Etta Place

If Danielle had anything similar to my thought process for FJ, she thought of Milne first, then reread the clue and said “famous son... Milne’s son isn’t famous... Tolkien’s son is a writer, maybe that’s it.” In other words, I took the clue to mean the son was famous for something on his own.

I liked Tony all season but was pretty sure he couldn't win, just in terms of quality. But he definitely brought it for the finale. Tiffer's piece didn't look like a bear, and the composition was terrible - great in theory, but there was no separation to make the paw and the fish stand out so it was unreadable. I liked Teej's tiger (btw, @PrincessPurrsALot my husband also said Teej as one syllable ... all the way through the finale, all evidence to the contrary), but the armor didn't read right to me. I don't know if it wasn't positioned right or what, but it looked like very nice background decoration rather than something attached to the tiger. When I saw Tony's drawing for his back piece, I said "oh no, that's not good at all," but he sure proved me wrong. I think he definitely deserved to win. As for the coaches, the less said the better. BUT, I did think it was funny that the worst thing Christian could think of to call the Team Cleen hecklers was "social media". Haha, Christian's nemesis!

Interesting, and I think you may be right about protecting Davie. I thought it was just because the vibe would be completely different in that moment if they were going along with what he thought they were (voting Alison) vs voting for him. Just looking around at the usual question wouldn’t have given him the same info because there is always a bit of a “bated breath” moment at the idol question.

I thought of Munich immediately, and my husband and I said at the same time, "I've got one." I asked what his was and he said "Miami." I asked him dubiously, "did Miami host the summer olympics in the '60s?" and he had no idea (he's a math guy, not a history guy). So I had Munich, and knew Mexico City as one of the capitals ... never came up with Montreal. Added: I call total bullshit on that article about Trebek's languages because Italian is listed. If by "can speak some" they mean "recognizes the meaning of words and can pronounce it incorrectly", then sure.

I think it was smartest to use the nullifier now and save the idol, even if you’re not Christian because the times when you can be reasonably sure a specific person is going to play an idol so you can use the nullifier are going to be fewer and farther between than times when it would make sense to play an idol. And I don’t have any problem at all with Carl wanting to visibly take credit for the use of the nullifier. It may put him on the radar in a way he wouldn’t have been before, but since the Davids knew it already and the Goliaths’ numbers are dwindling, it doesn’t matter much, I don’t think.

I got FJ, figuring it had to be 2 presidents who died in office. Thought of WH Harrison, wasn’t sure who the second one was but that Lincoln was too far out so stuck with Harrison. Pleased to have gotten it. I wasn’t bothered overall by the guy, except for that DD wager. If you get it right, you’re tied, which I guess is fine but not considerably better than being in a strong second place instead of betting enough to give her the runaway. And of course doubly dumb in hindsight when he gets the final and she doesn’t.

This. I mean, I have to be fair - I got tired enough of Coven 1.0 that I didn't finish watching it, so clearly I knew that this season might be a challenge for me since it was going to crossover with Coven. But I didn't realize that meant it would be Coven with some other stuff thrown in occasionally. Having the apocalypse stuff for an episode or two just to go back and do all of this is pointless. Usually when an episode of tv opens with some crazy scene and then jumps back to "24 hours ago" or whatever, it's because they couldn't figure out a way to make the story exciting/interesting enough told in a standard way - they needed some sort of hook to get the audience interested at all. This is the same thing, except it's episodes long and I don't have faith it's all going to be worth it in the end. Something I did like: when they pulled together John Henry's ashes and Myrtle said "I remember him being taller."

“Hey Joe” is a Jimi Hendrix song. ”Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?”

Excellent (eggsellent?) point. But of course the answer is that letting everyone decide for themselves is chaos - much better if Natalie makes the decision unilaterally, particularly without any sort of practical food knowledge.

I’m a day late, but I thought Alex did do an accent for Schwarzenegger, although it was a bafflingly vampire-sounding one to me. Also, I see that Dutch/Afrikaans is yet another language Alex can’t pronounce correctly. It is not said like “blom” but “bloom”. I liked Erik and his hair but the new champ was endearingly excited about her win.

Ah okay. Obviously I had bailed on that season before that happened. Thanks for the info.

Oh god. I have been holding out for the promised Murder House stuff, but to suffer through this to get to it ... My husband said, "So what was the big twist? Stevie Nicks sings? Because we already knew Murder House was coming." Pretty much. Perhaps my biggest WTF (perhaps) was the silent movie bullshit for the seven wonders. There was literally no reason not to do that with a voiceover (Cordelia or Michael) with the names and descriptions of the tasks, except to test if the audience could read? Husband said since they'd blown their budget on magic last week this is what they were left with. Probably, especially since I guess they spent this week's on magical frogs and evisceration. I am maybe the worst possible audience for this stuff because of my hatred of Coven, but I want Michael to kill them all. Finally - in that outfit, Myrtle looked like Raggedy Ann.

Well I guess I’m just not on the same train with everyone else. I thought this was boring - lots of time spent standing, posing and walking dramatically, and blowing the CG budget on rose petals and butterflies. I liked seeing Mr. March, and I enjoyed BD Wong. Madison’s hell was pretty good/awful. The rest of it just lost me entirely.

Well, that happened. The good: I am really enjoying the actor playing Michael. (Which I mentioned to my husband while he was smearing blood all over himself - "This may be a strange time to say this, but I am liking this actor a lot.") The bad: For me, waiting on the appearance of the witches has been a black cloud which finally burst and has started a downpour now. I quit on Coven about halfway through and then just read synopses of the rest of the season, which did not motivate me at all to return to it. Vomiting. Lots of it. The sidebar hilarity: There is somewhat of a generation gap between my husband and me (I am firmly Gen X, he is on the dreaded border with Millennial). Last weekend, we were in a thrift store and he brought me a record he'd found in the bin. "Before they invented grammar," he said, showing me an album entitled "Baby I'm-a Want You." I shrugged - you've never heard that song, really? This week, the show made me scream when I heard the music start, haha.

For me, this was a very underwhelming premiere. There just wasn’t anything in it that really grabbed me. The Stu/Stew thing just made me roll my eyes and groan. There were a couple of other terrible lines that I have blocked out but that made me react about the same way. I could complain about the lack of explanation about anything, but 1. It’s only the first episode and 2. Sometimes when I get explanations on AHS, I wish I hadn’t. I dread whatever involvement Coven has in this season. It’s the only season I quit watching. I’ve slogged my way through others that I thought were bad, but I simply could not manage it with that one. The good, for me: Evan Peters singing “Top of the World”, looks like we may get him gnawing on the scenery pretty seriously again this season. I’m on board with Joan Collins. Jay from Unreal! Sarah Paulson doesn’t bother me much and I think schoolmarm is a good attitude on her.

Yes, it was Rafa's knee. He took a medical timeout to have it taped during the first set changeover, and he was wincing as the guy was working on it. I had a feeling it was all going to end badly because even near the end of the first set, Rafa had his grim business face on. I know he is generally pretty business-like, but there is a difference when something is wrong. It's a shame all around, but I am not at all unhappy that DelPo is through, and he deserved it no less because it was through retirement.

I like Kyrgios, generally speaking (*ducking things thrown at me*), but it is clear that the pep talk never should have happened. Can you imagine if someone were playing Djokovic when he gets into his head and is just falling apart and the chair came down to shore him up? If someone is going on tilt, that's an advantage for the opponent and they should be able to press that advantage without someone (particularly a supposedly neutral person) stepping in to alter that situation. If the umpire had warned him about a potential fine for tanking the game, that would be another matter.

I don't think anyone has mentioned it, so I will - I was so sorry to see David Ferrer's Grand Slam career end here, and the way it did. He has always been one of my very favorite players, and a testament to what can be done with some talent, a whole lot of work, and very little complaining.

I was pretty sure Jacqueline was joking about being old ... like now that this particular day had tipped her over to 27, she was maybe “too old”.

Colton as the Bachelor would be like Brad’s second season, with therapist in tow. Or if it wasn’t, it should be - he needs some help. ”Let’s put Jordan in the hot seat and talk about his golden underpants” ... as if that wasn’t what the entire previous part had been about. They should have either cut out the free-for-all or just put him directly into the hot seat and then we would have had time to, I don’t know, TALK TO LEO.

This season is a shitshow, and a boring one at that, so the only things I can care enough about to comment on are Colorado weather and Blake's mom's hair. They are both baffling. I used to live in Denver, and not only could it be short-sleeve weather in winter (temperatures of 70+ are not terribly unusual), it could be snowing one day and short-sleeve weather the next, or later the same day. Or across town. Colorado has some weather to behold. And speaking of things to behold, that HAIR. Sometimes I look at the things people are wearing and wonder about that moment when they stood in front of the mirror and said to themselves "yep, this is perfect", but presumably that hair was not a one-day thing and so she must look at it every day and think .... well, I can't imagine what she thinks.

I lived in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for a year and took the bus over the bridge to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for a couple hours of wandering around and shopping ... got a grilling coming back into the US. Including about why we took the bus instead of a car (we didn't have one - it seemed like what the bus was for).

I was also coming here to say that I hate it when Alex comments that a contestant seems not to like a category, pre-betting. Less commentary is better, Trebek, though I know it goes against your nature.

Oh Alex, you fail again at Italian. The island is CAP-ri like goats, not Ca-PRI like short pants.

Yes, although I don't really believe in "good thing since she missed it" - she didn't make the bet with the benefit of hindsight. It's like a member of an orchestra betting $400 on a classical music category, or a doctor on a medical category. There is always the possibility it will hit a blind spot, but have some confidence in your job description. And since the category was a broad "Male Authors", there was no reason to think that a children's librarian or whoever would be less likely to know it. As for the clue itself, yes, the repetition of "catch" plus WWII plus bombardier were plenty of tease-outs to arrive at Catch-22.