Bastet

The first time I heard about a gender reveal party, I thought it referred to a transgender person celebrating their decision to announce their identity among known supporters lest some family/friends react with ignorance or hatred. That, I'd attend (well, as long as there was an open bar or at least a good signature cocktail). Some dumb-ass spectacle in which something - which may or may not turn out to be a deadly explosive device - pink or blue is unleashed (perpetuating the binary myth, ultimately revealing genitalia, not gender), no thanks. Just call or email the short list of people who actually give a shit about your sonogram results.

I've seen him in a number of things, but mostly remember him as Mason from a disgraceful set of Designing Women episodes. He went on to gain more weight - which wouldn't have made it okay - but at the time he was your basic low-level obese body type America is full of. Yet the entire storyline was that Charlene was appalled at being set up with Mason because of his weight, and then embarrassed by the looks and comments after she fell for him and started dating him. He was talked about like a specimen not found in nature, and the subject of jokes, in the midst of discussing what a caring, successful guy he was. A truly disgusting look from a generally great show. And that warped "embrace" of Mason was the only time I saw Olkwicz play a remotely likable character; he was otherwise a sad sack or outright villain. But I always saw Mason, and wondered it must have felt like reading those scripts and feeling like he had to sign on.

I figured Molly was going to die, but had no idea how, and having it turn out that she was terminally ill was the perfect background for her attitude in the previous episode. Her note to Darlene was great. I kind of wish Darlene had honored that by using the tickets (taking someone other than dumb-ass Ben once he got huffy that Darlene was originally going to go with Molly - you know, the woman who paid for the tickets and invited Darlene), but I also understand there are far better uses for what equates to found money. It's the same thing the Conners have confronted over and over - can they sometimes do a little something for themselves, or do they always have to use their windfalls responsibly? Becky crunching numbers and thinking she can afford to go to college around the same time Beverly Rose can, and then dipping into her stash of cheap-ass vodka was so sad. I love how she was made to look up like hangover shit, and the Jackie-Becky confrontation was brutally real, especially when Dan and Darlene got involved and realized Becky was in complete denial. Becky's reaction to Jackie's lie about Beverly Rose was haunting. And it was a nice exploration of the limited rehab options for those without money and not wanting to be preached at. I don't know that Becky actually needs inpatient treatment at this point, but I'm not an expert, and Lecy is playing the hell out of this, so I'm in. LOL at the note from Robin.

Insert weekly mask stupidity grumble here. Great, Dan is still fucking delusional about what he deserves at the hardware store. But at least he decided to get over himself to let Ben move back in, and at least Ben realizes that's not healthy. His me or your family ultimatum to Darlene is inappropriate, but he's right that if they're ever going to live together again, it needs to be in their own place. (So, hey, how about live separately until that's no longer the best thing for everyone, and then co-habitate; you don't have to share a home to share a life.) Ben giving Dan 10% was far more than Dan deserves, but maybe it will work out. The accordion version of one-hit wonders was fun. I've been excited ever since I read that Molly was returning and she and Darlene would discover they rather liked each other based on some adult similarities; it would be pretty pathetic if they were still pissy about stupid teenage stuff like David and the Daisy Chainsaw concert debacle. (Just like how it's pathetic Jackie acted like a tween stirring up non-existent drama.) And, indeed, it was cool to see her again, and I love them talking honestly with each other. But now I'm sure I know what the next episode's description is referencing, and that's a bit of a bummer. It would have been far more interesting if Becky being able to stop after one glass of wine but knowing she can't continue to do that had been the storyline, but TV just loves relapse drama, so once you put "Rehab" in a title I know we're going down the usual path; I just didn't think it would happen this early. Oh, well, it's certainly not unrealistic, and the laundromat scene was very well acted. Thank goodness she wants to go back to school. No, higher education is not the magical solution the "American Dream" myth peddles, but Becky is suited to it, always wanted it, and kept letting go of it based on circumstances. It's a hell of a lot harder to do now, but good for her trying. Even "just" an Associates degree, hell even just some business classes, could help her make The Lunchbox more successful. Becky's reactions to her baby being more drawn to the caretaker than to her were perfectly played; that's something working moms are made to feel like shit about all the time (yet, somehow, dads aren't held to the same standard).

Yes, and about endometriosis, which I also have; it's great having someone with her platform out there talking about being effectively exiled from her life for several days each month and about the rampant dismissal from far too many doctors, even gynecologists. As she has said, "Nobody wants to talk about this stuff," but she's out there talking about it, and that helps women who know there's something very wrong but keep getting told yeah, periods suck, deal with it. And she's doing far more than talking about it; she co-founded an organization (The Endometriosis Foundation of America, EndoFound) which provides information and resources, runs outreach programs, helped launch a research center, and is working to change how the disease is addressed in med school.

Riley is an indoor-only cat since she's never shown an interest in going outside and she's way too skittish when spooked for it to be safe even if she wanted to go out. But Maddie and Baxter were allowed supervised outdoor time because they were freakishly obedient (they virtually never left the yard, and if they did get the urge and jump over a wall, I'd say, "Come back here," and they would!) Baxter would pee outside, but come back in and use the litter box if he had to poop. Maddie found the whole outdoor bathroom concept undignified and would only do her business in the box. My parents' cat Bandit is allowed out in the yard during certain hours (he has idiopathic cystitis caused by stress, and if he's strictly confined indoors, it flares up), and he's the same way - he'll pee outside, but come barreling down the hill and into the garage or house to use one of the boxes if he has to poop. Their cat Chester can only go outside on a leash, as he started going across the street, plus he's so damn small now (with cancer eating most of his nutrients) he could be carried away by a hawk or owl. When he had the same privileges as Bandit, he loved to poop outside, but would only pee in the box. They're funny little critters that way - like cats with two boxes who will use one for pee and one for poop. Growing up, our cats were always indoor-outdoor (no free access to outdoors, and never allowed out from an hour before dusk through the early morning hours because of coyotes, but allowed outside during the day if someone was home) and one, Yeager, loved to help fertilize plants -- if we dug a hole to plant something, he came along and tinkled in it.

I can't believe oxygen was a TS; there are only two choices, guess one! The Kingsford TS kind of surprised me, but I guess none of them grill with charcoal (if at all). Luminol also surprised me a bit; as others have said, none of them watch crime shows? My habit of reading mostly only non-fiction bit me in the ass in the first round: I missed three in literary animals, and The Mambo Kings TS in Hispanic Americans. I also missed one Broadway show and two chess terms. In DJ, I missed three composers and two characters. I also missed one each in science and uniforms (I could not for the life of me remember what a chef's hat is called). FJ was an instaget, and I'm not sure why it came to mind so immediately. I guess the year. For anyone interested, here is a concise summary of the life and work of Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias, who did great work expanding public health services for women and children in minority and low-income communities. Here's an excerpt, including the fact stated in the sterilization clue:

I've only seen him in a few things (Get Out, Selma, and Knives Out), but liked him in all of them. I haven't read Kwame's book yet, but I know the basics of his life and activism, so I'm excited about the film.

That's what Guy has said, that they don't even know who's in the tournament.

Yes, but it's not common; freaky as fuck, but not common. Like most, they're opportunists, and a fence is usually enough to prompt them to look elsewhere.

That's because Rose and Blanche appear in blackface (mud masks, about which a joke is made).

I agree; the quotation marks in a category title mean those letters/that word will appear in each correct response, and when all correct responses will have the quoted letters/words at the beginning, end, or in the middle, that gets specified by the host (if not already indicated by the category title). In the absence of that specification, they'll simply appear somewhere in the response. So just drawing contestants' attention to the quotation marks, as Aaron did with the "but" category, is sufficient.

My grandpa was a hoarder (nowhere near bad enough to be exploited on that horrible show, but a hoarder), and I was the one who sorted through the contents of his house after he died; between sentimental attachment and a whiff of the "well, maybe I could use that" notion that snowballed his situation into what it became, my mom was not right for the task, and my dad wouldn't have had the patience. It was overwhelming, and there were days I just wanted to rent a dumpster and chuck everything into it, but I stuck with it and gave away everything that could be re-used. (And sold quite a few things; the cash helped motivate me 🙂 ) I found takers for some things I doubted anyone would want, and several of those takers emailed me pictures of what they'd repurposed the items into; I loved those. One of my best friends had grandparents who were hoarders, and she has strong pack rat tendencies that worried her in terms of what she might progress into. Between seeing what I went through with my grandpa's house and what her dad went through with her grandparents' house, she got scared straight and asked me to help her go through all her stuff and drastically pare down. It was a project, but we did it, and she has stuck with it for years now, really thinking differently about what she chooses to buy. I am not a strict minimalist, but I'm committed to the reduce-reuse-recycle hierarchy: don't buy excessively to begin with, give away things I no longer want but can still be used or repurposed to someone who'll extend their "lifespan", and keep any recyclable materials among what's left out of the landfill. Which brings me to my peeve. The recycling system in the U.S. is disgustingly flawed, especially now that we can't just dump everything on China, and a disturbingly low percentage of recyclable material is indeed recycled, so recycling what actually will be is literally the least we can do when it comes to reducing waste in landfills. Yet even in municipalities like mine, where recycling is every bit as easy as trashing - just put it in Barrel B instead of Barrel A and have it picked up on the weekly collection day - there are still people who don't bother to sort, and just toss everything into Barrel A.

If Burton is not at least among the hosts they're interviewing for the gig, I will be pissed, since he has expressly said he's interested. He and Aisha Tyler top my list of people with hosting experience I can most see doing a good job with J! I don't watch any current game shows other than J!, so I don't know who among those hosts might be a good fit.

The histamine TS surprised me. Billy Crystal changing seats to not have to sit next to a baby made me laugh, but I hope he wasn't rude about it. Larry McMurtry joins the list of people who've died between the filming and airing of an episode in which they are the subject of or response to a clue. I only ran the 1900 and French categories in the first round, missing one each in the rest. In DJ, I ran every category except literary settings, in which I missed three, so I was on a roll. FJ didn't come to me until after time was up, though, so I can't count it as a get.

I am so glad the CU folks were wrong about this not even being on the list, but it is still ranked far too low. I can't say it any better than this:

The cat doesn't seem left to roam outdoors at will, but instead is with the owners and the dogs when they are on the boat, at the beach, etc. I think whether - and, if so, how - it is safe for any given cat to have some sort of outdoor time depends on circumstances, and most of the time I think the answer is no. But, watching that video, this seems like a supervised scenario that is working. So I hope it is indeed a situation where the cat isn't roaming, but is just included in family activities. They certainly lucked out with a kitten who instantly took to all that stuff.

Aaron Rodgers was about what I expected as a guest host - a big fan of the game and comfortable performing on camera (he's done a bunch of commercials), so he doesn't have the presence of a professional host, but he's fine for two weeks. The charity he selected (in his hometown of Chico) sounds great from the quick perusal I took, truly a community organization. Hemingway is new documentary series by Ken Burns AND Lynn Novick. It pisses me off when their projects are referred to as his alone, even though it's right there in the subtitle, not even requiring any looking at the credits: "A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick". I joined those in the studio in getting a good chuckle out of Scott going directly to the bald category. And I cracked the hell up at his FJ answer and Aaron's reaction, because, yeah, dumb move, LaFleur. The wheels seemed to come off the wagon for Scott in DJ; lots of wrong answers, and he lost his mojo. The Old Man and the Sea clue was too easy, given the two visual prompts within the clue, for a DD in DJ. I wasn't surprised the Iran hostages clue was a TS, but I was quite surprised by the "slaves" answer. I missed two pop culture clues and joined the contestants (and Aaron) in not knowing sackbut, but otherwise ran the first round. I did well in DJ, too, only missing one each in baseball managers, history, Hemingway, and 11-letter words, but if it wasn't for some lucky guesses, I'd have missed quite a few more. FJ was an instaget, since I just watched A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood fairly recently.

I love how, while does everything the dogs do, including playing in water, he's still all cat when he shakes the water off his paws when he's done. Also him standing on little kitten tippy toes to drink out of the dogs' water bowl. I do not care for the author saying the owner wanted to "replace" her previous cat. (And, this is embarrassing, but until I read the previous cat's name was Tuna, I didn't get it about this one being named Marlin.)

The interview reveals another reason to like Glenn Close (in addition to her reaction to Yuh-Jung Youn winning the SAG Award):

He did have some nickname for Maneet when she was entering the competition arena - the dancing [something] queen, maybe? I don't remember what he said, but I remember he said something that had me rolling my eyes as I do at all his dumb-ass nicknames for people.

Sometimes my inner dialogue would suggest otherwise, but, no, what comes out of my mouth is generally in line with Los Angeles. Which means sometimes it's instead "Dude, really?"

Well, yeah, I don't advocate barking, "Get out of my way, asshole, I could have finished my shopping in the time you've spent reading labels!" instead of saying, "Pardon me, I need to grab something in front of you."

1. Big feet, so long as still a size where cute shoes are available. (I wear a size 10 or 11 shoe, depending on the style [sometimes I need extra width, and more shoes come in 11 than 10W], so I already have big feet and it doesn't bother me.) If I'd be stuck with three pairs of orthopedic shoes, I'll take small hands, as long as they're not so small I can't even get a grip on tools to fix/build things. 2. I have no idea why being a dentist is supposed to be something I'd only choose if there was a worse option. So, yeah, dentist. Good money, good hours, and you're your own boss. (I don't consider being a proctologist a terrible fate, either, but dentist would be my pick of the two if for no other reason than my patients would spend a lot of their time unable to talk.) 3. By sweating honey, do that mean actual sticky honey emerging from my pores, not just that my sweat would smell like honey? And do I sweat it all the time, so I'm always covered in a fine layer of sticky, brown substance, as opposed to just when I work up a sweat, I sweat honey? If we're talking always walking around with actual honey on my skin, making everything stick to me and staining my clothes and sheets, I'll smell vaguely of skunk and counteract it with a stronger fragrance. Basically, two requires absolutely no deliberation, but I'd need more details on one and three to make a definitive choice.

I love Dorothy telling off the doctor, especially that it included her saying if she was a man she'd have been taken more seriously. Dorothy's entire speech to him is something it was really important to have shown to 35 million viewers. Of course, this being a sitcom, and one notoriously bad at continuity, the writers subsequently ignored that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a, you know, chronic illness. But I'm glad Susan Harris at least got to do those two episodes, showing the fear and frustration when you know there's something wrong with you but doctors just pat you on the head and tell you you're fine, it's all in your head.