Bastet

Bad timing for the ToC to start; I doubt I'll be able to see a game all week, and this is a time when I'd like to watch rather than just reading the clues on the archive. I'll have to remember to record going forward, but for tonight it was the archive (and after I was pissed off about football). I'm not necessarily surprised no one, even in a ToC, knew who first put Rehnquist on the Supreme Court, but I am definitely surprised no one took a guess, especially coming right after knowing his promotion to Chief Justice was during Reagan's administration -- there aren't that many choices, so try one, especially that early in the game! I'm also surprised pawn was a TS; the white knight TS makes sense, since if none of them happen to know chess there's nothing else to get them there, but I thought reference to a piece to be sacrificed would lead someone to a pawn. Giselle also surprised me. Tom Wolfe a bit, too, given the year and the fact he was known for dressing in white; I bet someone would have come up with him with just a bit more time. Von Braun a bit, too - not in a regular game, because contestants don't seem to adequately study the space program anymore, but at this level, yes. I had a hunch Thomas Gibson was going to be a TS; kind of gratifying, since he's an asshole. Sasha Alexander also going unanswered made me a little sad, though. And Pam Dawber - ouch. Before their time? (I don't remember the contestants other than Anneke by name to know their ages.) I'm not sure why they went with Abbreviations & Acronyms as a category title, since Abbreviations would have sufficed (acronyms are a type of abbreviation). But I think they semi-recently had an Acronyms category that included an initialism, not an acronym, and that's more annoying, so I'll go with it.

Fuck these officials sideways for their inconsistent definition of pass interference.

It's really good. It was available on Netflix for quite some time, but hasn't been for awhile now as far as I know.

I also finally got around to watching LA 92, one of the handful of documentaries released around the 25th anniversary of the L.A. Riots. It's effective to bookend it with news coverage of the 1965 Watts Riots, showing how little - in the media as well as the criminal justice system - changed in the intervening years. It's compiled completely of historical footage, with no talking heads or narration, and the filmmakers do a decent job of selecting footage that captures the complicated mix of emotions and experiences underlying the actions shown in that footage. I like the immersive experience. I've lived in Los Angeles all my life, so I was here then, but I was only about 20 years old; this really takes me back, but I also inevitably have a deeper understanding of events now, so it's also a new experience. Without fresh commentary, viewers must see the connections to present-day conditions on their own, but I don't think that's necessarily a flaw; the film does what it set out to do. I wish I'd watched all those documentaries together at the time; did anyone do that? I think it would be good to watch LA 92 as a refresher course, supplement that by viewing The Lost Tapes: LA Riots, which is a similar format and includes archival footage from lesser-known sources, and then move on to John Singleton's L.A. Burning: The Riots 25 Years Later, a detailed chronicle that explicitly connects past to present and really digs into the validity of rioting as a resistance strategy. I also want to watch Burn Motherfucker Burn, which I've read also explicitly illustrates unchanged and worsened conditions today.

Everyone who thought it was funny a cat was running scared around a huge, noisy stadium can line up for my cat to take a claws-out swat at their faces. I had been enjoying the hell out of the drive, then that upset me, then the Giants had to settle for a FG, and then the Cowboys scored the go-ahead TD, leaving me cranky at halftime.

Yep, we used to plop down a beach towel and sunbathe on the '60s and '70s cars. Now, there would be a me-sized dent in the hood.

Yes, she was in the premiere, and another episode in season one. She has not yet appeared this season.

I watched Fire in Paradise, the short documentary on Netflix about the fire that took out the town of Paradise CA last year and, wow. I had read about the fire, of course, but it was happening at the same time as a big fire in Malibu, and since I’m in Los Angeles, when it came to visual coverage, I was paying more attention to the local one. Even just reading, the numbers were staggering – over 150,000 acres burned, over 12,000 structures (nearly 10,000 of them homes) destroyed, $16.5 billion in damage, 85 people (and who knows how many animals) killed, and nearly 90% of the population still displaced - but it’s hard to comprehend that level of devastation, California’s deadliest and most destructive fire. To watch people recount that day is on another level. Especially those whose hope for survival was lying on a newly-poured concrete parking lot because the fire had surrounded them and cut off their exit routes. And there's a haunting clip from someone's personal video camera/phone, where he comes down to his friend's house, that he'd tried to reach to help him and his mother out, but couldn't get to them and they didn't make it - they died right there in their car. The shot of the burnt-out car with skeletons inside as he apologizes to his buddy is shocking, and then you think about how many such images he could capture, given how fast it swept through and how few exit routes there were for an entire population trying to evacuate at once. It’s frightening to contemplate what has become the new normal here in CA with respect to fires, and that climate change means it’s only going to get worse, and the film does conclude with that point, but it’s really just about a handful of people telling their stories, helping to convey the scope of what went on in that town and how utterly wrecked everyone and everything still is a year later.

I agree with the CU commentary that this is ranked too highly compared to the Gayle songs left off the list. I'm also with them that this doesn't belong. Another meh set of ten songs; the only one I truly like is "Tonight the Heartache's On Me" (and there are a lot of Dixie Chicks songs even better than it which probably won't even be on this list, because it is wack).

I've watched everything but the movie, which I'll watch after I finish the special features in the boxed set, and I was surprised by how little of season five I remembered. When Saffy came home a little puffy, I remembered, "Oh yeah, she's pregnant," but I'd forgotten about the nine other wives. Season five is a bit uneven, but I still busted a gut laughing at times; Huntin' Shootin' & Fishin' really had me going, and Birthin' was quite funny, too (Patsy realizing she gave Bo and Marshall the placenta, not the baby, to sell!). Schmoozin' - in which Eddy is briefly engaged to Pete, until he finds out she and Patsy accidentally recorded over the lost Beatles recordings - was fairly boring, until they got to the part where Patsy showed one of her old porno flicks, Booberella, at the listening party -- Booberella is pitch perfect fantastic in its awfulness (and that Patsy thinks it was great cinema). The 20th Anniversary specials were okay to good, but I thought Saunders did a nice job of tweaking just a few little things about the characters to acknowledge how much time had passed; Eddy and Patsy are simultaneously stuck in the past and obsessed with the newest trends, so the right balance when giving us these characters again after many years - and years in which the world changed a lot - is tricky. Patsy being so old she's got a shit ton of money in unclaimed pension sitting in the government coffers is a hilarious payoff to all the jokes about her age - as is the fact they have to use the money to pay off Patsy's drug dealer so she'll stop treating former prison-mate Saffy as her wifey. I love Patsy's "respect" street handshake when Saffy is released, as Patsy had heard she was top dog. A bit of trivia I'm not at all surprised by, but had not heard said so specifically before: Virtually everything out of Bo's mouth was an ad lib by Mo Gaffney; Saunders would just write "Bo goes on about [subject]" in the scripts and Gaffney would take it from there. Also, I knew Saunders was notorious for writing/changing scripts at the last minute, but I didn't know just how routine that was. It makes me wonder how many versions of the movie script she went through, given how long that was in the pipeline before finally being made.

The Budweiser Clydesdales. I like the Corona commercial, too. And the Campbell's snowman and the Hershey bells. Maybe a couple of others I'm forgetting, but I sure as hell don't want to see any of them in November!

Yep; CBS played a snippet of it as they headed to commercial during NFL coverage today. I agree that beat is something that will be ubiquitous for a while. It doesn't make me want to seek out anything more from her, but I do leave the song on every time I hear it while going through my radio station presets in the car - it's catchy and interesting, and I'm not sick of it yet.

These commercials aren't advertising churches, or even evoking the Christian holiday; they're targeting consumers for the secular Santa and presents version of Christmas. So that they do it earlier and earlier each year is annoying.

Bad day for the NFC North. I took a nap in the second quarter of the Packers-Chargers came, woke up halfway through the fourth, and did quite the double take upon reading the score.

As I sit here going to town on some tortilla chips with spinach, artichoke, and cheese dip while watching football, I just had a good laugh upon glancing at the bag of chips and seeing "about 10 chips" listed as the serving size.

Given how expansive the world of food is, I think being able to list the foods one won't eat, rather than having a list of foods one will, isn't being a picky eater - unless that list is quite extensive. I once had a friend who ate maybe 15 things. That's the extreme end of picky eating, but I think any time you'd have an easier time listing the types of X thing you like than the types you don't, you're picky on the subject. And, as with most things, with food, ingredients you'd prefer not to eat, those you like some ways but not others, etc. are different than things you flat out won't eat in any form.

It's barely November! Christmas is one-day holiday many, but not all, people celebrate, so turning it into a "season" is a problem to begin with. Starting it at the beginning of November?! They ruin the few good Christmas commercials by airing them so early. (I guess this isn't airing yet, but still - STOP IT.)

The treatment of the horses and the jockeys means horse racing is something I want absolutely no part of.

It's in the Favorites thread. I wonder if watching his show or knowing more about him than that he's a cranky chef lends some special meaning or humor to the commercial, because as the stand-alone it is to me, it's just there. It doesn't bug me like it does you, but it doesn't make me laugh like it does others, either.

That makes sense, then - it happening where there's an official event. It sounded like a city saying "You will go trick-or-treating another night" just to the general public, and that doesn't work.

I was gone last weekend, so missed "Bad Blood" and "Intersection" completely and never had time to watch them on DVD this week, and tonight I was watching football so only saw bits and pieces of the two-part "Shockwave" season five finale. I really like "Shockwave," and there's an alternate universe I like to sometimes live in where it's the way the show ends. Sharon's alive and has finally been made Commander, her influence on Rusty shines brightly when he does the most mature and unselfish thing he's ever done and brings his relationship with Gus to a natural conclusion rather than holding either one of them back, the resurgent Stroh threat hasn't eaten the show, Julio's still with the squad ... I would never actually wish season six away (I'd never wish away people's paychecks, first, plus there was plenty of good stuff in it that just gets horribly overshadowed by my ongoing - yep, still, nearly two years later – myriad mixed emotions reaction to Sharon's death), and I'd have been even more pissed at TNT had they canceled it after season 5 than at them canceling it when they did, but, with renewal uncertain, “Shockwave” was conceived as something that could serve as a series finale if it wound up being so, and when I re-watch the series I sometimes indeed end here. I simultaneously teared up and cheered the first time I watched Sharon get her promotion at long last, and it still moves me every time. She worked so hard (as the LAPD's Women's Coordinator) to make the path smoother for the women coming along behind her, and, indeed, it was easier for women like McGinnis to make rank than it had been for her, which means there are younger women outranking her. While Sharon was stalled at captain, even upon being put in charge of Major Crimes - despite Pope's promise, he and Taylor didn't make her a commander even then, telling her, as Sharon wonderfully recapped, that because of how many people would like to be in her place and how old she is, she should just be thankful for the job. Sharon's story resonates with women across professions, and finally getting those stars felt like a victory for all of us on top of being a great moment specific to this character we love. Sharon's reaction is well written, and Mary McDonnell - who's the reason the promotion finally happened - plays it beautifully. It’s exquisite; one of my favorite moments of the series. And I like the case; as Fritz says, Ortiz may be nuts, but his plan was smart. Committing crimes in every precinct's jurisdiction so his bomb-hiding items would wind up in evidence lockers around the LAPD was clever; had he not been foiled in the end, his final crime would have really been something. I also like that it finally somewhat addresses the real-world problem with the plea bargain process; in the cases seen in real time on this show, the person taking a plea deal is guilty and the sentence is just. But this past case shows something far more common in reality, where innocent (or guilty of lesser offenses) people, particularly people of color, are frightened/coerced into pleading guilty and never get their day in court. It drives me absolutely batty that the thrift store has a duplicate of everything Ortiz bought; that's not how thrift shops work! And when Julio removes the window pane to show how the killer made entry to Mr. Luna's home, we can clearly see it's plexiglass, not glass, but that's a minor quibble. There are probably a few more of those in the many scenes I didn't see tonight, but it's all just little nitpicks; I really enjoy the two episodes. Gus drives me fucking nuts - he acts like they're a couple of 40-year-olds with established careers who've been committed for five years, so that one person's out-of-town job offer should prompt a serious discussion about relocation by both (and acts like getting into Cal's law school is easy, when it is quite decidedly not) - but I like how it comes out and how very grown-up Rusty finally is in his decision. And I like that even though Gus is being unreasonable about how he makes his point, he does have one - their relationship has been entirely at Rusty's pace, and he's not willing to wait any more. He shouldn't have to; that’s valid. But he shouldn't shame Rusty for not being in the same place, given his circumstances. The last few minutes of part one are so gripping; Tony Denison, Kathe Mazur, and, especially, Graham Patrick Martin do a great job reacting to just seeing a cloud of smoke and not knowing where anyone is. Rusty's trembling chin as he asks, “Where's Mom?" and clutches Andy’s shoulder is wonderful, and the physical contact is something that, even under these frightening circumstances, wouldn't have happened between Rusty and Andy prior to season 5B, making it particularly moving. The explosion near the end of part two is very well done as well; it’s a good, suspenseful case. Thankfully, a break in football coincided with the scene where Sharon stalks out towards Winnie Davis's press briefing, because I absolutely love that. I also love the way Sharon takes Wes to task when he snots off to Davis; she knows he wouldn't speak like that to a male superior officer, and if she can keep herself in check with Davis enough to respect the chain of command despite her legitimate issues with her, then the rest of them better follow suit. I also got to see Ortiz's cell mate describe himself as "morally open-minded" - that guy entertains me. I enjoy how annoyed Provenza is by Buzz's relationship with Bill Jones's family, because it is borderline creepy. Provenza's bobblehead and change jar survive the explosion; I love it.

I missed parts of both airings in favor of football, but between the two I saw most of it. I like the adopter choosing between her final two by taking the one she thought had the lesser chance of being adopted by someone else. That's what I do with cats - who among those who fit my broad parameters is least likely to be picked by someone else is who I'm adopting. Bilbo was well on his way to adapting to home life when Tania left, and I loved the "I've been waiting so long for him/He's been waiting so long for you" exchange. But I really want Xena to get a home, too; it always breaks my hearts when a nursing mama and her litter are rescued and the kittens/puppies all get homes and the mom is left in the shelter/rescue. (I had to look up "Bilbo" to see what Mariah's explanation of his name meant; I know nothing about Lord of the Rings; I am not an epic fantasy book/movie person.) Tania flashing back to the failed rescue where the dog got hit by a car brought that episode right back; we have no idea if the person who hit the dog was negligent, but I'm so with Tania about those drivers she cursed up one side and down the other when they were trying to catch him, jackasses who didn't even slow down. I'm glad this ended much better, and always admire their patience in strategizing and completing a rescue. And admire the street smarts animals develop when they're forced to; Jacoby made them work for it. Pigeons taking over, especially the one sitting right next to the fake owl that's supposed to scare them off, cracked me up. I understand they're causing nuisances, but that was funny, and I like trying to redirect them - even if it did bring about the return of the woodworker who spells the breed "pitt" bull (the only flaw in Lookback's adorable house). "Cooo dat" is funny, I'll give him that, even with an extra O. I wonder how well it's working.

I think you mean Major Crimes. My parents have a Roku stick, I think, and I'll be at their house next week. I have Major Crimes on DVD and watch it in syndication every weekend, but haven't seen Cold Case since ION stopped airing it since I don't get whatever station has it in syndication. So, yay, I will watch some of my favorite episodes.

I've never heard of such a thing until the recent post, and I've been sitting here trying to figure out how the hell that even works.

As much as I look forward to the final two installments, the thing that really bugs me about not ending it in 2018 is not only the usual oh, come the hell on; how did he survive that? suspension of disbelief horror franchises require, but that it means Laurie's plan didn't work. She was obsessed, and meticulous, and ingenious, and she got him - through a lovely combination of brain and brawn and with an assist not by any man, but her daughter.