist and hip. Peplums solve that. And they mask a bit of belly if they hit in the right spot. They key is it a gentle peplum -- the exaggerated stiffness & ruffles we see on TV don't work for me at all. I want to create curve without adding volume.

We obviously see the world differently. I honestly do not think they look like slobs. Marjorie is casual, even very casual, but not slovenly. And it would take a hell of a lot worse for it to occur to me not to eat there because of it. How is this looking like a slob? Not stylish and not flattering? Sure. But Karen has a clean, structured dress with neat hair and even some makeup. I'm baffled. I have a feeling some of the difference of opinion may come down to how one feels about sleeveless clothing, especially sleeveless on a larger women. I, myself, do not go sleeveless so it's a debate I'm intimately familiar with.