Bastet

For those who don't like to clink on links that aren't clear as to what the article is about, that's about the death of René Auberjonois, who died today at age 79 of metastatic lung cancer: Sounds like he had the perfect attitude for a character actor. I knew him from the MASH and Benson roles primarily, but had seen him in numerous other things as well -- 228 screen credits to his name!

Yes! The presence of Mimi Kennedy was absolutely equal to that of Allison Janney in my decision to give this show a shot despite it being a Chuck Lorre production.

Yes, I use them. I use several things, and I still get nauseated on the water under many conditions. It's a shame, because I love being near/in/on a body of water - I even have a tattoo representing water, because of how much water calms me - but boats and I have a contentious relationship. It's a good thing I have no interest in going on a cruise for several other reasons, so I don't feel I'm "missing out".

And that's exactly why it was time to move on from Helton, despite his players loving him and the costly buyout of his contract, but USC's new AD opted to waste another year on him. Speaking of stupid decisions by USC ADs, I still wonder what could have been with Ed Orgeron. When Pat Haden opted not to keep him on (after he served as interim HC following Lane Kiffin's hilarious firing on the tarmac), I understood it -- USC had lost to UCLA under him, and word was USC was going to bring in a big name coach. But then it was Steve Sarkissian, and WTF with that shit, dude? So after Sarkissian's anemic tenure, I always wondered what Orgeron would have done in that same time, and when I see him win the SEC with LSU, I'm happy for him. Also that it likely puts OU in the number four slot. Which brings me to not knowing how to feel about the Big 10 championship; I hate Ohio State (in general, with that "The" nonsense, and especially with Urban Meyer associated in any way), so I'd love to see Wisconsin knock them off, but not if that would screw up OU's chance. It shouldn't, as Wisconsin would still have two losses and should only knock Ohio St. down, but beating the number one team in a conference championship game could do weird things to voters. So I was a little hesitant in my ultimately fruitless rooting for Wisconsin tonight. But the Buckeyes won, and here we are with the presumed final four. I think LSU should be on top, and thus face OU in the Peach Bowl. And I fear for OU's chances.

I haven't seen this one, but is he doing anything else? If he's not cooking, cleaning, or otherwise setting things up at home, and his only role for the holiday meal is picking things up at the store, then that's just what happens, even if it happens more often than it should because of other people's forgetfulness. There's no way someone who's cooking a holiday meal should have to also go out and shop for last-minute ingredients if some otherwise useless blob is available to do it, no matter why the last-minute need arose.

I'll share mine: I hate it. I hate the book (and I'm not one who automatically hates stories about shitty people doing shitty things; in fact, I like a good number of them), and I hate just about everything inspired by it other than the Kate Bush song.

I've never had that happen, but I keep my online ordering from big box stores to a bare minimum (because of how the warehouse workers are treated), so it probably just hasn't happened to me yet. It's sad that it's because of unrealistic "deliver X packages per hour" requirements imposed on the drivers (like the ridiculous timelines given to warehouse workers for locating items and sending them down the line). Companies offering low prices and free shipping comes at a human cost. I can't believe it's already Dec. 7th. I haven't even managed to get my exterior lights up yet, and I normally do that the Sunday after Thanksgiving. But I wound up napping and watching football instead, and rain is keeping me from it this weekend. I think I can knock off early Monday and do it then. Then I need to get a tree and get the inside of the house decorated. I used to just decorate the living room (where the tree is), but last year I bought additional items and also did the study, dining room, and bathrooms. It didn't look like Christmas threw up in any of those rooms, and the overall effect really made me happy (I am not generally in "the Christmas spirit", whatever that is, so for Christmas decorations to make me happy is a big thing). So I want to get that going this year. And, of course, I still need to figure out what I'm getting anyone as gifts and go shopping; I need to arrange my schedule so I can take a day next week to do that (I cannot handle weekend crowds ever, let alone at the holidays). My parents already have everything! And I don't want to get something just to get something, but I don't want them sitting there done after a few presents each while I keep opening. So it gets harder every year to come up with things they'll use and enjoy. I have a couple of things for my mom already, but that's it so far. @StatisticalOutlier, any cool things for the motorhome ideas? That heated mattress pad I got them based on your review two or three years ago continues to be a huge hit. And things for the RV are perfect as gifts for the two of them together. It's just they pretty much have everything in there, too. @auntlada, are you watching the Big 12 championship? My big peeve for the day is Jalen Hurts putting the damn ball in Baylor's hands, which is what he did last time they played. Baylor is playing the Big 12 championship with a backup QB and gaining fewer offensive yards than my cat could if she put her mind to it; OU should be beating the shit out of them instead of looking to squeak by with another win. The number four slot is on the line!

Aww. He will always be Freddie Ugo from my favorite awful movie, Rhinestone. But I've seen him in so many things, and always enjoyed him - never more than when he was playing a slimeball, which is a sure sign of good acting.

Utah is getting beat like they stole something. I expected Oregon to dominate - Utah is overrated - but this is really something so far. In other Pac-12 news, USC is keeping Clay Helton. That's pretty astoundingly stupid; who cares if he's a good guy if he's not a good coach?! He's had plenty of time to prove himself, and he hasn't. As a consequence, game attendance has fallen and the recruiting class is anemic. (I haven't looked it up, but alumni donations are probably down, too, which is a sad commentary, but a fact of life.) If there isn't a big turnaround next season, he has to finally be shown the door, but it's a tough season - opening on the road against Alabama, playing Notre Dame early, and playing Oregon, Stanford, and Utah on the road. The new AD just delayed the inevitable, and the recruiting fallout is going to be felt even after Helton is gone. I'm really looking forward to the OU-Baylor rematch in tomorrow's Big 12 championship. Well, I'm looking forward to the second half - it's on at 9:00 a.m. here, so that's all I'm going to see. Go Sooners! I like the number four slot in the playoffs coming down to the wire.

And Neil Young. Pink comes very close, with an added S, with "Stupid Girls".

I took a break at halftime to read through the clues on the archive. I laughed when rickets science was a TS and Alex scolded they'd have known it if they'd started at the top of the category. He's always been cranky about that -- unless it's his beloved James, of course. That KGB clue had no business being a DD in DJ (boy, that sentence is alphabet soup). I got FJ, but like several others was thrown by "barbarians".

This is from a month ago, but I just read about it today. Ava DuVernay's upcoming anthology series for OWN, Cherish the Day, has a production crew that’s over 50% women, including 18 female department heads.

I like that one, too. I think Vince Gill's is just okay, though. His duet with Parton, too. That's how I feel about Vince Gill songs in general, though - eh, fine. It felt like I gave it a good 30-second listen, but, according to the timer, I only made it 12 seconds; if something interesting happens later in the song, I missed it. I don't find it any worse than any other version of the song, but I just don't like the song. I hate most "Christmas classics", because most of it sounds like that song.

The song annoys me, so the commercial goes on way too long for me, but I liked some of the individual scenarios, like the woman singing horribly and loudly with her headphones on and the other passengers laughing at her, the guy doing a dance in the store, and the package laughing when the dog licks it.

One of the handful of Christmas songs I like.

Looking at the dates on the bottle, he's only been practicing a little over five months, but he could have practiced for five years and still screwed up a note when the time came because he was nervous (he takes that big sigh before starting). I don't think it says anything about how much he cares for his daughter.

She's terrific at physical comedy; I think the first thing I saw her fall in was Primary Colors, and she's still doing it just as well twenty years later. In the episode where Tammy moves in with her, she has nine - it had been eight, and then the stray Marjorie says is Victor reincarnated showed up.

My house was built in 1938, and the kitchen cabinets were always painted. The last time before I took ownership in 2004 seems to have been in the '70s, and before that the '50s! Various shades of white, and I went with another shade of white ("white corn" to pick up the yellow wall color I went with). I won't have painted wood furniture, only stained, but I simultaneously don't like stained trim, cabinetry, doors, etc. (There are houses in which original stained trim/doors/cabinetry shouldn't be replaced with painted, because of how it screws things up for purists, and I rejected those in my hunt -- I wouldn't "ruin" a house that way, but I also wouldn't live surrounded by grain and darkness I didn't want, so they just weren't for me.) I don't care about the finishes HHs want, other than being bored by the repetition, just objecting when they want something out of step with a home's era and act like it's a personal affront that they'll have to make the change if they want to go in a different direction.

Among cheeses, I'm surprised it took three tries to get to gouda (and that two of them completely forgot the 5-letter part of the clue), and the cotija TS also surprised me. But, I eat more cheese than anyone should. And now I really want some smoked gouda, but I don't have any among the various cheeses in my fridge; boo, hiss. LOL at Alex wondering why they were in Chicago instead of Boston for the Fenway Park clue, which was a mildly surprising TS. Snowplow as a TS was even more surprising; Robert Kraft you have to be a football fan - or a sex crimes aficionado - to know, and Fenway, too, but snowplow was pretty clear from the clue, especially once snow blower was ruled out. On the other hand, I loathe the Patriots, so any and all clues about them being TS amuse me on general principle, as did the contestants' preference for sticking with Jeff Goldblum's molasses-style delivery rather than returning to the category. Go, Jennifer! I'm glad I took a football break to watch her.

Yes, and all she did, after thanking him, was give a good-natured groan of "Dad" when he asked the guy's name. It's in the same spirit of his "What have you done?" and "That's a duck?" - and of "What's his name" itself, said in a tone that plays to me like he's teasing because he knows he's not going to get an answer, that this is something they do. It's how they interact, and includes their shared smile at his story of her mom burning duck once, too. I like it. Even if it is snotty and rude, though, it hardly calls for a gender slur and wishing her murdered.

As one who said Don Juan (since that's what springs to mind upon reference to a womanizing character), there's no way I should have gotten credit for it; that's the guy in the legend off which numerous works have been based, but that's not the guy in this particular work, the opera. They asked for the character whose name is in the title of the opera where he flirts with a bride on her wedding day and a list of his amorous conquests is sung before he's consumed in flames, and that's Don Giovanni, not Don Juan.

I didn't catch which conjunction she used because I was answering (aloud) at the same time, and the archive lists it as "or", but the clue didn't seek the title, just the two things chosen between in the story. So while "or" is still the better word to use, they'd accept "and" if that's what she said.

And sometimes no email address. I don't want to chat, I want to email.

That was a refreshing game after the last two. I can't believe "I'd Do Anything for Love" was a TS with the two wrong guesses ruling out the ways to screw it up (and if not for the "start with a contraction" hint in the clue, I'd indeed have said "I Would"). I'm also surprised no one at least guessed wolf for what rabid animal bit Old Yeller. But, even with the brain fart of Taiwan instead of Hong Kong, Jennifer was very impressive. I'm going to have to take a break from football tomorrow night to watch her again. I came two shy of running the first round; I didn't know the Bengali poet, and I could not bring Survivor as the name of the band who sang "Eye of the Tiger" from my brain to my mouth in time. DJ was a good round for me, but not as good as the first, and I lived down to my FJ expectations based on the category. I said Don Juan, so I had the story, but not the name used in the opera. @irisheyes, LOL at seeing the category and wondering if there is a number less than zero you can bet.

Same here. I don't have any streaming services at home, but while staying at my parents' house recently, I watched a whole bunch of Cold Case episodes in bed each night on the Roku Channel. The commercial breaks are shorter, but the four ads at each break were pretty much the same each time, and it didn't take long to send me around the bend. Not being able to go around the dial like I do with television would have only been mildly annoying had there been some variety in the commercials.