St. Claire

I was just going to come post about this exact commercial! I love how everyone is just so oblivious. "Here, Joey, have a cup of gasoline." "I just laid an egg." Are Rashida Jones and Joey Slotnick the new Mariette Hartley/James Garner, or Teri Hatcher/Howie Long? One of the older commercials had them together flipping through the channels, but as far as I know they are not dating married. Also, did I just date myself with those previous two references?

My husband is a musician (band director/performing arts department head by day, community performer in his rare spare time) and he was sitting in the next room while I watched and kept saying things like "he's got such a talent for using vibrato in this piece" and I just made noncommittal noises so that he didn't realize that I had nothing to contribute to the conversation. I just like to listen.

LEO: You have an interesting conversational style, do you know that? In his defense, she did have some peculiar syntax. I believe that Lionel Tribbey accused her of speaking in iambic pentameter.

There is always a dramatic increase in WW and other weight loss programs after Christmas. I wonder if this year's increase is comparable to most other years'? I actually like Weight Watchers, since nothing is really off limits and there is a focus on just being aware of the choices about what to eat and how much to be active. I'm back on it, thanks to quite a long time of not moving and eating everything in sight regardless of whether I was actually hungry, so I am one of those lame folks who is feeding into their perfect business model ;-) I hate that guy! The way he's all "I did it without having to [visible shudder] go to the store!" If you are that bothered by going out in public, you should probably be evaluated for agoraphobia or social anxiety disorder.

See, I kind of love the generic, middle class mom and appreciate that the advertising world sees another mom stereotype. She's that perfect level of cluelessness, like my mom (who used to complain about how my Nanna would call her at work and just ramble on as though they had all the time in the world to chat). Call-at-the-wrong-time Mom doesn't have to be pushy or frantic, she just needs to call at an inconvenient time with something non-urgent to talk about.

Well, in some areas of the country, it's cold and snowy. bring in your pets and your new year!

A coworker just said that he didn't think Rita Moreno's breadth of work was enough to qualify for the KC Honors. Clearly he has already started his NYE drinking, since Rita has proven herself as a dramatic actress, singer, comic actress, and community leader- I'm exhausted just thinking of the work she's done. Later in the conversation he said that he thinks someone from early days of Saturday Night Live should be named soon, based essentially on longevity. (I'm not discounting the possibility of a Not Ready for Prime Time Player getting being honored, I just think that SNL/comedy career alone isn't enough.)

I have to admit that this is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid of when Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) changed its name in 2007. I don't know why organizations change their names to something that makes them less recognizable. I sort of understood it with AARP (since most people haven't come close to retiring when they hit 50, which is the AARP eligible age), but "Joint Commission" sounds so vague that it loses its meaning.

I especially like that the guy watching the cars go by just got his coffee from Java the Hut.

Macy's actually doesn't have one-day sales, despite their incessant commercials claiming otherwise. The sale is a for a day, but there is a preview day (and often a next-day extension), making it at least a two-day sale. I used to work for May department stores, and we kept the stuff on sale for months at a time, just changing the sale toppers to call it something new (One day sale! Father's Day sale! Summer sale! 4th of July sale! Mid-Summer sale! Pre-inventory sale! Back to school sale!)

Toby's "...wrath from high atop the thing..." is getting beaten by Troy McClure over on Disparate Things Mountain. This makes me sad.

I've been watching a lot of ION lately, and they are running a teaser for an SVU episode on Saturday in which "...Olivia fights to save the life of Detective Benson's wife." Way to go, ION, with verifying character names before putting something into heavy rotation!

Yes, he was seen in a flashback episode from last season and I thought even then that he bears a good resemblance to David McCallum (although a friend at work says Adam C is way too tall to be young Ducky). More Ducky flashbacks, please!

I did not immediately recognize her as Riding Hood, but now can't believe that I didn't realize it right away! She was very good in both the Into the Woods movie and her stint on Blue Bloods this week.

One thing you can always depend upon is that PTV won't judge you for your outfit. I could be wearing anything from a designer evening gown to the bunny suit that Aunt Clara gave me for Christmas last year, and y'all would still treat me the same.

I think Carrie Brownstein's outfit is nicer/more adult-looking than the one the Old Navy shopper woman is wearing anyway.

I'm still trying to figure out how the second couple's clothing is more acceptable for dinner than Carrie & Fred's. OK, Fred's wearing a hoodie (that could be stepped up, although new boy's untucked flannel isn't winning any fashion awards) but the new woman isn't dressed more nicely than Carrie is (sweater dress and ginormous scarf vs. casual pants and blazer- she even put a bird on it). Of note: my spellcheck now accepts "ginormous" as a real word, but doesn't like "untucked."

I took my daughter to Brony-Con last year. It was...an experience I will never forget. I feel as though I can't criticize anyone for being part of an obsessive fandom (since, well, pot-kettle coming from the woman who logs onto message boards to discuss the lack of continuity between Dan Rydell saying he's lived in NY for his entire life in the Sport Night pilot, while later episodes indicate that he's actually from Connecticut), but it was just a bit too much analysis of a cartoon for me to handle and a few too many of the gentlemen in attendance had some questionable hygiene practices. I have a very heightened olfactory sense, so convention centers are not a good place for me to be on a summer weekend.

Most people I know do some research (they identify features that they want and find out which models in their price range have those features) but even my crazy-pants Dad who shops for cars for fun doesn't drill down to the torque ratios and that sort of thing. My research pretty much extends to checking out safety ratings and features (I've been insisting on anti-lock brakes, side air bags and traction control for a couple decades; I've considered good music system and power seat adjustments necessary to maintain my comfort) to find which few vehicles I want to test drive.

Excellent! He was a very good match for David McCallum. I hate when the actor who plays a younger version of an established character looks nothing like him/her (totally different build, height difference, etc.). If I remember correctly, Adam Campbell also did a good job of getting similar inflections to his voice and such to match DM.

On the one hand, it's touching. On the other hand, if someone in my family lied about having died, I would not even be able to express the level of betrayal I would feel. The emotional ramifications of thinking my dad had died, and explaining it to my kids to prepare them, are huge and should not be manipulated like that. I also wonder who was in on the ruse. I mean, who notified the kids that their dad had died? What was the alleged cause of death? Are we supposed to assume that the Lazarus-dude's kids think they are coming to plan a funeral, or did his co-conspirator use that as the reason the kids were coming to the house? What's going to happen when he really does die and this same group of people are having to make arrangements ("No, boss, I swear that he really did die this time!")?

I just applaud any script writer who can effectively put "onomatopoetically" on my television. It's a fantastic word.

I'm confused; that part was in it when I watched last night. Did each affiliate have the option to show a different version?

I'm looking forward to this being good, unlike the past two years (during which I watched for snark value and to lament that poor Christian Borle was being wasted). It's been decades since I saw either the stage production or the movie, so I'm going in without many preconceptions.

While I get the concept that the FBI wants the real bad guy to think that Alex is going to be tried for the bombing (and therefore the Big Bad will continue to do Big Bad things and get him/herself caught), it made no sense to me to have her actually please guilty. She should have, I don't know, refused to speak or acted shifty while pleading not guilty or whatever. The Big Bad now knows something is hinky. Does Anne Heche's character always carry a hypodermic needle in her purse? Did the syringe have some sort of poison, or was she just going to pump a bit of air into Simon's vein to give him an embolism? Is she just a mustache-twirler who likes to flaunt her own wrongdoing (i.e., putting her own case, for which she doctored evidence, in the "hey, find the death that doesn't really fit the pattern!" game) in an effort to show how "smart" she is? And why do I give a hoot?