Bastet

Yep, I always take doubters to Roscoe's, and then they're sold. (I don't think I want to try chicken & waffles potato chips, though.) That KFC commercial, with the colonel dancing with the bottle of syrup, overall amuses me, but I wish they'd used more moves from the actual Dirty Dancing dance rather than mostly generic stuff and then the lift.

That doggy cupcake party looked like so much fun. And I love that they tested them on little dogs, because most big dogs will scarf down anything, so they needed the picky eaters to tell them if the cupcakes would be a hit. I love Lizzie's dog whose name I am forgetting just sitting there watching the world go by while Lizzie says, "Look, there's a cupcake in front of you!" And then Lulu picking up the entire thing in her mouth - hah. And the friend's little dog just shoving her/his head in the bowl and going to town while all this laughter is going on - adorable. Lulu - Tania's "devil dog" - must be mellowing in her old age; I loved when Tania would use her to test how dogs deal with an annoying little menace bothering them. Maybe she only bothers big dogs - Napoleon complex. I laughed when Lulu wasn't into the bone cake Mariah made at home, and Mariah said they'd always been buds but now Lulu was doing her dirty. The sister interaction was fun in this one.

I wonder if Lynn Swann still thinks Clay Helton is his guy after the loss to UCLA (he did after last week's loss to Cal, so it's entirely possible he still doesn't want to make a change). That was truly awful play the last two weeks. And awful because all the mistakes Helton claims he recognizes and is fixing each week are still there in the next game. Unless Toa Lobendahn has compromising pictures of him, there is no excuse for Helton sticking with him as center, when he clearly cannot make the transition because he sucks at snaps. Wasting time-outs? Routinely giving up solid first-half leads to inferior teams? Head-scratching play calls? A senior turning what would have been a Cal punt into a first down in the final minutes of the game with an unsporstmanlike conduct penalty? That's all bad coaching. As of last week, even in this weak year for the conference, the Trojans are out of the Pac-12 South race, and now as of this week, unless they miraculously upset Notre Dame (something that would make my entire Thanksgiving, but only slightly less likely to happen as me winning the lottery I do not even play), they will not even qualify for an appearance in a mid-December Toilet Bowl appearance. That's bad coaching. I had misgivings from the beginning - particularly time management, a team-wide lack of discipline, and last-minute wins more the result of luck than effective halftime adjustments - but wanted to give Helton time because of all the other factors. He's had time. He says the right things, but the words don't translate to changes. It's not like with Lane Kiffin, where, while some felt sorry for him getting canned on the tarmac, I thought he was lucky Haden didn't have him summarily executed on the sideline. I don't think he's awful. This was destined to be a transition year, with a true freshman quarterback, and our top receiver, top rusher, and several defensive leaders gone. But this hasn't been a transition, it has been a stagnant mess. Talent-wise, we still had enough this season to take the Pac-12 South, so that here we are not even in the hunt and almost certainly out of the bowl scene altogether is on Helton. And that's not acceptable. But I think Swann will give him another year. And since USC only has an interim president, no one will stop him. I hope he's right and I'm wrong.

I'm sure she will get feedback, both from other "Christys" and other "Violets," via her podcast. It's not an interactive show, but wherever she's publishing it will have a means for listener commentary. Just like AA isn't the only option for recovering addicts, Al-Anon isn't the only option for their children. If she wants that, or something else, in the future, good for her, but there's nothing wrong with what getting her thoughts and feelings out in something of a vacuum right now. Marinating in her anger and resentment is even okay right now; she's still very young and only newly on her own, so I'm not making any predictions for her future self's handling of the situation based on what she's doing now. She has to find her own way, and is in the process of doing that. If this was how she was handling it ten years down the road, I'd be concerned she will never heal. Now, though, it doesn't bother me at all. I'm glad they brought Violet back for something like this -- Christy was already in recovery when we met her, we've seen her progress, and we've seen how she still harbors resentment towards Bonnie, so this was a nice, messy reminder that there's still someone out there feeling the same thing about Christy; the existence of Sober Christy doesn't wipe out what Loaded Christy did. One of the greatest things about this show is how Christy shows both sides - she's the addict who failed her kids, and the child who was failed by an addicted parent. Without the kids, it's easy to lose sight of that first part. Yet I don't miss the kids being around regularly (although it is odd as hell for Roscoe to be inexplicably absent from even her conversation), so something like this works perfectly for me. I loved this episode, for the messy stuff (Violet should be simultaneously understandable yet hard to take, and not all shows are willing to make non-villains unlikable), for that beautiful hug between Bonnie and Christy as soon as they left Violet's, and for Adam's "Yeah, thanks, you invited a bunch of non-drinkers to my bar opening" frustration.

She's under no obligation to participate if she doesn't want to, but it could have simply been a matter of not knowing how -- even if they had something with the lyrics, she still wouldn't know the tune, so it's pretty difficult to sing along with a song you don't know. And Darlene does not strike me as someone who likes to dance, so I would have been quite surprised to see her join in; beyond that, it wouldn't have been a remotely natural reaction to the song/environment for her, so she might even have felt like she'd have been mocking their tradition with her awkward version, further reinforcing her decision to simply be there, which is what she'd agreed to do.

@Blergh, that happens a fair bit -- it just means the text being quoted was pulled from your reply that also quoted it, rather than from her original post.

LOL at Alex using the opening to point out Maya’s FJ wager was a wholly unnecessary risk. And bless him, trying to naturally bring Emma’s awkward interview to a close without just flat-out cutting her off, and then being genuinely amused by her “it teaches you to deal with difficult people” remark about learning how to milk goats having value in the workforce. Also, can you imagine how much he must have loved reading the New Orleans clue? As the game started, Emily wasn’t trying to ring in on as many clues as she had in her quarter-final game, so I wondered if my prediction for her success with her buzzer woes out of the way was off base, but she quickly returned to form; she has a broad knowledge base, I think the best of the finalists. This was a good game, and I’m so excited by three girls in the finals. Part of me is rooting for Maya, part for Emma, but I'll be happy with Claire, too. Lords, I’m old, because I didn’t know a single answer in the music category. In that first round, I didn’t know one of the fictional places, either. I did better in the second round (I don't remember if I ran it, but I didn't miss many if I didn't) and I knew FJ, although it took some scrolling through my mental rolodex. Rohan’s head slap at blood-curling instead of -curdling was great. But I wish he hadn’t kept saying that entire category name; just say “Words for [$],” dude. I found it interesting that all the answers at first were compound words, yet there was nothing about a hyphen in the category title, but then there was one in there that was that long on its own, I think. I loathe the Cowboys, so the so-called "America's Team" being a TS made me guffaw.

He couldn't sleep away from home even if he wasn't scared -- back when I used to take him and Maddie over to my parents' house, he wouldn't sleep, even when his head and eyes were drooping. He was fine there (he ate, played, and cuddled), but it wasn't home, so he wasn't going to sleep. One time we were there for a very long day, and we got home, I put him on the bed and went to the bathroom; he was sound asleep, snoring, by the time I got out. Twice we had to stay at my parents' house for several days due to tenting for termites (once at my condo and then again at my house), and both times he did not sleep until exhaustion took over on day two. He'd been hospitalized overnight before, but never for days, plus this was a special facility, with quarantine procedures, so he wasn't even getting the usual interaction with techs he knew. I knew it was going to be rougher on him than the average cat, but the pills simply weren't working anymore, despite all our tinkering with the dosage (no wonder, once I saw on scintigraphy how large the tumors had become), so it needed to be done. Hopefully Lily is more pissed off than scared, @EighteenTwelve. And, yeah, there were times I thought I'd have been better off not looking in on the webcam to confirm he was miserable. Two people could be signed in at once, and my mom and two of my best friends had the log-in info, too; I had it up on my computer all day, so they had to log in and out to keep from locking each other out. I wish we could have talked to him, although that probably would have just thoroughly confused him. Let us know how she is when you get her home, and how you both do with her at-home quarantine.

I'm glad she's almost home! Baxter did the same thing. He also refused to pee, which was a problem, since they needed to test his urine to see how much of the radioactive iodine remained in his system; it had to get down to a certain level before he could be released. He was quite the unhappy camper. I could watch him on a webcam, and the poor guy hardly ever slept, either. Here are a couple of webcam stills (notice the untouched bowl of the dry food I'd sent with him, since it was his favorite treat in the world):

Yes, the eliminated semi-finalists get prize money, but their scores don't matter to it -- all eliminated semi-finalists get the same amount ($10k, last I read).

They leaned in for a kiss after that funny moment in the first episode where they were sitting on chairs behind the couch - D.J. said she could have warned him the couch was wet before he sat on it, and she with perfect snarky delivery replied, "Yes, I could have" - but the show cut away before they connected, which was disturbing.

I'd never heard of Porter, but I got pretty irritated by all the headlines eulogizing her solely as Diddy's ex, and went looking to see what was being ignored about her. I found this article, Kim Porter was so much more than just Diddy’s ex-girlfriend – and it’s important to remember that:

Proof of how very much I am not a morning person - about half a dozen reasons why one wouldn't have gone to bed yet at 4:00 a.m. (especially on vacation) immediately sprang to mind when I read the question, but I never once thought about the possibility of someone having already slept and gotten up that early until I read those responses. Heh.

Interesting. I had already turned the TV off, so I didn't see that interaction. But I did notice that before revealing the FJ category, he didn't note she'd made it a runaway like he normally does in those situations.

As a big fan of the Oxford comma, and Provenza’s “It’s always the husband” refrain and its variations on Major Crimes, it’s like this episode was tailor made for me. Okay, as a lawyer it was not so much made for me with the whole "he'll be locked up" thing (um, no, double jeopardy), but her PAM and “we didn’t have a cat, you idiot” revelation was still fun for Corky’s coming to terms with her gullibility. Murphy’s “Why was I born?” kind of got lost in the applause, but that was great line delivery by Bergen. Similarly, “… as is THE ALL CAPS sentence” was fun line delivery from the actor playing the assistant of the week. Avery’s sexy promo was hilarious. FOX Wolf never does that to its male reporters, in contrast to the parade of sexist stereotypes with its women on air, so it doesn’t really work, but it still made me laugh. As did Murphy’s “Do you want anything?” slow-mo promo mocking of it all. LOL also at the TV show revival jokes. And at “Rest? What else has she been doing all these years?” Obvious, but funny, both. And, hee, Kavanaugh Korner. I like the continuation of the discrepancy between Murphy’s above-the-desk outfit and the mess below. Solid episode.

Good for Maya; I was rooting for her, and am surprised she was the only one who got FJ. But that has nothing on my reaction to the Lincoln TS. Rogue was surprising as a TS, sycophant mildly so, and then there's that one. Stunning? Stupefying? I may need a new word; I’m still sputtering in disbelief. Not one of three high school students who made it to the semi-finals of the teen tournament on J! know one of the key phrases of the Gettysburg Address?! None of these kids knowing The X-Files made me sad. But that one makes me mad. I don't understand Maya's FJ wager, either, but that TS is my true head scratcher for the night.

Sometimes when I return from the bathroom, Riley has so thoroughly moved into my vacated warm spot that I have to move my pillows to the other side of the bed and settle in there - at which point she promptly moves over to join me (she must be on me, pressed right up against me, or curled up between my legs at all times while we sleep, unless it's hot, at which point she sleeps up by my head and keeps a paw on my shoulder to make sure I don't get away). So I often just nudge her out of the way, reclaim my spot, and she happily snuggles back in. Maddie and Baxter both had to be touching me, too. I loathe sharing a bed with another person even without them touching me (which they are not allowed to do - when it's time for sleep, get the hell away from me; I don't even want their nostril air touching me, let alone their physical body), but I am perfectly fine with clingy cats. I must admit, though, I also enjoy sleeping with Bandit and Chester when I'm cat-sitting at my parents' house -- they cuddle with me, and then sleep in their own spots, only lightly touching me. It is nice to be able to move so freely (I switch positions multiple times throughout the night).

That clue was in the sibling category, not the alliteration category. And I liked Claire's little "this is funny" smile on answering it.

Great start to the semi-finals; these kids are impressive, and what a close game! Private practice was the only TS that surprised me. Peso, boxing, and capital gains I would also, if asked in advance, have said, “Yes, I think at least one of three Teen Tournament contenders will know that,” but private practice is the only one that surprised me when they didn’t. That the “I Have a Dream” speech was given by MLK Jr. belongs nowhere on this show unless they actually do implement a Toddler Tournament. There seemed to be an edit between Claire's answer to the RPM clue and Alex's "I'm used to revolutions, but we'll take that" ruling, so I think they paused taping while deciding whether rotations was acceptable.

Elective is the term used for such surgeries (although obviously proactive also accurately describes the general situation). When Sheen had and recovered from his surgery, it was during the hiatus between seasons two and three, so Robert's heart attack and subsequent surgery had long since been filmed; filming on season two wrapped about a month before the surgery.

Because it treats the woman like property to be handed off from one man to another (there's a reason it's the man doing the asking), and that's made all the worse in this commercial when the "man" being asked is her young son. But what happens if he says no? The timing doesn't change my confusion -- if they still get married, then it's pointless for him to have been asked (and if he has veto power over her decision to get engaged, then we're back to the offensiveness).

And wouldn't her family have mentioned, "You know, D.J. doesn't bring Mary to church"? Her family would have been the easy solution to this "problem" all along; D.J. shouldn't have to take her if he doesn't want to go, but if Geena wants Mary to still attend in her absence, she could go with her grandparents. I think it was nice of them to go this one time as a favor to D.J., but I'm glad Dan didn't go; that wouldn't have been believable. I hope Darlene asked her kids if they wanted to go, rather than told them they had to, and can't imagine her handling it any other way, but I don't remember if Harris and/or Mark were there. If one or both wasn't, that implies they were given the choice. Mary seems old enough now that she should be able to decide for herself, too, but I'm not good with kids' ages, so I don't know how old she is. I like the increased diversity this time around, and I know Geena is going to be very much a secondary character since she's D.J.'s wife and D.J. is inevitably going to get the least focus of the three Conner "kids," but they have got to flesh her out a little bit beyond "bossy bible thumper," because if that's all there is to a black female character, that is a problem. And could they please throw in a line explaining why she's home, when in the first episode she was only home on bereavement leave; there was no indication then her tour was almost up. She's the family's main source of income and benefits, so is her pay the same here at home, or did she get paid more when she was on duty in Afghanistan? Again, I know they're not going to get too much into D.J. and Geena's life, but a line here and there that doesn't take up a lot of time (or require acting chops Fishman doesn't have) would help us build a picture.

I hated Little House on the Prairie, so when I had to watch it because someone else had it on, I took great delight in the wonderfully awful Harriet Olesen; she was a total "love to hate her" character, and I like that MacGregor totally embraced that and went for it in her performance.

If one or both of them had said no (for some invalid reason, not because they knew something horrible about him), would you not have married him? In addition to finding the tradition offensive, I'm stumped by the pointlessness -- if the male being asked for permission/blessing says, "No, you cannot ask my daughter/mother to marry you," what then? Dude skulks home and never sees her again? Presumably, no, the two people who want to get engaged do so (and if it's her father who said no, tell him to get stuffed, and if it's her son, help him deal with his jealousy/fear of abandonment/whatever issue he has going on), so what was the point of asking him? Becoming a stepparent is a commitment on top of the marriage, so I would have found the commercial cute if we met these two after the woman had been asked, said yes, and told the little boy what this was going to mean for the family, and we were seeing the man have some sort of special moment with the kid, saying he was just as excited to become his stepdad as to become Mom's husband or something. That I'd find sweet. As aired, though, not at all. On top of the big issue, I - like the original poster - am annoyed by the obviousness of it; it plays like it's a big reveal that he's talking to a kid rather than a father, but I knew the first time I saw it that it was a kid. I was just waiting to see if it was a girl or boy so I knew how loudly to grumble.

Yep, because heaven forbid Becky alone be worthy of changing for; no, she'll have to do it for her child.