Bastet

I don't have it for TV, just my internet and phone (and AT&T switched my landline from the regular deal to U-Verse without telling me [when I switched my internet from DSL to U-Verse] and has been making up for that ever since; whenever AT&T tries to jack up the cost, I remind the rep of that fact, and negotiate getting the lowest-price "bundle" deal available for new customers at the time) . (For TV, I have Dish Network as my satellite provider, and I own the dish and receiver, so all I pay for each month is the programming.)

The only mustard I like (among those I've tried) is Chinese-style hot mustard, which is just ground brown mustard seeds and water; I make my own, since it's so simple. I hate vinegar, which is why I hate most mustard. I've mentioned that I hate sour cream, so I only use it when combined with an equal amount of mayo and then the herbs and spices of whatever I'm making (I do that because with the mayo and other flavors, the taste of the sour cream is masked, so I can reduce the fat by swapping out some of the mayo without sacrificing the taste because there's enough else going on to cover up the sour cream). Because I hate it, I use fat-free sour cream, in order to further reduce the fat - why waste the calories on something I don't even like? Anyway, I always buy Knudsen; I tried Daisy once and didn't like it even mixed in with other stuff. But the other day I was picking stuff up at Ralphs (Kroger) rather than my usual local market, and they only had regular or low-fat from Knudsen. But the generic was available in a fat-free version, so with some trepidation I got that. I can't exactly rave about it, because it's sour cream, and thus - to me - inherently gross on its own, BUT - used to make ranch dressing, it tastes the same as the Knudsen. I don't think it was all that much cheaper, but hey. And with the way generic works, it may very well be made by Knudsen.

I'm perfectly happy with Dish, so I have no TV issues, but all the local options for internet service have issues. I have AT&T U-Verse, and they piss me off on the regular (I'm forever having to renegotiate my rate, and they try to sneak stuff past me - yeah, nice try), but I do always get what I want, and when I hear neighbors' horror stories about their internet providers, I don't want to switch from the devil I know to one I don't. Charter, in particular, is horrible, and I can't believe what people are putting up with! Back in the day, AT&T's landline phone and DSL internet were nice and hassle free. U-Verse ruined everything.

Even worse than the willfully ignorant patients are the doctors who will write them a prescription for an antibiotic anyway, just to get them to shut up and leave, rather than saying, "Yes, facts are inconvenient sometimes, but facts they remain: You do not have a bacterial infection. Antibiotics will thus not treat what you have. No, I will not just give you some anyway, because such improper use can lead to antibiotic resistance, which is harmful to you and those around you."

1. The Indians in the Lobby 2. The Women of Qumar 3. Bartlet for America 4. Gone Quiet

In real time (meaning watching one episode per week), Crystal was okay in those small doses. When I watch multiple episodes in a row, she's too much. She's so needy and annoying that she's exhausting to watch; I can't imagine being friends with someone like her. She means well, but I can't handle people like that. (The character was pretty much doomed from the start; she was created as the wacky friend/neighbor that must, by law, appear on every sitcom, but it became immediately apparent that the dynamic between Roseanne and Jackie was a much better avenue to go down, so Crystal was just sort of there. And then she got married and kept having babies, so you don't even need whatever real-life issues existed to understand why she'd just fade away.) Once she got involved with Ed, she was even more aggravating to endure. She was such an idiot for marrying him. As I said the first time I complained about this, the fact he was a bad father and husband the first time around doesn't automatically mean he's forever incapable - people can change, and it has been a long time. But it means he has to show he's different, not just say it, and he didn't. Dan told her exactly what was going to happen, but she went ahead and subjected herself and her son to it, and then crapped out two more kids. Why? Because to Crystal, just about any man is better than no man.

Voting off H.CON-172 Ranking my top four: 1. The Indians in the Lobby 2. The Women of Qumar 3. Bartlet for America 4. Gone Quiet

Vote off: 100,000 Airplanes Ranking the rest: 1. The Indians in the Lobby 2. The Women of Qumar 3. Bartlet for America 4. Gone Quiet 5. H.CON - 172

@emma675, I'm glad Olivia had a peaceful end in your arms, but so sorry you had to go through this. It just rips your heart out to say goodbye to a pet. You'll be in my thoughts during this awful time in the immediate aftermath.

I love the Magic Eraser! It's what I use to clean anything painted, and also the fridge. When you have to paint a little patch, if you use a sponge (rather than a brush) and feather outward, that's your best bet at not being able to tell you have new paint in the midst of old. When I had new windows put in my house, it was about 50/50 whether I could just repaint the wall(s) on which there was new plaster and have them look fine with the other walls (which had been painted nearly 10 years before), or whether I could tell the difference (no one else ever could, but I thought, "Are you blind?!") and had to repaint the whole room.

That's a good reminder. I don't trust CC as far as I could throw him, so maybe this is in fact more laying the groundwork for an XF 2.0 spinoff/reboot down the road, but I was initially quite irked to hear they were coming back, and then the thought they might just be there to continue the mytharc crap and disappear made me feel better. I'd like if Barbara Hershey's character was the next informant, and just hope she's a better character than Marita "Bee Hussssbandry" Covarrubius. I'm no big fan of Hershey's - I'm not sure I've liked her in anything other than Beaches - so I'm just left as I always am: happy for another female character, and nervous for how she'll be written.

I'll be happy to finally see the rest. There isn't a lot I remember - finally meeting Carter's parents (I remember this because Mary McDonnell, one of my favorite actors, plays his mom, and was nominated for an Emmy for the role), Romano losing his arm, Romano having a helicopter dropped him (awful as that was, I must relive it just to marvel again that they actually did that, plus Corday being the only one to care is a nice bookend to one of the show's most interesting relationships), Mark dying (and Rachel finally having a moment that wasn't completely annoying; something about a balloon) - but there wasn't all that much more I remembered from the early years, either. So I look forward to revisiting it, to see what else jumps out at me, and maybe hone in on when I quit watching (I have no idea; I read summaries of late seasons and don't recognize a thing, but that's not much help).

Oh, speaking of law enforcement officers on TV: Only on TV does every single pair/team of investigators include one who has apparently memorized the entire bible, so that when a killer scrawls a citation in blood (or carves it into his victim, etc; TV killers are particularly brutal and creative, yo), she/he can rattle off the content of the verse. Hell, they don't even need the book to be listed; just a number can be left behind and they'll translate that to chapter and verse before reciting the text.

I've usually stayed seated for the anthem at games for some time now; I don't think it has any place being played there, has always been my "we do this why?" objection, and I feel that when played in such venues it has long since been co-opted into something honoring only a narrow slice of America, and I very much do not pledge allegiance to that idea. These days? Hell yes, my ass will stay in the seat, always. And it's sad that I could be in danger because of that. So I obviously have an affinity with the players who choose to do the same, but I believe I'd be upset about the unhinged vitriol and endless media dissection regardless. At any rate, here's Bennett's statement:

Dead Irish Writers - Shut up, Donna.

I didn't watch it, but that's pretty cheap for Los Angeles. Valley Glen is one of those North Hollywood/Van Nuys neighborhoods that didn't want to be known as North Hollywood or Van Nuys; it's a modest valley suburb, but $500,000 is still significantly below the median home price. If she's in marketing and he's able to make a living as a musician - middle class; not flush by any means, but not struggling - that's exactly the price of home in exactly the kind of neighborhood a young couple who is being smart with their money would buy their first house.

Aw, he and Renee Taylor just celebrated their 52nd anniversary on Friday. The last part of that tidbit, from the linked obit, gave me a chuckle: "They celebrated their 52nd anniversary on Friday and renewed their vows five times — in a different religion on each occasion." I liked their collaborations, particularly Made For Each Other.

Me too. I don't sleep outdoors, so I don't go on overnight hiking adventures, but I love to go to National Parks and spend my days hiking, with a nice motorhome, condo, or hotel to return to each night. Which are your favorite parks (so far)? I have many, and it's hard to narrow down, but I'd have to hand Utah the award for state with the greatest number of beloved parks. California (where I live) has more National Parks, and is a very close second in my ranking, as does Alaska (the only state in the country to which I've not yet been), but I absolutely love all five in Utah, so it squeaks ahead.

Because Dan was using the basement to store drywall and 2x4s. Now, why he a) had that much - enough to fill the whole basement so much that they couldn't even take shelter there for a few hours - stored at home rather than on a job site or b) maneuvered all that down to the basement rather than putting it in the garage (sheet rock is heavy, and neither it nor two-bys are fun to go around corners and down stairs with, and there's no exterior access to that basement), requires some suspension of disbelief - because, as you said, they're just in the living room for dramatic purposes, so the reason is inevitably forced - but that's the reason given.

Yes, exactly - the pitch is that buying razor blades in a store is such a pain in the ass because they're locked up and it's not a quick thing to just have a store clerk retrieve them for you. So the store employees in the commercial are the worst-case exaggeration of the real issue that they can be hard to find and/or reluctant to help.

That sounds divine. (The whole meal sounds delicious, other than the gnocchi, because I hate potatoes, but the soup especially - I'm drooling!)

@slf, I'm stunned and saddened to hear about Bella! Under the circumstances, you unequivocally made the right choice for her, but I am so sorry it had to come to that. It is always horrible, but at her age you just aren't expecting to have to go through this. This sucks, and I wish I could do something more helpful than extend my sympathy and condolences, but my heart goes out to you - and hurts for you.

This from the revival thread made me think of an earlier episode (not the one in which he's dating bossy Lisa, a couple of seasons earlier, when he goes to a party): Tell us about all the games and fun things you guys did. I touched a boob. Say what? We played this game, seven minutes in heaven. And I had to go in the closet with Sheila [Something]. And we just stood there doing nothing for like six minutes. What happened in that last minute? I told you, I touched a boob. She's my girlfriend now. She's coming over for dinner tomorrow night. She likes corn. The matter-of-fact way D.J. imparts all this information, and Dan and Roseanne's reactions, are all hilarious.

Maybe I just assumed it was someone other than Tag since they just say "her fiancé" (someone asks if anyone knows why she tried to kill herself, and someone else answers, "her fiancé didn't know"), like it's someone they know only as her fiancé, rather than "Tag." And they ask the roommate if she called Carol's family, then they track down Carol's family - if she was engaged to Tag, I think they'd also let him know. She was originally supposed to die in the pilot, so I doubt any thought was given to who her fiancé was when it was written, and then maybe later (I think Tag shows up in episode three) they decided, "Hey, this guy can be the fiancé." I don't know, since I don't pay much attention, I just remember the distinct, "Hey, wait a minute" feeling when they introduced Tag as her boyfriend (not fiancé), remembering that in the pilot she'd been engaged, so I figured she'd been engaged to a different guy. Because, in the pilot, there was reference to what month she was going to be marrying the fiancé, so if that was Tag, and they postponed it indefinitely after the suicide attempt, but were still dating, and then got engaged again when we saw it, people would have spoken about/reacted differently to their relationship in that time period between when we meet Tag and they get engaged. The more I think about this, the more I think Pilot!Carol's fiancé was given about two seconds' thought since she was going to die -- it was just set up that she was engaged to a "catch" (doctor who played college football) and was well-respected at her job, yet she attempted suicide. Then when they kept her around, and decided to write to the fact they'd established a prior relationship with Doug (when she says he can always count on her "even if you prefer football players," she tells him he had his chance, he says he was young and foolish, she replies he's still foolish), they retconned Tag as the guy she'd been with, but ignored the tidbit about them being engaged - just like they ignored the fact Doug has a son as the first season progressed and the characterization began to take shape.

I just Googled Veronica Cartwright, and didn't see any articles about her reprising her role of Cassandra Spender, but I checked her IMDb page and she's listed as being in the first episode, so maybe.