Bastet

No. I didn't keep track, but I had a pretty "meh" game. I think Starliner and FJ* may have been the only TS that didn't also stump me. I did manage to get all but one in the Bible category, so that was impressive. *I correctly guessed FJ based on the Italian landmark involving water logic.

This is the second time a cheftestant has bowed out for mental health preservation; it's nice to see them feel comfortable doing that. Anya was an early favorite, so it was hard to see her flame out so horribly again.

Sea buckthorn is a native plant in Russia (not only Russia), so she wanted to use it in her dish as part of presenting food with Russian ingredients, and she thought using the powder form as part of the cake mix's dry ingredients would be a good way to incorporate it in this instance.

It was sea buckthorn powder. Tom wondered if it had something like cornstarch in it that screwed up the texture. I did a quick look at a few offerings, and one listed no additional ingredients while the other two listed maltodextrin.

"I played tight end." "Of course you did." Naming the Mountie Jennings Louise also made me laugh, and I loved hearing how Gregory got his middle name. I find it endearing how uncomfortable Kristen is when her friends call her "Chef".

I love Jamaican patties, and wanted to try all but the ones that turned out to be the bottom three, with the one most making my mouth water was Katiana's, so I was completely in line with the judging. I felt a little bad for Corwin not placing in the top. But his EC dish, man, that sounded good! I also really wanted Kat's and Tristan's. Katiana's, no, because I don't like licorice, but that's just personal taste; it was impressive and I could tell that was the winning dish based on the response. She's the only one of the chefs whose food I've had, so I'm extra happy for her. Anya's ice cream and cake being disasters from jump practically had me watching through my fingertips. Mossimo also having every element go wrong made me feel for him, too, but Anya emerged as an early favorite. I'm bummed she's gone, but her dish had nothing going for it while his at least tasted like the assigned ingredient, so I knew he was going to squeak by with a dish that would have been another JT segment with no deliberation in a typical round.

Yes, as per usual, when he accuses someone of doing something, it's actually what he's doing, and they're doing the exact opposite.

By the time my cat gets up, there really aren't a ton of hours left until we're just going to get back in it, so I usually don't bother.

Nice tribute to Eric Gilliland. It has been so long, I could have really used a "Previously, on The Conners" before this episode started. Wasn't Darlene already off the line, that weird lady in the dark office gave her a promotion? Or was that just to a managerial position that's still down in the cafeteria itself? I'll have to look that up. I had completely forgotten about Ben's hardware magazine plan. "You're just stringing together words you don't understand" was fun, and "Oh my god, the dog on your face ran off" about Ben shaving that crap off his face made me laugh. Dan's discussion of how he dealt with the pain of losing Roseanne and how he'd suffer if he dug all that back up and nothing came of it, and Louise saying she can't be part of his decision, was well done, as was Dan's talk with Jackie with her taking it as him not caring anymore. I wonder if she will indeed pursue this, which would be interesting if talking about Roseanne is something that continues during this short, final season. Becky and Darlene both being morons, in different ways, about their relationships, no thanks, but they seemed to snap out of it, so hopefully both are one-offs. "The department needs fresh blood." "Well, unless you're getting a transfusion ..." Ha! Was the young cop played by Laurie's daughter? I'd read about her appearing, and looked up her credits; I've seen her in an episode of Cold Case, actually one of my favorites, but can't picture her in it, and forgot to keep an eye out tonight (this episode's IMDb page doesn't yet have her role on it).

I didn't tune in until just as DJ started and am too lazy to look up the first round, but it was an okay half a game. I only ran map, but I got all but one each in words, baseball movies, and pro-Semites. I missed two each in fossil and lion. FJ was an instaguess I thought was going to be wrong because it too obvious, but I didn't have anyone else to guess. Color me surprised by the TS.

It was said about something far less important, but I've thought of it pretty much daily since the inauguration: The bar is set so low, Satan called OSHA to report a tripping hazard. Not a bit. Ever since he took office again, they changed the request for contributions that appears at the end of each article to read:

I'd be stunned if she did; it's not like that cost her the game. Hell, she was mute for most of the game; she responded to only nine clues, and got two of them wrong. I didn't watch most of last week and wasn't at my desk for this week's so far, so didn't keep track of my performance. Hopefully back in the groove tonight.

I wish the "wee!!" segment wasn't an entire 12 seconds long, because it's too much for me, but I love "Maxwell!" and "Thanks, Mrs. A." With maybe 7 seconds of squealing, I'd probably count the commercial among my favorites.

LOL. Well, I will need to watch "Mr. Willis of Ohio" again -- go to 6:56 in this video to learn what Richard Schiff is actually thinking about when Toby is watching Mr. Willis cast his vote:

Nancy Silverton is an acquaintance (we have a mutual friend) and, while our interaction is limited to chatting at a few parties over the years, I've always found her genuine; all that quirk feels natural, rather than affected. She's also quite generous.

Same here.

I went down a rabbit hole of cast interviews this weekend, and it was nice to see they all enjoyed working together as much as I always figured they did -- they'd marvel every single week how rare it is to get to work with so many women, all used to being the only or one of a couple of women among a bunch of men. Ana and Allison were really close (in one interview Ana called her her best friend, and in an interview during season eight, Mimi Kennedy said even though Ana had left the show, she and Allison still talked every day), and I particularly enjoyed watching the interviews they did together. Same with Allison and Octavia Spencer; they've been friends for a long time and are also funny and sweet together. It reminded me just how much I enjoyed this show all the way through. I'll have to see if it's in syndication anywhere for me to do a re-watch (the only thing it's streaming on is Hulu, which I don't have).

I have two friends who describe themselves as moderate, and that's how they are -- socially progressive, fiscally conservative. Maybe one or two social issues where they're somewhat conservative. I know they've voted both parties for governor, but I'm not sure about president (I know they didn't vote for Trump either time [we wouldn't still be friends if they had]). My best friend initially registered as a Republican based entirely on fiscal policy, but then she realized, duh, the government is supposed to tax and spend for the general welfare, all the things she values cost money to create/maintain, and she was being way too rigid in her calls for cutting government spending. She switched parties as of the '94 midterms, because she was so disgusted by Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America".

There's an outtake from this episode where someone suggests giving the other team okra because Tom hates it.

I'm with Sara - if a mimosa is good, the OJ color is going to be lightened; with that or a Bloody Mary, if you bring me a dark one, I know you skimped on the booze. I laughed that the tight jeans Kristen said in the beginning were rearranging her organs were unbuttoned and unzipped after she ate.

I'm with Mimi in her description of Canadian bacon, as that's my only experience with it, too, not a nice piece like they had here. I laughed at Sam saying he's the worst Canadian in terms of eating things Canada is known for. Just as Bailey was the clear loser in the main competition, I found her the clear winner here. Unlike the other two, she had no flaws, but she'd have been my pick even if they'd nailed theirs as I thought hers best met the brief. While I'd have undoubtedly found Ying's relentless cheerleading annoying if I was trying to cook, sitting here at home I cannot be mad at it. She has a positive energy that can drive me nuts, but I have to respect it when it's so genuine as it clearly is with her. I like that Bailey went over and introduced herself afterward rather than waiting for Ying to come join the group.

I felt bad for Corwin when he walked out to see the unset dish that still had the plastic on it had been given to Daniel Boulud. He's lucky the rest of his team did so well. Last week they didn't even bother to deliberate, just sent Mimi home, and while this time they had a discussion, I had no doubt it was Bailey getting the boot. After reading about her dissing Anya in the QF last week (I hadn't seen it, as I was out of the room for a little bit), once she screwed up, I rooted for her to be the one to go. I'm glad Anya's dish, with those pine cones she'd brought as one of her special ingredients, was so well received. It's really cool for Zubair to win with the dish that launched his culinary career. I did not like - at all! - the twist of the teams giving each other mandatory ingredients, but was impressed with what the brown team did with them, especially Paula with the candies.

I really liked his time as the Conners' neighbor on Roseanne. He played a single dad to two teenage daughters, a guy who had no idea what he was doing with them, but he did not come off as a buffoon or deadbeat. I attribute that to his performance.

Seriously. Never in my life has the Democratic nominee for president been liberal enough for my taste, and they're usually not who I voted for in the primary because of that. But I have voted for them in the general election every single time, because they were going to be better for the country than the Republican nominee.

I'll take that over the blue liquid all the pad commercials of the '80s used to demonstrate absorbency.