Bastet

Yes! I was only able to watch the first match and then the judging of the second, but so glad to see Brooke win again. I know she and Michael Voltaggio both make incredible food, so it would be both high scoring a close, but I like her more, so I was rooting for her. I'm not excited about Bryan Voltaggio or his food, but I don't know the other guy, so I was rooting for Bryan. Oh, well. I'll have to watch the re-run next week to see Maneet and Madison's match.

So can someone point me to one of these forums where hating Abby is unpopular? Because it sure ain't this one. I can take her or leave her; my only true dislike surrounding her is not about her, but how much time was given to storylines about her family - the whole thing with her mother and brother could have been reduced by half and worked much better.

This Arizona-Stanford women's championship game is fantastic. I'm hoping AZ can pull out a comeback win. They just got screwed by an incorrect possession call that would have been reviewable had it happened three seconds later. Ouch. Damn, so close. But what a great championship game, and what a great tournament.

I buy a half gallon of organic 1% milk, whichever brand is on sale at the time I'm buying. When contemplating something new at the store, sure I'll take a minute to read the ingredients and nutrition information, but I remain aware of my surroundings to make sure I'm not in the way of someone who knows what they want needing to grab it and move on. I can't stand dilly dallyers who don't maintain basic situational awareness to make sure their own aimless wandering and contemplating doesn't needlessly affect others. And, yes, we all get lost in thought, but if it manifests as a pattern in someone during a single shopping trip, it's a chronic problem.

There has been some general Do you like or dislike Padma? discussion in the recent episode thread, and my answer is like. I generally only know her from this show and a few episodes of Taste the Nation, and the few things I know of her off camera comport with my impression of what I see of her on screen. She's smart, interesting, interested in others, and has a nicely snarky sense of humor. I certainly wouldn't call myself a fan, as I pay very little attention to her, but what I know, I like. I also like that she doesn't hide her scar. And, yeah, what's one little arm scar on a beautiful woman, but it's still something she was advised to obscure from the public as a flaw, and she said fuck that. Also that she's willing to gain weight each year while eating calories and fat than normal, during filming. Again, big woo that a model-thin woman "allows" herself to be slightly less model thin for a few months each year before forcing herself back into some crazy-ass ideal. But she doesn't seem unhealthy about it. I just don't see anything obvious about her to dislike (be indifferent to her, sure, but ugh, that Padma isn't something that registers for me).

I remember Glen was annoying, but don't remember a single specific scene about/with him. Beth A. I remember coming out to her roommates by wearing an "I'm not gay but my girlfriend is" t-shirt, which I thought was great (she doesn't owe them a grand proclamation as it's not a "confession" of something they "deserve" to be aware of; they can either ask or not ask about the shirt and she'll take it from there). But I don't remember any other specifics about her, either. I do remember reactions to her sexual orientation, specifically John being John, and Tami telling Dom and one or two others I can't recall that she was uncomfortable, and wouldn't want to share a room with a lesbian. Of course, there's lots more I remember about Tami, good and bad. The work she did at the HIV clinic, her abortion decision, wiring her jaw shut to lose weight, going on some tacky-ass dating show, knowing CB lingo from pop culture but not understanding it, so having to be told by Dom "you only say breaker 1-9 if you're on channel 19" as they road tripped it to pick up John, and, of course, "I'm a slave, I'm a slave, I'm a slave to your lovin'". Beth S. I remember bringing a cat, having a mom who was a local Polish radio personality back home, standing up for Tami when David tried to play off her discomfort with his blanket "shenanigans", and often trying too hard. Dom I remember liking, and have vague recollections of a trip home to visit his ill father. Oh, and maybe passing out on a beach? And allowing the cameras to record an interview he conducted. Not a lot of specifics with him. Aaron I just remember as a walking stereotype of an MBA student and surfer. John, just his love for country music consisting of watching TNN all day and expecting a career to fall into his lap because he was a big hit as the singing virgin in his little hometown. Irene, getting up at the crack of dawn to do her hair ritual at the sheriff's station, working in a courtroom, and then getting married. I don't remember anything else she did during her time there, other than seeming ill-suited to the environment. (Which I kind of liked, because as cool as the whole RW experience sounded to me back then at my age [a few years younger than them], I also knew I wouldn't actually like having to live with that many people, especially strangers, never mind have my life taped. And she was the most mature of the group, and I was the most mature of my friends - although still crazier and goofier than she seemed to be - so I maybe I wanted to relate to her, but didn't, because having a law enforcement job and getting married were two things I'd rather jump into a volcano than have in my life.) David, I only remember was a stand-up comic and was totally tone deaf to Tami's response, even after it was spelled out to him outside the immediate aftermath. I think there was a scene where he took his house key off its ring and put it on the table when asked to leave. I wish the old seasons aired on something I get so I could re-visit them. Some were on a Pluto channel, but Pluto stopped working on my Fire Stick, and I am not paying for the Paramount+ streaming. I wish MTV Classic would air them.

Are there cable packages where one would get Animal Planet but not Discovery? I didn't have any problem watching channel 182 instead of 184, so I don't care about the switch (and wonder if more people might come across it on Discovery than AP; I figure Discovery generally has more viewers, which could make the move a good thing), but if it's going to air on two networks (plus the streaming service), all the better. (Especially because there are probably many fans who had no idea it had moved, so with it not being advertised on AP, they'd just figure it wasn't back in the rotation yet; I wouldn't have known if not for this thread, and my mom wouldn't have known if I hadn't in turn emailed her.) More viewers = more awareness, and more donations for VRC.

Huh. I guess I'm a real weirdo for finding peeling garlic kind of enjoyable. I do occasionally have some sprout before I get through it (but not often, as I cook with a lot of garlic), but I just toss that in the "for making stock" bag in the freezer. I'm not opposed to convenience offerings, mind you; this just doesn't happen to be one I'm drawn to.

Yes, he's in the right and she needs to move, as the cat eventually prompts her to do. But you don't get to play chicken in a pandemic; pull up your mask until she does. Or, if you don't, you don't get featured in a commercial called "Do it right". It's a funny ad (I love that he clearly knows this is something his cat will do, and how he gives the cat an 'atta girl pet afterward [or boy, but I like 'atta girl thanks to 9 to 5's Margaret Foster]), but landed just outside the mark.

What do you mean? I wasn't able to watch the new episode until the 9:00 repeat and I missed a few quick bits here and there while getting dinner finished, but I didn't see/hear anything concerning about any of them. And it's not a situation where they just weren't part of the rescues and adoptions chosen for this episode*, because Tania and M2 handled the meet and greet with the folks who adopted Shamrock. (* And that's typical; we generally don't see everyone in every episode, especially the twins, who seem more involved with the physical upkeep of the VRC facilities than the work in the streets and with adopters), Speaking of Shamrock and Tania, him stealing her chair to show off his training was funny. Love him on his paddle board, and his intense love of toys. I also laughed at Lizzy just rolling with the fact her kid was handing her pee "rocks" during Shamrock's kid testing. I'm amused by how tickled Tia is by Augustus's adopter's purple hair. Augustus and Lulu lying in the sun together - and then assuming their positions on the bed with their owner - is such a cute happy ending for him. I loved all the talk about how he's the perfect dog leading to him eating a shoe, but the adopter didn't care. Using Ben to find the elusive well-traveled dog was cute. I'm glad Miss Pickles was reunited with her owner; the way she just went nuts rolling around and kissing?! This is not the first time VCR and the show have shown proper respect to Travelers, and I'm happy to see it again. Polly the paralyzed puppy had the cutest little spots on her back. Her worn out face was heartbreaking; good on Heidi for the effort she put in, and Polly's face at home with Heidi and the other dogs was completely different in a short period of time! It's so sad that she wasn't meant to be, but she went out having known love. Mariah inviting Earl, Toney, and Spencer to design a parolee line of merch was cool, and I like the ideas they all came up with. Unfortunately, seeing the shirts unveiled was the one chunk of the episode I missed, but hopefully they came out nicely.

Yeah, it's "Do it right, get back to normal" (or something to that effect; it's already on a previous page and I'm too lazy to double-check), but she chooses to walk up to an occupied bench in what seems a sparsely populated park, sit too close, and remove her mask, and he chooses not to pull his up. The cat is the only one among the three with any damn sense. I guess it's supposed to be funny that he lets the cat do the talking for him - and, okay, it is - but it would work better if he put his mask on properly before he turned his back to the invader and let the cat do their thing. As it is, I'm just distracted by his chin strap.

Someone seriously went on television and said that with a straight face?

I'd easily recognize Kim or Kris, but not any of the others (I'm not even sure how many more there are).

I don't think that's at all rare, and I don't like comparing women on the sexist, racist, ableist, ageist, transphobic, and homophobic "attractive" scale, but I think New Coke Becky is attractive in a more generic way and Original Recipe Becky attractive in a more interesting way, and my personal preference is for the latter. I've always enjoyed Goranson's presentation of Becky, and that has been amplified in the revival and then this spin-off. She's consistently an MVP, so episodes like this one that dig beneath the surface of Becky to explore her history and how it informs her current personality and situation are right up my alley; I still have great affection for all the original characters, but Becky quickly carved out her own corner of my heart this time around, and has set up residence there. She could have had a very different life if X, Y, and Z had gone differently, but X and Y were beyond her control and, as an actual person who's a product of her environment, she didn't fulfill the promise she had on paper. It's a touching story, and one nicely explored in episodes like this one.

Scott misspeaking during his interview story and saying "kill the family" was funny. The chaplain TS was surprising, as was Crete a bit (not that no one knew the fact at hand, but that no one guessed it for a Greek island in a $600 clue). But that was it - good game. I thought the nephrologist clue was pretty easy for a DD in DJ. Same with late great Kate. I'd have bet big on both of those based on the categories, and then been ticked I didn't bet even more once they were revealed. I ran the disco, cities, dwarfs, and Navy jobs categories, but missed two pacts and one shake (Frosty) in the first round. In DJ, I didn't know a single clue in the books for young people category and missed two each in languages and trains. But I ran triple rhyme time (that was a fun category), medicine, and women in Congress. I correctly guessed FJ, figuring it was referring to Angel Falls, but I had no idea before tonight that it was named after a person. Good thing they only required the last name!

This was pretty meh. I never liked the show, for all the reasons I hate 99% of cop shows, but I liked the "El and Liv" partnership, so sometimes I'd watch early season episodes. I'd read about some big developments in later seasons, including how he left, which I thought was a total dick move, so when this reunion was so hyped, I figured I'd waste an hour of my life (I didn't realize Olivia was going to be in the first episode of the new show, or I'd have gone ahead and wasted two hours to see more of their dynamic). I couldn't stand Stabler's family, but I'm so tired of women being killed off just to create man pain for the main character to chew on. If Elliot needs to be single for this new series, just have them be divorced. It would make all the sense in the world, since they only got married in the first place because she was pregnant and only got back together when they'd been a signature away from divorce because they had comfort sex and she got knocked up again (at least, that's what I understood from what I've read over the years). With the kids all grown, they finally went their separate ways. Killing her off was ridiculous (as was making me imagine Elliot Stabler living in Rome). I nearly sprained my eyeballs rolling them at all the talk about how Stabler is no longer a shitty cop, none of them are, they've all learned their lessons, and this is now an NYPD that respects people and the Constitution. Please. I don't need to watch the show to know that's probably a bunch of BS. I liked the scene between Elliot and Fin, since Fin is the only other character I knew (no Munch?!), but Elliot's incredibly subdued reaction to learning Olivia has a kid felt off to me. All that time he spent talking down to her as if she couldn't understand things because she wasn't a parent, you'd think he'd be happier to learn she was able to become a mother. And I liked seeing Elliot and Olivia together again, and glad she got to say to his face that just disappearing without a word when he was the most important person in her life (and he knew that) was the wrong move. It was all just fine, though; I know the actors adore each other, so it's nice they got to work together again, and it was nice to see them together, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype. And as much as I like Christopher Meloni, Elliot Stabler does not need to be back on TV.

If someone had asked me to identify her by a picture, or even name one of Richard Nixon's daughters, I couldn't have pulled it out of my memory. But the "with a name close to her mom's" hint did the trick and I remembered there was a Tricia. (Then I tried to remember the other one's name, but had to look it up - Julie.)

The writers struck a nice balance; they didn't position Natalie as the new Sharona or the anti-Sharona. There were similarities and differences as there would be between any two people doing substantially (but not entirely; Sharona is a nurse and Natalie is an assistant) the same job, but they weren't harped on, they just existed. They did well when they had to create a new therapist for Monk, too, and, once again, most viewers liked both characters. Maybe it helped the audience that Monk, for whom change is one of the worst things in the world, had to adjust and we went along with him - if he can deal with two new people playing such intimate roles in his life, surely we can.

Is she even doing AA? I know TV likes to present it as the only path to sobriety, but it's not. I don't remember if, back when she first confronted her alcoholism, she talked about going to an AA meeting.

I agree. And, in addition to Emilio, Ramón and Renée. All three seem to conduct themselves like their parents, not their epic disaster of a brother. Same with Tom Hanks; the other three adult children seem to be decent people. To grow up with that level of privilege and only one come out with a raging sense of entitlement suggests to me it's far more likely the parents actively taught perspective, and one just didn't listen, than that these were households headed by closet devils.

This got two too highs and one too low from the CU analysts, and I'll split the difference and say it's about right on this list. This is about 50 spots too low, but it wouldn't bother me on a list that wasn't so stupid. Interestingly, I don't feel anywhere near as strongly about this being ranked too low as do the CU folks. I think it's about right (on a real list, not on this stinker). This, though? Come the entirety of hell on. Too low! Or, as one of the CU dudes said perfectly:

It's a little crazy these people still punch a time card like I did 30 years ago working in retail. I know how hideously underfunded the NO Public Defender office is, so I'd start to think this is a result of more of the same, but EMS has a spiffy new building as of several years ago; that seriously doesn't provide for clocking in and out via computer? I feel sorry for them dealing with unmasked/ineffectively masked patients; I wish they could slap a mask on/pull a mask up on them as a condition of helping to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID. I didn't mention this last week, but I like the brief inclusion of the 911 call center folks; it makes this show bring to mind the British documentary series 999 Rescue Squad. Lindsay brushing leaves out of the OD patient's hair was nice, as was how she explained to him that heroin's effect can outlast Narcan's effect, so he needs to be monitored. He felt the truth that she was there to help and educate, not judge. I continue to like her partnership with Janette. Arkady getting a talking head interview indicates we'll see more of her, which wasn't clear from the promos or first episode.

Becky has been very straightforward about her alcoholism and sobriety in other situations, but this was different, and I found it the perfect set-up for her to have a glass of wine when she otherwise wouldn't have. She was hit head-on with a reminder of how her life was "supposed to" go and how far off that track it instead progressed; she knows that, but meeting up with the person who had the closest projected trajectory and indeed fulfilled it threw it in her face. She was totally off balance, and it got worse with every minute as she responded to each question with a bigger lie (ultimately naming her fictional grad school after an IKEA vanity, heh). Addiction is a disease, not a failure, but it's completely understandable that she'd regard it, in that moment, as another way she'd strayed from her expected path and try to, like everything else she lied about that night, hide it. (And not just decline to disclose she can't drink, but not even want to open the door by saying she doesn't drink.) It was all the same to her in that moment -- she "should have" capitalized on her top of the class status to graduate college, earn a post-grad degree, settle into a career that granted autonomy and security, and now enjoy casually sharing a bottle of wine with a former classmate who'd also done the same against the odds* as they laugh about the crappy wine coolers they'd been limited to as teens. *Like several others, I expected it to turn out he was also fronting, that neither were able to overcome the institutional barriers to the success that would have been a sure thing for others more privileged. Maybe they'll circle back to that, but I suspect this was a one-off.

I didn't realize this was on so early, so I had to wait for the repeat. I can barely even stand to look at or listen to Richard Blais, he is so ridiculous. I can't believe he's going to be at the table every freakin' episode. (Love Padma snarking on his hair, though). I don't remember Amar. I'm so glad to have this show back, even though it's going to be sad watching people whose industry has been decimated and it'll be hard not to get distracted worrying that adequate COVID precautions are being taken. I was glad to hear right away, via Gregory's opening remarks to the cheftestants, that they were going to embrace the fact this season's filming was happening amidst ongoing racial justice rebellions. I hope there's a challenge where they cook for protestors. I love the brown team being excited to be all women, so am glad they won the QF. On the flip side, green team had either Gabe or Gabriel (don't like either one, and it takes me two or three episodes to get all the names down), who, teamed up with two women, apparently decided he was boss. Jackass. Dawn's eye roll when her teammate put sauce on the skin side of the fish was great; I love a good eye roll. I wish she hadn't run out of time, as her dish sounded really great; she could have been in the top, I suspect. She doesn't seem very familiar with the show, though. And Sara not being all that comfortable with technology endeared her to me, too. Then her EC dish looked fantastic! I'm not at all surprised she won; it had incredible color and sounded as appetizing as it looked. She has a Stephanie Cmar-like disconnect between her talent and her confidence. I hope she has a similar experience in terms of gaining confidence. I also like the chef (Chris?) who said he spent the last four weeks making bread (presumably meaning stuck at home) so it was nice to be back in a professional kitchen. The taco chef from Tucson (Maria?) looks familiar to me. Avishar seems to have a great personality, but his EC dish looked like shit, as he said. I'm glad he's sticking around. I liked Roscoe talking about cooking and art, saying he'd really like to be a rapper but it's too late for that, but his decision to make something he'd never done before in a tell us about yourself via food challenge was unwise. The dish didn't even look good; that broth looked like vomit. Jamie doesn't seem very strong a chef based on this introduction, so it will be interesting to see how she settles in.

The clue didn't say the university itself was named after Lawrence, just that one of its labs was named for him. I'm going to be watching something else tonight, so I just "played" via the archive. No one guessing Satan really surprised me. No one guessing space station surprised me a bit, too, as did the accidentures TS. So close - I almost ran the first round, but didn't know Bridgerton. In DJ, I ran 1971, currencies, and overlap, and only missed one each in the other three categories. But I didn't get FJ.