Bastet

- Don't start with me, Mr. President. - I was helping pass the time. I was being entertaining as well as instructive. - I'm back in America now, I have rights. I'm no longer belted down next to the passenger from hell. ... "If you'll look out the left side of the cabin, you'll see the fjords." Then we got a history of the fjords. Then we got a quiz on the fjords. Do you have any idea how much I would like to dress you up in lederhosen and drop kick you into the fjords right now?

There used to be a restaurant in the Los Angeles area called Palate. It didn't last long, but it was pretty good, especially for appetizers and wine.

Yeah, seeing Rita and Charlie Brown's names on the fence made me smile, because they are such a perfect match. Charlie Brown is just adorable, and I love all of Mariah's nicknames for the little butterball. Creature has a memorable face, doesn't he? I wonder how his eyesight is these days. Cheech and Chong make me a little weepy just to think about; what a bond. That photo of them hugging each other in the shelter is imprinted in my mind. As is the footage of Tia not being able to get the words "Cheech has cancer" out without crying, and the devastation in her face and voice as she worried that Chong won't make it without him. Her dropping to her knees when she got the call that Cheech had died. Chong whimpering as they released Cheech's ashes. And then finally, Chong putting his paw up on Tia's arm to say goodbye and thank you as he headed off with his new family. I don't think I'll ever forget them.

Yeah, I like to watch Nightwatch instead of Top Chef at 7:00, because Nightwatch doesn't air again until 11:00 while Top Chef is on again practically as soon as it's over. So I watch the 8:30 re-airing of Top Chef, and when I read forum commentary, I never see anyone talking about anything I didn't see, so as far as I know it's the same.

Me too, unfortunately. We've had only one blessed episode without him being mentioned. They're not just killing time by shoving him in there.

Right?! And speaking of Skinner, as much as it bugs me to read (or hear - thanks a lot, Glen) Scully calling Mulder "Fox" or him calling her "Dana," it also drives me batty when authors have either of them address Skinner as "Walter." Like the rash of stories in which Scully was the victim of an abusive boyfriend (from whom Mulder saved her, of course). My "favorite" is one in which, after Mulder busts in, beats the guy up, and cuffs him, Scully calls the cops and informs Mulder they'll be there when they can, then asks, "Do you want me to get us something to eat in the meantime?" Mulder says yeah, because he's starving, so Scully takes her bloodied and battered self into the kitchen to microwave some popcorn and grab a couple of sodas. Yes, seriously.

Like the bladder with the giant eyes, I love the little intestines guy. If they made "stuffed animal" versions, I would totally have them.

I do, too, sadly - that was a typo. Oops! I'll fix it.

Scully is about to turn 52; she was born Feb. 23, 1964.

That was funny. I like when the one guy suddenly disappears and is standing outside talking to the wall. And the part about, "I've prepared a presentation that you should all be able to see on your screens" -- one person says "yes" as she opens Solitaire, one gets a message that he has to install a plug-in, and one doesn't even know if he's on a Mac or PC. And then, of course, "You'll write up a recap email, which could have taken the place of this entire meeting?" "Yep, always do."

I remember at least once sprinting out of my office and diving for the shared printer when I realized I'd printed out a fanfic, then got distracted and forgotten to retrieve it. It wasn't anything I'd have been in trouble for -- I'd have just been embarrassed. They had enough fun with my intense love for the show; if they'd found out I also read fanfic about it, I'd have never heard the end of it.

Apparently "shammy" is the common pronunciation for the cloth, but I grew up hearing it pronounced "shamwa" for the cloth just like for the animal (it's what we used to dry the cars after washing them, otherwise it wouldn't have been such a commonly-heard word for me). Maybe my parents were being faux fancy in their pronunciation, as they're not exactly sticklers for maintaining original pronunciation of foreign words.

Yes, yesterday. Apparently, he talked for about eight minutes, but I've only seen one clip (I haven't gone looking for more), the "who's to say your way is right and mine is wrong?" and "I've always said I'm a sore loser" section.

Leyla and I were friends, but I didn't love her stories. That one, though, was quite affecting, especially with her personal connection to the subject matter (which she mentioned in the author's notes; I'm not telling tales out of school here or anything). And Split the Lark is my favorite of the hated genre. Very well done, and I love the version on her website with author's notes; it's interesting to hear her motivations and intentions, why she included certain things, etc.

The two story lines went together so poorly, I find myself wondering if Glen sat down to write this nice little MOTW and CC told him he had to include this damn ongoing William thread, too, and that's how we wound up offing Mrs. Scully in the midst of investigating the trash tulpa.

Oh my god, that was never finished, was it? I kind of cringe at it now, but I lived and f'in died by updates to that for a while. Oh, sweet Moses, yes. There are very few shows for which I've read fanfic, but I've yet to come across one in which fans didn't have a disturbing habit of sexually assaulting the female characters in order to allow a male character to swoop in and save her (usually after the fact). With XF, we got that, plus stories in which Mulder was somehow not in his right mind and did the raping himself. I think Sound of Wind Chimes was the first, thus the outcry. Totally had that on a 3.5 inch disc back in the day. I am not proud. I don't know who those characters named Mulder and Scully are, but I read it. And her sonnets. Like, I have snippets in my head still. Bad fanfic was so much more palatable back when there was so little to choose from. LOL at the stories in which Charlie shows up and reveals himself to be the anti-Bill Jr. -- I've read more than a few of those myself, even though they invariably had Ma Scully as a big fan of Mulder, when I just could never see that happening. Respect for his devotion when push came to shove, grudging acceptance as time went on that her daughter loved him, sure. But understanding and embracing their relationship? Nope. One year, back when Gossamer was much lighter than it is now but already fairly sizable, I vowed to at least try every single story that wasn't patently horrible by its author or summary. That meant dismissing a good number of stories, but also reading at least part of a whole lot of tales. It was an interesting time.

So, any recommendations for good S10 fics, since I'm not out there - wherever there is that the cool kids are posting stuff these days? Among the few places I check, I haven't yet seen anything to blow my socks off, but the social media crowd among us is undoubtedly exposed to a lot more stuff. And as much as I adore the hotel scene in the Were-Monster episode as it is, if anyone wrote a great fic where that glorious conversations ends with Scully telling Mulder to come back to bed, I'll read the hell out of it. Does anyone from way back remember the first fic they read? I have no idea. Maybe some romantic dreck from Paula Graves or Kelli Rocherolle (the latter sent me a tape of season one episodes I hadn't seen, so I can't hate). I remember the Sound of Wind Chimes debacle, when rapefic was a blessed anomaly. I also remember my abject horror at the first RPF I encountered; had I but known what was to come. But I have no recollection of my introduction to the world of fanfic.

For all my DD issues back in the day, he's pretty much always had a handle on what Scully means to Mulder (I love the "human credential" line). This time around, I'm not sure how much of it is the scripts and how much is his portrayal, but I am loving Mulder in a way I never did before and finally thinking it's possible for him to be a healthy life partner for Scully. This episode was a terrific illustration of that; their interaction was spot on based on what we've seen before, but better in a way that suggests such possibilities. I've re-watched, and still think there were two good stories crammed together in a way that lessened the final product (and distracted from a good MOTW), making a really good old-school XF episode less than it should be, but I've long since been in this for Scully, and the interaction between the two of them. On that front, minus the "Fox" nonsense, it delivered. The actors are nailing the hell out of this revival.

I think the differing reactions illustrate the racial double standard. I don't think it was a horrible thing for Manning to do, walking off the field without addressing anyone on the winning team, or something that should draw condemnation of his overall character, especially in light of his behavior afterward. But it was, in and of itself, poor sportsmanship and unprofessional. Yet people - in the sports media and in the fandom - twisted themselves into pretzels coming up with positive reasons for it. Cam does not get the same level of consideration. With Manning, people look for reasons to excuse it. There was an empathy for his emotions. With Newton, it's just "he's a petulant ass who should know better." Both behaved poorly in an emotional moment. Manning altered course in short order, Newton didn't. That's a valid point of discussion, but I'm talking about the immediate aftermath of the two actions. Manning walked off the field with time left on the clock without a word to his opponents. Newton navigated a celebrating throng to congratulate his counterpart on the winning team and then gave a sulky press conference performance. The reaction at large to those two similar actions differed greatly. Great article; thanks for posting it.

Oh, it's not the acting I'm worried about.

This hallucination stuff is either going to be hilarious or so bad I have to watch it through my fingers.

Yeah, the Liberty Mutual ads are all annoying for their cavalcade of cretins who don't understand how insurance works, but that one is particularly bothering me lately. "Your perfect driving record didn't get you anything." Yes, it did, nimrods! It got you your initial rate. Now you ran into a tree, or tapped a bumper, or tore one off parallel parking, or whichever incident is yours (none of the above, but I can't remember what they did - he ran into the garage or something?), and no longer have a perfect driving record. So you have a new rate. This is not difficult. If you want to pay a higher premium in order to have a "your first accident is free" card, go ahead.

Oh, yeah; there are about half a dozen CA avocado varieties other than Hass that are commonly grown here, and there are probably at least 20 total. I don't know how many FL varieties there are.

Second wave feminism works fine for me, I just wanted to be clear what era you were talking about (so I knew whether to list things they'd have experienced in real time, at the age they were, or if I was going to be putting them back in time as if they were adults during the first wave). A is for (federal) affirmative action policy, which was expanded in 1967 to include gender-based discrimination. Dorothy began wondering if the male substitute teachers were being paid more and given better assignments than the women who made up the majority of the substitute pool.

Oh, crap - I didn't know they were going to be in the finale, too. Well, there goes my one-off theory; I should have known better than to give CC the benefit of the doubt.