Bastet

Was tonight the first time Elise got to do a talking head? She's a big part of the rescue, so that was nice to see. Valentina is a dog with about a .05 percent chance of adoption, so I loved Lizzy drawing that big heart around her name when she took notes on the call with the adopter. Peggy considering herself the lucky one warms my heart. I feel sorry for Roddy and Keri, but I like that Keri was upset that Roddy and Bailey weren't a fit, not that VRC wouldn't give her Roddy; she wasn't any more comfortable with it than M2 was, and wanted to right by everyone. Poor M2 with that sigh when her son asked, "Mommy, did he get the home?" Pigeon learning from Buford and just running around like a little sprite was adorable. I like the name South Paws for the surgery clinic. Poor Tater walking around with a slipped disc all this time. Him sniffing the butt of the fake dog at the bakery entrance was very funny, as was him drooling in anticipation of his cake.

I don’t normally root for LSU (or any team in the SEC), but I like Ed Orgeron and I hate Nick Saban with the heat of a nova, so after watching Clay Helton hold onto his job for another week, I tuned in for the end of LSU v Alabama. Suck it, Saban!

Cats, especially, can be quite routine-oriented and not like having it messed with. At least all the cats I take care of (my parents' two, a friend's four, and another friend's one) know me very well (they see me a lot when their people are home), so they have that comfort and security. My friend with the four cats will not move closer to her job because it would be too far for me to go to take care of the cats when she's gone, and she doesn't want them to have "just" a pet-sitter, rather than Auntie Bastet. That's dedication, because commuting in Los Angeles sucks.

No, I don't, but Cold Case does make it tempting, since it will never be released on DVD thanks to music licensing costs. Next time the series turns up in broadcast/cable syndication <fingers crossed>, I'm going to record it onto my own DVDs. I'm so irritated I didn't do that before.

I only have Roku access when staying at my parents' house, and they don't travel as much this time of year, but they're gone this week so while spending every other night at their house I've watched a bunch of season one episodes (the Roku stick is how they access Netflix on the bedroom TV, so I added the Roku channel - which none of us even knew existed). Although I'd watched the series all the way through several times on ION (I still miss those Friday night marathons), it has been since then that I've seen it and had forgotten more than I would have anticipated (ah, the joys of getting older). It's a good season; a little uneven, but strong for a first season. And "Lover's Lane" is a really good season finale; Mark still being obsessed with the notion a teenage romance would have been permanent and had Eve lived they'd be chilling as anti-establishment artists in Paris is pathetic, and his transference to Lily creepy, yes, but when you think of how traumatic it would have been for his girlfriend to be raped and murdered in an attack he couldn't stop, you can see how that haunting him would skew his thought processes and accept it for what it is. Especially because he's almost incidental to me; I like Eve, and love two incredibly poignant moments with secondary/tertiary characters. One, when the guy who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for nearly 20 years for the rape/murder tells Scotty after being exonerated by DNA, "I was a young man when I went in, like you". So simple, but says so much. And, second, something I've remembered since the first time I saw it, when Carrie asks "what do you think happened?" and perfectly responds to the stupid question of why she didn't report being raped by Wayne's father by imitating what that conversation would have been like: "Mom, can we call the cops? Because I got drunk with some guy and then his dad said to come into his room." I only have tomorrow night left for now, so we'll see how many season two favorites I can get through. Or maybe I'll skip ahead and revisit highlights from all seasons.

My parents are gone this week, so I'm taking care of the boys (since I work remotely, I basically spend 24 hours at my house, then 24 hours at theirs). Chester cuddles, plays, and talks with me like normal when they're gone, but he doesn't eat as well when it's just me because the anxiety over my mom (to whom he is incredibly bonded) being gone for more than a couple of days triggers his IBD. They never leave for more than two weeks because of it, and this is just one week. It's not a big problem, but I do everything I can (short of force feeding, which under the circumstances would be more stress on him than is called for) to get him to eat at least 80% of his usual calories, since the disease at this stage makes keeping weight on him a major struggle under the best of circumstances. Once a couple of days had passed and he went into his altered appetite routine, he seemed to perk back up over chicken-based food (regular [raw] food and treats) rather than his usual rabbit, so I went out this morning and picked up more of the raw chicken formula and various chicken and chicken&something freeze-dried treats to tempt him. I came back to find that of the food smorgasbord I'd left him, he'd completely ignored the chicken and eaten all the rabbit! All I can do is laugh. He'll probably devour the chicken when my parents are home (they return Sunday), and Bandit will happily eat it, so no harm, but I am so very tired from running around between my house, theirs, and the house of my friend whose cats I was also taking care of this week (thankfully, she's on a plane home as we speak) that before I started laughing I stood in the kitchen staring at those bowls and muttering, "Really?"

Me too, since she played a good game, not having a single incorrect guess (the only other one in the quarterfinals is Francois). There was nothing particularly noteworthy for me tonight; Junior Achievement was a little surprising as a TS since the clue spotted them "Junior" and I wouldn't classify confirmation bias as a "newer" phrase (but I guess that "-er" gives a good bit of leeway), but that's it - just a good game by Francois.

What a clickbait headline - Golden Girls star? He was in the pilot and never appeared again. He fell down a cliff and died in the woods; in the nearly week that passed before his body was found, it was scavenged by animals.

I'll click on those in about a month; there is no way I'm listening to Christmas music now.

Right; the OP was talking about when to use lay and when to use lie in the present tense, and I expanded on that with the other tenses. But I'll edit for clarity.

Yes, and it would still be worth far more than tailbone (if placed on the same spaces). It's not an incorrect clue (which is why I only said flawed), and Scrabble isn't the point of it so they're not going to get into the whole with the right letters and a blank tile detail (whereas if coccyx was written in the clue, they'd need to do some sort of "co[c]cyx" thing), but it bugged me a little.

It does. If just given "Paul McCartney band" most people's first thought would be The Beatles, but the rest of the clue tells you it's referring to Wings; "Dairy State" would make most think Wisconsin without the context instead indicates California; "March King" would bring up Sousa as a reflex response, but the verbiage tells you it's about Elgar; etc.

I didn't like Little House on the Prairie, but my parents watched it, so I was exposed to it. I haven't seen it since that original run, and barely remember storylines, yet I remember many of the characters' names. I could use that section of my memory for much better things, but there they sit. Probably because the show still gets talked about. I breathed a sigh of relief on that one; Alex is so far up James's ass he's wearing him as a hat. (But, hate him stanning for James though I do, I love him correcting Emma's mispronunciation of bruschetta; it's not up there with "marscapone" for mascarpone, but "brushetta" bugs me.) Hilton Head was a bit surprising as a TS. For one of the bugle calls TS, I said "Charge!" as a joke, knowing that's the context in which it was used, but not really thinking that was its title. I wonder if they were also afraid to make what they thought would be a dumb, obvious guess. I correctly guessed the other two TS in that category, too, based on the text of the clue, but I'm not sure if I'd have guessed under game conditions; it would depend on the scores at the time. I got the coccyx DD, but it's a flawed clue: You couldn't play that word in Scrabble, as there are only two C tiles in the game.

Not me! That it was primarily about the actors getting back together to do the revival, and all the backstage shenanigans that followed, with just little glimpses of the revival itself, is the only reason I agreed to watch it with my friend. I think six episodes was the right length for a project like that and it ended when it should have. It was a fun little summer experience, and if it went on it would stink. But I am certainly not the target audience, since I think the original show was pretty bad (and then became just plain bad). My friend who is a fan, but in a love/hate way, liked it being mostly about the actors and dreaded a second season if it would really get into the revival. But if there was a lot of criticism of the format out there in reviews and social media, you're probably right that most fans wanted to see more of what the characters are doing now. As for the "I don't get it" complaints, though - I don't get it. I didn't seek anything out, and everything I just happened to come across in announcing and then promoting the project was quite clear about the format.

There's a thread with links to several sites where you can catch up on what you missed. The J! Archive is the most thorough - all the clues - and, unlike in seasons past, thus far it is being updated consistently.

I've never given out candy on Halloween any place I've lived, and I've never had that happen.

Unless you're using past tense, such as, "Yesterday afternoon, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, so I lay down for a nap." Present tense is easy (well, for some!), but I have to stop and think about some of the others. Here's a guide: Lie (intransitive verb; basically, use it when someone is moving on her/his own): I am lying down. I lie down every day. I lay down yesterday. I have lain down in the past. Lay (transitive verb; it requires an object -- use it when there's something/someone being placed): I am laying a hat on the bed. I lay a hat on the bed every day. I laid a hat on the bed yesterday. I have laid a hat on the bed in the past.

Well, this is a coincidence: Reel Injun is airing right now on one of my local PBS stations. It's only the ninth anniversary of its American television premiere via Independent Lens, but it's the tenth anniversary of the film's initial release, so maybe it will also turn up on other PBS stations? Just a possibility to keep an eye on for those who are interested.

Life insurance is generally not advised unless there is someone relying on your income; if you die, the life insurance benefit replaces that for them. If you don't have any dependents (or you do but have significant assets to leave them so there's no need for an income replacement to keep them provided for after your death) and aren't going to leave your heirs saddled with more debt than assets, there's no point in paying life insurance premiums. But the commercials, of course, make it sound like everyone should have it and you're a big asshole to your adult children if you don't.

Now that I've had a chance to read the archive for the majority of clues I wasn't time in home to watch: The "It's Not Australia" category was weird, but I'm assuming Alex offered an explanation that it's countries also starting and ending with A. Without any explanation, I stared blankly at my monitor for Andorra, but catching on, I got the rest of them. I loved the Intials -> Roman Numerals -> Numbers category! "Kellyanne Clarkson" for Kelly Clarkson made me simultaneously laugh and cringe, as I suspect Alan conflated her with Kellyanne Conway. None of the TS surprised me tonight, but I was surprised knowing "The song called 'Begin the [this dance]'" = beguine was worth $2000. I know, I know - before their time.

I forgot to set this up to record, and didn't get home until it was almost over, but that's okay; I got sick of James (and even more sick of his fans, such as Alex), so I'm fine with not seeing him again until the next round.

I finally watched this; it's horrible to even try to imagine what life was like in his head. As the author of the piece that brought his plight to national attention said, every one of the things that is wrong with our criminal justice system happened to Kalief. What's truly disturbing is how common what happened to him is, that the only reason we know his story is because he was one of the few who refused to just take a plea deal and shut up. I'd read quite a bit about this case, but I did not know about his awful father trying to go after half the estate. What a despicable jerk; he wouldn't cough up the bail money when he was the one person in the family who had it, had nothing to do with him in life once he left the family, and then responds to his son's death by trying to usurp Venida Browder's quest to carry on Kalief's fight for justice. And topped it off by selling the house out from under her/the kids. I had somehow managed to forget that Venida died, until the final episode started delving into her health problems and then it came back to me and hit me like a brick. She did so much to help others in his memory, but she also wanted to finish the case for him, to finally get an admission that he was wronged.* I really appreciate that the series told her story, too; black mothers are just as much victims of our criminal justice system as their sons. *And the surviving family never did get that; the settlement only provided money. In looking for updated information on the disposition of the settlement, I learned that the kids - who had begrudgingly aligned with the father to move things along and finally reach a settlement - had to go back to court to try to keep him from getting all/most of the $3.3 million. The most-recent information I found was from May, at which time they were still engaged in that battle.

That guy is a walking turd. I normally just let the Aflac commercials run, as the duck mildly amuses me, but that one I change the channel on immediately.

Next up in my "good gods, work your way through the backlog of documentaries on your Netflix list" binge was Survivors Guide to Prison. It's an interesting trajectory, starting out as indeed a (simplistic) guide - what to do if you're stopped, arrested, interrogated, incarcerated, put into solitary, released, etc. - weaving in statistics on why anyone watching might need such information (over 13 million people are arrested in America each year, you're more likely to go to prison in this country than anywhere else in the world, we have more jails and prisons here than we do colleges and universities, etc.) and gradually expanding to a (again, simplistic) larger argument as to why our entire prison industrial complex needs to be completely dismantled and replaced; a for-profit system will never have as a goal anything other making money, and you do that by keeping the cells full and the services (healthcare, education, vocational training, rehabilitation, etc.) sparse. There's not anything new in it - at least for those paying attention - and it's really broad in scope, so no one aspect gets examined in any depth. But even those who care and pay attention via the news but don't explore the subject any further can lose track of some of the myriad injustices that are an inherent, deliberate part of the criminal justice system, so it's valuable to have this overview from a variety of people who've experienced or studied that system. And it covers some topics less common in mainstream coverage, like forced inmate labor, the massive problems with the fact the overwhelming majority of criminal cases resolve via plea bargain, not a trial, and the types of programs shown to dramatically reduce the recidivism rate. But while it's shallow in the literal sense, it's not facile or glib. It's a primer, maybe geared towards those for whom much of what was explored in Ava DuVernay's stellar 13th was news. Actually, it's probably most geared towards those with short attention spans, who'll never sit down to watch or read anything more in-depth on the subject; at least via this, they'll be exposed to the salient information. It has celebrities, it's fast-paced (almost off-puttingly frenetic to someone like me), it's slickly produced ... on paper, it quite honestly sounds bad, but I think it works for a broad audience without at all being something made for a dumb audience.

I forgot to mention: In the "Before & Laughter" clue about the candy and SNL character, didn't Rob say "Cracker Jack Handys" rather than "Cracker Jack Handy"?