CleverUserName975

I'm terrible at guessing, although I did get Chaka Kahn and Patti LaBelle! Is Miss Kitty someone from the Buffyverse? This week's clues mention angel and slay. Amber Benson is an amazing singer and she's written a couple of horror films. I don't know if she's famous enough to be a draw for Masked Singer. Tom seemed like he had a blast!

Sigh. They might as well have named Annette Crosbie's character Dead Meat because I knew she was gonna go by the end of the episode. That said, I love that Lucille went to such lengths to care for her patient. I got a chortle out of the social services lady. No loose floorboards, what's the next obvious hiding place? I quite like Dr. Turner's new receptionist (I guess she's not so new now). Back in the day the cliche was that the admins were really the ones making the business work but there's a reason those cliches came about. She's on top of everything! I love Violet snarking she and Reggie would be safe in the shelter while Fred out with the civil defense in the case of nuclear war. Fred was kind of a butt to Violet this episode. Can we find Tim something to do besides study?

I got a 12-pack of hankies from Santa for Christmas so I was totally prepared for this! I have to say while this wasn't my favorite of the Christmas Specials, it had so many cute and fuzzy moments! Lucille fussing over Val's tutu hem! Although I have to say it was in no danger of flashing her undercrackers at it's original length--more of a threethree to begin with. Lucille is wont to preworry--why wait for an actual crisis when she can fret herself into a frenzy right now [I can totally relate . . . ]. Sister Hilda! I'm predisposed to like the character as I adored Fenella Woolgar in Home Fires. I like to think she'll be a good support system to Sister Julienne. Can I get a hallelujah and an amen for Vi? Whipping out all those costumes on her trusty sewing machine while trying to solve the great brassica vegetable caper? At this point her first suspects should always be Fred and Reggie. Speaking of Reggie--he brought the donkey a blanket! Sister Mildred--in the end I liked her but my first thought was they're trying to give her a strong personality and make her Sister Evangelina 2.0. As my 84 year old mother pointed out, she might be short but she can climb up on a pew and apply boot to posterior if needed! Miss Higgins--I had to look her up to see where I'd seen her before. In Calendar Girls! As was Nurse Crane. What month will pop in to Poplar next?! Welcome home Trixie. Although I have a hard time believing that no Poplarite offered to help you with your luggage or that you didn't commandeer one of the many local kiddies to help cart your stuff. I'm still not over Nurse Barbara. Sniff. Her sweater. Good thing I got those hankies for Christmas. Sister Winifred found her calling. I hope she gets to drive the orphanage van at some point, what with all those driving lessons she suffered through (by suffer I mean put poor Nurse Crane through!).

Finally watching Season 6--I'm old school, been on the waiting list for the DVDs at my local library. Hector! I love the return of Hector. He's an important spirit in many of the books and I've often thought he should be more present in the series, sorta like the ghost of Fraser's father in Due South. Henry needed help. He helped. His delivery of that little speech just tickled me--a great reminder that help doesn't always appear in the form we imagine. I love Tantoo Cardinal as Marilyn. I'm not bothered by the way she help/didn't help Henry or the lack of justice for her assumed crime of shooting the kidnappers. Off the reservation she's probably considered what my godmother would call a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but like Hector, she's helping victims escape/move forward/get revenge. The end results may come about in a hard way but she gets them where they need to go. Let me add my voice to the chorus of more Officer Mathias! I was initially disappointed not to see Chief Lolo Long from the books in the series but Mathias is a fantastic character. Zahn McClarnon did a great interview on the Longmire Posse podcast where he talked about the backstory he created for the character.

I'm really liking Anu. In fact, if Stuart did not have a girlfriend right now I could see Anu eventually passing on Raj and going for Stuart. Despite the sad sack treatment over the years, Stuart has been one of my favorite minor characters. Business owner, artist, heck he went for Penny before Leonard did so he's willing to get out there and play the dating game even if he's often shot down. Bernadette--I dunno, she seems to be getting meaner and meaner. I don't mind a snarky female character but dang, there has to be something likeable about them or it's just unpleasant to watch. Amy's line about buying the crazy cow made me snort-laugh.

Edited to add: Yikes! I don't know why the video starts at the Ambulance but everyone was OK! Melanie LaPatin was on What Not to Wear. One of my favorite ballroom dancers and WNTW makeovers! She and her husband choreographed on season 3 of SYTYCD. She stepped in to Cha Cha with Pasha when his partner became ill in week 3. Even at her age she was still makin' it work!

There is a documentary and website dedicated to Vietnam Donut Dollies at http://www.donutdollies.com/.

Finally caught this last night. I don't know where Paul sampled "American" pie [insert obligatory dirty joke here] but like many of you I think those were really tarts and not pies [fill in another dirty Brit slang vs. US slang joke here]. That said, I'm surprised no one went for a buttermilk pie filling. You can do so much with that to make it unique. Coconut and lemon. Blackberries and cardamom. Raspberries and mint. Pineapple and Rum (throw in coconut and call it a Pina Colada pie--we had one for 4th of July--go Murica!). Vanilla and roasted banana. Dang it, now I'm hungry.

I'm gonna admit I have never been a big fan of contemporary dance but it's to the point where I can choreograph a Travis Wall routine: Bow head, slump shoulders. Flail flail flail. Clutch face. Slump to floor. Writhe writhe writhe. Mash cheek to floor and make boo boo cry pout face. Hump floor hump floor hump floor. Kneel and reach for spotlight while looking constipated.

I finally twigged to where I've seen Linda Bassett. She's in two of my favorite films--Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots!

Ah, well, I guess I should have gotten myself in gear and created the macro for "Kiki could take a big stinky poop on the stage and still be praised to high heaven" to save some typing time. I don't dislike him I just don't see the level of dance talent I see in the others and most importantly, I don't get the impression he's enjoying himself--even in his own style. Doriana, I'm old and I was there for disco. Yes, some folks did lots of lifts and tricks but for the most part it was us in all our glitter-wedged, platform-shoe, qiana-fabriced dress (sprayed with Aquanet so our clothes didn't stick to our pantyhose), frosted lipstick glory enjoying dancing with a partner and TOUCHING each other after years of dancing being gyrating in each other's general vicinity. We had silly, happy fast-dancing fun and for the most part the injuries were minor. That's the disco I'd like to see. My adorable 82 year old mom watches the show and this is the call I got last night: Mom: Jenna is Drusilla. Me: What? No that's not her last name. Mom: Drusilla, from Buffy, she looks like her. I keep expecting her to say "Spoik, oiy want to dance wif dolly." And now I can't not see Jenna/Drusilla. Don't get me wrong, I think Jenna and Juliet Landau are both very pretty but it's in my head and I kinda want to see her in a Buffy-themed dance.

My world is topsy-turvy. I liked a Travis Wall routine featuring Kiki and Jenna! I so often don't get Travis as he just seems to have dancers flailing about and writhing on the floor trying to convey some deep, depressing message (which is fine, if that's your dance jam, it's not mine). I've never understood why Kiki is so highly praised--he's not a bad dancer but he's not nearly the level of most current and many past SYTYCD dancers and as for Jenna, I never disliked her during her season, I just liked other dancers more and she never sparked with me until Marko created lips couch dance with her. That said, this routine entertained me. I liked the music, the choreography and I thought both dancers did a great job in telling the story without too much mugging (I think the amount of makeup helped--hard to see the mugging through that!). It's not the best routine ever but hey, for once I think Kiki deserved some of the praise heaped upon him. I loved Lex and Taylor in the American in Paris routine. I'm old and that music and the style is totally my jam (do the kids today still say that?). They're both so young but did so well playing characters and telling the story of young love/lust/infatuation. I have to give Taylor props for dancing with those eyelashes--yikes! They looked amazing but I'm thinking her eyelid muscles must have gotten quite the workout every time she blinked.

I finally twigged as to where I'd seen Lex Ishimoto before! When I saw Billy Elliot in Portland, OR, we happened to stay at the same hotel as the cast and often saw them in the restaurants--they even corded off a section of the bar so the kids could eat late night after the show. We didn't see him in the show but he and the other Billy's did a meet and greet in the lobby of the theater. Nice article from The Oregonian about the four Billys.

Aw, Kaylee and Cyrus were all kinds of adorable! I'm going to admit hip hop isn't really my jam but part of the appeal is they looked like they were enjoying themselves just dancing away. I'll just reiterate my comment of last week: Kiki--I'm pretty sure he could take a big stinky poop on the stage and it would be praised to high heaven. I just haven't seen what all the fuss is about, even in his own style. As for Jenna, I never disliked her during her season, I just liked other dancers more. She can dance, I just find other dancers more watchable/entertaining. I'm still puzzled as to why she kept getting saved as we're voting for our favorite dancer. I will say I loved the disco opening number but I was in high school during the 70s disco era. Those fashions were astoundingly accurate and given the devotion of designers to polyester fabrics I'm sure those costumes must be originals!

Full disclosure: I rarely watch the audition episodes and I half-ass watch the academy episodes. I feel like they could put that into one two-hour special and get on with the darned dancing bits. That said, I don't get Kiki . . . at this point I'm convinced he could take a big stinky poop on stage and it would be praised to the high heavens. Every time I see a Travis piece I channel my inner Jed Clampett and say "well, that was some right fine flailin' and writhin' on the floor!" (I'm old and Jed Clampett was a polite hillbilly who often tried to find something nice to say about the silly situations in which he found himself.) I'm glad Mary is back as she gives good critique. I'm rooting for Sydney, she seems like a hard worker and looks like she's having fun.