Gilmel

I agree. I thought Offit was pretty terrible. He didn't seem to know how to respond effectively to Stephen's satire and, thus, missed opportunities to get important points across in favor of contradicting Stephen's more outrageous statements.

That guy was so irritating! I kept wanting someone to say: "What if it had been a child?" Sure, the kid shouldn't be darting out in the middle of the street, either, but kids do that, and you have to be following far enough behind that the car(s) in front of you can stop to avoid hitting the kid without you hitting them. Same legal issue, sir. And he kept smirking, too.

I agree with you on the visuals. I love them. I just wish the sequence hadn't been ruined by such a crappy song. What even possessed them to have a Trek theme song with lyrics, I ask? "Faith of the Heart" speaks to me of love, not exploration, so for me, that song doesn't capture the spirit of exploration in the least. It rather reminds me of Bryan Adams's "Everything I Do" or Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love." But the visuals, yes, they are great.

I grew up during the Cold War, too, and that was never the metaphor that came to mind for me with the Vorlons vs the Shadows, so I don't think the Cold War being over for 20 years would make the story less accessible to new viewers. JMS was drawing pretty heavily on Tolkien for the Shadows, at least, so I think if Tolkien still resonates with people, which it certainly seems to, this story would, too.

I always thought it would have been interesting to have both Kira and Ro on the show. There would have been some interesting conflict and opportunities for character exploration there. And having another Bajoran in the main cast might have been nice.

I think you can both be disappointed in the fact that he's going to host the late show so no longer be satirical Stephen and not think he's a sell out. Disappointed /= thinking he's a sell out. The two ideas aren't married to each other. I'm quite disappointed. The Colbert Report is unique and clever, and I enjoy satire far more than either straight comedy or straight, educated take-downs. I think this is a huge loss, regardless of when he decided to do it because, yes, he wasn't going to keep doing it forever. But, I also have no interest in talk shows: daytime, late night, any of them. And I'm only vaguely interested in seeing what Stephen's like as host of the Late Show. If he makes a Tolkien reference every day, I may be there, but that's highly unlikely, and the format in general isn't one I'm interested in watching. So, will he lose me as a viewer? Probably. But not because I think he's a sell out.

I'm a mushroom fiend, so here are a couple of the quick recipes I use that feature mushrooms and don't include meat. I got this one off Previously writer Stephanie's blog: stuffed portobellos We always eat it with garlic bread, usually just the kind you can buy at the store and heat in the oven. To make this quick, I use pre-washed fresh spinach and nuke it for two minutes instead of blanching it. This one is super fast: mushroom parmesan And, since my husband calls me a hobbit because of my love of mushrooms, it's only fitting I got one of my recipes off a Tolkien video game fan site: mushroom pie I use pre-made pie crust to make this one fast, and generally the amounts I use are: 1 bunch of green onions 1 pound of mushrooms 2 tbsp butter 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper

I think part of that is because DS9, as far as I can recall, is the only Trek that actually deals with human race relations directly instead of using metaphors for it or unspoken larger social context (first interracial kiss on TV). There's this episode, which is set in the mid-20th Century, and there's also a comment Sisko makes to Kassidy in Season 7 about why he objects to playing in Vik's bar: Because that was a time in history when black people were treated horribly, and he doesn't want to romanticize it. I always liked that this was at least called out and not just ignored.

Not just cross-dressing. They actually turned him into a fe-male! Sure. That's the case with pretty much all of Star Trek, though. Also reminds me of the effect in the TNG episode where Worf gets his spine broken by a large barrel falling on him, except you can tell the barrel has no weight because it bounces off the floor. Heh, true. I also got a chuckle out of Kira being so downright angry when she was singing it. I like that song. But then, I quite like a lot of silly children's songs and sometimes find myself humming, "Allamaraine, count to four…." Not trying to say the episode is good objectively, but I don't hate it. I did dislike that possessed Bashir one a lot. But mostly, I disliked Bashir, throughout the entire series, and only found him tolerable when Garak was around being awesome. Bashir also saddled us with two of my least favorite plots: Section 31 and Vik's Vegas.

I don't know, I think "Profit and Lace" has the distinction of being the worst episode of the entire series. But I liked "Move along Home." Mostly because I liked the concept. It was kind of Tron-like in that real people were playing a game that got out of control. You also got to see early aspects of personalities that were more fully developed later. Like Kira being so pissed off about the frivolity of it, and Dax just playing right along in the spirit of the game. Also, any time Quark is forced to acknowledge he does value something over money (people lives, in this case) isn't a total waste. In general, though, I just found the first season pretty boring. The show was still trying to find its feet.

Also, Kassidy wasn't Starfleet, and I think part of the anger Sisko felt toward Eddington wasn't just personal betrayal but betrayal of his Starfleet oaths and allegiance, as well. Plus, Kassidy went to jail and served her time, paying her debt to society.

"Far Beyond the Stars." I think that and "In the Pale Moonlight" are two of the best episodes of the series. I highly recommend watching it. Plus, it's fun to see a lot of the actors just playing humans without their alien make-up.

I also guessed Cheez Whiz or Ready Whip, but my husband was on the money. He got Heinz ketchup.

I'm an omnivore, but have quite a few vegetarian recipes I use. Here's one of my favorite quick ones: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/scrambled-pasta-10000000659306/index.html I don't like green peppers, so I use red or yellow instead, but that's the only change I make. Although I think the recipe really only makes 2.5 servings, it's easy enough to double. That recipe looks tasty, RescueMom. And I actually have cumin seeds in the pantry. I'll have to give it a try.

Q: "How can I prove to you that I am mortal?" Worf: "Die."