Bastet

It could be their perspective is skewed, but I think it's simply a matter of the "don't let the facts get in the way of a good story" rule that's behind so many of these fictions. Especially if this is on a sitcom. Having the plane door re-opened so [event] can happen after the character - and audience - thinks the chance has been missed works best for their story, so they're not going to be bothered by whether the door really would be opened under the circumstances.

I like Andy the cop on his own, but I am beyond tired of the storyline (or, you know, entire premise of a show) in which a stereotypically attractive woman gets with a man who doesn't at all meet his gender's hallmarks of desirability. Until we start seeing the reverse, I'm pretty well done with the cliché. And I never love playing damsel in distress to attract a man. Otherwise, though, I enjoyed the episode. I've been bad about remembering to watch, so there's an extent to which I only follow the continuing storylines via comments in this forum, but I was able to jump right back in. I loved the group of them in bed.

I've watched this show from the beginning, but I don't remember details at anywhere near the level some others do. Is this the first time someone rendered ineligible for the win for some reason has nonetheless stood among the top three? Because it seemed to me like they simply picked the top three dishes, not the top three among chefs eligible to win, and noted that while he was among the top three, he wasn't eligible to win. As such, I have no issue with it. It seems the same idea* as when someone with immunity is included among the bottom three (which I do remember has happened) because that's where their dish ranked, and it's noted they are lucky they have immunity because they're not eligible for elimination. *Well, same minus the possible drama with the latter scenario of whether the immunity holder will/should give up immunity to save a contestant who put out a better dish from going home when they weren't actually the worst.

I've never needed to request it, but I have had the door held open for me (more than once, catching a connecting flight after coming in from a flight that was delayed, the agent at my arrival gate of the connection airport has called the agent at my departure gate to say "passenger on her way; hold off a few minutes") and while ensconced in my seat with plenty of time I once did see the door re-opened for a passenger. Granted, I'm sure the fact I've been in first class for all these occurrences is a factor! (As would, as noted above, being the top tier of the airline's frequent flier program.) So maybe the better gripe is with it happening for TV characters who are not in a category the airlines would make an exception for in real life.

It was announced a while back that many forums for old shows and/or those with low-traffic forums were going to be either vaulted and replaced by a single thread or simply condensed (minus posts in the threads for things like games and small talk) into a single thread, and that started happening in December. XF initially made the cut, but was later vaulted. So the old forum can still be read, but all new discussion must take place in this thread. Here's the pinned post on the overall process.

Holy crap, two “Woman/Female [Profession]” FJ categories in a row?! Those sexist twits have to just be fucking with the audience at this point. This show has been making me hungry lately; first empanadas, and now I want blue crab. PCH is more than "just a few miles" away from the studio. The clue works because that’s not the main phrase, but it still bugs me. I love vocabulary categories, so I liked the I Before E category, and was surprised boccie was a TS. I’m assuming that’s because they all think of the game as being spelled bocce (as do I), but “Italian lawn bowling” doesn’t lead at least one of them to figure there’s an alternate spelling and guess it? The Miracle Worker TS was mildly surprising, but only; I don't think she's someone where a photo helps the majority of contestants. The JFK TS, though, I can’t even. The Craigslist forum is called Missed Connections, so I don’t think “a missed connection” should have been accepted; that’s the general idea, but not the name of the category, which is what was specifically asked about. If you're asked about a title and leave off or append an S, it's wrong. This shouldn't be any different. I LOL at Alex’s “Oh, no” when J.B. got the first clue wrong by saying Star Trek instead of The Twilight Zone. I grant that it’s an obnoxious thing Alex does, but that was a dumb-ass answer. I remember from yesterday that Joan is a Seahawks fan, so I love that she’s the one who got most of the Super Bowl clues.

I had a simultaneous <sob> and <smile> reaction to seeing them honor Fatima at the end of the episode with an "In memory of" screen. How do two people make food Tom of all people finds too salty?? I was particularly disappointed to see Kelsey do that to hers, because that was a beautiful-looking plate of food. Eddie's dish seemed to fail on more levels than the other two, so I was a little surprised to hear David's name called instead. I felt bad for him getting so frustrated that he was pretty much throwing a fit. Sometimes in these "make a dish inspired by" challenges, someone just makes a dish they want to show off and makes up a story to go with it, but here it sounded like everyone did have a good music memory they wanted to cook to, and his was the one plan that got derailed by what Whole Foods had available. He was in a much better mindset on day two, but I'm not surprised he wound up among the bottom three. LOL at Justin coming out as a country music fan. I like a wide variety of music, which includes a lot of '60s-'00s country, and I've been to the Opry, so I can appreciate how excited Kelsey was if she's a huge fan. I was impressed with Adrienne getting the QF win while sick; when your body and brain are both sluggish, winning a 20-minute challenge is no small feat. Immunity would have been the ideal "advantage," obviously, but an extra hour was pretty much the next-best thing in her situation and I'm glad she did well enough to stay on. Justin made me nervous making everything purple, so even though he was missing a plate and couldn't win, I was relieved no one thought it was gimmicky, that all his purple food was indeed good and made sense together. Michelle made me tear up talking about her dad in her talking head, so I was not surprised to see those at the table so affected. It didn't feel like the sob stories on Chopped.

To be clear, that's from a year ago (and was posted in the Pet thread at the time).

Sean is painfully dweeby, but he didn’t bother me at all (other than the fact I hate bow ties only slightly less than I hate suspenders). (Okay, and spelling Austen wrong.) In fact, he wasn't even someone I was expecting to come here and read numerous complaints about. I loved the spellements category; I’m pretty good with the periodic table and great at spelling, so that was fun and I wish they’d finished it. FJ was not an instaget, but almost (I'd never heard the quote, but it just sounds so Dorothy Parker, so add in "her circle" and I went there quickly), so I was able to spend the rest of the FJ music grumbling about yet another “Women [Profession]” category. In the first Shakespeare clue, the answer should have been winter, not A Winter’s Tale; the clue asked for the season at the end of the quote, not the title of the play. And the Debussy clue wanted the title of the work, not the name of the peninsula, so that should have been Iberia, not Iberian Peninsula. Yucca was a surprising TS given the picture, but I live in CA, and none of them live where they’d see yucca plants. The Tall-something sisters was as far as I got, so I joined the contestants in being stumped by that one.

I've always had my parents with me, and always been with them, in pre-op. Not immediately, though -- the patient gets changed into a gown and has their IV started -- but once the nurse's work is done and it's just wait time, family is allowed to hang out until transport comes, at which point the patient is off to the OR and the family to the waiting room. The surgeon comes into the waiting room when she or he is done with the procedure to say how it went and answer any questions while the patient is settled into Recovery, and then family can go join the patient in Recovery until it's time to follow them to their hospital room (if being admitted) or take them home (if outpatient surgery).

Damn. Remember the Titans is one of my favorite sports movies, and the real-life relationship between Julius and Gerry was such a lovely story (the movie version, too, but obviously that covered them in high school and then just gave us an update that it continued until Gerry's death). I wonder if Gerry's mom is still alive; when asked by the filmmakers about Julius, she said, "That's my baby!" Pretty amazing the relationship they wound up having, too. Strong side!

Now I’m craving empanadas. The Jefferson Davis TS was kind of surprising, another one of those where I don’t bat an eye at none of the three specifically knowing it, but am a little surprised that at that early stage of the game no one took a chance on guessing him; it obviously had to be some Confederacy bigwig. No one at least taking a stab with Ming (Dynasty), too, but there was more money at stake then. And I was a bit surprised Chris didn’t toss the Great Pyramid out there as a guess in her DD. I wouldn’t have accepted string bean; that's not the expression. A thin person may be called a string bean, but that's not what the clue asked about; it was [vegetable] pole and [vegetable] stalk as synonyms for thin, and the expressions are bean pole and bean stalk. Just bean. FJ was an instaget, but thanks to Seinfeld I have to say it in Newman's voice as his mail truck catches on fire. WKRP became a secondary association after that.

And this was back when TNT supported the show; they probably did submit her for nomination. Stupid Emmy voters. That scene alone should have garnered a nomination for season one, and the showdown with Ricky in Sweet Revenge should have gotten her all the awards for season three. Alas. Tao wasn't spinning him as reformed, though, just saying, well, give him this one thing -- he accepted a plea rather than making you testify again (her testifying, recanting, then recanting her recant would make cross examination brutal) or even just sit through another trial in which the details of her mother's murder were dragged out. I don't regard the fact the father turned out to be even more awful than he'd thought as any failure with respect to Lydia; his success was in always believing her, and putting away - twice now - the man who'd killed her mother. He protected Lydia from her father in that he supported her along the path of trusting her original memory, letting her learn she'd been right and did not, in fact, as a scared, mixed-up little kid send her innocent dad to prison. They obviously made clear how much they hated her dad, and normally bad-mouthing a child's parent to the child is poor form, but he killed their daughter, so I'm not writing them off for that. They did raise someone who grew up to be an all-around cheat (from philandering to helping embezzle money) and who was going to abandon her child. (And who drugged her kid with sleeping pills so she could sneak her boyfriend into the house for sex.) But Elaine could have turned out like that in spite of good parenting, and Lydia seems a decent young woman despite emotionally-traumatizing circumstances, so hopefully they did indeed give her a good home. Because that girl has been through some shit.

Despite loving both their voices, and finding them both great duet partners in general, I cannot stand that song. But I'd forgotten just how many of Ingram's songs I do like until reading his obituaries, especially One Hundred Ways, Just Once, and I Don't Have the Heart. And I'd also forgotten how many good songs made famous by other singers he'd written. He was very talented, and 66 is too damn young.

From the duck penis discussion in one of the threads (now that is not a sentence I type every day) ... It puts the phrase "fuck a duck" in a whole new light. Actually, I'd heard the basics before, about the corkscrew design and gang rape, but I had no idea a Muscovy duck's penis was 7-1/2 inches long. The whole duck is only about 30 inches long! But the penis is inside the body when not in use. And, yep, there is video out there of the crazy corkscrew penis springing out for those who care to look.

That article doesn't list a cause of death for Ingram, but according to others, which all seem to be citing TMZ as the source, chalk another one up for cancer -- brain cancer, this time.

Having enjoyed a very late night Saturday yet still waking at my usual 10:00 (damn body clock), I wound up indeed napping for most of the fourth quarter. But it's never been of anything more than mild interest to me, which is why I've always approved of moving it from the week after to the week before the Super Bowl. I sort of understand but mostly reject the sentiment that it's cool to have one more football exhibition when it seems like the season is over, because the Pro Bowl is inherently anti-climactic; it's just goofy, no-consequences fun. I think something like that is much better placed between the conference championship and the Super Bowl, so that our last game for the season is a real one, the big one. I'd rather go out on that note and have one more week between the last game of season A and the combine of season B than have the season extend one more week but with such a non-entity of an ending.

No, American, and I'm not naive enough to think even the average J! contestant can rattle off dozens of current world leaders without needing a picture added to the clue, but that of a neighboring country and given the media attention he gets in the U.S., I thought "identify the guy seen here" was a bit much. At least it was in DJ rather than the first round.

There's a thread for requesting help in identifying old commercials, so post your query there and maybe the sleuths/those with great memories who follow that thread can help.

Not that no one knew it, but that no one – early in the game with little money at risk – guessed laurel for the plant symbolizing victory in the flag clue surprised me. The preemption TS was just a surprise, period. Laura Hillenbrand a bit, but I guess enough time has passed since Seabiscuit topped the charts that it’s not actually unusual for any three given contestants to not know. Nah, I’m still putting that one in my “surprising” tally. Same with rubber cement. Good grief was surprising as a TS, too; I don’t like Peanuts, but between cultural osmosis and the category/clue spotting oxymoron and alliteration, there were enough ways to get there I'd have thought one of three would. The missed DD of Double Indemnity surprised me only in that there didn't seem to be any "Oh, duh!" reaction on her part when it was revealed - maybe she's never heard of the film, but the policy term didn't ring a bell, either? But, more importantly, it was a good game that moved fairly well. I didn’t run it, but had a great first round; the only one I didn’t know was the turtle’s top shell being a carapace. (Thank goodness for the photo of Topher Grace to accompany the clue, or I’d have missed that one in the same category.) It always excites me when I run/nearly run a round. I don’t think I’ve ever run a game (I must not have – that seems like something I’d remember!). Thanks to the gods and goddesses category, that was not in the cards for round two, sigh. I didn’t know the children’s books award, but the rest of the award etymologies I got in another category where I didn’t actually know any of the facts, but easily figured them out from the clues (this just happened recently with the category about who companies were named after). I fear this will be another instance in which the underlying trivia does not stick in my mind. (Although, thinking on it, I predict better luck here – Obie meaning Off Broadway will stick, and maybe that the Razzies mean Golden Raspberry, not just Raspberry, as I'd thought.) I can’t decide which picture clue annoys me more – the backspace key or Justin Trudeau. I doubt I'd have come up with FJ without the "blood" part of the quote subliminally putting "red" in my head and the general subject matter/time frame leading me to guess it -- I've never read it, or seen the film.

The cute little crusty-eyed kitten almost made up for seeing yet another damn breeder celebrated. I got a good chuckle out of naming him Fitter because he was found in a pipe, and laughed outright when Dr. Emily had no idea what a pipefitter is. "Is that a tool or a person?" with a big smile -- hee. (It's a person.) I also laughed when the guy with the dehydrated pig said he'd never seen fluids injected into the belly before, Dr. Emily said, "I saw Dr. Pol do it once," and the guy basically shrugged and said, "Okay." I, too, thought it was sweet the way Dr. Pol talked to the horse whose foal came out dead. And I was amused by the cow who kept trying to get away from Dr. Brenda. I hope the owner whose dog got into rat poison gets some traps instead; I hate seeing poison used, because it's a needlessly inhumane way of killing rats plus it creates significant potential for collateral damage, with other animals getting into the poison directly or eating a poisoned rodent. I'm glad she knew her dog had eaten the poison and was thus able to treat him in time, since they don't show symptoms at first. Oh, and no contest between Tater and that baby -- Tater is cuter!

She said in an article she wrote last year that her brother was collecting them (she was making something new each day for a while), so I'm sure we'll see them published at some point.

I wasn't home last night to watch those two and see if I noticed anything new, but The Shame Game is my least-favorite case of season one. I hate the distorted sound they do when the killer realizes they're onto him, and I just don't connect to the case as strongly as I should to a story of sex trafficking. At least they somewhat acknowledge the lack of logic in the "we'll take the death penalty off the table if you confess" carrot that cop shows, including this one, hang their hat on, with the killer scoffing that California basically doesn't execute people anymore. But, oh my stars, I love the Sharon and Rusty story. When he works himself into a lather over Cynthia bringing Daniel Dunn to the station, accusing Sharon of wanting to get rid of him, and Provenza steps in, the actors absolutely nail the scene. Especially Mary McDonnell; when Rusty calms down and asks Sharon what she thought of Daniel upon meeting him, and Sharon says she can't say she liked him but she can't be objective, with her voice breaking there, and then forces out a comment that him showing up and waiting all day has to be considered while walking away, desperate to get out of there before she can no longer keep the tears at bay, and waving off Rusty's apology with an "I know" of forced nonchalance -- incredible. I don't love the case in Dismissed With Prejudice, either, because it creates the impression it's a hell of a lot easier to overturn a conviction than it actually is, but I love what it gives Mike to do. I like his interaction with Lydia, especially the horrifying moment when her dad tells her he wishes he'd killed her too and Mike pulls her shocked form into his arms. That poor girl; she didn't exactly luck out in the mother department, either, because there's no passport for Lydia, so no indication Elaine was planning to take her with them when she ran off with Zapata. And I like the continued exploration of how witnesses are treated in the criminal justice system, this time with the "blink and you'll miss it" fact the DA didn't even know where Lydia went to live -- once they testify and serve their purpose, the witnesses are usually non-entities to the police and prosecutors. The continuing "What's this guy's angle and how do we handle the fact he has rights?" exploration of Daniel Dunn is good, and I like him teasing Rusty about wearing a suit to dinner. And it's cute that picking out a suit (and a really ugly shirt and tie combo that probably had Sharon cringing in the store) was what Rusty took as a bribe for agreeing to go to dinner, because he'd never had a suit before. It's not the sort of thing I'd have pictured Rusty being excited about, but it's sweetly innocent that he is, asking if it makes him look more mature. Plus, it leads to him asking Provenza if he knows how to knot a tie and Andy - dressed dapper as always - standing next to Provenza - dressed, well, like Provenza as always - asking, "You're seriously asking this guy for advice about a tie?" ("Yeah, why not - he's been wearing them for 100 years." Ha!)

Given the results of Google Translate, even if it did exist in Albanian-English, I certainly wouldn't want the police relying on it in determining whether there was probable cause for a murder arrest! And, yes, on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, I can go with none of their approved sources (which would be a short list on the best of days) being available. Besides, it gives me the wonderfully-delivered, "Of course it's still in Albanian, it's always been in Albanian ... Well, where would I get an Albanian translator on Christmas morning?" from Sharon to Brenda and Brenda's "Oh, I ask you for one thing!" to Fritz when he tells her he, too, is fresh out of Albanian translators despite her Christmas wish. The Living Proof two-parter is one of my favorites. I love the twist on Sharon and Brenda's usual battle over jurisdiction, in that this time they both keep trying to dump the case off on the other, I love beyond reason the "This is my Captain Raydor ... my friend, Sharon" introduction, Sharon's pouting when the airport closes, and the best of Sharon's epic eye rolls when Pope says he is Acting Chief, and I like how well they blend all the humor with one of their most-disturbing cases.

Bringing out those steps for Juneau to climb into the car melted my heart. How awful that Raven died unexpectedly - I can't imagine the shock of dropping your dog off for grooming and getting the call that he collapsed and died - but how nice that the other dog they wanted if they could have taken two is now with them. I loved Tia's, "I didn't know she could move!" No hip pain yet. And that upside-down position is hilariously cute. Marcel is incredibly good with scared dogs. I loved Keller happily curled up in his lap by the time they made it back to the warehouse. Keller is an adorably wiggly puppy, and I bet the neuter settled down the jumping some, and now he's working his way through obedience training. I hope he's adopted quickly, so he can continue the training with his owners and get settled in. I'm glad Maximilian/Pretzel didn't have to suffer much to teach his owners a lesson about updating the chip info/adding an external tag. I bet they won't be using that petsitter anymore!