Bastet

He played a hideously annoying - and ultimately homicidal - character on L&O: SVU, and that's all I can see when he's on screen.

I can't with this Darlene considering a baby thing; I rolled with Becky parenting, but I don't know if I can do it again. Becky chose to continue an unintended pregnancy. Darlene deliberately procreating under these circumstances -- I'm not sure how many "these stupid choices are sadly typical" storylines I can stomach. And could we stop with all these hyperbolic reasons for not having a baby and get back to the numerous real-world ones? I really hate this story arc so far. Of all the characters to catch up with, why they chose Ed Jr. is beyond me, especially with the weird take on history. But, hey. Dan never once mentioned wanting to go to college, even though he wanted it for his kids, but he was rather dismissive or even contemptuous of "those guys"; that conflicting attitude existing in the same guy can exist for a variety of reasons, whether in real time or when looking back through rose-colored glasses, and is thus one of the rare things that works about this revisionist history of Ed's two families (I don't believe the Dan we saw all those years of the original series wanted to go to college, or that Ed - "work smart, Danny, not hard" - would have denied it to him, no, but I can contort myself to roll with it now). I would love to see a polyamorous relationship on TV, even with this sitcom treatment; a "throuple" looking for a new home was recently included on House Hunters, with quite a few years of commitment behind them, and people lost their minds with "what about the children?!" pear-clutching, so we still have a long way to go. (It's not my jam - I won't commit to one person, let alone two - but representation matters, and it's time.) Also, I'm in favor of anything that keeps Clark Gregg on my screen. (I had no idea he's married to Jennifer Grey, but unlike a lot of couples, they had a decent chemistry on screen.) At least they finally acknowledged Jackie's age. And Becky had some great lines tonight: "You can't eat your feelings until you tell me what they are." "Nobody wants to die in the missionary position." "It's the fun of a threesome with the drudgery of a relationship." ["Environmental Science."] "Ooh, I hope the government brings that back."

The schedule for a sitcom - and the resulting calculation of pay for hours worked - is a dream. And hiatus leaves them plenty of time to pursue other projects if they want; Allison Janney has kept very busy, as she tends to do, but they've all done other projects over the years the show has been on. To be women their ages with a steady, well-paying gig in this industry is not often wished away. They're not likely having to turn much down. It's already on season seven and renewed for season eight, and acting contracts are most often six or seven seasons, so they have all most likely agreed on a renewal in recent years, which does not surprise me at all. (Janney and Faris were both up for renewal after six - and both picked up a nice chunk of change at the time - so that's probably the schedule for the others.) If fact, I wouldn't be surprised for all of them to stick around until cancellation (unless it was really dragging on); Faris has kids (for which the sitcom schedule is ideal), Janney loves to work and is managing to squeeze in Oscar-winning film performances, and the supporting players are in the place working actors strive to be (so long as it's a pleasant set to be on).

I walked in and got the TV turned on just in time for FJ, which was an instaget, and finally had a chance to read the archive for the rest. I'm surprised Rumpelstiltskin was a TS, but they still did better in the fairy tale category than I did; I could not for the life of me remember the name of the kid who traded his cow for magic beans, and I just flat-out didn't know the first two. The Ralph Nader TS was a bit surprising, too - before their time? I was a little surprised the limburger clue was placed in the $2000 slot, so definitely not expecting it to be a TS. But good game. And, yay, MacKenzie.

Jill's wealth does not only come from alimony; she was raised in an uber-rich household, and her mom died. So her inheritance kept her in the lifestyle to which she was accustomed well before she married a rich guy.

Lisa and Nicki appeared in the season five Christmas episode, when Darlene and David are snowed in at his house. ("Santa's elves have orders to grab all the little children who try and catch a peek at Santa and poke their eyes out. Why do you think they wear the pointy shoes?") But that scene is missing from most, if not all, of the syndicated airings, so it's easy to forget.

On my home and office phones, I hear a message as it's being left, so all anyone calling from someone else's phone would have to do is start leaving a message and I'd pick up if it's important (that's happened a few times). The cell phone is different, but I hardly ever use that and not many people have the number.

“One of the nice things about me, DDA Rios, is when I’m really unhappy about something, people don’t have to ask.” As much as I hate Rios, I do love Sharon’s reactions to her. A couple of things about “Final Cut” I didn't mention last time: I love how, with the big chunk of time that passed between seasons one and two, season two opens with subtle but clear indicators Sharon and Provenza's relationship has indeed continued its positive trajectory; she even sits on his desk without him reacting. That's huge! At first, he's counting the money from his prize for being the last member of his academy class still on the job, so you could think he's distracted and didn't notice her sit down, but a) Provenza always notices and b) as the scene goes on, he's part of the conversation, speaking directly with Sharon at one point, and still doesn't kvetch. He knows, and he doesn't care. It took Brenda several years to pull off the desk maneuver (I think; the only time I noticed her doing it was in season five, but there may be earlier ones I missed as I don't know those seasons as well), and Brenda and Sharon are the only two who ever do (Sharon does it several times as the show goes on). So, once he likes them, he makes an exception for his bosses, apparently. Given Provenza's "it's always the husband" motto, it's a nice touch - that I never noticed until tonight - he's the one the husband is talking to when hubby admits he fabricated an alibi but says he only did it because he knows the cops always focus on the husband. And one thing I did say before, because it's worthy of multiple mentions: The way Sharon – having dismissed Rios like a fly but then been told by Taylor that if she doesn’t get Rusty to cooperate with the DA in 24 hours he’ll be moved out of her care – gets Rusty on board without telling him his living situation depends on it is masterful. She won't play that card; as she told Taylor, it would be both harmful to Rusty and counter-intuitive to the case. The conversation they have about why he doesn't want to testify (or even talk to Emma again) and why he has to do it anyway is another great moment between them.

They're not pronounced the same in most of the U.S. I can't manage to create a direct link, but this brings you to a Google results page for "how to pronounce draw"; if you click on the little microphone link next to the phonetic spelling of draa, you'll hear how "draw" is pronounced, which is different from how "drawer" is pronounced in most of the country. (In my experience, and confirmed by some internet sleuthing, "drawer" pronounced as "draw" occurs in parts of NJ, parts of New England, and parts of the South.) And, to reiterate, I take no issue with the regional pronunciation, just with spelling "drawer" as "draw". Nowhere is that correct.

Finally - another episode with a cat story. Kyerra the cat wrangler took care of business. I love the dog people good samaritans who found Nola leashing her to capture her - that's what they know, so that's what they did. And I love that it's the husband who was the most adamant about wanting to keep her (I'm highly irritated by "ew, cats" guys). Nola, by her behavior, clearly had a home at one point, so I'm glad she found another one. Halo's mom following her intuition to get a second opinion was a good call; getting those stones removed before they cause obstruction and the resulting pain and illness is a happy ending. Captain Hook wandered into the right yard. I'm not sure if you're supposed to call the Sheriff's Department rather than Animal Control in Houston or if the homeowners called the wrong agency but got a response anyway, but the turtle wound up not only sans hook but with a home. So, yay. I don't know anything about kinkajous to evaluate how I feel about people owning them (I'm generally opposed to exotic pets because most people don't know how to properly care for them, if it's even okay for them to be in captivity to begin with), but I was taken by how long Honey's tail was and how friendly she was. Poor Addie; at her age I was happy there was no evidence of metastasis, but still figured her time was limited. Dr. Blue did a great job of presenting the news to the owner. "Maybe your throwing is the problem" from one of the kids during Team Ross practice was funny.

Picking which 22 dogs to send to the prison program was a huge task; this is their audition to establish an ongoing relationship that will result in VRC dogs getting out monthly, so they want to pull together the absolutely perfect group for that environment. I can only imagine the thinking, deliberating, and testing that resulted in the big play group we saw. Fancy was among the dogs, which reminds me that I had today's repeat episodes on in the background while I painted window trim, and laughed again at how she got her name -- M2 dances around to Reba McEntire while cleaning, and the then-newly rescued dog was really into it. Fancy hugging Tia when Tia was leaving and Tia saying, "Don't do this to me, you'll be fine" resulted in a teary smile here. And, of course, Cavalier. She is fast! "It takes her coming to prison to be free" is right -- she was chained up, then at VRC she had leashed walks and play time in small groups, but now she has that gigantic prison yard to sprint around in. She needs to go to someone with a big yard. Which I'm sure she will. It's always, when transferring dogs to another rescue/program, a big leap of faith to say okay, you'll be the ones screening and selecting their adopters when the time comes. But Amy from DAWGS clearly knows her stuff. It was great to see how many volunteers she had lined up for the arrival of the newest batch of dogs. (And a nice kudo to VRC for DAWGS to say they've never before received such organized medical history on dogs they've taken from other rescues/shelters.) We desperately need - for the dogs, and the inmates - more programs like that in this country. It makes me angry that we don't; like Tia said, they're crucial. I wish we'd been able to see the inmates as they met their new pals. Warg loves car rides! Like Lizzie said, it's a good thing since he doesn't fit in any of their crates. I don't find him a particularly attractive dog, and he's significantly bigger than a lot of people are interested in, so I absolutely love that someone fell in love with him online and drove down from Michigan to meet him. His adoption is another illustration of how VRC doesn't have bright-line rules that unreasonably keep good owners from adopting a dog who's right for them. His adopters have only been together a year and a half. Sure, statistically, they're probably going to break up at some point during Warg's life. But they're good dog owners; they'll figure out custody, and, if not, VRC will take him back. It's not a reason to refuse adoption. And they've just moved in to their together place, so the yard doesn't yet have the kind of fence he needs. They'll put one in, and will use a long line in the interim. Again, not a reason to refuse given their history of dog ownership and commitment to doing right by this one. Jones's recovery was impressive, and he's beautiful; I hope someone falls in love with him. Great episode!

It's a weird word; it looks like it would simply be pronounced draw-er, and it would be to describe one who draws (although who ever says that - we just say artist) rather than the thing that slides out of a piece of furniture, but somehow it not only muddles into one syllable, the vowel sound morphs, too.

Too long; didn't read.

Great news, @MargeGunderson! I'm taking a break from painting window trim to report that it is the same with painting as it has been with all other projects around the house thus far: While Maddie and Baxter were both assistants, Riley is a supervisor. So instead of having to watch her to make sure there are no paws put on wet paint, I am watched by her, while she plays with her toys or sits half asleep on her scratcher. Maddie was really involved with anything I was working on, which once meant sitting on my stomach while I replaced the garbage disposal. Baxter usually "helped" for a while and then took a nap on top of a screwdriver or wrench. Mind you, this was the same cat who spent five minutes arranging pillows to get comfortable.

You don't need to -- triple stumper and triple stumpers are both represented by TS and the sentence makes clear whether singular or plural. So you can save yourself the typing; we know what you mean. That wouldn't have even crossed my mind. And in the grand scheme of J!, it wasn't a good game. But there have been a lot of games over the last couple of weeks with seemingly far more TS than normal, and many of them clues I was surprised all three contestants failed to get, so that tonight's game still had a lot, but not as many and not as many surprises, and that two contestants were correct most of the time they rang in (three misses for MacKenzie and only one for Jennifer) rather than the bonehead guesses we've seen lately, having the two of them - especially since they're both women - in close competition a good bit of the time and in the final score was enough to qualify this as an enjoyable game for me tonight. The same game could transpire next week and I'd have a very different reaction based on the context of that week's games.

I didn't tune in until the interview section, so I had to go back and check the archive for the clues I missed. Good game by MacKenzie and Kimberly, neither of whom had very many wrong answers. Jon only had a couple more, but with one of them being his brain fart answer of JFK and another being a DD on which he lost a good sum, add that to his struggle in the first round to phrase his responses in the form of a question and not being around for FJ, he didn't come off well. Major bummer, and I hope he still enjoyed the experience. No real surprise TS tonight, so I really enjoyed the game. Summertime, Mike Piazza, Bosnia, somnambulism, Thomas à Becket, and Anwar Sadat are all clues I'd have predicted someone would get, but no head scratchers that they didn't. I enjoyed Jenny's mild Forrest Gump impersonation, and then Alex's Hannibal Lechter reading the next clue was even more fun. But, while I was all in for noting her spelling of Lebanon last night, I don't think Alex should have made such a big deal of MacKenzie's "Palm" tonight. A whole lot more people would make that mistake than would spell Lebanon "Lebbenon". I had a more typical game than the shitfest that was my performance last night, meaning I still missed a couple in the first round and several in DJ. But I got FJ, so my J! week ends positively.

I'll add a third: At "my" Costco, the gas station has three pumps in each aisle, and there is an electronic sign at the entrance to the aisle showing either open or occupied for each of those three pumps (in case you can't see around/over a big-ass vehicle) AND each aisle has ample room so that if the middle one opens up while the front and rear ones are occupied, you can pull into it without needing to parallel park. And yet. Half the time when the middle one opens up, the Costco employee has to come over and direct the person at the front of the line to get their ass into that slot rather than sitting there waiting to be able to just pull straight into the last one.

I wonder if that's the only thing the show films/airs her talking about and participating in, and not an accurate reflection of her life these days. Does anyone here follow her on social media? If so, does she post about other things?

Those I know who've met Rosie O'Donnell in a social situation all enjoyed it. Those I know who worked on her talk show, not so much.

Me too. I was all pleased with myself, having figured the first one was Genesis (since it was about the creating of things) and the second was Exodus (since it was about a mass departure); that little ditty sounded proverbial, and was only a $600 clue, so I confidently said Proverbs. Oops. (The next one, I didn't even have a guess.)

New York minute surprised me as a TS (and put the Don Henley song in my head, where it remains), as did wiener schnitzel and Trafalgar. MacKenzie's embarrassment at not knowing how to spell Lebanon was funny. Thanks to the Bible books, TV dramas, directors, and history timeline categories, I had a worse than average game; I missed at least two in each of those. Thank goodness for the geography category to make me feel better, and I knew FJ, so I ended on a good note.

Jeannette's fixation on Jazz's dating life has always bothered me. It's damaging to treat a girl like her greatest value in life is attracting a boyfriend. I don't think that's where she's coming from - I think she thinks that since she and Ari were both all about it at that age Jazz should be too, and she worries how Jazz being transgender affects people's interest in dating her (not wanting Jazz to feel dating is something she's left out of because she's trans) - but it sends a horrible message to titter about romantic potential every time someone new crosses Jazz's path.

Favorite soup recipes? I roast a whole chicken pretty frequently, and combine those carcasses with veggie scraps to always have stock ingredients in the freezer. So, with a regular supply of stock, I make a lot of soups, rotating through many favorite recipes, periodically trying something new. I'm in a something new mood, so would enjoy some personal recommendations to supplement my browsing. I hate beans and potatoes, I love green vegetables but am so-so on root vegetables, and I like most meats, poultry, shellfish, etc. but don't like tofu. I'm particularly interested in soups that don't include noodles or rice (I only eat soup for lunch, and often have a salad with it, so it doesn't need to be hearty), but also like plenty that do.

Neither does Ree Drummond.

No. Dan's friend Dwight in Roseanne was played by William Sadler. I just looked up the actor playing this Dwight, and his name is Stephen Monroe Taylor.