Bastet

Michael Paul Chan said he - like so many actors of color - largely got bad guy roles prior to this, so he was very happy to have the role in general, and to have his character often addressed as "Mike," not always as "Tao."

No, but the opposite - I won't relocate, because I love the weather here (Los Angeles) - so I understand your desire!

Ha - I had no idea about the Lovelace/Loveless thing, that she was afraid of the name similarity to Linda Lovelace, so went with Loveless instead. Lame, but whatever. I love with abandon her duet with George Jones You Don't Seem to Miss Me (which once meant drunkenly signing along with it on a flight, but at least there was no one seated next to me), and reading through her entry made me remember how many other songs of hers I like. I need to start listening to her again; I used to listen to her Classics CD all the time, but haven't in many years for some reason. I love Lonely Too Long, You Don't Even Know Who I Am, You Can Feel Bad, and Nothin' But The Wheel, in particular. I have the Judds' greatest hits album, too. I saw them in concert once, and it was distracting how much Naomi just sort of flounced around twirling her skirt while Wynonna did most of the work, but just listening to their songs is wonderful. Mama, He's Crazy, Why Not Me, Girls Night Out ... on and on. I even sort of like Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days) in spite of the fact I hate "good old days" sentiment in general and find most of the lyrics of this song exactly the sort of thing I hate about it. But, for some reason, I listen to it. I love Wynonna's debut solo album. She has an incredible voice. I'm looking forward to the top ten. For me, Dolly Parton will probably always be number one, but my personal top ten is subject to weekly change. So I'm curious to see theirs.

The closest place to me that sells the Bloody Mary mix I like (Red Eye) is a liquor store a couple of hours away, so I buy a case from them, which is shipped by a local company. Alcohol delivery obviously requires an adult's signature, but since this is just a mixer, it does not. Usually it's fine, but one year I came home to find the "sorry we missed you" notice, saying they couldn't leave it because a signature was required. I called the liquor store to have them deal with the shipping vendor, since I wasn't going to be home the next day, either. They apologized, said they'd take care of it, but the next day the same thing happened. I talked with the same person at the liquor store, and she was fit to be tied, because she was looking right at the screen where she'd not only checked the no signature required box but added a note after my call. The next day it was delivered, and I've never had an issue before or since, but that was annoying. In other delivery peeves, recently FedEx knocked on my door with a huge package. It was for my next-door neighbor, who wasn't home, and the driver wanted to know if I'd take it for him, since it couldn't just be left at the door. Of course, although I wished it was a smaller package. When I heard my neighbor come home, I lugged it over to him (it wasn't heavy, just awkward), and he said, "Oh, for Pete's sake; I specifically selected something about it being okay to leave, since I knew I wouldn't be home." Plus, the driver hadn't left a notice on his door telling him where the package was. If I hadn't heard his car, and been eager to get this thing out of my foyer, he wouldn't have even known it had come. When USPS delivers a package (which is separate from our daily mail delivery, since those letter carriers are on foot and the packages are delivered via truck), they just ring the bell and immediately leave it on the porch. Which is fine with me, but I do appreciate that when it's UPS doing the delivering, the driver takes the extra step of seeing if someone is home and, if not, leaves the package on my back porch instead.

Jesus, it's good that I made great strides last season in my quest to care about the Rams now that they're here in L.A. (the Chargers, no way, so long as Philip Rivers is behind center), because between the Trojans and the Giants, it is going to be a long fucking season and I need something to give me hope. That was brutal.

Yes, I believe 14 years is right, and I keep meaning to try that Caribbean Cask version of Balvenie. I don't go through scotch the way I go through bourbon, so there's less turnover and I often forget what I wanted to try and just grab one of the usuals. I'm making a mental note; we'll see if it's still there next time I'm at the liquor store.

These aren't obscure, but my favorites are Talisker (19 year), Laphroaig (12 year), Balvenie (12 year or 17 year), and Macallan (18 year). I don't believe I've had any Japanese whiskey, but now I know what I'll be trying the next time I'm at my favorite whiskey bar.

I have to consider that even in my house; it's an old neighborhood, and our lots are nice and long, but narrow (I swear, this is not a penis joke), so we're all pretty close together despite not sharing walls. Windows closed, we can have at it. But windows open, it's not pillow over your face territory or anything, but we do have to think about the fact if the neighbor's window is also open, or they're outside, shit will be heard and that's maybe a bit awkward so try to avoid full volume. And who wants to think while having sex, so windows closed during the deed it is. In my condo, I never heard either neighbor through the walls as anything more than a vague muffled noise that's no big deal (they apparently having received the common decency memo), but for a while a young couple lived two doors down and summer - with everyone's windows open - was awful for how loud they got sometimes. That's just obnoxious.

That poor cow! That looked awful, and had to have been a vicious attack. WTF, dogs? Those porcupine quills inside the mouth looked awful, too. Poor doggy. And, yeah, while we're on dogs: That's a frakkin' coonhound. If he's not properly contained, he will take off after every little thing that strikes his fancy, which can include a whiff of something on the wind. So, ya know, properly contain him. And neuter him, if that's part of his wanderlust. Nerves can regenerate, and they take a long time to do so (I severed a nerve in my finger, had surgery to repair it, and it was a process of years to regain "full" sensation, which - about 20 years later - remains at about 95%, and my cat had a numb foot for a week just from the nerve being pricked by an IV needle), so I hope they actually determined the kitten's condition was permanent. It wasn't clear to me that they knew the injury was old (since Sweetheart was a found kitten), but I hope so -- in which case, yep, with complete loss of sensation after time, amputate. I'm frequently bothered by the minimal diagnostics done by the Pol vets, so my suspicion is heightened, and probably unfairly here -- that seems to be more scenarios of just assuming it's something, giving an antibiotic or steroid, and sending them home to see if it works. Major surgery was probably not as casually recommended! Dr. Brenda saying she wishes the patients could talk is one of the reasons I'm impressed with vets -- their patients can't say what's bothering them, so they have to go on symptoms, physical responses upon examination, and test results. Which is what doctors with human patients use, yes, but they also have the starting point of "I feel dizzy when I do X" or "I have chronic pain in my upper stomach" and such, plus the patient being able to answer follow-up questions as a potential diagnosis shows itself in order to hone in on the right answer.

Forget it; they don't make enough whiskey to have numbed the effects of this game. This is going to be a long fucking season. Cheering a guy being ejected for targeting is a tacky move. And, yes, I freely acknowledge the same thing would have happened when Porter Gustin got the boot for the same thing, had this been played at the Coliseum. The disgusting glorification of "the big hit" remains, even where that hit is inexcusably dangerous (and thus prohibited) -- so long as it's your guy doing the hitting.

Nope, like @bilgistic said, what they're saying is, "I don't care/don't care the same way you do, so I don't want to hear about it anymore. Your being upset is harshing my mellow, and that's what I do care about, so please stifle the expression of your feelings."

Oh, come on, Tate Taylor. The power differential means a black person referring to white folks as "crackers" is never something ears should be shielded from, but a black maid in '60s Mississippi saying it to her friend who is also a black maid is "too mean"? That's some deep-fried bullshit right there. Add in the lack of anger and the (from the book) "Oh no, Miss Skeeter, we won't take money for this" attitude, and it indicates a belief that if these characters responded to their situation with the anger and frustration that is entirely their due, they'd be Angry Black Women with whom the audience would not supervise. Films are built around white male protagonists losing their shit over the bad deals life has handed them, but let a black woman express herself and, oh no, audiences will be turned off (and, yeah, some of the audience will, because look what happens in real life when women, particularly women of color, speak up for themselves). It's not enough for their employers to demean them, they have to be self-sacrificing as well. This is keeping the characters under thumb, and then bragging about giving them a voice.

How in the flying fuck does that "no, that's not a safety even though when his knee goes down half the ball is in the damn end zone" call stand? And then goddamned USC turns around and hands Texas a first down with a stupid personal foul. I need to speed up my drinking if I'm going to make it through this game.

Yes. Because it's dismissive, and a jerk move. When it's a man pulling that shit on me, I see a particularly vibrant shade of red.

I'm going to make pork chops tonight, too - thin cut, bone-in, just brined and then seasoned with pepper. Kale, sauteed with onions, will be the side dish, but I haven't decided on the salad yet. Probably a basic mixed greens with some avocado and cucumber.

Yeah, Malucci was generally a disrespectful jerk, and people responded accordingly. I was very happy to see him go; I cannot stand people like that, and I somehow find them even more annoying as TV characters.

@bilgistic, I remember that our girls died close together; the 17th will be the anniversary of Maddie's death. It simultaneously seems like I've lived without her far longer than three years, and like she just died months ago. @ABay, my condolences to your best friend, and Riley and I shared a toast to her as she navigates this tough time, and to the memories of Star and Murphy (love that name!) - I'm sad they are both now gone, but happy they had the life every pet deserves and too few get.

Fritz wanting a big bag of cookies and the TV remote while dealing with his back is hilarious. And Brenda reading Andy the riot act for sending the killer/victim flowers is interesting in hindsight, knowing she winds up doing the same thing - and stalking, like the victim's mom - to Philip Stroh down the road. Along with her reminding the squad they don't get to pick which parts of the criminal justice system they uphold. I wonder where in the series they decided Brenda losing sight of what she was brought in to do was going to be what ushered her out. Going back to Next of Kin -- I only saw a few bits of part one and then part two, but I don't need to see it all to wonder how the Johnsons can take off with Grady. He belongs to DCFS in L.A. County; he can't just up and go to Atlanta within a matter of days. And did we ever hear about him again? If not, maybe it's because they found out it wasn't going to happen. Also, because I missed most of part one and all of several episodes before it, why are Will and Andy both injured in the wrist/hand/fingers/whatever? And I usually find parental guilt trips, especially those trained on grown-ass children, overblown, but I was all in for Clay and Willie Ray's in this one -- Brenda makes them think she wants to come visit for Christmas, so they cancel plans with the entire rest of their family, and then find out it was all a ruse so she could chase a fugitive.

I missed almost all of last week's episodes, and looking at what's airing tonight, I am so glad I won't miss Cherry Bomb. I don't think I ever like Brenda more than I do in that episode. She who normally steamrolls over everyone and everything in her quest to bring a murderer to justice backs off beautifully with the rape victim when she realizes that girl truly doesn't have it in her right now to report it. I remember "You've already done enough things you didn't want to do" and the girl showing up in her office in the end, now ready, and Brenda giving her a hug so clearly. I can't wait to see it again.

Yeah, I will watch The Help sometimes when it's on TV because of the performances and because it got a lot of the relationships right, but I'm frustrated every time I do because it did a terrible job of establishing the reality - and the systemic nature of that reality - in which they lived. There are hints at the perpetual danger of violence, the disenfranchisement, etc. but that sense of being trapped in the Jim Crow South should permeate the film, not just touched on via a few select scenes. And, fundamentally, as Davis and others said, the film - via Skeeter's stated motivation for the book - purports to tell the maids' stories, but it doesn't actually do that. Instead, it's the tale of a rich white woman's impressions of/reactions to their lives. And Skeeter is a fine character, to be clear, but it's offensive to center her (and to then pat yourself on the back for telling a story about the maids).

Well, that last one is normal; fax is how a loan application was submitted then, and not a lot of people had one at home, so people often used their company's fax machine for personal business. But business is the key word; unlike a loan application, "Your friend is dead" and "I'm pregnant" are not things normally transmitted via fax. The fax was a good way for Elizabeth to send Mark's note (faster than mailing it from Hawaii), if she'd done it after calling to notify them he'd died. It sucks, because you have to make so many calls after someone dies that you quickly reach the point you don't want to say it again, but there's a circle of people who deserve to hear it, so you do it. She could have called Doug to let him know, and then asked him to call County, but they wouldn't write it that way because they'd have to mention Doug. She could have called Susan and asked her to spread the word, but the writers inexplicably chose to write her as petty and snippy with Susan, so they wouldn't have thought of that.

They played at Lilith Fair the year that song came out, and the crowd got really into it as it went on; it was cool, because you could tell that even people unfamiliar with the band were getting caught up in the lyrics and loving it. The all-star video is a lot of fun (I particularly like Dennis Franz dancing around as decomposing Earl):

Okay, phew - I thought you'd seen/heard people talking shit about them.

It makes me think of the little kid in the Allstate commercial, one of the ones where the character's voice is replaced by Dennis Haysbert's:

Yes. I haven't seen the commercial, and had no idea they were married, but Andy Roddick is a tennis player and Brooklyn Decker is an actor; she plays Mallory on Grace & Frankie.