Bastet

Poor guy; I only saw him in a few small guest shots I don't remember, but he had a steady career going until this (from the Deadline obituary linked above) stalled it, a horrible incident I vaguely remember from the time:

Well, it had to end sometime, and when Rhone got the last DD, bet big and got it, so Amy didn't have a lock at the end of DJ, I knew it was entirely possible this could be the night, even though he wasn't a particularly impressive player, because Amy has been iffy in FJ lately. I wasn't getting tired of her, but I'm also not upset she lost; she had a terrific run and I greatly enjoyed watching it. She's my favorite long-term champ since Julia (although I did quite like Matt in between; I just like even more the way they both quietly and traditionally played and kept winning). On a shallow note, I loved Janice's hair. There was nothing extraordinary about it, but the cut and color looked perfect for her face (and I hardly ever notice things like that). I was a little surprised by the Johnny Unitas TS, just because they'd been doing very well in the category. "Before their time", I guess. And, yes, the lack of a BMS prompt at "Manning" was ridiculous. As a football fan, that category was a breeze for me (and I thought it was pretty easy for casual or even non-fans, as it stuck mostly to really big name QBs who got/get a lot of media coverage). I got everything in the first round other than one each in cereal, 10 (the bible book clue, of course) and creatures (the wrasse TS, which I wouldn't have come up with in 100 years; I've seen them in a friend's tank, but had no idea what they're called). In DJ, I ran 1770s thanks to a couple of lucky guesses, but that was it. I missed all but one in gods (I know, shocking), and was just as bad in alphabets (I knew two others, but couldn't get them from my brain to my mouth in time). I missed two in books, and one each in the others (giving myself credit for "Barney", since if they're going to accept "Barney the Dinosaur" for "Barney and Friends" - which is bullshit - my answer surely also counts). FJ wasn't an instaget, but I reasoned my way to it quickly. I started with -sh countries (figuring that was the most likely for ending in H) in Asia (since it has so many of the most populous countries), and, voila, Bangladesh sprang to mind. Rhone's reaction to winning was great. Here's what happened after the show cut away; what a great exchange with Amy (and fun stuff with Ken's reaction to hearing the name of the woman who beat him):

The big name players and their enormous salaries get the most attention, obviously, but plenty of players make the league minimum, and most are somewhere in between. Which is still big bucks, but it's also an incredibly short career in many sports (for example, not even 4 years in the NFL). And for many of these players, a sports scholarship was their ticket to college, with being drafted lifting their entire family out of poverty when they're barely into adulthood. As that documentary explored, it's very easy to grow broke only a few years into retirement (for a variety of reasons). So if anyone achieved enough fame as an athlete to continue making money off their sports career as an advertising spokesperson for something, I can't complain about it unless it's for a totally heinous, bullshit product. I think Joe Namath was one of the first and possibly the best at leveraging that (which was particularly smart back then, as the NFL didn't bring in anywhere near as much money as it does now, so the players didn't come close to earning what they do now).

I like a lot of things about the film, but never had any interest in watching this show when it was on. Seeing it pop up on Roku, for some reason this time around I thought, why not. I've watched the first eight episodes, and generally liked them, but I cannot take Max, or how his parents expect the entire family - and world, really - to cater to him. He's newly diagnosed, so I was hoping as the show goes on they figure out that a kid can have ASD and also be a brat - not everything he does is something he's helpless against because of his disorder. But I took a quick look at this thread and the vaulted forum, and, nope, it seems that will not come to pass. But I like the extended Braverman family dynamic, so I'll keep on with it at least for a while. I liked Haddie getting her moment when Adam apologized for them having completely forgotten her championship game because they were too busy foisting Max on the school administrator (because, even though that grade was full - and this is an environment in which an appropriately small class size is even more important - if she just met him for five minutes, of course she'd realize he's the most amazing kid in the world and admit him) and said he knows it's been a rough couple of weeks for her, too. She looks at him like he's the delusional dolt he's being, and says it's been years, not weeks, and she has no idea why anyone is acting surprised by this diagnosis, since it has been clear since he was quite young there was something going on and, oh by the way, she's the one who's always had to suffer for it.

I didn't have to study much in high school (which was a good school), so I had to adjust in college (a great school), but I still didn't do a ton of studying. It wasn't until law school that I put serious effort into my A's (I had a natural aptitude, but I also worked at it because I cared more than I ever had [I didn't go right from university; law was a second career for me]).

Registered trademark (it's actually ® that goes after it, not TM, since it's registered, and the registered trademark is why the word is capitalized).

I'm not a horse person and don't know the book/film, so for me it was just knowing people have been called a horse whisperer, dog whisperer, cat whisperer, etc. and correctly guessing it based on the wording of the clue.

I find the "love" story in Titanic ridiculous. Not just that this piece of shit storyline is the made-up centerpiece for a real story in which far more interesting real people lived and died, but that even as presented it's total crap in which I cannot possibly emotionally invest. Their few-day "romance" making her all in for being a poor woman in 1912 America is absurd enough at her young age, and still being on about him a zillion years later is beyond, even considering the trauma of his death. I'm not sure I've ever seen a film so simultaneously visually stunning and utterly stupid. I didn't even remember that happened so I just looked it up - is your objection to the fact they didn't stay together, something more specific (that wasn't detailed in the articles I read), that it confirmed their relationship ran its course and they moved on, or something else? Because I never imagined or hoped they stayed together, but I like leaving them where we do rather than following up with reality.

I forgot to note one of the things that makes this series great is how many episodes of a show based on a woman's memoir were written and directed by women -- of the ten episodes, six were directed by women (an astounding percentage given the industry norm), and seven were written (one co-written with a man) by women.

I just finished the series, and cried tears of hope and joy at the end. I loved Alex's vision for her happiest day, especially her recounting of what it took to get to it -- "three hundred and thirty eight toilets cleaned, seven types of government assistance, nine separate moves, one night on the ferry station floor, and the entire third year of my daughter's life". I also love the realism that her fantasy was of arriving in Missoula, officially leaving behind one chapter of her life and starting the next, not of graduating, publishing, buying a house, or anything like that. She couldn't think that far ahead. Abusers' primary characteristic is being controlling, so Sean conveniently dropping his custody claims at just the right time twice was atypical (is that true from the real woman's story?). They did present him as someone who genuinely loved his child, so the realization Maddy is better off with Alex because he's totally unequipped right now to be a custodial parent is a nice thought. My only complaint about this entire series is something I saw mentioned upthread: how preternaturally well Maddy handled all this chaos. I'm not a parent and in fact make it one of my missions in life to spend as little time around children as possible, but even I know toddlers are prone to melting down for reasons both obvious and not, and even the most loving of parents to these complicated creatures have to step outside for primal screams. Maddy's routine - down to the fundamentals of where she lived - changed from one day to the next numerous times, and she spent extended time separated from one parent or the other in a way that was completely different from her norm. Yet her only freak-outs were over the doll inevitably falling out the car window and the unseen tantrum about being told swing time was over. Yeah, no. Alex wouldn't have been any less a mom had she experienced moments where this child she was going through hell for had her totally fed up. But other than that, I found this refreshingly real and thus raw. One of the many little realistic touches I like is we never see Danielle again after Alex runs into her on the street. Will she leave her abuser a fourth time? Fifth, sixth, seventh? Never? Get killed? We don't know, and that's usually how it goes (I used to run the legal clinic of a DV shelter, and have continued to do policy work after I burned out on direct representation). I appreciate that not being wrapped up with a tidy bow, given the storytelling temptation to have, instead of a random new family moving in as Alex and Maddy are moving out, Danielle and her son return for at least the hope this leave is the final one.

I was obviously way off in my assessment of the travertine clue, since I thought it was overvalued at $2000 and then it was a TS. I was terrible in the zodiac category, missing all but one. With more time, I could have come up with two more, but it's not a subject in which I have much knowledge at the ready. I got everything else in the first round other than one anthem (Poland). In DJ, I only ran floor. I missed two each in all the rest (too bad no bonus points for consistency), so not bad. FJ was an instaget (and depressing).

It sounded like he didn't go barefoot in the house, because he snarked at her for doing so. I think they both just like to complain, which makes them perfect for this show. Have any of the few HHs who wanted carpet ever said it's because they hate sweeping/mopping, and carpet hides the dirt better than hardwood? I prefer hardwood, but "I know carpet is dirtier, but it looks cleaner, so I can go longer between vacuuming" I'd totally understand!

Kaleb is too much in every way. Glad the kid's doing well, but I will do anything short of harm my cat in my haste to get to the remote the moment one of his spots comes on.

I always wanted Nickel and Dimed to be made into a series, so I'm glad this book was. Better timing, I guess, as a limited run series on Netflix is pretty much the ideal format for it, and that didn't exist when Ehrenreich's book was published. I've watched through episode eight and the show continues to be predictable in an excellent way; it's so painfully realistic, I can see what's coming -- Danielle will go back to her abuser (that statistic about the average woman leaving seven times cannot be repeated enough), Alex's parents will keep letting her down, Alex will fuck Sean when she's utterly numb from her mom's manic episode, Nate won't accept Alex does not want to date him, she'll eventually run out of places to stay and wind up back in the trailer, etc. I appreciate seeing it kept real, as hard as it can be to watch. It's so honest about a reality television generally refuses to address, and it's important to show how fucked up our public assistance system is. She has to be really down and out to qualify, but she also has to have a job - but if she brings in too high a pittance from that job, she'll lose her benefits. So she'll never be able to save up for a place that isn't subsidized, the wait list for subsidized housing is a mile long, and all these benefits have a time limit on them.

It will be interesting to see whether Amy winds up making a career change after she has her J! check, given (from that Ringer article):

There are so many substantive reasons for me to love this film, but as I tune in yet again (despite having it on Blu-Ray to watch - and largely recite along with verbatim - at will) upon coming across it while going around the dial tonight, I land smack dab on a lesser one: That I amuse the hell out of myself by, whenever I hear the name Lou, mentally shouting Jimmy's "Who is Lou?!" when the players explain Lou (the driver) quit.

This is one of the times where not being burdened by knowledge helped me or, in this case, almost helped me. I couldn't come up with her name, so I got as far as a guess of "the Twilight author?" - because that was the only other than Anne Rice's novels vampire series I could think of (I've never been interested in such stories) - and stalled. If I knew how many were out there these days, I wouldn't even have come that close.

That's quite a false equivalency between publicly making a spurious claim and publicly refuting that lie.

I guessed Anne Rice, not figuring it was right, but I couldn't think of any other vampire story authors (not my genre) at first. I then realized, "Oh, whoever writes the Twilight stuff". Not even if I'd given myself more time would I have come up with her name, though; cultural osmosis has not been enough for me to be able to name her as the author. But if you asked me what Stephenie Meyer wrote, I think it would kick in and I'd correctly guess Twilight after some thought.

Yeah, I meant that it's not the statue they've shown before that's just a cat. The cat-headed woman is a little harder to identify, so it made sense for a $1000 clue. But the cat's cuter. 🙂

Even though disability isn't specifically listed in the subtitle, I imagine it would be appropriate to discuss in the Super Social Analysis thread in Movies.

It's funny how things change; in my first office job in the mid-90s, unless it was something detailed or that needed a paper trail, it was considered the height of laziness to email someone in the same department rather than just walking to their office/desk.

Norman Lear has said she and John Amos were annoyed by him - they didn't like his role or the audience's love for it/the show's focus on it, but him being an untrained performer also meant they didn't much enjoy working with him. He has said he virtually never talked to either one of them off set.

Ha - another Bastet clue. But unfortunately not a cat statue (it was an archive game for me, but I can tell from the description, obviously). I was a bit surprised by the Miami Vice TS, since I still hear Crockett & Tubbs referenced in things occasionally, and leaving the Sunshine State to go to Cuba was a pretty good hint. Bummer on the "This Is How We Do It" TS; I love that song (and it's in a commercial right now, so I was a little surprised it wasn't fresh in at least one contestant's mind) and I loved that category - '90s R&B and hip-hop is my jam. I ran that one, gov't agencies, and rattle & hum in the first round. Good for the writers atoning for their horrible "gypsy" nonsense by including a category about the Roma. I missed two of those, and one each in the remaining two categories. In DJ, I found the before & after category a lot of fun (I always like those, but for some reason I particularly enjoyed this one). I ran that one, plus spices and abbreviations. I missed two each in films and crusades, and one in bodies of water, so another great round. Then came FJ. With more time, I might have reasoned my way to it, but I didn't have a guess.

Ugh, yes - the people who refer to a dad taking care of his kid alone for a time as "babysitting". No. Babysitting is something you do to someone else's kid, either for money or as a favor. Taking care of your own kid is simply parenting.