Bastet

I wouldn't have given credit for pumpkin, but a BMS prompt to get to jack-o-lantern, yes. It was a $200 clue that would have been appropriate in the Toddler Tournament; everyone in the studio knew the answer, including Kris. "A Celtic tradition of using hollowed-out turnips with candles inside led to these distinctive & larger Halloween gourds." So it's not just "these gourds," any ol' pumpkins, it's the carved pumpkins with candles inside them created for Halloween, jack-o-lanterns. If asked to be more specific, Kris would have gotten it right, and that's how I think it should have played out.

I was most surprised by the cartilage TS. Kettlebell, cobble, and Running on Empty I thought someone would get, but cartilage was the only "Really? No one?" moment for me. It plays a big role in an episode of Sports Night, too.

I've had the first three seasons on DVD for eons, and have watched them enough to know them quite well, but seasons four and five I barely remember and there are things after that I never even saw. So a while back I bought the "Absolutely All of It" boxed set and the movie, and have recently started making my way through it all. I finished season four last night, which was a lot funnier than I remembered, but I did not like "Paris," so it was interesting to hear in the audio commentary by Jennifer Saunders and Jon Plowman that Saunders doesn't like it, either; she thinks it's the worst episode. There are funny moments, but with Patsy and Eddy separated for most of the episode, it just never comes together. But "Small Opening," with Saffy's autobiographical play, is hilarious. I love Patsy heckling from the audience, and Saffy's horror that the audience and actors are all so entertained by her horrible life. Plus the male actor playing Patsy apologizing to her for not getting the tits right. (Bit of trivia via the commentary: They shot the "tits out" scene atop the Eiffel Tower early on, and the characters didn't have all those shopping bags with them. So when shooting the scene at the base of the tower, where Eddy persuades Saffy to go through with it, Saunders ad-libbed the line about stowing their bags with security. Oh, another: Saunders is afraid of heights, yet kept writing Edina into such scenes - being in the helicopter when Eddy comes to retrieve Patsy in NY scared the hell out of her, and then the way the shot was framed you couldn't even see the scale of her and the building at the same time, so she could have got away with faking it.) The boxed set has "The Last Shout" on a disc with the NY special ("Gay") and placed that disc after season four's, which I didn't notice, so when Saffy referenced her wedding dress in "Paris", I suddenly thought, Oh, wait, yeah, there was a special in there somewhere! I was too lazy to get out of bed and investigate the discs at that point and just carried on, so I'll watch those two specials and then get back on track.

I don't eat the end pieces of a loaf of bread, so I make breadcrumbs out of those and store them in the freezer. Easy, and without all the extra ingredients in the stuff in a can (plus, it's whole wheat instead of white bread). I don't use a lot of breadcrumbs - I don't ever make stuffing/dressing or anything like that, so it's just using a small amount here and there, like in the chicken meatballs for the Italian wedding soup - so I always have plenty on hand.

It's ridiculous that they didn't just go to someone else's house instead. There are only basic snacks on the table - those assholes were probably going to rely on her to make something for them - so even if she got sick at the last minute, it would have been easy to switch locations and let her have some peace and quiet.

I have a basil plant that grows like gangbusters, so I always make my own pesto, but they did a taste testing of prepared pesto (including both shelf stable and refrigerated offerings) on America's Test Kitchen. Most were subpar and the winner was the only one they liked: Buitoni (which is refrigerated).

Hmm, that might have made the movie watchable. Not much more than that, probably, as it still stars Kirsten Dunst, but watchable.

I wish Food Network would re-run this series like they do so many of their shows I don't like; it's on too early for me to watch, and I'm not much for recording. But the recipes for this one don't sound like anything I'd be interested in. I dislike hummus and eggplant, and Baked Alaska is fine but not something I'd ever make. I'd make the turkey sandwiches (with a different dressing for the slaw), but don't need a recipe for that. Still, it would be nice to watch Ina for half an hour. Yet they never seem to show it during any of the times I watch TV.

I.love.this.song. The other nine, though - bleh. Harris's cover of "Save the Last Dance For Me" is fine - dude, it's Emmylou Harris - but not memorable and doesn't deserve to be ranked. Of course, it's better than a good percentage of what they've ranked thus far. Damn, I did not want to know number one until it was revealed by the CU commentary. Now that I do, I'll just issue a "What the actual fuck?" and save the rest for when I see the top ten as a whole.

Indeed. Laura Dodsworth did the terrific "Me and My Breasts" photo essay, then followed that up with "Me and My Penis" and finally "Me and My Vulva". In each, 100 people talk about and have photographed their relevant body part, and the collection hints at (with the subjects being self selecting, there's still a limit to the diversity) the extensive variety not shown in traditional media or even porn.

It would be quite the understatement to say I wouldn't be happy in a cold climate. It's in the mid 70s here, after being in the 90s all week, but clear skies, so it's a beautiful sunny day. I detest being outdoors in anything below 60 degrees. I'm having my usual Sunday morning Bloody Marys, and mentally cataloging my fridge and freezer contents to figure out dinner. The last several meals have been seafood - crab cakes, linguine with scallops and brown butter, and shrimp tacos - so I think I'll shift from surf to turf and broil some lamb chops. Now I need to back up and figure out what to have for lunch. I'm craving a BLT as the tomato plants start to peter out, but don't have any bread. Boo.

The Conners' lot in life has always resulted from a combination of institutional barriers and poor choices (many of which were a product of their environment, further illustrating the effect of institutional barriers). They used to stay away from tripe like this love triangle storyline, so hopefully that annoying distraction is truly over and they'll get back to form.

“Seriously, that’s your face?” from Tania about Doc’s cuteness was fantastic. As were the owners pointing to him just sitting there chillin' and saying in unison “This” when asked about his personality. And that the biggest factor in choosing a dog would be how Doc feels, then the wife, then the husband. Funny, but also logical since he’s gone a lot. Pilgrim being so sweet and goofy despite what was done to him is what constantly warms my heart about animals. I love how much he liked all three of them from the beginning. And the way Doc just plopped down in the grass despite this new dog in his yard. GoGo helping with pumpkin carving made me as happy as it did Lizzy. “If someone does not adopt this dog, I hate the world.” The update noted how many adoption applications they got for the dogs at the party, but I wonder how many actually got homes; if there's an update on social media, I hope someone who uses that will post that info here. Kenny Rae coming out of her shell and starting to let her personality show is lovely to see.

I haven't seen that movie in a long time, but I remember how much I loved Janeane Garofalo in it. If I try something on that is all wrong for my figure, I say, "This dress exacerbates the genetic betrayal that is my legacy."

Oh my gods, I love that woman.

Yes, it was real (no one is going to afford Jaime Pressly for a fake ad) in that it was indeed produced and released by Axe (about ten years ago now, I'd guess), but I don't remember if it was just an internet sensation or if a shorter version also aired on TV.

Oh my goodness, yes, I had a brief moment of "Wait, I know time is really flying by at this point, but Dear Kitten wasn't very long ago, was it?!" The original is my favorite, especially "human larva". Next on my list is the Regarding the Dog version. I think this playlist has all of them; if not, most.

It's nice that he wasn't some saintly misunderstood soul; he had "a gift and a curse," and the show was predicated on exploring how that affected him, the main character, but the ways that negatively impacted those around him weren't brushed off. And while fundamentally a good egg, he, like everyone, had negative characteristics, most notably selfishness. I like that they included that and, even though he was the sympathetic protagonist, victims of his selfishness weren't always denied their due. I remember an episode where Sharona was afraid of something (it was at the circus, but I don't remember her fear - elephants? something kind of random rather than something many people are afraid of) and he told her to "suck it up". This man who has a mile-long list of things the majority of the population handles but bring him to a halt told someone with a typical handful of such issues to "suck it up" when one became an issue during a case. She was rightly appalled and hurt - and got revenge. She kept doing things that she knew would trigger his issues, and when he freaked, just said "Suck it up" every time.

It squeaks when it hits his face, so I think baby mouse. (Plus he just drops what he's holding in his mouth, rather than upchucking it.)

I'm going to be watching football tonight, so another archive game for me. Klutz, only the second clue, was such a surprise as a TS, I thought perhaps it was going to be a doozy of a game. But, while their basketball knowledge was woefully inadequate for the game, and two of them don't know how to spell suffrage, my only other surprise may not have been one had I actually seen the game: Was there something about the picture of a tarantula that makes their failure to identify the spider seen here not as unusual as it sounds?

By being so stingy with Natalie and Sharona. I don't remember that cult storyline, but in general: Monk didn't come across like someone who didn't have money in the bank, just as someone who didn't want to spend it on things other than that which he considered most important ... such as bottled water and cleaning supplies. He tried to low ball Sharona and Natalie on their salaries and expenses because he didn't properly value their services, not because he couldn't afford to pay them more.

The lawsuit against VRC by the Detroit rescue (trying to get the five dogs they took from VRC, who VRC then reclaimed, back) was dismissed very recently. After costing VRC a bunch of money in legal fees, of course, but at least now the dogs are eligible to be adopted out.

As a member of Generation X, I always heard it as X as in unknown variable -- a generation that didn't want to be/couldn't be readily identified by one defining characteristic. We'd been given so many names by so many different people/groups attempting to define us - the MTV Generation, the Baby Busters, the latchkey generation, slackers, etc. - so Generation X, because X is a variable. Douglas Coupland (who wrote the book Generation X: Tales For an Accelerated Culture) got his title from a chapter in a book about American class structure that referenced an "X" category of people who wanted to opt out of the social hallmarks of modern existence (obtaining money, social status, etc.). But, as the term Gen X took hold and was endlessly examined in media, it was, to my recollection, in the terms I described above.

I just read through last night's clues on the archive. For those who watched: Did the contestant who got the 50 Cent clue answer "Fiddy Cent"? Because that would have amused me greatly. Add me to the list surprised by the Eiffel Tower TS; even among the huge group of people with no idea where within Paris anything is located, "rises above" will make the Tower a common first thought. With the Arc de Triomphe ruled out, I'm truly puzzled by no one ringing in with it. To me, it's like if no one had come up with Sprite when the first contestant incorrectly guessed 7-Up. I'm also surprised Zumba and FJ were TS, especially the former. As for snowplow parenting (which I'd never heard of but easily guessed based on the clue's wording), I wouldn't accept bulldozer instead because the clue specified "this winter vehicle". If, per the article liked above, bulldozer, snowplow, and lawnmower parenting all are used to mean the first part of the clue ("trying to remove every obstacle from your kid's path"), I think you have to pick the only one that fits the whole clue by also fitting the second part, "this winter vehicle".

Interesting; A2 milk has been sold for quite a few years now (at least in my area), but has not become so common that a national commercial need not contain any explanation as to why one might want it in the first place. I wonder if you did just miss it. A1 and A2 are two types of the protein found in milk. A2 used to be the only type produced by most dairy cows, but over time commercial breeding practices resulted in the milk found in stores coming from cows producing mostly A1 and a little A2. About 20 years ago, maybe, A2-only milk emerged as a niche market item, claiming to be more easily digestible, and slowly grew in popularity. It's more similar to milk produced by various other animals, including humans, but the the studies touting its various benefits over "regular" milk have all been funded by the dairy industry or even the A2 company itself, so who knows.