Bastet

I got caught up in baseball and missed the first five minutes, so I missed the entire set-up! I knew from spoilers how Roseanne had died, but damn, I cannot believe I missed the entire opening. Anyone want to recap, feel free. The Dan and Marcy scene was great. John Goodman's weight was distracting sometimes (the haggard look fits the character's emotions, at least), but I took no notice of it in that scene. Jackie not knowing where she belongs, not wanting to leave the house because it means leaving Roseanne – oh, that was even better. All of them are devastated by this loss, but I'm not sure Jackie even knows who she is without Roseanne. Along with Bev, she's been with Roseanne the longest, and they've been completely entwined in each other's lives 99% of that time. (Sometimes to an unhealthy degree, so that negative aspect of their bond makes it all the more interesting.) That recent year they were estranged has to loom large in her mind, but it's more that her entire life she has had this sounding board and safety net, and now she doesn't. She never expected to be living life - not to mention dealing with Bev - without her sister at this stage. And is she going to feel like without Roseanne, she's not as integral a part of the Conner family as she used to be? As much as my heart aches for Dan and the kids, I think I'm most interested in Jackie's grief. Given how freaked out Dan always was about D.J. doing anything remotely stereotypically feminine made his relationship with Mark interesting in the reboot season, and seeing him make the list to help choose and then “Joey, are you crazy? Enrique’s a keeper!” was great. I experienced a mix of emotions at the new Roseanne-less around-the-table scene, credits, and theme music at the end. It was a blend of sadness (because I do miss Roseanne Conner, even though Roseanne Barr became profoundly disgusting and needed to be fired) and “life goes on, messily and in stutter steps, but it goes on” anticipation at seeing more. Dan getting into that tiny bed of theirs alone and arranging the covers on her side, then putting his arm on her pillow as we fade to black was a great tag. (I liked Gina with David, but it sounds like I’d have hated her first scene had I seen that, so I'm reserving judgment on her.) They also mixed in the funny well. Not like the old days, but still good: -"Seen a little too much action in ‘nam, Joey?" -"You’re the obvious choice to take over for Mom; you already live here, and you’re a scary little tyrant." -Darlene pretending Roseanne wrote everyone but Harris a letter -Jackie’s kitchen triangle ("I tried putting them with the Jell-o molds, that made no damn sense" was perfect line delivery, but the whole thing was so Jackie) -The Becky/Darlene banter -The cornholder humor breaking up the emotion between Jackie and Darlene; perfect to use something related to corn, given its rich history on Roseanne This was better than I expected; I thought this first transition episode was going to be really clunky, but instead it only had clunky moments. I will definitely keep watching.

Hopefully because they realized it was refreshing for a man and a woman on TV to enjoy working together and even be friends without falling for each other. Or because the characters just didn't have that kind of chemistry - but, then, neither did Carter and Susan, but they still tried forcing that one for a little while anyway.

I pre-called Too Tall Jones, Shaq, and The Fridge just from the category. I almost ran the first round; I only missed one list clue, but I don’t remember what it was, and Emily the Strange. I missed a few more than that in the DJ round but still did quite well, and got FJ, so it was a great game for me; I think a lot of tonight’s clues were easy to reason your way to without having that specific fact in your brain. The Bronte clue, in an Emilys category, was another one for the embryo tournament. The Odyssey DD belonged in the teen tournament, and she missed it! I was surprised no one knew the Iceman, especially after the incorrect guess.

I just saw it a couple of nights ago, and, yes, that's exactly how it plays. I don't think the company/ad agency has any worries that there will be a mass of viewers who come away from the commercial associating the sauce with excrement.

Besides being an ass to Samantha? Advertising executive. The archive still isn't updated, so we'll find out once it is, but even with cultural osmosis it's entirely possible I won't know any Star Wars clues unless one of them is, "This '70s sci-fi film is wildly popular and spawned numerous sequels, but I have tried twice and never made it through more than half an hour of it."

Don't care.

Welcome back, Mason Crosby. It shouldn't have come down to the final minutes against San Francisco, but once it did, those final minutes were sure fun. (And I'm only a mild fan of the Packers.)

LOL at tonight's FJ being suited to an embryo tournament. I skipped Friday's and tonight's episodes to watch other things, saw the archive still wasn't updated, and decided to just screw it and read the thread. No one spoiled FJ, just a lot of chatter about how ridiculously easy it was, so I looked it up on one of the sites that just lists the FJ clue, and - yeah. obscenely easy for FJ. What I did get from chatter here is that no one knew Mike Brady was an architect, and that surprises me, since I never liked the show and could not describe a single episode in whole if my life depended on it, but I know bits and pieces just from cultural osmosis, and that he's an architect is one of those things.

As an atheist, I have no dog in this race, but while I think miniskirts and tube tops aren't the way to go in church, I don't think requiring dresses and pantyhose is either. (And notice these requirements are for women; if men can go the social equivalent of business casual, so can women.) I think if someone just looks nice - meaning neat and put together - that's adequately respectful. Don't look like you just came in from the beach or are heading from the service to a night out clubbing, but it's not necessary to go "Sunday best." I remember getting dressed up to fly, and I sure don't miss that. Now, while I'm dressed more casually, I don't go in pajama pants or anything like that (although I sure do like that if I'm flying overnight internationally, Virgin Atlantic gives me "jammies" to change into while they turn my seat into a bed), but I do dress for comfort while still looking pulled together.

I don't think hats are automatically inappropriate indoors; to me, it depends on the character of the venue and the purpose of the event. If I saw someone at a nice steakhouse with a cap on, I would give major side eye. While at a casual lunch joint, I probably wouldn't even notice. But if I was having a business meeting at the casual lunch joint, I would find a hat inappropriate. And it's not just the youngsters -- the other night, I was going around the dial and watched part of a documentary series, which included a Board of Supervisors meeting, and one of the board members - a man probably in his fifties - was wearing a baseball cap. The rest of his outfit also looked like he'd just wandered in while running errands. This wasn't a big city, but come on. You may not need to don a suit, but professional attire is appropriate when you're sitting up there in your official capacity.

Right, and that's what she has been in when we've seen her - Property and Contracts. If it isn't simply a function of them not wanting to take up any more soundstage space with a larger set, then a class that small for those classes means it's a small school. So I was just wondering if, during the "I didn't get in anywhere, but I'm waitlisted here" period, they gave any indication whether her one chance was at a small traditional school or if she was going to be going the unaccredited route. I doubt they gave it that level of thought, unless any of them had gone to law school themselves, but given the entire foundation of this "Christy goes to law school" story is how many aspects of her life make it more difficult for her to succeed there, her being at an unaccredited school would fit right in with that. Right? It's a TV rule that everyone must be appalled by the idea of a prenup. But getting married in a community property state without one, so that you can't decide for yourselves how to divvy up yours, mine, and ours but instead have it dictated by law? Not something to enter into without due consideration.

Ugh. Those "face time" folks stand right next to micromanagers (and are often one and the same) at the head of the People I Cannot Work For line. Sorry you're having to deal with Type A Boss now, when you'd had a pretty good thing going before.

That was horrible, although a sadly accurate reflection of the kind of thing that would happen. One good thing to come out of it was Jeanie's great line about "Now you know more about me, and I know more about you." As much as I hate how Jeanie treats Kerry during the lawsuit storyline (hello, direct your ire at Anspaugh, not the one given a mandate that she implemented fairly, with no pretext, and who has always had your back around this issue), I like Jeanie in general during that time, and especially telling Mark she sees him for who he is.

I missed a lot of last season, so do we know what type of law school Christy is attending? I think she was rejected most places, wait-listed at one, and then accepted to that one, so is it supposed to be a traditional law school or an unaccredited one*? Because that is a ridiculously small classroom for a first year course. So I wonder if it's just that they don't want to take the space to build a larger set, or if it's properly showing the kind of school she's attending. Because it's an interesting scenario if it is, given how the odds are stacked against her to begin with; those schools have huge dropout rates, and most of the students who graduate don't pass the bar exam (most states don't allow graduates of unaccredited schools to even take the exam, but California does) and thus don't wind up becoming lawyers, hampering their earning potential in the legal field. *If one of her professors is behaving this unprofessionally with a student, maybe it is. Nah, it’s still ridiculous on every level. Also, it's distracting to me how many students, Christy included, are taking notes on paper rather than on a laptop (or maybe even a smaller device would be typical by now). I like Adam's bar idea, although I'm not sure I care about that becoming a storyline. I like Bonnie and Adam (and I hardly ever like romantic relationships on TV shows), but I'm getting a little tired of the various storylines it generates. And I know the answer to this is because it's a sitcom, but I don't know why Bonnie booking a venue without Adam seeing it needed to be such an issue. I doubt the deposit was non-refundable at that point - at that stage of the timeline, a cancellation fee would be manageable - so why not just say I fell in love with a place and it was available on our date, so I snagged it, let's go look and see if you agree? It's interesting to me their conversations indicate an intention of all joint finances; I wouldn't enter into a community property relationship with anyone, but different strokes and all that. But with someone like Bonnie?! Adam needs to really consider that, and I wonder if it has been (over the course of the engagement that I've missed) or will be raised as an issue.

It's really involved, and expensive, if the cat is even a candidate in the first place and there's a donor (and that's an ethical dilemma in itself), and then you're simultaneously seeing two cats through recovery (because you adopt the donor cat), which is a stressful environment not terribly conducive to healing. It's a whole lot to put the cats through. I might consider it in a young cat, otherwise healthy and strong, with a congenital kidney defect, but in the usual CKD scenario, I wouldn't. You're doing right by her. If the phosphorus level is really high, diet, binders, and fluids are only going to do so much, anyway. If those things would all cause stress, it's just not worth the little bit of extra time they'd give, because it's better to have a little bit less time, but better time; quality over quantity is very much at play here. Shana doesn't know what you know -- she doesn't know she has a progressive disease, it's stage three, she probably only has months, etc. That knowledge is only your painful reality, and it sucks, and you have my heartfelt sympathy. But the bright spot is Shana's reality is this: she's home, she's happy, she's loved, she's getting whatever she wants to eat, and her mommy isn't poking her or forcing meds down her throat. She has a great life, and has no concept maybe it could last longer if things were different. She just knows how she feels, and she feels good. When the time comes, it will be awful for you, but you'll know you let her go out on a high note. Take care of yourself while you're taking care of her, because she does understand the important thing in all this, which is that she's loved beyond measure.

Mariah’s ever-changing hairdos and everyone’s new tattoos always gave away the timing of when things were shot, and now pregnancies and post-partum bodies do as well. Rhino turning into the make-out bandit when he got sick again was sweet. And, aw, he’s a blood donor. I liked seeing how concerned Dr. Kristen was that he, of all dogs, was sick. That it came back in the one bone she could remove was fantastic! It’s cool that he has an e-collar that isn’t a cone of shame. I don’t quite understand how it keeps him from reaching his foot, though. Trying to get his little personal retirement village set up for him, and then the cancer hitting, reminded me of getting the twins’ house set up for Cheech and Chong and then Cheech getting cancer. I'm glad he has his little pen (and kiddie pool), and that at his age and size that's enough to contain him, given his dog aggression. He'd have needed a more involved/expensive set-up in his younger, more agile years. Decker taking off through the office was hilarious. When he settles down, I think he’ll easily be a dog that wanders through the building getting his cuddles, but also curls up on his office bed when he’s supposed to. Warehouse dogs going crazy with happiness in their new yards always makes me happy. Also when they make themselves comfy on the couch; I love how Decker likes to stick his head under pillows. And that maneuver from behind when he met his new owner at VRC for the first time was adorable. The two dogs running up to their mommy who’d passed out in the Quarter was so sweet. Can you imagine coming to, realizing you were in an ambulance/hospital and having no idea what happened to your pets, especially in such a chaotic environment as the French Quarter in general, never mind during a festival?

Maddie was the opposite; she'd come running into the room whenever I turned it on, and then jump up on the desk to watch. She liked watching the washing machine fill up with water, too. Easy to entertain, that cat. Anyway, I've done backlogs of shredding at home, but a friend recently went through seven years worth of paperwork; we took one look at those piles and off to a shredding center she went. Some cities won't accept shredded paper, even if bagged, in the recycling bins, because the recycling company they contract with won't deal with the tiny pieces. But the big bales of shredded paper from shredding centers are accepted by most of those companies. So, if you live somewhere where your shredded paper would wind up in the landfill if you did it at home, but would be part of a big bale that would get recycled if you took it to a shredding center, that's a consideration. (Here we can put it in our bins, but I compost as much of it as I can.)

Yay, Red Tape! Just what I needed to bring this week to a close. As I mentioned in Sharon’s thread in the Major Crimes forum, it’s her withering condescension and “Do you need help with the word ‘immediately’?” that had me liking her from jump, even though we’re supposed to hate her (I liked her even more in Strike Three, thanks especially to the conversation with Brenda as they all prepare to go to the funeral, and by the time Dead Man’s Hand ended, she was my new favorite character. It’s no wonder TNT execs – the old, good ones – said, um, can you get her back? after her three-episode deal was up.) Of course, as a civil rights lawyer, I am inevitably going to be on the side of an FID/PSB leader actually doing her job and holding cops accountable. Especially if she’s played by Mary McDonnell. I like what I call the dueling trench coats scene at the hospital, with Brenda in pink and Sharon in blue. I just wish they hadn’t written Brenda as never having met her; it’s not at all necessary to the plot, and it’s just dumb, given the number of use of force incidents by someone in Priority Homicide/Major Crimes, including Brenda herself, Sharon would have investigated during Brenda’s tenure. Sharon can’t possibly have just happened to be on vacation for all of them. “It does – now that I have all the information you withheld” and everything that follows in the final exchange between Brenda and Sharon is wonderful. As is: “Got us both four months of sensitivity training.” “Well that was a complete waste of time.” Ha! And go, young Sgt. Raydor standing up for herself and filing a complaint against George Andrews for his misogynistic behavior. That went out on a BIG limb in those days (as we well know, it would be risky now). They muddle the doctrines of transferred intent and felony murder in this one, but I let it go, because I love the introduction of Captain Raydor, and the handling of Kitty’s death. I never stop being impressed by how well they handled pet ownership in general on this show, and specifically in this episode and the next how they handled having to let one go. We hardly ever see that on TV; dead pets are usually played for laughs in off-screen, wacky hijinks ways. It’s poignant how Fritz accepts reality and Brenda is on about second opinions, but she knows he’s right; it comes down to her “I can’t do it.” Her transition from denial to resigned acceptance that she has to do right by Kitty no matter how awful it is for her is what so many pet owners have lived, but hardly ever seen portrayed on (scripted) TV. Same with her wishing she could know what Kitty was thinking, and wanting Kitty to know that whatever it seems like they’re doing to her, it’s happening because Brenda loves her so much. Major props to all responsible for that great scene, especially Kyra Sedgwick for diving into it despite having gone through it with her own cat not all that long before. And poor Miss Kitty, the actor cat. She looks so sick and unhappy (and drugged). I doubt they’d have ever gone with this storyline if not for her impending demise, so while I’m glad for it, it’s hard to look at a cat who actually is in her final weeks, and visibly feeling it.

As someone who has a flip phone and very much keeps up with politics (possibly to the detriment of her mental well-being, but that's another issue), I'm curious how one precludes the other.

It's the voice my mom and I both use when cooking bacon. "Bacon, bacon, bacon!"

A friend and I still do the "cigarette, cigar, joint" routine from that episode from time to time. And, yes, watching uptight Jim Dial score pot was great! He'd been having such a hard time dealing with her cancer, avoiding her, even, and then he steps up to do the most un-Jim Dial thing ever to help her. (Prior to that, "the closest I ever came to being such a brazen outlaw was when I took my neighbor's paper. Nixon had resigned; it was a crazy time.") Ditto on "Slugger." I can hear it in my head right now. I love their relationship.

Did you use plain aluminum hydroxide powder, or something with other ingredients? The plain stuff does not have much of a taste or smell, so sometimes you can get away with mixing that into the food. But sometimes they can still tell you're up to something. It's better they eat more phosphorus than not eat. So you just do what you can; if you can't add a binder, just feed the lowest-phosphorus food she'll eat and know you're doing the best you can under the circumstances. Some cats you truly cannot medicate without it causing more stress than it's worth, because chronic stress exacerbates their disease. And, as you said, you don't want the dynamic of your relationship to be one in which she's perpetually running from you, lest you wrangle her and give her meds. Again, you just do what you can, and don't beat yourself up over not being able to do more. Loving her and making her final final months, however many they may be - and I hope it's many! - happy is what she'll value most.

I think it's a bit like your reaction to people obsessed with bacon, because just like with extolling the awesomeness of bacon (and it is pretty fucking delicious, I'll give them that), eating avocado toast (which is also tasty) a) became a trend b) that people treated like a new discovery and c) felt compelled to randomly tell the world about. Not being on social media, I am spared whatever memes and such are going around, but my guess would be it's not about everyone who eats avocado toast, but people who go on about avocado toast in a way that's annoying (just like you're not annoyed with everyone who loves bacon, just the people who treat it like some miraculous discovery that must be discussed).

No, the #metoo episode was originally slated to be number four, next week. So in moving it up a slot, to this week (number three), it delayed Jim's first appearance, because now the original number three will instead be number four. That's what I wasn't clear on and thus asked about - whether the "he'll be in episode three" was stated based on the original line-up (meaning, based on subsequent reordering, he'd actually appear in episode four) or was revealed after the switch had been made (meaning he was in the fourth episode, now set to air third and we'd see him tonight). I figured it was the former, and, indeed, we have to wait another week, but I'm sure it will be worth it!

Yes, when it was originally announced his first appearance would be in episode three, that was early in the post-production of the initial, filmed-in-advance batch of episodes (after the first handful, future episodes will have a short turnaround and the season finale will be really quick). Somewhere in there, it was also announced that the #metoo episode had been moved up to slot three. So it wasn't clear whether we'd see Jim in episode three as would now air, or whether he was in the episode slotted for episode three but now airing as episode four. Now we know, and I'm looking forward to it. But I wish they'd moved this #metoo episode up to the episode two slot; it's that good, and would have better capitalized on the first one. I’d been looking forward to it since I first heard about it, and I think they did a particularly good job with doing this story from the perspective of someone of Murphy’s generation. “I don’t know any woman who hasn’t had an experience,” contrasted with her initially shrugging that off, but then looking back on things that were regarded then as just par for the course and finally confronting what happened to her. “I keep going over it in my mind – [when he would do X, I would do Y, and maybe I invited it]” – that transcends generations. And when she confronted her harasser – who railed against “women dredging up the past, pointing fingers, ruining reputations” as so many fellow abusers have – and got her particular form of closure. Fuck, yeah. That’s why I’ve always loved this show. I also loved Murphy and Phyllis together, as contemporaries in the “in those days, it was just a bad date” era. And Phyllis urging Murphy to use her magnified voice on behalf of others. Murphy and Jessica was also played perfectly, without saying anything explicitly. “I was raised right.” I got emotional at that, another pitch perfect thing – Murphy never directly articulated “X happened to me and was wrong, and I want you to do Y instead,” to Avery but still taught him proper respect and boundaries, and he truly learned it -- reflected on the reasons behind it, accepted it, and implemented it. We need that. We'll never get anywhere without it. And, oh gods, Wolf Network’s seminar being about how-to rather than me too. I roared! And Corky’s “I’m not even through my twenties yet” (in listing the things that have happened to her). Because – yeah. Begging Ruth Bader Ginsburg to stay healthy, because – yeah. And, thank you, Show, for showing a corporation presenting typical sexual harassment training via a man who presents outlandish examples everyone would know are wrong and who acts as if objections to the more common examples are just over-sensitive reactions that would make the company vulnerable to frivolous litigation. Because – yeah. In lighter news, I laughed at the PSA about how BB&B coupons don’t expire. So, I guess in this ridiculous open concept workspace era, no one – even Murphy Fucking Brown – gets an office, so we’re not going to see that as a separate set, and thus not going to see Murphy’s fabulous dart board? They also haven’t taken advantage of allusions to the many great examples of the elevator doors opening onto the bullpen and wonderful hijinx ensuing.