Bastet

The saving grace was that Olivia would generally call Elliot out on his attitude (just as he would her when she'd display her prejudice against the mentally ill). But even she used the word "tranny" at one point (she wasn't using it as a slur against someone, but she thought it was a perfectly acceptable way to refer to people who are transgender); the language in those old episodes is jarring, and reminds me that while there is still a very long way to go, at least the popular conscience has shifted some, so that you hear such language less frequently, and are more likely to see a "hey, that's not right" reaction from more than a handful of people when you do.

I only like the whites, too, and my cat will eat a little bit of yolk, but nowhere near a whole one, so I wind up wasting most of my egg yolks. Raw or cooked, they can be used in a large number of baked goods, as noted above, but I hardly ever make those sorts of things. I need to post on Nextdoor and Freecycle to see if there's anyone in my neighborhood who does a lot of baking and would like some extra yolks.

Chewy's business model has long been not to want stuff back, but that is generally to let a customer keep something not quite right but usable and get the preferred item in addition to it (thus keeping them happy) or to encourage a customer to donate to a local shelter/rescue something that would otherwise go unused (thus keeping them happy plus leading to word of mouth about the goodwill). Pieces of a cat tree are different, in that they're not as easy for you to turn from your trash taking up space to someone else's treasure to be utilized, but, as noted, you can probably find someone via Craigslist/Freecycle/etc. who can use the parts as components of a homemade tree. If I was local and soon to be/thinking of making a tree, I'd definitely snatch up such an offer if the materials were of adequate quality.

It was rather silly for her to focus on her having been an attending two (or three?) years longer than him, when all of his years have been with County and several of hers were elsewhere. They're both good doctors and great teachers, but he meets more of the qualifications for the tenure position than she does, plus he's even more the in-house candidate than her. Her frustrations were legitimate but largely misplaced, so it bugged me she didn't include herself in her list of grievances. And, yeah, these folks acting like they're barely above the poverty line has been a series-long annoyance.

I'm oddly sad I hate mustard* (and don't like capers, either), given how excited so many of you are by the recipe. *Well, at least mustard with vinegar (I hate vinegar); I like Chinese-style spicy mustard, that's just ground mustard seed and water, and make that for some sauces, but I think that would be overwhelming with the fish.

I love when he tells him that, then looks at what a mess Morris is, laughs to himself and says, "Never mind." Because when he first said it, the good mood I'd been left in by him hearing old conversations in his head as he left the ER for the last time evaporated, thinking that idiot isn't fit to have Mark's words bestowed on him. So to have Carter realize the same thing made me feel better.

Disliking en suite bathrooms is definitely different for the show - and a little weird. I can easily understand not caring one way or the other, as I don't, but being opposed to one is unusual.

We only see Weaver sporadically now that she's an administrator; she occasionally works a shift in the ER to keep up her skills or something like that, but otherwise we only see her when someone is getting promoted or disciplined. Chen quit - again - in the episode with her dad's death. She didn't have anyone to take care of him during her shift, and no one would cover for her since it was Christmas Eve. So she quit. I guess the third time was the charm, because this time she didn't come back.

Every time I see the commercial with the sloth playing Pictionary, I am just as amused as I was the first time.

He may not have been any more interested in it, but he'd done more of it. He told her that when she was acting like it was exclusively because he was able to fund whatever he'd funded, and she didn't refute it, so - even though, to my knowledge, we never saw Carter engaged in such activities - I assume we are to take it as true. Thanks. Sounds anti-climactic. She was my favorite for quite a time, but then they didn't seem to know what to do with her. Shifting gears, I cannot imagine how long the actor playing the pregnant lady in the balcony crash episode spent with her legs up in the air during filming. Carter watching his slide show with the random guy from Geriatrics who showed up for free food was cute.

“Is it true that people can have face transplants?” “Yes, it is. In fact, I’m 80 years old. I got this [face] off a dead guy.” Hee. Carter and Kem’s relationship being something in which one would move their entire life for the other has never made sense to me, and really doesn’t now that there’s no baby, but with Wyle wanting reduced time and then off the show, it’s a logical storyline if I accept that they love each other a lot more than comes across to me. I’ll miss him, though. I’m glad Susan is still around. Which brings me to: What happened to Corday?

Bah humbug to @Moose135's former employer. Sorry to hear the news, Moose, but I'm glad you're on payroll through the holidays and a bit beyond, and hope the severance package is decent.

LOL at a two-tech team being called in. I know what you mean about freakishly strong. He has softened a fair bit over the years, but when Bandit first showed up, his leg muscles were nuts - just him pushing against me to say he was through being held would leave bruises! My first experience with a diabetic cat was my "nephew," my friend's big orange tabby. He loathed having his ears touched for any reason, so we didn't even attempt that method, going right for the paw pads. He pulled his leg back the first time he got poked, but that was about it and it was smooth sailing after that (thankfully, he went into remission via diet, and we did not have to keep doing it). So when Bailey needed insulin for a time, I was like, "I got this" and came over to show my parents how to do it. He was an incredibly sweet and easy-going cat - polite, in fact - but, oh my stars, he went berserk when I tried to prick his paw pad. He thrashed around so much, I absolutely could not hold his paw still for even the second or two needed to touch the test strip to the blood drop, then the drop would go flying or get smudged and I'd have to start over, with the same result. So I tried the ear, and he just sat there like absolutely nothing was happening to him. They were polar opposites about it, which I found oddly amusing. From talking with other owners over the years, it seems the paw pad is preferred by more cats, so I guess Bailey was the oddity. Thankfully, with his pink ear and white fur, the vein was easy as all get-out to see. (You're not aiming for the vein, but between the vein and the outer edge of the ear, so you don't need to be able to see it, but it definitely helps when you're starting out and trying to find the right spot.)

I didn't see very much of yesterday's episodes, but I did see Susan moaning to Greasy Guy that she "really wanted" tenure, and I rolled my eyes so hard. If you really want something, you go after it. Being good at the job she has isn't enough to be given the job she wanted, and she's not naive enough to think grants and research/publication didn't matter. I understand her being frustrated with the process, but it is what it is, and she should have been frustrated with herself. Did Carter ever remember Ruby? I like that he initially didn't (given how long ago it was and how many patients Carter has seen since then), but since he tracked the guy down at a funeral and got told off, I figured it would come back to him at some point.

It's not a sure thing, but it is possible to put them into remission via a high-protein/almost-no-carb diet even when it's not caught early. Dr. Lisa Pierson's chart showing the protein, fat, and carb content (plus phosphorus, which those feeding cats with chronic kidney disease need to be aware of) of a wide variety of foods can point you to some options (because there are a number of commercial foods that use better ingredients and are higher in protein/lower in carbs than the prescription formulas, so they're a better choice if your cat will eat them). Well worth a try, as not being insulin dependent would be easier for both of you. Good luck! If you do try a diet change, make sure you test the blood glucose regularly as you're making the transition - the whole idea is to need less and less (and then, ultimately, no) insulin, so if it's working and you keep giving the normal dose of insulin, you may send poor kitty into a dangerous state of hypoglycemia. So you test before each dose, and reduce the dose as as the blood glucose level decreases. LOL - that's an effective strategy. I like that. "Here's a toy you love, so go chase it and get some exercise. And here's a toy you hate, so go kill it and get some more exercise."

Woot canal Tie-breaker: Senior Staff telling Bartlet all that happened

I was in and out of the room tonight, so I didn't see any of Shazier's injury and removal from the field in real time, but watching clips online I really hope it's something like a spinal cord concussion (I can't remember the technical name), where the paralysis of limbs we clearly saw is temporary and the person recovers completely in fairly short order. Because based on his movements (and lack thereof) and reports a teammate was crying near him (I haven't seen that, but it makes me fear what he observed/heard from Shazier), this could be bad, and I really hope it's not.

The only time I've had to keep food separate was with Maddie and Baxter - she liked to take all day to eat her breakfast and all night to eat her dinner, while he inhaled both meals and then went looking for more - and I was very lucky that Maddie was agile as hell while Baxter had an ass made out of lead and thus couldn't jump very high, so I put her food on the dryer and all was well. Her grazing tendency was so entrenched, there would likely have been no training her to eat each of her meals in a relatively short period of time, which is the easiest solution if it's actually feasible -- separate kitties for feeding time, and then move on with everyone's day/night. If that oh-so-tidy solution isn't doable, as it so often isn't, the main options are to 1) put the non-pig's food in a place where she/he can access it and the pig can't. But, again, that has to be something that works. The height thing worked for me with Maddie and Baxter, and when a friend had a thin grazing cat and a portly food-stealing cat, she put the thin cat's food in the shower/tub with the door open just enough for him to get through (and not wide enough for the pig to get through). Such arrangements aren't always possible. A more expensive resort is to 2) get a feeder that can be programmed to only be accessible by a specific cat (it only opens upon detecting either their microchip, or the chip in a tag attached to their collar - you program the feeder accordingly - and closes when the designated cat moves away). If the cat who's supposed to be eating doesn't move away when the pig sticks her/his head in there, keeping the lid open while both cats eat, though, that would defeat the purpose. But it's something to try. This is the one with which I'm familiar, via a friend using them to keep her three cats' food separate. When none of the above work, it's a litany of, "Get out of your brother/sister's food" and rushing to the bowls to shoo away, I'm afraid, and thus look forward to hearing other success stories.

I tried with the original, two or three times, and never once made it through the whole thing. I'm a child of the '70s, and sometimes it seemed like every single one of my contemporaries loved the movie that I'd always skipped over (sci-fi was never my thing, or my parents' thing, so there was no trip to the theater upon release, and no later home viewing on VHS, despite getting our first VCR in 1978), so I tried to watch it later in life. On VHS. Again on Laserdisc. I gave up before DVD, never mind Blu-Ray; it does absolutely nothing for me, so I don't care to ever finish it, let alone watch any of the subsequent films in the franchise. I've never seen an Indiana Jones movie in its entirety, either, which is another thing that makes me an oddball among my age cohort.

But there's no love lost between Lorre and Barr, right? (As there's generally no love lost between Lorre and any woman who's had to deal with him.) Lorre doesn't strike me as someone who's ever done anything that didn't benefit him without being prodded, so I'd have no trouble believing Galecki had to do more than ask, "Hey, can we re-arrange my schedule X month so I can do an episode of Roseanne somewhere in there?" but I'm glad whatever happened, it worked out. I'm not a huge David fan (although, as I said, I liked him more - and post-Lanford Darlene a hell of a lot less - on re-watch than I did originally or while watching syndication sporadically), but it would feel odd not to see him at least once.

Thanks for the info on Hasselback potatoes (which I'd never heard of), all; I hate potatoes, but sometimes I make them as part of a meal for other people. When I do that, I just roast a variety of fingerlings and other small potatoes in pretty colors with rosemary and garlic, or make a scallop, potato, and herb puree, and now this is another simple but interesting option to serve.

Tia put out a plea for donations recently; with how many dogs they have, it is now costing them over $10,000 per DAY to run the place, and between the usual "out of sight, out of mind" drop-off in donations when they're not on the air and the usual decrease this time of year as people focus on holiday spending, it's a particularly hard time for VRC. With the scope of the problem in Louisiana, they bit off more than they can chew - they take in so many more dogs than they adopt out, and virtually all of them require heartworm treatment and many of them need additional veterinary care because of the condition they were left in. Add in food, employees, keeping the lights on, etc. and they're overwhelmed. She said she assumes donations will pick up when they're on the air again, because that's how it always goes, but between now and January (when the show starts up again) they are in more dire need of financial help than they've ever been. There is a link on the VRC homepage where we can make donations, so if any viewers have been meaning to donate but haven't, now is the time to do it if you're able. Here's an excerpt from her post (originating on the VRC Facebook page, I believe; it was emailed to me by a friend who uses Facebook):

And put your wishes in writing!

In all my life, I've had USPS lose only one package. I've only had a few problems with other carriers, too, though (although since I've used USPS so much more frequently than the others, they do have a worse average, even though it's still a good score). But pretty much every year, when I have a variety of carriers delivering things I've ordered online, the stuff that's coming by USPS shows up fastest. Three cheers for government services. So when I'm the one doing the shipping, and thus selecting a carrier, I go with the USPS. I also agree with whomever said upthread that UPS/Fed-Ex seems like a good financial option for commercial accounts doing a lot of shipping, but not for random people shipping an individual package.

I find texting you that close to your meeting time and asking to reschedule for a non-urgent reason, especially one as mundane as "running late doing errands," incredibly rude. If it was an apologetic phone call instead - saying he'd lost track of time, knows it's appallingly bad manners to get in touch with you so late and he's sorry for that, and asking if you can reschedule - I wouldn't write him off if I was otherwise interested; we all make dumb mistakes sometimes. But that he thought nothing of sending a casual text, like running late doing errands is a perfectly acceptable reason to bail on someone at the last minute rather than an embarrassing screw-up bound to leave a bad impression, is a problem to me.