Bastet

I went into my first visit to Paris having heard, "Eh, I didn't really care for it" feedback from a few people, too, but I was firmly in the camp of the majority who said they loved it. The city is like one big living museum. So much to see and do - and eat - and so nice to plop down in a park for people watching. For major cities in that part of the world, it's probably my third-favorite destination, as I love London and Amsterdam so much, but Paris is the one that most often makes me stop in the middle of my day, look around, and marvel, "I can't believe where I am."

Tonight was my first chance to see Buzzy - I'm almost never bothered by the contestants who aggravate so many people here, so I was looking forward to seeing how I reacted to him - and I tuned in just as the interviews ended, saw about three clues before getting a phone call, and hung up just as FJ was being read. So, I still don't know. As soon as I saw "Antonia" (or "Antoinette"? Something like Anthony) in the clue, I figured it was Tony the Tiger. And I got the other three clues I managed to watch. So, go me - perfect game!

I wonder what Robert's reaction would have been had Sol had a chance to tell him earlier, meaning Robert hadn't had a heart attack and they hadn't gotten married in the hospital. If Sol had been able to come home right afterward and say, "I did something really dumb, but maybe you can understand why it happened and you can certainly trust it will never happen again"? Not that Robert would - or should be expected to - wave off being cheated on, but if there's ever a cheating scenario that can eventually be worked through without ruining the relationship, I think it's this one. But Sol marrying him without telling him, being repeatedly asked what's wrong and not telling him, and that Robert has probably figured out this is what the kids kept huddling about ... that's a lot on top of the cheating itself. Don't get me wrong, I'm still having a hard time with either of these two getting upset at anything anyone else does given the depth of their betrayal, and I was mad at both of them in that scene - Sol for hurting him at the worst possible time, just because he didn't want to deal with the guilt he just needs to suck up and bear, and Robert for being so damn cold. I just think there's more for Robert to be angry about than the fact Sol slept with Frankie, and thus wonder how they're going to write him -- how much of this is about the cheating and how much is about the other stuff? Grace would be a great mentor, and I hope she doesn't let this one bad experience stop her from participating.

Oh yeah, they would have been out of the house, wouldn't they? I was going 15 years backwards from Brooklyn Decker's age, without thinking about how old the characters are supposed to be. Although Grace did say something about "I had the girls" when explaining things to Frankie. But, anyway, yeah - the two marriages are plenty to explain why she didn't show, so his "I had no idea what had happened" attitude is odd to me. I meant to note earlier, I thought it was cute to see the Lily Tomlin yearbook photo. And I laughed at the exchange over her maiden name. Although it was a little strange for Grace to be surprised her first name is Frances. And while I'm being nit-picky, they didn't do a good job of matching Jane Fonda's make-up on one day of shooting (to other days of shooting scenes meant to take place at the same time); for some of the car scenes (I think when they pull up to the house), it doesn't match.

No, her family placed an obituary in the paper right after like the families of "regular people." It took the entertainment media two or three weeks to come across it and realize it was the Christine Cavanaugh who used to be in the business, and then they reported it.

I laughed so hard at Frankie kicking her sons out of their house - but giving them lasagna first. That was my favorite part. Not so much with the story of Grace's former friends; that was just too predictable and boring, no different than any of the gazillion other times it's been done on other shows. The country club women will always be universally vapid and catty. Which, okay, that's not my preferred circle, either, but there are always exceptions and it's unrealistic for Grace to be the only one. But Grace responding to Swoosie Kurtz telling her she'd changed by pausing for a moment of genuine reflection and saying, "Thank you. That's the nicest thing you've said all day" was nice. As was Grace readily admitting Frankie still drives her crazy sometimes, but saying she'd been there for her in a very real way (unspoken: unlike you people). She was also cracking me up with her tailored bowling shirt and scarf. "Are you going to drive?" "Do I have a choice? The sun's going down."

The two of them getting pulled over gave me nice flashbacks to 9 to 5 ... all we needed was Dolly pulling out her gun. I thought Phil was a bit cold for 15 years later. They were both married, she had kids still in the house, was it really some big mystery what had happened when she didn't show? I wouldn't expect him to be glad she turned up now or anything, but I would expect an attitude more along the lines of what Grace said in the kitchen -- it just wasn't meant to be, and isn't something to revisit, so take care. Brianna's medication cracked me up, a very delicate balance of cannabis, 12-year-old Scotch, and Zoloft. And Robert made me get up and grab a piece of string cheese. Yum. ("It's part skim.")

Yeah, the guys were both, "Yay and congratulations" and Brianna was, "Are you crazy, you're going to have four kids!" Good stuff. The kids will do well to have both kinds of grandmas in their life, because it's great to have someone who'll play car wash and remember your fears and favorites, but it's also great to have someone who says babies don't reside in the stomach and teaches you to pay attention to what your opponent discards if you want to win at gin. I liked the business meeting all around, but Brianna telling Bud, "Have fun with your weird mother-son vaginal lube sales team" was definitely my favorite part.

Always a treat to see Rita Moreno. I put this in the episode one thread initially, so I'll have to delete it (this is why I hate watching several episodes in a row of something I want to discuss here; I can't remember what happened when), but I liked the scene of the two sets of siblings sharing couches to sleep on as they waited for Robert to come out of surgery. Nice touch. Also that everyone but Grace was lying down, and asleep, while she was sitting awake in a chair. I thought the thing with the billing department was weak, but the stuff between Grace and Frankie at the house more than made up for it. I loved all of it, and Grace stealing the Vitamix (and the salt and pepper shakers for Frankie) was predictable, but the perfect cap.

I'm so glad this show is back. The scenes with the four of them in the hospital room were wonderful, especially when Robert said they're all family - the doctor can talk to all of them. (I also liked Nora Dunn saying she's just going to quit guessing [who the spouse is] because she always gets it wrong.) Grace exploding that Robert does not get to die right now, because she hasn't been allowed to express 40 years' worth of anger yet, was perfect, as was his quiet acquiescence and then her pausing - out of his sight - to say she didn't mean it when she said it would have been better if he'd died than left her. Their relationship intrigues me. I liked the two sisters clasping hands as they prepared to enter the room.

I didn't realize it was airing on TCM. That's cool; it may bring in a new audience for the film. I think it's one of the best documentaries, and, yes, it's just disgusting that it wound up not even being nominated by the Academy. But at least that debacle led to changes in how the documentary nominees were chosen.

Not life, fifteen years. He's still in.

Yeah, I wound up pouring another drink and going for it. It was well done, and far more uplifting than depressing/infuriating. One of the many things I've always admired about Tia is her basic stance on dogs with issues: for some, euthanasia is the most humane option, for some more, they can never be placed in a home but can live a happy life at a sanctuary, and for most, with some work they can be wonderful companions in an appropriate home. She gives them the time to calm down and be properly evaluated before deciding what category they're in, then more time for the last group to determine what kind of home they need. That's the stance we see play out in the film, and the results with the "Vicktory" dogs indeed changed things nationwide. Even HSUS changed its stance (not PETA, but in general they've lost their grasp on reality and no one listens to them anyway). Best Friends has the (well-earned) reputation and the resources, and I'm so glad they took this on, not just for the individual dogs but for the many other dogs who now have a chance because of the changed attitude following the success of this project. I think anyone who likes this show will enjoy the documentary, so I recommend it.

For those who have Netflix streaming (I don't, but my parents do and I'm kitty sitting for two weeks, so I'm working my way through my list), The Champions is available; this is the documentary about the rehabilitation of the pit bulls rescued from Michael Vick's dog-fighting operation. I'm debating whether to watch it tonight; I may need to wait for a night when I can have multiple drinks. Also available is a documentary called Dogs on the Inside, about one of the programs similar to what we've seen on the show, where inmates are taught how to socialize and train dogs, and then serve as foster homes to rescued dogs, getting them ready for adoption. It never fails to make me angry that such programs are not in place across the country. They are so good for the dogs, and so good for the inmates; it chaps my ass that our penal system has basically tossed the rehabilitation aspect of imprisonment into the shitter and focused almost exclusively on the punishment portion -- that helps neither the inmates nor the society they'll be released back into.

Netflix has The Ryan White Story (the TV movie from 1989 with Judith Light as Jeanne White, Lukas Haas as Ryan, and a cameo by Ryan himself), and when I saw it on the list my mind immediately called up several clear memories of scenes, despite it being 25+ years since it aired. It was an interesting experience watching it again now, reflecting on how much has changed - and what hasn't. One of the many things that impressed me about Ryan and Jeanne White - and this is only briefly touched on in the TV movie, when Jeanne scolds her mother for blaming "the homosexuals" for the disease - is how they rejected the popular narrative that Ryan and others like him were the "innocent victims" of AIDS, insisting it didn't matter how anyone contracted it, everyone was an innocent victim of the disease and they were all in the fight together. I read some old articles after watching the movie to refresh my memory, and found this from a New York Times interview with Jeanne in 1992:

I made this vibrant garlic and greens soup yesterday and, yum! It's so flavorful. (And such a beautiful color; it looks like it's going to taste great, and it does.) It can easily be made with different ingredients depending on what has popped up in the garden/at the market, so it's my kind of recipe. Next time I'm going to use leeks, which I almost did this time, as I love them so, but I had some scallions that needed to be used ASAP. The only things I did differently were to use a little more spinach since I had so much (the recipe calls for 4-5 cups and I used at least 5-1/2) and to omit the creme fraiche/quark swirl because I don't like either one and didn't have anything on hand that might make a good addition to the soup. This is not remotely a filling soup (for Seinfeld fans - if this is what Jerry had bought Kenny Bania at Mendy's, it would not count as a meal), but it's great as a substitute for a side salad with dinner or along with a half-sandwich or just some good bread as a light lunch.

And, of course, the time I had to put a curse on C.J. On the president's trip to Cairo, someone gave him a ceramic statue of me. He made the mistake of allowing it to wind up in the hands of C.J., who broke it, crazy-glued it back together, and used it to hold potpourri. "Dad, this would be a good time to mention that it's possible an Egyptian cat goddess named Bast has put an ancient curse on me."

I saw a "style and fashion blogger" with a $1.5m budget and went back to channel surfing before the introductory segment had even ended. So, one person makes 95% of the money, they've only been dating a year and a half (although they were friends for about a year and a half before then), and they're tired of putting up with L.A. traffic to see each other. So instead of renting a place to see if they're compatible living together, they're buying a home that's pretty expensive even for L.A. What do I care, except there was something off-putting about both of them and I kept on moving.

The paint thing baffles me, too, because it's cheap and easy to change, but also because -- and this is certainly influenced by the fact I don't really care for neutral colors on the walls, and prefer that each room of my house be a different color -- I would expect to paint, regardless. To me, it's as much a routine part of moving into a house as bringing in the furniture. But mostly because it is so cheap and easy, especially in the context of home improvement purchases. Just shut up and paint!

The archive isn't updated, but isn't tonight Melissa Harris-Perry? If so, this makes me strangely sad. She's one of my favorite columnists for The Nation, and she had a great news discussion show on MSNBC until recently. That clue made me laugh out loud while reading the archive, because it was so very, "Can anyone remember Martin O'Malley?" It took me back to Trevor Noah's many bits on The Daily Show at that time.

I've never been a Streisand fan, either (I don't dislike her singing, though; I just don't get remotely excited/involved), but when she toured in 1994(?) for the first time in eons - and potentially for the last time, or at least for a long time - I was able to get free tickets through my work. I thought of selling them, because demand was such that I could have made a serious profit, but I figured I should take the opportunity to check her out on stage. I'm glad I did, because she was pretty riveting and it was really interesting to see the audience respond to her. I'd have never paid for those tickets, but I'm glad I didn't sell them.

Because that is a HUGE outlay - estimates of the cost to install and maintain work out to at least $10k per plane - for something rarely needed. Most planes don't crash, and among the tiny percentage that do, almost all have their black boxes recovered. CNN rarely annoys me more than during plane crash coverage, so I stay away other than to occasionally entertain/horrify myself by watching its coverage during commercials of Al Jazeera America's, but now there is no AJA so it would be too sad.

Yeah, but there he had Cybill Shepherd and Brett Butler with Executive Producer power fighting against the sexist stuff. There's no obvious equivalent check and balance for him with Mom, which is why it took me a while to give it a try despite loving the cast; I figured it would be typical "Lorre left to his own devices" output, which I've never enjoyed. I don't know a lot about Dottie Dartland Zicklin, co-creator of Dharma & Greg and one of its EPs, but she had been a writer and producer on both Cybill and Grace Under Fire, so while that's another Lorre show I liked, I don't think of it as a "Lorre left to his own devices" show. Basically, once he got to where he was pretty much THE show-runner on his shows, and there really wasn't any estrogen in the executive producer circle, his shows became utterly unwatchable to me -- until Mom. So I guess I'm suspicious/wary of him still.

I dislike pretty much all blue cheeses, so such burgers are off the table for me anyway. The cheese I hate on a burger despite liking it otherwise is Swiss.

According to the archive, they also did not get Libya, which kind of blows my mind. "Lib" country when Liberia has already been ruled out, and neither of the remaining two could come up with Libya? I didn't know the Jarvik 7, though; it was the only clue in the first round I missed (of course, my odds were improved by the fact they left two entire categories untouched).