Bastet

Ah, Johnny Swanko. The Tongue Bandit -- I love Dan and Roseanne's reactions. T is for "tureen of beef," Jackie’s theatrical debut

You just sent me running to my TV in a panic, because I have Dish, too. Thankfully, I still get that station. Yeah, that show is just not clicking with me at all. The Vet Life, which also goes home with the vets more than I'd like, is a second-tier show for me because of that; I don't make a point of watching it, but if I remember it's on/come across it while going around the dial, I watch. Hanging With the Hendersons, though, hasn't even caught on as background noise. The Incredible Dr. Pol and Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet are the vet shows that I make sure to tune in for and record if I'm out or watching football instead. Dr. Jeff is my favorite of the two. Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet, I watch sometimes, and I think I've seen most of the Supervet episodes. I won't watch anything about zoos or exotic animals kept as pets.

Steve-O, really? But, I must say, he was nowhere near as annoying as his name would suggest. Aaron’s desperate attempt to ring in on the South Pole clue was entertaining; I’d probably do something just like that. Thank goodness we could see the Toyota on the grill of the Supra in the photo clue, because otherwise even with the “sup” category, I wouldn’t have come up with it in time – I’m not good at identifying cars by sight. I am not at all a Muppets fan, yet marionette made perfect sense given the clue and thus came to me right away; I’m surprised that was a TS. Lens and carbon dioxide were also a bit surprising. Laws was beyond surprising; it seemed such a “gimme” from the wording, even setting aside my knowledge as a lawyer, but of course I can’t really do that. So I’ll drop down from stunning, but I still say it’s surprising not one of them deduced it just based on logic. Maybe they thought it was something more specific and didn’t want to risk being wrong with a guess of just “laws.” Knowing the two colors at play in color-blindness does not belong in the second round, let alone as a DD.

In today's installment of "Fuck cancer," 29-year-old Fatima Ali, Top Chef contender and fan favorite winner, died this morning.

They never specify Mark's job, but given his experience and the money they're offering him, I assumed it was another mechanic position. Mark tells Becky his friend called from Minneapolis, saying there's an opening where he works and the job is his if he wants it. It pays three times what he made working for Dan, and they'd let him join the union.

Yes, and that's another thing that needs the generator for power (it draws too much current to be run on battery power), so that's why it was among the things not working while the generator was down. By the time Brian had pre-scheduled for his pork to go in, their generator was working, so there was no need for him to take it over to the other boat. Both boats planned to be working much of the night, and napping for an hour or two rather than truly sleeping, so it was only Brian who truly stayed up all night and that was something he chose to do, unaffected by the generator downtime.

It didn't, and I respect that they said that quickly and with no reservations when asked by Tom at JT -- in the end (after using alternate power sources in the interim for some things and just waiting out the generator fix on others), all the food came out cooked the way they wanted, so it was to be judged without any "but they had to deal with a power outage" consideration. And, again, I hope - and give the benefit of the doubt that this is true - that Tom's "I just want to make sure" line of questioning reflected the fact production was simply double-checking that production's understanding of the situation was correct. (If they wanted to fabricate a problem for "how will they cope?" shenanigans beyond the small kitchens, I think they'd have imposed a different yet similarly-influential one on the other side.)

It sounded like the things not working - the range and maybe the oven - once the overall tripped breaker situation was dealt with were those on 220v circuit(s), while those on the 110v circuits were working, so it was the generator (necessary to power 220, while 110 can run on the batteries) that needed to be repaired before they had full power in the kitchen. I've been in a similar situation in a motorhome. I hope the conversation at Judges' Table about whether the electrical problems the night before affected what ultimately was offered by the blue team on competition wasn't the first time the issue of disadvantage was raised (and I figure producers were indeed aware at the time), but I don't call foul on some circuits having power and some not; that's just part of electricity -- bringing power into the structure (home, boat, RV, whatever) is step one, and then not overloading the various circuits among which that power is distributed is step two. And I think the green team briefly lost one circuit on the day of serving, so they may have tripped a breaker. Meaning their source - the batteries - was fine, but they tried to draw too much power on one circuit at once, which is different from a circuit losing its power source to begin with, like the green team's generator going out. They obviously didn't get into these logistics, but based on what we saw, it's logically explained by how these vessels are powered when not connected to an AC hook-up.

The Pi, humpback whale, and amphibious TS all surprised me, but with that last one I think they were expecting “bio” to lead off the word – as I believe it did with all other answers in that category – and thus couldn’t come up with anything. Upon unveiling the categories, I was annoyed the Potent Poe Tales category wasn’t a Potent Potables category, but being a Poe fan as well as a lush, I wound up loving it. The missed DD was a bit painful to watch happen. I ran the “I named it after you” category based on the info within the clues, but I didn’t actually know any of those facts other than Dave Thomas naming Wendy’s after his daughter. I wonder if any of them will stick in my mind. FJ was an instaget, but if I'd had to go much further back in the line of modern political history of the UK, I'd have been in trouble; from Thatcher on, I can rattle off the prime minsters, but before that it's basically Churchill or Chamberlain and then a bunch of blank spaces in my brain. (Go further back and I'll guess Duke of Wellington and then stare blankly when you ask me which one, or if that's wrong altogether, try Earl of Something, so, yeah, "who was leader when" is not my strong suit.)

I'd have been like Michelle when the blue team was trying to decide how to make it a party: "Trivia?" I'd have wanted to just stand at a station, hand out food, and leave people to enjoy the boat. Working the crowd with passed appetizers I can do among friends, but among strangers, especially that many of them, would be particularly exhausting (I'm a classic introvert, and need alone time to recharge). But, while I understand the blue team's personality, they played it like a group of friends was coming to hang out with them on their boat. In that case, all you need is great food and drink stationed around the boat, where people will gather to chat and nosh. But the green team played it right, like they were hosting a boat party for 100 "paying" customers who wanted an elevated spring break experience, meaning much better food and drink and minus the drunken sex with random people, but fundamentally carefree, even silly, fun.

I cannot be on a non-moving boat on the water without my motion sickness kicking into high gear, so watching them bob up and down during JT made me have to turn away a couple of times. I’m not sure I could have medicated myself enough to get on those boats, but the food looked seriously tasty! Once we learned which team was on top and which one was on bottom, I predicted Kelsey would get the win and Brian would be eliminated, and once he started whining about how his team knew he stayed up all night and no one stood up for him, I started hoping I was right. Like Michelle asked, "What does that have to do with anything?" But he didn't repeat that in his post-elimination talking head, so maybe it was just exhaustion (lack of sleep plus marinating in the hot tub) talking. I have no idea how Eddie does not have a chronic ulcer. Could there be a worse person in the group to give the option of choosing a team of five or of four? I loved Padma’s “Okay, my feet hurt” when he was taking forever to pick a team. I understand product placement is a necessary evil, but the BMW commercial tonight was too much. I could do without the crossover with what I had to look up to see is some other Bravo reality show, too. Eric's dad getting a key to the city for returning the $10k left in his cab was a great story. The jiggle juice made me laugh. I think it’s been a good 20 years since I had any sort of Jello shot, and I never cared for the texture, but it certainly works for a party boat. And the green team definitely created a more festive atmosphere. But it’s a cooking show, so I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go, because it seemed like the blue team’s food was a little bit better overall. I think the judges might have picked them, unlike the guests going for green, but it's so hard to tell from what comments make the cut/what order they're put in.

Yeah, there are quite a few reasons in addition to money that people work. There need not be any answer to "Why didn't she just stay home?" than she didn't want to. She wasn't comfortable when Dan was the only one working, just like Dan wasn't comfortable when Roseanne was the only one working. (I would never be comfortable as either side of a one-income duo, either, so I understand.) Also, with his business there were good months and bad months - and the winter months were always slower because construction and Chicago winters aren't natural friends - so just because they could have been okay on one salary during one time period didn't mean they would be the same time next year; the times when they needed both incomes were more frequent than those when it wouldn't have been a hardship for her to stay home. Life without union wages and benefits made the uncertain nature of Dan's income very important.

It's not motivated by the events of Red Tape, because as the episode opens (the scene with Taylor joining Gabriel at the bar), we learn he tried to get the letter to her, but she wouldn't take it, and it's not a "goodbye in case I die" letter that he's had on hand, it's a letter of apology (presumably about the fallout of their break-up), because when Taylor returns it to him, Gabriel asks, "She won't even let me apologize?" Taylor tells him she's moved on, and so should he. In the end, he accepts that she doesn't want to hear from him, and gets rid of the letter.

I don't remember (and am too lazy to check) if this article was posted in the Media thread of the now-vaulted forum, but I just came across it while looking for something else -- About five years ago, The Wire ranked nearly 115 WW characters, the list consisting mostly of those who appeared in two or more episodes but including a few memorable one-offs. They had me at hello, ranking C.J. number one and opening with, "One of the great mysteries of Hollywood—nay, of life—is that Aaron Sorkin is a fairly condescending and certainly problematic writer of women. And yet so goes C.J." Some key characters are ranked significantly differently than they are on the average list of WW characters, and I agree with a number of those surprising slots, so I found the list particularly interesting. (I wouldn't have ranked Donna that low, but I enjoyed reading along and realizing, "Hey, Donna hasn't made the cut yet." And I really like seeing so many other female characters ranked highly. Also, the inevitable ire many will have for how highly Amy is ranked and how she's described amuses me in advance. [I wouldn't put her that high, not even top ten, but I agree with their general sentiment about her.]) Here's the list, as republished in The Atlantic.

I agree that the hands-in-pockets gesture being this huge tell of his yet having never been shown to us before (and never incorporating it again) was a stretch, but disagree on some anvil-icious "I'm going to run and win" ending being better than stating his intention via that gesture. It was more powerful visually, and nice for us to know the answer when the press - and all but "our" characters - didn't. And, most of all, I liked that they answered the question for us, rather than making it a cliffhanger (not much of one, since there's no show if he doesn't run, but still), and just left us to wait and see how he phrased it and what the reaction/fallout was. As for Bartlet's rant in the church, I'm neither bothered nor enthralled by it. You can't get me invested in a storyline where someone, say, puts their faith in a benevolent unicorn and then says, "WTF, unicorn?!" when reality hits them, but his Catholic faith and his opinion of/treatment by his father (which worked together in his formative years and beyond) were always a big influence on his life, so while I'm not "OMG, how powerful/daring or how awful!" I certainly follow his thought process, given the backstory, and appreciate the emotion of the moment, even though I'm not swept away by it to the extent the show wants.

Boy howdy. And for NO ONE in your life to point this out when you bring it up is totally unrealistic. These people have inevitably changed some due to the experiences they had in the many years we weren't watching them, but for Darlene to jump to "awesome," Dan - who, while ultra-sensitive to suggestions Roseanne gave things up by marrying him and starting a family, routinely flipped his shit when his daughters limited their options by way of choices they made because of a guy - to offer unequivocal encouragement and only when alone show his sadness rather than at least asking cautionary questions and then accepting it as Darlene's choice to make (which is what Roseanne always encouraged him to do back when he freaked out), Becky to get in some typical sisterly messing with Darlene but only as some fun before saying, "Of course you should go," and the kids to be so enthused by the idea of moving back to Chicago they have not a moment's "Wait, but we'll be living with Who?" hesitation? No. Just, no.

The vocal fry was such a mild version of that annoying tic/affectation - and of a degree that likely wouldn't even be noted in a man - it didn't bother me, but I knew it would irk others. (I have a long history of somewhat ignoring the contestants in my focus on the clues - I root for women and people of color on general principle, but I'm not much invested in who wins, as the contestants are really just there to uncover the clues for me so I can quiz myself - so I frequently either do not even register or do but take no real notice of things, good or bad, that I read about once I come here after the game.) Good game - close, yet still high scoring for all. I thought some of the DJ clues were over valued (mostly the Two of the Three Letters Are Vowels category), but otherwise enjoyed it a lot. Speaking of that category, I agree boo and BAE would both be accepted, and I'm surprised - by Alex not saying something like, "Yes, BAE, or also boo," as he does when they knew going in two different answers would be readily accepted - they seemed to be going for BAE (or has it become accepted as bae, rather than as the acronym?). The category specifies nothing about two different vowels, and the clue only says it's "new," which both are; BAE is newer, certainly but I think in the context of J! boo qualifies as new and thus either one fits. But by Alex's reaction to the answer, I guess they were defining new more strictly and thus going for BAE, but I believe they would've had to accept boo, too. FJ was an instaget, but one that I immediately started second-guessing for some reason. I wound up sticking with it.

He wasn't very good, but he also wasn't well served by the writing; this character was more of a cartoon villain than Fisher, where the writing was so frakkin' brilliant you didn't even realize some of the warning signs until you looked back after the abuse was revealed and realized, "Oh, yeah - that was a red flag." I'm the one who brought it up, and I assumed it was cold because Emilio brought it with him (in weather that was snowy cold) and when he opened it, there was no steam. Whether they meant to imply it was cold, or simply didn't bother creating the visual reality of opening a container of warm food into cold air, I don't know (nor do I know if it would have even been feasible to keep it warm depending on how long their outing lasted before he surprised her with it), but it played like it was cold. I confess, I've never tried tuna casserole warm, but it doesn't sound very appetizing, and cold just sounds outright yucky.

Also, I think he just fundamentally enjoys having Darlene and the kids in the house now that Roseanne is dead. They drive him batty sometimes, as families do, but I think they're mostly a good distraction for him. Plus he gets to amuse himself with the "ghost of children past" thing, watching Darlene deal with the same things she used to throw at them when she was that age. Gods, yes; they were horrible for each other from that time on. They were great as first loves, and met at the perfect time -- working on the comic book with him, becoming friends, and then dating, that all helped Darlene transition from the kid she'd been to the young adult she was going to become and their relationship gave him a new place to live when he needed one. They were good for each other. And then they weren't (she was just an ass in general, but he was selfish, too, and it had just run its course), and that's okay; that's how most relationships go, and it's part of the learning process. But then she got pregnant and decided to marry him and have the baby. They seemed to be making a go of it, although we don't know much about that time, but then he fell apart after Mark's death and abandoned his family. For years and years. He is just now working at being part of the kids' lives again, so figure out how to co-parent, but move the fuck on from each other romantically. I don't like seeing her (or him, but I'm not all that magnanimous towards someone who abandoned his family and we haven't had enough time to trust if his newfound commitment to actually being a father is going to last) stuck in this relationship that stopped being a good one a very long time ago. They love each other? Yeah, and? That's the first drop in the bucket of what you need to make a relationship work, and they don't have enough of the rest. Maybe a few years down the road, but it's not something they should be contemplating right now.

An episode of Cold Case did a decent job of exploring the conflict between a deaf teenager who wanted a cochlear implant and his deaf parents' objections that he didn't need to be "fixed" and was abandoning his family/community. (He attended a Gallaudet-style high school, so that allowed for a little more representation of the deaf community in general, and the cochlear implant controversy within it.) It went into it in a fair bit of detail and, while I can't say it didn't come down on one side or the other as I recall it being a little more sympathetic to the son's position than the parents' objections, it was mostly from an "it's his choice" perspective and didn't demonize the parents or dismiss their concerns. It's been a long time; I'd love to see that episode again to refresh my memory, but I don't get the station that's currently airing it in syndication. On the general subject of hearing loss, I remember going around the dial and seeing Brian Kerwin - whom I'd liked many years before on Roseanne - in an episode of Blue Bloods. I hate that show, but I stopped because in a shot over Kerwin's shoulder, I could see he was wearing hearing aids. I wondered if it was a plot point, or if - gasp - someone was just "allowed" to wear hearing aids on TV without them being 85 and/or the butt of a joke. It turned out to be the latter.

Answering in Small Talk ...

Yes, reflecting the changed economic conditions in Lanford, Rodbell's replaced its restaurant with a "bargain bin" clearance department. The store itself remained.

The latter; Rodbell's was the department store, and it was within the mall.

I don't watch very many shows, so I can't be much help with a list, but among those I watch, Mom includes Adam, who uses a wheelchair (after being paralyzed in a skiing [snowboarding? something where he accidentally went off a cliff] accident; he was a Hollywood stuntman, but I don't remember if the accident was in the course of work or leisure). His disability is not ignored, but is not a focus; for a sitcom, it's handled reasonably well. But he is played by William Fichtner, who is not disabled.

I liked that, too. When I read that we were going to see the Chinese restaurant where The Lunch Box used to be, I said I hoped they would incorporate into conversation the myriad restaurants that had come and gone in between (reflecting the reality that most independent restaurants do not make it anything resembling long term). They didn't do that, but they made a similar point with that bit.