Bastet

The Flex-Seal guy being way more qualified than the pillow guy made me laugh, low-hanging fruit though it may be. But this was another ho-hum episode. I missed the first five minutes, so I missed the set-up for Mark's problem. "Is this your first day here, who's happy?" about him not wanting to struggle like the rest of them and Darlene being reluctant to pull him from the magnet school were nice moments of a story that wasn't properly told. I loved "You were right, Mom, I did say that ('If you hate me, then I'm doing my job') to my kids one day", though. But "How many times in high school did you give me all your weed?" is bullshit; we learned in the original series Darlene rejected pot immediately because it dulled her hatred. "You are not old, you are crazy" and "I don't want to be active, I just want to sit and go to hell" were funny moments between Jackie and Neville, and they're clearly trying to salvage this relationship for the long haul despite the creepy way it began, but I'm still on the fence. At least we know where Harris has been staying (that looked like a different trailer, but I didn't pay proper attention the first time, and that's an obvious unforced error I hope the show wouldn't make). But, overall - meh.

Oh, that enraged me! I have a longstanding, somewhat strange interest in plane crashes (I love flying [as a passenger; I'm not a pilot], so it's not out of fear, I just find the patterns in what causes the rare crashes interesting), so I know more than the average bear about the NTSB. These are some of the sharpest investigators in the world, and their work - despite no regulatory authority - has forced changes that have transformed aviation again and again and saved countless lives. I knew the major details of that particular investigation; the report cleared Sullenberger and Skiles of any missteps (significant, with human error being at least one cause, if not the primary cause, in the majority of plane crashes), and in fact commended their decision making and airmanship in saving the lives of all on board. To tune into that film one night when it was on cable and find this completely fabricated story pissed me off on the investigators' behalf. Only half, not all, their if you headed for the nearest airport immediately after the engine loss flight simulations resulted in a successful airport landing, and the one that factored in (by no outside prompting, but of their own volition [since these teams include, you know, experts], so already in place at the time of the depicted hearing) the inevitable real-world delay in response time due to evaluation of an unexpected situation showed an unequivocal inability to reach an airport, thus the unequivocal exoneration and praise in their report. And I side-eyed Capt. Sullenberger for promoting the film so enthusiastically and, while acknowledging that's not at all how the investigation happened, defending the "dramatic license" falsehood as an acceptable representation of how he felt by the scrutiny. It's lazy storytelling. Everyone in the audience knew it had a happy ending; how do you make a whole movie about a six-minute flight in which everyone lives? You invent a villain, when there wasn't one in reality; to create drama beyond the time covering the engine loss, ditching, and water rescue, the filmmakers made an entirely false second half out of the NTSB investigation. The problem is, that second half of a true story trotting down the fictional path meant their villain was an actual organization comprised of actual people who conducted a by the book investigation and stated the truth. And Eastwood is all about making the federal government a villain, so he did no fact checking on the script that deviated so broadly from Sullenberger's memoir on which it was based.

I'm at about 70% gift bags and 30% wrapping. I think gift bags, being reusable, are a more responsible choice, but I think wrapping - incorporating some decorative items in place of bows we've been re-using in my family most of my life - shows an effort I don't want to eliminate entirely. So where something is by its natural shape or included packaging something that easily lends itself to wrapping, I make the presentation special, and the rest I toss in a gift bag with some color-coordinated tissue paper.

I know nothing about them beyond what I read here, but based on what has been posted of their relationship with Lenny Kravitz, they seem prime candidates for not just civility, but a good post-divorce relationship.

The Newfoundland TS surprised me a bit, as did no one guessing rat or figuring out parks. I was really surprised by the Queen Elizabeth II TS; when I get a royalty clue correct (granted, I said Queen Elizabeth, but would presumably been prompted to BMS, at which point I'd have remembered the II), I figure it's widely known or, as in this case, fairly easy to figure out - even if you don't know the lineage to trace it based on g-g-gf (as I don't), it could only be Elizabeth II or Anne* - a living (as of 2019) woman in the British royal family by blood - and at only $400, I figured it was Elizabeth. (*Right? Or does my knowing so little mean I think it's simpler than it is?) I never would have predicted the Edith Wharton TS, either; all they had to answer was who wrote The House of Mirth, and I figure one of any three J! contestants can usually do that. Maybe I'm just cranky, but I had more "Really?" reactions to TS tonight than I typically do. After last night's disappointing performance, I was on fire tonight. I got everything in the first round. In DJ, I only ran sitcoms and one letter different, but other than science - in which I missed three (it should have been two, but I couldn't get Heisenberg's name from my brain to my mouth) - I did very well, missing two in royals, and one each in the other two. FJ was an instaget (based on the second S at the end bringing him immediately to mind, and then the other details in the clue seeming to fit perfectly [the year and choosing a new last name screamed slavery] and make me confident in my guess), so it was a great game for me all around.

I love how perfect everyone's reactions to Sharon getting hit by the killer boyfriend in "Heart Failure" are - Provenza checks on her, knowing Julio will tackle the suspect (which Julio does, but, this being season five Julio who's learned how to control himself, he does it lawfully). Andy and Amy take off out of Electronics, while Buzz jumps up to block Rusty from joining them, which he of course had attempted to do. And then, in the interrogation room, Andy stands down with a simple "No" from Sharon. (Can you imagine how pissed she'd have been at him if she'd taken a hit so they had something to hold the guy on, and he messed that up by beating up a cuffed suspect?) It's all exactly what each character would do. It's also a perfect touch that afterward, when Sharon is talking to Andrea, Rusty stares at the red spot on her face the entire time. And I love that Rusty's "Wow, my mom is a badass" is followed by a cut to Sharon whimpering "Ow". Punches never hurt on TV (or mess up anyone's hand), so I like the acknowledgment that you don't just shrug off getting hit in the face.

So would I. I don't think I'd ever love wrapping gifts, like I did when I was a kid, but if I had a tricked-out gift wrapping room, I wouldn't hate it like I do now.

I love both those songs so much! She had a terrific voice.

That was the only thing I knew about him prior to his death, since I'd never seen any of the shows/movies he was in - I never watched his stand-up, but I read countless times over the years how his comedy was the antithesis of the Full House character that had become the public's perception of him. That seems to be the case. I read through one of those articles compiling celebrity reactions to his death, and so many of those close to him noted he ended every conversation - even via text - with "I love you" and gave great hugs. And Jodie Sweetin described him as "someone who would also call and profusely apologize for at LEAST 15 minutes if he thought he MAY have perhaps said something he shouldn’t have or thought maybe he took a joke too far".

Yeah, if even her own mom isn't annoyed by it, I'm certainly not going to be. She's playing dinosaur at home one morning. The horror?

This was simultaneously amusing and depressing. I didn't find it quite blistering enough, it felt a bit rushed and had abrupt tonal shifts, Timothee Chalamet's character added precisely nothing, and I thought DiCaprio's performance of Prof. Mindy's big redemption moment on The Daily Rip wasn't what it should have been, but I'm still glad I watched it. The post-credits bit with Jason as the last man on Earth, still living his social media life ("don't forget to like and subscribe") and not knowing his mom forgot him, was a nice touch. I think my favorite was the sequence showing what everyone was doing as the world came to an end, especially that Patriot News was still proclaiming some bizarre side show (topless somethings) as what everyone is talking about and Ron Perlman shooting at the comet, declaring "You'll never take me alive". There were a lot of great little touches, too, like the disclaimer at the end of Mindy's FEMA-BASH ad for the hotline. It just didn't really come together for me, the total result being a solid "okay".

Most of mine have paid no attention, but Bandit loved to watch horses (good thing he lived with my parents; I hate most westerns, but they'd watch some). And Mitsie (speaking of your Mitsi; great name!), one of the cats I grew up with, would dash behind the TV (back when it was a free-standing large piece of furniture) trying to figure out where race cars had gone when they drove out of frame. We didn't watch car racing, but one time it came on after a sport we did watch and we weren't in the room to change the channel; she was so hilarious looking for those cars, we continued to occasionally tune it in for her. (And then when we'd turn it off, we'd give her a toy to chase and destroy, to distract her with having caught something after all those elusive cars.)

I'm still struggling terribly with Bandit's death (as are my parents, of course, living in that empty house, and with the memory of seeing him in the street); it's just so different. With our sick cats who we'd been able to have euthanized once the disease won, we'd done all we could, the time had come, and the death was peaceful. This death wasn't inevitable, though; if we could hop in a time machine and change the slightest little thing by seconds, a perfectly healthy cat would still be cuddling and talking for probably five years. Instead he lay alone and dying in the street. It's torture, and not one of us feels the slightest bit better than we did nearly a month ago. But I know I'm lucky to have Riley, and I also take joy in the astounding cuteness of the other cats in my life. Here are my niece and nephew; the little goober on the left is the infamous Trouble, and in her ongoing attempts to distract him throughout the day so she and her husband can get some work done, my friend set up Bird TV in another room. Another nephew didn't care, but these two were into it (for a while, at least):

I don't have many bills on hand at any given time - I put almost all charges on my credit card, and then write one check each month for the total amount - so keeping the bills I do have in denomination order (a few ones in front, then a five and/or a ten if I have any, then a twenty or two) in my wallet makes it easy to flip through and find what I want. I agree that differentiation (like with coins) would make things even easier; the U.S. pretty much stands alone in having all bills the same size and color.

Ugh, not my night! I usually do well at guessing (sometimes knowing, but often guessing based on the clue) where businesses are located, but I only came up with two this time. Missing three was pretty much my MO in the first round - I also only came up with two each in TV shows and stars. I ran 4S and stripes and missed one in Kennedy (I joined the contestants in being stumped by his boat - I knew it was PT-something, but could not come up with the number). In DJ, my MO was missing two per category; geography is normally a strong category for me, but I missed two there and in books, falling, and Victorian. Instead of being better in the others, I was worse; I missed all but one in DDS and three in movies. Didn't run a damn thing. FJ was an instaget (well, another instaguess that after further deliberation I figured was indeed correct), at least.

I read quickly, so "sadness" hit my brain almost immediately after "brother"; thinking back, I believe my mind zeroed in a little bit more on brother, but it was mostly the combination of the two that instantly brought me to Van Gogh. And then the year seemed right. I didn't know (even though I've been to the Van Gogh museum, I did not retain this information) he died in France, but a Dutch artist winding up in/around Paris would certainly make sense, so it all seemed to indicate my instaguess was right.

Cause and manner of death have not yet been determined for Bob Saget (the autopsy was just performed yesterday), but Yahoo cites a source saying he died in his sleep, which is consistent with the incident report's account of how the body was found. Tragic that it happened so young, but hopefully some small measure of comfort to his family if he just went to sleep happy and that was the last thing he ever knew.

Plus, she's just playing in the living room and then sitting at the breakfast table at home - she didn't trot off to pre-school as a dinosaur. And the mom says she refused to wear pants "this morning", not that she refuses to ever put on clothes, so it makes perfect sense to me that instead of battling with a four-year-old who's playing dinosaur in her own home, the mom just jokingly interviews her as to why.

Made-up chess moves; they were real, non-chess, things that shared a word in common with the chess tactic given in the clue -- e.g. insanity defense for Sicilian defense (the only listed chess move I'd ever heard of, as I don't play), gut check for discovered check -- so were jokingly proposed for the "New Chess Stratagem?" category.

Yep. If directed by someone other than Clint Eastwood, I'd have been quite interested in seeing Richard Jewell's story told in the mainstream. Even with that shithead behind the camera, I'd still planned on watching it at some point until that "dramatic license" bullshit was revealed. But telling a story about the defamation of Jewell by defaming Kathy Scruggs does not interest me, no matter how factual it is overall. Good on the lawyer who'd represented Jewell in his defamation cases (including that against the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) condemning the film for resorting to such a "false and damning claim" against Scruggs, instead of sticking to the true story about the FBI and the media, which is disturbing enough without reaching for the tired, sexist trope of female journalists trading sex for information. I doubt the film notes the AJC later (after Scruggs's death) saw the defamation suit against it dismissed, since - thanks to the FBI's smear campaign - it merely published what was substantially true at the time, or that the AJC ran an investigative journalism piece from another reporter on its front page stating the FBI's own timeline means Jewell couldn't have phoned in the threat (in fact, I've read the film credits that "he couldn't have done it" re-enactment to the defense lawyer).

Woo, what a finish! For 99.9 percent of my life, I couldn't muster up a single shit to give about Georgia (or any SEC team), but Saban is such a jackass I am legitimately excited by this Bulldogs victory. That was a fun fourth quarter.

The defense has given up a few big plays they shouldn't have, but, yeah, the offense owes the defense a huge apology no matter how this game ends (and please let it end with Nick Saban miserable, as that's the extent of my interest).

Ha - that is exactly why I got it, too. I didn't know that's what the lobes of a whale's tail are called, but thanks to "The Host" (the first XF episode I ever saw), I know all about the fluke worm, and my affection for that episode means an immediate word association where flatworm = fluke first in my mind. Since I didn't know what the tail part is called, I went with it. And thought, "Thanks, Flukeman," when it was correct.

Archive game for me, and I'm wondering if the "wealth" (instead of "wealthy") typo in the Short Hill, N.J. clue was on the archive, or if the archive is merely accurately reflecting what the show put out there. No big deal if it's an archive typo, but last time this happened, it was the show's typo. And that wasn't all that long ago. Troubling if such errors keep getting by enough professionals to make air. The Copenhagen TS really threw me. I guess they thought it was a trick, and they needed the capital of a country other than Denmark. I expected to suck in the Hugo Awards category, and I did indeed - all I knew was The Twilight Zone. It wasn't a great first round for me. That was the only category I blew, but I didn't run anything. I missed two each in next in line and suburbs. I technically also missed two in chess, but if I'd been able to see the pasta fork picture, I'd have known that one, so I'm giving myself credit and saying I missed one in that category. I also missed one each in the rest. I did well in DJ, though; I ran war and banks (giving myself credit for robot, which, having looked up pictures of the building, I know I'd have come up with had I seen the photo), and only missed one or two in the rest. FJ was an instaget (or at least an instaguess that I figured was right), so I'm off to a good start.

With one of the cats I grew up with, we never did find his hiding place in the 18 years we had him. We'd be looking all over the house for him, 99% sure he hadn't gotten out, but wanting to be certain, looking under and behind things, opening closet doors, calling his name, and then one of us would turn around and he'd be sitting in the hallway like "What?" We have no idea where he was during those times.