Bastet

I think the FJ clue was a good one - almost every contestant would know it was either Hoover or FDR, but only those who know their respective political philosophies, not just that both were president in that era, would find it an instaget. So, while at first blush it seems too easy for FJ, I think it's actually appropriately challenging. But a picture of Janis Joplin?! If someone had guessed concave for the convex clue, I assume Alex would have followed suit and chalked that up to another one where the first contestant guessing wrong allowed the second one to get it right by process of elimination. Never mind that perhaps a J! contestant knows which Ayn Rand book was about what or which axis is x and which is y.

If my memory is correct (which it may not be; as you said, that was yesterday), as Alex was saying the correct answer, Anneke joined in when he got to "Sousa," and then Alex said a variation on his usual "the other one," perhaps "Your other choice," and she agreed.

My razor is a Gillette; I suddenly feel the need to go buy a ton of refill blades. (And it's a men's razor, because women's razors are just razors with a gender surcharge.) The only way someone is threatened or insulted by that commercial is if they are part of the problem. (Which is why there are so damn many freaking out over it.)

Ha! I really liked the movie as part of the Halloween franchise, but wouldn't have thought much of it as a stand-alone horror film, so I quite enjoyed that. "You can run. You can hide. But ... Actually, you can; he's not much of a mover."

The Carrie Fisher TS surprised me; I figured their relationship was pretty well known (helped along by the shared last name), and Carrie's death was semi-recent. The missed DD of Sousa surprised me, too. Her answer of Carter in place of Clinton with 1998 in the clue kind of blew me away at first, but he's been involved with various peace efforts after leaving office, so I backtracked on that one - I think she thought, being DJ, the year was a trick designed to make one think it was the president in office at the time and it was actually a former president. They were pretty bad at the translations category, but none of those TS surprised me (well, maybe The Art of Love a little). If it wasn't for that category, there would have been hardly any TS tonight, so good game. FJ was an instaget for me; it came immediately to mind because of the "rash" part of the clue, and then the timing of the play and film confirmed it. The Brandenburg Gate is an arch, but it's only because it's sometimes referred to as the Arch of Peace that I can go with the ruling. Kind of; I learn towards saying it should have been Brandenburg Gate or Arch of Peace as the acceptable answers, not her combination of the two.

On the farm where Dr. Pol was neutering a bunch of steers, what was stuck all over their hind parts -- poop? (I was at the far end of the room and too cozy by the fire to move closer to the TV to look.)

Giving Rusty more personal stories than any other secondary character, and even more than Sharon, was the cause of much annoyance for me in seasons four through six, but I always loved him with Sharon, and I enjoy him on his own in seasons one through three (and sometimes in four through six). I find the story arc of he and Sharon going from guardian/ward to roommates to mother and son just beautiful, and I like his slow arc towards coming to terms with the fact "what he did" while living on the streets was actually "what was done to him" (a big part of this is therapy always being offered but never forced on him, and that great conversation about emotional injury being a good reason to seek help; it is not limited to those dealing with mental illness). I also like the pace of him coming out. And having him as an ongoing character showed what life can be like for material witnesses in a way crime dramas/police procedurals do not normally do. They say "asshole" and "shit" a lot, so I don't know that TNT would have raised a fuss over "prick" even if it wasn't in the context of a non-native speaker mixing up two words, but it makes me laugh, too. (And making it a malaprop means the line stands in network syndication, unlike "asshole" and "shit.") The first time he said it, I thought he said, "Brick," and thus there was no joke. The second time, I finally heard it right, and I laughed - and still laugh each time I watch the episode. That guy cracks me up altogether - "What business is it of a wife to know what her husband is feeling?" The whole family is cartoonish, but the actors do it so well. Roma's reaction to being the McDougals in Tulsa is hilarious, and when she pesters her son into having some water - and then that's enough water - she amuses me even more. Weatherly, on the other hand, is hard to find amusement in now knowing what we know about him, but I was always more entertained by people's reactions to Thorn than Thorn himself, so I still love the episode.

Yep, they'd have had a better chance with the Eagles coming to them, but I'm still happy with this Saints win; I'll take knowing I'll be all-in for either NFC team over risking another Super Bowl where I have to hold my nose and root for the Eagles because they're playing the Patriots and I'd root for anyone other than the Cowboys against the Patriots (or an Eagles/Chiefs Super Bowl, in which I wouldn't give a shit about either team).

I figured the Patriots were going to beat the shit out of the Chargers, forcing me to root hard for Kansas City next weekend, but this is even uglier than I imagined. This game is just background noise as I finish off my Bloody Mary and wait for the NFC game (go Saints!), though.

I've never seen anyone do that, but it reminds me of how Rachael Ray would always say "extra virgin olive oil" after she said "EVOO," and that drove me nuts. I think IIRC is readily understood enough to be used, and POC is usually clear given the context, but I don't even know what several of the entries on the original list stand for. MUA, BAU, and KUO look like international airport codes. And HVR = Hidden Valley Ranch thanks to the Commercials forum.

And it will always need more salt. Sometimes oregano, and usually that leads to an argument that their recipe is famous and needs no adjustment. Then why did you ask?

She continues to beat-feet it out of there upon anything beyond tearing up in front of anyone until near the end <sob> when she full-out cries telling Andy it might have been better for everyone had she died in the ambulance rather than scaring them all into rearranging their lives to nurse her towards an uncertain future. She goes through some shit, personally and professionally, and increasingly lets those closest to her in on her reactions to it, but still keeps private her most-emotional breakdowns. Which is so refreshing for women on TV, who don't often reflect those of us in real life who generally keep our worst emotions to ourselves; it's nice that it wasn't presented as a character flaw.

Oh, how I miss the organization of the old forum, and wish it had been left intact (I had no hope of that when the reorganization was announced, but after The West Wing, The X-Files and one or two other old, but large and semi-active forums I participate in were retained, I started thinking "maybe"), but at least it was vaulted rather than condensed into a giant mess. Episodes three and four, Medical Causes and The Ecstasy and The Agony were on in syndication tonight; I only watched in breaks during the game/after the Rams sent the Cowboys packing, so I didn't have any "hey, I never noticed this before" moments, but I reiterated my love for a couple of things: I appreciate so much that they don't hit us over the head with the parallel between Sharon and Rusty when he says he doesn't cry in front of people, so when he started to cry (because his mom didn't show up at the bus station) he left. We can easily deduce, just based on The Closer and the few episodes of this show, that Sharon doesn't cry in front of others, either. And, in fact, in the episode (later in season one) when Rusty accuses her of wanting to get rid of him, we see quite clearly that Sharon will, in fact, get the hell out of Dodge before anyone sees her cry. But they just let it play; there is no line in either episode making sure the audience understands this is a sentiment of Rusty's to which Sharon wholly relates. Too many shows would make sure we knew, and cheapen the moment(s) by doing so. I also appreciate the continuity from Rusty's introduction in The Closer that he's a combination of the toughness of someone who's had to survive on the streets (and the usual sarcasm/selfishness of a teenager under any circumstances) and the fragility of a kid who was abused and abandoned. Sharon deals with that balance well, and I think by the end of episode four, she - while not yet loving him and certainly not yet thinking of him as a son - is already in a place where she'd keep fostering him through high school graduation even if he somehow was no longer a material witness. Both cases are good, too; two very solid episodes. Fritz's reaction to "unmitified" is wonderful. I also love Provenza in the background using his fingers to calculate how much 15 minutes of the life coach's time would cost him based on the hourly rate. This show always did little touches like those particularly well.

I'm hoping to make time to see this in the next couple of weeks; as I mentioned in another thread, I recently finally got around to reading Linda Hirshman's Sisters In Law ("How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World"). (As a civil rights lawyer, focused on women's rights, I'll give you three guesses - and the first two don't count - as to whose career trajectory I'm most interested in.) Also as a civil rights lawyer focused on women's rights, I'm quite familiar with many of their rulings, and one of my law school professors was friends with both women, so I knew a bit about them beyond those rulings. But the book gave me a lot of new information, and I look forward to seeing how the film portrays RBG's early work. Because, my goodness, her case-by-case strategy and big picture analysis were both staggeringly astute. I'm a good women's rights lawyer, but she's out of this world by comparison; I'm truly in awe of her. It makes me happy that a film about her exists, and I hope it does right by her.

YES!!! Now, the fact the Rams did not dominate on the scoreboard the way they did on the rest of the stats is a problem heading into next week, especially if they play the Saints. But they knocked the fucking Cowboys out of the playoffs, so all is right with the world. You know that shot TV shows and movies love of mental patients pacing the room talking to themselves? That was me for the entire fourth quarter. I possibly even hit myself in the head.

Marcus Peters is seriously chapping my ass tonight, and McVay's challenge was idiotic; add in the first and goals that petered out to FGs, and the fact the Rams seem to have decided it was over at halftime and they don't have to play anymore, and this game is killing me.

I demand federal legislation prohibiting Troy Aikman from calling Cowboys games.

B is for the great big pine box Roseanne needs to lie down in when Becky asks for birth control

That's not fine with anyone with whom I discuss the issue, but using a damn slur as the team name is still a level above (below?) cultural appropriation.

I assumed so, but then your post was making me second guess that assumption, because I thought that was quite witty given the show's long history of having fun with Quayle. Now I can quit wondering. Onto the core cast in other roles: Poor Joe Regalbuto, whatever he's in, I say, "Oh! It's Frank Fontana" - whether the guest shot was before or Murphy Brown. But he's always great in those roles, so it's not like he's always playing Frank, just that I so thoroughly associate him with the role -- with Major Crimes, it's "the one where Frank Fontana drowns the best man." Who's the Boss? The one where Frank Fontana is a priest. The Golden Girls has an episode I call the one where Frank Fontana is the asshole son-in-law. Etc. Sister Act 2 was on the other night as I went around the dial, and I saw Robert Pastorelli in one of the first scenes and went, "Aw, Eldin." He was in Remington Steele and Cagney & Lacey a couple of times, plus a bunch of other '80s shows I watched but wasn't enamored by. He was in Dances With Wolves, too. Pat Corley was also in Cagney & Lacey, and a whole bunch of other TV shows I watched around that time, including Moonlighting and Scarecrow & Mrs. King. Faith Ford is another C&L alum, but I haven't seen much of the other stuff she did. I haven't seen much of Grant Shaud's or Charles Kimbrough's other work, either. I hate Sweet Home Alabama for a variety of reasons, but if I'm going around the dial and happen upon one of Candice Bergen's scenes, I will stop and watch. Especially if it's when she tells Mary Kay Place, "Why don't you go back to your double-wide and fry something." I'm normally not down with insulting people based on who they are rather than what they do, and I like Place's character, but in the context of my overall feelings about the film and its message, I find myself loving that put-down (when I'm supposed to cheer the punch that follows it). I also love her as the villain in Miss Congeniality. And I remember her playing Sydney Bittle Barrows in The Mayflower Madam, but no specifics.

Like any woman, if she is attracted exclusively to other women, she'd most likely identify as lesbian; transgender or cisgender makes no difference, as gender identity and sexual orientation are two separate things. Right now, Jazz identifies as pansexual (as far as I know - I only watch sporadically - but I believe I heard her reiterate that in the conversation with her friends as they got ready for prom).

@GHScorpiosRule, is the "potatoe" in the thread title a poke at Dan Quayle (as the show loved to do) or a typo? I thought it was the former, which made me laugh, but then in the original post you said you suck at witty titles, so now I wonder every time I look at it and it's making me irrationally curious, so I must know.

Unless those potentially lost dollars would have made a big difference for me, I might have tried to get away with just "Rice" if I was a contestant who didn't know her first name. If the clue had been about her time as National Security Advisor, no, because there two Rices have held that role, so just like where a clue seeks which president did X and you answer Adams, which Supreme Court Justice did X and you answer Marshall, etc. you have to give the full name. But this was about her time as U.N. Ambassador during the Obama administration. Yet, on the other hand, the clue specifically referenced an unrelated person with the same last name having been Secretary of State for Bush. And both women have talked about being mixed up as two black women with the same last name in national politics (some TV station even put up a picture of one while talking about the other). So an answer of "Rice" might very well have yielded a BMS prompt. Too many people seem to know only slightly more about government officials than they do about geography, so I wasn't surprised to see it go unanswered. But, as I said, I was a little sad about it.

Picky eaters can be frustrating, but unless it's your child, people have no business trying to convince them to eat something. A friend of mine roomed with me for about a year and a half when she graduated college, and her diet was pathetic (extremely limited, and straight off the kids menu at any given strip mall chain restaurant). I did think it was unfortunate she disliked (or, usually, didn't want to try) the majority of ingredients in the world, but I would never have made a second plate of whatever I was fixing for dinner and said, "Here, eat this." She was kind of a pain to travel with, though, because of the food thing. We were once in New Orleans (one of the greatest cities in the country to eat your way through) with two other friends, and we kept having to make time for her to stop at Burger King before or after we went to all these great restaurants at which she wouldn't eat. But it was still a wonderful trip, and she never once suggested the rest of us limit our dining experiences to places that had fries and chicken fingers on the menu; she just drank (and maybe had an appetizer) and talked while we ate. I am not a picky eater, as I like exponentially more food than I dislike, but like most people I have a number of things in the big wide world of food I strongly dislike and thus won't eat -- every single type of bean I have ever tried, mustard, egg yolks, potatoes, yogurt, green beans, peas, blue cheese, and a few types of fish. I don't really care for stews regardless of ingredients because the vegetables have been cooked too long for me (in terms of both texture and taste). There are quite a few cuts of beef/beef dishes I will eat to be polite but would never make or order (add pot roast and meatloaf to the "wouldn't eat with someone else's mouth" list, though). I'm not a big fan of cooked tomatoes or tomato-based sauces. I won't eat sour cream unless it's mixed with a whole lot of flavorful things to cover it up. Same with tofu. Raw carrots do nothing for me, and cooked carrots I straight-up dislike. But pretty much everything else I've tried I like, and there's a lot of food I truly love. My peeve is, "Oh, you don't like [insert food here, often potatoes]? You're missing out." This is a completely illogical statement. I have tried it and find it distasteful. Therefore, I am not missing out on anything other than an unpleasant experience by not eating it, and rational people avoid unpleasant experiences when feasible. I understand that when you really like something, and find out another person doesn't, there can be a "Wow, really? I can't imagine not liking X" reaction. Brussels sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables, but I know a lot of people dislike them (making them for my own mother I have to doctor them up with other things in order for her to eat them, like she's my toddler); I don't bat an eye when someone dislikes them. Same with the various bitter greens I like. Or all the spicy foods I love. But I frakkin' love pretty much every kind of cheese other than blue cheese, and am surprised when someone doesn't like cheese of any kind. Or chocolate of any kind. Cheese? Chocolate (the darker the better)? These are two of life's greatest things for me. Yet I still don't stand there aghast, declare they're missing out, or insist they'd like it if they had it X way.

I forgot to report that we all really liked the taste of the triple ginger snaps. We didn't much care for the texture - we all prefer soft cookies and these are crunchy (like every pre-made cookie I've ever had, so I wasn't surprised by it) - so they're the one holiday treat that is still being slowly consumed, but we do enjoy them, so thanks for the recommendation. I keep forgetting to ask my dad what he thinks of the "sounds terrible, but trust us, it's good" blue cheese mustard. I know he devoured the dark chocolate peanut butter cups, though (he claimed they "evaporated" when half the tub was empty the next time I came over) -- that's why I only bought myself the bag of them. Those are seriously good. I normally have great willpower when it comes to sweets (it's chips I have no portion control abilities with, which is why I hardly ever buy them), but those might test me!