Lois Sandborne

Finally got around to checking this out. It wasn't perfect, but I would like a legal drama in my rotation, so we'll see. Even with all the overwritten lines and silly legal blunders, the only thing that really bothered me was the ambitious lady associate calling Maddie "Perry Mason" but not knowing who Matlock was.

It's just too hard to swallow this. Frasier doted on Frederick, even from across the country. Freddy loved being around his dad. We saw him visit Seattle and we saw Frasier visit him. We only saw the most superficial disagreements, when Freddy wanted to chase a girl at the campsite, and when he was chasing some other girl by being goth. We have no reason to think Frasier would be more disapproving of Freddy dropping out than Lillith, who didn't want him to play ball with "the slow children" and made a deal to never see Freddy in a school play or even attend his graduation just so he'd get into Marbury Academy. But Freddy adores Lillith. And he adores Martin, who we have no reason to think he ever saw except the same few times he visited Seattle to see his dad. Sure, anything could've happened to them offscreen over 20 years. But there's no reason to believe it did. These writers are doing a ton of telling us that Freddy and Frasier were estranged, and that it was all Frasier's fault, but they haven't shown me any reason to buy it.

No surprise here, but Nelly was just a delight on Extra Slice this week. She came out in a tiara, keeping up her streak of fabulous head wear. She also said she formed a real friendship with Andy, and that Noel is her brother from another mother.

The Simpsons also did it.

Doing my annual viewing of TOH episodes, and thanks to autoplay I'm catching all of the election episodes along the way. Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish is really underrated. I think it's a better episode than Sideshow Bob Roberts, even though it has fewer gags.

True. I think I meant that for me it just confirms that they definitely don't judge on the week itself. They use whatever factors will justify the result they want, and this may change week to week or season to season. That's not great.

I really love this crew of bakers. This is my favorite cast in a long time, personality and skill wise. Also, Prue and Paul just go ahead and admit you like peanuts. They always end up saying, "Oh I'm not a peanut fan, but that's lovely." Give it up and fly the peanut fan flag already. I would've eliminated Sumayah this week. Her showstopper looked absolutely disgusting. But, confirming my suspicions, Paul finally outright said they would consider her future potential when making the decision. I think that's unfair, but I know lots of people have always thought this was how they do it.

Just more evidence that they don't actually care about the technical challenge.

I don't have a food processor, so I can't do any of their crusts. Erin's did look good though. I like the rope technique she did to seal; I'll probably try that. And too, from what I understand the remainder of an ugly carrot that becomes a baby carrot gets shredded. So by the time you figure in all the people buying those for cole slaw and carrot cake, it's really a big net gain.

Yes, that's how I found it too. I make a citrus upside down cake I got from Good Housekeeping. It uses grapefruits with the various oranges. It's a real looker and always gets a big reaction. I do love cooked fruit, but if I remember right, Erin only soaked the apples in lemon and sugar before folding them. So maybe you'd like that pie, @Bastet.

I think it has certainly been too long since we've seen an eyebrow slash on Bake Off.

I finally found the 25th anniversary show. My DVR didn't catch it, and it wasn't on demand, but it was on my PBS app. I'm on the team that thinks cutting Chris Kimball out is really funny, but he always did get on my nerves. I liked that they tried to feature all the other past presenters in some way. I'm caught up on the new season now. I don't have a grill, but I am super tempted to try to adapt Dan's chicken for my oven. Did anybody see the caramel apple pie Erin made on the last episode? What a finicky recipe. I was kind of rolling my eyes by the time she got through the hours worth of prep to get the caramel pie done, but then she started rolling all the apples into those goofy rosettes to lay on top! And then the precious effort to cut around them to get an actual slice ... it's a no from me.

Oh yes, especially Nelly's. Very brave of her to share that, and her theater came out well. Really, I rolled my eyes when they said "build a puppet theater," but everyone rose to the occasion. Cristian's was very nice looking, and Dylan's was really cool. I wish Illiyin would've added her people like she planned.

12 bakers entered the tent for the second week in a row ... What an episode! Sorry, fellow Americans for chiming in early, but I must speak. It was so sad to see Jeff walk off the set. I felt so bad for him going in for the technical still "wobbly" but wanting to try. I hope he's better now. Maybe he can try again next year. And then a few minutes later to see Illiyin collapse. What a spooky coincidence. It was a very shocking episode. I hope there are no more emergencies, for their sakes and mine. It was also awkward having Noel stand there for Illiyin's criticism. And I thought for a second that Dylan was playing a mean joke by falling over. Glad to find he was just being a klutz. The baking took a bit of a backseat for me this week, but I did laugh during the technical challenge at everyone saying "mint cream biscuits" when they were obviously tiptoeing around a brand name. Google tells me those are called Viscounts. I only like mint and chocolate together in limited applications (Thin Mints and Frango mints), so I was with the bakers on not being thrilled by the challenge. I wondered in the signature why Paul and Prue were splitting the Viennese whirls in half before tasting them. They're meant to be eaten as a sandwich cookie, right?

The best suggestions I've heard for Walz are Richard Kind and Tom Arnold. I'm not up on the current cast. I agree they should look there first, but the physical aspect is really important for this one. No one will nail it who can't pull off dad bod with that huge, goofy grin (complimentary).