Bastet

Other than medical personnel, she may not have anyone around her to correct her -- far too many people say vagina when they mean vulva. Labia is probably even more "the what?" to them. I only saw a small portion of this episode, so I mostly only have the shallow to comment on: Noelle's hair and dress were seriously on point. They all looked nice - although Lynn's dress looked like a bridesmaid dress from David's Bridal - but her hair and dress were particularly notable. I liked that Jazz, upon finding Noelle, asked, "Is there anything I can do?" She didn't plop right down or even ask, "What can I do," instead leaving wide open the opportunity for Noelle to say, "No, it's best for me to be alone" if that was what she wanted. And I loved Noelle's thumbs-up gesture when Jazz said she was going to bring her cake, and then hang out with her. But when Jazz told the others what was up and asked if they wanted to leave the room, the lights were up like at the end of the night.

I assume I was not alone in saying “Aaron Burr” as if I had a mouth full of peanut butter. The Woodstock, Jimi Hendrix, and Warner Bros. clues belonged in the first round. A Harry Potter category would be one of my nightmares if I went on the show; it’s something in which I have no interest, but two of my three closest friends are fanatics, so they’d be throwing things at their screens (or directly at me, if they were in the audience) as I stared blankly at all the Quidditch clues that didn’t include another way of getting to the answer. I cannot believe I knew ALF. I never watched that show, yet somehow that’s still in my brain somewhere; all while I have to think hard to recall what I had for lunch the previous day. Maybe I read/heard somewhere at the time about him eating cats and committed him to permanent memory as my mortal enemy.

I agree; last week, I missed the part where they decided who would do what, and thought Kelsey was executive chef based on how she stepped in to try and impart at least some information to the servers when Nini totally fell down on the job. It wasn't until I read the thread that night that I learned it was Justin, but if I hadn't read those posts, I still wouldn't have known tonight which one of those two was in charge. (And not because Kelsey was jockeying for control or anything negative on her, just because there was no clear leader like there was in Michelle's and, especially, Adrienne's kitchen.)

I don't think Christian Bale is as great a performer as he's widely regarded to be, either (I think his physical transformations and, um, intense commitment to method acting add up to excessive praise), plus he's a jerk, so I'm not keen on him.

I think Christine McVie's incredible talent and importance to the band is something that those who just like the Fleetwood Mac songs they hear on the radio don't realize, but something that is straight-up truth to those who are fans. Back when I worked in the music industry, I interacted with many of the band members several times, and they were all very nice (I should note I only dealt with Lindsey Buckingham once, and briefly). I started to type "especially Mick," and then thought, "Oh, but Chris was always just as nice. And so was Stevie."

Everyone’s faces when Sara listed every single ingredient of every dish were fantastic. (Speaking of faces, wow, there was a lot of stink faces on the bottom two teams while they waited for their turn at JT. I’m not judging them for it, because I have a grumpy resting face, so have to consciously work to keep it from turning worse when I’m pissed off, but it was amusingly noticeable.) Go, Adrienne! “You guys listen to me, and you don’t talk to them,” when Brian came into the kitchen and started asking for stuff. She impressed me the most last week among the executive chefs, and tonight solidified it. Not tasting Eric’s dish is a misstep, certainly, but she was put into the position of not having time, and she was otherwise on point. I think she deserved the win over Brian, but of course that’s only based on what I saw, which is a lot less than the judges did. On the flip side, Nini was fucking terrible at FOH. I know the space wasn’t set up in a timely fashion and the servers were ridiculously inexperienced, but that was true of everyone. It caused problems for every team, but she didn’t make things one bit better once she had the chance. She’s been an early favorite for me, so I hate to see her implode over something that has nothing to do with her cooking, but she asked for the role and totally failed to perform it. And her dessert wasn’t that good, either. She was the worst aspect of her team, just as Pablo was the worst of his, so I think the right people went home, but Justin better thank his lucky stars Pablo’s food was so bad, because I think otherwise he'd have gone home with Nini (unless they were set on eliminating one each from the losing teams).

Oh, I see what you mean - have another restaurant wars challenge when they get down to eight contestants. Now that would be a twist!

They didn't know about the double elimination at the time of meal planning, though, right? No, as noted previously, the new episode airs at 8:00 (EST) tonight, and there is no repeat of part one.

Especially this year, with three teams. If you put out good food, and the main ding against you is that you played it safe - "it was a delicious meal, but you didn't wow us; this is Restaurant Wars!" - the worst that happens is you're the second-place team and live to compete another day.

I loathe portmanteaus of character names, so I thought I'd hate the mash-up category, and was relieved it was something different. I’ve never heard castles in the air, just in the sky. Diamonds was a surprising TS, but only because at that stage of the game and at that value, I’d have thought someone would just go ahead and guess it. Juneau, coats of arms, Thomas a Becket, and Kansas were things I'd have predicted at least one would get, but nothing that truly surprised me tonight. A broom as a 28th anniversary present? That would be a good way to make sure you don’t see your 29th. That wrong answer gave me a good chuckle.

No, there were three Pac-12 wins (out of seven games) - Oregon, Stanford, and Washington State.

I kind of like adorkable, because it perfectly describes a particular action or set of characteristics, and better than any real word(s), but the others listed annoy me, too, especially adulting and hashtag.

Not at all. I know they don't always do a Thin Man marathon on New Year's Eve - and I have the boxed set of all six films, so I can have my own marathon whenever I want - but it's a recurring tradition, so to air the films during the afternoon and then take up the prime time/overnight slot with That's Entertainment was particularly disappointing. At least do a marathon of something else - another franchise, an actor, films set on New Year's Eve, whatever.

The Erik and Leif Erikson, queen bee, and trachea TS surprised me. Also strapping and punk a bit. And Maggie’s “never even heard of him”-style reaction to the Alfred Dreyfus reveal of her missed DD bugged me. The Hester Prynne clue should have been in the first round; it was over-valued in DJ. I love hearing Alex say genre; it was my favorite part of that montage that made the rounds on the internet years ago of his pronunciation of foreign words. I lucked into guessing correctly on FJ; it sounded like the kind of thing Reagan would say. I didn't come back from commercial in time to hear the clue, so I looked it up on the archive and initially read it backwards, as "strength through peace," so my thoughts went to a different kind of president before realizing my error. I like my made-up phrase much better.

Crowds indicate it's certainly a night on which many people go do something big, but it's also clear there are a lot of people who stay in or have/join small, low-key gatherings at a nearby house. The idea that everyone does - or wants to do - something big and fabulous on NYE is simply false, and fosters this ridiculous narrative that the only ones who don't are losers who didn't get invited to any such soiree.

I haven't seen the show in a while due to the holidays, but I just perused all my missed FJs via the archive (planning to get back into the swing of watching with tonight's episode), and I join those of you a bit surprised only one contestant got last night's right. I couldn't give a sketch artist a description of Jennifer Lawrence beyond "young, pretty, and blonde, I think," and I just looked up her credits to confirm I've never seen any of her films*, but she was my first, and near-immediate, guess for FJ just based on hearing about her so often. Not to retain information about her, but just repeatedly hearing her name. And that's coming from someone who no longer reads entertainment media, isn't on social media, and works out of her home office most of the time so has no water cooler conversation anymore -- yet just from my limited sources of cultural osmosis, young + female + actor + awards = Jennifer Lawrence. I did briefly second guess myself with Natalie Portman, but her I have seen in several things and was pretty sure most of her nominations came when she was older than 25, so I stuck with Lawrence; the chatter about her I registered seemed to always include her young age (maybe relative to the roles she plays?). So it's one of those, "Hmm, if someone in my situation knows it, I'm surprised only one contestant did" scenarios. *I've apparently seen her when she was just starting out in an episode of Cold Case and of Monk, but those are long gone from my memory bank.

Whew! I thought Oklahoma State was going let that game slip through their fingers, but they held on. And, wow, for it to be the Cowboy defense that saved it in the end (and played pretty well all game), when they were problematic this season. Good game!

No excuse necessary. I forgot one NYE out since my at-home tradition began, when I was in Orlando visiting my best friend during the brief time she lived there before high-tailing it back to Los Angeles. She bought us tickets that got us into/drink specials at participating downtown bars. The second one we went to had a nice rooftop space that wasn't unbearably crowded, so we stayed there all night. There was a group of friends, two or three men and one woman, nearby and we wound up talking with them all night. (The woman was dressed in a blue dress similar to "Miss Scarlet" in Clue, and vaguely resembled Lesley Ann Warren to boot, so my best friend and I - who have the entire film memorized - said something to her and that led to a night-long conversation with the group as there was a lot of overlap in all our tastes in music and movies, and we were all aligned on political/social issues.) It was a nice night, but I'm still happiest at home.

I haven't gone out on New Year's Eve since 1998. When all the "millennium" hype occurred around NYE 1999 (never mind that the actual new millennium was still a year away), I decided I wanted nothing to do with it, and stayed home. There was a Thin Man marathon on TCM, so my night consisted of martinis, a nice dinner, a bubble bath, my cats, and those films. I enjoyed myself so much - no crowds, no over-priced food and drinks, no making my way home on roads populated with amateur drunks - I never went out on NYE again; a night in with a movie/TV marathon of some sort became my tradition. So this is food for thought for me. If I ask someone about their NYE plans - which I'm sure I rarely do, as I don't care - it's just a desperate attempt at making timely conversation, as I'm certainly not going to invite them to join me. But if someone is going to a non-exclusive event and isn't prepared to follow up a "nothing yet" type response to what is probably just an absentminded inquiry into another's plans with, "Well, it's usually a good event and last-minute tickets can often be had; maybe I'll see you there," I guess they shouldn't ask to begin with just in case.

I haven't seen that commercial, but that's a good question. This summer, I was maid of honor in a wedding, and since the bride, bridesmaid, and I all do not wear make-up (the two of them do occasionally, but I hadn't at all in nearly 25 years), the bride hired a make-up artist to paint our faces in a low-key style befitting three people who rarely/never wear make-up. As the make-up artist finished with me, I had the sudden thought, "Wait - how do I get this shit off when I get home tonight? Do I have to do something special or can I wash my face normally?" In the absence of any specialty products, she suggested using baby oil, and then immediately washing normally. I think that may have been mostly about the eye make-up though (I have largely repressed the whole ridiculous wedding exercise from my brain); I would hope even the most hardy foundation could be washed off without industrial-strength cleaners.

It's an interesting aspect of watching this show for me -- while I would not take my cats (or other domesticated animals, if I had any) to Pol Veterinary, if I had farm animals, Pol would be the ones I'd call upon. (And especially if I had a chicken, duck, or other animal no other vet in the area will see; I certainly understand their reasoning - it's the same one that prevents me from taking a case in an area of law I'm not properly versed in - but I appreciate his "well, I'm better than nothing; let's give it a try" attitude, too.) Yet watching the farm visits can be especially aggravating. It's a sobering reminder for this "I get most of my meat from family farms" omnivorous city dweller that, while certainly an improvement over factory farms, a family farm does not automatically mean all best practices were used. Not enough to make me a vegetarian, mind you, but enough to make me dig a little deeper. I've mentioned more than once in the now-vaulted forum how cows would be extinct if the percentage of stalled labors seen on the show was inherent to the species so it must be something we are doing, and the marathon brings home that it must be the practice of breeding for over-sized calves. Virtually all the "Oh, crap; the calf is surely dead and if we don't pull it out for her in time the momma cow will be too" scenarios are introduced by a "Oh, that's a big calf" sentiment expressed by the vet upon sticking their arm in there. Watching a good bit of the marathon also compels me to mention again how much I appreciate that they show stories that end in death. They're sad to watch, but that's a big part of practicing medicine (and of having pets). I love the Dr. Jeff show on Animal Planet, too, probably even more than this one, but they edit for happy endings and I appreciate the full picture presented here.

Same here! I can't explain it (surely it's not just the gods-awful facial hair), but he bugs me. So since I didn't care about either team, I decided to root for the Titans because of that. I sure showed him.

It's sad seeing old episodes with her during the marathon, given what happened -- she'd gone back home (to Georgia; I remember a scene in which she and Emily bonded over being from Georgia, yet not being traditional southern women) for Christmas* and when her intoxicated husband requested pain relief, she gave him a syringe of something pretty strong that, when he injected it, combined with the alcohol he'd ingested throughout the day, it landed him on life support and ultimately caused his death about a week later. In the period in between, she attempted suicide and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. I never read any more about her, or the investigation into the events. *There were also references to her practicing locally, so I'm not sure if she left the show because of what happened, or if she'd actually already relocated to her native state and was home for good, not just for the holidays.

Since all they had to do was beat the 49ers, it was a pretty safe bet, but I'm glad the Rams earned a first-round bye, because they have several players who sorely need that week of rest. Whoever wins the Cowboys/Seahawks game will likely be one and done, but I sure hope it's Seattle rather than Dallas! If the Seahawks knock off the Cowboys and the Bears dispatch with the Eagles, I will love the NFC side of the coin and be happy with any of them going to the Super Bowl (Rams being my first choice, obviously, but I think it will be the Saints or the Bears, and I'd happily root for either of them). I don't like anyone on the AFC side, so I'm just rooting for anyone but the Patriots.

Jesus Christ, we see more of Jerry Jones each week than all other owners combined. STOP IT. Had this game ended in a Giants victory, I would be talking about how enjoyable it was for a meaningless game -- the G-Men woke up and played them hard; they couldn't get anywhere near the playoffs, they couldn't keep the Cowboys out of it, but this is still Dallas, so you close out a crappy year by doing your damndest to beat that loathsome team. But they didn't do it, so fuck it, and I'm moving onto the Rams game.