Bastet

That reminds me of a line in the first X-Files movie (one fans have had much fun mocking over the years):

This song makes me laugh; I had it on a 45 back in the day, and have it on my iPod today. But it is in no way Top 400. I dig this one, too - quite a product of its time, yet still easy to listen to - but it's also ranked too high. I love this song. Everyone should love this song. At the very least, it should be ranked higher. Meh. I know all three CU writers felt this placement was about right, and I'm not upset about it, but I wouldn't rank it this high. In fact, more like 600s than 300s.

I'm glad gypsum was a TS, because I needed that extra time to pull it out of my brain. I was surprised to run the Wonderland category, as I'm not all that familiar with the story. I did pretty well in the rest of the first round, but I've never heard of a kangol (hat) and also missed two in the Ellison category (Star Trek and Bounty). I did not fare anywhere near as well in DJ, though; the only categories I ran were 7-letter words and gardens, and I was terrible in the Vienna (I'm always bad with opera) and spin-off (I'm hit and miss with TV, and hadn't seen any of the shows [original or spin-off] and only picked up a couple via cultural osmosis) categories. I didn't know FJ, either. So, bad game for me, but good one for the contestants; the only TS that surprised me was bluebell, because there were two ways to get to it (one of which was looking at a picture and saying, hmm, that looks like a blue bell).

Yep, the night the lights went out in Georgia:

Pluto hasn't been working for me lately (it keeps saying there's no connection, but since nothing has changed and Prime, Netflix, Tubi, etc. have no problems connecting, it's not the stick, it's the app), which is annoying me as I have one episode left to go of Women of the House (the short-lived series about Suzanne taking over her husband's congressional seat after he dies). It is not at all a good show, but it has its moments, and I want to finish it.

Boy howdy; that looks like a cat stood over a plate of pasta and puked up her breakfast.

I can't stand kid versions of cooking competitions, so I'm not familiar with him, but what horrible things this kid went through in the last three years: Later in the article, it says that form of cancer is so rare it is only known to have affected five other people! So his dad murders his mom and commits suicide, but he remains a sweet kid who loves cooking, math, science, walking his family's dogs, and fixing kids' broken bikes. And three years later, he's dead from a disease even most doctors have never heard of. I know life isn't fair, but damn. His poor maternal grandma and uncle - first their daughter/sister, then their grandchild/nephew, both taken from them far too young.

Wow. I had to wait until part 16 to like this damn thing. (There were scenes in previous parts I enjoyed, certainly, but on the whole it was a tedious slog for me until part 16, when it finally became Twin Peaks again.) I’m going to watch the final two parts tonight, so I hope that continues – and it will be interesting to see if I’m right about some theories I have in my head (if we actually get answers on those things) - as it's so nice to finally be excited. The real Cooper returning was such a joyous thing! “I am the FBI.” In part 15, the Log Lady’s death hit me even harder than I’d anticipated; having someone who is knowingly days away from death sit in her living room and film that “I’m dying … there is some fear” call to Hawk yielded an incredibly powerful scene. What a final gift for Catherine Coulson to leave fans with. I read an article that says Mark Frost's novel reveals Hawk has her log; he keeps it on his mantel, and, while it has not spoken to him, he keeps an ear open, just in case. That makes me smile.

Yes, it's the Rams vs. Bucs came that will have the all-black officiating crew. I love that the article noted this at the end:

Good game; not many TS, and pub was the only one of those few that surprised me (given the two ways the clue provided of getting to the answer). I had a great game; I knew/correctly guessed everything in the first round other than luchadores (and I could have sat here all night and not come up with that one), only missed five in DJ (it would have been four with a few more seconds; I knew sang froid but was slow pulling it from my brain), and got FJ.

I'm so sorry to hear about Snip. It sucks at any age, but 13 is too young. Fuck cancer. You're in my thoughts tonight, @EighteenTwelve, and my cat Riley will get a treat in memory of Snip.

I've probably seen them a dozen times, and, yeah, I love when I still notice something for the first time. It's a crime drama, which isn't normally my thing for a variety of reasons that this show avoids, but it's intelligently and realistically written (for the most part; there are still some TV tropes to speed things along), and the cast is far better than usually assembled for something in that genre, so there are all these layers that are sometimes so subtle I don't realize until my nth viewing specifically what turn of phrase, facial expression, vocal intonation, etc. is responsible for a moment working so well. Also, the cast - especially Mary McDonnell - is exceptional at reactions, so sometimes it takes several viewings to notice the spot-on reaction of a character who isn't the focus. They are all so very present, even when they're in the background, and that takes dedication given the tedious nature of filming; that's one of the ways the show benefited from being largely populated by actors who'd honed their craft for decades.

I'm so cool, I wasn't on MySpace, either.

That varies by TV, but often times the Menu is broken down into Audio and Video; if so, it's probably under Video. Or if you have a Settings option, check that. If it's not an energy savings thing, you can use brightness, contrast, etc. to fix the problem.

Your TV is probably set on an energy-saving mode, which darkens the screen. I keep mine on medium for most things, but then have to turn it off or set it to low for scenes that are dark to begin with, or else I can barely tell what I'm watching.

I'm hoping that's somebody's dream sequence, because if that's real, I think I'm out. I rolled with Becky's dumb-ass decision to parent, but this would be far worse (since she already has kids and was trying to get pregnant).

Holy shit, please tell me that's a nightmare sequence, not reality.

This woman seriously named her rabbit Negro because he's black. I know it's the masculine form of "black" in Spanish, and it's pronounced like naygro, but she doesn't live in Spain, she lives in the U.S., and when most people here see that on a chart, they'll read it as nee-gro. Yikes. I sympathized with Christine, as I'm a bit uncomfortable handling birds. I love watching them in my yard, but when a bird is injured or stuck and needs my help, I'm a little nervous. My cat Maddie was fascinated by pigeons; they used to hang out on the railings of the building next door to the condo we lived in for a while, and she'd sit in my office window watching them come and go for hours. She may have been intrigued by their size, I don't know. Prince has a very expressive face; his poor owner, being looked at like, "Dad, help" -- that "I don't feel good" look was breaking my heart, and when that look is on your own pet's face it's horrible. The son in that family saying he prayed and cried while waiting to find out if Prince would be okay was beautiful; I hope he stands strong in the face of any teasing by classmates he might get for it when this airs. (I'm still horrified by the memory of my junior high Spanish teacher revealing her absence the previous day was due to her cat being taken away by an owl in front of her and most of the boys in the class laughing. I hope we as a society are moving past that bullshit, but I don't know; sometimes I think toxic masculinity is getting worse, not better.) Speaking of expressive faces, the llama guy was right -- that one llama really did look like "I know you're up to something I'm not going to like". Hector jokingly asking which Shelly had the nasty personality, the turtle or the vet tech, and Dr. B. saying the turtle's knees were like Dr. Jeff's since they don't move much, was funny. I like the teasing that comes from them all working together a long time.

The other sweater my mom ordered arrived, so now Chester has a lightweight option too:

Hoo boy. The Blu-Ray set of the revival was on sale dirt cheap last month, so I bought it, and last night finally started in on it. I've watched the first four episodes, and so far this is excruciating. I can appreciate a slow pace, but this is beyond - I do not need to see the whole process of five shovels being spray painted. And I keep asking "what the actual fuck?" not in an enjoyable way, but in an aggravated one. I don't think I've seen any of David Lynch's work other than Twin Peaks, and I only like the first season and a half of the original series, so maybe I'm just not a David Lynch fan. I'll keep going, but so far this is nothing like what I loved of the original series and it's not interesting/intriguing me at all; I hope that changes, but so far I understand why my friends who watched it on Showtime all hated it.

The James Patterson TS surprised me a bit; I've never read a word of his novels, but his damn commercials for them are everywhere, so I've picked things up via cultural osmosis. Cultural osmosis also let me get all the sitcom episodes clues despite not watching any of the shows. I also ran the anagrams category in that round, but that was hard sometimes with the text not staying on screen very long! In fact, I almost ran the first round, but I could not pull Hannibal out of my brain. I came really close to my perfect game goal, only missing three more in DJ (I didn't know The Goldfinch or bishopric, and couldn't remember John Mitchell's name in time), and correctly guessing FJ.

I finally got around to watching this last night, and I'm glad I did; I loved it. The script is a wonderful dance between tragedy and comedy, and the performances are fantastic. There's great commentary on the media and society. And I love the format; my favorite moment of breaking the fourth wall is at the end of Jeff's "I never hit her, but she took a shot at me" story, when Tonya cocks the gun and turns to us to say, "This is bullshit; I never did this." I love it ending with real footage of that historic performance at Nationals, because as wonderfully as Robbie channeled the emotions, there's just nothing like the look on the real Tonya's face when she landed the triple axel and, especially, at the end of the routine. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Tonya is talking about that moment, when she knew she was the best skater in the world -- how she gets a little wistful and says nobody ever asks her about that anymore. And I had good laughs at all of Tonya's "Can I just say one thing about Nancy Kerrigan" interruptions. Especially the one about how she just won Olympic silver and looks like she stepped in poop.

Most probably already know this trivia, but just in case: O'Donnell auditioned for Marla, but Megan Cavanagh was just so perfect the role had to go to her. Marshall still wanted O'Donnell in the film, though, so she changed the Doris role to be better suited to her.

Carla Pellegrino from Rao's? I know she beat Bobby on Throwdown, and I think she also appeared on this show. She has indeed grossly overdone the "enhancements" to her face.

The brownies TS surprised even my cat. Spoon feed was the other TS I never would have predicted would go unanswered. A "temperate" affair made me laugh; pay attention to the category, folks. I almost ran the first round, but I joined the contestants in being stumped by civet. ("Polecat has a lot more than five letters" - Oh, Alex, I am going to miss your snarky self.) And then I missed about half a dozen in DJ and didn't know FJ. So it was all downhill, but still a good game.