Bastet

Count me in on the unabashed Juice Newton love. I play her greatest hits CD a fair bit, and while the usual suspects - Angel of the Morning, Break it to me Gently, The Sweetest Thing, Queen of Hearts, and It's a Heartache - are all reasons why, I have a particular fondness for I'm Gonna Be Strong. I also still frequently play some of Anne Murray's hits. I love Nobody Loves Me Like You Do and Now and Forever most, but Could I Have This Dance, I Just Fall in Love Again, You Needed Me, A Little Good News .. they're cheesy, no doubt, but I like them if I'm in the right mood.

Huh? Who in the what now? (I missed the episode, and the archive is not yet updated.) Are you telling me a category about female characters in Aaron Spelling shows did not contain a clue about a single one of the women of Charlie's Angels? Aren't they the most famous of his female characters? I am rather irrationally annoyed by this.

That's what I said to a friend of mine -- someone could have used those clothes, but I also understand it could be cathartic for her to have a ritual, so I wish she'd have just burned the football uniform (which she said was the primary symbol of the false identify she'd been forced to live) and donated the rest.

I was just reading about this today. When the documentary was screened at Sundance, there were - quite naturally - a lot of audible gasps from the audience when the previously-unreleased crime scene photos, close-ups of the neck wounds, were shown. At the time, it was unknown whether ESPN would air them, uncensored, because they are so graphic. Particularly the one of Nicole's slit throat. We've seen her hair soaked in blood, we've seen all the blood on the ground, we've heard she was nearly decapitated. But actually seeing into (and damn near through) her body that way -- it's an intense experience. I'm not sure about the rest of the photos, but those two will only be shown uncensored on the Watch ESPN app and on tonight's original airing on ESPN; in all re-airings on ESPN, they will be blurred.

Yeah, in my experience, sparklers and black snakes were always the fireworks for kids.

Oh, definitely -- there was immense tension between those two communities prior to Harlins being killed, and the unconscionable sentence made things worse. During the riots, you'd see "black owned" posted on some businesses. Oftentimes, it was a business that had been purchased from the previous Korean owner without making any changes to the signage.

I could have sat here until it was my time to be interred and not come up with the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. There are too many "wonders of the worlds" lists for me to keep straight, so that didn't help me. I didn't know the title of the decluttering book, either; instead of tidying up, my guess was "throwing stuff away." I did get Bartles & Jaymes, though, and was surprised that was a TS. I was reading the archive, not watching -- were the "and thank you for your support" commercials before their time? But I'd still think "B&J" in a clue about wine coolers would lead to someone getting it. The Swann's Way thing was confusing on the archive, but it reads like they initially ruled him wrong because he didn't give the English title in time, then later ruled him correct because he had given the French title in time. I don't really have a problem with that, I guess, but it's weird -- why did he give it in French in the first place? Trying to out-Alex Alex? As noted, the wording of FJ was very frustrating - and wrong. All the King's Men didn't win Best Picture in 1949, it won Best Picture of 1949 - at the 22nd Academy Awards in 1950. I hate when they do that! Especially since they got the Pulitzer part right.

I was recently going around the dial in the middle of the night, unable to get back to sleep, and came across some show about the people who ticket, clamp, tow, etc. (Google tells me it's called Parking Wars.) Oh my. I didn't watch very much before the next half hour came around and something better was on, but based on that, I'm not surprised by what you saw.

My car's CD changer currently contains three Adele albums, Cyndi Lauper's greatest hits, and two I can't even remember because I have been on a Cyndi Lauper kick lately. In the car, I mostly listen to the radio, and then switch to CD when none of my preset stations is playing anything I want to listen to. So I tend to leave the same CDs in there for a very long time. I put this group in when I got Adele's 25, so that's been a while.

No, she and I use the same salt -- Diamond kosher. She just likes a lot more of it than I (and many other viewers, judging by discussion) do.

I am a total sucker for storylines when doctors suffer serious injury or illness, precisely because they understand all too well what they're facing. And a good actor can make that plain as day on his or her face. As I said, Benton and Carter have my favorite relationship on the show, so their dynamic is one of my favorite things about this episode filled with favorite things -- the characterization is just perfect! Benton tearing around that corner and demanding to know if Carter is conscious. The visible tug he feels when he has to attend to Lucy. The full-on "he's stable, I'll be back" refusal to attend to the patient who's just some regular body on the table to him. And, yeah, Carter saying, "I'm glad it's you."

Most vendors have it on sale right now because it's a new release. Best Buy, Target, etc. -- $12.99, like Amazon.

The Fosters quickly became unwatchable to me for all the teens' stories, but back when I was still watching (first season), there was a really interesting discussion/argument between Lena (bi-racial, with a black mom and white dad) and her mom about colorism. I'd never seen it addressed so openly on TV before.

I just read through the archive for last night's game, and I'm glad they include Alex's asides, because his comment about FJ being too easy cracked me up. Speaking of ridiculously easy -- the "ads" category. I knew the Woody Guthrie song in the Washington category, but was just as stumped as the three contestants on petrified wood. I didn't know Community, either. Sorry, fans. I knew Hindi and the Drake Passage, guessed correctly on Balmoral and Wagner, but couldn't come up with the name of the Achille Lauro. I also missed quite a few they got, especially in the M"tertainment" category - Married With Children was the only one I knew (I really should have been able to guess Myst).

I got the Blu-Ray for a little less than $15 with tax, so even though I just paid $15 for one episode and a blooper reel, it's worth it - I am going to watch the Were-Monster over and over and over. While I was at it, I decided to finally replace my S1-S7 DVDs with Blu-Rays, something I've been deliberating for a while and ultimately decided to do because they take up so much less space. I'm not sure S7 was a wise use of money, since I only watch a couple of episodes from that, but I bought S10, I already had the two films on Blu-Ray ... I felt compelled to have a "complete" collection (minus seasons 8 and 9, obviously).

Here's the spinach gratin. I generally make a half batch, which is my rule with all Ina Garten recipes. Another Ina recipe rule is to cut the salt in half.

I don't think you need to keep everyone happy, or be declining invitations out of solidarity with someone who wasn't invited. If I had a friend who wasn't including another friend for offensive reasons, I'd do the solidarity thing. But if it's just a situation where the host considers her number 15 on her list of friends, so doesn't invite her to things where she's only inviting 12, I wouldn't take it as anything I'd need to take a stand about. That the non-invitee would put the host in her top twelve if she was the one hosting isn't the host's fault. It sounds like BFF needs to talk with this person, if not being included every time is hurting her so much. It sounds as if their relationship has changed recently (that BFF used to be invited to every group gathering you were, not just some of them) and BFF doesn't understand why, and if that is the case I certainly understand her feelings. That's a shitty position to be in, but the only way out of it is to ask what's going on. And if it's simply a matter where the host just isn't as close to BFF as she used to be, it shouldn't jeopardize your friendship with her (or jeopardize your friendship with BFF that you and the host continue to be as close as you used to be), because no one is doing anything wrong. Basically, I think that if the reason for not inviting her all the time - that she's just not close enough to her to want her there every time - is genuine, rather than a front for a reason you should take a stand against ("she's poor and I'm embarrassed having her around my society friends" or something like that), you should neither be dictating her guest list nor feeling guilty for being included on it. So she likes you more than she likes BFF. BFF likes her more than is reciprocated. There isn't anything wrong with that. And if I was BFF, I wouldn't want "pity" invitations -- I'd be more uncomfortable attending something to which I was invited only because someone made the host include me than not being invited in the first place. I completely understand this being awkward for you, and you wanting to spare someone you care about having her feelings hurt, so I understand you wanting to do something about it. But I don't think you can or should -- this is between them.

This was a frustrating episode for me, exemplifying why I can't watch most reality TV: I think every issue and emotion discussed tonight was genuine. I think every single conversation in which those things were discussed was done for the show. Let's film with your therapist about how you felt during your depression. Guys, how about you was the car while you talk about Jazz getting a greater share of the attention; Sander, we're going to do a dinner scene with you and your mom to address it. Let's film a family meeting about the creepy phone calls and whether Jazz should remove herself from the public eye. How about we bring in a fire pit and do a burning of the clothes ritual. We'll do a scene with your parents to recap the issues being focused on in this episode. Etc. It's not fake, in that most if not all of these conversations did happen, it's just that they'd already happened and these were reenactments of them to tell the story. That's not inherently bad, but as a decades-long viewer of documentaries, reality TV is hard for me to swallow. The reason I keep going with this show, though, is the fact this isn't commonly-explored territory on TV, and it can make a difference. And Jazz is an incredibly likable person, and her family is pleasant to watch as well. As hard as Jazz has it, we have consistently seen that the difference between her experience transitioning early enough to prevent male puberty and those - young and old - who transitioned afterward is striking, so that's an ongoing conversation I think it's great to see. The scene with Jeanette and Sander, while obviously done for the show, seemed a genuine expression of both their feelings. I like that they keep going back to that well, too, like with the first season scene of Ari talking about how many family photos showed Jeanette and Jazz together, because any time you have a multi-child family where one has special needs of some sort, this is going to be a recurring issue, no matter how much love and understanding. And, yay - Nemo! Do they have two other cats? The cat on top of the fridge and the cat one of the boys carried downstairs and had on his lap (while Nemo snoozed on the back of the couch) looked like two different cats, but I didn't get a good look at the fridge kitty.

I love this from an old interview, referenced in The Hollywood Reporter's Ronnie Claire Edwards obituary, regarding her role on The Waltons: She also played Charlene's mom on Designing Women.

I just wasted an unconscionable amount of time watching ER clips on YouTube. If I had to pick a favorite relationship from this show, I think I'd go with Carter and Benton. But I also really like Romano and Lizzie; I liked how he was different with her, but still the Rocket Romano we all love to hate. (I still cannot believe they actually dropped a fucking helicopter on him to kill off the character.) And speaking of characters killed off, does anyone know the story behind George Clooney not appearing in episode with Mark's funeral - was he asked and said no, or not asked? Doug's absence was glaring, and I don't think they even mentioned him.

I was glad they at least threw in a mention of how any identification that came from that line-up would be inadmissible. That kid was obnoxious. I liked when his mom responded to his protestation that he doesn't make up stories with, "Like the spider bite that left you unable to do homework?" Now that there really was a zombie fight outside his window, the poor woman is never going to hear the end of it.

I also like when the killer's wife - who has been insisting he's just a little depressed and would never do something like what they're accusing him of - hears his paranoid delusions and realizes the truth; he does have schizophrenia, and he did attack two people. It's a nice bit of face acting. And when Romano tells Lucy they've invested too much in her training to lose her now, and then when he throws a fit when she dies. When they're trying to get back into her chest to deal with the second PE and Romano asks for wire cutters. Someone asks why and Corday says, "We wired the breastbone shut." The line delivery on that is perfect. It is just such a well-done episode all around.

Barbara getting the Georgia O'Keeffe DD wrong surprised me; J! thinks there have only been a few female artists in the history of time, and "bloom" narrows it down to O'Keeffe. She must have no idea what the capital of Jamaica is; she guessed Jamaica instead of Barbados for the "birthplace of rum" clue when Bridgetown as the capital city was in the clue AND when Kingston (Jamaica) had already been the answer to the previous clue in that category. The Martinique TS in that category surprised me a bit; I didn't know its capital, but with French in the clue, it's the one that came to me first (maybe because it's the biggest). No one guessed any of the French territories in the West Indies, which I guess is the part that surprises me about it being a TS. I also guessed correctly on Princess Di, and knew scenario, but I was just as stumped as the contestants on the rest of the TS. FJ was an instaget for me, though.

"Shut up. And just so I don't have to say it again in a minute, you shut up, too." They all get some "hell, yeah!" moments in that one - Roseanne's great line about being a good judge of people ("that's why I don't like none of 'em"), but Fisher slipped under her radar, and threatening him if he ever touches Jackie again ("I've got a loose-meat restaurant, I know what to do with the body"), and Jackie insisting on talking to Fisher alone so neither he nor Roseanne think Roseanne is the reason Jackie is leaving - but Dan grabbing his jacket and heading out the door is The Best.

There's an AT&T commercial where a family goes batshit crazy after something like six, then ten, then fifteen minutes without internet service. Mind you not one of these people is seeking to use their internet access for something crucial, or even timely. I'm all for having quality and consistent internet access since I pay a nice chunk of monthly change, but I also understand shit happens from time to time. Presenting a parade of losers who are unable to cope because internet access is down for a few minutes is not something that draws me to AT&T -- in fact, it makes me embarrassed I have U-Verse.