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ODDBALL! My microwave died recently and it took two weeks for a special order on the replacement. I did a lot of gusty sighing as I dragged out various pots in the meantime, but reading the instructions on my Atkins frozen meals did me in: Transfer contents to oven-safe container, heat oven to 350 degrees, cook covered for 15 minutes, open and stir, then cook for another 15 minutes. What am I, an animal!!

NBC has been blacked out for me. You and @Cranky One can come to my house if I can come to yours.

Stupid toasters. I've taken to heating my bagels in the microwave, convincing myself that they're soft onion pretzels. Speaking of cooking, I hate when I ruin perfectly good food by inserting myself into the equation. (Tonight's example: Uh oh. Forgot I had something on the stove and now my caramelized onions are ... burnt, I guess you'd call it? Eh, I'll use them anyway.)

Bought some pre-packaged salad kits today. Comment from the bagger: "What's with all the rabbit food?" I stood there like a mook not knowing what to say and the cashier jumped in to add she bought them as well. Bagger: "My wife and I don't eat salad." Thank you and good day. Awkward and witless conversation complete.

Repeating it to send more waves out to the universe. ;)

Haha! Too funny. In her new Netflix standup special, Jen Kirkman has a bit about periods and the male reaction to same. Raising my hand! I don't make spontaneous remarks but people do ask me, "Aren't you cold?!" Well no, or else I would have put on a coat. For me it's some kind of fevered metabolism (husband used to call me the furnace), adding excess adipose tissue over the years, and hot flashes (SO HOT).

Or maybe it's just not worth it, because a certain number of their fans will be pissed either way? It's lose/lose for artists and celebrities who have any sort of career left. (Thus, excluding Scott Baio.)

What?! A&E says next week is the finale? WE WERE PROMISED EIGHT EPISODES! The AMA special doesn't count.

It's pretty fucking ironic that the only reason I knew about Scientology in any depth over the years was from reading mocking, negative gossip and articles related to their celebrity members, Cruise and Alley in particular. Zenu unmasked as a consequence of the stars that Miscavige feels are the key to Scientology's success!

Here's a link to Monday's What Went Down segment with Rinder and Leah talking about how difficult it is to get rid of Scientology thought patterns and beliefs. It's when he mentioned working on his lack of compassion. Rinder's current wife has an interview segment and does say she was a Scientologist for 36 years. Even counting from 10 years old and being out for at least 5 years, that's one effective skin regimen. With regard to Leah saying her instinct as a Scientologist was to help the woman on the beach ... hell no. I don't doubt Leah's sincerity, but to Scientologists, a drunk woman asking to buy drugs is considered to be a degraded being who is in that condition because of her own evil. Interacting with her would be putting Leah's salvation at risk.

Are they still doing the "let's surprise the winner!" show? That's why I don't enter any more. I would be in my tatty housecoat with unbrushed hair, and nobody needs that.

Useless threat of the week: If the damned writers don't bring Javier and Letty back together in the finale or if they end on some kind of cliffhanger, I will cut them. Use one of those $19.99 background checking sites to find their addresses, fly to wherever that is, go to Target and buy a paring knife, call an Uber to their houses, and take a couple of good jabs. Also? That was the stupidest quote possible for the episode title. So there!

I was listening to one of Chris Shelton's Q&A podcasts and he was asked about psychiatry. Even after being out of the cult for 3+ years and devoting himself to anti-Scientology and critical thinking, he STILL wasn't able to let the question go by without slamming the "many abuses" in psychiatry and saying it might be okay for others but he would never use it himself. That shit cuts DEEP.

It's TMI and intrusive, right? Crying wolf also comes into play. I'm not in the best of health but don't much talk about it IRL because, boring. Then somehow I get painted as "private," which pffft. I'll blab anything to anyone, but they have to ask first. (And honestly, living in a retirement community, nobody wants to open those floodgates.)

Adam is a much kinder person than me because I damned well would have prevented my dog from ever visiting Sue again. She doesn't deserve any sweet canine affection.

Amidst all the bummer storylines, I still found time to snort derisively at Christian claiming that getting arrested and basically blowing up in his life was worth it for one magic day of Larceny With Letty. GMAFB.

Gawd. Let me guess -- some kind of stoner show. I hope that doesn't mean Chris will feel obliged to say "welcome to @midnight at 11:30" every episode.

Che seems to say things like "Trump's okay. I like him" just to shock his audience* or go against the grain even thought he doesn't believe it. I only see him on talk shows, but the careless way he dresses and sit-sprawls in his chair also rubs me the wrong way. Not a fan. * Primarily young and liberal, I'd assume.

Especially when they get to the OT levels that are self-audited! Sit for hours and watch the meter by yourself. Saving the planet, yessir.

The break was good for me because I've mentally rebounded a bit and was cautiously glad to have Trevor back. Cautious because I was worried the show would feature yet another of a hundred Trump-centric desk pieces, but it mostly didn't. I liked Trevor's Machu Picchu story.

I don't think it's as prevalent now with young kids joining the Sea Org, but you'd think the damned government could have prosecuted Scientology for multiple violations of child labor laws sometime in the last 30 years. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act states that children under 14 may not be employed. Did Aaron and his brother have social security cards, earnings statements, and tax returns? Not that $50 a month or whatever pittance they got would even reach the level of needing to file. I wonder if the Sea Org simply paid them cash under the table? That's also illegal. Aaron Smith-Levin commented on Tony Ortega's site that he and his brother were simply "under the radar" as far as dropping out of school since, they moved to another state. Nobody in the government cared, or knew. Do truancy officers even exist any more?

Billy cracks me up but I'm also continually impressed at just how much pop culture knowledge he has. It's not like he prepared for a question about Nicole Kidman's move roles and Oscar nominations, but bam! He whips it out off the top of his head. As for the question in the episode title -- apparently not. At least in comparison to Wendy Williams.

Cute episode. Something just tickles me about Eileen being all hot for VP Murray.

You Tube channel from Aaron Smith Levin, who is featured on tonight's show: Growing Up in Scientology. Sample videos: What Really Goes On at Scientology's Narconon Facilities IAS Predatory Fundraising Tactics Tom Cruise kicks his 14-year old niece out the family Scientology Private Schools & Sea Org Recruitment

I don't, either. Rachel does this along with everyone else and it makes me spitting mad. Nobody knows what might have happened if X, Y or Z had been done differently, which makes all the hindsighted postmortems and pompous pronouncements a wheel-spinning waste of time. Especially from that wienie Sanders who isn't even a Democrat. He can shuttie for good. Rachel has opinions, politicians and pundits have opinions, I have options -- just please stop acting like they're anything more than that.