Bastet

Brady's production company (because of course he has one) is making this hagiography documentary in conjunction with ESPN and Gotham Chopra's Religion of Sports; any tea spilled will keel in all but one direction. (I understand ESPN gave Michael Jordan some measure of "creative control", and he still didn't come out smelling like a rose [I haven't watched it yet], but Tom Brady will be an executive producer. That's a different ballgame. And he's a different asshole.)

Sheba isn't the kind of food I feed my cat, so I'm not going to become a customer because of that ad, and I don't think it's fantastically clever or anything like that, but it consistently amuses me because of the mom's tone of voice when she says, "Okay. [perfectly-timed pause] There are bandages in the cupboard" and then follows up with, "Take two." The first time I "saw" the commercial I only heard it, because I had the TV on in the living room but was looking at the curtain rods I was installing, and that line delivery filtered through my concentration and cracked me up. Kudos to the actor playing the mom. Having actually seen it several times since, it plays to me - due to not just her demeanor, but the kid's tone as well - like there is nothing actually wrong with the kid, and this is something that goes on all the time. I figure that's what they're going for, since it's not exactly an uncommon scenario with kids. (For my part, there was probably a year or two where I claimed my "injuries" needed bandages when they didn't, because we had cartoon ones and I liked wearing them.) So I still chuckle a little each time.

I agree with the CU analysis across the board for these ten entries - most of them are so wrong, "The One I Loved Back Then" is too high, and "Here's a Quarter" is at least a little too low. And I don't even particularly like that last one, or Travis Tritt's music in general. I love "Seven Spanish Angels" and am glad that's ranked where it is. Oh, hell no. The original is one of my favorite jams, so I'm predisposed to disliking covers of it, but I just went and listened to this one and - no. I love calling it a Kids Bop cover.

"All In" contains one of my favorite scenes showing this is Sharon's third time at the teenage tantrum rodeo, with Rusty’s full-body flop onto the couch and protracted complaining. She does pause to smile – as do I – when he pops back up in response to her asking if he’s thought about what he’s going to be when he grows up to give the perfect reply: “A witness, obviously, because this trial is going to last the rest of my life.” And she addresses his confidentiality concern, but otherwise she’s just focused on her computer, scoffing at his dramatics. I also love it as an Andy episode; his personal growth has been playing out at a nice pace, and brought us to where it’s as believable as it is touching that Andy Flynn is voluntarily involved in family therapy. But, of course, being Andy Flynn, he has managed to get swept up in his family’s enthusiasm for the playboy having brought a woman like Sharon to the wedding and thus failed to correct their assumption about their relationship, too happy with the way they look at him because of it. So when here he is, hoping for his first Christmas invitation since “Living Proof” (which was his first in many years, but he missed it because of a case), he’s in a tizzy trying to figure out how to keep it from blowing up in his face. So, of course, he enlists Provenza’s help; I love that Provenza is so annoyed and sarcastic, but also sympathetic because he understands how and why Andy got himself into this mess. So, after a barrage of (hilariously) sarcastic remarks, ultimately Provenza offers to go with him and make up a story that doesn’t give Andy away. I love their friendship. I also like Sharon’s slight sense of bewilderment throughout, in response to Andy’s odd behavior, and that she always looks over at Provenza to gauge his reaction to it. And I get a little laugh when she finally asks Provenza what’s wrong with Andy, wondering if he’s depressed, and Provenza responds, “No, he’s depressing.” But I always get a little sad when Andy decides to go ahead with asking Sharon to come with him, without telling her what’s really going on. I know she gives him that option, saying she’ll go with him either way, but her willingness to help him when it involves his family is obviously rooted in the fact he’s doing what she’s always wanted Jack to do, and for her of all people – someone who’s been in the shoes of Andy’s ex-wife and watched her own kids suffer through what Andy’s did – to think he’s worthy of his family’s trust is a big deal. It’s a specific, meaningful thing going on with these favors, so it doesn’t sit well to see her used in any way, put in a position to be blindsided and uncomfortable (as she is when all this eventually catches up with Andy the next Christmas). I like that, while the case most obviously serves to mirror Andy’s and the victim’s well-intentioned mistakes, it also provides us with an entertaining cast of characters – which yields some fantastic reactions from the squad. I love Sharon taking in Limpy’s reenactment of his confrontation with Scammy/Techy, Julio and Amy taking perfect advantage of Roomie’s gullibility, and Mike delighting in Scammy/Techy’s descriptions of his various apps. Tonight I noticed for the first time how fantastic the set dressing in the Dietz home is; these folks have money, but are very much the basic McMansion sort - the décor, especially the artwork, is almost comically generic. Great touch.

When the "bottle" category was announced, I predicted bottlebrush and bottleneck as answers. Good for me. I was on track to redeem myself after last night's poor showing, getting everything but Jutland in the first round, and then figured the Graphic Novels category turned was going to sink me in DJ. But, thankfully, I was able to answer three of them because of the other information in the clues. I missed a couple of Broadway musicals, too, and one or two other scattered clues, so a fairly good performance. FJ came to me quickly enough that I think I'd have come up with it in time even under game conditions. The $5 bill, La Cage aux Folles, and 1974 TS surprised me to varying degrees (all the 1970s TS, really, in that they couldn't get there with three guesses available, but especially that one), but the Declaration of Independence being whiffed by all three really threw me! The two Connecticut answers in FJ also surprised me. I found the thermodynamics clue hideously overvalued as a DD in DJ. Same with knowing Lincoln was the 16th president being a J! clue, ever (at least that one was only worth $200, but still).

I would stare at my wall for nine hours before I'd watch that. Hell, I would watch Titanic, The English Patient, and Gone With the Wind back-to-back before I'd watch that.

I kind of liked the randomness, since guest diners' feedback never much matters - as compared to that of guest judges and, especially, the regular judges - to hear what "regular" folks thought about the dishes simply as something to eat as compared to what those who were evaluating them on how they did or did not succeed under the challenge parameters thought.

Same here. I was never a "soaps" fan; I actually rather disliked the genre as a whole, but I loved Guiding Light (and would sometimes also watch As The World Turns if I was home and bored). I recorded GL daily for several years in the late '80s through late '90s, so the Simpson trial was right smack in the middle of that. I just switched to recording in the wee hours when the show was aired, and for the week of "lost" episodes before my market started doing overnight airings of the preempted episodes, I found someone online (which, back then, was the GL bulletin board on Prodigy) whose market had aired them to send me a tape. Whatever their soap(s), everyone I know who was into it/them kept with it. Maybe because we were all recording? None of us were home to watch TV during the day to begin with, whether the soaps or the trial were airing, so it was not at all a hardship to change the programming on the VCR. I didn't even bother with this show; it was clearly going to be heavily focused on ABC soaps (and, yes, any other network would have done the same). But I was curious enough to come read reaction to it. It's disappointing, even given my expectations, to hear how many shows weren't covered at all (they really never even mentioned GL, the soap that lasted the longest?! [or maybe now GH has surpassed it, I'm too lazy to look, but still - legend]) and all the time wasted on the "trial of the century" and reality TV. Bleh. But I'm glad it seems to have examined with at least some semblance of honesty the utter piece of shit that was the Luke & Laura storyline and audience reaction to it (people seriously stayed home from work and school to watch a woman marry her rapist).

The blindfolded taste test is always fascinating to me, for how many ingredients fantastically-talented chefs fail to recognize just based on taste and smell. It seems like this group averaged better than those in previous such challenges (which would make sense, being all stars). Bryan’s QF dish looked completely unappetizing. Even Karen’s unset panna cotta was something I wanted to eat, because of the flavors, but his did not appeal to me at all. This exchange as Padma introduced the elimination challenge made me laugh out loud: Padma: It’s time to let the games begin. Stephanie: What have we been doing? What a tough EC; it’s such a specific meal, that takes a lot of practice to perfect, and so different from what the cheftestants typically do. I think it's good to challenge them in that way, especially since they were given an example by two masters. I liked Melissa’s way of assigning courses; everyone was best matched with their course, especially Bryan. And, indeed, his dish looked utterly fantastic; I wanted so badly to eat it. Same with Stephanie’s dessert; first and last course brought it home! I flat-out cheered in my living room when she won, especially as a unanimous runaway winner. Melissa’s was another dish I wanted very badly to eat, despite its little errors. Malarkey’s looked quite visually appealing, but I was not surprised to hear it didn’t eat very well. Gregory’s seemed underwhelming. It’s hard to under-salt something enough to bother me, but I suspect this is one of the few times I’d have joined in on that complaint. But Karen’s was disappointing, and the clear loser. A good dish, but not up to par with the rest. And that’s what I love about this all-stars challenge. The “Same Dream. New Year.” commercial about the postponed Olympics got me a little choked up after seeing some athletes I really like as guest judges.

It's an archive night for me, so I couldn't see any of the pictures, but I think that only caused me a problem in one clue. Unlike a game earlier this week, when I ran categories that are weak subjects for me, tonight I did every bit as poorly as expected with the mythology clues. Plus I even screwed up in strong subjects; I missed one of the drinks clues (I'd never heard of a French 75) and one of the geography clues (St. Kitts). Not a good first round for me. DJ was even worse; I missed probably a good ten clues. Thankfully FJ was an instaget, so at least I ended on a high note.

I can; she loved to work, and she loved to get paid. She was doing cabaret in a San Francisco hotel when Linda called her and said she wanted to put her in a TV show. She was very matter of fact about loving - and spending - the different stratosphere of money the show brought her (and sitcoms are an actor's dream in terms of money made vs. hours worked), so I'm not surprised she was in it until cancellation.

Ben remains either color blind or unable to see his own reflection, so I'm not sad this is the last of his tie/shirt combinations I'll see. I lost track of time doing yard work (that is not a sentence you're likely to ever hear me say again; generally, I am painfully aware of every minute of yard work - as are my back and thighs the next day) and didn't get back in and washed up until the first commercial break, but thankfully I could check the archive during the second one and get caught up. Panama, foxy, and All Quiet on the Western Front mildly surprised me as TS, but no real eye raisers. Good game. For them and for me -- I only missed two. So close to my elusive perfect game! Running the first round was ruled out early on, as I didn't know the Yellowjacket clue. But I got the rest. I almost also missed cardinal, because - and, by all means laugh; I did - I initially guessed "bishop" (knowing nothing about any church's hierarchy, and thus guessing something that sounded Catholic and higher up) before realizing, duh, red is right there in the clue, so it's cardinal, and switching just before the contestant answered. In DJ, I knew (or at least correctly guessed) everything but Bradley Cooper. FJ was an instaget; I don't like the show, but it's hard to avoid knowing the basics about it, and I've read numerous times about the word "pregnant" being verboten.

The reason an egg white scramble is my go-to breakfast is because it's so quick and easy to make (and that's with bacon or sausage; a vegetarian version would cook even faster). Not two minutes, no, but scrambled eggs just seems an odd dish to make a convenience product version of. I guess it's not really any different than a lot of them. Maybe it's just that I find the thought of microwaved eggs particularly unappealing (I don't cook anything in the microwave, just use it to reheat things). I don't know, but for some reason(s) when I saw that Just Crack an Egg commercial I thought, "Really? This is a thing?" (I'd never eat them anyway, since, being Ore-Ida, they all have potatoes in them and I hate potatoes. But even without the yucky spuds, it's a firm no for me.)

There's a thread about that issue in the Bugs section, and they want to hear from anyone still not getting emails, so you should post there. That's the TS that surprised me most. I've never seen a single movie or TV show in the Batman franchise, but I knew Bruce Wayne = Batman. And "no mere girl" = SomethingWoman, so I figured Batwoman. When he said Batgirl and still no one twigged the right answer, I was pretty surprised.

In surveying my refrigerator contents, I've decided that tonight I'll make what is probably the healthiest dish in my repertoire: chicken breasts poached (in water flavored with garlic, lemon zest, and herbs) with leeks and topped with a salsa verde (basil, mint, cilantro, garlic, lime, jalapeño, and a little olive oil). Artichoke as the side dish. Either a slaw or spinach salad. Or, when the time comes, maybe I'll decide to order pizza; I get the sense laziness may come upon me. We'll see. For lunch, I had sausage and kale soup.

Other than the "You work on commission, right? Big mistake. Huge." scene, Hector Elizondo and Laura San Giacomo were the only things I liked about Pretty Woman, and I really liked her in that and Sex, Lies, and Videotape. I was probably mildly interested in the premise of Just Shoot Me!, but I suspect the fact she was the one playing Maya and that I recognized (by face, not yet by name) Wendie Malick as someone I'd liked in other things is what led me to tune in.

I hate beans other than edamame, so I wasn't sure about that category, but I wound up knowing all of them. I was also quite wary of the TV 2020 category, but, even though I don't watch any of the shows, I managed to come up with three of them. The other two were my only misses in the first round. I thought my luck was going to hold in DJ, as I got the first two bible clues, but I missed the rest of that category. I also missed two dinosaur clues, so not my best game, but not bad. I somehow correctly guessed FJ, despite knowing almost nothing about either novel; the wording of the clue successfully led me to "family", so add in "adventure" and I got it. Lots of TS tonight; Navy, Batwoman, trough & furlough, meat & threat, William Golding, and fall in love were all clues I was some degree of surprised to see go unanswered. I typically don't even take notice of what contestants are wearing unless someone has donned something I really like, but Ben's tie/shirt combinations are not good, and I'm not thrilled at having to look at at least one more of them.

I always wanted Tom Skerritt to appear in an episode - since he guest starred on just about everything then - so we'd have Goose, Slider, Jester, and Viper.

I think there are "only" the four kids - the older brother who's in prison, the younger brother who was killed, the sister, and Julio. At least we know he has siblings; it will never stop bugging me how few details about Sharon's life James Duff could be bothered with. (I've never tallied tidbits, but I'm pretty sure we learned more about Phillip Fucking Stroh's background than Sharon Raydor's.) She's Irish Catholic, which usually means a big family, but we never hear about siblings. Mary McDonnell said Sharon reads like an only child, and I agree, so I'll fanwank that there were complications with her birth and her mom couldn't have any more kids. We don't even know if her parents are still alive; they were as of season six of The Closer (in "Living Proof", everyone's Christmas plans get ruined, and Sharon's were to meet up with her parents and kids for skiing in Park City), but we never hear a word about them in all six seasons of this show. We don't have to see them like we did Brenda's parents, but if they're alive Rusty could, in his early, awkward days with her, tell Sharon there's a message on the machine from her mom, or later Ricky could say something to Rusty like "wait until you meet Grandpa in person; his jokes are even worse than over the phone." If Sharon lost them both between "Living Proof" and taking Rusty in, that's a big deal; have Ricky and Emily - when they're talking in "Chain Reaction" about how adult children have to exaggerate their love of Christmas to please their parents - tell Rusty Christmas is hard for Mom after losing her parents, and that's why she goes crazy decorating, to force herself into the mood, and reveal a lot of her gazillion angel ornaments were Grandma's. It's a crime drama, I know - the cases are the focus. But not everything learned about the characters has to come through their handling of and reaction to those cases. With one line of dialogue (10-15 seconds out of 42 minutes of story time), you can reveal something meaningful about a character. Over the years, that'll add up to characters who feel just as developed as the ones on "regular" dramas. But Duff only gave it any real effort with Brenda and Rusty. (The two characters he wrote based on his own personality traits. Coincidence? I think not.) I assume that was because Raymond Cruz wasn't available for two episodes (because he was shooting something else); making Julio's absence due to his mom's ill health and resulting death sets the stage for him transferring to another division to have more stable hours in order to raise Little Adolf Mark now that he doesn't have her help, so I understand why they killed off Ramona Sanchez. But, yeah, Cruz not being available meant it happening completely off-screen gave the episodes a sense of "oh yeah, bummer, Julio's mom died - say, did those financial reports come in?" Heaven forbid we take a little time away from Rusty, and Phillip Stroh, to give the impact of Julio's loss its due.

My eyes were already trying to make their way out of my head at Megan's FJ answer, and then came the wager. She'd had a lead since early in the game and no wrong answers, so I figured she was going to be the new champ. Oh, well. I'm just glad I remembered right at 7:00 oh yeah, new episodes again starting tonight. The pomegranate, intelligentsia, and Bogota TS were all clues I expected someone to get, but no real surprises in the bunch. I had a pretty good game, with no bad category and just a handful of scattered misses. It's nice to have the show back.

I'm still trying to figure out why Andy asks him that in the first place; his look when Julio says, "Oh, I do know him" indicates he wasn't being a racist moron, there was a reason he asked, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe Diaz lives in Julio's neighborhood. He married the woman who'd been Julio's sister's best friend in high school, so maybe they settled in her 'hood and Andy recognized the address as being in Julio's territory (since TV cops immediately know where every address is). Julio's sister seems to have moved away, so Julio wouldn't have reason to see or even hear about the Diaz family anymore, so it could work with Julio not having known about the daughter's rape and suicide. Anyway, yes, Julio's street walk over to Andy as he says, "Oh yeah, because all us L.A. Latinos know each other, right, Flynn?" is hilarious.

I had seen Wendie Malick in a few things and always liked her, but Just Shoot Me really sealed the deal for me, and was my first time seeing Enrico Colantoni. To this day, if either of them turn up in a show I'm watching, I get excited. I don't remember much about the show, other than I quite liked it.

I have almond growers in my family, and probably a third of them have switched their pronunciation over time (tired of hearing they're pronouncing it incorrectly when speaking to "outsiders"). So a member of the youngest generation might very well say it that way, even living in the region.

While the ones I like, I love, most of Garry Marshall's movies don't interest me. But he always seemed like such a nice guy, I thought it would be nice to hear some stories about him, so I just watched this. Holy crap, I didn't expect to be in tears at the end. But when his son choked up, recounting how many people dropped everything to come say good-bye, I was done for. Now that's a live well lived. This was really touching. He was a nice man; a good husband and father who just happened to be one of the biggest producers and directors out there. What a lovely tribute to him and his work.

Sweet sentiment from Genevieve Gorder about Frank Bielec's death (and I LOL at "he only painted chickens once" in the hashtags):