Bastet

There isn't much to it because he was so tanked. He was hitting on me at a bar in Manhattan Beach (or maybe Hermosa; I used to spend a lot of time in both with a friend who lived there and those nights kind of run together) with absolutely no finesse because he was leaning more than standing and had to concentrate on making his words come out; he was at that stage where you know you're too drunk but think if you really put your mind to it you can pull it off. Someone that drunk is just gross, even when you might otherwise find them reasonably attractive, and I had no intention of giving up my prime spot because of some guy who can't hold his liquor, so I essentially told him to fuck off and his friend walked him out.

Oh good, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

Christy either didn't change her last name when she married Baxter or did and changed it back when they divorced, thus continuing to have the name she got from Bonnie. Roscoe's last name also being Plunkett is just speculation, right, not something ever heard on the show? He could actually have Baxter's unknown last name, or it could indeed be Plunkett (or a hyphenate) - while it's more common for kids in America to have their dad's last name, even if that's not also their mom's last name, it's certainly not a given. I'm surprised Adam assumed, in this day and age and at Bonnie's age, Bonnie would change her last name because they got married, and I'm glad she didn't and look forward to hearing the conversation between them about it when I get to this episode, because it sounds good.

Stop thinking about it and do it. I encouraged another poster to reread her posts in this thread to see the progress she has made in dealing with her troubled relationship, and now I'll encourage you to also reread yours in chronological order to see that not one damn thing has changed in all this time. And this has obviously been going on a hell of a lot longer than you've been posting about it. You cannot change your mother's attitude and behavior, and at this point she almost certainly will never change it herself no matter what anyone says or does. Your only control is over your own actions, and you need to change those, drastically, or you'll still be posting the same stories until she dies (and things won't be magically rosy then). It is unconscionable what she has done and continues to do to you, and that prolonged damage + your own conflicting feelings + societal expectations = the understandable difficulty you've been having in washing your hands of her. But it's the best thing to do.

The Golden Girls got a shoutout from the folks at Villalobos Rescue Center; the latest episode of Pit Bulls & Parolees included footage of VRC folks setting up a room in their warehouse as a lounge in which their senior dogs can have one-on-one time hanging out with a staffer in a home-like environment. In planning to include a TV, one of them said "to show Murder, She Wrote and The Golden Girls." Needless to say, I would totally hang out in that room.

That reminds me - TV (landline) phones must not have the ability to program numbers into them, because characters always punch the whole series of numbers, rather than selecting a pre-set, even when calling someone they speak to regularly. I was disproportionately tickled while watching a scene in an episode of Major Crimes in which Sharon was calling her son because I noticed Mary McDonnell was pushing the buttons on the cordless phone that would scroll through and select a programmed number from the phone's memory rather than pushing a string of numbers.

That was deliberate; they advertised it at the end of the episode last night. I don't have On Demand, so I have to wait until next week. Thanks for the updates, @SRTouch.

“Heart Failure” gets season 5B off to a good start. I love Sharon goading the entitled, jealous, abusive ass of a killer (and, wow, do they paint his personality perfectly [I particularly love him showing up at PSB and demanding to speak to the Chief], and I like how Sharon recognizes the type) into coming at her so they could hold him – and like even more everyone’s reactions to that. First and foremost, Sharon: a little shocked that he sucker punched her, but focused in the adrenaline rush on making sure her ploy worked, and then just admitting “Oww” once she has that squared away and is heading for some ice because, as TV is loath to acknowledge, getting hit in the face hurts. Then Andy, who comes flying out of Electronics into the interview room, ready to pulverize this guy for hitting his girlfriend, but when his captain orders him to stand down, he does; it’s the best illustration of their success in separating personal from professional. Rusty, who tries to join the others in barrelling out of Electronics but is stopped by Buzz, staring at Sharon’s reddening cheek the entire time she talks to Andrea, and then calming down to muse, “Wow, my mom’s a badass.” And that Julio cuffed the guy rather than beating the shit out of him, and Provenza checked on Sharon as his immediate response. It’s a tremendous display of characterization in just a couple of minutes. I wish they’d left out Winnie Davis saying to Sharon, “Go ahead, your boyfriend’s calling you,” because it seemed – based on forum postings and even my own reaction at the time – to overshadow, to varying degrees, the root of her issues with Major Crimes and create speculation there was some sort of personal vendetta and/or she was just obstructionist for no real reason. It’s all there in the rest of her dialogue and in subsequent episodes, and I’m sadly sure Camryn Manheim’s appearance means the “fat bitch” slurs would have been hurled at the character regardless, but I wish they'd saved a line like that for a later episode rather than our introduction to her. But, Sharon’s face when Winnie says it comes very close to making it worthwhile; to this day, I laugh out loud when I see it. And I love the way Sharon deals with her in general; it’s terrific on its own and a fun callback to the early Brenda/Sharon interaction. “When you’re killed in active shooter training, you are not allowed to order anyone”/“That wasn’t an order, those were my dying words” followed by Sharon telling Provenza she already knows what really happened (plus an eye roll) makes for a great opening, and I like Andy’s help me out here look to Julio when he’s trying to talk Sharon into fighting for the Asst. Chief job. And I adore Amy’s “Gosh, that must have felt embarrassing” when the big-time PI gets told by his killer client to stop interfering with the professionals and wait until he gets back. I also love her annoyance with drivers failing to signal an intended turn, heh. Rusty wanting to be a lawyer, rather than a journalist, isn’t an uncommon transition, given the overlap in motivation and skills (in fact, it’s one I made, with a significant stop-off in the let me just have fun for now music industry), but it happens in the six-month hiatus and, without context, feels out of left field. It’s always cute that he comes to Sharon with his relationship problems, but WTF with Gus visiting his mom in Vegas? Really, the mom who married an abuser and abandoned her daughters, so that Gus never even bothered contacting her to say one is dead and the other in foster care about to be adopted? It sounds like the stepfather is gone, which would explain possibly rekindling the relationship, but it’s another thing for which no foundation is laid even by a line of exposition. But, even with those quibbles, I really like the episode. And the next one; Provenza calling Atwater Village “the Mayberry of L.A.” and Amy correcting his antiquated "meter maids” terminology are great lines, and the opening of “Cleared History” gets even better when he spots the security company sign and commences muttering and making obscene gestures; it’s another episode that starts great and stays that way. The case turns incredibly disturbing, with the child porn ring, and it’s another terrific example of this series “showing” horrific images via the characters’ reactions to them. I also like Sharon and Andy explaining to Rusty why just trading in it is a crime, even though this is a time when the parallel between the case and Rusty’s experience is hammered home a bit too hard, with the “emotionally similar” situations point being over-emphasized (but better than under, so I’m here for it). But HELLO, GUS, could you please buy a clue about how your boyfriend would be even more uncomfortable than the average person living off a partner? (And, holy balls, I cannot with the idea that a line cook in Los Angeles - who lives with a roommate and has no car - would claim to be able to financially support someone). Andrea snapping her fingers at Rusty to hand her a file is objectively rude, but in the context of the relationship, I laugh at it. (Similarly, the squad’s that’s so bizarre reaction to wearing a wig is overdone, but calling the roommate Wigged Out amuses me, so I let it slide.) I also love Andrea saying the roommate’s attorney will claim Wigged Out assumes, like the rest of the world, people are interested in the minutiae of his life, so his social media posts weren’t to establish an alibi, just the usual crap people post for no reason. I like that Rusty clearly talks to Sharon at every stage of considering Gus’s ridiculous proposal to move in together, and that she never tells him “That’s nuts!” but, as always, guides him through his own feelings – and that she tells him it not feeling right is enough, period, but for his own sake he needs to explore the reasons behind that instinct. (And, aw, the two framed pictures on Rusty’s dresser are of him and Sharon and him and Provenza.) Mike finding the cash in the victim’s desktop tower does not seem adequate reason for everyone to spend the night working, since everything is still encrypted, and the owner of the one stolen laptop they can ID isn’t coming in until the next morning, so that’s a quibble. But Sharon hitting Andy in the arm without even turning her head to look at him when he grumbles about Mike explaining unscripted=reality television is the kind of little moment that greatly outweigh the little things that bug me. I also like the round robin of all the burglary victims being interviewed – it’s perfectly edited like a slideshow, and bless the writers for “conflict-free diamonds are a myth” - and Sharon responding to the alarm company’s “there must be a compromise” by saying sure, they give her the information she wants or she’ll bury them under an avalanche of subpoenas and media stories. Andy’s refusal to accept what caused his heart attack is so in character, and something I’ve seen in more than one real person (including one grousing “What stress?!” in his ER bed). I like that we were finally getting a glimpse of the effect it's had on them, and her getting annoyed with him, and then of course it had to be cut short to deal with Rusty's storyline. Mike’s “Holy crap!” when he finds all the electronics submerged in soapy water is fun. As is Morales’s crush on Nolan (reminiscent of his crush on Gabriel). And Provenza’s “Burned-up Man” for Burning Man never fails to make me laugh. They do such a great job of including amusing moments in episodes with particularly heavy cases.

The production company pays for it, so why not include the footage? VRC has consistently shown itself to be situation-specific flexible in approving a home - unlike many rescues that have bright-line rules about fenced yards and the like (or sometimes having someone home during the day!) - to have few deal-breakers and instead accept a wide variety of homes as appropriate depending on the dog. That Julie had been approved for one dog in the past, not just as a personal owner, but as another rescuer, could certainly allow for a leap of faith in assuming, based on pictures, her new, larger location could appropriately handle additional dogs. And if this was all off camera, it may well have. But this provided an opportunity for producers to publicize Julie's rescue organization, illuminate the plight of the dog she took over the rehabilitation of, and also showcase some dogs from the same big VRC rescue operation he came from that are ready for adoption. It was the most blatant example yet of how stories are edited to both reflect reality and encourage further positive action on the other dogs featured in the segment, but that's still what it was.

I hope Darlene saying she's been afraid to stop trying will lead to her finally acknowledging once and for all her romantic partnership with David is best left in the past, and the best thing for everyone - her, David, their kids - is to figure out the next stage of the family dynamic. But I won't begin to hold my breath on that.

Soup is strictly for lunch for me, and I just finished the last bowl of my latest batch of that soup earlier this week. (I roast whole chicken so often, I make a lot of chicken stock, so I pretty much always have some sort of soup in the fridge.) Ina's wedding soup is one of my favorites, but with some modifications. I've taken to omitting the pasta (I used to make it separately, then add the appropriate amount to each bowl as I reheated portions of the soup, but the last several times I've just skipped it and don't miss it) and I almost always omit the carrots as I don't particularly care for carrots, especially cooked (in a mirepoix situation like this, they're fine, but I don't need that leg of the triad, so if I don't have carrots - which I usually don't - I just skip them). I use quite a bit more spinach than the recipe calls for. I was going to make fettucine alfredo (with chicken, mushrooms, and spinach) tonight, and I still might, but I also might just get lazy and order pizza. It will probably depend on what mood I'm in after this football game.

It never happened to begin with; when Dan died in the original series, Roseanne dug herself out of her hole of grief and despair by writing a book based on her life. She kept Dan alive in the book, but wrote Book Dan's emotional affair to explore the sense of abandonment she felt following his death. This is all revealed in the original series finale. (Since those later seasons have been largely wiped out in the revival season and this continuation series, the book doesn't exist, either, so it can certainly get confusing, but ultimately there was no emotional affair and resulting separation in the original universe, either.) The only "cheating" was Dan with Phyllis Zimmer, in high school - and that was one of those "we were on a break" situations, where the guy ran out and banged someone else five minutes after a big "we're through!" fight and then realized it was a mistake, so technically they were broken up at the time; what Roseanne was mad about was having lunch with Phyllis all those years later and hiding it from her - not to mention coming home from that lunch and having sex with her all afternoon, without her having any idea why he felt back in touch with his young self. Within their marriage, there was no infidelity. Just the typical difficulties - and more happiness than is typical - that come with getting married young, raising kids, and constantly struggling financially.

I was watching during breaks in football, but that included halftime, so I saw a good percentage of the episode. Including most of the rescue of Salmon, whose physical and emotional condition broke my heart. "You don't have to live like that anymore" made me smile and tear up simultaneously. It's pretty incredible the little nudie is heartworm negative! That they still have dogs in the kennel who were with them in CA also hurts my heart. I love how much they love the seniors and keep developing special facilities and programs for them whenever they can, so that when they do wind up living out their days at VRC, at least they have intervals in a home-like environment. LOL at setting up a TV to show The Golden Girls and Murder, She Wrote - hells, yes, I would volunteer to hang out in that room for a few hours with an old dog. (I laughed at Lizzy: "If you ever can't find me, come look in this teepee.") No matter how many times Tia talks about, and they try to show, the scope of the problem in their area, I can't ever fully wrap my mind around it. I, too, wish they had 100 Julies, so they could farm out more of the dogs who need a smaller, home-based environment to be properly ready for adoption. Julie has a lot of dogs, but she seems to do this full-time, so hopefully her rotation schedule means everybody gets a good amount of time in the house and in that huge yard. (And "Dugout got a house in the Hamptons" sounds as funny as it is nice, like Dugout works on Wall Street and bought a second home.)

Yep, she does; injections and blood draws for the heartworm test (which does not require a lab; you just put the blood on a little disc and wait for it to show positive or not). Lizzy saves them a trip, and some money (because she's replacing a tech, not a vet; at my vet's office, there is no office visit charge for a tech appointment, but even where it's charged, it's less), so it's a help. She taught someone else how to do it, too - maybe M2? And I know there's at least one other worker (a woman we've seen numerous times, but whose name I can't recall) who does it, too. They only have to take them in to see a vet, but there's still a lot of those visits between acute and follow-up care, plus whatever schedule of wellness checks they do.

Also that they don't just deworm them, give them their vaccination series, get them fixed, and then never take them back to the vet unless something seems to be wrong - they do check-ups (with blood tests) to be able to catch early and thus best manage any chronic conditions. I don't know if they strictly adhere to the annual (and semiannual for seniors) schedule, but I know they do it regularly. What they manage to do for the huge number of dogs they have at any given time on the resources they have (even with a TV show income and the increased donations that publicity brings, it's still always tight) is magnificent.

I can't believe how few of his projects I've seen, given his extensive list of credits, but I loved him in Jackie Brown.

I got home right as they were going to the first commercial break, so during that I read those clues on the archive. "Gin" for "this vermouth cocktail" gave me a good laugh. And I figured someone was going to guess Liberace, but I was a little surprised neither of the other two came up with Elton John. Snidely Whiplash, grandstand, and Bryce Canyon surprised me as TS a little, too (but I did correctly predict someone would guess Zion for that last one). FJ was an instaget, as I love that play (and the movie adaptation).

Now that I have my FOX affiliate back, I can join back in when season 5B starts tomorrow night, so I just watched the “White Lies” arc on DVD to be freshly caught up. I have fond memories of how shocking it was when I realized Taylor was the one in the body bag after the courthouse shooting. And when Dwight Darnell asked Dr. Joe to predict what he was about to do in the next 10 seconds, I scooted to the edge of my seat, realizing the gun in the evidence bag was loaded and he was about to shoot somebody. Very gripping opening sequence that I still enjoy to this day. The little touches are terrific on this show. I like that as the squad reenters the courtroom one by one, each of them silently check in with Sharon to make sure she’s okay; there are all these little nonverbal exchanges going on as other characters are talking, and it enhances the scene immensely. I also like that Sharon has one little drop of Dwight’s blood on her face, rather than having been splattered with it. And that Sharon’s demeanor vacillates a little bit in the aftermath of the shooting; the first few days, she’s sometimes a little brittle, sometimes a little distant, and sometimes her emotions rise a little closer to the surface than she normally allows in front of others. There is no one thing that’s terribly obvious, but she’s clearly a little off, as Rusty says. It’s very well done in its subtlety; continued kudos to the highly-emotional Mary McDonnell for her restraint in presenting Sharon’s feelings. I enjoy the arc as a whole (enough that I will overlook the ridiculously-accelerated condemnation process of Nazi World, and Fritz being appointed acting Asst. Chief). The acting is particularly strong; G.W. Bailey in part one and Mary McDonnell in part two turn in performances even better than their usual greatness. The case – the conspiracy, and the difference between all Borja was doing to bring the Z-Brotherhood to an end and how Graff was using it to further his agenda - was hard for me to wrap my mind around the first time, though, so I actually enjoy it more in subsequent viewings. It’s probably the best illustration in the series of the community that exists among the police, district attorneys, and the coroner’s office (a tight-knit association that is a problem within the justice system, but it’s the nice part that’s on display here). And it’s appropriately hard listening to Dwight spout his lies and hatred in the evaluation sessions with Dr. Joe, and the scene where Graff walks out and all the Nazis assembled in the hallway come to attention and start stomping in unison was absolutely chilling the first time I saw it (it still sends a wave through me). I like the full circle of the two shooting scenes, Sharon shooting Dwight at the beginning of part one and Wildred shooting Borja at the end of part three – Sharon shoots Dwight three times in the chest to take him down, then stands over him but doesn’t take an additional shot to finish him off, while Wildred takes Martin down the same way, then stands over him - but puts a bullet in his head to make sure he dies. The interaction between Sharon and Wildred is captivating throughout, and I love that Sharon has no shits to give about killing Dwight, and worries what that, and the fact she’s having trouble even feeling sympathy for Wildred because she can’t help wondering what role she played in creating the monster that was Dwight, says about her. Sharon doubting everything that’s so fundamental in her – her sense of right and wrong, her belief in the justice system, her religious faith – is quite powerful. When she tells her priest, “If I can take another life, and not feel anything at all, then I don’t know who I am anymore,” it hits me every time. The concept of Wildred being the one from whom Sharon needs absolution is interesting and plays out well; the scene in part two when Wildred tells Sharon she understands Sharon had to shoot Dwight is particularly compelling, and I love Sharon’s smile in part three when she lures Wildred into confirming Martin Borja is Dwight’s father. The evolution of Julio’s relationship with Mark makes their goodbye sweet and sad, but I still can’t decide if Mark’s transformation from Little Adolf to apologetic paragon of acceptance is unrealistically fast. I know he was just a little parrot, as Mrs. Sanchez’s friend said, but he was steeped in that ideology his entire life; it seems like a couple of weeks would not be enough time to deprogram him. Speaking of accelerated timelines, here’s one that took me numerous viewings to notice: Andy selling his house. He accepts the offer in “Family Law”. “Dead Zone” picks up right where that one left off. “White Lies Part 1” begins a week later, and the whole arc covers maybe a week’s time. But he moved in sometime between now and Sharon’s previous confession three weeks earlier. His house shouldn’t even be through escrow yet. At any rate, I love Sharon’s “Your rules, Father, not mine,” when living with him is something she has to confess. I’m not sure a priest would actually wave it off like that, but it’s a nice fantasy. And it’s adorable that Sharon knows how many lies she’s told in three weeks. It bugs me that Provenza resists for so long the idea that Deputy Simms was involved in the conspiracy. No, he wouldn’t have signed on for getting killed – hard to enjoy all that offshore loot from the grave – but the evidence against him is so strong, it’s obvious he was part of the plan but somehow double-crossed by his co-conspirators. This is miniscule, but it also bugs me that Richwood’s clerk says the evidence safe arrived in 2004; that’s an oddly specific fact to have right at the front of your brain. The important part of her answer is that the combination never changed, so I would have written it as “We got that safe at least ten years ago …” which sounds much more natural. I’m not invested in Buzz’s storyline, because I can’t stand Buzz (largely because I cannot stand Keene’s lack of acting ability), but I appreciate the way taking a father away from kids that remind him of him and his sister is a huge cloud over finally closing the case. When Bill Jones asks to say goodbye to his kids and Buzz initially nails him with, “Did you give Jay Watson a chance to say goodbye to his kids before you shot him to death?” but then goes and ahead and does it, even I like Buzz in that moment. And Rusty’s encouragement of and pride in him is nice. I have no earthly idea why they gave Andy a heart attack when by the time the second half of the season started, he was six months into recovery and they barely touched on how the experience had affected him or Sharon – it comes off like a cliffhanger just to have a cliffhanger, and that’s not this show’s MO. But Tony Denison plays it perfectly, from all the little physical movements in the days leading up to it to the fear on his face when he realizes this is a heart attack, not a pinched nerve. (If only Andy had had been the last character to collapse in that building of a heart-related crisis. Yep, still bitter.) As always, there are some terrifically funny lines in the midst of an incredibly serious case. My favorites both come from Provenza: Following “Birds of a feather” with “Should flock off” and “Your Junior Klan member will just have to wait” when Julio complains about working late because he wants to get home to Mark. I also greatly enjoy Sharon telling Rusty, after he gets Bill Jones’s fingerprints, “Okay, we can use this. But that is the end of Rusty Beck, Junior Detective.”

I love chicken enchiladas - with green sauce, not red (I'll eat them with red, but when I make or order them, it's verde). The sauce I make is really simple - sour cream base with chopped tomatillo, cilantro, and jalapeño - and I haven't had enchiladas in a while, so next time I go shopping I will pick up tomatillos (I always have the other ingredients) and make some. Thanks for the inspiration.

@Suzy Rhapsody, when you get down, I think you should go back through this thread and read, in chronological order, all the posts you have made about your daughter, because the trajectory of the way you think about and approach the situation has been forward. Slow is to be expected; what matters is you're moving in the right direction, and you have been. So it might help you sometimes to review the progress you've made since you first raised the issue here; in a low moment, that may build you up that you will continue to make progress and it will get better.

Bingo. That's certainly what it sounds like to me.

Different sport, but every time a defensive player attempts to tackle by essentially waving an arm out and watching the receiver/runner blow right by him or a receiver extends his arms and that's about all in reaching for a pass, I quote Major League and grumble, "Don't give me this olé bullshit." I am getting really, really tired of yelling that at the Giants.

Bill Belichick's "WTF is happening right now?" reaction to my G-Men scoring two TDs in 80 seconds of play fills me with glee.

Since I'm watching football, I went ahead and read the archive rather than hoping halftime coincides with J! time. Muzzle as a TS in a category that spots ZZ and a clue that mentions a dog? I thought, "Oh, this game is not off to a good start", and the terrazzo TS in the same category was pretty surprising, too. But my predictive powers were improved in DJ; I not only knew crankcase was going to be a TS, I assumed someone was going to guess carburetor. I predicted two contestants would get FJ, though, so it didn't last.

Yes, her bio says she completed her service in the Army, and other articles have mentioned driving trucks and it being six years.