Bastet

One of my favorite parts of tonight's episode of the regular show was Kristen answering "Pick a different team" upon being asked what she'd do differently in her season's Restaurant Wars, since that's what booted her into LCK (when Josie was a significant problem but as executive chef the buck stopped with Kristen), so I enjoyed this exchange: Stephanie: Who was on your team [in your RW], do you remember? Kristen: Oh, I remember. Stephanie, realizing: Oh, wait ... While also appreciating that they just showed a clip, and then cut to Kristen reminiscing about how she was a sous chef at the time and didn't have leadership experience; it wasn't a platform to trash talk Josie. And I got a kick out of Stephanie talking about feeling bad-ass because her mic was strapped to her thigh when she was all dolled up for FoH in her RW (she didn't say it, but it made me think it reminded her of spy movies where a female agent undercover in a fancy dress has her gun strapped the same way). I liked them talking about the difficulty in changing gears when asked to come out of the kitchen to talk to diners. This was chock-full of the behind-the-scenes tidbits I find most interesting about the series, so a great episode for me (especially given the presence of Stephanie, one of my favorite TC alum). One I found interesting and will look for in future episodes is that when Kristen loves a cheftestant's dish she doesn't go back for a second bite; it's when she doesn't that she eats more, trying to figure out what's going on with it. Is this the first episode we didn't see the other Stephanie, Cmar, in her hat?

Only according to one episode, where they ignored what they'd already established in order to support the plot of the college reunion mystery. Don't all other references to their relationship back up the original timeline, where they met later (including the whole thing about Molly, as having been impregnated by her professor and secretly giving birth certainly wouldn't work if Trudy was already dating Monk in college)?

A print publication about hardware does not seem a promising long-term investment in 2024, but I hope this works out for Ben. LOL at everyone thinking he set the store on fire for the insurance money. Jackie as the voice of reason was so jarring I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. Becky panicking that she's not cut out to do the job she thought was her path after all this time was touching. Tyler's analogy that pilots talk to other pilots so she should talk to ... him was odd, as we'd already had the actual point with Jackie, which is that Becky should talk with a therapist. But Becky asking Jackie if she's been diagnosed, because they all have their theories, was great. Lecy's faux typing drove me crazy in the scene where Becky was answering emails; she never strayed from the middle row.

Victoria at the top of the leaderboard continues to make me happy, but I hate that Amy and Mattea are doing so poorly. LOL at Yogesh's "Fight On" after he answered the UCLA clue (that's crosstown rival USC's fight song; according to a bio I read, Yogesh went to grad school there). I ran the country music category, but otherwise I think I got very little on the bottom half of any board. The only TS I got in the first game was handkerchief (I got the missed DD of regulator, too). In the second, I got white dwarf and Rho. No FJ for me in either game.

I'll start in the shallow end -- I really liked Allison's top, especially the color. That grandmaster = chess stumped all three surprised me, but in a game with 12 TS I suppose nothing should surprise me. I can't believe Ken initially accepted Roseanne Barr instead of Conner, with character right there in the clue. I figured I was going to blow nursery rhymes, but only missed two. I missed another two in rappers. I ran planets, words, and bananas, and got all but Turgenev in IT, so had an okay first round. I ran quarters, 18th c. and tiers, but missed three in lit and two each in close and moms, which is pretty decent for DJ. I had absolutely no idea for FJ, though.

I don’t understand not addressing the fact one restaurant had an extra chef. Why not wait until there were eight chefs left? Anyway, Channel had the food I most wanted to eat (except vegan gumbo in a seafood restaurant). There was another RW where the FoH person pretty much ignored the judges all night (that guy who didn't tell anyone he'd lost his sense of taste), so Michelle had me yelling at her through the TV when she decided to wait before going to the judges’ table. I’m glad that didn’t wind up being a disaster. Dos By Deul, I really only craved Laura’s tartare, as the sauce sounded great, but I don’t think I’d have disliked anything, even the dishes the judges complained about. Both restaurants looked nice in how they were set up. This was a rather underwhelming episode to me, though.

Michelle! Get to the table!

Are they going to eliminate someone in the QF? Otherwise, they're doing restaurant wars with nine chefs. LOL at what Kristen would have done differently in her RW -- pick a different team. They're really not going to address the fact one team has an extra chef??

I hate that song, and have from the moment it came out. I don't really care for RHCP songs in general, but that's the only one I absolutely cannot listen to.

Thanks for the heads-up. I have the series on Blu-Ray, but my player has decided it no longer wants to play Blu-Rays, only DVDs, and I haven't had time to mess with it. Now I can access the show via Prime when I need a Laura Roslin fix. They don't seem to have the pilot/miniseries, though -- unless it's listed separately from season one.

As soon as I saw the video many years ago, I stole this as my opening response when I'm in the mood to challenge rather than ignore: -Do I know you? -[Some variation on no, or maybe a blank stare or stammering, in which case I fill in the no] -But you're telling me what to do with my face? The ensuing exchange often winds up ending as infuriating as it started, but sometimes it's simultaneously entertaining, and every once in a great while there seems to at least be the possibility for later self-reflection based on the look on his face before he slinked off/I walked away. (The "Women everywhere -- a random man has life advice" summons is my second-favorite part.)

Same here, which is how I talked myself out of my annoyance (the only other alternate representation of his name I've liked is when he mimicked the Vegas sign). Now I can be annoyed again, as I hate the whole "self-described" thing altogether.

Only if it happens as soon as you finish reading/hearing the clue -- it's based on instaget, where you immediately know the answer. The difference is, while it still immediately comes to you, it's as a guess based on something or a combination of things in the clue/category making it spring to mind, not as a certainty because you know the fact(s) at issue. If it's your guess after pondering of the info provided by the clue/category and coming up with something that seems to fit, it's just a regular ol' educated* guess. As a recent personal example, the Big Kahuna FJ clue: Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku has been called by this 2-word nickname that describes any dominant person or expert. I know almost nothing about surfing, and have never even heard of Duke Kahanamoku, so I don't specifically know that he's been called the Big Kahuna (whereas if I did, that would be an instaget). But a Hawaiian name plus two-word nickname for dominant/expert made "Big Kahuna" come immediately to mind -- an instaguess I figured would turn out to be correct. By contrast, tonight's FJ was an educated guess, but not an instaguess; I got to Spain immediately, but had to mull over the clue in its entirety before Carmen emerged as a probable response. *And then, as opposed to educated, there's the WAG - wild-assed guess - where, regardless of how long it takes you to make that guess, you can't identify what in the clue/category you're, even subconsciously, basing the guess on, seeming to pull it out of your ass.

Even with how many they'd already missed, the Jim Morrison TS still made me sigh. These folks are worse at pop culture than I am; they missed half the TV movies (despite pictures of two of them) and all the music (well, of the three they managed to get to; of those three, I only knew "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", which is now stuck in my head, so thanks a lot, J! writers). Matthew realizing he just mispronounced oophorectomy when the clue told him not to was funny. I ran TV movies and hodgepodge and got all but one in deaths and relative, but missed two each in the rest, so not my best first round. Better than the contestants, though -- nine TS that round. Almost the same numbers in DJ -- I ran Adriatic and pronunciation and got all but one Ralph (Bunche, I am sad to say [I'd have been thrilled to join the contestants in not knowing Ralph Reed, on the other hand]), but missed two each in the rest. Still better than the contestants, with 11 TS this time. FJ took half the Think music to come to me; mantilla made me think of Spain right away, but then there was a pause before Carmen came to mind. I didn't know the story started as a novella, but the year made sense and I had no other ideas, so stuck with her.

It should just be this week; he's in L.A. for a comedy festival (and was doing John Mulaney's new live Netflix show last night) which runs through Sunday, but it seems he's going home today or tomorrow.

Nope, you got it right.

I appreciate her delightfully droll comedy, and this special was great. In a given set, there's sometimes one bit I feel goes on too long despite my overall love for her atypical timing and use of repetition (e.g. the Indigo Girls thing), but I didn't feel that way this time. I particularly loved the story about the sexy fireman, plus examples of how learning she misheard something leads to horrified moments when she realizes she came off as certifiably insane in her reaction to what she thought the person had said versus what they'd actually said. And I got a great laugh from the text message she composed while hallucinating, especially at "I see tractor" being in parentheses, because that is me -- even in an altered state, my punctuation will be on point. So when she later congratulated herself on having the wherewithal to put that side note in parentheses, I cracked up. I'm glad they showed that text in the end.

Yay, Victoria! (I also enjoyed watching her do the math on the DD.) But boo, me. Good gods. Maybe I should start watching while I eat lunch the next day, well rested and stone-cold sober, as this whole 8-9 PM thing is not working for me. It's like I've taken a vow of silence. At least I'm not tracking my performance like I do for regular games, just if I get FJ or any TS. Because that would be depressing; I know I ran GnR and got all but the TS in Italian cooking in the first round, but I also know that was absolutely it across both games for great categories and in most categories I was terrible. I did not get a single TS in either game, and had no guess for either FJ clue. The whole thing was worth it for everyone's reaction to the description of the GPA category.

Well, boo, I was hoping Weckiai would hit five wins. The Minnesota TS surprised me; I'd have put money on someone guessing Maine, but with that and Washington ruled out, I also would have put money on the third contestant finally coming up with it. Good thing my predictions on wrong answers/non-answers are all for imaginary money. I missed three in Abbey Road (the Beatles clue, as I generally do, plus Ed Sheeran and The 1975 [never even heard of them]), but if not for that I'd have only missed two - Polk (I was trying to count to the 11th president, but only got through eighth before someone rang in) and sensor/censer (I had no idea what the second image was, so was struggling to come up with what they wanted for the first) - in the entire first round. I ran verbs and colleges and got all but Adam Ruins Everything in "Ad", and missed two each in the rest of DJ, so not bad. I had no idea for FJ, though; Medici brought to mind the arts, not popes, and that didn't translate to any group that would have uniforms, so I never got anywhere in my thinking.

I just checked his credits, and that's the only thing I've seen him in. He's quite good in it; I hate that movie, for how very much I despise the stupid five-minute "romance" it's centered around, but I like a number of scenes with other people, and consider the captain's final moments among the film's best due to his performance saying volumes without a single word.

I have numerous significant issues with the military and law enforcement, so I'm never down with lauding people simply based on being an active member or veteran. But I am always down with getting them the help they need when they are damaged by their service, and unfortunately when we're talking mental damage, there is still a tremendous need for organizations to supplement where the government does not provide adequate care, and I love how many recognize what a tremendous role animals can play in that. That's what I'll confine myself to in commenting on the "vets for vets" backdrop of this episode. Comfort Farms looks like a great place providing a great service, so I enjoyed seeing it, but whenever I hear a male vet say the banding process to make the testicles fall off livestock is "totally painless", I want to ask them if they'd like to demonstrate on themselves. I just did a quick search, and there are a lot of veterinary articles out there disputing that assertion (which is only logical to me). The K-9 (Grizz? I missed seeing how it was spelled) being saluted as his flag-draped body was brought out got me going. I was holding it together at the burly SWAT guy crying over his partner, because my cat was on my lap and she gets upset when I cry, but that did me in. Good catch by Jordan that the chicken had another problem in addition to the growth on his wing. Hopefully getting the coccidia under control will give him some quality time with his family before the cancer necessitates euthanasia, letting him go out on a high note. Harley is a pretty kitty. Her mom needs to learn what draining an abscess means, because it's certainly not just wiping and squeezing. Hopefully she can TNR the stray cat, and hopefully that will eliminate the fighting. "I like big abscesses and I cannot lie" - Sir Lance-a-Lot. LOL!

I wish I could find a way to do it with my Fire remote (there is no asterisk button). This morning, I decided to re-watch the season finale of Ghosts, but fell asleep halfway through. Paramount+ decided to show me Young Sheldon next, so that's what I woke up to -- a show I will never watch, but now have on my damn Continue Watching list. You can remove a show from My List by holding the select button, but that doesn't work in the Continue Watching list. I was hoping the ≡ button would bring up the option to remove it, but nope; in fact, none of the buttons other than Play do a damn thing in that list.

Never let it be said television isn't educational: Friday's episode of Jeopardy! had a category about pets other than cats and dogs, and thanks to this show I got the capybara and axolotl clues I would have otherwise missed.

Ha -- yes, I mentioned to my friends that I'd just been discussing that online a little earlier. We all (age range about 50-60) were I got this about the category, noting it was the last decade we could be that confident about. Alas, it was a QS -- Quintuple Stumper.

I am behind again, but finally made time to watch Dulce's week. Good stuff, and I hope we'll continue to see her in bursts like this now that she's based in L.A. I loved Josh describing what a jury representing NYC would consist of, and the way he and Dulce cracked up over her suggesting Trump might actually face some consequences. Also Dulce explaining all the trials this isn't, and the one it is ("This is the most complicated plot a porn star has ever been involved in"), concluding with he treats criminal charges like Pokeman, trying to catch all of them. And Jordan doing his usual job letting the MAGA crowd talk themselves into nonsensical corners is always satisfying in the midst of being infuriated (I love the guy who said Trump can't get a fair trial in NY, it would have to take place in the Midwest or the South, immediately declaring "No" when Jordan asked if he'd then accept as valid convictions in the GA or FL trials). John Leguizamo taking a break to beat the shit out of a piñata before continuing when he had to say more Latin voters support Trump than Biden was fun. Josh's face when dying seems to be the only tax-avoidance strategy he might be able to use was also I must laugh to keep from crying fun. To save time, I skipped the interviews, but at one point let an episode run while I was in another room and came back to Dulce talking to Orlando Bloom and saying she doesn't need to look to extreme activities to find her edges; she's a Black woman in America. To Bloom's credit, he immediately said, yeah, all she needs to do is step outside her house. I am beyond thrilled to read I have a Jessica Williams appearance to look forward to as I continue to catch up; she was my favorite correspondent back in her day.