Bastet

Decoy was a really surprising TS; I suspect they over-thought it. Veneers, bundling, and prospectus were a bit surprising, too. A picture of Khrushchev? Come on. I was surprised to get all but one (The Walking Dead, the one they all missed) in the TV Kids category. Overall, though, I didn’t have a great game. I had no clue on FJ; my answer was, "Don't know, and don't care." I've been cranky all day. I'm going to tell myself that's the reason behind my mediocre play. Doug and Alex cracked me up during Doug's interview. And add me to the list of those who think the other two contestants let the one in the middle ring in so she could get out of the red and participate in FJ.

Riley once swallowed an eight-inch piece of stretchy ribbon! It was folded in half, so four inches, but I still have no idea how she got that down whole. Thankfully, I came in just after she did it, so I was able to induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide and get it right back up intact.

There wouldn't have been room; Affleck is an actor-writer-producer-director. I had no idea until reading the forum that "hyphenate" used in this manner was so inside baseball. I guess, being in the entertainment industry, the writers also thought it was a lot more well known than it actually is. If they'd just used a generic "Oscar Winners" category, it seems more people would have come up with Affleck rather than trying to think of Oscar winners with hyphenated names. Because, as someone who understood the term, I found the category extremely helpful -- during the commercial break between announcing the category and revealing the clue, I'd already gone through a mental list of Oscar-winning hyphenates, and Affleck was one of those who came to mind. When the clue was revealed, those dates and categories made it immediately clear Affleck was the right one. So, for me, the category turned something I'd have had to sit and think about into an instaget. But for others, it sent them down the wrong path.

He was at the front door.

I was a little surprised FJ was a TS, and really surprised when I got here and saw so many people confused by the hyphenate part of the category. I guess that's what happened to the contestants? Certainly to the one who guessed Daniel Day-Lewis. I got Ben Affleck quickly; during the commercial break, he's one of those who came to me while going through my mental list of Oscar-winning hyphenates (because I never thought of people with hyphenated names, but of actor-director-writers and such), so once the clue was read he was easily the one who fit given the years. My best friend called about half an hour before the show started, and we hadn't talked in a while, so I didn't say, "Time for Jeopardy!, gotta go" when it began, so I only saw the end of the first round (the Weird Al category, which I ran - and the contestant should have had to actually say ... and the News rather than just saying Huey Lewis and Alex filling in the rest of the band name) and then DJ and FJ. The zygote clue was overvalued as a DJ DD. At least it wasn't the zucchini clue. Speaking of overvalued, the entire dry category should have been in the first round; those were too simple for DJ. No one knowing who did Nude Descending a Staircase surprised me, because I have only a rudimentary knowledge of art (one of these days, I'm going to take an art history class, since I never got around to it in college), so if I know it, I expect at least one of three people preparing for this show to know it. I didn't know either of the other two TS in that category, though. (Although once Rococo was revealed, I thought, "You know, I think maybe I knew that." So, give me 15 minutes, and I'd have probably spit it out.) I didn't know canasta or the Virgin Islands city (I'd never even heard of it, so I've already forgotten it), either, but other than that I nailed DJ. I'll have to check the archive to see how I'd have done in the first round.

No.

That's the one that sent me over the edge. I never found Angela's meddling amusing like they were going for, and she frequently irritated me, but that had me seeing red. Jane loved her job and was quite unhappy being stuck at home, waiting to be cleared to return to work. But because Angela was enjoying Jane not being at work - and thus not in danger - she hid the letter and kept Jane unhappy for longer than she needed to be. And Jane (and the audience) was expected to excuse that, like everything else, because Angela loves Jane. Making her various "I don't like that your job is dangerous, so who cares if you are wildly fulfilled by it" shenanigans worse was the fact that Frankie, Angela's son/Jane's brother was also a cop. But Angela didn't go around trying to keep him from doing his job or guilt-tripping him for making her worry. No, she saved all that for Jane. Sexist crap.

It seems my guess for the top four will turn out to be right. I'd put Dolly at one and Loretta at two. And I know this is heresy, but I'd put the Carters a little farther down the list. Maybe - cue gasp - not even top five.

The case she hadn't read was Pierson v Post, so she was in Property Law. Which at least is a 1L course, so they're already doing better than a lot of shows/movies that deal with law school. Usually they jump ahead (understandable from a dramatic perspective - watching someone read and brief isn't exactly riveting television). If this show follows suit, Christy will be preparing a mock trial by November. I wonder if they're going to bother re-dressing the classroom set to show her in different classes, or if it will always be that one classroom. Of course, I don't know how much of her in class we'll see going forward; we may just hear her talking about school in a general, "I'm so stressed out!" way.

If you just said you didn't want to go, but feel like you have to, my advice would be to do whatever the hell you want for your birthday, and if they're offended at you declining the invitation, oh well, because it's their problem, not yours. But because you are on the fence, and do like these people but just don't feel like having a big night out on your birthday, I'm instead going to suggest you split the difference somehow. Suggest lunch, or happy hour drinks and snacks, with your family instead and then have your low-key evening alone as planned. (Better yet would be another day entirely, but I'm not sure from your post if that's possible.) Just tell them you already have plans for the evening - you do, and they're not less valid because they don't involve other people, so you don't need to make up a "better-sounding" evening - but you'd love to get together earlier for a couple of hours and thanks so much for the invitation. If they're not available for that, thanks anyway and hope to see you next time you're in town. If you decide to go to dinner, pick the Brazilian barbecue place you've been wanting to try; those usually have really good food, and the presentation of it makes it fitting for a special meal. And while it would obviously be rude (and ridiculous) to take your vegetarian parents there for one of their birthdays, your relatives invited you to choose where you'd like to go for your birthday. Make very clear you just want to go have a nice dinner and catch up with your relatives, you do not want the restaurant staff made aware of your birthday because you don't like when they do the singing spectacle and all eyes in the restaurant wind up on you. If they don't respect your explicit wishes not to have a fuss made and choose to knowingly make you uncomfortable because they would find it fun if it was one of them, well, you know never to accept one of these invitations again.

For a variety of reasons, I haven't seen the show in eons other than some scattered episodes, but I hope my schedule will now put me in a position where I'll once again regularly watch episodes (other than Monday and Thursday, for now, because of football). Tonight I pretty much only saw FJ, and I was, after all this time removed, rather surprised to see it be a TS. "World" authors (meaning rule out Americans and Western Europeans, because of the typical bias) + the release date + "about a woman" as the sole descriptor (meaning her name pretty much has to be in the title) = Anna Karenina. That an individual contestant didn't follow the same logical path, no bother. But that none of the three got there? I'm surprised, and a little sad - I read 90% nonfiction, so most of the novels I know are classics. If I can put the clues together on this one, at least one contestant should also be able to, and the fact none could makes me sad the basics of literature are fading away.

I hate that we've entered the time of year where it gets dark so damn early. We haven't even lost my beloved Daylight Savings Time* yet, but when I closed up shop for the night at 7:00, it was full-on dark outside. That's so wrong, and it sneaks up on me every year. It's only going to get worse, and then awful when DST ends. I hate when my outdoor daylight time comes only on weekends. I miss being able to take my evening walks in daylight (at least the weather is generally still walk-friendly well into winter, but I could do without being occasionally accompanied by coyotes), and I just accomplish less in general because I feel like it's later than it is and am thus inclined to immediately curl up on the couch with Riley, TV, and drinks rather than being productive for a couple of hours and then doing so. *I hate the first week of adjusting to DST in the mornings, but, hoo boy, do I love what it does to the evenings, so that brief misery is well worth it to me.

Didn't Murphy say the network had been after her for a while, wanting to develop a show for her? The FYI gang wasn't approached to reunite, Murphy was offered a show, and when she decided to take them up on it, she brought the old gang with her. I don't think Frank and Corky would take issue; they weren't exactly swimming in job opportunities. On FYI, Jim was the senior anchor, Murphy and Frank were equal, seasoned correspondents who'd joined the show at the same time (he did investigative reporting, she did live interviews to go with her packages), and newcomer Corky was the former Miss America who did the fluff pieces (and then grew as a reporter). Because of her interview style and skill, the type of reporting she did, and the big names she made squirm in her hot seat, Murphy seemed more well known than Frank. So I think the show title makes sense in this series' fictional world.

Dr. Brenda asked the owner if the dog was on steroids or some other drug, and she said no. Not, "No, we gave her the meds for X time and then stopped," just no. If the dog's condition was such that in the past it had been determined by a vet that steroid therapy and/or other drugs aimed at reducing the likelihood/severity of a seizure was not indicated - the seizures were infrequent and mild enough that daily administration of drugs with side effects wasn't the best thing for her - and the reason she now needs to be on them for life is that things progressed and changed, they did a piss poor job of establishing that because they gave no information on what testing and treatment had been done in the past and, in fact, included parts of the conversation that made it seem the answer to that is none. So if the answer is not none, they really did wrong by the owner in editing. If the answer is none, then while the owner quite clearly adores her dog, I give her the side-eye, because it didn't need to get to the point of "I don't think this dog is going to make it" before treatment was commenced.

ELEVEN puppies. Sigh. I don't understand why the owner of the seizure dog had apparently never addressed the issue before. It wasn't as if she said tests had indicated idiopathic seizures, the dog was only having them a few times per year and they were brief and mild, so it had been decided not to do anything given the medication side effects, but now this was worse so they were going to have to kick it into high gear. It was as if the test results and medication possibilities were new to her. I hope that was just bad editing. I hope that horse with the bum legs turned out okay; the owner didn't strike me as particularly invested in or capable of putting in the work Dr. Emily said would be necessary. I'm glad the dog who jumped out of the moving car wound up making a full recovery, and that her owners took her to the orthopedic surgeon to get her the specialty care she needed. I wonder how far away they have to go for services like that, since Dr. Brenda was not just doing the suture removal, but checking the post-op range of motion. Dr. Pol's repeated declaration that one doesn't need an x-ray to determine if a bone is broken, that he can just declare a limb to be fine based on physical exam and how the animal is walking, bugs me.

I have one because I don't need anything more than that. I have a home phone and an office phone. If I am not available to answer the home phone because I'm out doing something, or the office phone because it's outside of business hours (yes, I observe those and demand that others do the same with me) or I'm engaged in something else, people leave a message. Only my parents, close friends, and assistant have my cell phone number, and they know it's generally not the way to reach me; the cell phone is for the few times I want to make a call from somewhere else (e.g. I'm stuck in traffic and want to let someone know I'll be significantly late). Half the time it's sitting in my car or briefcase needing to be charged. I hardly ever text, so the cumbersome typing isn't an issue. So I barely use my cell phone as a phone, and I don't need it to be a computer at all. Thus, a flip phone meets my needs. Murphy's response was something like, "It's for making phone calls," so if that's how she was using hers, then she's probably like me and had no need to get a smartphone.

Emmylou is #5 and Tammy is #6. Reba hasn't appeared yet. Four through one are still to be revealed. So do you mean that's where those women ranked the first time this list was compiled? (I've never looked at the original list, just this updated one UYI is linking to as it's revealed.)

I love when it's revealed that Gabriel is the (inadvertent) leak, and Brenda is all pissed off at him for the things he said to Ann about Brenda's actions, acting like he was just hunky dory with it at the time, and in the midst of being contrite and embarrassed about the leak, he lays into her about her revisionist history. That was the whole thing, what Goldman knew and that no one would tell Sharon until Brenda finally did -- David asked her the $20 million question (amounting to "don't you think we should stick around and make sure this guy doesn't get killed?") and she told him no, we're going.

I only saw the final minute or two as I waited for the next show to start (I used to love this series, and still love Galaxy's work, but drifted away from the show for the repetitiveness and the faux drama) and I couldn't believe how high an insulin dose she was happy to be down to. Yes, it was an improvement over the even-higher starting point, and that's great, but holy shit. That was FAR more insulin than the average insulin-dependent diabetic cat needs, which means she was not feeding him properly. Sometimes diet - ultra-low-carb, moderate fat, and high protein (a caloric composition which several high-quality commercial foods supply better and via far better ingredients than the prescription stuff, so there is NO reason to shell out for that junk food at gourmet prices) - isn't enough to get a diabetic cat off insulin, but it often is. You're just a straight-up ass if you don't try, because even some cheap foods might help. Lasagna?! At least she, per posts about scenes I didn't see, was testing the blood glucose level, because at that high an insulin dose, and especially if she's tinkering with his diet, the risk of hypoglycemia is higher, and she needs to be on top of it rather than flying blind. But, damn. Feeding lasagna - a food which does not remotely comport with a cat's natural diet - to any cat, but to a diabetic cat? That's frightening.

This year's Mr. Rogers documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor, leaves me wondering why I'd possibly need a dramatization. And I'm sure I'll wind up finding Neighbor the superior film. But, still - Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers? I doubt I'll see it in the theater, but, yep, I'll give it a look. And maybe this film will put extra eyes on the documentary.

Tia went back to her rescue roots with the wolf dogs. M2 deserves a bonus for this one! She sure earned props from Tia. Not that she didn’t already have Tia’s respect, but what she put herself through physically, the risk she took, the faith she had in Tia’s instructions when she could not see what was coming at her, and the fact M2 immediately credited the whole team – that was a new level. My friend who follows Tia’s and VRC’s Facebook pages says there was a lot about these wolf dogs at the time they took them in and figured out what to do with them, but I think that would be a lot of scrolling to find those details. She said she remembers a lot of “oy, the wolf dogs” posts but also happy ending posts and thinks they found homes (whether forever or foster through other rescues) for all of them, but if not, most. It was a tough situation trying to figure out how to allocate their peoplepower; there’s work needing to be done at the facilities, and there are three pit bulls loose on a busy street, so can they really pull any more people onto the wolf dog rescue given how many are already there – but, on the other hand, the sheriff has said they’ll shoot anyone VRC can’t catch. Similarly, Tia’s anguish over how stressful and frightening the rescue was to the wolf dogs, but that they had to do it that way, because they had no time – either terrify these poor dogs temporarily and then help them on the flip side, or the dogs get a bullet. Going ten years without a bite is a pretty damn good record for Tia given her work! It goes to show she really knows what she’s doing, and is further proof that the “pit bulls are vicious killers!” hysteria is bullshit. The city dogs so scared they just wanted to hide their heads and pretend none of this was happening was sweet and sad, and I love the last one running right into the crate once they opened it up to he could be with his sister. And then the one who was most aggressive under stress conditions turning out to be the most adoptable, asking for belly rubs within a matter of days.

Absolutely. That was the root of the entire series, Diane English's disgust with the blurred lines between networks' entertainment and news divisions. And now, in this cable news era? It's very deliberate the FYI gang's new show (the name of which I cannot remember - help!) is on cable, and that entertainment value issue will almost certainly again be the underlying theme. Politics, politicians, the war on the press, and general buffoonery, yes, and the characters' personal lives, just like before. But I think the core will remain the core, and that's the struggle to stay true to the core values of journalism while also staying on the air by pulling in decent ratings. We're going to see that not just with FYI: The Senior Years, but with Avery's attempt at bringing real journalism to WOLF with his show.

That's the thing that bugs me - it's not just that everyone on TV has a shoebox of receipts and a calculator rather than a files, Quicken, and TurboTax type of system also being represented, it's that everyone itemizes (apparently, because otherwise they don't need all those receipts). Even characters who almost certainly wouldn't in real life.

An interview with Diane English about the Hillary Clinton cameo, plus a question/answer about future secretaries (assistants), but no spoilers as to who or what brand of crazy they'll play, so it's safe.

Without spoiling, I once commented in the Major Crimes forum that I liked the way women getting married were presented on this franchise - like, you know, normal women. Practical, pragmatic, reasonable, etc. about the logistics, not "It's my day!" Bridezillas. And it started with Brenda -- I love that she suggests just re-using the dress she already has from her first wedding. And I like Kitty curled up in the pile of gowns on the bed.