Bastet

My best friend's mom always kisses me hello and good-bye, as I don't see her very often anymore, and I have no problem with that, or with kissing my parents or very close friends; I'm never the one to initiate it, but I'm completely fine with it on the occasions they do. These people kissing me know that, though; they're not pronouncing, "I'm a kisser" and planting one on me heedless of my wishes. I'm just routinely flabbergasted by the fact I respect the physical boundaries of my cats more than some do other people's. So they like hugging. Great. I like picking up and holding cats. Baxter would have been happy for me to carry him around all day. Maddie would sit on my lap and purr her way through being petted until my hand got tired, but she didn't want to be held for more than a couple of minutes. So I held Baxter a lot, held Maddie a little, and spent the rest of our interaction in ways she enjoyed. When I meet a new cat, I ask the owner if they like being held, or ask the cat, "Can I pick you up?" and then judge their body language. It's not complicated with a species that doesn't speak any human language; how hard can it be with people?

What is it with people who are offered a handshake, declare "I'm a hugger," and then grab the poor soul instead of accepting the handshake? If I warn you up front, "I'm a fondler," is it suddenly acceptable for me to grab a breast?

I never used to care about having my picture taken, but now that so many people think absolutely nothing of posting photos online, I'm quite wary. Friends can photograph away, because they know not to post any pictures of me online. But with friends of friends, at a party or other event, I find it easier to just decline having my picture taken in the first place than asking them not to post it. Which leads to stupid conversations like, "You didn't go to A's birthday dinner?" "I was there; it was nice." "Oh, well B has her pictures on Facebook, and I didn't see you there." "That's right, you didn't."

Fancy man. Sophia's way of referring to him was part of the exposition that she'd had a stroke which destroyed the part of her brain that censors what she says: Sophia asks if she can get something to eat, "or is the fancy man in the kitchen?" Rose exclaims, "The way she talks!" and Blanche explains about the stroke. Sophia calls him "the fancy man" again later, but it's to explain she's going to the dog track with him so she didn't have a problem being around him. She also says he's an "okay petunia" or something like that. And, of course, that was the last we saw of Coco; he was only in the pilot.

It was a repeat of the interview special they aired at the end of season one - in which, yes, the grandpa was pretty much my favorite part - but it also included a sneak peek of the upcoming season. I was making dinner, though, and didn't get to see that part.

Okay, good - I was pretty confused at how I'd come up with the team aspect if it wasn't there.

I looked it up, and it didn't -- I apparently inferred team sport from something in the clue ... or, you know, pulled it out of my ass and happened to be right. Because I was looking at the answers and saying, "Duh, team sport" -- but it turns out that wasn't in the clue. I guess my brain just took intercollegiate and thought only of team sports, as if individuals don't compete against each other on behalf of their schools. Weird.

I'll have to check the archive when it's updated for the wording of the clue, because I was talking to my cat at the time and thus only half-listening, but I thought "swashbuckling" should have been "swashbuckler." Sunny von Bülow as a TS surprised me. I guessed correctly on FJ, because team sport + college made me think immediately of rowing and then I couldn't think of anything else, so went with it.

Heh; I originally had an asterisk and footnote.

I also wonder how the peanut butter couldn't be smelled, seen, or tasted. If there was so little in there it wasn't noticeable, what was the point of adding it? Maybe it was used as a substitute for butter, rather than added as a primary flavor. I also wonder why the host said no when asked about nuts the first time (before the commercial begins, referenced when the friend says, "She asked you!") but immediately answers "peanut butter" when asked again, "there are no nuts in the brownies, right?" And I'm not sure what she's referring to after she realizes what's happening and says, "I forgot." She forgot she made them with peanut butter? She forgot peanut butter is made of nuts? She forgot the friend was allergic (and figured she was asking about nuts because she doesn't like them, not because she's allergic to them)? And, most of all, with her allergy so severe the danger is well known to her friends, why does she not carry an epi-pen? Because this happens a lot -- a host or server answers incorrectly when asked about ingredients, or there's cross-contamination -- so people can't just rely on asking; they carry the pen just in case.

Yeah, you may never have to show your ticket or rail pass - it just depends on whether a conductor happens through your car during the time you're on it.

There was discussion in an episode thread about Bud's need to put the brakes on everyone's level of dependence on him, and I find Bud very interesting in that regard - exploding with his fantastic "what's my deal?" rant to Coyote, but then saying he likes being the one on which the whole family relies when Coyote tells him he doesn't always have to be That Guy - and hope the writers will build on that as things progress. I think we've seen more and more as the series goes on the load he's bearing, and figure the issue pretty much has to be raised again even though he's a secondary character. I look forward to it, as by the end of season two he's edging in on Brianna as my favorite character other than Grace and Frankie.

Oh yeah, Christina definitely knows what she's doing in designing for the O.C. market. It just makes for repetitive and thus boring television. That's why I like the follow-up ones where we get to see how the owner decorated it -- at least that brings in some variety.

As a long-time subscriber, seeing The Nation stump all three made me sad. I love airport code categories; I have a freakish knowledge of them and generally don't need the other aspects of the clue. I somehow knew someone was going to guess sperm (bank) instead of blood, but I laughed anyway. Waiting for Guffman was the other wrong answer that tickled me.

Netflix has Trevor's 2013 stand-up special, African American, and also a documentary, You Laugh But It's True, about him preparing for his first one-man show (The Daywalker) in Johannesburg and also about the evolution of South African stand-up in general. It provides interesting looks into his background (we meet some of his family) and people's perceptions of him as an emerging comic in South Africa at the time (including much "it's been 15 years; black comics should stop talking about apartheid" grumbling from white comics). I recommend it for some good insight into Trevor and his comedy.

I have fond memories of a ride on the Eurostar from Paris to London about eight years ago. A British couple, a French woman, and another American woman were the only other occupants of my car, and after some good food and even better wine was served, the lot of us wound up gathering around and talking the rest of the trip (which was longer than normal, as the chunnel was only recently re-opened following a fire, and only partially and running slower). They were all interesting, intelligent people, and it was like a salon on wheels.

Larry Miller earned a permanent spot in my memory many years ago, with his stand-up bit on the five stages of getting drunk. As much as I like him, though, the doorman story line isn't among my favorites.

Yes, it is true - it has been discussed by the cast and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason several times, on reunion specials/panels and such, as they enjoyed joshing Dixie Carter about it.

Charlene was my least-favorite character of the original four, but if I'm ranking everyone in order of who the show could most withstand losing, she has to be above Anthony. The way the original four meshed together as a group is what made the show, and the absence of any one of them was inevitably going to turn it into a lesser version of its former self. The one-two punch of Suzanne and Charlene leaving in quick succession amplified it, of course, but even if Suzanne had stayed, Charlene's absence would have been keenly felt and the show probably would have petered out in two or three more seasons.

I didn't see it, but if the clue sought the coach but the contestant gave the team, I'd say that calls not for a prompt to be more specific, but a ruling that she or he is incorrect.

There was limited-engagement run of it at the Kennedy Center about ten years ago as part of a tribute to the '40s, but I'm not sure if it's come back to Broadway.

The little kid from Space Camp and the crazy guy on Letterman are one and the same? Learn something new every day. Carry on ...

Yeah, that one is uncomfortable to watch. Liv was the only one of the bunch who displayed any understanding and sympathy towards Cheryl and what transgender people in general feel and face, she always used the proper name and pronoun, and she called Elliot out on his attitude -- but she also casually used the word "tranny."

I'm re-watching the first season now that I've finished the second, and this is still one of my favorite episodes. The "can't stop me if they don't see me" joke may be old, but I don't find it played out, and in fact think it's important to keep talking about - and showing - the way older women are dismissed and ignored. It was a nice moment in general, and specifically as a bonding moment for these two women who are so different. And the dinner with the kids, oh I love it so. From beginning to end. With Brianna rejecting Mallory's scolding that she can no longer just walk in the house and having her "WTF?" reaction to the formal, "Welcome/We're so happy you could come" greeting, it was off to a great start, and then it only got better when everyone arrived: -"It's like we have flashed forward five years into the future and everybody's cool with this. ... Would you be cool with it if they'd been cheating with women for the past 20 years? ... Please! There wouldn't be cake, there'd be blood. Or bullets. Or something. For sure, we wouldn't be talking about the chicken." -Bud talking about all the things he's losing - Jewish Christmas Eve, picketing Wal-Mart, camping - and Brianna saying, "I forgot you all liked each other." -"I remember my mom - she used to live here." -Mallory's greatest moment thus far: "I'm sorry, is there some sort of manual that we didn't get that tells us how to act in this situation, because you two seem to be the only ones who know the rules." -Coyote's response to Sol's admonition the kids should have been honest: "I'm sorry, are you trying to be ironic?" And Bud's to Sol's declaration that lying makes things worse, as Grace and Frankie have been through enough: "Because of you! ... And I'm not even allowed to be mad, because you're gay. If you'd been fucking around with women for the last 20 years, we wouldn't even be here eating cake!" (Followed by Brianna's, "You say it in there [the kitchen], it comes out here [the dining room]." "I knew we forgot something - we forgot it was too soon." Yeah, dumbasses. This episode was just what the series needed at the time, but it also holds up as a shining moment out of two seasons' worth.

I still have no idea how Myrna Loy wasn't nominated for an Oscar for that role. The fact she was never nominated will forever stick in my craw, but comedic performances have always been undervalued so I can at least identify the flawed reasoning behind the snubs for some other roles. But this? Is Oscar bait in all the right ways. I.do.not.get.it. The reunion scene is great, but my favorite of theirs (and possibly of the film) is when they disabuse their daughter of the notion that staying married all these years has been effortless and blissful. I also like the pitch-perfect "familiar routine meets awkward re-adjustment" vibe of the morning scene in the bedroom. I love Julianne Moore's affection for and analysis of it in the TCM tribute she did for Myrna Loy.