Driad

The pilot, March 9, 2009. "A woman's body is found covered in petals." From IMDB: "Murder mystery author Richard 'Rick' Castle publishes the book in which he kills off his bestseller series' hero, Derek Storm. On that very day, NYPD detective Kate Beckett questions him about two murders in the exact style of his novels, on a lawyer Fisk viz. social worker Alyson Tisdale. He's professionally flattered to have a copycat. Her boss, captain Roy Montgomery, accepts his help as case consultant and teams them up, the mayor being a fan puts him de facto in charge. More copy killing follows. The police simplistically arrest his fan Kyle Cabot, the first common link. Castle and his author friends decide he must keep investigating, on the assumption it's a motive cover-up, which he does brilliantly, as even Beckett must grudgingly admit." Why did you watch the pilot and what did you think? I watched because I'm a Firefly fan and occasional writer. Castle was charming and competent, too much "bad boy" but I figured they would dial that down. Beckett was good, no nonsense and not flirty. (I'm not a shipper.) I hoped to see the poker playing authors more.

Any wagers on what she makes him? As long as she doesn't knit him a yellow sweater ...

How does Henry qualify as a medical examiner? Does he go through medical school every few decades?

I enjoyed this one although they did hit one of my pet peeves: not showing that the "pianist" is really playing the piano. It didn't bother me much because probably none of these actors play well enough, so they had to cut from an actor's face to a real pianist's hands. I really get annoyed, though, when they do it to an actor who really does play well, and probably did play the music, such as Hugh Laurie. At the 100th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1981) one speaker was a musician who had been with the BSO more than 50 years and had known some of the original musicians. He said he asked one of the original musicians whether they had played any modern music in the early years. The answer: "Oh yes, we played Debussy and even Brahms."

Antenna? Friend with better reception? Fox puts eps on line after about a week. Good luck!

I haven't seen a Morse episode in years, but didn't he often get involved with women who were either victims or criminals? If so, these women could have had ulterior motives.

Can someone please explain what they were doing with Clyde?

CeCe Moore's article about the DNA-focused season finale. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/blog/season-wrap-finally-dna-takes-center-stage/

Crossovers -- I prefer not to see them either, partly because so many are a show I watch plus a show I don't watch. But fanfiction writers can do crossovers and anything else. There may be some good fics around. Someone might want to start a fanfic thread to point out fics that are worth a look.

C.J. Cregg: They sent me two turkeys. The more photo-friendly of the two gets a Presidential pardon and a full life at a children's zoo. The runner-up gets eaten. President Josiah Bartlet: If the Oscars were like that, I'd watch.

TV writers seem to think it's cute to have people cooking and/or eating in labs, but having worked in labs I find it annoying. (1) There are poisonous materials in the lab that might accidentally drift into the food, even if the cook uses brand new glassware. (2) Labs like this are subject to surprise inspections from several government agencies; if an inspector found even a gum wrapper in the trash in my lab we could have lost our radiation license.

They almost fooled me into thinking the dead guy's brother was the culprit, because he said dead brother *was* a workaholic. In TV crime dramas, innocent bereaved people use the present tense. But he was too early in the episode, the first person they talked to, so he wasn't guilty after all. Maybe I have seen too many TV crime dramas. Gates's little glasses pushed down on her nose looked uncomfortable. If she needs glasses only for close work she should get half frames. Yay, Old Haunt! Wish we had seen it.

Tomorrow's episode, the season finale, will focus on DNA. http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2014/11/dont-miss-special-dna-themed-episode-of.html

I'd be pleased if we never saw the family again. Would be fun to hear Arm Candy's latest accomplishments occasionally. "Too bad I have to be in Argentina on Tuesday; I'll miss seeing him walk a tightrope from Mount Everest to K2. At least I'll be home in time to hear him perform all four parts of the string quartet he wrote."

We know that Howard's master's degree is from MIT, but where did he go for undergrad?

AIUI, many NA groups took in non-NAs, ranging from children captured in raids to people escaping from slavery. So it was possible to be culturally NA without being genetically NA.

About Dre's mother saying she was Zulu and Native American -- didn't Oprah Winfrey say she thought she had Zulu ancestry but the DNA test showed she doesn't? Henry Louis Gates, on his "Finding Your Roots" show, has said that many African Americans think they have Native American ancestry but most do not actually have it according to DNA tests.

The DNA of the Jewish guests was tested. The DNA thread has a link to an article.

It aired on the east coast of the US, at least where I am. So if you would like to start a discussion, go ahead!

Yes, that is the scheduled episode. We'll see whether it will actually air tonight. Some schedule sites have removed BBT from the grid.

Has anyone heard whether we will see an episode tonight? President Obama is scheduled to speak about immigration at 8 PM Eastern time. CBS might just delay all the evening shows, or skip BBT, or skip one of the other sitcoms. If they skip a show on the east coast, historically they will air a rerun of that show in other time zones rather than a new ep. Hoping that the speech is short and we can see BBT. (I don't watch any of the other sitcoms.)

A little peeve: Walter having to tell the team "You figure out how they built the bomb, you analyze the software," or whatever. These people know their specialties. It feels as if the writers have to keep reminding us that Walter is the team leader. It would be more realistic to me if they chime in "I'll do X" etc. and Walter would occasionally say "The most important thing is Y, do that first."

Jay's complaints about spending too much time with the other two families would have sounded better it any of the families had seen each other in the past several episodes.

For Boston viewers --- WBZ TV has Jeopardy scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 PM. Description: "The 2014 Tournament of Champions concludes with the final championship round. The winner receives a grand prize of $250,000." I hope this is true. WBZ loves to preempt Jeopardy for football, elections, shiny things, etc.

The PBS site for this show is http://www.pbs.org/wnet/finding-your-roots/ "Behind the Scenes" has many resources including DNA articles.