LoneHaranguer

We were told in The Jimmy Conjecture that Leonard and Penny's first time was not great for either; Leonard said it was "fine" (which Sheldon passed on to her as "disappointing") and Penny said it was "okay" after some hesitation. Subsequent evidence about things between them has been inconsistent, but leans towards being disparaging of Leonard.

From their POV, wouldn't life in the outposts be barely distinguishable from hell?

Not always, the classic Mean Joe Greene Coke ad being the most well known. He's said to have gone through 18 bottles before they finished shooting. They should make it real more often; most of the people in those kind of ads are terrible at pretending to eat or drink.

I should have been clearer; you referred to "the States", so I was responding in that context.

They don't use the word "transistor" any more; it's "pocket" or "portable". They still pop up occasionally in closeout or low-end clothing stores, but if you can't wait, you can go to the web site of somebody that sells similar items, like a kmart.com or walmart.com.

Considering Sheldon's interest in cleanliness, why is everyone using their laps and furniture arms instead of having foldable eating surfaces? I'm thinking of those things that stand at the side of a chair or sofa with a base that tucks under and a surface that swings up, flat, and around.

But if his interest is power, why kill off the billions of people he's ruling over? The Apocalypse seems more of an Old Testament God, wipe out the wicked, kind of thing, rather than an Antichrist move.

My guess from back when they were wrangling over the table is that Sheldon is unwilling to accept the "misuse" of a chair; desk chairs are for desks and dining room chairs are for dining room tables.

If Michael wants power, wouldn't he rather be heading the Cooperative in ruling the world, rather than just ordering around a few people in fallout shelters after everything else has been destroyed?

You may have tried something else that's related. A doctor should know what that is (or pull out their Physicians' Desk Reference to find out). One ad is helpful enough to mention sulfonamides.

And how could she be confused about not being able to bring her girls back after she just told Michael that she had done something similar with Mead? An Anti-Christ with more powers than she has isn't going to return the favor? There's very little commonality in writers. I see there's another new name this week, giving us ten different writers for nine episodes. This season is like a writing class project where each student does one chapter of a story, then passes it along to the next. Ryan is the teacher who gave everyone a rough outline and helped with the first chapter, and we'll probably see his name again for the ending. The witches are good guys, so I don't see that happening; maybe prevent his conception or have him grow up elsewhere? With all of the ranting this week about what Michael wants being what Satan wants, I think I'd prefer if Satan showed up and reversed what happened, after confronting his son and saying he likes having a world full of war and misery.

My father was "in the service" and hardly said anything more than that. I expect a lot of veterans would prefer to put the crap they've seen behind them, or at least not view it as stories to be telling.

I'm not sure "hurt" is the right description. Amy has long been concerned about losing her status as Penny's bestie, so she's a little paranoid about any sign that could be slipping away. Also, as someone who has used being alone with Penny as an opportunity to trash Bernie, she's afraid of what Bernie might be saying when the situation is reversed.

But they probably wouldn't have wanted to phrase it that way since it could be taken as an insult, even if that's why Amy might have needed a break.

I think he eventually noticed, or he wouldn't have paid such attention to the number after going out the door.

But this ad is for Mercedes, which a kid back then would have considered a boring car for really old people. It's only relatively recently that the company has been trying to expand their customer base.

The elevator may not have even stopped on the right floor. He just joined some other party-goers, figuring they were probably going to the same place, and was fooled by the upside-down number into thinking he had been right.

It looks to me like nobody was paying attention when a writer decided that it'd be cool if Mead were to be shot and turn out to be an android, so now they're trying to justify that, by killing off the original Mead, telling us about a super-duper spell that keeps anyone from bring her back (including Michael, and I guess his dad), and having nerds doing unlikely things. BTW, according to Wikipedia, nobody has written more than one episode so far this season with Ryan Murphy just a co-writer of the first, so a coherent story free of digressions to explain what some other writer did may be too much to expect.

The traditional magic number for syndication is 100 episodes. They did 21 last season, so that's five seasons, representing ages 9-13 (he's 10 this season). It's only shows with the shorter seasons of 13-16 episodes that have become common lately that "need" to do seven.

All of the guys have a fortune in collectibles, including Howard. He may consider that to be enough, but I could see Bernie not taking that seriously. Siebert is President. I don't think we've met the Dean. They could have brought back Gablehauser as department head, but we wouldn't have gotten the bird lady.

They're putting next to no effort into making different characters played by the same person look different. I shouldn't be having to guess that Sarah's a different character because she's wearing a wig; I shouldn't even know it's her.

There was only enough money for one grant and Siebert didn't want to take any heat for his choice, so he put that person in charge of its allocation, fully expecting Leonard to do what he did. Leonard was free to assemble a committee if he wanted, but he would have been criticized for who he picked or didn't pick to be on it.

Locally, they sell the Strawberry and Pineapple flavors too, with more choices in the pick-any-Coke-product-you-want dispensers found in some fast food restaurants. As to why Fanta in the episode, Fanta was invented in Nazi Germany, so it could be a reference to the Holocaust and evil wanting to take over the world. What brought Michael to the execution site with Cordelia there to have this conversation? Did she go tell him "We just burned some folks at the stake; wanna see?".

Because he knows what appeals to Emmy voters?

OTOH, that name implies that there's a version for women too, so this may reflect a marketing change. IMU, the "little blue pill" is so closely tied to just one effect that they've had trouble selling the idea that it isn't just for men. Put the same stuff in a new form with a new name and touting other effects and maybe they'll be successful.