Bastet

Whatever slasher film is chosen, I'll be curious to hear how the kids react. I sometimes wonder how I'd receive Halloween if I was watching it after years of consuming the genre, as compared to how I reacted when it was one of the first of its kind (and the first I'd seen other than if you want to count Psycho; I didn't watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Black Christmas until much later).

It's obscene how large the factory-farmed chickens are. I won't buy them on general principle, but the times I've been tempted by a great sale at the grocery chain, I've pawed through the selection and never found one under five pounds and plenty that are hovering around seven pounds! Even if I didn't care what's done to them to make them grow that large that fast, that would be way too much chicken - I like it, and it's quite versatile, but I don't want to eat chicken-based dishes for a week straight! A 3-1/2 pound chicken is the perfect size for me; when I roast one, I eat the wings while I'm letting it rest, and then have one leg as my dinner. That leaves me the other leg for another meal, and all the breast meat to divvy up between pastas, salads, and chicken salad sandwiches. (The carcass is used to make stock.) I suspect tonight may be one in which I make a big bowl of spinach, artichoke, and cheese dip, open up a bag of tortilla chips, and go to town; I'm in massive election anxiety mode, the Rams are playing like shit right now so football is not a pleasant distraction, and when it gets dark at an unholy hour, I'll be even more depressed. So, since I have all the ingredients, I suspect I'll go that route rather than - here's the relevance - roasting the chicken I have in the fridge.

Then that relationship won't last, especially if they have kids. I don't know how many people need to learn this the hard way before it becomes a known rule, but if you're involved with a musician who is constantly in "their" room playing away, that is never going to change, so if the time they spend on it bothers you, and if it's going to irritate the hell out of you when they're in there while you're trying to get dinner made and help with homework, you need to NOT marry and procreate with that person.

That scene was fantastic, when she let him have it about cheating and he was so bewildered - as was she to a lesser degree by her own reaction - that she was so angry. I particularly love that it honestly presented what had happened between Ed and Holly upon her return, that the estranged Ed and Maureen had agreed their separation (which Mo's infatuation with Fletcher was partially responsible for) meant they were free to do what (who) they wanted -- Holly, for all her faults past and present, would not have slept with Ed then if not for that. I haven't watched those scenes in many years, so I don't remember the details-- I think Ed may have slept with Holly again hours after that conversation, but the conversation did indeed happen and that was the context -- but the gist is critical to the Ed/Mo/Holly dynamic that followed. Holly was a shit wife to Ed in version one of the characters, but she was a good friend to him in version two, and I was a kid for the first so only understood any of these folks in the second; their relationship was always quite interesting to me.

It was nice to check back in with the training center; I had kind of forgotten about that. I'm glad that dog lady took Oreo in. And Baileys's owner getting to sit there and hug her until she wakes up was adorable. As was the girl who sleeps with five kittens. Petra saying "Surprisingly, we still like each other" cracked me up, because, yeah, there's no way I could spend that much time with anyone. And I really appreciated her understanding of the trust involved given how unfamiliar these folks are with vets in general, let alone outsiders. I also laughed at her guinea pigs getting the spare bedroom, and Fred sitting there watching them. Lola the jaguar (which Dr. Jeff joins an annoying number of sports broadcasters in pronouncing "jagwire") was pretty. Olivia tilted her head and partially raised her ears at one point, and it was seriously cute! Poor Pepper, with the joints of a senior at just four years old. Screw those puppy mill people. And screw those "well, if you're going to spay her, we don't want her back" assholes, but Doris is much better off getting healthy and adopted out to good owners, so it's good it happened. I'm glad Susan's sister took her; it always pains me when a rescue takes in a mamma and puppies/kittens, and the babies all get homes quickly but the adult waits and waits.

It wasn't in the tag, it was the end of the discussion in the kitchen between Darlene and Dan. She said she hopes people don't get discouraged from voting, and he said he didn't get discouraged; he filled out his ballot and dropped it on the ground right where the mailbox used to be.

That's a rather odd selection I can't decide how I feel about. It starts with Patsy Cline's signature hit, moves to what is probably the song second-most associated with Loretta Lynn rather than "Coal Miner's Daughter", then back to the Barbara Mandrell song most resonant with a country audience, then veers to a B- or C-list pick from Dolly's discography, then comes back to a logical choice from Reba's iconic song options, and the same with Martina McBride. I think I might have liked it more if they'd all been second- or third-tier songs or all signature tunes, but I also kind of like the mix.

Halloween. It's quite dated, yet timeless. And that music! (I've never seen The Conjuring, but I like the other two. But if I could only pick one of those three, it would be Halloween.) The sequels to Friday the 13th are ridiculous generic slasher films, and on paper so is the original, but I like the film for having a very different killer than most of the genre, and the cast of young NY theatre actors making poorly-developed characters feel like real people, so that you actually care when they get butchered. But my second choice would be A Nightmare on Elm Street. There's a refreshing lack of female nudity.

I haven't seen the recipe (getting the East coast feed on Pacific time means the episodes air well before I wake up, and FN is stingy with repeats), but I almost certainly wouldn't eat a burger that wasn't pink inside; while temp, not color, is what matters, since I loathe over-cooked meat the absence of any pink would usually coincide with beef cooked to a temperature in which I have no interest; only if it was a really thin patty that looked burnt but was medium rare would I chow down.

Same here; I know the original series like the back of my hand, but the line about three kids (one favorite and two back-ups) was one of my favorites of this episode. It just doesn't bother me. With Andy, I was initially a little surprise they'd retconned him out of existence, just because they were so clearly setting up Darlene as the new Roseanne and Becky as the new Jackie, and getting knocked up by a one-night stand who's bugging you to be part of your life was an obvious parallel they skipped by going that route, but that's the last time I thought about him.

Hopefully back home enjoying some peace and quiet; it makes no sense she'd spend all her time in the Conner house, even without it being packed to the rafters, when she has her own place. Which brings me to Mary: Seriously, show, moving another person into an “over-crowded flop house”? Wanna talk to D.J. about that? What an offensive storyline that she's somehow endangered as a latchkey kid so that they need to abscond with her on the sly; why does she have to live there during the week, why can’t she just hang out there after school and D.J. picks her up when he gets off work (which is at 8:00, not midnight)? And Dan can miss me with his false equivalency; it’s a lovely sentiment, but one that is no longer reality, as Darlene said. Becky and Darlene with their masks off at Wellman was distracting; sure, they’re only standing close to each other, and they live together, but they’re indoors with a bunch of other people and probably shitty ventilation for an entire shift - they should be masked. This is the difficulty in acknowledging pandemic life but wanting to show actors’ faces (like medical shows with unmasked doctors). But I like that cancelling trick-or-treating was presented as a bummer but a necessary, temporary thing and they showed safe and fun ways to do Halloween this year. “A bathroom used by six people!” as a horror cracked me up in the promo and still made me laugh tonight. I also like how Ben got into the family tradition. “We had one favorite and two back-ups; you kids figure it out.” Heh.

I just did that not three hours ago. And it's not at all unusual for me.

That doesn't do anything for me, but after seeing John Goodman as a talking finger shoved up noses and assholes in that demented commercial for an online casino, I'm just relieved to see him in a normal commercial.

Wow, we're well into the top 500 and I only know two songs from this batch of ten: "That's the Way Love Goes" and "Country Sunshine". And while I like both artists, I don't love either song. So this is a thoroughly "meh" entry for me.

At the end of a hideously dark day, the Rams brought me a few hours of distraction, and I thank them. The Bears are the first team outside the pathetic NFC East they've managed to beat, and their upcoming schedule is tough, so we'll see how things go. But after my only highlights of the week being the Cowboys and Patriots both losing, this was a relief.

I hate everyone and everything tonight, so I do not want to cook but need to soak up the bourbon, so I'm going to order comfort food - a mixed greens and avocado salad with green goddess dressing, chicken wings in mango habañero sauce, and a thin crust whole wheat pizza with pesto sauce, shrimp, Italian sausage, and spinach. That all usually yields ample leftovers, but I plan on chowing down.

Oh my - the actor who played the innocent man executed in "Death Penalty: Final Appeal" (Michael Jace) is doing 40 to life for killing his wife in front of their children, eight years after that episode aired. (He confessed.) He had abused his first wife, too. Yikes; I'm glad I didn't find that out until after I re-watched the episode (each day, I check IMDb for any trivia about the episodes I watched the night before), because I will never again be able to get caught up in his sympathetic performance!

WTF, Seattle?! There are four quarters in a game, and you have to play all of them. If you don't, you wind up in OT. And then if you play like utter morons there, you lose. I know it's just the first loss of the season, but, damn, that was dumb. They so deserved to lose the game, I have to tip my hat to the Cardinals; that missed FG should have sunk them, but the Seahawks still threw it away and they capitalized.

Have they become trendy or something? They're part of the vegetable tempura appetizer at a Japanese restaurant I've been eating from most of my life, but I haven't noticed an overall uptick in shishito pepper dishes. Of course, I don't get out much.

Yep. That hasn't stopped me from eating a big 'ol bowl of it from time to time, of course. It's not a good idea to start kids in the habit of eating that much processed food, so hopefully it was a treat. But the series of commercials present mac & cheese as something to add to meals on the regular, to keep kids happy, so if that's what was happening here, it was too big, yes, because she had far more of that than anything else on her plate - not something you'll find recommended on any guide to childhood nutrition.

Gas-powered leaf blowers are banned in L.A., but a) they're still used and b) even when the ban is honored, switching to electric only alleviates one (pollution) or two (noise, if applicable to any appreciable degree) problems. But most people don't want to maintain their own yards or pay their gardener extra for the time to rake, so here we are - the ban winds up not doing much other than being an additional way to harass the brown folks taking care of these yards.

But she didn't refuse to eat her vegetable, just ate less - and by one bite - than her mom wanted her to. Even if her "I'm not hungry" was a lie, and she wasn't actually full, just asserting her independence by leaving a bite on the plate in an act of defiance, all her mom had to do was add an additional bite to the next serving - kid would leave that last one, feeling satisfied she'd made a stand, mom would excuse her, secure in the knowledge she'd had the desired serving, and eat the extra piece herself. Done; maturity and critical thinking skills utilized, child outwitted but oblivious, dinner peaceful. That seems a lot better way to manage family meals than cutting short one's own dinner to run around the house like a lunatic, chasing a kid with a fork while demanding "One more bite!" I find a single bite a rather crazy hill to die on. The serving size of the mac & cheese side dish at the next meal is too big, the Enya song is annoying, some of the other commercials in the series do show bratty kids ... there are issues, yes. But in that particular ad, I think the mom is the biggest problem.

I remember that one - I thought maybe it would be like the fish sauce tasting, but, nope, it was used as an ingredient rather than tasted straight. I've never cared for biscuits (I'm not a big bread person in general, and biscuits are definitely something that is just there and at most I'm going to eat one to be polite), so that might actually work as a taste test for me - if it's the same recipe just with different brands of lard, I might be good at detecting what's better than others.

I use unsalted butter (or some kind of oil, depending on the recipe), but I'm the same in that I don't add much salt to my cooking (and if I'm making a dish with, say, cheese, so there's already lots of salt, I don't add any) - with the garlic, herbs, and/or spices in most of what I cook, there's little to no extra salt needed to properly enhance the flavor. I put salt and pepper shakers on the table when hosting others, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone use them (and I get compliments and recipe requests), so others don't find my food bland, either. People particularly rave about soups I make, and I think that's because of the homemade stock - the base gets its flavor from chicken and vegetables, not stock, so they're just tasting that "pure" flavor and whatever is added to the soup. I get it - salt and fat taste good. But a little go a long way, and they're not what I want to rely on for flavor.

I only buy whole wheat bread that is made from whole wheat flour, yeast, water, and salt. No sugar or other sweetener - I'm trying to eat bread, not cake - and no other unnecessary ingredients. Three local bakeries made good ones, but one by one they either went out of business altogether or sharply reduced their inventory (eliminating "my" bread as part of that; it's clearly not a best-seller, going by what's on the shelves), so I'm down to one. I'll have to start making my own bread if they bite the dust. It does, as does pepper, but such seasoning should be used sparingly and may not be necessary at all depending on the ingredients. Yet the trend in prepared food - restaurant or pre-packaged, especially frozen, food - is way too much salt. Not everyone's blood pressure is negatively affected by it, but I think it's unfortunate across the board, because even if there's no health risk it may affect your overall sense of taste (effectively making you crave more and more salt).