Bastet

I saw an "Are You the Next Champ?" spot announcing the online tests coming up this month, so you probably saw something about that.

I don't wear shoes in the house just because I am barefoot whenever possible, but, yes - bring on the germs. And do not get me started on the food waste caused by people abiding by those ridiculous "expiration" dates.

Wow, I'd have been surprised if any of them missed FJ, but for Steven to do so was particularly unexpected. He just kind of ran out of steam as this game went on. The Ming clue belonged in the first round. Of a teen tournament.

I agree. And, while the designer has to use it in the room, the homeowner doesn't have to keep it there after the reveal -- even if they don't see anything they think would look good in the room being done, they should just pick out something valuable they know their friends would use in another room.

For me, that's where the absence of a mention is glaring, when they started talking about having a child together. And I take it as a glaring example of the fact they'd, by that point, forgotten all about that tidbit of information from season one. If they instead deliberately wrote him as not disclosing it, it's a very bad look for Doug -- the woman who is discussing the possibility of becoming the mother of your child deserves to know you previously created one but never met him or even learned his name.

Probably a "be more specific" prompt, since the specific type of whisky is what makes it a Rob Roy as opposed to a Manhattan.

Basically, you just post the URL and it automatically embeds (giving you the option to display as a link instead), but here is more detail from the FAQ on embedding media.

I don't think he knows, just the production team - again, I don't think it's rigged, I just think it's television. I think he wins more on this show than he did on Throwdown because 1) he has "home kitchen" advantage, and, especially, 2) the judges are largely not regional. On Throwdown, it was set up as a local cooking demonstration to which Bobby was a surprise element, and the judges were mostly locals heavily inclined towards a traditional take on the dish. On this show, an incredibly flavorful variation has a much greater chance, and Flay excels at flavor. On Throwdown, he put his spin on things, sure, but practiced in order to nail the traditional version with a little twist, because that's what the judges would be looking for -- the best version of the traditional. Here, his version is usually easily recognizable by his ingredients, because he's not really trying to hone in on the traditional, he's trying to take the fundamental ingredients and flavor profile and turn that into something more-generalized (and, often, more-sophisticated) judges than those on Throwdown will like best regardless of any deviations from tradition. I do think he's given a "fesenjan = chicken, walnut, and pomegranate stew" type overview if he's largely unfamiliar with a dish (not to say he was with that dish, just an example), and has to take it from there, just not tipped off in advance.

It's also my mom's birthday; I'm pretty sure I'd have known it anyway, given coverage of Aretha's death (which, of course, noted the coincidence) was semi-recent, plus the "monarch" clue within the clue, but that definitely helped. I had to read the archive. When I got home I discovered I needed to fix my refrigerator (<grrr>, but hopefully the temporary fix works until I can get the part I need and thus no food will have to be tossed) and thus missed the game, so I wasn't at my best, and I discovered I've never heard anything about Yahtzee other than its name, because I didn't know that one at all. On the flip side, even without being able to see the picture, I got the mahjong clue. (I also got the Trouble TS; I rarely played that, but remembered that pop-o-matic bubble die roller thing.) I was mildly surprised no one knew the liquor in a Rob Roy. The Lindsay Wagner TS didn't really surprise me, I guess, but it did make me roll my eyes. These whippersnappers (I don't even know if the challengers are young enough for the Bionic Woman to be "before their time," I just like to grumble about kids today on general principle). Now, if Cagney & Lacey had been a TS, I'd have thrown something (soft) at my monitor. None of the other TS raised an eyebrow. But Kentucky = coal mine in DJ, really?

N is for Nicole, who cut one while facing off against D.J. in the regional final of the spelling bee

I don't mind the purposeful shot of a product name or logo*, but what I cannot stand is when characters break into conversation extolling the virtues of whatever they're eating, driving, wearing, etc. Even that could be woven in naturally - people do talk about such things, after all - but whenever I've seen it, it has been blatantly written and awkwardly delivered, so that's the form of product placement that still grinds my gears. Rizzoli & Isles became terrible about this in later seasons. *The only time it bugs me is where it's something the character would not eat, drive, wear, whatever -- give it to another character in the show who would (or one we don't know well enough in that way for it to be noticeably out of character), please.

There was a Loretta Lynn: An All-Star Birthday Celebration Concert in Nashville last night, and Lynn closed it out herself, joining Tanya Tucker and Crystal Gayle in a performance of "Coal Miner's Daughter." From the AP: This article contains a slideshow of pictures.

In a locked thread, @SilverStormm said (emphasis mine): Yes, they add to the reputation total. If you click on a member's total reputation points (the green number with a plus sign in front of it, below the avatar in the profile), you get a detailed screen showing a breakdown of how many of each type of reaction have been received (smaller numbers are exact, large numbers are rounded). The total consists of more than just the likes, while adding up all the reactions reaches the total number, so it seems they all count (because of the rounding, it's hard to say for certain, but since none of the reactions are of the "I don't like your post" variety - the only negative reaction is sadness, but since there's no dislike or anger reaction, I think that's more about "you posted something that brought me to tears" than "you posted something so stupid I weep for society's future" - I suspect they all count.

I know what you mean. I pronounce both syllables in duel, but don't divide them as clearly as I do with the two in dual.

J is for Judy Jetson, who Darlene looked like in one of the dresses Roseanne made her try on

I'm glad I wasn't the only one muttering "twice" at the monitor. Where do you think they dropped the ball -- with him not mentioning that child again when Carol was pregnant? Or do you think it should have come up again earlier, as part of his arc over the first few seasons being that he was growing up from the irresponsible guy he'd been for so long (and dealing with the fact people still saw him as who he had been)?

But the category - Duel Personalities, about famous participants in duels - is why he did that play on words; "this leader of Italy was a part of several sword duels in his youth," so instead of Il Duce, call him Il Duelce, pronounced like duel. It was a purposeful pun, not a mispronunciation -- at least the first part. I didn't catch that he said "say" (like for the Spanish dulce) instead of "chay" (like for the Italian dolce) for the second.

A half-hour show will definitely take a day to film, yes. Proximity to a market that has just about anything would make it easier to shop in real time, but there still remains the possibility of something not being available, plus there are ingredients that need to be prepared in advance (e.g. a recent rerun with salted cod). And there would be several factors in addition to assembling an appropriate second-round judging panel that would go into determining which contenders producers want together in an episode. So while I don't - completely bizarre nature of the cocoa nibs episode notwithstanding - think the first round judging is a foregone conclusion, I think producers have elicited enough information from those in the contestant pool to put together an episode quite deliberately in terms of who's competing in the first round, who's judging that first round, and who's judging the second round (and not for any nefarious "the fix is in" purposes, just in terms of creating good television in terms of both balance and contrast).

The plane crash episodes make me laugh so hard my entire torso aches afterward. I'd say my favorite of the numerous hilarious moments are Frank trying to record his thoughts, Frank's ashes getting vacuumed up, and Murphy's "Dead! In a dickie!" meltdown.

There usually aren't three experts in the cuisine of the signature dish, though, or even two; it's generally just one who specializes in the same food and/or talks about how they grew up eating the traditional version and the other two who are familiar with eating it just as part of their life as a foodie, but may or may not have ever cooked it. So perhaps one of the other two judges is an expert in the cuisine the other first round chef would have chosen had she/he won. I doubt they want to pause production long enough for someone to go shopping after the signature dish is revealed, so the two first-round challengers probably have to let producers know well in advance what they'll be cooking if they win, so all the appropriate ingredients can be on hand. So, if production has that knowledge, they can also decide who to schedule together and put together a judging panel accordingly.

He's not a hipster, he's a little kid who asks a non-stop series of questions about things inside and outside the car, all of which his dad answers "yes." When they arrive at the campsite and find the bear, the other passengers all look like "WTF do we do now," but the kid promptly asks another question: "Did that bear just poo in our tent?" The dad once again says "yes," and backs the vehicle away.

No, because the clue asked what SLA stood for: "On April 15, 1974, as everyone else paid taxes, this radical "Army", the S.L.A., was robbing a bank of $11,000"

I like anatomy categories, so I was annoyed they didn’t get to the last Around the Body clue. And I loved the Multilingual Overlaps category, so I was relieved they didn’t also run out of time in that round. The Symbionese Liberation Army TS really surprised me, because Steven came so close.

This was a swing and a miss for me. I love animals and am interested in the practice of medicine, so I like most veterinary shows, but this one did not click at all with me. The format was really weird, and perhaps that proved too distracting. I don't know, it just never drew me in and wound up being something I watched during commercial breaks of something else.

"Did that bear just poo in our tent?"