Bastet

I'm not familiar with Justin, and he bugged me in the post-game segment, but so far I've liked him just fine during the cooking portion. I agree, they do an equally good job presenting the dishes to the judges. I'm not surprised to hear that; she makes seriously impressive food in competition (and in her restaurants; I just mean that she's really good at quickly coming up with something as interesting as it is delicious in response to challenge requirements). That attitude didn't surprise me from him. Darnell also answered a big fat nope when asked if he likes catfish, but he rose to the challenge. Marc Murphy doesn't bug me quite as much as fellow Chopped judges Scott Conant and Geoffrey Zakarian do (although, like the two of them, he got sued by his employees for wage theft), but I was not sorry to see him go out in the first round.

I loved George Segal in Just Shoot Me! and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It's great he was able to work right up until the end; it sounds like he was doing well, but then needed bypass surgery and couldn't pull through.

Yikes; in the first round, I only ran two categories, and I also entirely blew two categories - I didn't get a single clue in Christian glossary (no surprise) or prancing pony. I missed one each in the others. Thank goodness for the Bastet clue, as until then I'd only come up with one other in that warfare category. DJ wasn't any better for me than the first round; the only category I ran was border towns. Not my game, although I did get FJ; I knew the games been here in L.A. in 1984 and some time in the '30s, realized it couldn't have been '36 because those were the Hitler Olympics, so knew it had to be '32. I was a little distracted tonight, but I think the only TS that surprised me was Poland. Kathryn's boneheaded failure to actually read the clue in FJ was far more mind boggling. I know there have been clues that seem a bit too easy for FJ, but she seriously thought all she had to do was name the city nicknamed the City of Angels?!

Molly and Charlotte's long-lost mom? That was their last name.

That's on the producers and writers, not Oz; they make the decision on whether the category is going to have any specific requirements, and obviously didn't do so here. Yikes; no wonder so many people here complained when he was announced as one of the guest hosts! He did all this: and whoever vetted him thought it would be a good idea to have him be the face of the show for two weeks?! Come to think of it, didn't he say something in his opening remarks last night about it having been his pleasure to present some clues over the years (meaning he's been on the show before)? This was a really bad call.

How would the host's skills help contestants come up with answers -- do you mean by helping ease their nerves, encouraging them, etc.? Alex is arguably the best there's ever been, and there were plenty of games with numerous TS during his run.

I haven't seen that disclaimer, and I usually listen to commercials more than watch them so maybe I just missed it (especially if I wasn't close enough to the TV), but I also think it's new. And it's just going to make me laugh even harder at the commercial. Good move, Sheba. I still won't buy your product, but I do like this ad.

I don't know anything about Dr. Oz, but I looked up his charity on one of the charity rating sites and it has a good score - just shy of 90%, with 3 (out of 4) stars. (I already knew from past experience that Katie Couric's is highly rated.) So maybe at least J!'s money is going to a decent charity, whatever other crap he's involved with (I haven't looked that up, I just know a lot of posters here don't like him). He seems like he'll do fine as a guest host. The combat boots TS surprised me; that was very much a $200 clue. There were several others I'd have predicted someone would get (tween, Tampa Bay, Ugg), but that was a real doozy. George Bernard Shaw as a TS didn't surprise me, but that two contestants guessed German writers - one of which wasn't even a playwright - did. The two R&B TS didn't surprise me, either, but did bum me out a little. (I laughed that at least two of them had duh, of course reactions when Oz revealed the Kool & the Gang answer.) They just ignored that Oz accepted "Holy Roman Empire" (instead of "Emperor"). I know Nick corrected himself right afterward, but if Oz had ruled correctly, he wouldn't have had time to. I only missed four in the first round (and it probably would have been three if I'd have time to get farther than "something-a-gotchi" before the contestant answered tamagotchi). In DJ, I ran R&B, bays, and A-Y, but only got two in artists. At least other than those three, I only had two other scattered misses. I can't quite believe it, but I came up with FJ. I had no idea, so I looked for clues within the clue, and when I got to the months I thought "The Something Winter?" That didn't trigger anything in terms of a labor situation or a Shakespeare play. But then I thought of "the winter of our discontent". I didn't remember a labor action being called that, but I certainly didn't have any other guesses and it fit, so I went with it. I highly doubt all that would have worked under game conditions, though.

Ugh, yes! He seemed to have a nickname for everyone, and I find it hard to believe those were all existing nicknames people in general refer to these chefs by; at least some have to be his "clever" takes on their names/personalities/cooking styles. I've watched Brooke through two entire seasons of Top Chef (she came in second the first time and won the second time, so she was there every episode) and don't remember anyone ever calling her "B-Dub".

I like the game show episode (the series finale, not so much). Well, I should say I like Monk's interaction with Trudy's parents; not having the rest of the cast and having to put up with Kevin are pretty big hurdles to overcome. Another casting element was also initially distracting, as the actor playing her dad is so entrenched in my mind for his many bad guy roles - especially the labor spy in Matewan and the warden in The Shawshank Redemption - that I kept expecting him to turn out to be lying. But I eventually got sucked into the relationship, and teared up when he thanked Monk for figuring out the cheating mystery and Monk replied, "Thank you for Trudy."

Wow. Becky really lives in her own little reality, doesn't she? I don't get the sense she's a bad person, but I'm laughing pretty hard at the unintended irony of her complaining about a lack of critical thinking.

Brooke Williamson (winner of the Charleston season and second place finisher in the Seattle season) is competing in Tournament of Champions on FN (which she won last year, but I somehow managed to miss even knowing it existed). In last night's episode, she won her first round match to move on to the quarter-finals. Every time a chef wins a round, they get to choose a restaurant to receive a $10k donation from the show (to help during the pandemic). Brooke selected Ms Chi, which is Shirley Chung's restaurant (Shirley, of course, being the one Brooke beat in the Charleston finals, and the third-place cheftestant in the New Orleans season). Antonia Lofaso also competed last night, beating Brian Malarkey (thank you, Antonia!). As note upthread, there are a lot of TC alumni in the tournament; both Voltaggio brothers and Tiffani Faison are also still in it.

I laughed when she wanted to make sure she meant to-go bag, not poop bag. Watching the chefs watch the judges taste their food is one of my favorite parts of this show; these folks are quite accomplished, so to see them so nervous and giddy is fun. I mostly only know the Top Chef people, and Brooke is one of my favorites, so I'm glad she won. Is that the highest score so far? I don't recall anyone else being in the 90s. Antonia is another big favorite of mine, so that made me happy, too - especially since it meant I won't have to see Malarkey anymore. I can handle Guy (if I've had enough wine), or I can handle Malarkey; I do not have the patience for both. Next week is going to be tough: in the match-up of Amanda vs. Tiffani, I want both to win.

#0 (none of the above; I hate bananas)

Do we know she doesn't come back? I was only able to watch the first episode (since it was made available on YouTube), but she's been doing press for this reunion since it started airing, including as part of group interviews with other roommates. If she walked out and didn't return, I'd think she would want to wash her hands of it.

Oh, dear, it's going to be one of those days - at first glance, I read this as "pornographic recordings".

For the same reason anyone pierces, tattoos, or otherwise garnishes a body part - it's a way in which they choose to decorate their body, whether temporary, semi-permanent, or permanent. Across my entire body, I have two piercings and two tattoos. I'm not perplexed by those who opt for fewer or more. (I don't wear make-up, which is obviously far more easily removed, but I understand why some choose to paint their face in whole or in part.)

The sexist ending, that is a sharp departure from the original one, changed based on reactions of test audiences, who had a sick fixation on seeing Katharine Hepburn characters get their "comeuppance". (Granted, I didn't watch the TCM commentary, but since that's a great movie with a terrible ending, I assume that's what they discussed.) Originally, Sam takes off to contemplate his thoughts on all that has happened, and is about to miss a deadline; Tess quickly bones up on the boxing match he was to cover and writes an article in his name, saving his career. Sure, she can be selfish, but she loves him and will also selflessly do things for him (you know, like a person). That's the impetus for him saying he wants her for who she is, not who she thinks she's supposed to be, and they meet in the middle as equals - both compromising, but neither compromising who they fundamentally are. Much better than the 15 minutes of sexist slapstick and oh dear, I'm an utter domestic failure/that's okay, you flawed woman, I love you anyway ending that replaced it. Fundamentally, the way Tess is presented after the wedding is pretty awful in both versions, but at least the original ending comes back around to treating her like a person rather than a caricature and ultimately celebrating her (to the degree any film of that era actually celebrates women who think and live outside the box the patriarchy tries to contain them within) instead of tearing her down.

I like the disclaimer on the First Time flashback, saying kids aren't eligible for Capital One cards - "not even if they're little Samuel L. Jackson". And little Spike Lee promising he'll never do it again when he jumps up and yells at the ref.

Everyone who said "Aaron Burr" as if they had a mouth full of peanut butter, raise your hand. I can't believe no one got carpenter. Even I know that one! (In fact, if you'd just asked me to name jobs that biblical characters hold, I'd have said, "Carpenter. Um ... oh, shepherds! And probably some fisherman." So those were the three I got.) The Babe Ruth TS kind of surprised me, too, in that no one even tossed him out there as a guess; maybe no one wanted to risk $1000 on a guess that early in the game. In the first round, I only missed three, but quite a few of my gets were lucky guesses. In DJ, I ran the plays, ends in a first name, knights, and human body categories. I almost ran lakes, but missed one. I missed three in games. FJ was an instaget (and I thought too easy for a FJ clue), so a great game for me all around.

I like the way UPS does it - knock or ring, call out "UPS", and walk back to the truck. When I had a case of Bloody Mary mix delivered, the UPS driver walked to the end of the porch instead (which is more than six feet from the door) and waited. When I opened the door, he asked if I needed any help with the box because it's heavy. I didn't, but that was nice. I don't know if it's the same driver who - back when I could leave the house - used to put packages at my back door if I wasn't home. That went above and beyond, and was much appreciated. I can't remember if it's UPS or FedEx, but there's a driver in my parents' neighborhood who puts packages on top of their trash bins if they're not home - that puts the package behind a locked gate (unless it's something heavy or fragile, the driver can reach to drop the package over the gate, but someone would have to have a ladder to reach over and get it). Again, given their schedules, I don't expect anything like that. But it's nice when it happens. I don't wave, but if the truck is still there when I open the door to get the package, I call out "Thank you" (and get back a "You're welcome" - just the right amount of human interaction for me 🙂 ).

I know delivery drivers are held to ridiculous timetables. And this is a relatively low-crime area and I'm home pretty much all day every day, so there's no real consequence to this, but it bugs me when they don't knock or ring to alert me to the fact a package has been delivered. Most do, especially with UPS and USPS. But FedEx is spotty, and today the driver not only didn't, but also left the package on my front steps. Come on. Most drivers put packages behind the stone column on my front porch, so as to not be visible from the street (or at least less visible if they're wider than the column), and I prefer that to in front of my door, but I've never had one not even get it to the porch. And it wasn't sitting on one step, it was laying diagonally across two of them. Just leaning forward would have been enough to put it on the porch where it would be less obvious. I happened to walk through the living room as the truck was pulling away, so I wound up knowing it was there right away (and the "your package was delivered" email was about half an hour later, so either way it wouldn't have sat out there long). So, like I said, there's no actual problem caused by this, but it was a really weird placement.

My brain may have kind of done the same thing; Phantom popped into my head immediately, so I didn't go through a deliberate thought process, but I think the subconscious rephrasing was basically to "what's a long-running, popular play (so there could be so many different Broadway performances of it) about a guy?" and maybe, for it to come to me so quickly (because it's certainly not a fact I knew; I am not anywhere near that well versed in musical theater), "about a guy" equated to him being in the title.

1. Pause. If that means what I've always wished for by saying "stop the world, I want to get off" - time pauses, so deadlines don't come any closer, nothing new happens I have to deal with, etc. while I can do a whole lot of absolutely nothing and get some much-needed mental rest before picking up where I left off. 2. No traffic. I've worked from home for several years now, but L.A. traffic is still much more frequent in my life than having a cold and drives me batty any time I'm in it (you know, back when I could go anywhere), so never enduring it again would make a much larger difference in my life than not getting the occasional cold. 3. Roach. Too many people use rat poison, so if a rat got into my house and my cat caught it, she could wind up dead, too, if the rat was poisoned (they don't die right away, so cats, dogs, hawks, etc. can become additional victims, which is one of the reasons that shit should be outlawed, but I digress ...). Bonus: Unattractive genius. Brains last longer than beauty, and are a hell of a lot more important. I like the happy medium I have now, but if I could be not just even smarter but a full-on genius at the expense of being less attractive (as defined by some ridiculous, sexist, ageist, racist narrow standard to begin with), hell yes I'd take that deal.

It has great lyrics: A street kid gets arrested, gonna do some time He got out three years from now just to commit more crime A businessman is caught with twenty four kilos He's out on bail and out of jail, and that's the way it goes The version used in the commercial has a lot else going on over it, and doesn't include lyrics, so while you may have heard the song at some point (maybe the "get higher, baby ... and don't ever come down" part), if you're not more familiar with the song you wouldn't recognize it here.