Bastet

My cousin has four kids (and popped one out every two years, so for years that meant having four young children), and they were remarkably well behaved as children. Once when visiting her brother, he wanted to take them (and their mom) out to a nice restaurant, but she balked - they're almost always good, but if this is the night one of them isn't, she doesn't want to be in a fancy restaurant. He insisted, and as they were seated, they could see the "oh, come on!" expressions on the faces of all the diners around them. The kids conducted themselves appropriately, and as other diners finished their meals, they came by the table and complimented them on how the kids behaved (saying things like "we expected disaster, but ..."). No one was surprised by the reactions - neither the "why is this happening to me?" expressions at the beginning or the "wow, that did not go how I thought it would" relief at the end - because it was, indeed, far more likely that having four kids seated at the next table was going to ruin what was supposed to be a nice - and costly - evening. I think parental attitudes have grown pretty dismal, with the notion they're entitled to bring their kids with them anywhere they go and those disturbed by their behavior are just haters. It's not always appropriate. There are adult spaces left in the world; kids don't belong everywhere.

It was awkwardly written. The context of the conversation was that so few avenues of advancement were traditionally available to women in the the LAPD -- Sharon had to take a job in IA in order to have a promotional path to captain (and she's stalled there, when people like Taylor have been made commanders), and Brenda got brought in at Deputy Chief because of her relationship with Pope. Shit like that is why Sharon heads the Women's Committee, and why they want an internal female candidate in the race for Chief; progress has been made, but there's still a long way to go. But it's an artless - and non-Sharon - way of saying it. Granted, on the second point, no one really knew Sharon at that point; it's only glaring in hindsight.

I really wanted to know if that little kitten made it. I knew she wasn't feeding her (him? I don't remember if they said, so I'll go with her) enough, and hope she didn't get too far behind the eight ball. "I don't want a lot of puppies to take care of." Then spay your dog, moron. Tater is adorable and entertaining, but I don't find it appropriate for him to wander the waiting room like that. Pets who don't feel well and/or are anxious about being at the vet don't need a curious cat in their faces. Especially with how many clients don't properly restrain their pets, it's not fair to him, either - someone could snap and injure him. That was one seriously dry poop that came out of the dehydrated cat! LOL at the enema kicking in before they'd even got her back in the car. This was the first episode I'd watched in a while, and it reminded me of something that bugs me about Dr. Pol - he frequently refers to pets as the opposite sex of what they are. On the one hand, that's no big deal, but on the other it's representative of the assembly line process they have going on. You can still get people in and out quickly while taking five seconds to look at the top of the chart for the pet's basic info.

A lot of times, we're talking about shows produced when syndication on TV was a given, but releasing a show on tape (later DVD) would have been a bizarre thought - that was for movies. So the original music license accounted for first run, so many reruns, and so many rounds of syndication. A new contract re-licensing the music for a later DVD release is where things get held up, and the cost is why DVD releases of music-heavy shows often have substitute music (e.g. The Wonder Years) or just don't happen (e.g. Murphy Brown [beyond season one, which didn't sell enough to justify future releases]). For a while now, a licensing cost should the show be released on DVD has been included in the original contract (at a lower rate than it would cost later, because it's bundled), so this is a diminishing issue as time goes on. (It's why Cold Case ticks me off, because they should have taken care of it at the time.)

I'm the opposite, to the extent that I enjoy The Closer a good deal less now than when I watched it before I'd seen Major Crimes. Sure, Brenda is fun to watch (although she'd be quite trying in real life, she's a great TV character), but the squad is just sort of there. That's fine when I don't know any better, but with how they're brought to life on Major Crimes, it makes going back and watching them not do much on The Closer pretty ho-hum for me. Plus, I love Sharon Raydor beyond reason, so the seasons before she came along and the episodes after without her retroactively generate a "this is still fine/good/great (depending on the episode), but would be even better with Sharon" reaction in me (which is why I'll probably never add seasons one through four to my DVD collection). Basically, Major Crimes kind of ruined The Closer for me, but I'm good with that; I hate almost all cop shows, so to love Major Crimes and like The Closer, it's still high praise.

Rose also wore shorts once.

If he edited himself by at least half, he'd be a good commentator -- he knows the game as much as he loves it, so he does have something to offer (and y'all know how hard it is for me to say anything nice about a Cowboy). But he doesn't, just chattering incessantly, so he's an annoying twit instead and the value of anything he says in the midst of all that is lost.

Yeah, in the montage of people playing with her until Mama Ross could come get her (and I love that her having errands to run meant Dad had to take care of his kid for a while, not that Grandma had to rearrange her day or Mom had to miss work) it looked like genuine and brief interaction. It gives me hope anyone with my "get that thing away from me" reaction to kids would have been allowed to just get on with the job without repercussion for not wanting to babysit the boss's kid.

I didn't start watching the show in real time until the second half of season five (I watched seasons one through four on DVD and the first half of season five via download from a friend's DVR to be caught up as 5B started), but that short period of time I got to watch and comment along with everyone else seeing episodes for the first time was a lot of fun. I might not have survived the first couple of hours after Sharon's death without this place! I knew my mom wasn't going to watch the second episode until the next day because she goes to bed early, and my friend would be delayed in her viewing of that night's two episodes by a couple of hours due to a late night at work -- the time between me freaking my shit as the episode faded to black and answering the phone to my friend's "Are you fucking kidding me?!" that was so loud she almost didn't need the phone to communicate from five miles away was spent on the old forum (the archive of which went poof in the big site update and which very little of is preserved via the Wayback Machine 😞 ). Knowing I wasn't the only viewer who should be put on a 72-hour hold in the nearest padded room for her reaction to a fictional character's death was comforting. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoy my syndication ramblings. This many rounds in, I try not to repeat myself too much; it's wonderful how layered the writing and acting is that there are still additional things to note.

They only have the syndication rights to The Closer at this point. Major Crimes is in syndication on local stations in a lot of markets across the country, most of which air two episodes each weekend. So check your local listings; you may be able to watch it that way. It's also (or at least it was the last time I looked) available on the Roku channel if you have a Roku device.

They should do a value pick, like they do when the winner in their equipment testing is expensive.

Does anyone know the artist in the music video Rusty is watching when Sharon comes home to have the fabulous “that would be misleading” talk after the squad nabs their suspect in "False Pretenses"? Because ever since finding out the victim with the awful song in season four’s “Turn Down” (the Provenza/Flynn/Buzz misadventure with the best man dead in the bathtub, courtesy of Frank Fontana the father of the bride) was played by the singer of an actual band – Kill Hannah - performing a purposely awful version of "Promise Me", I have thought the brief snippet of song we see/hear in this one kind of sounds like a better version of that guy's voice and wondered if it is the same band. But I can’t ever hear the lyrics clearly enough to look them up. Something else that always strikes my ear: Rios calling Taylor "Russell" in the scene in his office is an oddity; we learned in "Final Cut" Rios is new to high-profile cases, but of course as Asst. Chief he'll know more DDAs than does anyone in Major Crimes, but it's still unlikely -- given what her age suggests of her tenure at the DA's office -- she'd have interacted with the LAPD enough to call him by his first name. And, indeed, it never happens again. Weird writing. Andy snatching the gossip site guy's chips out of his hand amuses me. Nowhere near as much as "ginko balboa" recommended by the "cute girl at the health food store", but it makes me laugh. This is one of my favorite episodes for how well the clothes the squad opts to wear as regular folks on the street - not dressed as a specific role undercover, just as generic members of any given crowd - reflect their outside of work personalities; wardrobe is such a subtle but integral aspect of characterization. I've said this before, but must reiterate as one of the thousands of little touches that make this series great: Mike's rubbing of his bald head as he announces he's signed up for Dude Ranch as "Mr. Clean" makes me laugh every single time I watch this episode. And I always like the reveal of the killer's trajectory from opportunistic thief to deliberate one, escalating to a panic-induced shooting, capped off with a deliberate one and a cover-up; it takes the audience on a journey from commiseration to condemnation. I love Amy not having any time for Provenza's sympathy for the abusive husband's sorrow at learning his estranged wife was dead. Rusty, the king of teenage temper tantrums, calmly accepting the restrictions on his life because they're the price to pay to remain with Sharon, is a great way to close the episode. "He doesn't have to understand. He just has to stay safe."

Yay, another cat story. But, boo (by which I mean go fuck yourselves) to Princess's owners. Holy shit, ten years old and not spayed?! Mammary tumors and/or pyo are far more a when than an if under those circumstances. Fix your pets; this is Pet 101! Princess deserved better; this cancer was preventable, when so many aren't. It's not particularly aggressive, so I hope little ms cranky has another good year at least. From Princess to Dutchess. That mass was massive, as Dr. Blue said. At least it was just a lipoma. Milo the epileptic dog must have scared his owner by suddenly having that many seizures in a 24-hour period; even with her being used to the condition, that's a dramatic uptick in seizure activity. And they're just scary to watch, regardless. It's frustrating when a chronic condition is no longer adequately controlled by existing medication, especially when he's already on two. I hope the addition of phenobarbital keeps doing the trick. (I couldn't see which vet tech it was, but seeing one of them half in the cage petting him was sweet.) Pinecone playing Chicken Poop Bingo cracked me up. As did: "I'm a handsome man. My grandma told me that, and she wouldn't lie to me." It's nice seeing a man bringing the kid to his work when daycare falls through.

Troy saying, "I don't know what any of this means, but I think I'm free" later resulting in Earl providing guidance on how to stay that way was really nice. He has Country Matt as another fine example; I hope his first offense winds up being his last. That dog Tania and Orlando rescued, Jaime, being scared of everything was so sad. It was beautiful to see him, after a brief hesitation, perk up in the presence of his emotional support animal, Hooligan. Like Mariah said, if he can get into a home with a patient person and a confident dog, his life can completely change. I hope that happens. The adopter's dogs being split up in the divorce would be sad at first glance, looking at those pictures of the two of them, but then you find out they were only together two years and Elfie - who is hilariously cute on those tiny legs - just wants to co-exist, and the custody arrangement makes sense even before finding out the adopter moved. Barney was hilarious, going for his close-up. But Elfie following Honky-Tonk around sealed the deal; I'm glad she picked the one who's been there for years.

I've had the sausage pizza at Vito & Nick's that they made on Cook's Country last year (that I just saw today). It's simple, and I prefer pesto, olive oil, or a white sauce rather than tomato sauce on my pizza, but for a simple sausage pizza it is indeed really good. It does look burnt, but somehow that brown cheese is perfect. I love thin crust (and hate deep dish), so when I visited a friend in Chicago and we went to see her friend on the South Side, she took us there. Has there ever been a taste testing of jarred marinara sauces in which Rao's was not the landslide winner? I figure by this point anyone who watches cooking shows knows if they ever need to reach for a jar, that's the one to use.

When the picture of José Andrés came up, I immediately opened my mouth, because of course I know who that chef is, since he's famous as much for his philanthropy as his (delicious) cooking ... but then nothing came out. I completely blanked on his name until just as the buzzer sounded. It was a good game. The barb TS surprised me, as did no one guessing minutemen, but while it was plenty of time for me to figure out the Wednesday clue, I'm not surprised it flew by for all three of them under game conditions. I only missed one (the boxer's name) in the first round, but thanks to the Historic People on TV and Monsters Ink categories and my inability to spit out Beezlebub (what came out sounded like some strange portmanteau of Beetlejuice and Bartholomew; yeah, I don't know), I missed about half a dozen in DJ. I never got further than "some type of snake" for FJ. Hissing python, hissing rattlesnake, hissing cobra ... none sounded familiar as a phrase, and I didn't even think of copperhead (not that it would have sounded familiar as a phrase, either; I'd never heard it).

Boo, hiss - I was finally home to watch a game instead of just reading the archive, and it turned out to be MacKenzie's last. Oh well, at least I'll see her again in the ToC. I'd have preferred Allison be the one to unseat her, but good game -- not many TS, and no real head scratchers among them; it came down to FJ. I had a really good game, too (I missed one in the first round and two in DJ, and correctly guessed FJ). And the band emojis category was fun.

Ha! I don't really care for the song (I like the lyrics, but not the music), but that video made me laugh in several scenes: the subway (the manspreading and the newspaper are perfect), "World's Greatest Dad" at the park, "58 years later", and being asked to be sexier and more likable in the next take.

I am completely opposed to the private prison system that has taken over our country, but I'm glad to hear that.

In which case, she needs to get it elsewhere. Like college. Or the workplace. She has to do something outside of her insular bubble. Maybe the reality check she'd get out in a wider world would also lead her to change her tune on therapy.

College can be a great place to learn that when you didn't learn it at home (and to expand on it when you did); Jazz would be far from the first coddled person to come into college with a know-it-all, my way or the highway attitude and come out having made great early strides in the lifelong lesson of how to listen to and interact with people who have different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives (when and how it's someone to learn from, someone to present a persuasive argument to, or someone to refute and resist).

Thanks for the info; I haven't read it yet, but here's the article.

No, because I'd apparently managed to repress the memory of it. Then I made the mistake of watching it when someone posted it in the thread. My initial answer to FJ was "Whatever the hell McDonald's calls its fish sandwich" but it came to me in time. I only had the show on as background noise last night while finishing up some work, which was foolish, because I couldn't pay proper attention to either thing. So I just read the archive. I was initially a little surprised chinchilla was a TS, but then I realized all the "inch" clues before it had been one-syllable words; I suspect at least some of the contestants were trying to think of a one-syllable rodent. I remain surprised no one knew cognac is brandy. And, assuming the picture in the Mike Wallace clue was of him (rather than a still of Plummer playing him in the film), I'm surprised by that TS, too. Also psychiatry, museum, and nadir.

I had quit watching by then, but saw his episodes in syndication several years ago when there was nothing else on TV and I felt too miserable to get up and put in a DVD. Awful. And I'd never seen him in anything else until now, so I can't shake the association - to the extent it's affecting the Ed Jr. scenes for me. But I did like his face when he started getting excited by the exploding car. So hopefully I'll start seeing him as Ed Jr. rather than Stuckey.

Of course. This piece of sexist shit is just the sort of song these morons at Sirius would pick.