Bastet

I just thought more about it in the shower - yeah, I don't know - and came up with this: Among real women, those who put lotion on only their hands upon getting in bed are doing it for the same reason I do my feet then rather than with the rest of me - you touch things with your hands and feet while walking around doing stuff, so they're best left for when you're going to go to sleep. (I still don't quite get why hands need additional lotion when they get moisturized during the process of applying lotion to the rest of the body, but whatever.) Among TV women, the reason this hand lotion routine is more common than it is in real life is that a) "background" motion (whether literally in the background or just incidental to the scene) makes scenes more visually interesting, so a scene with two people talking in bed is improved by movement and b) putting lotion on one's hands is the movement chosen because it's innocuous; pulling up pajamas to moisturize covered body parts could be distracting, and a portion of the audience is weird - in one of two extremes - about calling attention to feet, so the hand lotion routine it is.

That's not a particularly good sign; it's one thing with an hour-long drama that is plot heavy and inevitably has fat to trim in making air time, but on a sitcom, with a much easier schedule and thus more time to fine-tune the script so there isn't much "we'll shoot it all and see what plays" excess come taping day, it's not common (and isn't how the show worked back in the day). To an extent, it's nice to have options in editing, but it's a short trip to the line where there's so much overage because they're not confident in what they're doing after writing and rehearsal. This show is somewhat awkward - I would never watch it as a new show with unknown-to-me characters; I don't only like it because of the strong nostalgia factor, but that definitely papers over some issues - and that atypical filming process fits in with that overall lack of firing on all cylinders.

I put lotion on my feet upon getting in bed each night (I go barefoot whenever possible, so my heels need all the help they can get to stay soft and smooth), and then rub the excess into my hands (and when I get out of the shower, I put lotion on most of my body other than my feet and, again, rub any excess into my hands when I'm done), and I also notice how prevalent the nighttime hand lotion routine is on screen and kind of wonder about it. I'm curious why female TV characters' hands need so much special attention - is that the only body part to which they ever apply lotion? If not, why do they need so much extra, given the hands are lotioned each time they use it anywhere else.

Halftime of the football game was considerate enough to largely coincide with the J! episode, nice. I ran the first round. Good for me. Not so much with the second round; I only got two hip-hop artists’ real names (and Snoop Dogg was the only one I knew outright, in that I could have answered correctly if asked “Who is Calvin Broadus?” - Chuck D I got by knowing he’s the leader of Public Enemy), I apparently don’t know my Finns very well, and I think I missed one clue in each of the other categories. Only two or three TS tonight, and none surprised me. The only miss that did surprise me was Christine getting the ruminant DD wrong. Good game. I would say the eraser clue belonged in the $200 slot in a Kids Week game, but then I realized kids probably don’t use pencils anymore. Okay, so it belonged in the $200 slot of an adult game. FJ was a strange experience – the Sydney Opera House popped into my mind first and quickly, but I have no prior knowledge of learning/knowing that fact, so I didn't know why it came to me and proceeded to run through several other options without ever settling on a guess. Under game conditions, I might very well have written down nothing and then kicked myself.

That crunchy peanut butter taste testing was one of my favorites, because her reaction was exactly mine: I buy one that is just peanuts and salt, but what I really like is the Skippy. In fact, since then, I have gone back to Skippy; I hardly ever eat peanut butter anyway, so I am perfectly content with the small amount of extra sugar and oil I am consuming per year in exchange for the taste I want when a peanut butter toast (or spoonful of peanut butter straight from the jar) craving hits.

They talked about it at a Paley Center (then The Museum of Television & Radio) panel, a portion of which is included on the season one DVD set (the whole thing is available in the museum's library; I need to remember to go watch it some time [I maybe did back in the day, but don't remember]). Burke didn't tell Smart she and Gilliland had dated when she was talking him up to her.

I do, too, but zero sexual tension, so that hinted-at future pairing always played as one-sided to me; Mark had a crush, but she only felt friendship. I'm sure they'd have been together for a while, but I don't know that they'd have been end game. In any event, in that sense I'm glad she left; for however long it lasted, that would have received a lot of story time for something that I'm sure I would not have enjoyed.

Well, she kept marrying ADs/producers/writers instead of actors. 🙂 It's funny how this series spawned two marriages (and two marriages that are still ongoing); Carter and Holbrook were married at the start, but the other two couples started dating because they met doing the show. It's even more intertwined: Delta Burke knew Richard Gilliland coming into the show, as they had briefly dated before, and she thought he and Jean Smart would be good together. The wedding was in Dixie Carter's backyard.

Do we ever see a woman who's just content to be doing her job and having adult conversation again and then having mom/baby time evenings and weekends (you know, like the man has been doing all along with no one questioning his devotion to fatherhood)? I liked that Modern Family twisted that around, with Phil being the one bummed the kids were going back to school and Claire looking forward to having some time to herself. It especially made sense in their case, as she was a SAHM mom then -- summer meant she never had a break! And she wasn't a cliché in the opposite direction, hating every minute of summer and constantly snapping at everyone because of the chaos of three kids at home, either.

Harris doesn't bother me, but she can't hold a candle to her mother or aunt when they were her age, and how could she, since the writing now can't hold a candle to the writing then. Teenage Becky and Darlene were central characters of the show, while Harris is a secondary character. They don't have much time to work with in developing her, but they're also not making very good use of the time they do have.

I think the only romantic relationship of Carter's I liked is the one that never got off the ground, with Maria Bello's character. He and Susan were so devoid of chemistry it was a case study in bad ideas. (Susan never had good chemistry with any of her love interests - although no one could be expected to do so with that gross, greasy guy she married.) He and Kem were fine as something that would only last while they were on the project together, but then she got pregnant and they not only used that as a reason to force it into something more, it never stopped even though they didn't actually wind up parenting - the grief shadow of that dead baby kept them from fully cutting ties like they should have. It was all very weird and sad.

Their relationship was dull as dishwater. I don't dislike him, but one of the only scenes of the two of them I actually like is the one where they're upstairs arguing* and the others are downstairs listening to it on the baby monitor. A moment of realism in a sea of treacly goop. The other long-term romantic relationships were much more natural. *It's a testament to Jean Smart that I enjoy that storyline, because postpartum woman becomes irrationally convinced her husband is cheating is beyond tired, but she played the exhausted emotion well. And even pulled off the petty revenge with her spot-on delivery -- when he finds out she sent all his dirty laundry out for cleaning and he thus won't have any underwear to take on his mission, and she says (thinking he's having an affair with his co-pilot), "Well, that'll save you some time once you're airborne," I laugh out loud.

So did I, initially; I've been there, but it still took a moment to pull the name out of my brain. Endangered species surprised me as a TS; I thought the wording of the clue would have led someone to deduce it. Federalist Party surprised me, too. My biggest surprise was getting one of the Bible clues right (Abraham).

Niece A can have a seat. Your mother was the victim of her crime, that she to this day refuses to take responsibility for, and is now in failing health; if she does not want to see her, that's the end of it. The kids may not even be bothered by the lack of contact with their mom's side of the family, that may just be something Niece A is saying to manipulate the situation, but even if they are, that's on their mom. If they feel left out, that's sad, but better to risk that than your mom being upset.

The decimation of union jobs was the decimation of the middle class in America, so this was an interesting examination of how bringing jobs back to a factory town is not the same as bring union jobs back. I was already throwing virtual things at the TV during the opening town hall meeting when someone asked if the jobs would be union and the company rep said no, but they understand they need to do right by their workers. Yeah. Because companies are so compassionate and humane when left to their own devices. Then came the cut his mic gestures and "Who the fuck does he think he is?" pandering when Sherrod Brown spoke on behalf of his constituents, not on behalf of billionaires looking to make more money, in support of recognizing a vote to unionize. And then all the union busting. Ugh, my blood pressure. I mean, I know about all these tactics and lies, but seeing it is infuriating. The culture clash was interesting -- "everybody gets upset in their own language" when things go wrong. The American workers being referred to as foreigners and feeling like they'd left America when they stepped inside the plant made for strange environment. If they hadn't had their wages slashed in half, they might not have cared so much about little things like doors moved due to superstition. I liked hearing from the Chinese workers who'd been given a life they'd have never otherwise had back home because of this job, and how they were trying to adjust in the U.S., too. But the Chinese managers who wanted to ignore labor and environmental laws because they don't exist in China were driving me nuts. And I wanted to punch through the screen that asshole who was bragging about his spies who tell him who the union activists are so he can set them up to be fired. It was interesting to hear the chairman second-guess himself and start to think about the negative impact he's had on the world, and then say he only thinks these thoughts when he's unhappy. I guess he was happy the day he casually strolled through the factory and listened to how many workers could be replaced by machines. I loved the discrepancy between the enthusiasm at the UAW meeting and the GTFO faces at the workplace meeting where they were told they were getting $2/hr raises. The ending was sad in its honesty, that "those days are over"; these folks are never going to make the kind of money they used to make, and automation means a majority of them are going to lose their jobs entirely.

Like I said in season 10 of Roseanne, that's the healthiest-for-everyone scenario I would love to see as this latest (and final) stage of their relationship. But that's not what they seem to be going for -- between Sara Gilbert's personal affection for the relationship and the fact the unhealthy choice makes for so-called "better" TV, whether they want to go the dramatic (conflict) or saccharine (first love is twu luv) route. I think I'm stuck with Darlene and David as endgame, so I'd really like the road to that being a better one.

Well, of course they still love each other; they were each other's first loves, he became part of the family, they were together for many years, and they have kids together. They will always love each other in a very particular and very special way. And with season 10 of Roseanne and season one of The Conners, Galecki only had limited availability and no one knew if they'd get future seasons. They're more comfortable in their success now, and he doesn't have a primary job from which he takes an occasional break to play David. So they could play this realistically (yes, this is more typical sitcom and thus less realistic than the original, but aim high), which is that loving each other does not begin to be enough to reconcile romantically now given what he did (not just leaving her, but abandoning his kids) and how new his re-involvement in his kids' lives is - and that's before adding in the fact she is inexplicably banging her gross boss and alleges to be in love with him, too - instead of continuing to force it because Sara Gilbert is really into a relationship that hasn't been a healthy one since Darlene moved to Chicago for school as a teenager.

I love Roy Orbison, but I think Cyndi Lauper's version of "I Drove All Night" (which was recorded second, but came out first by several years, and is thus probably regarded by many as the original) is better. (Celine Dion's version doesn't deserve to share space with either one.) Cyndi Lauper has a number of beautiful songs. "Heading West" isn't as well known as some others, and Lauper herself would likely rank it fairly low as she doesn't love the album, but I like it for "I'm like a letter with no address":

It's nothing new; it must be at least 15 years now since some cruise line used "Lust For Life".

I’ve been curious about how I’ll respond to this season, since my continued nostalgic comfort of seeing these characters again (and "suck it, Racist Roseanne, the show goes on" pleasure at the spinoff existing) papered over some story objections and disappointment that the writing isn’t as sharp as during the original's prime. Indeed, it has faded some from last season. This ridiculous love triangle of Darlene’s, with two guys I have no idea why she’d want to be with, is something I’m less capable of shrugging off at this point. (She's even sneaking David into the house - in which she lives with the kids she's ignoring and who would be quite confused by this?!) Jackie, Dan, and Becky, and Darlene with anyone other than the guys, are still enjoyable, though. As is Bev still annoying Dan, but her still being around even without Roseanne (seeing her at his poker game was really something). The pot cookie kid’s mom coming over reminded me of Dana’s mom coming over because Becky got her drunk, only not as funny – but I did snort laugh when she came in looking for $200 worth of stuff in the house and left. Since Harris is younger than she should be, and they’re ignoring things not just from the final season, I thought they wouldn’t mention Harris was a preemie, too – I thought the Harris of this revival universe was going to be a completely different Harris than the original. I'd seen a big chunk of it in the spoilers thread, but I loved the confrontation between Dan and Darlene in that they were both right -- him about how it is now and her about how it was then. I knew the name, too, and I like that it calls back to Harris's name, in being rooted in her maternal lineage. And I love "I consider it a personal attack and a negation of my entire childhood of pain that you've named it after the vessel of evil that is my mother." Best moment of the episode! Dan putting a little version of the afghan over the incubator I didn't know about, and it made me smile so big it hurt.

I haven't seen it since childhood, either, so I was glad the clues all provided other ways of figuring it out -- I'd even forgotten Ernie had a rubber ducky, but I know patito means duckling. None of them knowing Hungary was “down under” Slovakia didn’t surprise me, since even J! contestants seem to be bad with geography. But the guesses, especially Italy, did. And, in thinking on it now that the game is over, I am a bit surprised Hungary is the one in that category they didn’t know. FJ was interesting for me; I deduced it very quickly based on the wording of the clue, but someone had instead asked me to explain what a land-grant college is, I couldn't have. Between "iAN" and whatever the hell that was with his arms, I was happy to see Ian lose.

I was just reading through the posts about that episode (I didn't see it) and thinking the same thing -- they'd have more money to spend, and need a smaller house to begin with, if they hadn't decided to contribute so heartily to the overpopulation crisis. There are fewer positions on a basketball team than there are kids in that family!

I had to look up what "Danny Dimes" even meant, because when I first saw it I thought it was an autocorrect blunder (someone's phone thinking a typo of "Jones" was meant to be "dimes").

I interpreted the OP as objecting not to the clue itself, but to it being in the Clocks category. I don't have a problem with it, since Big Ben is the clock's bell. But it makes me twitch when I hear Big Ben used to refer to the whole tower, even though you could say, "Well, it's the tower's bell." I'm firmly in the muddled middle - it is the bell of the clock at the top of the tower, so you can call the bell or clock Big Ben, but not the tower.

I haven't been keeping up with the discussion since episode one, because I am slowly slogging through my backlog of episodes (I saw episode one on night one, but have been playing catch-up ever since), but I just read this review by Carl Wilson (not the dead Beach Boy, obviously, the music critic and author) that closely mirrors what I like and what I feel is omitted or smoothed other (which, as with the author, is in line what I usually like and usually feel is omitted/smoothed other in a Ken Burns documentary). I am looking forward to the chance to continue (I'm only through episode three) and look forward to reading the thread once I've seen the whole thing (by which point, you'll probably all be long gone). For now, my contribution is to recommend a couple of books: Bill C. Malone's Don't Get above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class and Antonino D'Ambrosio's A Heartbreak and a Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears.