Bastet

I had a roommate at the time, and she was a big fan, too. So my memory is of the two of us leaning closer and closer to the TV as the tension mounted, so that we both practically tumbled off the couch when the shooting started. Then the mutual OMG WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! flailing as the screen faded to black, and lunging towards the VCR to rewind and re-watch in an effort to figure out who'd been shot. I think diagrams were drawn at some point.

I prefer those. Some are better at it than others, but pretty much any time a cooking show host is part of a storyline rather than just cooking, instructing, and chatting to the audience, I wind up rolling my eyes. The only competitive cooking show I can watch is Top Chef and the rare episode of Chopped; otherwise, it's more gimmick than I'm willing to sit through to see good food being prepared.

"We've got people down! Who's been hit? Who's been hit?" Man, that was a long summer. The internet was fun, though - we Zaprudered the hell out of that footage. Tommy Schlamme did a brilliant job directing What Kind of Day Has it Been. First, to stage a mass shooting when he had no idea which character(s) were going to be revealed as having been shot. But also the ways he shot the scenes at the Newseum differently depending on whether they were going to be used at the beginning when the audience didn't know what was going on or at the end when we'd caught up to real time again. Music certainly helped give the latter a different feel, but so did his shot choices. And the way they put it together, so that we saw and heard some of the same things, but also different sections of the Q&A session and staff conversations. Just so well done. And, to bring this back to Mandy: They must have known then they weren't bringing her back, because she's not at the Newseum event (when, in reality, she would have been) and thus not part of the shooting. But she's in the episode, when they're doing the prep sessions for the Q&A. They're all professionals, but that had to be awkward. I think it was mostly the character that didn't work, but I think it was a little bit the actor, too. The actors developed their characters as they went along, and Aaron began writing to what he was seeing. Particularly with Allison/C.J., but it happened with everyone. Moira never really did anything with Mandy, though. Aaron didn't flesh the character out, but neither did Moira. That's a pretty fatal combination, especially when surrounded by an ensemble that is putting on quite a show. The character just never sparked, and never really gelled with the rest.

A discussion this morning reminded me I use this (from Toby) a lot: I don't know where you get the idea that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for anything of which they disapprove. Lots of them don't like tanks. Even more don't like Congress.

Janel's billing at any given time accurately reflected her evolving role. Renee's never matched anything other than the fact she's Martin Sheen's daughter. And, hey, better to have her name higher in the list of credits than it should be for saying four words than to having her shoehorned in to a larger role. As sops go, it's an innocuous one, especially for someone as nice as Martin Sheen. It just really stands out to me, especially in the episode in which she had no lines at all. I feel asleep somewhere during the last disc for the season last night, so I'm not quite finished with my revisit of season one, but almost. I don't remember being quite this aggravated with Danny before. I remember he went from charming to annoying me fairly quickly, but this time I'm kind of sitting here muttering, "I hate Danny" and that's new. I like Joey, and Josh's comportment around Joey, every bit as much as ever, though. I don't buy she'd feel comfortable blowing a raspberry at Josh in front of the president in the Oval Office during her first week on the job, though. Mandy just never did click, did she? Has Moira Kelly ever spoken about it? I know that Aaron has said it had nothing to do with her as a performer, that Mandy just wasn't working for whatever reason, and that she understood and was professional and gracious about it, but I don't recall ever hearing her talk about it. That had to be hard; she didn't even have to audition, was just offered the role, and now here's this incredible show picking up steam and accolades and she's told she'll no longer be part of it.

Toby, after Sam announces he's going to the gym for the first time in three weeks: Sam, look at yourself. How much healthier do you want to be? C.J., after Bartlet reads, "When in company, put not your hands on any part of your body not usually covered": Well, I do what it takes to keep the press corps happy, Mr. President. Bartlet: They don't like that the daughter of the President is dating a young black man. Zoey: Charlie? Bartlet: Zoey, please don't tell me you're dating more than one guy. ... Because one guy for you is actually one more than I'm comfortable with. Mandy: I think we should get a panda bear. Josh: You say that now, but I'm the one who's going to end up feeding him and walking him. Fast forward to ... Toby: Mandy, I feel like I've lost 180 pounds. I'm smiling. I'm laughing. I'm enjoying the people I work with. I've got to snap out of this. What's on your mind? Mandy: I want you to help me get the Chinese to give us a new panda bear to replace Lum-Lum. Toby: Well, that did the trick. I also love, "Then get us two regular bears, a bucket of black paint, a bucket of white paint -- bam, bam, next case."

Even though I've seen it before, the end of Let Bartlet Be Bartlet always gives me chills. And makes me want to run out and conquer something. That episode is fantastic. "We're gonna raise the level of public debate in this country. And let that be our legacy." Two (well, two of several) recurring annoyances this (stellar) season: C.J. so frequently being the one who doesn't know something, makes a mistake, or is the only one not part of a group discussion. Renee Estevez getting her name so far up in the credits, despite the fact all Nancy ever does in an episode is say, "Good morning, Mr. President" or, in one case, just stand there. That's taking nepotism too far. She's billed above Kathryn Joosten, NiCole Robinson, and a bunch of guest stars. In the early episodes, she's even billed above Janel Moloney.

For all his days, my grandpa got a kick out of talking about a neighbor whose driveway made a turn of about 80 degrees for the final stretch into the garage -- she hit her turn signal to turn from the street to the beginning of her driveway, and then again for the turn from the straight-away to that garage stretch. Because there was so much traffic behind her that needed the alert.

I like his stand-up bit in that episode about the difference between naked and nekkid. "Naked means you ain't got no clothes on. Nekkid means you ain't got no clothes on, and you're up to something."

She may not have been; she died of sepsis from a ruptured intestine.

I watch season two episodes every few years, but I haven't watched season one in a while until recently. Wow, how nuanced things were from jump. The writing, and then elevated (boy howdy) by the acting. Jed and Leo when Leo has to give his press conference about going to rehab and Jed has to simultaneously apologize for not being there ("I tried to get up but then I fell down again") and explain why he didn't tell him about the MS. C.J.'s significantly different reactions - not just from scene to scene, but from person to person within the same scene - to Leo and Toby when she learns they concealed the India/Pakistan thing from her because they're not sure she can - after a campaign and a year in office - do her job when the shit hits the fan (ouch ... and, you know, assholes!). Holy balls. And then when Toby apologizes to C.J. ("So, apologize! ... I'm sorry. ... God, Toby! ... I wanted to say it nicer"). My two favorite relationships, and they both really grab my attention around the same time. Josh - in Sam's foul-weather gear - has suffered through his hung-over introduction to Joey Lucas, and if I can stay awake he will soon invent a secret plan to fight inflation. This show was art at its finest for a time.

At least the staging on this show eliminates the recurring script on House Hunters and such where a buyer walks into a room and asks, "What's this for?" Whatever you want it to be, idiot; other than the kitchen and bathroom(s), the rooms are pretty malleable.

I've never done one in my house, because I think accent walls look good in rooms where the main paint color is fairly neutral, and I don't use neutral colors, but we did one in my best friend's bedroom. The other walls are a gold-ish cream color and then the wall the bed sits up against is a deep red (the colors come from her comforter). She's happy with it. I think you should go for it. Yes, it's more work painting over a dark color if you don't like it, but it's only one wall instead of all of them.

Did you check overstock.com? I do see a lot more listings for bedspread sets than just for bedspreads, but there are some of the latter (and some of the sets are just the bedspread and two shams).

I threw in the towel somewhere in season seven, so I'm not the one to offer a timeline that tries to make sense of this bullshit, but haven't we had a few "my son/our son" references from Mulder? I had stopped watching before Scully got pregnant, and all my knowledge of seasons eight and nine comes strictly from reading people's comments, but I thought they finally dropped the coy paternity bullshit by the time the series ended the first time around. And he's "our son" when they discuss him in the second movie.

I can't watch most nature documentaries for this reason. I learned my lesson after one too many times of stopping on my way around the dial, "Oh, that's a cute animal, is that some sort of--ACK, something just jumped out of the bushes and ate it!!" I understand that's how it works in the wild, and the food chain is vital. But I don't want to sit and watch it happen. I'm watching several bald eagle cams right now, as it's the time of year for the eggs to hatch, and bald eagles mostly eat fish, but they're quite opportunistic and will catch small mammals, too. Dad was on a real mammal kick in one of the nests today, and if I happened to be watching when he came flying in with the latest catch, I had to click away. What I really don't understand are the wildlife shows that are entirely about attacks. It's one thing to watch predators hunting their prey as part of an overall documentation of their way of life, but to find enjoyment in something that's nothing but shot after shot of animals killing each other?

Selecting bad outfits on GG is like shooting fish in a barrel; the real challenge would be to compile a list of 20 wardrobe choices that actually look good. I have to say, though, that smock outfit is one of the few of Dorothy's I kind of like.

I'm an exception, too -- I want it empty so I can see the floors and walls in their entirety, and I can imagine my stuff in there easier if I'm not looking at different stuff. But statistic after statistic tells us staging makes a house sell faster and for more money (plus it makes for better TV), so they're wise to do it. I don't watch this show very often because it's so repetitive, but I like when I come across a follow-up episode where they go visit the new owners of one of their houses -- I like seeing how the owners wound up decorating it, which is more interesting to me than the generic staging (regardless of which design I'd rather have in my own home).

Coincidentally, I just watched that one this past weekend.

Oh, I know she's not a little kid who needs that kind of supervision, and that being raised by a single mom who worked nights a lot meant they'd had to achieve a greater level of self-sufficiency already, but she is still in high school and it just seems odd to take a job which will result in her basically living alone, because he's pretty much only home to sleep. I watched a few more last night, including the introduction of Zoey, and then of the First Lady. It always strikes me anew how instantly Stockard Channing and Martin Sheen capture the chemistry of a long-married couple. That was inspired casting. Zoey, on the other hand, I always find annoying, and possibly the world's most immature 19-year-old. I do love the scene when Bartlet explains the Secret Service's nightmare scenario, though, and with Zoey's changing facial expressions Elisabeth Moss finally shows me she can act. I'm trying to just enjoy the C.J. and Danny flirtation/banter back when it's cute, but it's tainted by how much I come to hate it, so that's hard. I skipped over the patronizing "we can't get over these women" bullshit at the end of The Crackpots and These Women for the sake of my blood pressure, because that's a fun episode otherwise. The other thing that really annoys me in the midst of some fine episodes is C.J. knowing jack all about the census. I don't envy the writers their task of making so much exposition palatable week after week, and trying to figure out which character should do and receive the explaining for each issue. And, as bright and experienced as these characters are, they aren't going to know everything, so by and large it works (especially when it's someone like Donna getting filled in, as she doesn't have the same experience). But it could have been a dialogue between C.J. and Sam where she needs certain details filled in. That instead she acts like someone who hasn't completed junior high, let alone 22 years of schooling, and has to have the entire concept, let alone process, explained to her is just too much for me to take. Bartlet on the phone with the kid in the radio shack, listening to him explain how they're taking on water and are down to their running lights so they may get run over by a carrier ... that is such good television. And Mandy is at her most interesting in that one, when the president goes with her suggestion of sending in an FBI negotiator - over pretty much everyone else's advice to just take the house and get it over with - and the negotiator winds up getting shot.

Oh, for the love of Mike! It has been a shit day, and one of my favorite local Chinese restaurants does good food but GREAT appetizers and has speedy delivery. So I decide that since it's after 9:00 and I have yet to cook anything - or muster any enthusiasm for doing so - and I hate everyone, I'm going to order a selection of comfort foods, including the best spicy garlic chicken wings in the land. Turns out, they closed down last weekend. Grrrr. I think I'll go on a dim sum binge ...

There's a love interest in Tammy, but I have only a vague memory of the film (great cast, not-so-great movie). I think maybe it's left with an "I have some shit to work out before pursuing something" sentiment rather than a traditional happy ending. If, in fact, I'm remembering that correctly, it makes sense for the film, but does make one wonder if it would have happened with a more traditionally attractive lead.

It has been a rotten day, so I just watched the Cookie Monster commercial again (I think I have a problem), and for the first time I noticed that it says at the end, “The number of the day is 6 and the letter is S” (because it’s the iPhone 6s being advertised). But unless they’ve changed Sesame Street since I was a kid (entirely possible, granted, as that has been more than a few decades now), it should read, “This has been brought to you by the number 6 and the letter S.” I checked to see if they'd somehow managed to copyright that phrase, but can find no evidence of that, so unless the show now uses the number/letter of the day phrasing instead, that's the one misstep in an otherwise perfect commercial. (And, even if it does now use that verbiage, I'd still argue they should have gone the old way for nostalgia since it's adults who are buying the phones.)

Yeah, Roseanne was one of the few shows in which the characters routinely wore clothes we'd already seen (and we saw Darlene in clothes her older sister Becky had worn, which was another nice touch). Usually it's a steady stream of new outfits, even among characters talking about how money is tight. Rose would have had no trouble storing a large wardrobe, with how freakin' big her bedroom is. Maybe everyone else followed the "bring in one new piece, get rid of one old piece" method.

Ugh. I don't like kids, but they don't deserve to be exposed to Mike Isabella.