Bastet

Adrienne picking Chris and Carrie made perfect sense, with the possible caveat initially that Chris seemed totally checked out when serving as a sous in the previous round, but he seemed more engaged this time and I quickly relaxed. I was so glad Joe picked Fatima, so I can have her on my screen again. “We’re going to go Pakistani” when Tom looked at the team and said, “So I assume you’re doing Italian,” was funny. So was Carrie asking, “How many pastas, four?” I like how much fun everyone seemed to be having – the chefs and their sous liked working together, the chefs enjoyed competing with each other, tempers didn’t flare when things went wrong, the sous chefs were diligent and helpful, chiming in without trying to take over, nervous about screwing something up and affecting their chef’s chances. It was just a really pleasant kitchen, and that atmosphere has been something I’ve liked all season. I love that both cooked their hearts out, made four tasty dishes, and it came down to the slightly greater of two great meals. As talented as the final two in almost every season are, it’s not often we hear a judge say both deserve to win. And they both wanted it, but had mad respect for the other and were going to be pleased for the winner despite being disappointed it wasn’t them. Good season, and good finale. With that said, I really wanted Adrienne to win this – I wanted to see southern cooking come out on top (it's not my favorite cuisine, but it doesn't get its proper respect, and she seems to do wonderful things with it), and I definitely wanted to see a black woman take the prize. And it seemed to me like she should have, because they were pretty neck and neck, but she hit the first course out of the park, and that plus Joe's chewy meat should have meant she came out on top. But I’m not only not tasting the food, I’m only hearing a small amount of the judges’ commentary. If it was very close to a tie, as it was presented, I hope it was indeed his food and not subconscious bias that edged her out. First course: Adrienne’s dish looked so much more interesting. I’d have enjoyed eating both of them, both were beautifully presented, and there was great technique in both, but Adrienne’s was something I’ve never had before. She’d be my clear winner that round, and seemed to be their clear winner -- the judges’ praise for it was astounding; what a terrific moment that must have been for her! Second course: I don’t like grits, so I don’t know how to cook them – but aren’t they something you don’t want a novice making for the meal of your life? Maybe I’m confusing them with something harder to cook. At any rate, Carrie nailed them, so go Carrie, and go Adrienne encouraging her to "just cook!" Joe’s pasta looked delicious. I’d have wanted Adrienne’s octopus more, again for something I don’t find very often, but the color on that pasta! I want to eat that round’s food over and over (I’d even try the grits); both looked divine. Third course: I hate black-eyed peas (I hate all beans), so I’d be all over Joe’s this round if looking at a menu, because ribeyes are my favorite steak and I love his side ingredients, too, but to serve chewy steak? Sacrilege! Asparagus cooked in asparagus juice, though? I’m going to try that. If I could have had Adrienne's ribs and Joe's vegetables, I'd have been in heaven. Dessert: I also hate bananas, so I’d have preferred Joe’s just on personal preference, but again Adrienne’s seemed more interesting and creative.

I do, but I don't use Tumblr (or Twitter), so I wouldn't know how to search.

Summary and/or links, please?

I can't place him in any of his other episodes, either. Outfitting Mulder with his A/V gear as Mulder heads in to confront Modell in Pusher (and has that great moment with Scully when he gives her his gun), I can see clear as day, but the rest (E.B.E., Fresh Bones, and Folie a Deux) don't trigger any memories.

“I’m Chucky, and I’ll be your friend to the end. Hidey-ho.” Oh, wait; wrong creepy doll. But how the hell would Mr. Chucklewhatever (Chuckleteeth? I can’t understand kids, but I’m going with that due to the smile) have ever become a children’s TV show character in the first place? Yeah, the Teletubbies and such are freaky in their own way to adults, but Mr. Chuckleteeth is just creepy, period, so who’d have greenlit that, and what demonic little children would be into it rather than running away in fear? At any rate, as soon as I got a look at the doll, I knew we were in for a good one – when that freakshow appeared larger size in the trees, and then the kid disappeared? Hell, yeah. In the grand scheme of MOTW episodes, this doesn’t register, but as a MOTW of the revival, it’s good. Thank the universe for GA publicly shaming CC into adding a female director; good job, Holly Dale. And to the D.P. – the cinematography in this episode was fabulous. So many allusions, intentional or otherwise, again – the screeching monkey in a cage made me think of The Erlenmeyer Flask (“If this is monkey pee, you’re on your own”), the funeral made me think of Syzygy, the witchcraft stuff brings to mind several episodes, the law enforcement affair reminds me of Chimera, the dead kid in the road seems reminiscent of something I’m forgetting, the book catching fire makes me think of Kaddish, spontaneous human combustion reminds me of whatever episode that was, and where Mulder stepped over a log to revisit the scene where they found the body, that particular little clearing looked so familiar, I swear it was used in an old episode (Conduit? I really don’t know, but it looked SO familiar). Mulder dismissing the obvious suspect based on nothing but a belief everything is paranormal, check, but I appreciate any time the sex offender witch hunt – and small-town “justice” - is called out for what it is. The mob just standing around as the dad beat the shit out of the sex offender, and then joining in, was chilling. Hee at a “medical doctor” reference; we haven’t heard that in a while, have we? They bugged the shit out of me back in the day, and now it makes me laugh. Mulder’s knowledge and sharing of a local legend is wonderfully old-school, too. Why is Scully not in scrubs as she examines the kid’s body? Unlike Mulder jamming his fingers into (and later licking) evidence, that is not typical. The cop dad was played by the actor who played Randy, the idiot cop on Monk, so I kept expecting him to say something stupid. Um, if the kid won’t pay attention to the guy trying to solve a murder because the faux-Teletubbies are on TV, how about you turn off the fucking TV, parent fail? Nice to see one of the series’ few black characters alive at the end of the episode – not to mention being the good cop. Bless. This had a regular “The Truth is Out There” tagline, and nothing later to change it, right? (unlike when The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat seemed to be the first with the normal tagline, but then with Reggie’s tale we got an altered version). I've no idea what that means in the grand scheme of this "did any of it really happen?" season, but it's notable.

Seattle was the "Really?" TS for me tonight -- with Spokane and Olympia ruled out, I cannot believe the third contestant didn't ring in with Seattle. I was annoyed they didn't finish the suffragette category; I'd have gone there first. Audible was also surprising; these folks would have fit right in with the contestants who basically stood there silently for the infamous football category a while back. Like the "off-setting" clue in that category, this had, IMO, enough of a non-football way to get to the right answer that I am surprised not one of them could do it. I watch very few animated films, so I thought I was going to blow that films by villain category, but by cultural osmosis, I had picked up a couple of them -- Pinnochio and Beauty and the Best -- even though I haven't seen them. Japan and Jordan came to me instantly for FJ, but then I floundered around trying to come up with another J island nation before having my, "Duh, Jamaica!" moment; I wouldn't have had time to write it down, I don't think.

Yeah, I wore those for the first time on that ferry to Belfast. I was also drugged, so I have no idea how much they worked on their own.

I just polished off last night's leftover pizza for lunch. The new restaurant is excellent; even better crust than my two favorites, and the specialty pizza I tried was a nice combination of ingredients (and the ingredients seemed to be of good quality), so they know their stuff. Their onion rings I wouldn't order again, which is a shame, because I love onion rings but hate making them (too much time and mess for a snack), but the chicken wings were great.

How can someone have a too-high hairline with a wig? They can't put it any higher than her actual hairline, or we'd see her hair/cap.

A new pizza place opened up nearby; I already have two great options (and several "good if those disappeared" options) via Italian restaurants in the neighborhood, but an embarrassment of riches in ordering pizza delivery is a good thing. There are several things about the menu that inspire confidence - the dough is made in-house, whole wheat is available, the mozzarella is fresh and there are several other cheese options, there are a plethora of topping options (including my major requirements of artichoke hearts and fresh spinach), several non-tomato options for the sauce are offered, and they have a personal size option rather than needing to order a medium or larger pizza - and a couple of things that give me pause, like putting (beef) meatballs (instead of chorizo) on the "Mexican" specialty pizza, and listing the margherita pizza as "margarita" - but I'm going in as I don't want to cook tonight and I'm curious to try this place. I like to test out a new place with a specialty pizza and recommended appetizers, and then, if good, customize in the future. So, on the way are chicken wings (garlic basil style), onion rings (restaurants that can not only make but transport good onions rings are held in high esteem!), and a thin crust wheat pizza with white sauce, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, fresh mixed greens, and avocado. They're a bit more expensive than my two favorite options, and don't have fried calamari (my favorite appetizer with pizza), but they're incredibly close and have good hours (until 11:00 p.m. during the week and 1:00 a.m. weekends), so if the food is good this will be a nice addition. Fingers crossed!

Oh, is that confirmed? I wondered, but hadn't seen anything. So - she's been there a while, and Darlene and kids moving back is new, as the revival starts? Maybe she's displaced from her old room by their arrival? I look forward to finding out.

Hee; the "I thought you were dead" jokes are sure to amuse me. I'm one of the few who liked the "it was all a book" reveal of the finale, but if they're going to come back I definitely want Dan alive, so I'll happily go along with a wink-and-nod retcon. So Darlene and her kids are newly living with Dan and Roseanne, as expected, and with Darlene in D.J.'s old room and the kids in the girls' old room? I'm surprised there isn't one kid per room and Darlene in the basement, so maybe yet another Conner kid is back home, too?

I missed the episode, but just checked the archive: Like the contestants, I had no idea who did the “stockings are hung by the chimney with care” poem; I’d never thought about it. Unlike the contestants, I knew Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I also got Northeastern, and if they’d gone in order, it would have followed Northwestern – I wonder if that would have helped. The groom and bloom TS surprised me. I didn’t come up with bucket and buffet until the last second (I had buffet, but because the spelling similarity was not accompanied by sounding the same, it took me several beats to come up with bucket), but groom and bloom was an instaget. I couldn’t come up with sinew (sinewy, I know, but sinew just wasn’t in my brain) as the counterpart to screw, though. I love those types of categories. I’m all over the place with pop culture; sometimes I’m a wiz, and sometimes I’m a total ignoramus. The TV category was in the latter column – I only got the first clue (James Spader). “Identify Hungary on a map” for $1000? Jeez, I hate this show sometimes. FJ was an instaget, but then I started questioning myself if I was just making a leap, so I started analyzing each aspect of the clue and hesitantly stuck with my response.

I've never had a cat attack my shoes, but almost all of them have liked to roll around with shoes, stick their paws in them, etc. I don't wear shoes in the house, and (most of the time) I carry them directly to my closet and put them away, but I have a pair of flip flops by each door (to wear outside), so those are always available.

My motion sickness is at its worst on water, but when I wanted to get from Scotland to Northern Ireland, it seemed stupid to buy a plane ticket from Glasgow to Belfast when Stena's high-speed ferry was available if I just took the train down to Stranraer (it goes out of Cairnryan now, I believe), so I took my drugs and gave it a try. Crossing that North Channel was fine, but I'd never, ever do that Dublin-Liverpool route (or even Dublin-Holyhead) across the Irish Sea.

I've had this one for years, because I love the two different sizes (for lemon or lime). There is the occasional season in which my tree yields lemons that are the slightest bit too large for it, but usually it's just right.

I knew the name, but couldn't place the song I was associating her with. I did an internet search and, oh! - I listen to Heads Carolina, Tails California frequently on my iPod. It's such an evocative song. Apparently that was her debut; way to come out of the gate! Good luck to her in this health battle.

FJ was an instaget for me; films are generally a good category for me, and narrowing it down to the Oscars means I'd bet big. I loved the “Man of Two seasons” category – right up my alley. And the song titles category. And the category looking for C words (speaking of -- conjugal bliss? I know it fits, but whose mind goes there instead of “connubial” for “bliss? Visit, on the other hand …). I also ran the science category, and am beside myself at how ridiculously easy the half-life clue was as a DD. It was stupidly worded in what it talked about reducing, but all it asked of the contestant was to divide 200 by 4. That's worth potentially big bucks? No. Baker’s rack was a surprising TS; I’d have thought a good chunk of people simply know what those things are called, plus there was the pie/appropriately named part of the clue as a hint if it didn’t immediately come to mind. “Say, Say, Say” was rather surprising, too. I also knew Nat Turner, Marrakesh, Kenya, the bones in the human body ditloid, and something else I'm forgetting, but those were the two TS that surprised me. I, too, guessed Uber – I use a taxi if I need a ride, so the others are all the same to me. I'd have looked like a dunce on that one. Unless the tandem bike contestant (who is not tall)’s husband is quite short, why is he in front on their rides – she stares at his back the whole time? Maybe she really is just reading a book back there. (I haven't ridden a tandem bike in eons; maybe the front position must be occupied by someone stronger than her for the kinds of trips they do.)

I always babble about how one of the many things I love about Unruhe is Scully as an investigator, but I love it so much I'm happy to see someone else note that aspect of the episode. I love the arrest, the interrogation, and how fucking pissed she is that they didn't get him in time to save the second victim.

I love bridges, and had no idea so many people were uncomfortable driving across them (my mom doesn't like driving across those that are quite high up, but I'd never heard anyone else talk about it). If we had a "scary" one here in Los Angeles, I'd pick up some extra bucks driving people across. I always loved roller coasters, and spent most of my teenage years with a season pass to Magic Mountain, but I haven't been on one in probably 15 years (amusement parks seem a young person's thing to me, and spending what is now a crazy sum of money to spend the day in a crowd definitely does not appeal); my middle-aged inner ear might object.

I don't even know what this refers to, yet I agree wholeheartedly.

I did, too; that was probably my favorite part of the episode.

There's no malice when he talks about his mom, either; the kid is totally beaten down and despondent about the whole situation.

It's probably like when a game goes into overtime - in between regulation ending and overtime starting, they explain the rules. So, although it was edited out for time, they probably explained how the tie-breaker works before bringing up the clue. Because it's not as simple as, "be first to ring in and answer correctly, and congratulations, you win," they have to be told what happens if the first one to ring in gets it wrong. So, unless the "in the event of a tie" rules are included in the rules they go over before the game starts, they'd need to hear them then.

I agree (I hate emojis, but I can handle a smiley face) -- LOL should be a response to someone else's message, not part of your own.