Bastet

I'll suppress barfing at the thought of the latter to address the former. The Becky/Emilio/baby situation is the one area in which I think the show missed out by pretending Andy doesn't exist - for all the Roseanne/Darlene and Jackie/Becky parallels the Roseanne reboot set up and this series continued (although less obviously), Becky getting knocked up by a one night stand who lingered was the greatest potential for blatantly acknowledging the similarity. The whole "we don't know each other - we just had that one date ... and, you know, the baby" thing of how you navigate co-parenting with a person you'd have never actively chosen to share such a connection. While Jackie and Fred played out at an organic pace, in terms of slowly getting together and then inevitably breaking up when they realized they'd tried to create something that wasn't there, Becky and Emilio having feelings for each other was forced in a hurry in order to make his deportation more tragic than it was on its own. So, on general principle, I'm not interested in revisiting that falsehood. But, a pragmatic storyline in which Becky marries Emilio in the hopes of getting him a path back into the country, so he can better parent his child, that doesn't pretend it's more than that, I could possibly get behind. And then whether, as they actually get to know each other, they try to partner romantically as well as co-parent, and whether that works - rather than, like Jackie and Fred, confirming they're not compatible in that way - is something I'd evaluate as it comes. There's definite storyline potential. I just don't really trust this series with nuance the way I did the original.

Ouch, that game. I was surprised it took them three tries to come up with Virginia, and it just went downhill from there. I look forward to seeing Khalilah again, I just hope it's a better game. The slider, DNA, Harper Lee, James Joyce, and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe TS were the most surprising of the lot. I missed a few clues, but I can't even remember which ones, I'm so befuddled by the game. I correctly guessed FJ, but I wasn't entirely sure about it. Khalilah got it right away.

When it was announced the opening credit sequence would not be making the transition to Pop (due to time constraints), I said I would miss it, but at least this way the song wouldn't get stuck in my head (and my cat would be happy not to have to listen to me singing along). Turns out, it still gets stuck in my head for the rest of the night just from that little snippet.

Quoting myself to say I couldn't wait for a repeat to appear; having read Jonathan Gold in L.A. Weekly and the Times, and followed many of his recommendations, I had to watch this online. I love Chengdu! Just looking at the food, I could almost taste and smell the spices from memory. And, of course, Mariscos Jalisco. There are so many great taco trucks in L.A., but if I am passing anywhere close to that one, I will drop by every single time. The shrimp taco and the seafood tostada are divine. Lasa is really good, too; the beef tartare is delicious, from a cut of beef (flat iron steak) I don't even normally like. But, let's be real -- all of them I've been to (also Republique and Meals by Genet) are wonderful, and it pains me I can't run out and try those I haven't right now (other than take-out, but I like to dine in the first time trying a new place). I hope the additional exposure from this show helps these restaurants stay in business. It was really nice hearing the chefs talk about Gold's love for food; not only was he a great resource for figuring out where to dine across L.A., he was a joy to read. "Our" chefs were almost secondary in this episode, I was so caught up in the local chefs and their relationship with him. Other than the bottom three, I was drooling over the cheftestants' food as usual. I think I'd have found Stephanie's and Eric's disappointing, but Angelo's I think I'd have put down after one bite -- I suspect the broth would have turned me off eating the tuna, even if I liked it on its own as Padma did.

My favorite thing about "Jolene" is something bringing that song to Dolly Parton's mind several years ago, then her looking over at her husband snoring in the recliner, and thinking, "I wonder if she'd still want him now."

Crap - I forgot this was on, so only saw the last twenty minutes and there's no repeat tonight (the hell, Bravo?). Living in L.A., I wanted to see where they went. The little bit of food I saw looked good, but it was just quick little glimpses in that section of the show. I loved seeing Nini in the top three, but I was pretty sure from the little I saw that Kevin was going to win. JT was tense; nothing against Angelo, but I don't want Eric or Stephanie to go yet, and without having seen most of the episode, I felt a bit at sea in terms of predicting who they were going to knife. I was leaning towards it being my gal Stephanie, so I was relieved when it was Angelo.

Yikes, I thought this was going to be another terrible game for me -- in the first round, I couldn't get Adler (Planetarium) or avast from my brain to my mouth, and didn't know two of the singers, and I usually do worse in DJ. But I only missed one of the angels and the voice of Marge Simpson. And I knew FJ (I semi-regularly quiz myself on geography for fun), so it wound up being a decent one. And a good game for the contestants, other than the clues left uncovered. I was a little surprised by the marshal TS, and that neither of the other two picked up on Adam's mistake in the Transit Bureau clue, but that's it.

Aw, Curly was my favorite (with Meadowlark a very close second).

It's okay, Alex, I was chuckling right along with you at the clue about the park ranger getting struck by lightning. But, psst, plenty of girls would have liked a basement full of arcade games, too. No one knew distributor cap or brake shoes? I guess I should stop being surprised by how little people know about cars, but damn. Good game, but I was rooting for Rachel. Adam's hot dog stand goal is oddly endearing, though (and it was funny that he got to answer a hot dog clue). The superheroes category keeping me from running the first round; that's not my genre by a mile, so Wonder Woman was the only one I knew. I only missed two in DJ and got FJ right (I would hope so, after how excited I was by the category - I'm very good with legislative history and love alliteration), so at least I'm back to a typical performance after last night's epic failure.

I forgot this was on tonight; thankfully my brain kicked in before I'd missed the 10:00 re-run, too, and I won't make that mistake again! I'm so excited to have this show back. No matter how many times I'd heard the "There's nothing good on Netflix" line in promos, I still laughed tonight hearing it again. As I did at there being no box for happily single, and at "I am ageless" despite having seen that whole chunk of the opening scene. I am Lydia's exclusive, non-sexual companion. What does that mean? I don't know. Hee. I recently re-watched Sneakers, in which Stephen Tobolowsky is one of the many reasons I love that film, so I'm particularly in touch with how I adore him in everything right now and that was a great reintroduction to his character. "They taught us about this" pronouns and "privileged, but super woke" is quintessential Norman Lear handling of a contemporary issue. I can't with women yearning for a boyfriend, but I like Penelope's desire to flash forward to a comfortable relationship rather than enduring the dating part; LOL at how her date (whom, although IMDb is not yet updated, I swear was on an episode of Major Crimes - as was Justina Machado, in a different episode, and as was the nurse at the ER desk in another one - I was recognizing people all over the place) kept appearing to her as an increasingly desirable Max. Same with Elena not being able to be apart from Sid for 24 hours. Shut up! Get a life! Yet, still, amusing; they're young, it happens, and they have some awareness in the midst of driving everyone crazy. "If they leave me, it'll just be you and me!" was a nice way to bring in Alex's reaction since his own storyline doesn't start until next week. This was not their best episode, but it was a good transition, and I'm very happy to continue along the ride.

"She'll bounce back. None of us ever have, but I've seen it happen. Mostly on TV." Opening with that and ending with Darlene saying she's starting to think a lot of their failures are caused by these wacky family conversations they have around the kitchen table was a good opening segment. But Harris is not obligated to care for someone else's kid. It's a dilemma, not being able to afford childcare, and one that means family members take on burdens they shouldn't have to - it's a common theme in the Conner family as with any working class family. But I like seeing one put her foot down at the bullshit of putting the crib in her room. Darlene objected to even having to share with Becky babysitting responsibility for Little Ed for one night out. Harris regressing to childhood, and Darlene enabling it (based on Jackie - the picture of mental health's - advice) leading to Dan saying, "Yeah, I would've hated to miss the developmental changes that happened between the ages of 43 and 45" about both of his daughters coming back home was a great payoff. Emilio's aunts standing in since he can't do his share is a logical solution -- until we meet them. When Becky said she doesn't speak Spanish, I wanted her to follow with "But my aunt does". I've had fun a few times over the years embarrassing the hell out of people who didn't realize I understood what they were saying when they thought it was appropriate to speak about me right in front of me so long as they did it in another language. They could have had the "the lesbian speaks Spanish" reveal that same day. But drawing it out led to some very funny exchanges between Becky and Darlene: They think I'm trapping him with my sex tricks. You've got tricks; why aren't we talking about that? They called me a horny old donkey. You should never have told me that. Getting back to the aunts, though - screw those two with their go to Mexico, marry him, and then he can come back nonsense. She should uproot her and her baby's whole life and marry this guy? He's a one-night stand who wound up being the father of her baby. Her obligation to him only goes so far! Darlene being on the other side with Harris's depressed period is the kind of generational flip I - and Dan - love about Darlene raising a teenager. The prank calls are the kind of thing Roseanne and the Darlene Fades to Black era Darlene could have bonded over.

When "hit the nail on the head" was a TS, my cat sat up and asked, "Really?" Promotion was a bit surprising, and chicharrones a little. But the contestants had a better game than I did; I missed a couple each in the authors, carmakers, colonial America, and films categories. I got FJ, but, wow, poor performance tonight!

His original poster was of Rita Hayworth. By the time he escaped decades later, it had been replaced by a Raquel Welch poster, so that's the one in his cell during the big finish when they figure out how he escaped.

Oh, I do hope you get to do it next year. I've been to Edinburgh, Inverness, and Skye, and loved all of them, especially Edinburgh.

That's me with gila monster - I've only ever seen it written, and the few times I have, I've read it as a hard G. I didn't get that one or the game milles bornes (never heard of it, and had to look up how to spell it) in the first round, and claw stumped me in DJ just as it did the contestants. But FJ was an instaguess that I felt confident in after running through a few other shows to make sure, so it was a very good game for me overall. And a very good game for Michelle. Lobster was a surprising TS. The Gulfstream TS surprised me a little, too, with G spotted in the clue. Vikram did not come across well; whenever he answered or selected a clue, he always sounded like he was being forced to be there and it was a big imposition on his life.

There is here. I think Costco lets in 200 or something like that since it's huge, but the grocery stores are anywhere from 10-40 depending on size. And they've put tape on the floor to mark off six feet in the checkout lines.

Young people are not a protected class, older people are (in certain areas of law). Because the former have not been consistently discriminated against because of their age, while the latter have. So they're granted standing, whoop-de-doo - again, in certain areas of law - to raise a discrimination claim. They're not handed a victory on the merits because of their age. They have. I do not know a single store in my area (Los Angeles), chain or independent, that hasn't imposed limits on items being hoarded. Seniors who do not have a less-vulnerable person to do their shopping for them, who cannot afford - or wait for - delivery, or who don't qualify - or can't wait for - any available services and thus must venture out to a grocery store simply have the option of turning up at the ass crack of morning to shop in the 30-60 minutes (depending on the store) before the store opens to the general public, thus reducing their exposure. They are not granted a "clear the shelves" pass based on age. Thus, no grounds for a lawsuit.

Right. They offered her the job Ben had been doing (and presumably still doing hers as well), but at half the salary (or some dramatic reduction), and she said no thanks, sexist assholes. She could claim constructive termination in an unemployment claim, and in some states succeed, but in most not; a lot of people who "quit" (because it's reasonable to, under the circumstances forced upon them), not quit, get hosed on unemployment.

Yes! A great combination of old and new (to us) funny moments. I greatly enjoyed reliving Country Matt and Earl in the grocery store, when vegetable-averse Earl said they could make cabbage into spinach if they put it in the blender and Matt said, "It won't turn into spinach, Bubba, it'll just turn into blended cabbage." Blanche learning to navigate those splints will never not be funny, and the "we can't pronounce French names" segment it was incorporated into this time was funny. And I laughed at trying to get Lucky in the moving overhead shot for the opening credits, only to have him try to eat the jib ("How much is that camera worth, because I don't have that kind of money" 🙂 ) and get the "Looking for a Home" dogs to settle down - and the VRC peeps to learn their lines - to record those segments. I liked the montage of "____ testing" they had to do based on potential adopters' circumstances, especially Earl jogging with Tamale. "Grab the bulls by the balls" in introducing the kids' foibles was funny. And I'll take Mariah's word for it she's better with power tools than she and Tania came off in that segment (which I remember, mostly for Tania's "I cannot believe I raised these two" reaction). I chuckled at Tania, having completely forgotten her husband's birth date, trying to ditch him so Kanani could take measurements to surprise him with a soundproofed music room. And how Perry repeatedly asking about cooking a pig forcing Tania to admit to a producer she eats bacon and ham. Snowball hating Tia was amusing - Tia was the only person other than her owner who could get anywhere near Roxy Mama, Grumpy Old Man Arnold hates everyone but Tia, and all manner of terrified dogs have trusted her. But Snowball will lick other people head to toe but hates her. Ha! Finding out Tania spent a good bit of time living in a bear suit, and Mariah stealing it for revenge, was a good ending.

I wasn't home last Saturday to see "I, Witness", but now I'll be stuck at home to see all of the original Jack arc starting tonight with "D.O.A.". There's a lot of entertaining stuff, but I'm always really moved by the scene in the Murder Room when Jack is regaling everyone with his tale of Rusty nearly taking him out with a lamp and Sharon drawing her gun on him (as an aside, I love that she does so even after she realizes it's him, not an intruder). This episode (and the two that follow) does a great job of showing both why she married him and why they've been separated for 20 years, and that scene beautifully illustrates the dynamic that developed in the marriage. The guys (other than Provenza) are entertained by his charm; he's easy-going, well-rounded, and has the gift of gab, so he's quite adept socially. Rusty wants to play poker with him, be picked up from school by him, etc. rather than stick with the routine he and Sharon had settled into. Jack is fun. And Sharon clearly had fun with him back in the day, and can still be entertained by him. But she, and she alone (because she did her best to fill in the gaps for her kids), fully lived the flip side of that, which is that, especially as his addictions grew bigger than him, he never shifted out of fun mode when life required it of him. He was never willing to stick it out when life's responsibilities harshed his mellow, which left her to constantly step up when he fell down. It's easy to be the fun-loving guy when you have a wife to do the dirty work you refuse to do because at least one of you has to. Sharon's reaction when she knocks on the glass to summon Rusty and he puts her off to finish watching Jack's performance says it all. We learn through dialogue that he bailed on parenting - and being a partner in their marriage - and only comes around when he wants something, and we see how well she handles him now (love her coming out and ruining his story about the racing horse, and blowing his sunglasses trick with Rusty) but that face and little wave to cover tell us everything about how isolated she has felt along the way in her experience with all of Jack Raydor, not just the Jack he presents to the world. The Raydor marriage is written and, especially, performed (I love the actors' chemistry, and how happy they are to be working together again) in layered and interesting ways. And it's not just Mary McDonnell doing her usual great job; Tom Berenger is adept at the hints of Jack's vulnerability and regret beneath the confident bluster. Okay, while I'll largely confine myself to expanding on my fascination with that relationship and what it reveals about Sharon (since we get so damn little development of her character over six years as the lead!), I must reiterate my love for a few particularly-amusing moments: -Dr. Morales warning, "By the way, Rios, this is not a good floor to faint on." -Taylor not qualifying for the friends and family discount at the printer. -Provenza, all puffed up by his brilliance at finding the sister, tells Sharon he came up with the lead, the plan is her job -- which results in her sending everyone else undercover as staff members at the assisted living facility, and Provenza as a resident. -Jack's "I can't believe he's still around" about Provenza. -Sharon's sing-song "I am not done" when making a deal with Jack. -Julio's attempt at flirting with Rios via coffee going nowhere (because she's queasy being in the morgue), and Sharon jumping right in for the opportunity to score some wake-up caffeine (and Mary McDonnell does a good job of indeed sounding like this is a first-thing-in-the-morning appointment after a night of interrupted sleep).

I posted this in the general Celebrity Deaths thread, but I'll post it here too; the "You Can't Make Old Friends" video, complete with intro and outro by Kenny and Dolly, talking about what the project means to them, and what they mean to each other:

Dolly Parton was the first person I thought of upon learning of Kenny Rogers's death; he was such a terrific duet partner, especially with her, and I watched their Real Love concert special so many times I could do all the banter along with them. I was just listening to Kenny and Dolly's "You Can't Make Old Friends" yesterday; today the lyrics have gone from poignant to heartbreaking:

I had to look up the latter, as I knew "the other 9/11" was the 1973 coup in Chile that took out President Allende, so Isabel Allende was the author in question, but haven't read the book to know what she wrote about the 2001 terrorist attacks. Basically, her memoir talks about life in exile and compares those two historic September 11ths - the one in 1973 when her family, after President Allende (her father's cousin) was killed in the CIA-backed coup that put Pinochet in power, had to flee Chile, and the one in 2001, when terrorists attacked the country she now called home. She writes about how in the first one she lost her country, and in the second she gained one -- she finally felt like Americans understood/related to so much of the rest of the world, in being vulnerable to terrorism, an intense bond.

Two female lawyers to root for - what to do? I rooted for a tie. I didn't get one, but it was a good game (other than the return of "Women Authors"). I was terrible in the comedy quotes category (and I rolled my eyes at myself that the one I knew was Bring It On -- I hate that movie!) so not a great game for me. Eyepiece, rye, lavash (I figured at least Katy would know; it's pretty common in L.A.), "laugh, and the world laughts with you", overshoes (outdated term, and it stumped me, too, but with "over" spotted, one of us should have got it!), and hopper were all mildly surprising TS, but no head-scratchers. I'm mildly surprised by FJ being one as well, just because they were spotted Chile and a woman, and Allende is the only author who fits the bill they ever ask about on this show - I'd have figured one would have come across (and retained) that in their preparation. It's interesting that the two who guessed went with female politicians who've written books, rather than women for whom writing is their primary profession.

She (Karen) is one of my favorites, because I enjoyed her conduct on the show, and, while I haven't been back to Boston since she opened her own restaurant to try that, I ate several times at Myers+Chang, where she was executive chef for years, and loved the food. I have quite a few I'm rooting for, though. There are a couple of people I don't remember much about (their food or their conduct), but no one I'm rooting against. That's nice -- there are probably going to be a lot of challenges where someone goes home for a great dish, that was simply the least great of the day. Which, on one hand, is a hard way to go out, but, on the other, is the best way to go out.