DoctorAtomic

I think the real fat bear week does give them names.

Homer did say it was better when people brought you food. Plus, you think he'd be able to cook even a frozen meal?

I have a friend that loves Fat Bear Week. I cannot get enough of Aunt Dirt. I'm surprised that Judy was all excited about Beef and Clarissa in the bath, given how she dealt with Beef hooking up. Moon was freaked out this time. I do like that they are continuing this plot. So they all go to the VFW and there's food trucks and they watch the bears? I could totally be fine doing that. Coffee cup Carissa was having a blast with the dunking! Pryde Lion is brilliant name. I can't believe they got 'checking my box' by the censors. I really liked the speakeasy. It was perfect for Dirt. Ham was super great. Were they meant to be all in Lone Moose? That was a lot of people. I thought they were driving all over.

Wow, all the bird puns. Bok therapy. And Wing slut was one of the restaurants. I could totally buy all the food apps being a con of the same people cooking in a kitchen. Lisa being the cause of the problem is rare too. I did like the union and the union busting angle. I could buy that happening if this was a real life scam. And the automation taking their jobs. To be fair, Homer ordering from the app and lying about cooking was kind of a jerk move. I never watched The Bear, so I missed any parody, but the kitchen scene was good on its own. Just so we're all clear - You can't make an electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear reactor.

Jamie is worried they'll use the guns against the revolutionaries though. He's got a reasonable dilemma on his hands knowing what's coming. Also, I believe the correct spelling is 'young Ian'.

This is where I started just slogging through to the end. Logain being healed was a great scene, and there are more great scenes, but as a whole, I was just grinding through. There's a prophecy you've already seen that may provide some clues for Logain.

Sens8 was just wall to wall.

I think the other regents were also miffed because the heir seems to like Toranaga best too. I think we've seen sufficient evidence Toranaga is a good strategist. He also came up with the idea to actually resign his regency, knowing they needed 5 voting members. He bought time then to escape and he's buying time now. Last time, he also bet on Blackthorn to mute give up and out race Nestor Carbonell, and I think he's betting on Blackthorne now too. I don't think Toranaga was aware of the raid on the Tea House. It did work, but he just slipped.

Still though. He was yelling at Blackthorne and then drew his blade. Blackthorne thought it was real. Even being the lord, that still seems a bit much.

I think Susie was just really mad about getting covid and probably more mad Jeff had the whole first floor to do what he wanted. Larry (actor) looked to me that he was pushing Susie to really ramp it up on him.

Blackthorne was also nervous and confused because the guy was yelling at him and drew on him when he was just standing there looking at the boat. I'm not sure there was much to learn there. He did change his grip when shown. I just would have thought he knew to hold it with two hands. I'd rather not he suddenly become a great swordmaster anyway. tbh, I'm surprised you can just draw on the Hatamoto like that.

I got a good laugh out of Toranaga sniping about the price of the courtesan and Mariko, "You should have heard her opening price!" And then everyone telling Blackthorne to shut his yap and behave at dinner. I noticed in the background at the dinner that Blackthorne was leaning his head to Mariko to hear what was going on. Good for the actor for playing the whole scene even though he's not the focus. Even with the brother being regent, don't they still need another for a full five? I thought the guy they killed at the end of last week was the regent that wouldn't vote the actor in. Not great on Toranaga to yell at Mariko. He asked her in the first place to deal with Blackthorne. Although I think he was pushing her to admit she's hot for him. Either Blackthorne wasn't buying the Toranaga surrender or Toranaga surrendered because he knew exactly how Blackthorne was going to react. She flat out said it to Toranaga himself during their meeting. Neither she nor I were buying it. I at least have the hindsight of history. He's been at it for nearly a half century. He's just buying time. I assumed the intent was to assail Osaka castle itself with the cannon. They said as much in one of the first training exercises. With the cannon having a longer range, also mentioned, this could keep the ship out of range of any arrows. I don't necessarily think you need armies anyway. It's too obvious and Toranaga has no advantage there. Right now, he's got an armed escort to Osaka. That's the only way he can get into the castle. All bets are off after that. I actually thought Blackthorne did shut up and pay attention in this episode, and I've been on his case the whole show. If you look at the dinner scene, he didn't speak up at all. As for being told to bow, I took it more as Mariko behaving like his wife or girlfriend. He knows to bow; he's been bowing to Toranaga. She likes taking care of him. He already knew what to say to the brother, so it's not like he literally didn't know he should be bowing to the guy. I tend to think Book!Blackthorne benefitted from a sympathetic writer. I can say firsthand, as observant as you want to be, it ain't easy to pick up what's going on so easy. Who's bowing to who, how far you have to bow down, how you hand the business card, what you do with it when you get it. Exhausting. And for whatever reason, there's a leave an umbrella-take an umbrella policy. I got stuck in a who's umbrella is this? My umbrella? routine like Who's On First. I know he's the ship's pilot, but I'm still surprised Blackthorne doesn't know a little bit about swordfighting. He was a 'privateer' so you'd expect he would have to be prepared if the ship was boarded.

I used to use grubhub, but 1, I only ordered on Sundays and there's just not much open, and 2, they had listings that were just erroneous. I used it for a couple of months over the summer and deleted it. I can order direct to the restaurants.

I don't know how Jeff got through the deli scene. Just Larry doing Roosevelt was too much. JB totally got Larry with 'they're going to add you to the evolution of man chart'. I'm actually glad Larry snapped at Cheryl and shut her down about the non-happy ending. Although the lawyer was correct; nowadays, just the accusation will sink him because no one would give him the 3 seconds to explain himself. I kind of feel bad for Cheryl-the actor. She hasn't had much to do on the show except snip at Larry. The Boss was totally cool. I like that Jeff got him to crack up with the 'The Boss eats at a B!' I don't really begrudge Larry for being awkward about Ken. They kind of dropped it on him. "I will never mention this again ever." I don't think I actually ever got covid, but I agree with Larry. What a great excuse. I got the flu in January for the first time in 6 years and everyone thought it was covid. No, people sometimes get sick. What were people going to do chasing the car? Maybe women just want to do it and get on with the day too. If Les gave Larry covid from zipping him up, I would think he (Les) would have already had symptoms.

I thought Man City was largely flat. I don't think they're going to be able to overtake the top 2.

DROP THE BEAT!

I didn't know if you all steeped in the 90s series saw this as a payoff of a longer plot. It sounds like the cloning is kind of a retcon. I don't mind either way.

That was one densely packed episode. It's almost like Farscape. Was it known that "Maddy" was switched with Jean from just the 90s OG series (not the comics)? I mean, did they show something to the viewers back then, that is paying off now? Or a foreshadowing of some sort? For example, did the X-Men think that Jean was dead, but then "oh, no, I actually survived. Here I am!" but TPTB tipped off the viewers that something was amiss? Something like that. I understand Jean turned into Dark Phoenix and had to be defeated. I don't know if the tv show covered that, but it would seem like "Jean" popping up after Phoenix being defeated seems like an optimal time for a switcheroo. I'm talking only from if you're watching the 90s show and then watching here. Not what happens in the comics. I've always been bemused that everyone knows everyone's real name, but they also have 'X-Men' names. When do they know when to use which?

Leslie Jones is really making a great point about nutrition and eating right, and then I totally lose it when she transitions to not dating DJs.

The important aspect of throwing around pardons for people indicted or convinced of whatever actions related to January 6 is that acceptance of the pardon is an admission of guilt. A pardon isn't absolution. I liked the RFK rally just for the change of pace. Costa did ask a good question - what is a conspiracy (colloquially not legally). The guy only insulted him and didn't actually provide an answer. Cheryl Hines is RFK'S WIFE?!

When she was going on in the end about 'scratching out the eyes of fate' I'm thinking she pulled a Titus Pullo from "Rome". Well, he's expecting his trusted advisor and translator to negotiate in good faith so he doesn't get ripped off. He doesn't need to micromanage. She was practically swooning when translating at the Tea House. She'll be able to hide it, but I said before, that eightfold fence is going to explode a some point. Ironically, I don't think Toranaga cares. He even told her to just get a divorce. I'm very slightly irked from the Japanese to English subtitles because they are showing in English quite exactly what the Japanese are saying. There's a lot of 'he' 'her' pronouns, where the Japanese are saying the actual character names. Or when they're saying various ways of "yes, understood" are translated into a longer sentence. I suppose it's only for exposition, but I tend to catch that. Not that big a deal.

Claire yelled at someone and then Jamie had to clean up the mess.

Toranaga doesn't care for all the christian nonsense either, so I don't think the Portuguese overall would want to ally with him. At this point, he's in a weaker position anyway. The Portuguese arrogance on them thinking they rule half the world and it's catholic or nothing is going to be their undoing. You think? As subdued as the Japanese are, the both of them, and the courtesan were practically shouting at Mariko to have sex with Blackthorne. Even Toranaga snipped 'what the hell is it with you two?' when they were arguing in from of him. The Tea House lady was more dramatic.

Ah, I forgot that she said 'the council is outmaneuvered' prior to saying 'you answer to me now'. So she's to get it on with while they dither. Nice to see Mariko actually trained in combat too. Toranaga no fool. "Take Anjin to a brothel and you go too." The negotiations with the brothelTea House owner were fantastic. "Oh, so much damage from the earthquake! Wait, the white guy? You coming too? Oh, we're the pinnacle of discretion." Even the courtesan no fool. That eightfold fence is going to explode at some point. Crimson Sky sounds like the stupidest plan in the history of stupid plans. The critical asset is the Heir. You could just make a surgical strike and sneak him out of there. Maybe a big diversion like a fake siege on the castle. Or just kill him. Then there's no Heir at all. I think Toranaga is the only one that genuinely cares for him. I got nothing against a brothel, but this would have been a bit much for me. I enjoyed Blackthorne's bemusement. At least he was smart enough to not cause a scene. Toranaga might be better off letting the regents beat each other up and then just swoop in a wreck shop while they're weak. I think he actually likes Toranaga and wouldn't do that to him. If anything, Blackthorne has been (inadvertently) realpolitik and very frank with Toranaga. Pirating the trade routes isn't a bad idea to hit them in the wallet. Toranaga is also the only one that knows about the Line of Demarcation at that Portugal is really no friend to "the Japans." I don't think he wants to make that first move though.

Jeff and Susie have a podcast about the show (as themselves, not the characters). I didn't know that prior to the show proper, there was an hour special in 1999. It's on HBO if anyone wants to check it out.