Bastet

Absolutely nothing about Dr. Emily's blog post about growing as a vet that relates the basics of how the Pol clinic is run surprises me. From saying that when she started at Dr. Pol, she had to learn to work fast because, "we were often quadruple booked every 15 minutes with only 2-3 doctors working. People waiting an hour to be seen was not uncommon," to the details of her growing problems with the business model: Then it goes into the part quoted in the linked article that didn't give the full picture. Good for her walking away from the NatGeo money in order to practice in a better environment, salvage her mental health, and have a proper work-life balance, and good for her how she worked in the interim to break away from the idea that having a diagnosis upon walking in the door is surely a result of expertise honed over decades; it can also be dismissive, designed to get the client out the door with a small bill and move on to the next one. (If I had a dollar for every time I grumbled at the TV about him saying "probably an infection" and prescribing antibiotics, I'd be retired. Add in a dollar for every time I do the same about him declaring a bone not broken without an x-ray, and I'd be retired in Hawaii.) And good for her honesty about the Pol clinic -- not the safest or the best (boy howdy), but also a potential lifeline for the pets of those who can't afford better, in an area where most people fall into that category. It's not clear cut. Of course, I'd direct Dr. Pol - with the significant funds he has amassed thanks to this show - to watch Dr. Jeff's show for some tips on how to not cut anywhere near as many corners in providing low-cost care. Look at how Dr. Jeff upgraded his clinic with Animal Planet money and the zip.point.shit Dr. Pol has done with NatGeo money. Dr. Jeff has the advantage of being in an area where there are more clients willing and able to pay for services at the full rate, which helps subsidize the reduced-rate services, though, while Dr. Emily estimates it's about 10 percent in Pol's area. Again, not clear cut. But Pol could (and should) do better; he's so entrenched in his "my way is good enough" ideology a proud defiance to change has settled in.

I'm not yet back in the habit of tuning in for the repeat after football, so I missed the first few minutes to hear the adopter's story. Keisha little squatty body is adorable, and her hauling it over to her new mommy once in the yard even more so. And then the zoomies with all that space to run? Fantastic. I was also distracted a couple of times and missed some details; how did they wind up with the puppies? Teaching them how to go up the ramp was cute. Bring me the assholes who cropped Aislin's ears, a pair of scissors or whatever crude instrument they used, shut the door, and deny you were ever here.

It would have been a better commercial if they'd never had a dog before, came across an abandoned one, took her/him in for safety, fell in love, and called for advice on a Dogs 101 checklist of things to get. Because that one plays like they deliberately went out and got a puppy without buying anything other than a crate, and without researching nutritional needs, potty training techniques, etc. Impulse purchases (because you know these twits bought rather than adopted) of puppies are not something to be celebrated via a "cute" commercial.

I really like how "Citizen's Arrest" shows us that Provenza took Thorn's (the buffoon "life strategist" in the previous episode) advice to heart about changing himself if he wants his world to change -- he is different in how he deals with Sharon and Amy, and even takes Sharon's side in a strategy disagreement and proposes putting Sykes in the lead because of her SIS experience's relevance to the case. Deciding to stop wallowing in his resentment, he looks at his new work situation with fresh eyes and realizes Sharon excels at game plans and Sykes adds a new set of skills and experience to the group's collective expertise. It's a transition that is solidified in the next episode, "Out of Bounds", when Sharon puts her job on the line and Amy puts her physical safety on the line; they both have his full respect from then on, even when he's irritated. It's a nice trajectory, and I appreciate that it's not dragged out, and that Provenza is the only one who took even this long to accept the change -- they learned from their experience with Brenda, and are less stubbornly resistant this time around. I can't stand Julio's actions in this one (and can barely watch the scene in the gun shop where he coerces a confession at gunpoint), and really can't stand that Andrea condones (in fact, suggests) them, but I'm very happy a) this series does eventually address his pattern of behavior and b) that characterization of Andrea is never again in evidence as they develop the character. On the flip side, I like including the moment as they approach the trailer where Sharon says not to hesitate to use force to protect themselves or the hostage; since on The Closer we saw Sharon from the point of view of a resentful squad, it's nice to get that explicit reminder early in this series that Sharon only ever took action against inappropriate uses of force, and backs officers when use of force is justified. And I like the case; the actors do a good job maintaining the sense of tension that kicks in when the characters realize they've walked into a kidnapping. Rusty seeing, through the window, the squad have to tell the Barlows they're only getting one of their kids back alive gives him a little bit of a wake-up call that the police, for all his issues with them, have difficult jobs. Gerald Hall's descent into his father's "sovereign citizen" brand of crazy is frighteningly-realistically related by his ex-wife, making the villains properly scary before we even meet them. (And there's good commentary with the gun shop owner's defiant Second Amendment blah blah blah turning to "I just sell the guns" and then "Wait, these people are more than a little crazy and they are heavily armed" protest when Amy wants him to lure the Halls into the shop.) There's also this interesting, subtle thing going on with the Barlows, where we know that she volunteers at a domestic violence shelter and see him exhibit controlling behaviors that are red flags, and her reactions to his anger are in line with that. I don't even think the writers are fully aware of what they set up with that dynamic. Sharon reaching towards Rusty's back as they head out for dinner is the second time she's pulled herself back from physical contact, and I love the thread that she stifles her instincts to touch him because she knows he's not ready for it. I like her promising him she won't lie to him; she will take the time she needs to properly assess situations and then tell him what she knows. And, of course, I love the snarky way she deals with his typical teen behavior. "Believe it or not, Rusty, you are not the only issue the City of Los Angeles is dealing with this afternoon" to direct him out of her office to go do his homework is fun. As is, like all jokes about Provenza's numerous marriages, "As everyone knows, I have seen my share of divorce papers." I know I mentioned this last time, but it just kills me every time I watch this that they missed the opportunity for comedy when Sharon gives Laurie Barlow her phone -- that Sharon just comes up on Provenza's phone as "Captain Raydor" instead of "The Wicked Witch of FID" or something. To make myself feel better, I have to mentally insert the looks that Sharon and Provenza would have exchanged if there was an insulting name or ring tone for her. (And I just decide Provenza wasn't tech savvy enough to think about it during her FID days.) I also always shake my head in wonder that Ben Barlow's frat buddy doesn't realize he's dead in that picture. How?! As I said when this point was raised before, I love the way they frequently reuse names in this franchise (like in life, but often avoided on TV), so I don't care about the "Emily" repetition, but it's indeed clear in hindsight they hadn't named Sharon's kids this early in the series; Sharon exhibited such empathy for Mrs. Barlow regarding Ben's death (in general as a mother, but also that he's not all that much younger than her own son and is in a fraternity like he was), she'd have felt a twinge about the missing daughter having the same name as her own daughter. At this stage in her relationship with the squad, Sharon wouldn't have said, "That's my daughter's name," so the only thing retroactively missing is just a look on her face when she heard the name. (Not a reason to have discarded Emily when deciding what to name Sharon's daughter, certainly, just a little something that would have been different had it already been decided at the time this was filmed.) Something I never noticed until tonight: After her oops realization she shouldn't have said "no more dead guys" because that young stranger in the murder room must have known the victim, Amy quietly moves a chair behind the frat buddy so he can sit down in his shock. It's another example of both how she needs to settle down in her eagerness to report back, and that she's compassionate. Also that the actor playing Emily Barlow is seriously tiny, to fit inside storage bench and to have her feet well off the ground when Julio - who is not tall - holds her.

I can't believe this; I thought the AFC was Baltimore's to lose, but I certainly didn't think they would go ahead and lose it. I know there's still more than a quarter left to play, but they'll have to completely transform to get it done and I honestly don't see it happening, especially with Tennessee just tacking on seven more. Wow. I was rooting for the 49ers only because I don't like (don't hate, but don't like) the Vikings and because I'd love the NFC championship to be a San Francisco/Seattle rematch. Seahawks/Green Bay is going to be a good game, I think.

Same here - every word of this.

Okay, no. When you don't hear back from someone after several days, reach out again, and still don't don't hear back, you don't, instead of leaving her be, pursue her further with a "No, really, really, REALLY, I'm not a psycho who doesn't get it so please don't take me that way" message that will have her reaching for the DSM. In the interim, she had taken down her profile, for whatever reason(s) prompted her to do so. So, once again, as is common, it was not meant to be. Good to know now, and you can move on.

Martin Sheen was among those arrested today at the final Fire Drill Fridays protest in D.C. (they will resume in Los Angeles). This is his speech after being introduced by Jane Fonda, who said "Sam Waterston's been here, Lily Tomlin's been here, June Diane Raphael's been here, the entire writer's room from Grace and Frankie has been here, and now we have Martin Sheen! My ex-husband": I can't find Raphael's brief speech alone, but it can be heard starting just around the one-hour mark in this video of the whole program: And here she is in the crowd, with her child:

Oh, it must have been an audio clip then. That would definitely make it harder to identify than if there was a picture.

It can be spelled either way (I think fogy is the original spelling, and fogey [to which this site's spellcheck objects] an accepted variation, but haven't checked to confirm). I'm not going to be home tonight, so I just read the clues on the archive. Since that means I can't see any of the pictures, I didn't get glockenspiel. (I'm a little surprised that one was a TS since they had a picture to look at.) I didn't get guiro, either, but I don't think a picture would have helped me any more than it did them. I can't believe paycheck was a TS. What else was the punchline going to be? Flux was a very surprising TS, too. Fogy surprised me at first, but then I thought about how you almost always hear it as "old fogy" rather than just "fogy" and changed my mind. And maybe some of them spell it with five letters, like @opus. I knew Agent 99 was going to stump them. Sometimes I have a strange certainty a clue is going to be a TS, and this was one of them. (I got it, although I never knew until now whether the character was a man or woman, because I never watched Get Smart -- it's just one of those random things I picked up via cultural osmosis.) FJ was an instaget, so I can go out on a high note since there's no GOAT game tonight (I don't do anywhere near as well in those as I do regular games).

Yes, 908. (No, I don't know what it stands for; probably someone's birthday.) Here is the J! Archive page for this tournament, for anyone who wants to check a score, wager, clue, etc.

Now I have Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair" stuck in my head. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Go for a nice walk, envision some things about my first day at the new job Monday, and think about what hobbies I might like to finally take up after I settle into that job and have a new routine going. You had a little breakthrough at a family event, but since then it's been back to the usual shit, including at the holidays. She still is who she is right now. So you be who you are now. You are an empty nester, when a lot of women your age who opted for parenthood are just getting started. You're simultaneously ahead and behind. And you're without the relationship with your adult child you'd always envisioned. Most of that is on her, some of it is on you. But it simply is. You've given over enough of your life to being her mom, and probably gone too far into martyrdom at times along the way. It's completely natural when doing it essentially on your own. But that phase of life is over. You've started taking care of your health, you've traded a stable but unfulfilling job for something more satisfying for someone who no longer has a dependent to consider -- you're on the right track. You've made tremendous strides just based on the emotional and physical separation so far, so keep up with that. Leave the door open for her to walk back through, but also don't let her pass through without acting right. She's a long way away from that. You don't need to also be a long way away from your next chapter in life. Don't just live in stasis for the interim. Live your life for you; living it for her didn't work out so well, so it's your turn. Being a mom is only one part of you. She's making that part hurtful, so focus on the others you already know about and enjoy uncovering a bunch you don't. Congratulations on the new job and weight loss. I hope both positive trajectories continue.

Wow, I played like utter shit in the first round of the first game. But one of the answers I managed to spit out was the TS of bard and board. I was better in the DJ round - and I got the Morticia Addams TS (I'm surprised that stumped them) - and got FJ, but it wasn't my game. Nice reactions from the other two when it was revealed Ken had also bet it all in FJ. I did much better in game two, including getting James's missed DD of garnet and the treatment, keylogging, and "bring your own device" TS (those last two surprised me as TS, especially since I'm practically a Luddite for how little I know about modern technology). I only got the Ang Lee half of FJ, but so did Ken and the other two superstars didn't even get that far, so good for me. I cannot believe George Burns was a picture clue. LOL at Ken choosing multiple Christopher Plummer clues in a row because "I just want to hear the voice". And at James's FJ answer, Brad's FJ wager (even though I hate the Eagles, I loathe Patriots so much I cheered that Super Bowl victory), and Alex's reaction to these shenanigans.

Yeah, he has said "gentlemen" or "you/these guys" rather than "contestants" or the like when addressing or talking about one of the many all-male panels as a group, although perhaps not with the same frequency, so I was just content that he didn't point it out like he used to.

My condolences on your upcoming loss. (My parents' cat has cancer that is eating all his caloric intake, too, and as soon as his quality of life slides, it will be time, so I have particular empathy for you and will have you and Amber in my thoughts tomorrow.) Unless the dried mud is substantial enough to cause a problem with defecation, or stress her (feeling it and wanting it gone but not being able to groom herself) more than it would for you to lift her tail and go after it with a wet cloth, I'd leave it. Basically, unless she tries to get at it herself (in which case I would know it was bothering her, and know I could dispatch with it faster than she can), I would leave it alone.

Wow, Alex managed not to comment on all three contestants being women. This was much better game than last night's -- far fewer TS. Angela Merkel was the only one that surprised me, although I thought someone would at least guess Supreme Court. The missed DD of Kansas City was something else I didn't see coming.

Ha. That article prompted me to take the quiz, and I also got Ken, but my real answer to several of the questions was either "none of the above" or "several of the above" so I could probably take it again right now and come up as someone different (but hopefully not James).

You can read it via the Wayback Machine.

You beat me to it. Because, yeah, if that's how she was dressed to go get pizza, it's ridiculous. But if it was to go to the school dance, it's not. (Assuming this was in the '80s, which is what the dress and hair suggest.)

I somehow managed to, in the four hours between when you posted this and when it aired here, forget about it last night, but I caught it tonight. I'm not sure how good a job it did introducing the series to people who don't have Netflix and will be seeing it for the first time on Pop - I'd have loved to see a one-hour promo special, with more time to cover some plot specifics in addition to the overview of relationships and characterization - but I think it did a decent job enticing them. And it certainly gave me a smile, reminding me how much I like this show and how glad I am it's been given a second life. I loved Rita Moreno calling it a Norman Lear “play” rather than show. Also, this is not news, but Moreno is a national treasure. At nearly 90 years old she’s as respected, intelligent, vibrant, passionate, and considerate as ever. And beautiful, which is a result of hard work in addition to genetics and technological assistance, so I don't deny her that, I just place it last. The description of Elena is perfect: sometimes her idealism outpaces her experience. Because I love teens like that. I was a teen like that. But I also understand all the ways in which a teen like that inspires eye rolls from those who’ve spent a lot longer navigating this world. This got me excited for the fourth season.

No, February 11th is the date for the live episode, about the primary election. The next new episode will air January 21st, and in that one Becky - born and raised in a Bears family - dates a Packers fan.

Thank goodness for the college football category, because until they got into that I wasn't doing too well in the first game. Running that seemed to give me a boost, and I did pretty well with the rest of it. I got FJ, I got the nitwit and Le Monde TS (and I'm surprised both of those stumped them) and the "Good Day, Sir" TS, even though that one was a total guess based on the wording of the clue as I've never seen the film and never knew where the quote came from, and overall did a better job than last night of keeping up with their pace. I was hoping whomever answered "I'm walking here!" would do it justice, and Ken did. I loved James giving him props, and then Ken's delivery on "I think I broke my buzzer" was perfect. They were also all fun joking about the "all in" gesture being James's intellectual property (the only time that gesture hasn't annoyed the hell out of me). And James telling Ken his FJ art was facing the wrong way. I really enjoy the camaraderie among these three. Maybe if I watched The Crown, I wouldn't have found the clips used in the clues ridiculously long (because the film clips in the second round didn't bug me), but I don't, so I did. In game two, I was back to sometimes being slow to spit out the answer before one of them did, only got the Napoleon half of FJ, and the TS all also stumped me. I guess one more drink really does make a difference. But I still did okay, especially in the DJ round; I loved the 20-letter words category! Ken apologizing when he swept in to take the points by cleaning up a near-miss guess was kind of funny. Brad missing the 22 DD was quite surprising. And I wondered if they were going to subtract game two's negative score from game one's score for his match total, but it wouldn't have mattered, so they probably didn't give it much consideration. I hope he has a better match tomorrow, to keep things as interesting as possible (and to let him save face). I think it will be a challenge for him to shake off his third-place performance in two consecutive matches, but maybe it will also light a fire.

Funny; we were just discussing things they let slide that irritate me, and tonight Lisa saying "groat" instead of "groats" was accepted. "Groat" is not two letters longer than "oats". There were over a dozen TS tonight, and several more clues for which there was at least one incorrect guess before someone got it. Yikes. I can't believe "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" was one of the TS. (By which I guess I mean I can't believe Rachel didn't ring in and finally say it correctly.) The endorse TS really surprised me, too. I want to be surprised Serbia and Croatia was a TS, since it was one of those "identify the countries highlighted on this map" clues, but I just can't be surprised by geography TS anymore. Lisa's FJ answer made me laugh again.

I don't know, Jeanie shit on Kerry's professional support and personal friendship several times, so while I generally like Jeanie, I don't think that inconsiderate move was also an inconsistent one.