Bastet

On its face, it's better than the so-perky-she-should-be-killed-to-spare-us-all's offering (from the "my commercial would be some awful musical about being made in the U.S.A." woman), but there's something quite off about him imagining a bunch of animals, most of whom do not eat meat (and none of whom would be particularly likely to prey on the animals constituting the main ingredient of Johnsonville sausage) getting excited about this dude's breakfast.

This was quite obviously an early aftermath episode - even without it being set pre-election and “we should blow our money on Halloween” - but to deal with the disjointed feeling, I decided I can appreciate moving it back this far, as grief usually isn’t linear. Great family dynamic. I like the two completely valid tugs, between Dan wanting to be left the hell alone, and the family being worried about his isolation. I loved this exchange between Chuck and Dan: “We know what you’re going through.” “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize Anne Marie was dead.” I’ve never been to a support group, but shouldn’t they have let Dan indeed just take the step of showing up and listening, and then speak if/when he wanted, rather than forcing it? He might have stayed, and may even have wound up sharing. Dan, the father, asking Becky, the daughter, for advice on dealing with the loss of a spouse was wonderful. The beer swig was perfectly timed. Dan complaining about Jackie’s car blocking the driveway reminded me of the “You’re blocking me, Jackie,”/”In what sense?”/“In a Plymouth sense” scene from the original Roseanne. Modern-day Becky absolutely would dash through in the background to grab her jacket and join her dad’s friends at a strip club, so I laughed. I thought Jackie’s “Oh, were we go” as she stalks after the MAGA hat guy would make my night. But then “Say hi to Mom” came along and I roared. It’s weird they didn’t explain why Geena is back; in the premiere, she was home on bereavement leave, not because her rotation was up. So why is she suddenly transferred back to base? If D. J. in two years didn’t want to take Mary to church, why can’t that be okay, and now Mary can choose to go with her mom if she wants? And why does the entire Conner family, including kids not given a choice, have to tag along to something they don’t subscribe to in order to reignite this? Geena can talk with Mary now that she’s home about why she likes church, and give Mary the option of resuming this Mom and Me activity if she wants in time. But LOL at asking the Conners to stand up so they all know who they are, followed by the "just kidding; we know" -- perfect tone for the only white folks in the pews joke.

I'm glad you're all happy, and I like that commercial, too, but if I see it before Thanksgiving - especially with how early Thanksgiving is this year - I'm going to throw things at my TV. It's bad enough Christmas takes over an entire month; it doesn't need half of the preceding month, too.

IIRC, it wasn't pink flamingo, but pink flamenco.

These kids were great; I think this was the best game of the tourney since the first one. I particularly liked Autumn and Maggie. I was rooting for Autumn, but I liked how Maggie's serious demeanor would light up when she got something right she obviously wasn't entirely sure about. Red for carmine popped immediately out of my mouth (yes, I play along out loud), yet I had no idea I knew that. Shy was a very surprising TS, so I have to think they all forgot the category since it was the first clue chosen in that category. Tesla was just surprising, period. Also Daytona after the others guessed Indy. Fainting goats as a TS made me a little sad; they entertain me, and whenever my cats fall over to be petted, I say, “Fainting goat!” (or, “Aw, you just collapsed under the weight of your cuteness”). For the wrong answer of “coalition” for “alliance,” wasn’t coalition in the clue or did I just imagine that? Damn videogames category; it stood in for TV shows to keep my “pop culture categories go completely unanswered” streak alive in this tournament. I also managed to stare dumbly at the TV for a few of the album clues, but I got everything else. Unless another poster and I both misunderstood her, yes, Maggie said Emma Robert, rather than Roberts, and I was expecting a correction. The announcement of the slate of semi-finalists made me happy for its diversity, and I’m glad Emma qualified; I look forward to seeing how she does having worked out her initial buzzer woes.

I don't believe we heard a cause of death, but I did miss two episodes of the revival season of Roseanne, so it's possible I missed it. I don't think we'll get an episode focused on it, but I suspect we'll get some more background on Mark's death and its impact on Becky via this pregnancy storyline -- she didn't wind up having a baby with her husband, wasn't planning on motherhood after that, and is now pregnant by one of her two casual flings of the moment. It would be odd for her not to reflect on how this is not at all how she had once pictured becoming a mother.

So, to get a win, the Giants have to play a team as awful as the 49ers - and still come damn close to giving it away in the end - but I'll take it, because this has been such a horrible season that even a close win over one of the other worst teams in the NFL is cause for ... well, not celebration, but at least not the usual despair, and that is a good thing. And, for two horrible teams, that wasn't as dreadful a game as I was expecting.

Between Jack’s outfit, hair, and wave to the camera, I came away from the introductions lecturing myself on being judgmental. Instead of a TV category I bombed completely, this game it was a Movie category. Otherwise, I had a good game. Upright (piano), horseshoe, tenor (especially because of the wrong guesses), and narcolepsy all surprised me at least a bit as TS. Opus might have surprised me, too, if Mr. Holland’s Opus wasn’t “before their time.” Nah; I think a lot of people have no idea what that word means. Bears in one area learning to care for their cubs longer because they’re not hunted there until they’re done is fucking awesome. The J! curse at work, that Sessions was ousted from the job shortly before he was asked about in a game? And is it really noteworthy to J! writers that blazers are worn by women/girls as well as men/boys? Okay, back to football (yep, the Giants are so bad this season, I'm taking a break from one of their games to watch teenagers.)

Me, too. It would be very easy to explain his absence by saying they divorced - statistically, they were quite likely to. But they also needed to explain Becky's stasis and David's abandonment of his kids (again, quite believable to say there was a divorce, but they had to address the lack of parenting, too), and death instead of divorce covers all those bases.

There's the Breaking News thread, concentrated on spoilers and speculations, so maybe this one should stay a general media thread, but be marked no spoilers?

Oh, I don't think so. I think he meant exactly what he said, and he can go take a long walk off a short pier with that crap. But, yes, I laughed out loud at his Trump prediction, because that's exactly what would happen. "Fake clues!" I also got some chuckles out of his thoughts on board jumping after the DDs have been found and how people's knowledge gaps really surprise him sometimes. And how very Alex that when he'd several times not been able to remember someone's name and thus asked the interviewer, the one time later the interviewer jumped in with someone's name, Alex basically said, "Yes, jackass, him." And when he was telling the story of someone walking up and trying to stump him with the flag question, and the interviewer jumped in with the moon answer and I could just imagine the look as Alex said, yes, he knew it, too. Alex is impatient and petulant in a certain way that entertains me. I liked his honesty about how his age affects his concentration (and that of the person pushing the button to reveal the chosen clue), and that he even went off and had the dementia tests done. And I understand his pride in troubleshooting and repairing something that has quit working; I like that "A-ha!" moment, too.

I just read Friday's clues on the archive, and while I'm sure I'd have felt sorry for him if Dan was a person on my screen, as just a name in red, I laughed out loud at some of his guesses. Oh my. I knew all the TS (although I didn't know some things the kids got right - I missed all the TV shows, one of the books, a few of the Disney things, and a videogame - so I didn't come close to running the game), and dome and alien blew me away when no one got them. "Nose to the grindstone" was surprising, too. But those first two, wow. Not one of the three could look at a picture (which I couldn't see, but I know there was one in the clue) of a dome-shaped mountain and come up with "dome mountain" or read "non-citizen" and, especially in our current climate, come up with "alien"? That's twice in just three games of this tournament that there has been a TV category, and twice that I have not known a single clue in said category. I wonder if this dubious streak I have going will continue throughout the tournament.

It doesn't seem to be. I can't find a name for the actor in the "pen" commercial, but the other one is Lily Rains.

Because her life isn't that great to begin with, so she's not happy with it, wants to change it, but isn't quite sure how, and this is going to further limit her options for the future; she's been stuck in place all these years, and this is something that will up her chances of staying that way. She is only able to set aside a little money as it is, so it's going to be difficult to support a child on her salary - especially when the other parent is a busboy with even more limited prospects for a measurably better job in the near future - and having a child will significantly reduce her odds of getting the kind of education or training that would give her a job with better income, stable hours, decent benefits, and the sense of accomplishment she feels she's been missing. Having kids in this country has an economic impact on women - across education and experience levels and profession - that it doesn't have on men (in fact, while women with children earn less than those without, fathers earn more than their child-free counterparts). The odds are already stacked against her in life given her socioeconomic status and limited education, and this will be one more thing. I just feel sorry for her that it's going to get even harder for her right as she's beginning to try to improve her life. Like I said, it doesn't have to be a disaster - only time will tell - and if she's decided she truly does want to be a parent, then at least she gets that out of it, but it's certainly not an "Oh, how nice for Becky, she's pregnant!" scenario.

Usually the Los Angeles station just skips over it in those cases (e.g. the episode recently preempted for election coverage), but occasionally they've aired it the next day, putting us a day behind for the rest of the week until we're caught up by replacing the Saturday night re-run with Friday's game, so come Monday we're synced. I suppose they might still do that since it was a tournament episode, but it's only the Teen Tournament and not even the finals of that, and they had the opportunity to use last night's post-football slot and didn't take it, so I think most if not all CA stations who preempted it for news coverage are just going to have us miss it rather than being a day behind all next week. I haven't taken the time to read through it yet, but Friday's game is up on the J! Archive now, so you can at least see the clues, just not the actual game.

Same here, on all counts. I find the asking a father's permission to propose to his daughter tradition utterly offensive, and if they'd made this "asking the kid" variation a daughter rather than a son, it might have come off a little better -- still shit on its face, but maybe you could read its subversion of the tradition as mocking it for its sexist ridiculousness. Having it be a son, though, makes it just as gross as the original -- even though he's just a kid, he's the male, so he gets asked, not the woman actually being proposed to. The only way I'd like that commercial is if the little kid responded with why on earth the guy was asking him, not her, and walked away from this ridiculous exercise muttering about how he hopes Mom rejects this sexist loser and things get back to normal around here.

That's what I figured - if they're bothering to announce the casting of the busboy character as a recurring role, he must be something more than a coworker. But, at the time his casting was announced, I was still hoping the pregnancy was Geena's so I didn't want to dwell on it. Rene Rosado's character Gus bugged the ever-loving shit out of me on Major Crimes (I couldn't stand him when he first appeared, transitioned to really liking him, and then hated him with the neat of a nova by the end), so odds aren't in favor of me liking him as a party to screwing up Becky's life this way, but we'll see. The brief description of the character sounded like every horrible stereotype, but this franchise has a better track record than most, so I'm still hoping the humor around him is sharp and even subversive rather than stereotypical.

Yes, because choosing to give a loving home to a different species of companion animal in the midst of a homeless pet overpopulation crisis is clearly cause for scorn. The judging is already as blind as you suggest it should be. Since you don't watch, here's a recap: There are two judges in the first round, who are there watching the action (along with Bobby), commenting, tasting, and ultimately deciding which of two contenders (tasked with making a dish focused on an ingredient of Bobby's choice) will be the one to challenge Bobby to a cook-off based on a dish of that winning contender's choosing (their "specialty" dish, but sometimes it's a true specialty and sometimes it's a strategy - something that's one of Bobby's known weak spots, so something they believe they can make a better version of than he will). In the final round, between Bobby and that challenger, those two first-round judges (who usually know Bobby, so there's some good banter as they try to psych him out; at least one time his daughter has appeared, and she had a good time ribbing him) are observing and, if they wish, tasting as the dishes come along. But when it comes time to vote on the finished product, that's done by a panel of three different judges, who did not see anything that came before and are just presented with Dish A and B. Now, because Bobby's dish is usually pretty easily spotted by the ingredients he uses, it's only "blind" judging. And that, plus home-kitchen advantage, gives him an edge, which is why I think he wins more here than he did on Throwdown -- with that show, there was no home kitchen, and the judges were local to the cuisine being presented, so they were more prone to pick the traditional version of the dish they were used to than Bobby's take on it, no matter how well executed the respective offerings. With this show, there's generally one judge who specializes in the cuisine at hand, and two who don't (they know their shit when it comes to food, but aren't specific to that type of cuisine). So you're more likely here to have Bobby win with a dish that maybe isn't the better representation of what one traditionally expects when sitting down to that particular meal but is a well-executed, flavorful variation. So there's a lot of good food to be seen from everyone, which keeps me tuned in even when I don't particularly care for someone's personality. (I'm indifferent to Bobby - he's got noticeably good and noticeably bad qualities, so in the grand scheme of what's going on in life he evens out to a neutral - but a couple of the recurring first-round judges bug the shit out of me; I try to tune them out.)

I'm very much looking forward to Rams/Seahawks, but otherwise, yeah - I may have to actually get something done today.

Well, good luck to her with that, but the odds are against her, and this is a shitty thing to do to a character who has - despite a lot of sex, with a lot of different people - always made sure this didn't happen (much to Jackie's surprise, heh). I'm not interested in "every baby is a blessing" bullshit. This may not be a disaster, but it's not a good thing for her. And I'd like to see Becky finally have something good - she got used as a third adult in the family practically since she could walk, half "stupidity"/half "well, dumb, but it may work freaked-out plan" opted to relocate for her husband's job in order to complete her education in time, saw that fall apart, made another bad decision on how to proceed, wound up a widow, and just coasted by for years before seeking out ways to establish herself.

@bilgistic, I wish you worked in my industry and my location, because I'd love to have someone with your work ethic, innate intelligence, depth of experience and commitment to learning new things, and general nature on my team. While I know you need income, I am glad this didn't work out, because of the danger of you being sucked back into the CRE industry even temporarily and the paychecks not being worth the time it took you to extricate yourself again. I continue to wish you good luck. Because if you can find someone who appreciates - meaning respects and appropriately values - all you have to offer, you can be set for life in the environment you deserve. It's just such a damn shame that is so hard to come by.

Even if, not being farmers, they live downtown? I mean, the show has put no thought into making a Napa-set show actually reflect Napa, so if somehow most if not all the locations - Marjorie's house, Bonnie and Christy's building, Adam's place, the meeting location, their lunch spot, Jill's house, Christy's strip mall law school - are in what constitutes the city center, would Vine (or whatever the bus system is called now) let someone without a car traverse that limited area? And do we know Tammy doesn't have a car (I missed the episode in which she was introduced)?

Well, she was young, and dealing with some shit, so it's not unreasonable to me that losing her dad maybe sent her a bit further into tailspin but also ultimately prompted her to reflect back on things (especially since Mark made a good effort in the end to explain how he understood both sides of the parent/child conflict; she wasn't magically led away from her bad behavior, but she had a base to draw on) with a maturity circumstances forced her to have, and got herself together. But I agree that it was the typical scenario where the non-custodial parent (who'd been the less-involved parent even during the marriage) became the "getaway" home, with the kid manipulating that parent's guilt to go somewhere with fewer rules and consequences.

I realized today that I fell asleep not far into the late airing of this one last week, so needed to watch the rerun tonight. Looking at the property, I, too, wondered about there not being a contained yard within that vast expanse of farmland (that's what all the farmers in my family have), but their previous dog was by his side all day, and then curled up in the house at night. All the farmers in my family have a dog like that, too - in the truck, on the tractor, in the crops, the dog is always right there. So I think Hannah will have plenty of room to run, but won't be off wandering on her own 50 acres away -- she'll be where she can be called back when need be. In the update footage, she was on a long leash around the horses, so I think they're easing her into farm life. Like the woman said, they really don't go anywhere; they're always on the farm/ranch, and she's alone a lot because of the hours he works, so whether at home with her or out with him, Hannah will be a very close companion. Hannah's personality is hilarious; equal parts sweet and wild child, so she might be a bit of a pistol to train, but I'm sure she'll settle into a good pet. She definitely won't be intimated by the cows and horses, and I don't think she'll bother them, either -- maybe pester them a little bit until she realizes they don't want to play. She was so excited to see the owners again - she's excited about pretty much everything, which is adorable. John Coffey and Jane were both sweeties, too. The next football game I'm interested in doesn't start until 7:30, so I can watch the new episode right now and not have to worry about conking out later, yay.

The show is set in Napa, not L.A. It's not very big, so maybe the bus system is a reasonable alternative for those without a car. (I've only been there a few times, and just as day trips for wine tasting while staying in San Francisco/Oakland, so I always had a car.)