Bastet

It's the difference between two systems of romanization, Wade-Giles, and Pinyin, which replaced it - and which more accurately reflects how Mandarin sounds. It took a long time, for a variety of reasons, many of which are political, but it eventually came to be spelled the "right" way in the U.S., so it's Mao Zedong. Or you can just write "Chairman Mao." 🙂

I did too, and talk about picking things up via cultural osmosis, because I don't watch any of the shows. That was my thinking, too - that no one specifically knew the poem, and the reason no one said Titanic is they were afraid the obvious guess was wrong and didn't want to embarrass themselves. The east and yeast TS surprised me, too, but it was the first clue selected in that category and they got all the rest, so maybe they just hadn't wrapped their minds around the category, expecting the Y to be on the end or something. FJ was an instaget, and I had a good game overall. I even got several in the "What Prez Preceded?" category and I'm generally pretty iffy at putting them in order; I can rattle off Washington through Jackson, tell you Lincoln was the 16th, Grant the 18th (because I did a report on him in elementary school), and Chester A. Arthur the 21st (because I watch Die Hard With a Vengeance whenever it's on TV), and, if given enough time, go from Hoover through the present.

Skinny fries are the only kind I'll eat; I hate potatoes, so I only eat fries that are thin and crispy, so they just taste like fat and salt (and the ranch dressing they're dipped in) instead of a potato. Needless to say, I don't eat fries very often. I don't eat much fast food, but maybe once a year I have a Super Star (w/ cheese; I do not even understand burgers without cheese) from Carl's Jr. and fries from McDonald's (they're only a couple of blocks apart on the same street).

I use this, the Drip-It funnel, to easily (meaning hands-free, I don't have to stand there and squeeze/wait) transfer the dregs of one bottle to the next. (I know the link is to a discontinued product, but it's the specific one I have and there are several similar items still on the market - I don't want to pick from among those, just point people in the general direction of something I've been using for years to address this issue.)

This is one of the many results of the lack of a Basic Life Skills curriculum that would make electricity less mysterious, at least alleviating the fear that water merely in the vicinity of electrical current equals sudden death without taking into account the ways in which the current is contained (even in the rare event of improper wiring, insulation, or grounding, death is unusual). It's on par with the American HH in the outskirts of Paris; if her phobia of screen-less windows was rooted in reality, it would have meant the streets of Paris and numerous cities across the globe would be littered with the corpses of fallen children. The showers across the globe (including in the U.K., where I first encountered one, so certainly not only countries with a radically different way of doing things) that feature electric showerheads are similarly not deathtraps.

I still can't look at this episode title without hearing Jackie bemoaning "Lanford, Laaaannnford" (and Roseanne saying "Cities in Illinois) in the original series' season one mall episode. Great opening; Darlene and Jackie are terrific together. And the "Oh, hi, we've never met before ..." scene with Odessa feels like something out of the original series (and Dan's "no honking" reminded me of Mark picking up Becky for their first date). We never saw Darlene go to Rocky Horror, and that's not really who she was then, but I'll go with it; Harris blackmailing her is fun. ("She should only have one, but she has two" - ha!) "A drunk could swerve over here and kill all of us, if we're lucky." The flat tire segment was funny on the surface, but Darlene wouldn't have been stupid enough to text both secret lovers in texting everyone she knows, separately, to come help her (and, good gods, call your first option, e.g. Dan, and then if he's not available call the next person, instead of making everyone you know trek out to the access road -- or, you know, learn how to change a tire). I'm glad Darlene got her ass double dumped like it belongs. The veneer is nicer this go-round, but fundamentally she's been acting like as big an asshole as she was during her Chicago years as a teen and she deserves to have it finally blow up in her face. I didn't like Ben last season, but he's been written better this season, and I respect him for how he handled his end of the break-up. I also appreciate the writers skipping the tired trope of making the expendable leg of the triangle a villain to prop up the connection between two main characters. (Dear Lords of Interesting TV, Logic, Reason, Realism, Good Sense, Healthy Relationships, and Doing Right By Your Kids: Please let the "It's time to move on" break-up between David and Darlene hold.) If you've broken up "so many times," get a fucking clue! It can be hard when you got together so young you're each other's first loves, and you share kids, and there are still aspects of your relationship that work very well, but at some point you have to be an adult. It's time. And it's a much more relatable story on a series that has always sought to speak to realities of the American - especially the working/middle class, more likely to marry and procreate young - experience. The alcoholics in recovery I know, along with those I've seen post in online discussions about other shows in which the issue is raised, would say it's a lot more tempting, when drinking is forbidden, to slip during quiet shitty times at home than while around others and focused on working, even if that's at a bar in a bar (or restaurant serving alcohol, which Becky's been doing all this time); it's kind of Recovery 101, and Dan needs to educate himself further. But the root of his fear, especially as it's tangled up in his notions of being The Protector, makes sense. And, ha, Becky played that well, pouring out all Dan's beer and teasing him about he shouldn't be a bartender because of the way he drinks. I also like Louise outing Dan's trying to put the kibosh on Becky's bartending in that trio's initial scene. (I don't love the missing apostrophe on the box of toys in their later scene, but it's realistic.) This was a good episode, and if they can stay true to the Conner-Healy family's realistic and best trajectory, it could be a turning point. But they've had and abandoned that before, so I'll just enjoy it for what it is.

Unfortunately, I was distracted for much of the game, but I did get to see - and answer correctly - FJ. I also got to laugh along with those in the studio at Inca and Aztec being ruled out, then the final contestant swooping in with Maya (which she may well have known all along, it’s just funny how many clues lead contestants to know it’s one of those three and then guess from there). And I saw the clue giving Tarana Burke proper credit for "Me Too," which made me happy. I also saw the Panic! at the Disco clue, but while somewhat distracted, and in that state my brain received "Brendon Urie" as Michael Urie, so I thought, "That guy from Ugly Betty fronts a band?" (I wouldn't have known it even if I'd read it correctly; I've heard of the band, but don't know anything about it.)

She's not eligible for early release, based on the length of her sentence (she'd have to be in for over a year). She was in county jail for a (state law) probation violation, not federal prison (for a federal offense) - different rules.

Last week's adopters were still in the same home that had been inspected, while this week's adopter had moved. So VRC could say "send us pictures of the new place" or do a new home check. Add in it being a rescuer with numerous animals (personal and foster), not just a person adopting a pet, and they need to make sure she hasn't overestimated her expanded space and taken on too many dogs. Again, they could go with pictures, or a new home check. With the production company paying for it, of course you do the home check, which has the bonus of publicizing the TX rescue. So, yeah, not even surprising, let alone out of line.

I did, too, and it probably would have been a "we've decided to accept that" situation. Also six letters, it refers to sweet, soothing, pleasant, etc. sounds, which does not necessarily mean soft, but could, and some definitions explicitly mention soft. The clue specified when speaking "softly & reverently," so "hushed" is the better answer, but I think they'd give credit for "dulcet" too. Something I forgot to mention: Had I been watching the show rather than just reading the clues, I'd have joined Alex in being happy the contestant pronounced Qatar correctly.

I love how early the archive is updated lately, so that when I know I'm not going to be home in time to watch the episode, I can read the clues in the afternoon. Four Weddings and a Funeral being a TS surprised me (and Air Supply a bit too, given the hint within the clue). Underwater welder for the fishing TS made me laugh. I'm surprised only one contestant took a guess on that Great Lakes TS; there are only five options, so even if none of them know what order they go in (doubtful, so it's probably that none of them figured out it would have to be the one with no international border), I figured at least one more contestant would take a stab at it. I guess because it was a $2000 clue. FJ was a fun clue.

She was also body shamed; even before the film came out, she was being called Fat Girl (instead of Batgirl) in vicious snotty stories about how they were having a hard time fitting her into the costume.

Yes, he's one of those two guys who's in a bunch of commercials trying to get the name your price tool, which he references in this one: "What am I into? Mostly Progressive's Name Your Price tool ... Flo has it, I want it, it's a whole thing." He has a picture of the tool, which is held by Flo, more than he has a picture of Flo.

There isn't much to it because he was so tanked. He was hitting on me at a bar in Manhattan Beach (or maybe Hermosa; I used to spend a lot of time in both with a friend who lived there and those nights kind of run together) with absolutely no finesse because he was leaning more than standing and had to concentrate on making his words come out; he was at that stage where you know you're too drunk but think if you really put your mind to it you can pull it off. Someone that drunk is just gross, even when you might otherwise find them reasonably attractive, and I had no intention of giving up my prime spot because of some guy who can't hold his liquor, so I essentially told him to fuck off and his friend walked him out.

Oh good, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks.