Bastet

I lied; there's one more good thing about Elizabeth's Thanksgiving from hell: Mark's dad having to go buy pads. "Sanitary napkins - those are the flat ones, right?" "Just ask the clerk." "What if it's a guy?" And then later, at the hospital, when he's going on about all the different kinds there are. "Mini, maxi, wings ... Why couldn't they just have regular?" But screw Mark. "Why'd you let him go out in this weather?" She's not his keeper, and like she said, she was the better choice of the two to stay and talk to Rachel (unpleasant though that task may be; I've always hated that kid, and I remember that she only gets much, much worse). I like Mark as a doctor, and as a friend, but I can't stand him as a boyfriend.

"But I won't know you're there" is what gets me sniffing. The only good thing about Elizabeth being stuck with Mark's dad and little shit of a kid on Thanksgiving is: "The Pilgrims came here to escape persecution by the British." "Yes, so they could go about persecuting the Indians."

Cranky!Kerry is cracking me up, especially screaming on the phone, "I hope if you're ever in a horrible accident, you wind up here, so I can be sure to stand there and be of no help whatsoever to you." I also like her response to hearing that Jeanie can't make it in. "She hasn't made it in all week. Call her back, tell her to get in here, if not to work, then to explain to me why I shouldn't fire her." Kerry is nicer than I am, because "Eh, don't worry about it; I'm going to miss you" is not the response I'd give to someone telling me she'd just up and decided she didn't feel like working anymore, so instead of giving proper notice, she just quit coming in. Is there any nasty stereotype that hasn't been foisted on Carla at this point? The writers should be ashamed of themselves.

Given the way his parents laugh about his behavior, I doubt that very much. There are plenty of things the various parents talk about struggling to teach their kids and how the DS makes those lessons difficult, but this doesn't fall into that category. Sean's parents don't lament the fact he consistently speaks of and behaves with women in various improper ways, they laugh. Even allowing for the "this is a heavily-edited and increasingly manufactured show" factor, the ratio of "Sean needs to learn some boundaries" to "Ha ha, isn't Sean the 'Ladies Man' adorable?" reactions and outright commentary is pitifully weighted towards the latter.

Not only are movies his frame of reference, he specifically cites Titanic. I absolutely loathe the god-awful Jack and Rose storyline the film is centered around. He was on the show last season. It came across to me that he was there for the cameras, not his daughter. He split not long after Megan was born, yes, and seems to have had only sporadic presence in Megan's life (and certainly has not taken care of her, more like meeting up for lunch and talking to her on the phone). He has another family, that season one conversation made it seem like Megan barely knows, but when he made his appearance, he talked like they (not him, they) would help take care of Megan if something happened to Kris. (If I were Megan, I would not hold my breath on that one, and, indeed, Kris certainly isn't banking on it it.) Kris, to her eternal credit, makes a clear effort not to badmouth him to Megan; in fact, she assures Megan her father loves her. I mentioned after the episode where all the parents discussed their plans for who would care for the kids when they're gone or otherwise no longer able to that I was surprised Kris was the only one there alone. With the divorce rate what it is, it would be surprising to put any random group of people that size together and have all but one person be in a long-term marriage, but I would think the stress of having a child with DS would lead to an even greater divorce rate.

Why, why, why did they saddle a great character like Elizabeth with the life suck that is Mark Greene? Does Reese turn out not to be Peter's? I laughed when he asked Jackie if Reese looks like him and she said, "I hope not; he has enough problems."

I only remembered to tune in for the last twenty minutes or so, and I continue to resent the hell out of Sean and his parents. Hooray for him getting help with his hearing, truly, but he walks in to the appointment and blatantly comments on someone's physical attributes and the attitude is that this woman should just shrug it off rather than calling it out as wholly inappropriate, just because he has DS. Hell, no; his disability doesn't negate her rights. Megan's "This is embarrassing; welcome to my life, America" made me laugh, but also reinforced how inappropriate it is for the parents to sit around cackling as their children try to have a simple date. It's one thing for people "of sound mind and body" to agree to share their lives with a film crew - whether it knowingly be for vanity, or from a genuine belief a documentary crew can bring certain things to light - but where these folks can't properly consent, I take a hard look at what the parents allow to be shown/volunteer in interviews.

My mother loves See's chocolate. Neither my dad nor I understand this affection. I mean, it's not bad chocolate (is there such a thing?), but, wow, is it far down the list of Chocolates I Must Have. The milk chocolate is okay (and the bordeaux bar is divine), but that's just sugar; the dark chocolate is what I'm interested in, and See's is nothing to write home about.

Yeah, she went full nutter on the poor guy, took off her ring (and made sure to walk around holding it so people would ask about it and she could tell her tale), and basically made him re-propose to make up. She also proclaimed shit like women have to ask her permission to speak to him, because he's her fiancé, and Rachel very nicely told her she was nuts.

Oh, poo - had they followed the normal schedule, Memorial Day would have been the episodes where Lucy and Carter get stabbed. Now I'll have to wait an extra day.

That's me. And, believe me, tofu is one of those food items people will insist you would like if you just had it X way. I particularly love the "It doesn't really taste like anything on its own, just what you cook it with" protest. Um, no. Of course it takes on the flavors it is prepared with. So does everything. For example, chicken. But, chicken also has a taste all its own. So does tofu.

Testify. I have a vague memory of "Wow, he has gone one step too far and it's time to go" from my original viewing, but it didn't much stick with me in looking back on the characters; I've wanted to punch him in the face this second time around, though. No one is that cute. He behaves like a total asshole, damn the consequences to his colleagues (one of whom is his best friend and one of whom is his fiancée), forget all the other patients who'll be screwed over when this COUNTY hospital in general, and the clinics specifically implicated, deals with the fallout of his illegal actions to help one patient. And when called on it, he has the unmitigated gall to declare, over and over, "If you'd had a patient in that much pain, you'd have done the same thing" -- to people who've been in the very same situation and opted not to violate the law, their oath, and their ethical responsibility to those around them. My favorite part of the whole thing was when Mark - whom I liked less than Doug leading up to this point - saying, "We have [seen that very thing.]" Sanctimonious asshat Doug. So, while we're doing Doug-related ER UOs, I'll reiterate what I said in the show's forum: I have zero shits to give about Doug and Carol as a couple. I don't dislike them together; in fact I agree they're good for each other at this stage of their lives (for several reasons, one of which is they both pretty well suck as a romantic partner, so they might as well join together and spare the world). But I don't root for them, either. They're just there, taking up screen time.

And that reminds me that when I used to watch Wheel of Fortune, I'd get so annoyed that the married men always talked about being married to "my beautiful wife So-and-So." Not my intelligent wife, accomplished wife, compassionate wife, hilarious wife, or even just wonderful wife (or, even better, just her name without some fawning adjective) -- nine times out of ten, it was specifically and exclusively about her looks. Women did not do this; there was not some rash of "my handsome husband So-and-So."

They don't have to retcon anything in order to have the lottery money be gone, though, because in reality they never won the lottery -- that was just something Roseanne made up for the book (any semblance of financial security she'd felt evaporated when Dan died, so she imagined herself as having the kind of money the characters she watched on TV did). They might just do the revival as if the book never existed, and what we saw - except for season nine - really happened, which would mean (for the big things) Dan is alive, Jackie is straight, and Becky was with Mark and Darlene was/is with David without any need to explain how any of these things are true when the finale had told us the opposite. I think most fans would prefer it that way, and I probably would, too - even though I'm one of the handful of viewers who like the "it was all a book" reveal.

Oh my. And I thought it was bad when Ina Garten would call for "good extra virgin olive oil" or "good vanilla extract" in her recipes. Why, thank heavens you specified, Ina, or I'd have used total crap.

Other than Sean, they only picked people whose accomplishments are in the entertainment industry.

I don't buy organic everything, either. With animal-based products, I often do, but it's kind of a secondary effect of my various self-imposed rules for the ethical consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy; it's about how the animal was kept, fed, and (if applicable) slaughtered. With produce, I generally follow the "dirty dozen" principle, but it's not that straightforward, either -- what pesticide is used matters (and there are organic pesticides I don't want any part of, either). Basically, I try to go straight to the source as much as possible -- having a backyard garden and supplementing with trips to the farmers market, getting much of my meat from a friend's farm (this means it's frozen, but I can't beat the quality control), buying eggs from a couple down the street who raise chickens, etc. But, bringing this back to peeves, I, too, am annoyed by those who try to convert others like it's A Cause - and, on the flip side, by the "oh, it's all hooey, so you're an idiot to care" crowd. Just eat what you want, re-heat your food how you want, clean the house how you want, etc. and let others do the same. It's good to share information and opinions on these types of issues when that's a topic of conversation, certainly, but trying to hound - or shame - someone into following one's own guidelines is ineffectual, not to mention pretty damn rude.

How appropriate for ATK to test little prep bowls, since they use about a dozen of them per recipe. The winning set looked nice, with the different sizes and how they nested, so I might pick one up some time just to have, but I don't really do my mise en place that way. I have a big cutting board, and I make piles of my prepped ingredients on it. Some things do go in a bowl or cup, but I keep it at a minimum; I don't like to have a bunch of extra stuff to wash. Plus, with a lot of recipes, there's inactive time while one thing is cooking, and I can use that time to prep the remaining ingredients, rather than needing to have everything ready before I even start.

It's always hard when you cast a kid that young -- they're picked for being cute and able to remember and recite the lines, and then if the show goes on a long time, it's a total crapshoot whether they can actually act as a pre-teen/teen. And, no, he really couldn't, but he sure felt like part of the family. The whole cast was and is still close, but there's always been a particularly special bond between Roseanne and Michael out of all the kids, and it really shows. I like how open everyone was about D.J.'s weirdness, and how natural everyone's reactions to it were -- his sisters made fun of him, his parents almost always just rolled with it, and only a newcomer like Fred thought there was anything more to it than D.J. marching to the beat of his own drum.

Yes, Megan, as I said - Kris got it for her. As expected, she thought it was fun at first, and then realized how frustrating it is when a crying baby interrupts your sleep and/or you can't figure out why it's crying. And I think that led to yet another conversation between Kris and Megan (while they were walking the "baby"), but I don't know that Megan ever got it that she's completely incapable of being a mother unless Kris does most of the work for her. I've never liked John more than when he was like, "Get that thing away from me" about babies.

I thought she explained that Megan wouldn't be able to take care of a baby without her help, and she doesn't want to take care of a baby at this stage of her life. Or did she only say that in a talking head? I know there was at least one discussion between them about it, while they were walking on the beach. And maybe one in the car. But she might not have been as direct with her in those talks; maybe that was only when talking to "us" and the other parents. But she did get her that doll that cries, needs to be fed, etc. so Megan could get a glimpse of the work involved in taking care of a baby.

Elena lives in a group home; she's basically in the same boat as everyone else in terms of supervision, she's just with counselors rather than her parents. My perception from what we've seen them do on the show and what we've heard their parents report: I think Steven and Rachel have the least degree of dependence on others, Megan is the most dependent, and the rest are all somewhere in between, but closer to the dependent end of the scale. Cristina seems to have the most potential for learning more independent living skills. With John and Sean, I don't really see it. With Megan, I'm not sure whether her capacity for such learning is low or whether Kris has babied and sheltered her so much it just seems that way; probably a mixture of both.

Jeanie is ridiculously rude to Kerry. After the shit Jeanie pulled claiming Kerry fired her because of her HIV status, she has the nerve to say, "That's a doctor answer; I was hoping for a good friend's" when Kerry says they have to wait for the test results to know for sure whether Jeanie has Hepatitis-C. But, okay, maybe she's trying to repair the relationship. Except, no, because now that she's back at work rather than lying scared in a hospital bed, she's right back to being cold to Kerry who has, once again, committed the egregious sin of caring about her and asking her to lunch.

By backing away slowly and then running like the wind when you've achieved a safe distance? I just skim this thread as I'm next unread topic-ing my way through Everything Else, but since everything you've shared from this guy has been one increasingly big ball of crazy, I have to ask why on this earth you'd consider responding rather than just blocking (or however you stop messages though the site)? Be glad he showed himself via message and early on so you never have to actually deal with him, and move on. He was a big, fat no once he said he wanted you to be his anchor, or however he put it; that shouldn't be anyone's job, let alone a stranger's. But now that he's also trading pieces of soul and proclaiming love? Hope he finds a good therapist and the right meds, but disengage.

I only like bits and pieces of that movie (there are a lot of those bits and pieces, I just don't really like the movie as a whole; it happens to me with a lot of Ron Howard films), and that's one of them.