Bastet

I made a couple of things I saw on TV recently. First, a simple grilled cheddar and mango chutney sandwich I saw Ina Garten make. It was good. And then some "super food" tacos I saw on Julia at Home (America's Test Kitchen) -- charred salmon (seasoned with chili powder) with a collard green slaw (which also has jicama, radish, red onion, and cilantro, dressed simply with lime juice and zest) and an avocado and cilantro crema. Obviously not at all traditional, but I like a nearly infinite variety of tacos. I think these would be a pass for many people (Julia even said her daughter doesn't like them and her husband is just okay with them, so she usually eats them with a friend of hers who also loves them), but I liked them. (I was intrigued because I love raw collard greens.) Tonight I'm going to grill chicken thighs that are marinating in olive oil, pickled cherry peppers (and some of the brine), rosemary, and garlic, then drizzle with a salsa verde that has more of those peppers. Maybe a kale caesar for the salad, and I haven't decided on the side dish yet.

I watched all of this season's episodes (so far) this weekend, and there were some things that should have been fixed in post. She twice called Julia Child "Julia Childs", and she once referred to arrabbiata sauce as marinara (which was particularly noticeable when she later said "don't be tempted to just use marinara, you really need arrabbiata"). There wasn't much in those episodes that I want to make (and the "Remembered Flavors" episode was pretty much filled with things I wouldn't eat), but I made the cheddar and chutney grilled cheese for lunch yesterday and it was good. And some night when I want a thoroughly indulgent dinner, I am going to make a big bowl of that truffled mac & cheese with mushrooms. I hadn't watched her show in so long (since it's on at an unholy hour; I finally got smart and downloaded the app on my Fire stick) it was jarring to see the ridiculous amount of salt she uses, and her portion sizes. That Dutch Baby was in a nine-inch skillet, and she said it would serve two or three!! I notice on the website it says 2-4, and I think four is just right, but the idea of two people sitting down to breakfast and splitting that thing does not compute. I also laughed when she said the chocolate cake would serve 6-8, and then acknowledged her friend who introduced it to her in Paris told her it serves 12 there.

Oh gods, just seeing the name Pentatonix gave me horrid flashbacks to that year it seemed like their music was in every other commercial.

Yep, I've read/heard it several times.

Yeah, it's not remotely believable those sounds are coming from those bells, but I still smile every time that commercial comes on because of how totally into it the woman is. Rock on with your bad self, Ms. Hammerschtein.

As noted, Sagal was injured when she was hit by a car, and I agree it would be different if Louise was there. So I'm hoping that when she actually moves in (not just some of her stuff), they'll finally address some sort of I'm happy for Dad, but this feels a little weird sometimes sentiment among the kids.

For which I become a huge Utes fan for exactly half a day.

I have Dish for TV, the middle programming package. I'm too lazy to sit down and analyze it, but I think there's too much on there I wouldn't get by amassing a collection of streaming services, so I keep it. Plus, I get that on all my TVs; none of them are Smart TVs, so if I only had streaming, I'd have to either buy additional Fire or Roku devices for the other TVs, or take the one I have plugged into my bedroom TV from room to room with me whenever I wanted to watch elsewhere. No thanks. I only hooked the Fire stick up because of the pandemic last year; my cat was ill that summer and work was really slow (with the courts closed, cases stalled), so we spent a lot more time lying in bed together. I remembered my parents had given me their ancient Fire stick, so I figured I'd finally hook that up. I have access to Netflix and Discovery+ via their account and to Prime via a friend's, and then I downloaded some of the apps for free services (Pluto, YouTube, Tubi, Peacock, etc.). And, yeah, I watch it, but if I had to pay for any of it (e.g. if my parents or friend canceled their accounts), I wouldn't. In fact, when the old Fire stick up and died last month, I only replaced it because I got one free (via someone on Freecycle). I wouldn't have even paid to get a new one of those; I'd have gone back to watching my Netflix shows when I kitty sit at my parents' house, and just done without the others. What I watch on streaming is a nice little bonus, but I mostly watch it in the wee overnight hours when I'm trying to get back to sleep (I don't sleep through the night); very, very little of it is must-see TV for me. If it hadn't fallen into my lap, I'd still be just as happy watching DVDs in the middle of the night (since there isn't much on TV then).

Once Oklahoma St. blew it, there went any chance of me having a team to root for in the playoffs (I mean, I'll root for Cincinnati as an upset, but I'm not going to be invested in it), but I was hoping for Georgia to dispense with Alabama so I wouldn't have a team I needed to fervently root against. Thanks a lot, Bulldogs. And what the hell, Cowboys? Or, specifically, Cowboys offense? If I was a defensive player, after that fantastic turnaround in the second half that never got capitalized on, I'd go kick the shit out of someone on the offense.

Dennis, not Randy, but that category made me realize how many Dennis Quaid movies I like - The Right Stuff and The Rookie are the only two asked about that I've seen, but I also like Undercover Blues, Something to Talk About, Playing by Heart, and Postcards From the Edge.

I'm watching football tonight, so just checked the archive during halftime. The Right Stuff being a TS bummed me out. I like The Rookie, too, but no one knowing that one doesn't surprise me; The Right Stuff does. I was initially a bit surprised by the Cambridge TS, since I know so little about royals that I figure if I know something, it's common knowledge, but then realized if I didn't skim the Royals thread here while next unread topic-ing my way through Everything Else, I wouldn't have known it, either. So Primetimer is educational. If you asked me to tell you something about the Franco- Prussian War, I'd have nothing, so I was pleased to run that category. I also ran science, C, and trending, and only missed two each in the others, so I had a good first round. In DJ, though, I only ran towns. I missed three each in dukes and novels, two each in hyphenated and Dennis Quaid, and one eponym. I eventually correctly guessed FJ (a cousin used to be heavily involved with the organization, so that may have helped it wiggle to the front of my mind), but I'd have probably run out of time under game conditions.

Good stuff; it's often given to cats with IBD. It's an anti-inflammatory, and coats the lining of the intestines, reducing the irritation caused by food. Copper piping is what you replace old galvanized plumbing with because it lasts decades longer. But, while it's exponentially less likely than iron to corrode and will take a lot longer to do it, it can happen (e.g. due to the chemistry of the area's water). Can't you just tell them that since things have changed, you're no longer coming?

I watched the second half of the season recently, and the editing was so strange. Other than the Colin-Amaya drama that producers included in every fucking episode, all the storylines popped up out of nowhere. Justin entertaining himself by planting different seeds in Colin and Amaya's heads? The roommates not being receptive to Justin when he's in the house, because he's constantly removing himself from the group? Kaia having the hots for Matt?! There's been none of that shown, and then all of a sudden it's presented as a fact known by all. Despite casting some pretty intelligent people, this season was a dud. Matt and Colin are total gaslighting jerks, but producers chose to make the entire season about Amaya's neediness. Which, yes, is annoying to watch and would be utterly exhausting to live with. But being manipulative is a hell of a lot worse than being needy. I like that Ruthie, who felt ganged up on by everyone and took particular issue with how Amaya treated her when she returned to the house, refused to be part of ganging up on Amaya, and talked honestly with her. She really helped her, and I like Amaya saying Kaia thinks she is responsible for Amaya finding some inner strength, but it was actually Ruthie; she never would have imagined it, but Ruthie gave her the best gift ever.

But the Conner kids would. And if Roseanne could hear it, she'd laugh. So it worked for me.

The Conners aren't religious, so hell isn't an actual place of suffering, it's a story. All these rigid notions of who goes to "heaven" versus who goes to "hell" - these folks will all joke they're going to "the bad place". So even when talking about an actual dead loved one, there's no malice, nothing more than a joke, in referencing hell; it's an old joke when it's all just a collection of hyperbolic tales - that if there were an eternity, one would rather spend it with the folks consigned to hell than stuck with the duds in heaven.

I'll be watching football tonight (although I'll watch the show during breaks in play to see what Jessica looks like), so I just checked the archive. The oral exams TS surprised me (although I did correctly predict someone was going to guess boards). I only ran America and exams in the first round, but still did well in the rest; I missed two in fiction, but just one each in the others. But in DJ, I only ran Black Sea, and had several bad categories; I missed three each in pop culture, art & music, and elements (that one was disappointing, because wordplay categories are usually my jam). I missed another two in "T" and one in Greek. At least I rebounded to get FJ.

Of course not, that's why I said "they're happy".

That's where I "know" her from - her X-Files recaps on TWoP. How cool. I'm still going to root for Amy's streak to continue, but if Jessica pulls off an upset, I'll be happy for her.

Yeah, I cannot possibly criticize that decision when virtually every single adult transperson Jazz spoke with talked about how emotionally traumatizing it was to go through the wrong puberty, and how its physical changes affected for the rest of their lives their ability to "pass". I'm nearly 50, and I know it's difficult for my parents to watch me battle chronic depression and anxiety. It's always hard to watch your child struggle, especially when there's not much you can do to help. But when it's a teenager who lives with you, I'm sure it's much harder, because you're constantly aware of it.

Roseanne and Dan bought a new mattress in season three of the original series.

I was quite tickled to run that category, because, while I am a voracious reader, I've skewed heavily towards certain - mostly non-fiction - genres for decades now. So while I read more than the average bear, my selections are limited enough I can easily perform poorly in a literature category, yet I ran this one. I wouldn't have expected to going in, so was pleased.

While of course I remember Eddie Mekka as Carmine, I mostly think of him as the guy Mae dances with in the bar in A League of Their Own and as Grady, Jenna's sidekick, on Guiding Light around the same time; I liked him well enough in the old role but thought nothing of it, and then was tickled to see him pop up again. Sixty nine is too young to die, and my heart goes out to his loved ones.

Holy hell, once again they decline to let even one of the kids express some mixed emotions about Louise marrying Dan and moving in. They like her, they know she's good for Dan, they're happy. But, the only reason any of this has happened is that their mom, with whom he was also happy (so it's not like what's in the past is a miserable marriage or one that only lasted out of inertia), died. There's going to be the occasional twinge. But we're apparently never going to see it. We've seen realistic reactions from Dan all along, so I appreciate that, and we got one moment from Jackie (but it was couched in her usual crazy), but NOTHING from the kids. It's ridiculous. I can only hope that once Louise returns from the road and actually moves in, we finally get some realism. Roseanne and Dan both provided for the family, and, in fact, when he was working construction, her work was more steady (and she brought in the union benefits when she worked at Wellman). But back in the early days, sexist pay standards what they were, Dan probably was the one best able to earn more money, and he's always taken such pride in being a provider, I love the image of Roseanne falling in love with a bedroom set in the Montgomery Ward (or, Monkey Ward, as we called it back then) catalog and Dan taking a second job to be able to buy it. But we get nothing but jokes from the kids. This show is such a shadow of its predecessor. And it was painful to watch Dan destroy that furniture; sell it to someone at a reasonable price, donate it, whatever, but as a dumpster fire?! I hate waste. I love Becky helping younger women, though. "You're the Marie Antoinette of mentors"/"Yeah, that's not a good thing" was fun. As was "I'm not Beatles old, I'm not even Aerosmith old". I like her realizing how she's projecting, and adopting realistic standards for how she can help. I have a cell phone, but it's a flip phone because I hardly ever use it (it's often sitting sitting in my car in need of being charged, and very few people have the number), so I wouldn't bat an eye at someone not having one. I would find it odd he didn't have a landline, so people could only leave messages at the bookstore, but I wouldn't be paranoid about it. And I certainly wouldn't insist he have one, which is what Darlene did by buying him one. "Why'd you get me something I told you I don't want?" indeed. Fundamentally, why are Darlene and Nick boyfriend/girlfriend after two weeks? This whole thing is so stupid.

I was surprised nobody guessed Luxembourg; even if none of them could remember which one is where, it had to be either Luxembourg or Liechtenstein, but no one guessed either one. I loved the pronounce it category. Unfortunately, that one and companies were the only categories I ran in the first round. I wasn't horrible, though; I missed three in states, but two in hunters, and one each in Pulitzers and basketball. DJ was similar; I loved the vocabulary category, but missed one this time - I'd never heard of stonk. I only ran writers and snakes (of which I am deathly afraid, so I could have done without seeing the video clues), but wasn't bad in the rest; I missed three in European history, two in weights, and one in TV. FJ was an instaget, because I just learned that fact about Australia recently (hey, it's only been 108 years).

Twice recently when going around the dial, I came across this show, so I suspected it's close to returning. I just checked the website, and yep - season two starts January 27. Once again, I'm not familiar with most of the celebrities, but since I watch for the remix round, to see the incredible things they come up with, it doesn't matter: Chris Jericho Nikki Glaser Reggie Watts Bobby Moynihan Jesse Tyler Ferguson Natasha Leggero Baron Davis There's a very short teaser here.