Bastet

Chef Justin Sutherland, of Wildcard Kitchen, Fast Foodies, Top Chef, Tournament of Champions, and more, has been arrested and charged after allegedly choking his girlfriend, pointing a gun at her, and threatening to kill her.

Riley doesn't care about fireworks (Maddie is the only cat I've ever had who did, but once she hid under the bed she was okay and could even fall asleep; thankfully she was not under there trembling in fear), but we had fireworks last weekend, then a shit ton of them last night, and I know we'll continue to hear them tonight through Sunday. It's a ONE-DAY holiday, people! Even though neither my cat nor I are personally affected, I have the basic compassion to feel terrible for all the people, pets, and wild animals who are harmed (emotionally and/or physically) by this barrage of explosions that seems to go on longer and longer each year. And I can barely stand to look at NextDoor on July 5th, with all the posts from people saying their dog got out and has anyone seen him/her? Every goddamned year there are reminders in the days leading up to the holiday that no matter how "bullet-proof" you think your dog is and/or how secure you think your yard is, they may still get spooked and manage a frantic escape so please bring them inside. And then when a shit ton of those dogs are found and turned into the shelters that are already filled to capacity, guess what happens -- dogs hoping for a home get killed to make space so the dogs people failed to bring inside can sit in a scary cage for a day until the owner comes to retrieve them. Some shelters euthanize in advance of the 4th, so they have cages available as soon as at the dogs start coming in. It all makes me sick. The fireworks were over around midnight last night, and about an hour after that there were some coyotes howling nearby. I gave Riley, snoozing away tucked into my armpit, extra kisses, so happy she's safe and sound and wishing all cats could say the same.

LOL at the baguette response to the cigarette clue; next time I pick one up in the bakery department, I'm going to look like a lunatic, laughing at the image in my head of someone holding a baguette between two fingers. I also have to laugh when Isaac doesn't know something from the '70s, when he's standing there supplementing his mustache by dressing like he raided the wardrobe of a porn flick from that era. I only ran cake in the first round, but after last night's epic disaster it just felt good not to have any bad categories; I missed two each in geo and layers, but got all but hate in French, all but J. Cole in music, and all but the St. John Ambulance TS in organizations. I ran health and words, and got all but the Marc Andreessen TS in midwesterners (I would have also been stumped by Brittany Mahomes had they not used a picture that included Patrick), and missed two each in everything else in DJ, so not bad. I knew English and Dutch were two of the answers to FJ, and Spanish seemed like a reasonable guess for the third, so that worked out well.

I've seen it complained about here, but hadn't actually seen the Kristen Wiig commercial for Target, where she's some crazy-ass employee with a weird accent who confuses everyone by announcing it's circle week. And now, OMG, I have seen it a dozen times because Hulu has decided to show it to me at every frakkin' ad break. I looked it up, and apparently the Target Lady is a character she played on SNL. I hope it was funny there, because it sure as hell isn't in this infernal commercial. I'm going to sprain a finger if I have to keep frantically hitting the Mute button.

I watched at my parents' house last night, so didn't keep track, but I know I was utterly terrible in the first round, quite possibly the worst first round I have ever had. I blew the franchise movies category entirely, as I've never seen any of them. In grids, the only one I got was the gridlock TS. And I was pretty bad in games, too; checking the archive, I missed three. But I ran the others, so I was either excellent or awful, no so-so categories. I had a much more typical performance in DJ. I know I ran the "never had that response" category, because it was really fun. I had to check the archive to confirm I also ran "E", and I know I missed one or two in all the rest. FJ was an instaguess I figured was correct. So a very odd game in which I got better as I went along.

Do they eat dry or canned food? If dry, are they good water drinkers? Sometimes pooping outside the box is simply a result of not being adequately hydrated -- that makes poop hard, which makes it difficult to pass, which makes pooping unpleasant to painful, so they associate the litter box with discomfort and avoid it. When you come across poop while it's still fresh, is it hard? If so, that may very well be what you're dealing with. If they eat canned, adding a little psyllium husk (for fiber) and water to the food can help. Or canned pumpkin, if they like that (some cats will gobble it up on its own, but some don't even want it mixed into their food). I hope the vet finds the cause and it's something simple to treat. Good luck, and let us know how it goes once you're able to get them in.

I may start mooing. I don't eat a lot of beef -- I only like ground beef as a cheeseburger, and the only cuts I really like are rib-eye and tri-tip (I'll eat filet mignon/beef tenderloin if served, no problem, but I'd never choose to make it). Last week, my local market had a good sale on bone-in (the only way to eat them, IMO) rib-eye steaks and had one that was the perfect size for me to grill, eat 2/3 of, and then later make something with the leftover third (often they are enormous, and I don't want that much leftover meat to deal with). So I grilled that late last week, am going to make tacos with the leftovers tonight, and then tomorrow I'll be having a cheeseburger at my parents' house. (For the 4th of July, if they are home my dad grills burgers and my mom makes onion rings.) He always grills two extras, as we share a strange love for cold patties (just the meat and cheese) as a leftover lunch, so that will be four beef meals in just over week. I can easily eat four or more chicken meals in any given week and I don't start clucking, so no actual mooing will ensue, but I perhaps should have timed the steak thing a little better knowing the 4th would be in the midst of all that. Thankfully, I'm one of those people who can eat as much fat as she wants without digestive issues despite not having a gallbladder anymore. The salad to go with tonight's tacos (which are simple, with just the meat, scallions, cheddar, and guacamole) will be romaine, watercress, and jicama with lime-cilantro dressing.

I ran songs, lonely, and names, got all but the Organization of American States TS in history and all but golden calf in meltdown, and missed two in books, so I had a pretty good first round. DJ, not so much. I only ran GR8 and the only one I almost ran was science, getting all but Livermore. I almost blew Jason entirely, but Seinfeld saved me and I at least got Steinbrenner. I missed three in paintings and two each in the rest. I joined the contestants in having no idea for FJ.

There's a thread for Tales of Yesteryear: Movies of the Week and Miniseries of Yore. It's a good read that brought back a lot of memories (and had me checking YouTube and streaming services to see if I could find several of them to revisit).

That Chrysler Building answer to start the game was something. I ran landmarks and sports, got all but tricolor in flags and all but bell ringing in leisure, and missed two each in the rest, so a decent but not great first round. I was firing on all cylinders in DJ, though; I even almost ran a Bible category (I got all but fathoms). I ran stands and X and got all but vanadium in elements, all but Amun-Ra in old news, and all but Daymond John Jay Leno (I knew Leno, but could have sat here until I died and not come up with the other guy -- the only reason I didn't also miss the Paul Stanley Reed Richards clue is because the two guys seemed sure the Reed was Reed Richards [I have no idea who that is] and I knew the Stanley was Paul, so I decided to go with their answers for the second part, but if they hadn't helped I would have never come up with Reed Richards). FJ was an instaget.

I wonder what the challenge for that one is going to be. It's usually Alex vs. chefs who don't have the same national reputation and competition experience as her, but who have all been recognized regionally as among the best at the same thing, with that thing sometimes being something Alex doesn't do much of. This time it's going to be Alex vs. other celebrity chefs with oodles of competition experience. I'm happy to watch this particular group compete (although, yeah, Garces is my pick to lose, as I don't hate him but I do not like him the way I do the others), but it doesn't sound like Alex vs. America.

We need bees! If there's a swarm, they'll move on quickly (within a few days). If there's a hive, they're here to stay, and that should be removed by a beekeeper. Do you have time to search for any local to you? If you gave the building manager some brief information on how bees are critical to our food supply but their numbers are declining, and contact info for beekeepers rather than exterminators, do you think he would do the right thing?

That's what I'm familiar with, from a friend who rented one in San Francisco about 30 years ago and a neighbor of hers with a similar layout we visited, but I've also seen it described as a home in which there isn't a hallway at all -- you just pass from front to back into one room after another -- but to me that's a shotgun house. The last room being the living room interested me, as both of the railroad places I saw started with the living room and ended with the bedroom(s); living room, kitchen, and then bedroom(s), with the bathroom(s) being off in the corner(s) of the bedroom(s). If I was going to live in a place like that, I'd demand that layout as opposed to having to walk past everything else to get to the living room, unless I never had anyone over. I have friends whose front door opens into the dining room, which is open via a peninsula to the kitchen as you face forward, and then you turn left into the hallway for the rest of the house and as you travel that hallway find two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room off to both sides before heading straight in the living room as the back room of the house, with an en suite bed/bath off to the right of that. If they like it, I love it and all that, but no thanks for me.

Was Matt's garbled pronunciation Ken said they'd accept as larynx "larnyx"? I can't imagine accepting that, but it's what my ears heard. The c'est la vie clue struck me as a little odd; if the B*Witched song was a recent one, I'd understand going with that one for the "it's also a [band/artist] song" hint, but with both being decades old, I'd think Robbie Nevil's song by that name is the better known. Moot point, I'm sure, as virtually everyone who knew it would know it simply from French for that's life, it just stood out to me. The Yukon TS surprised me. As for my performance ... Yikes; not my game tonight (not as bad as Zoe's, but not good). In the first round, I ran school and 20th c. and got all but canoe review (because I was trying to think of something to rhyme with boat; canoe never occurred to me since they're two different things) in Rhyme Time and all but Sally Bowles in novellas, but missed two in true stories and three in currencies. I didn't run a damn thing in DJ. I got all but true patriot love in Canada, but that's as good as it got; I missed three each in Hot Ones (great show, but I only watch it when the guest is someone I "know") and guards and two each in the rest. I did eventually come up with FJ, but it took me a ridiculously long time.

I haven't decided on the main dish yet (something with the one bone-in chicken breast currently sitting in my fridge), but the salad will be arugula with lemon vinaigrette as I have just enough of each left for one salad, and the side dish will be something I love but for some reason realized I have not made in a while -- sauteed artichokes, asparagus, mushroom, scallions, and zucchini, simmered in vegetable stock and white wine, topped with parsley and a light dusting of grated Parm.

I know - and enjoy - all the benefits of cast iron, so do have some cast iron cookware, but I use it sparingly because what Lisa feels is an easy peasy cleaning process is, to my mind, a chore. Just scrub it in hot water, then put it back on the stove with some oil in it, then wipe and wipe and wipe until the oil is gone, then put it back on the stove to fully dry, then put it away. Okay, yeah, that's not difficult, but it does take significantly more time than washing a "regular" pan. The two cast iron breakfast/brunch dishes they made are things I'm sure I'd enjoy eating if served to me, but I didn't get a craving to make either one. In the previous episode, with Mediterranean dishes, the grilled haloumi wrap looked good. Those I would make if I had a friend or two over for a lunch on the patio.

Good, because too many people treating those dates as "expiration" dates creates an unconscionable amount - over 125 billion pounds (when you combine what retailers toss and then the much larger amount tossed by consumers) - of food waste each year. It's estimated that nearly 70 percent of what is thrown away is edible. The only time I check the date is in the store, and mostly only on dairy -- I'll buy the one with the farthest out date. But once food and drink is in my refrigerator, I no longer pay attention to the date. Like you said, looking at it, touching it, sniffing it, and tasting it is what tells me if it's still good, not the sell by/best by date. Recently, I had some half and half that smelled good, but once I tasted it, nope. But normally my sniffer is accurate.

Money. The farewell is here. Since the forums are still active, the community manager - who creates new forums - is still employed. That's done by volunteers. I think there are only a couple of them these days.

Not me. I eat them with ranch dressing, not plain mayonnaise, but I grew up with a best friend's mom who always ordered a side of mayo to dip fries in, so no gasping here. I don't hate ketchup, so if someone served me fries with ketchup I could eat a few (so long as the fries are thin and crispy; I hate potatoes, so only like fries if they taste like salt and oil and are a vessel to deliver ranch to my mouth), but I don't really care for it, and would not eat a burger or hot dog contaminated with it. I don't like plain mustard, so get that away from my burgers and dogs, too; I use mayonnaise on both. Then add relish and onions to a hot dog, and lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions to a cheeseburger.

Wherever he is, what exactly is Sander taking a vacation from? Isn't his whole life a vacation?

That sounds great! I usually root for Alex, but Team Stephanie, always.

That is nuts. If anything, be more impressed they made the relationship between the characters so believable when it bore no resemblance to their own. It adds another layer of enjoyment where a working relationship that resulted in an on-screen duo or group I delighted in also resulted in friendships that continued well beyond the show -- I love that Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless are still friends all these decades after Cagney & Lacey, that the original three Charlie's Angels stayed close, that most of the cast of Battlestar Galactica (the remake) considers each other family to this day, etc. But it doesn't take away from, let alone ruin, my enjoyment of a show if the actors don't like each other so long as no one is creating a hostile work environment. Some of my all-time favorite shows starred actors who were not fond of each other off screen, and which was known to be the case at the time the show was airing, but they did the job and respected each other as scene partners. So it didn't matter a bit to me as a fan.

The only time anything coming out of Smith's loud mouth is correct is when he's making fun of the Cowboys or their fans.

Cynthia had not yet posted anything at the time that article I cited above reported cast reactions; she has since weighed in with: “RIP Roomy. I pray there’s happiness for you on the other side.”

Two of his games had poetry categories and one game had a FJ clue about a poet. As for any additional individual clues about poetry in any of the non-poetry categories in his games, I didn't look closely for them, just searched for clues with either "poet" or "poem" in them, and only found one.