Bastet

I don't know about infomercials, but Adam & Eve runs several commercials. Usually with a pretty good discount code. Thank goodness for that; pubic isn't a bad word, nor is body hair gross when it happens to sprout out of a woman. But the Venus commercial still implies women's pubic hair (because, of course, men can just leave theirs alone, but women better make sure theirs don't offend) needs special equipment.

I roll my eyes over anyone fawning over sexual fidelity to someone's spouse/equivalent partner where the parties had pledged such monogamy; if that's their agreement (which, of course, it doesn't have to be in a committed relationship, but when it is) then simply living up to that agreement is not cause for adulation - you don't get a cookie for doing what you're supposed to do. "He never cheated" is a staggeringly low bar for evaluating a husband who has vowed to be faithful to an agreement of sexual exclusivity, and we certainly don't see an equivalent spate of "She never cheated" lionizing of wives who didn't have affairs in the years following the same vow.

Good movie with a terrific cast! Another with Janney, Shalhoub, and Tucci (with Platt as a producer, and directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott) that I like even more is Big Night, mentioned above. Just don't watch it while hungry.

Art is a weak category for me, but I managed to only miss two. I, of course, got TWoP, but missed two in that website category, too. Also two in seas/lakes. I ran the other three categories. In DJ, I only ran TV. But I didn't do too bad overall; I missed two in British history, and one each in the remaining categories. I knew both countries for FJ (I thought of Germany first, then Australia), so I wish that counted as extra credit that raised my overall score.

Same with Tyne Daly. I don't recall horror stories about Shelley Winters, either. There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with method acting; different processes work best for different actors. Men using it as an excuse for bad behavior is a problem with the men, not the process.

My peeve wasn't about that kind of shopping - that would be quite hypocritical, given the time I can spend perusing the nut bins and cheese, deli, and butcher counters at my local market - but about people who (routinely; as I said, everyone gets lost in thought sometimes) do not maintain situational awareness so that their contemplation does not unreasonably affect other customers.

If she's drinking a lot and peeing a lot, she is probably at or close to the point where she can't keep up on her own, and supplemental hydration would be helpful. But more hydration than is needed can cause heart and/or lung problems - there can be too much of a good thing - so you don't want to start too soon or give too much at a time/give it too frequently. The existence and severity of dehydration is detected not by any one test or physical factor, but by putting all the signs together. Your vet should be able to tell you whether the test results (kidney values, electrolyte levels, total protein, and red blood cell count & percentage) indicate dehydration, but I know you've experienced difficulty getting good information from your vet. Do you at least have a report of the test results? Things to look for physically are: - The skin test. Pull up the skin in between her shoulder blades and let go of it. Does it plop right back down, or does it stay up, like she has a furry pup tent up there? If the latter, that a typical indicator of dehydration. If it comes back down slowly, she can probably use a little extra hydration if other things also point to that. - The gum test. Pull her lip up to expose her gums and check its color and texture (obviously, you cannot perform this test if it will cause your cat to bite you, but usually they just wiggle a little). If pink and moist, all good. If on the pale side and a little sticky, that's probably a sign she needs extra hydration. If pale and dry, that's typical of dehydration. I know you said it's difficult getting the new vet on the phone; do they accept emails?

Of course he was; there's nothing wrong with Carter's reaction, and his choices are right for him based on the circumstances. (I didn't say Carter should have engaged in that analysis, I said that's how my analysis of the scene puts me in the camp that doesn't think Abby made the wrong choice.) And there's nothing wrong with Abby's, and her choices are right for her based on the circumstances.

I was and am 100% Team Abby in that episode. What transpires at the funeral is an absolute shit show and she should have done things differently, but back in that moment, she's right. She has a window in which she can help her brother and, having done that, come back and be an emotional support to Carter. If she misses that window in order to sit with him, really bad things could happen to her brother. But Gamma won't get any more dead, and Carter will be okay without her for that while (it sucks no one in his family is there for him that night, but that's on them, not on her). It's her family vs. his, time sensitive vs. not, and potentially major consequences vs. moderate consequences in evaluating who among the two people who unfortunately need her at the same time she should help first. So, to me, that equation has a clear answer.

Well, boo. I've liked Darnell and his food the few times I've seen him cook, but I "know" Tiffani so much better from her Top Chef appearances, and I liked her ingredients a lot more than his tonight, so I was rooting for her. (Also, as a bonus, her wins pissing people off makes me laugh.) But his dish was very visually appealing, and I'd have eaten it, it just included several things I don't particularly care for while hers used things I love - purely personal preference. I didn't see round two, just the result being announced, but I'm happy Maneet won because I still haven't even committed the other guy's name to memory yet. I'm just settling in to watch Antonia vs. Jet, which I already know ends in a tie; interesting. I prefer her, but like him, too, so it will be interesting to see them have to compete against each other again. Now that I've seen their round - damn, that was some seriously good food!

That's why I keep an old corded phone in my office closet, just in case. (If your landline is U-Verse, rather than a traditional landline, you have a battery back-up so you still have phone/internet during a power outage, but of course if the outage lasts longer than the battery, then you'd be out of luck, even with an old phone.)

Oh my - roommates falling over in laughter back home was hilarious. Why on earth did Rachel walk out like that instead of telling the stylist that's not what she wanted? I mean, she paid someone to make her look like that. I guess she was too scared to speak up, and figured she got the color she primarily came in for, so she can just go home and fix the style. Heh, I'm still laughing. That "guy at the fair" hair was so bad!

So much! Other than while traveling, I only use my cell phone if I'm in the car and need to convey something time-sensitive, like I'm stuck in traffic and will be about X minutes late. Otherwise, I use my home or office phone. When others call me from their cell phone in similar or other short-conversation situations, no problem, but when friends who've gotten rid of their landlines call me from their cell for what I know is a general catch-up conversation, I groan before I pick up the phone. Because I know that over an extended conversation the call is going to drop at least once, we're going to have to play the "can you hear me now?" game, I won't be able to hear it as well (which causes me to talk louder, which is annoying, so I have no always be conscious of keeping that in check), etc. And, during a pandemic, I can't even fall back on cutting the conversation short and arranging to catch up in person instead.

At the time this aired, I was about five years into working for a record label, although not in A&R. They were such low-level interns (which, of course, makes sense) that, as I recall, they got shitty tasks and stuff I'd never heard of an actual A&R street team doing. Was Nicole the one who couldn't pronounce the label name (Arista)? I hated the job thing in general; I understand why they implemented it to force the roommates to spend more time together, but it just made The Real World less real - they were more castmates than roommates once that happened. And some of the jobs really sucked, at least in terms of my interests. This one wouldn't have been awful compared to some of the others (the Boston job working with kids? I'd have gotten myself fired, too), but it's still not something I'd have wanted to have to do, even in exchange for free NY rent.

Sharon Raydor is one of my favorite TV characters of all time, and even though played by Mary McDonnell (whom I frakkin' adore) if you'd just describe her to me I never would have thought I'd love her that much. While I'm thrilled The Closer universe continued on, so we could continue to see Sharon Raydor - whom I liked back in her first episode as an antagonist on The Closer and loved by the end of her third (she was originally brought in for a three-episode arc, but then everyone realized Dude, we have Mary McDonnell on board; can we continue this? and it snowballed from there) and not just continue to see the MC squad but actually get to see what they can each do if delegated more responsibility, I'd have just as much loved a show about the Force Investigation Division Sharon led back then. With the plethora of cop shows over the years, it really boggles my mind no one has created one about an Internal Affairs division. They're "the rat squad" on cop shows, but a show about their investigations would open up a bunch of new storylines instead of just rehashing the same crimes over and over - not to mention be incredibly relevant in an age when mainstream media is finally starting to maybe, just a little, peel back the veil and talk about rampant police misconduct and its horrible repercussions. It was damn near revolutionary on The Closer when the show's main character spouted the usual bullshit - even though the FID investigation exonerated their shootings as clean in less than 72 hours - that cops knowing they'll be investigated if they use force will cause them to hesitate to use force, thus getting officers killed, and it wasn't embraced as truth; the FID captain got the final word: Brenda: I have to ask, have you ever considered what your principles cost? Sharon: Seventy million dollars. That was the settlement in the Rampart case. One hundred. That's how many convictions were overturned due to renegade policing and lack of oversight in one division alone. Not to mention the loss of trust the LAPD needs to remain effective. Brenda: There has to be a better way. Sharon: Well, until then, you've got me. That one scene was fall-out-of-my-chair fantastic to see (as a civil rights lawyer, I cannot for the sake of my blood pressure even watch most cop shows). If someone ever built a show around that reality and an honest presentation of what IA divisions do, I'd be thrilled. And, as I said, I really can't believe it hasn't been done. It's a new twist on a stale formula, plus there is built-in drama given the pressure they're under to, like any internal investigation, find a way to absolve the company of liability rather than to find the truth, and how some members of the team will be more drawn to one goal than the other.

That's one of the few things I remember of the season, Coral trying to fix her up and saying he's not going to kiss you if you keep puking. Yeah, since I barely remember the cast members, I surely didn't remember the rejects, but re-watching the casting special, Jason and Mike were similarly sheltered and somewhat-similarly looking to broaden their horizons (Mike seemingly just had this realization in Palm Springs, while Jason had already opened his eyes back home) and Jason was a lot more interesting than Mike. But I kind of like that, as exploitative as these shows always were, they didn't choose Jason because Coral had made out with him, or put Ellen on RW instead of RR because she and Coral had publicly clashed (before, upon being cast in they knew not which, agreeing to try to handle their differences better).

What a horrible experience for him, obviously, and for his wife. At least she came upon him quickly, so she'll know he had his best shot at recovery (had she come along later, she'd probably always wonder if he could have been saved had she discovered him sooner) and he wasn't alone in his final moments of awareness. Ha! He had a great routine going, and his reaction when told the old racist he's skewering just died is great - the expression on his face, and then how he rolls with it and segues back into the routine. Because, yeah. I don't agree with mocking his age (punch up, not down), but calling out his racism and sexism - yes, please, and, no, you don't have to hit pause because he died. Which the audience got. (And then, double Ha! at his reaction to the audience's discomfort with bringing up Andrew's participation in sexual trafficking of girls [and the media's lack of coverage of that as compared to their coverage of Meghan Markle] - "Don't get weird now, when fucking five minutes ago you were applauding the death of Prince Philip.)

That's one of the reasons Major Crimes was an exception to my dislike of cop shows - they were all grown-ass people behaving accordingly. Of course they had flaws, but they weren't hot messes at work or at home (and where there was a serious temperament problem that affected the job, like Julio's inappropriate manifestations of anger, it was acknowledged honestly, he suffered real consequences, and the only reason he was allowed back [after a 5-month unpaid suspension, which of course happened during a hiatus, but a substantial punishment did happen, which is more than I can say for most] and retained is he actually did the work and knocked that shit off). They were people in their 30s through 60s (with 30s and even 40s being the minority) who had believably earned their positions in the elite squad (I grew so tired of workplace shows about people who are the best of the best in their field, and they were all 28), led by a cop who made them do it the right way and accept that sometimes meant they couldn't make a case, which was a more just result than breaking the law to avenge a breaking of the law; the end didn't justify the means. (So don't get me started on the finale.) They were neither superheroes nor anti-heroes, they were just typical people. And I can appreciate some really broad characters; I'm not into superheroes, but I can watch an anti-hero if they're written so their problems aren't waved off as just the price to be paid for their genius. But I prefer regular folks, and tip my hat to writers and actors who don't resort to extremes to keep them interesting.

I re-watched the casting special, too, and as pathetic as I found some folks at the time - for their sexism, racism, and homophobia - it is indeed outright startling to look back on. Not that such bigotry no longer exists, because of course it's still rampant, but the degree to which it was normalized. Especially among an age cohort that would now, among those selected as final contenders for such a show, not have nearly so many prejudiced people -- even for the sake of drama, no producer of a mainstream show would contemplate trying to get away with casting from among that many close-minded turds. The homophobia was indeed startlingly blatant (again, not that it was widespread, but that it was normalized to that extent on the show), and it's quite telling that the awful guy who didn't make either show had one non-awful moment, when he simply said that while one might not have a same-sex sexual fantasy, one occasionally wonders hm, I wonder what that's like, and because this was a man speaking, the other guys nearly came out of their hair to deny, no, never! On a shallow note, I'd forgotten just how goddamned gorgeous Coral is. I had also completely forgotten that the annoying baby Rachel was not only quite young, but had been freakishly sheltered and controlled by her mom. Maybe I won't find her quite so unbearable upon re-watch bearing that in mind.

We don't know that she didn't also give situation-specific final gifts to others.

I thought it was a pretty big doll/dummy. A hilariously obvious one, and probably not big enough, but not the size of an infant. But I may have been distracted by laughing at the total Hey, we have limited access to begin with, plus COVID, and we gave you an actual kid for the important Beverly Rose scene, just go with this, okay? scenario.

That still blows my mind. I don't remember much about this season, as I didn't particularly like anyone other than Coral (which isn't to say I hated all the others, I just drawn to anyone else), but what I do remember of Mike is pretty unfavorable. I forgot all about Rachel! Ugh, babyish is right. That would be a lot to live with. I'll have to watch at least some of this on YouTube and see what I think this time around. It was disappointing back then. (Of course it's a wet dream compared to the Vegas season.)

I still have a flip phone, so I like him, too. But I like pretty much all of them, even though most of them are saying/doing things neither I nor my parents do - it's still funny. I mean, I wouldn't even notice if someone had blue hair, let alone trip out over it, but the line delivery in that segment is so utterly perfect, I laugh every time.

That's how Darlene has always looked when forced into a dancing situation. She's happiest alone or at home with her small group, but she can have fun in a more social situation, she'll just appear awkward at times, especially during things like dancing.

Yeah, I haven't been paying terribly close attention, and I didn't watch this show last season (I didn't know it existed until this season), so I don't know how it worked before, but I don't see anything where, even if one of the two presenters indeed always introduces the dish of the higher-seeded chef - which, again, I haven't paid enough attention to see if that's true - the judges would know enough to ascertain that pattern.