Bastet

The archive lists tonight's game's tape date as November 1st.

Shari Belafonte said, "Losing Sidney is probably the most difficult thing my father has had to fathom." Harry Belafonte's statement was: "For over 80 years, Sidney and I laughed, cried and made as much mischief as we could. He was truly my brother and partner in trying to make this world a little better. He certainly made mine a whole lot better." They had a beautiful friendship.

Some VRC updates that I'm sure we'll see on the show since they're still filming (they have not heard anything official, but have heard rumors they'll start airing in a couple of months): - Lizzy wrote a children's book, My Dog is Adopted - VRC is setting up its first fostering program, so there will be homes other than those of VRC family and employees to put dogs in, and more people to help get dogs ready for home life. I hope that helps; I know they got a shit ton of dogs dumped on them around the holidays, and Tia had posted: "We have dogs in crates in our offices, our employees' houses, my house, every available space has a dog in it. The intake will just not stop." Also, Tia is going to be working with someone to put content up on YouTube and Patreon, to give a fuller picture of everything they do, and be a way of tiding people over when the show isn't airing.

The Judy Woodruff TS made me sad. I only ran '70s America in first round, but at least I got all but one in most of the rest. In DJ, I only ran borders. I mostly missed one or two in the others, but I was terrible in birds; I only knew mourning doves (I have a lot of those hang out in my backyard). I missed three in monikers (it came close to being all five, but I got lucky with two guesses). I finished off by having absolutely no idea for FJ, and I could have sat here until I died and not come up with it.

Here's Sidney Poitier's TCM Remembers: I also love this tweet from TCM's Ben Mankiewicz: And AMPAS posting Denzel Washington's Oscar acceptance speech when he addressed Poitier (who'd received his honorary Oscar earlier that night); I love Poitier saluting right back at him:

I generally don't care about being spoiled, and often seek them out, but when I watched The Good Place last year and got to the season one finale, I was damn happy I'd never read anything about the show other than it was great. I went to the GP forum here and read through the season one threads, but never went back to read seasons two through four until I was done with the whole series, just in case. That was the rare instance in which I really didn't want to be spoiled.

That was fun. I'd never heard that about Skeet Ulrich actually getting stabbed with the umbrella because Neve Campbell missed the protective vest he was wearing. Ouch.

Sidney Poitier was an incredible man, and one of my favorite celebrity encounters even though it was also one of the briefest. He participated in a Feminist Majority Foundation event for the women of Afghanistan back in the late '90s (when few people were paying attention to who the Taliban were and what they were doing) that I attended. After the program, we were all milling around the lobby of the DGA Theatre, and some of us, including Mr. Poitier, were in a small section outside a side exit from the theater. When he went to pass behind me in order to move into the main lobby, he put his hand on my back to alert me to someone's presence and make sure I was not jostled. When I looked and saw who it was, he gave me that dazzling smile. All he said was "excuse me" or "good evening" or something like that, but I was giddy for the rest of the night because I had been touched and smiled at by a freakin' legend of an actor, activist, and man.

I never have, but I can barely be bothered to iron clothing; I hate the task, so I tend towards clothing that can be washed, dried, and hung as necessary, with no ironing. Sheets? Forget it; no way I'd ever break out the iron for that, even though I cannot properly fold a fitted sheet to save my life (my mom can; she's shown me over and over, I've replicated her actions, and I still wind up with a blob). But, yeah, I love a clean body in clean sheets. I generally shower at night, so the best is that first night with fresh sheets into which I slide my freshly-washed self.

Yep, that was my mindset: Unless they got really messed up by bodily fluids, sheets at home are changed once a week, so why would I contribute to the water and energy waste - not to mention extra labor by people already held to a high standard for low pay - by having my hotel sheets replaced and laundered each day? But it could be difficult to communicate that "please don't" in a way that got passed along to everyone in the chain and actually didn't happen - and I certainly wasn't going to make note of it when the person cleaning the room would be the one possibly taken to task - so I was glad when it became a common approach to make the bed, but not change the linens unless requested.

The $10k/day thing was an infamous quote by Linda Evangelista in the '90s (when supermodels were at peak popularity), about a saying she and fellow supermodel Christy Turlington shared: "We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day”. (The wording has become twisted over the years, often to "get out of bed", but that's what she actually said in an interview.) If sex workers made even a small fraction of $10,000/day, in or out of bed, their lives would be very different.

I'd take the Lucy & Carter stabbings off the list, because "All in the Family" is a fantastic episode from start to finish; that's because the shocking plot development is the setting for a pitch perfect exploration of the relationships between all the characters, through both big and small moments. It's not a short-sighted idea that provides shock value and nothing else, the aftermath never explored, leaving you pissed off once the shock fades. It's well written and wonderfully acted. I agree "On the Beach" was unnecessary, and could have been better, but I wouldn't put it on a list of things they shouldn't have done. The rest, though, I agree were too broad or gimmicky to have not been shouted down in the writers room as soon as they were brought up (the tank, the helicopter), or, more commonly, mishandled to the point of thoroughly wasting their potential, so, whatever positives there were, it would have been better had they not happened.

Yikes; I have apparently forgotten most of what I learned about the Missouri Compromise. I didn't take notes tonight, but I missed at least three of those. Same with literary characters. I was also - to the surprise of no one - terrible in the religion category, missing all but the celibacy clue. (I almost knew the answer to the Mormon clue, but, like the contestants, didn't get the words in the right order.) I don't watch any of the shows in TV Science, but only missed one of those clues, so three cheers for pop culture osmosis. FJ took a long time to come to me for a place I've been to, but come to me it finally did.

Yeah, I've found it very common for quite some time now for hotels to have a note in the room saying to conserve water, sheets will be changed on request, and towels if left on the floor. I was really glad when that became typical, as I had for years been asking that my sheets not be changed.

He'd say that sometimes, and then there would be other times where I was positive there would have been another acceptable response written on the answer sheet but he didn't say anything, and then it would drive me nuts wondering if they didn't think of the other response in their rundown or if it was there and he just didn't mention it.

Peter Bogdanovich was one of the most arrogant men in Hollywood, which is really saying something. But I always found it interesting that, as significantly flawed a husband/boyfriend he was, several of his exes remained close friends with him for the rest of his life. I like a lot of his films, and I love how much he loved movies; I enjoyed listening to his commentaries.

OMG, I had no idea who the kid on the waterbed was until she called Becky "Mommy". I know we haven't seen Beverly Rose for a while, but that's a big change. In my twenties, a friend had a waterbed, but didn't have a couch, so when we had movie nights at her apartment, it was in the bedroom. Getting out to make another drink was an adventure, and by the time I went home my spine was practically non-functional. Dan would have an even harder time; it just makes no sense for him to think this was a good idea. "Awkward to meet you" and "I guess you have a type - guys who live in stores" from Nick upon meeting Ben was funny, and Ben inviting him to come watch the game would have been nice later on, but right after they met was just weird. Poor Heather. "Pitcher of beer, please, and a straw" indeed. Ben and Darlene still having complicated feelings for each other doesn't mean it isn't over, it just means they're still coming to terms with the fact it is. Good for Nick calling things off, but the writers' insistence on these maybe Darlene and Ben will get back together nods instead of just exploring how they navigate the new dynamic where their romantic partnership is dead and gone but Ben is still tied to the family is annoying. Jackie's insecurity about Helen is painful, and I hate how often women are portrayed that way, but I have to admit it makes sense for her. And Neville should have mentioned their past relationship before. This was a really blah episode. I said in the Media thread in response to an interview with EP Bruce Helford about upcoming storylines that one of the big problems with this show compared to the original is too much focus on the characters' romantic relationships with outsiders and too little time spent on the relationships within the family, and this episode was illustrative - we got Becky giving Darlene the shoulder rub and Dan giving Becky a night to herself, which added up to maybe one minute; everything else was Darlene and Jackie's dating lives. It's all out of balance.

I enjoyed Mike's reaction to get the invisible hand DD correct. I also enjoyed him saying "not composers" when asked where to go next; same, dude, same. The Treasury TS surprised me a little bit, with tax in the bureau name (and with Commerce ruled out already), and because the two incorrect guesses gave extra time to think, but just that little bit. I ran everything but single and parade in the first round, missing two in each. I only ran antonyms in DJ. I got all but one in islands and films, but the rest made for a rough round; I blew the entire future lit category, and missed three each in economy and composers. I didn't even have a guess for FJ.

Most of the people I know who are allergic to cats still like them. Hell, several of them have cats.

I am so irritated this is only being released in theaters, with no streaming option. Final trailer:

Ugh; that interview about upcoming storylines illustrates one of this show's biggest failures compared to the original -- too much focus on the characters' romantic relationships with random outsiders, and not enough on the relationships within the family.

Nor did I (I knew she used her fame to advocate for the rights of women, workers, and children, but that's it other than surviving the famous sinking and being played by the wonderful Kathy Bates in the over-hyped film I hate). But ask me about a female Titanic survivor in this context, and I'm going to guess Molly Brown since there aren't that many passengers widely known by name, so when you narrow that down to survivors and then to female survivors -- who else will likely be the subject in anything other than a more specific trivia contest? I suspect they all thought she was too obvious, that with this being the DJ round, it was someone else; if it was her, it should be a $200 rather than $1600 clue. I'm just surprised no one took the guess anyway, given the number of times a clue like this happens. Same with Thomas Watson; I can only surmise "buddy of Alexander Graham Bell" would make most contestants think of Watson, but it being a $2000 clue made these three think it must be someone less obvious. But J! does this sort of thing enough I'm still surprised when one of the three doesn't toss it out there.

I didn't write things down tonight, but I know I came nowhere close to last night's great performance. I blew the entire recent pop culture category and missed several in a few others. I think I only ran four categories. I did, however, manage to come up with all but one in the bible category! I was gobsmacked by the Molly Brown and Watson TS. Antirejection surprised me a bit, too (I didn't know that one specifically, but I figured it pretty common knowledge the medications transplant recipients are given are to prevent rejecting the organ, so between that and the category's hint there was a J in the middle, I figured a contestant would join me in figuring antirejection. For FJ, I guessed amphitheater, then thought - even though etymology is not at all a strong suit - that didn't sound like something derived from Greek. My next guess was arena, but that didn't sound right, either. So I was at least thinking like the contestants. I had no third guess, and would have sat here all week without coming up with circus.

Yep. And then I told my cat it was called The Guiding Light back then. She was fascinated by that bit of trivia, of course. 🙄 The category was 1950s Television and the clue was: On radio, this soap opera was all about a minister, but he had been written out when it began a 57-year TV run in 1952.

I need to move; that's one of the dozen or so Christmas songs I like.