JessDVD

Can someone educate a plebeian on the proper way to pronounce mascarpone? I would say it moss-car-pohn-ay but that could be my Spanish studies.

Chad and Erin are a bit young to completely dock the boat, IMO. Lots of people have high-risk pregnancies and still end up being able to have a couple kids. Now that they know her issues, she does stand a better chance of carrying to term (though that stillbirth risk thing stinks big time) and she could probably (I say as though I can control this) have another couple kids. But I do agree that in this situation, where pregnancy is high-risk from the get-go, that aiming for constant pregnancy is foolish. I hope that Gil & Kelly have made it clear to their kids that excessive reproduction was THEIR choice, and is not something expected of all the kids also.

I really barely care about the results, I just enjoy watching the judges actually cook, rather than sit around and nitpick (I know, editing). I want next week to be the 3 who judged this week's, plus Conant to compete, and 3 of the 4 who cooked this week, be the judges. I'm the only person I know who likes tuna noodle casserole and I was dying to try those dumpling things that Marc made with them in the appetizer round!

I've generally been inclined to give Josh the benefit of the doubt that this stuff was isolated to the years that it was reported to be, and since then he's moved past it. Lots of people do stupid things when they're a teen (though most of us at least have the benefit of not doing things quite that stupid or gross), and turn into respectable adults. Maybe I'm generous :) but I still feel like Josh has generally become a respectable adult especially considering his parents and his circumstances. And I too had such high hopes for him & Anna in DC away from his family. I don't really know what Josh could possibly say other than what he said in his statement when it first broke, though, beyond a tell-all about what his parents were really like and all that, which I doubt he would do. Mostly I just hope that he & Anna are able to make some kind of decent life for themselves, and not spend it living in JB's pocketbook.

Psalm 127:3-5a Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Or in King James if you prefer, since he wrote the Bible: Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.

Anna is due July 10. I know that off the top of my head because I'm due 3 days later so the date stuck in my head. :-)

I don't expend any energy actually getting bothered by things on the Internet, but I think it's not unfair to say that phrases like "homefooling" are kind of insulting to the millions of families who home school using actual curriculum and teach their children as well as the local public school might. Though that isn't really about social class. It's not something that really bugs me (speaking as someone who does home school while simultaneously wearing pants). Also re: Connections Academy & K12, technically kids who use those programs are considered public school students, doing distance learning at home more or less - at least in Michigan. There's nothing wrong with them, just to be clear. It's a way to do school at home, but it's not home school in the traditional sense of the word. And, there are many states (Michigan included) where a parent-issued diploma is given the same weight as a PS diploma as far as college admission. Most HSed students I know also take the SAT or ACT depending on region, and their parents create a transcript like I got at my PS that they use for college admission. I've never known any HSed grad who had a problem getting into college with that amount of paperwork. I don't think I know any HSed student who took the GED, the only people coming to mind are people who dropped out of high school for whatever reason. Bringing this around to the Duggars, I have often wondered what sort of education those kids REALLY got, because the show did a pretty terrible job of showing us. Michelle's bankruptcy "lesson" trotted around here as evidence of the lack of education, is really only a 5 second blip of what (hopefully) was many, many more hours that (hopefully) included things that were actually useful as far as education is concerned.

Both the Bateses and the Duggars have trotted out the "Our adult kids make their own decisions!" line, but when every Duggar kid does exactly what the parents' party line is, and there are variations among the Bates kids (Alyssa's maternity shoot in jeans, Zach & Whitney kissing ["mistake" or not], etc), it's easy to believe the Bateses actually mean it, and less easy to believe the Duggars do. Without getting too OT into the Duggars, Michelle's sanctimonious response to Jill & Derrick front hugging in the airport suggests exactly what the response would be to anything further than that. I feel like I recall Gil & Kelly getting a little high & mighty over Z & W's kissing, but ultimately accepting it was their decision and not being obnoxious about it.

Scott has complained that raw red onions really overpower a dish, which is probably still a personal preference... so a contestant might still be sunk regardless. I go back and forth between on the contestants' side - are you here to win, or here to create your best dish with weird ingredients in under 30 minutes? - and on the judges' side - this is not about your personal preferences, but is the dish well composed and executed?. Getting Zakarian and Arrrrrrrrrron in the same ep would be unfortunate because their tastes are opposite but most of the things the judges really harp on are relatively compatible. Make sure you get Alex her acid. Cook pasta correctly or not at all if you get Scott. Wear a hairnet and debone everything thoroughly if you get Chris. Oversalt everything regardless of who you get which I think is ridiculous but again, are you here to win or to cook what you like... I would be a terrible judge as I have way too many hang-ups but I do agree with the above posters that non-red onion hating judges can probably attest to just how overpowering the red onions are.

It is.

Battle Creek the city, is 15 minutes from my house. We haven't kept up on the show this year past the pilot but are going to during summer. Bummer about it being canceled. I hope Hawaii Five-O makes the cut, but as long at the 3 NCISes are good, I'm good.

I thought I read somewhere (a thread here, maybe?) that Abby's non-maturing over the 12 years of the show is an intentional decision somewhere between Pauley and TPTB. I'm not a huge fan but it is what it is. I'll take a million GIBBS GIBBS GIBBS over the awful seasons where every episode was Let's One Up Tony.

Yeah, those S1 & 2 eps were more "visually descriptive" than the subsequent seasons. I'm glad they've toned that down. I still get mildly squicked out even at things like the view of Ducky from the victim's dead eyeball.

Pacci had been trying to find this guy and some kind of money trail, and it turned out the guy was transitioning to female (I don't believe it mentioned that it was a transgender thing, just an identity change thing, but I could be wrong on that) and she & Tony were flirting (because that happened a lot then) and she kissed him, and then Kate asked Tony at the end, "How was it, tonguing a guy?". If that rings any bells....

I really enjoyed Tony/Bishop's Abby script even though it was kind of stupid. "Ha! It says right there that you're going to say that!" I totally didn't recognize Pacci, I was trying to figure out why Larry Fleinhardt from Numb3rs was appearing in Gibbs' Dead Guy Lineup.

YES. A MILLION TIMES YES TO THIS. I mean, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt as soon as Dorney showed up, that he had a gigantic bullseye painted on his back, but still, I hate it. For a hot second, I was amazed that they got all those people to come back (especially Sasha Alexander) for Gibbs' I see dead people, but then we realized (as we rewound it several times to ID all of them), that it was bad CGI.

I confess I have read the entire book series upon which the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery TV series is based. I like cooking/baking, I like murder mysteries, I like books with female protagonists... so there we go. I would totally watch a TV series called Gourmet Detective, although I'd prefer it not be a Hallmark line. Maybe CBS should pursue that for their next crime procedural.

Beginning of show, we meet the 3 men... Me: Is that guy (the bigger one), um, um... (casts about for actor name) Mr. DVD: If you're about to say Chris Farley, the answer is no because he died a few years ago. Me: Yeah, that was it. Guess it must be someone who looks like him then. (show goes on, ends, I come here to read posts) Me: Oh, it was Chris Farley's *brother* Mr. DVD: Well, that works then. Me: Also Steve Urkel was in that. (we rewind and conclude we never would have guessed that on our own and briefly lament that we are old enough that Steve Urkel is old enough to be playing a 40 year old) Anyway, I pegged the brother the instant he came on the screen. It's always, always, always the sibling when there's a surprise new sibling and imminent money. I like it better when the B-plot is more connected to someone's personal life (as long as it's not Chin and Gabriel, or anything related to the Yakusa or Doris), than a second case. I thought both cases were interesting enough (as painful as watching flashbacks of 40 years olds "flirting" with college girls) to warrant their own episodes. And I agree that there is no way that some fugitive notorious enough to be on America's Most Wanted, is going to be detained by only Chin and Kono. Where do co-eds at the University of Hawaii go for spring break? Minnesota?

As far as involvement with the show, Josh has a pretty good gig, he just has to make appearances a few times a season, mostly for things that he would already be coming to AR for (weddings, baby's births, etc), or not particularly big deal things at home. Aside from the births. I sure hope that they're letting those be filmed because they want to. If Josh wants to get out of the show, I'd guess a good time would be after having been in political office for awhile. FRC + political office = decent resume for finding something not underwritten by the show, I think. He'll still have the name recognition, but could probably get a job without being still attached to the show. But I think it's more likely that as long as the show is on, J&A will be on in some capacity. It is, as said above, more about Anna and the kids right now.

Yeah, the reason I had asked initially was because, who wants to watch people clean a house on national TV so I can understand why they wouldn't film stuff like that. The food, I would say to some degree we can't verify what they do or don't cook when the cameras are off (If I were being filmed making dinner, I'd probably do something easy), but we see the Pantry of Pre-Packaged Goods often enough that it seems the fresh stuff is minimal, plus like someone said above, you know that if they were doing the Dad carving the turkey thing, ever, the cameras would surely film it. And for the perception within the hardcore fundies, obviously the majority of us here have few ties to that, beyond perhaps those who are just regular mainstream Christians of one degree or another, so I was curious what the hardcore fundies would think about the girls' abilities to cook/clean based on what's on or off the show.

I've noticed a bit of a push among mainstream conservative Christians to get married a little younger, or maybe it just appears that way since so many Americans are delaying marriage for a variety of reasons. Either way, the logic is that yes, you grow and develop a lot between 18 and 25 but why not do that developing together. The hazard of course, being that you might get to 25 and realize that the marital partner choice might not have been the greatest. I know one couple that fell into that category, several others that didn't (all in the last 10 years or so). I think 17 and 18 is still young even despite that, but hopefully their courtship will last long enough that they're both legal adults at least... Josiah's not that far from 19, so if the courtship lasts a year (which would be great), he'll be 20 or close. I don't recall seeing a birthdate for Marj, but if she's close to 18, they could be 19 and 20 at marriage, which is not quite as insane. I agree with the post above that this is about the only ticket out of Dodge as far as the Duggar kids are concerned and if one is fortunate enough to meet one's life partner young - and we all know people or are people who just *knew* when they'd met the right person, regardless of age - then I can't fault them for going with it.

Unless they're using some rice I'm not familiar with, it should only take 15 min if put right into boiling water. I assume the problem is usually that they don't have the idea to do risotto or whatever until they're already 10 minutes in, which is pushing it for getting it out with enough time to do whatever else they want to do, as well as plate.

As far as abduction eps on procedurals go, that was certainly the worst feeling ending I've ever seen. I'm glad the baby was fine, of course, but I feel simply rotten for the fictional character of the wife of the perp (I'm pregnant. I have 3 little kids. I'm sorry), who for a few brief shining (for her) days, thought everything was wonderful again and then.... not. I hope that the entirely fictional character was able to get into some decent therapy and eventually get pregnant again.

Could you go into a little more detail on that? I've wondered a bit about what the perception of the Duggars from the hardcore fundie/Gothard world sorts other than the sanitized/staged stuff that's come on the show.

I don't care for speculating about people's sexual orientation, especially strangers (I don't care if you all do, just don't like doing it myself), but really, it's possible that David has admitted to some level of same-sex attraction but chooses to not act on it due to conviction. One of my college roommates is married to a guy who is/does that. I think if we were going to put a label on him, it would be bisexual as he does seem to be actually attracted to his wife, they're expecting a baby soon. He believes that to act on SSA would be sinful and chooses not to. I just hope it works out for my friend. ... and as I was typing this, the 2 posts above came in saying very similar things.