Bastet

Ha! I used to do aerobics to that tape. I liked "Two of Hearts", but "Insecurity" was my favorite.

It did back in Becky and Darlene's day, because when the Little Maggot (Roseanne's teenage boss at the fast food restaurant) came over, he knew Becky looked familiar and asked, "You go to Lanford, right, fifth period lunch?" So Lanford High wasn't the only high school.

Prior to this, the only things I'd ever read about Chris Pratt was how he and Anna Faris kept dumping their pets and that he belongs to a creepy church. So, yeah, add that icky post to the mix and I remain thoroughly unimpressed.

I love that song. I hadn't thought of it in ages when someone mentioned it in a thread here years ago, and I promptly downloaded it to my iPod. I think it pops up as one of my most-listened to songs on there, even though the others on that list have been there many more years. It's just so catchy.

I don't remember anyone batting an eye at Becky (or Darlene, but Becky dated more) knowing she was straight at 14, and I similarly don't have any objection to Mark and Logan knowing their sexual orientation at this age. In fact, LGBT teens, even though having to recognize and accept they're different than what is treated as the norm unlike straight teens who don't have to confront their feelings the same way, have an average age of awareness right around fourteen. Across all genders and orientations, the average age of sexual activity is around 16-17, so 14 is increasingly not unusual. Becky was 15 the first time Roseanne and Jackie talked to her about safe sex and that was many, many moons ago. It still feels young to me, but it's not totally out there. The issue of contemplating having sex - at any age, let alone that young - in order to hold onto someone deserved more attention than it got, though. The franchise did much better with Becky, Darlene, and Harris, who were ready, and D.J., who wasn't, than they did with Mark's first time seriously considering it.

That (movie night) was in the wedding episode, and this episode was written and shot as the next episode, but wound up airing two episodes later. So Ben being in the Conner home so much in this one was intended to come right on the heels of Mark telling Darlene off about trying to stifle his relationship with Ben because of her own issues with him. He's still there more than I think is healthy for anyone, whatever the timing, but I do think there's potential in exploring how he - given his professional relationship with Dan and his personal relationship with Mark - slots into the Conner family now that his primary association is not as Darlene's live-in boyfriend. So I hope it settles into a more realistic dynamic, but I fear that with a bloated cast and limited sets we'll continue to see him shoehorned into scenes in the Conner home.

I saw the theatrical release when it came out, and a few months later I was given a copy of a different cut of the film, and thought if the director had settled on a combination of the two it would have been excellent. But I still really like the theatrical version for its positives, how different it was at the time, its sleeper hit status (I love when indie films find a huge audience and upset the status quo), and that great shared audience experience of seeing it in the cinema with people who appreciated it. I haven't seen it in eons. I might order the DVD; the impact won't be anywhere near the same all these years and all those imitations later, but revisiting it from a different perspective won't lessen the memories of seeing something fresh at the time. My Blair Witch UO, and I've said this before, is that I love the much-parodied crying video in all its snotty glory (even as I laugh at some of those parodies). Heather has realized they're almost certainly going to die out there, and feels it's her fault. Leaving something behind in the hopes of it being found and at least providing answers, saying good-bye, and apologizing to their families, isn't supposed to be pretty and tidy; I think it's acted and shot appropriately.

This was an archive game for me, but I was reclined with my cat on my lap when I read it, so I didn't write anything down. It was a pretty average performance; I remember I missed four in the first round, and I probably missed 10-12 in DJ. I knew FJ right away. Giving anything other than a verb in the verb category should have been immediately ruled wrong; it's ridiculous they had to correct those after the fact. I think Ben E. King and Olympics were the only TS that surprised me any, but it has been several hours and, sadly, that could be enough time for me to forget.

I love it. But when it became a sleeper hit, the slew of "found footage" knock-offs that followed was inevitable. I didn't realize that genre was still a thing.

It was a major missed opportunity* not to draw a more specific parallel to Darlene's difficulty transitioning from junior high to high school, when her only friend was also an adult (Karen, the bookstore owner). Mark would still dismiss Darlene as Darlene did Roseanne - as teenagers do - but it should have come up. Also Darlene saying it's like her glomming on to David, but he didn't have to leave, so they didn't have to rush things: Um, David moved in with the Conners because Mr. Healy bailed with the girls and Mrs. Healy, who wanted to take David with her, was abusive, so they lived together in this weird amalgamation. Mark should point out his orientation adds another layer, but the underlying parallels were oddly absent. (*That's pretty much this spinoff's MO, but I'm still here, so they're doing the minimum necessary to make it work.) Mark and Logan dealing with their clueless adults amused me, though. "Good story, man/I know, right?" was wonderful in its simplicity, their awkwardness was adorable, and Mark's talk with Ben was perfectly nuanced. (Ben is there too much, but he's good with the kids, so I hope they'll continue to figure out a way to keep him part of the Conner orbit without being Darlene's boyfriend.) And Becky getting past her insecurities about being an older student and embracing the experience she was always meant to have, even if it's delayed, is lovely. The tag was funny, too; I'll stick with this show for nothing else than the hope of Becky finding her stalled way back to who she is.

Clue is one of my favorite movies - three friends and I have all watched it dozens of times and can recite it verbatim; we joke about finding a few more such people so we could get dressed up and act it for kicks - so I enjoyed that, well, clue. The Venus TS surprised me (not that no one had never heard of it [neither had I] but that no one guessed it based on Venus being the planet that would make by far the most sense as the missing word). I missed one in gimmicks (I'd never heard of that Will Smith movie) and the Judge Landis TS (I couldn't remember his name), but got everything else in the first round. On the flip side, though, DJ was painful. I only ran words, missing four in TV themes, three each in physics and Shakespeare, two in Illinois, and one in coffee. My downhill slide continued - I didn't get FJ. I got stuck on Van Gogh as the mentally ill painter, and couldn't come up with what painting it could be since none of them I know seemed like something he'd say that about. Instead of taking that as a hint and moving on to another artist, I just kept spinning my wheels. When the answer was revealed, I could have kicked myself; that's a major "duh" in hindsight.

The director, Joel Souza, said (according to the affidavit the sheriff's office submitted in its application for a search warrant) Halls normally checked guns again after armorer Hannah Guitierrez-Reed did, and handed them to the actors. (But, in this specific instance, he wasn't sure if the gun was checked again after the lunch break.) One of the film's producers told a NY Times reporter the actors had been handed guns by both Halls and Gutierrez-Reed over the course of filming. Halls will have to answer as to why he called out the "cold gun" notification if he hadn't verified. (Assuming that's accurate; the affidavit says Halls grabbed the gun from a tray set up by Gutierrez-Reed, handed it to Baldwin, and shouted, “cold gun" but I'm not sure from which witness interview that statement came.) If it's not your responsibility, then don't assume that responsibility by asserting to everyone on set a safety status you don't actually know is true.

Well, I would hope since it's a gift, they're making the payments if they didn't buy it outright. Which further speaks to what an outlandish gift it is, whether they dropped all that money up front or will be paying for it for many years -- other than for the truly wealthy, that's so expensive a gift as to be weird and uncomfortable. But, yeah, even worse if they're handing someone a "gift" they have to pay for! (Same idea as in a scenario where a couple keeps some or all of their money jointly, and the giving spouse pays for it out of those funds that are half the recipient's. "Merry Christmas, I just spent a bunch of your money"?!)

That's my hope, too - that, given the force of the impact at that speed, the victims (the woman and her dog) were killed instantly rather than suffering first, trapped in a burning vehicle.

I think Mike Florio is spot on (in the article linked above):

I've bought many pairs of shoes online; it's a lot easier to return shoes if it turns out they don't fit/I don't like them (thankfully, they're usually keepers) than it is to return a car - even in states/with dealerships where that's possible in the first place. Those "Surprise! A car!" commercials bug me every year. I would never be comfortable with a spouse spending that much money on a gift for me (and I'd be divorce court level pissed if we had joint finances, meaning he spent that much of our money without talking with me about it), and I don't care how much of an ingrate it would make me, I'd be ticked off at having the selections made for me. Even if he knew the make, model, color, and basic features I was looking for, when it comes to something I'm going to be driving for 15-20 years, I will be the one picking out every last detail, thank you.

She's not using Mikey, she was honest with him from the beginning that she wanted one-off sober sex with someone, and asked if he was interested. He said yes, he told her afterward he had feelings, she told him that's not possible for her to explore - with anyone - at this point in her sobriety, and he has respected that. After the unplanned bathroom fuck - in which, again, he was a completely informed participant - at the wedding when she was freaking out about accidentally taking a drink, she said she needs to develop better coping skills than the distraction power of sex. So she's not even going for a friends with benefits relationship with him. In the future, who knows, but Becky needs to focus on herself right now, and she knows that. I'm not sure why anyone would think it a good idea to toss the unnecessary complication of a romantic relationship into her life right now, but at least Becky knows not to.

The Heidi TS surprised me, as did Euphrates after Tigris was ruled out. I thought I was going to bomb fairy tales, since they were read to me back way before an age I have memories of and I avoid children like the plague so I've never read them to anyone, but I knew three. Not using Facebook, I was apprehensive about that category, too, until I quickly realized I simply needed to take the text on its own and then, if needed, confirm my guess could be a reaction emoji, and got all of them. I also knew all but one reality TV show even though I've only watched The Real World. So I did well in the first round despite the categories, missing just those three. In DJ, though, I only ran geographic idioms, missing three in 60s, two in plays, and one each in the rest. No FJ for me, either. I knew it wasn't Copernicus, but I had no idea who it was.

Wow, that's stupid. By purchasing a luxury vehicle, he is transported to a land where traffic goes away and life solely exists on an open two-lane highway with windmills in the background? Except, presumably, he can still do the day-to-day job that pays for said vehicle and its foray into wild open spaces? But his car is only cool there, it has no practical benefit in most people's "real world", and what even is that world since it's erased? Lordy. That commercial is pretty much Exhibit A for those who make fun of electric vehicles and their drivers, because it does zip-point-shit to highlight its benefits, just acts like one person buying one transports them into some weird-ass utopia they don't actually want to live in and, I don't know, magic no one else even asked for happens?

For me, it depends on who does the inviting. If I ask someone to visit, I'm hosting, but I don't want them staying with me, so I say, "I don't have a dedicated guest room, but there are several great hotels nearby, so I can easily get you a nice place to stay." (People tend to say they'll take care of it and just ask me to recommend a place, which is the same thing I do when I'm in the other position, but the offer is genuinely made.) But if it's an "I'm going to be in L.A. for work/vacation/whatever, so maybe I can extend and we can spend a few days together" or "I was thinking of coming to visit" situation, I don't feel the same obligation. When someone moves to another country, they probably get more of the latter scenarios, especially with their friends. So I don't think there's any social obligation, just whatever they are comfortable with and can afford. If they can't/don't want to put guests up in their home, but can and want to put them up in a hotel, it's a nice gesture. But they don't have to offer either one; making some time to show visiting friends around town and having them over/taking them out for a meal is plenty. Hopefully people don't get too hung up on this stuff and just have a nice visit. Regardless, even if one intends to pay for visitors' lodging, spending less on rent/mortgage each month and having the occasional additional expense of putting visitors up in a hotel makes a lot more sense than spending more each month for unnecessary space that only houses guests several times a year.

Whenever I see or hear reference to a mantel, I think of that line. It's really not even very funny on paper, but the delivery makes it art.

Matt's behavior at Mode wouldn't have been okay even if Betty had truly screwed him over, but it's all the worse because her transgression wasn't that bad. I understand him being upset that he kept giving her opening after opening to tell him about kissing Henry and she didn't, but when he finally confronted her, she was completely honest about what happened - and since he'd stood there and watched them kiss and walk away, he knew she was telling the truth when she said it was a good-bye. She was also honest that, sure, there are still some feelings attached to a first love (I love how they just pretend Walter never existed, heh), but she doesn't want to be with Henry, she wants to be with Matt. If he's too insecure and jealous to stay in a relationship with her under the circumstances, that's his call, but he doesn't get to turn around and take a revenge job so he can make her professional life hell. He loves to babble about his parents' terrible traits, but he's just as bad. Also, Henry continues to show what a jackass boyfriend he is, which boggles my mind that Betty isn't totally turned off by that. First there was the way he treated Charlie when she first moved to NY, and now he's talking shit about the fitness instructor to Betty. If he doesn't want to be with someone, he shouldn't be with them. But if he's going to be, he should respect them. Jackass just can't stand to be alone. (I also find his dorky face and walk irrationally annoying, so I groaned when I saw the actor's name pop up in the guest credits again.)

Same. In fact, I still didn't really understand what was going on based on the postings here, so I just read a CNN article about it.

Archive game for me since I'll be watching football tonight. The Mackinac Bridge TS surprised me a bit, but since it was a $2000 clue, it shouldn't. No one taking a stab and guessing Utah was unexpected, too. I missed two each in catchphrases and pen names, and one in Kansas City (the Monarchs TS stumped me, too), but got everything else in the first round. It was all downhill in DJ, though; I only ran November and trips, and I blew the entire creatures category (yes, even Poseidon, which was a really dumb miss). I also missed three each in movies and families, and one in words (the Vicious Circle TS stumped me, too). At least FJ was an instaget.

Exactly; she thinks he's a good guy and a good dad, but she's not in love with him. Simple as that.