Bastet

I didn't see the show, but just checked the archive. I'm a bit surprised no one knew what's in a salty dog. I'm even more surprised busybody and septic shock were TS, and that no one could come up with arterial. I didn't know the Cannonball Express, either, though. I also started to say Oakland (for the Athletics), before my brain finally registered the barbecue part of the clue and made me actually look at the date to realize I'd skipped ahead in the team's history. So I was sympathetically embarrassed on the contestant's behalf. I've never seen Star Trek, but I knew Gene Roddenberry was the creator and I guessed Khan from the way the clue was written since that's been parodied so many times. I guessed Christopher Lloyd based on "back to the future" in the clue, but I think I'd have kept quiet if I was really playing. John Denver was an instaget for me.

Is this the one in which Chris Carter says they had a "platonic" relationship for nine years? Um, okay. Not only does he not understand his own characters, he doesn't even know what words mean.

With the Valentine's Day jewelry ads in the middle. Yep, it's a tough time of year to have the TV on.

Okay, what part of his commentary is actually some hip, new lingo referring to cunnilingus? I get the whole "box" as slang for vagina thing, of course, but I'm not getting an allusion to oral sex from the context in which it's said. Is "I'll take some of that schmotch" it? If so, that's a new one to me.

Same here, especially as compared to Cameron's family.

Well, we know from the bloopers that at least Richard Schiff did, but, yeah, I'd love to see the dailies on that one.

I like the late, great Roger Rees in just about anything, so I find Lord John Marbury a hoot, too. I find the dynamic of C.J. on the outside looking in interesting, even though it can be difficult to watch because she's my favorite. It's even more interesting to me that life and art collided, as Allison Janney felt that way a bit in the beginning, and then the way C.J.'s relationship with the male senior staffers was written compounded that feeling, and, in turn, the way she felt informed her portrayal of C.J.

I love the relationship between Dan and Jackie, and it's on such wonderful display in those episodes. The way Dan asks Roseanne if Jackie is okay, and then grabs his coat and heads out the door is great, and I also love when Jackie finds out he beat up Fisher, and alternates between chewing him out and hugging him. And when she says Roseanne is always having to help with her problems, and now he is, too, and he says, "It's a big job; we had to expand the department." Their dynamic is just one of the many things I love about those episodes; I think they're two of the best in the show's history. And probably the best of their many examples of how to combine a serious subject matter and humor. And definitely the best example of a revelation that makes you look back and realize it's been right under your nose the whole time. Darlene and Dan at the police station? Perfection. "Darlene, I don't have time for this." "Oh, I think you do." "I bet when you imagined this scenario, you pictured yourself on the other side of the bars." (I mangled that one, but that's the idea.) "... Mom says he's our new daddy now."

I didn't see the show, and my only exposure to the Big 10 schools is through football. But based on that, I agree -- Michigan means the University of Michigan, and it would never occur to me someone might be referring to Michigan St. instead (if they were, they'd say so). That's pretty common with U of [state]/[state] University vs. [state] St. The Oregon Ducks, the Oregon State Beavers. The Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys. If you say Oregon, people know you mean the University of Oregon. Oklahoma means OU. Etc.

I'm so glad they're resurrecting the New Year's Eve Thin Man marathon. The first year I decided I was done with going out on NYE -- the crowds, the jacked-up prices (and limited "special" menus), and the amateur drunks on the road got to be too much -- about 15 years ago, TCM aired a Thin Man marathon and I promptly declared that to be my new tradition. (Which, in most subsequent years, meant watching my tapes and then DVDs.) I'll be watching bowl games until 9-ish, as they're the semi-final games for the national championship, so I'd come in after the first three - which are the best. So I'll still have to watch my DVDs, but it's rather cool that my favorite NYE marathon is back on the dial. Although, really, unlike OU, I don't care about Michigan St. and am only rooting for them because I don't like Alabama, so I could skip the second game and just watch along with TCM all night ... Yeah, I think I just abandoned football come 5:00.

Wow. That "Oops, I took a knee" move was one of the stupidest things I've seen in a while. On the football field, anyway. Between the two teams, I'm marginally more comfortable rooting for the Eagles ... although it still makes me twitch. But I like Sam Bradford from his OU days, and at least the team name isn't a slur.

I'm with Tina on this one; I really enjoy Desk Set. I'd put Without Love even with it, but agree on putting the rest - especially Sea of Grass, which I just cannot get into and always find myself wondering if I'd have liked it better with Myrna Loy as originally planned - behind it if ranking the Hepburn/Tracy collaborations.

Yep. And I had a little bit of a crush on one of the doctors of Alameda East (Dr. Peterson, might have been his name). I most remember an episode when a couple and their child brought in their dog, who turned out to need a leg amputated but would be perfectly fine afterward. Their response? "We have no interest in having a three-legged dog." Gee, I hope your little kid standing right there listening to this never gets seriously injured or ill, lest you have no interest in a "defective" kid, either. Assholes. One of the vet techs adopted the dog.

I thought CJ and Danny were very cute in the beginning, and I liked them as two people who had a thing for each other but couldn't be together. Then when they brought him back, it was so random because that storyline had wrapped up, and they just didn't have a good vibe to me anymore. When I heard about the ending, I may have actually thrown something.

This is one area in which we have hideously regressed over the decades (although abortion on TV has never reflected reality on several key fronts).

Ah yes, I love when they scarf something down one meal and then the next look at you as if to scoff, "I cannot believe you expect me to eat something so vile." At the market yesterday, a couple was right smack in the middle of the walkway that is perpendicular to the check-out lines and all the aisles -- so pretty much the worst place in the store to cause a traffic jam. One person was trying to maneuver around them on one side, another person on the opposite, and he was just babbling away on his phone and she was fussing with something in their cart. When I rolled up with my own cart, I just kept going until they were directly in my path and then said with deadly calm, "Move." They did. Idiots. Maharincess, I hope the layaway box was found. To all those who celebrate it, I wish you a peeve-free Christmas.

Yeah, that's a Bob Rivers classic; "twisted tunes" were his thing, and he did an album of Christmas parodies in the '80s (and I think went on to put out several more).

They were married, she talked about it last night. It was clearly not a good one, and they split about a year (I think) after Megan was born. I was watching in bed, so on a small TV, and thus didn't see Megan's boyfriend, but from his voice I assumed he had Down's Syndrome as well.

He talked about the actor/model thing in the context of her learning all about vegan eating (the unsaid portion being "in an attempt to meet the ridiculous physical requirements for getting a gig in either industry"), prompting him to start cooking vegan food. It came up because he was being interviewed about his team's vegan cooking challenge. He talked about the pastry chef thing when being interviewed about the dessert he presented in another challenge, attributing the recipe to her. There's a fair bit about him that annoys me, but the myriad references to his wife do not because of the context in which they've occurred.

I enjoyed the break from Elena, too. I’m glad she’s on the show, mind you, but she’s hard to take. I’ve been waiting for this episode since the previews. I don’t know anyone with Down’s Syndrome, so all my exposure comes from television – and there certainly aren’t a lot of people with DS represented in that medium (and I hated Life Goes On, so rarely watched it), so that exposure is quite limited. There is an episode of Law & Order: SVU about a young woman, “Katie,” with Down’s Syndrome who is raped (and doesn’t know it, because she doesn’t know what it is). She gets pregnant, and her mother takes her to have an abortion, but the guy who runs the center that is kind of like the one we see them attending on this show gets an injunction to stop it, and there’s a hearing to see if Katie can decide for herself (she can). The mother is presented as sympathetic, but out of line, and I’m certainly not into forced abortion (or birth) so I agree with the ruling. But it’s a really hard episode for me because I feel like everyone is a bit too optimistic about what Katie – and her boyfriend with DS – can do on their own, so that the mother is right when she says this is going to be another child for her to raise, she’s tired, she’s older, and what the hell happens when she’s gone (she’s wrong about the extent to which she’ll need to be involved because she’s sheltered Katie so much she hasn’t let her learn some things she is capable of learning, so that kind of turns into this rose-colored glasses attitude by others like there’s no limit to what Katie can learn to do). So that’s my long-winded introduction to why I was looking forward to seeing how Megan’s mom approached the subject with her, how Megan reacted, and how others responded to her mom’s asking her to give up that dream. Because, once again, I’m with Mom – she’s done this, and she’s glad, but she doesn’t want to do it again, so while it’s Megan’s right to choose whether or not to have a baby, she has her own rights and she's well within them to ask Megan not to do it. Switching gears, John is annoying – like anyone else living here spouting off about their artistic career when they have zero chance of making it happen. It’s nice that his family supports his interests, but does everyone around him really need to fuel his delusions this is something more than a hobby? Rachel, Rachel, Rachel – you cannot grab every man with Down's Syndrome in Los Angeles by the shoulder and propose entering into a romantic relationship. Slow your roll. She’s a very nice person, and I hope she meets someone who’s a good match for her – and doesn’t scare him off.

He adopted his stepkids pretty early into the marriage. He also loves animals (has both dogs and cats, all adopted from shelter or rescue), and I've never heard any credible rumors about him running around on either Harris or his wife whose name I can't recall. And he's like the second coming of Cary Grant. So, yeah -- hairy chest and bad singing voice notwithstanding, I would definitely not kick him out of bed (if this were some parallel universe in which he wasn't married ... and, you know, would have reason to meet me and want to sleep with me).

My mom informs me she's doing a beef tenderloin roast for Christmas Eve and ham for Christmas (we generally do the ham for Christmas, but Christmas Eve it just depends on what she's in the mood to make). I do the veggie sides, so I need to put my thinking cap on today so I can get to the market tomorrow, although it's going to come down to what looks good when I get there. Maybe Brussels sprouts one night and Ina Garten's spinach gratin another -- the latter is so good, but so rich that it's definitely reserved for special occasions.

If it was in order, the original doctors would have been listed first, so I don't think the order in which Babish reeled off the names of those who know necessarily indicates the order in which those people found out.

His impression of people with their phone out on the table during dinner was spot on, and then I choked on my water when he made the joke about taking pictures of the food. Ten percent of whomever was surveyed confessed to looking at their phones during sex?! (Love his joke about texting one's partner.)

Well, crap. The Giants didn't deserve to win, since they played like shit for so much of the game, but that was such a great comeback (and Beckham sure picked the right time to get his groove back) I really wanted it to happen.