Bastet

Yep. It has always been the only thing I like about it.

Okay, now that I’ve paid more attention … I got a chuckle out of Padma standing on the gel mat while Tom stood on the floor; I’d need a hell of a lot more help than that in those heels. Also from “who doesn’t snore?” in selecting a roommate, as snoring makes me something just short of homicidal. I still don’t know many names … In terms of comportment based on this small sample, I like the sous chef who rocks bitter melon, which I love (Frances?), the sassy chef (Renee?), the guy who dissed the sassy chef but then gave her props when she was the first one done in the QF (ooh, this came to me – Amar), the “cooking saved me” Brooklyn (I think) chef, the chef who worked with Emeril for ten years, the chef who shut down “oh, I’d have won if I hadn’t squirted orange juice in my eye” and explained that prosciutto isn’t vegan although her sauce was, and the gracious James Beard Award loser. There’s no one I developed a visceral dislike of, but as I said, Mr. Man Bun annoys me, as does the eliminated philosopher (and I often enjoy people like him). The messy chef, too. I don’t care at all if friends or family taste the food, then stick that spoon back in the food before serving me. And I’m not too riled up about its inevitable occurrence from time to time in restaurants, either, as I have a robust immune system. But when people – and cameras – are right in front of you and you still do something like that? That tells me it’s part of your routine, not the occasional slip. There wasn’t much food I would have passed on. For the QF, the green team’s chicken looked wonderfully moist. The blue team’s dish looked even better, so I wasn’t surprised by that win. For the elimination challenge, definitely not much food I’d have skipped. Grayson’s meatballs wouldn’t have excited me, as I’m not much of a tomato sauce (especially Jersey pizzeria tomato sauce) or beef fan. I think I’d have been all over Amar’s meatball. I don’t much care for polenta, so Sassy Chef’s dish might not have been my favorite, but there wasn’t much and I love pork loin. The salmon and apple tartare looked really good, as did the carrot soup with Middle Eastern flavors. God, I hate foam! I thought that trend died its deserved death several years ago. With the whole “you eat with your eyes first” credo, creating the impression you have hocked a loogie on my plate just boggles my mind.

It will take me several episodes to learn anyone's name. Grayson I remember from her first appearance, and I liked her then. Not so much her attitude at Judges' Table. But I liked, "I'm a little older, a little fatter, and hopefully a lot better" (or something like that for the end; she said something odd, I think). And, Grayson, it's parameters, not perimeters. But I still like you. I miss your curly hair, though. Very disappointing to see the gender make-up of the top and bottom; hopefully that isn't a season-long theme. I thought the "Sassy Chef" would be on my shit list, but I wound up liking her the rest of the time. I like that she took charge and basically said, "Since I came in first in part one of the QF, I'm choosing my spot in part two." Still, don't introduce yourself that way. I don't remember bun guy from Chopped, which is the only one of the shows he rattled off I ever watch (and I only watch it occasionally), but so far I find him annoying. I love the mise en place challenge, so that was a nice way to begin. I'd have chosen chicken, as would Tom, and I don't think it's a coincidence so many of the chefs who did finished in the top nine. More thoughts when I watch the late airing; I can barely remember what happened except I think the right person went home.

"This is supposed to be fast food, people, and we can't exactly call it fast [if customers are complaining about the time it takes to get their order]." "Why not? We call it food." Brought to you by Roseanne; I was reminded of the "Chicken Hearts" episode by the posts above.

That's why I include it in my sympathy roundup, but put him last with the "even" qualifer. How many times in his young life had he already seen black crime victims go without justice? So now here we are in a situation in which it would not have been justice for Elias to be punished (given his age and the circumstances of the shooting), but to him it's just more of the same shit. So now he's snuffed out one young life, and ruined his own. On and on it goes.

That makes me think of the Jo-Ann fabric stores (not the set-up, but the grumbling line dwellers). They have a system where you take a number for the cutting counter -- you can go about your other business in the store and come back when it's called rather than having to stand there doing nothing while other people are having their fabric cut. I think it's clearly marked, but obviously many do not, as there are always people who just line up without taking a number, and then get pissed when someone who has a number but is not standing in line is helped before they are. Even if you don't notice the instruction sign above, the number dispenser near to where you are standing, or the glowing red number box up above the counter, hearing numbers called out didn't clue you in that there's a system? Anyway, while I can certainly understand the people in line grumbling about you, that's more on the store and its employees than you -- when it's not clear whether there should be separate lines for each register or one big line, they need to make that clear, especially when people have started lining up both ways.

Some of that is just logistics, not wasting time by having the stars shoot with the second unit. They can be off filming scenes with the first unit and the second unit can simultaneously shoot elsewhere using doubles. It's not just stunts, it's shots in which it doesn't need to be the actor. And, yeah, good call on me not watching this immediately after my Steele re-watch (which I have yet to get back to, as I've been collapsing into bed each night upon returning home after Thanksgiving) wraps up -- if I was having difficulty getting into it last time, I'd really have a hard time under those circumstances. So I'll just follow along with your observations and re-watch it some time when the mood strikes. Because I do want to like it again. It's prone to the saccharine, and subdued, the chemistry far more sweet than sizzling, and it's pretty dated, but it's enjoyable and I want to feel that way again.

The lost dog I posted about was turned into the shelter, and is now back with her owner. I used to live next door to people who had a sweet, friendly dog - some sort of lab/pit mix I think - whom they never, ever walked or really gave any mental/physical stimulation. Instead of going next door and saying, "Hey, assholes, your dog's world needs to consist of more than your backyard," I went next door and said, "I need motivation to stick to my evening walk routine, Kobe seems to like me, and I'm used to handling my best friend's labs; can I take him with me? If he's counting on me, I'm far less apt to just plop down on the couch with a glass of wine instead." Worked like a charm. I'd talk to them about how much he enjoyed it, and they'd comment on the difference they could see in him. They moved a couple of years later, and I just had to hope they kept it up.

I thought of another one - the kid, Elias, who accidentally shot a classmate, Carly, on the playground (when he was aiming at the gang member Machete whom he'd previously seen kill someone, believing Machete was now there to kill him). Pretty much everyone was sympathetic in that one -- Elias, his parents, Carly's mom, Alex getting hung out to dry by her boss, the daycare lady doing the best she can but being ill-equipped to look after that many kids (and, although unseen, the parents who can't afford any better daycare), even the kid who killed Elias in retaliation ("you can't kill a sister and just walk").

N is for North by Northwest. Dorothy just likes it, period, Blanche likes looking at Cary Grant (and equating her bone structure with Eva Marie Saint's), and Rose likes it but asks a dumb question about Mount Rushmore.

A production company may impose limits on what stunts the stars can do on their own (because it's expensive enough to insure them under normal circumstances), but mostly it's about what the actors do and don't want to do. Stephanie wanted to do many things normally done by a double, Kate was much more typical in what she did and didn't do. Last time I tried to re-watch this show, I just could not get into it -- all the things that always bugged me about it (it was my least favorite, or at least tied with Hart to Hart with least favorite, of the '80s detective romantic comedic dramas I watched) were jumping up and down announcing themselves to me and distracting me from what I liked about it. Maybe you'll inspire me to try again. I always thought Bruce's estimation of when Lee fell in love with Amanda was too early, but I'll certainly have to grant he knows the character better than I do.

Moderate to severe not-so-fresh feeling.

They have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number issued by the IRS (requires application and documentation establishing identity and alien status).

The actor who played Agnes is a friend of a friend, so I'm somewhat biased, but I agree. When she says those killer girls went to jail, yet not a damn thing changed at school, I definitely feel sympathy despite her actions. I mostly remember early seasons (I haven't watched this show in eons, and generally only watch early years in syndication), but there have been a number of sympathetic perps. The slow-witted kid who got caught up in his sadistic friend's rape and murder of a "drug-dealing" (she was a cancer patient providing marijuana to fellow sufferers) woman. He just kept lying about the most basic stuff and asking if he could go home, incapable of fully understanding what was happening. (I think this is the one where Liz Donnelly moves Alex from second to first chair, since "the jury thinks [she makes] little kids cry." And then his mother is so convinced the jury will grasp the dynamics of the situation and absolve her kid that she turns down a sweet deal on his behalf, and he winds up with the book thrown at him. The women in the pilot. The battered woman who had to sexually service the judge in order to keep her husband in jail, who killed the sleazy judge when he reneged on the deal and ordered her violent husband released. Tess Harper and Mrs. Closure Rapist (Cleary?). I am not at all a proponent of vigilante "justice." But women get screwed by the sytem so often, that every once in a while I can stomach it on TV. The developmentally disabled man who raped an elderly woman because the burglars had left her tied up in her nightgown, something he recognized from porn; he never understood what he did, was embarrassed to be declared "retarded" in court, and wound up institutionalized. The molested piano student who became a reluctant molester himself. Cheryl Avery. The mother who mercy killed her daughter with Tay-Sachs. Kyle McLachlan, who kills his son's killer - a sociopathic teen who, as he says, would kill again.

There's a dog lost in my neighborhood who escaped this morning, and I was working out of my home office (so that this afternoon I could go do the afternoon meds/fluids routine for my friend's sick kitty as she had meetings she couldn't miss), so I set out to search. I didn't find her, unfortunately, but I post to say I had Tia in my head the whole time I was walking and then driving around. I had hot dogs on hand to coax her to me should I find her, knew to look on porches and down driveways, and even called, "Here, pup pup" a few times even though I knew the dog's name and was mostly using that (in baby voice, of course; mine is well developed from a lifetime of cat guardianship). The only thing I didn't have was a leash slung across my body, but I rather wished I had one. (Although, this is a small dog, and I did have a towel should I need to wrap her up.)

They do that to try and keep people from thinking some sort of bad guy is at the door -- they're back so you can see their uniform/badge, clipboard, whatever and so you don't feel like they're primed to force their way inside and pillage the house as soon as you crack the door open. Don't get me wrong, I take your general point. But I also know the level of fear/paranoia these folks deal with in many neighborhoods, especially if they're men of color, and the protocol to stand way back from the door is directed at those security fears because so many people won't talk to them through the door, let alone open it, otherwise. It's a sales tactic their companies implement to cut down on such reactions.

Network execs were so rigid in their hour = drama/half hour = comedy distinction back then, they pitched a fit whenever an hour-long show submitted a comedic episode. (Moonlighting made ABC execs' heads spin.) NBC flipped out about Steele's Gold, and then this one, with its Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World caper style. Obviously, both ultimately made air, and I think both are enjoyable episodes (especially Steele's Gold).

I love mustard greens, which is kind of funny since I hate mustard, but not because it's mostly the vinegar in mustard that I hate, not the mustard seed itself.

Somewhere it's said that her agency under her own name folded after just six months. Or a year, and the six months is the time in between when Remington Steele Investigations was created and "Steele" showed up? Because then it's said she's been with Remington Steele Investigations for a certain length of time (a year and a half?), and that lets you do the math as to how long she pulled off the scheme before he showed up. When Murphy is resistant to keep going with the case they're on when "Steele" shows up, saying they always bow out if a client starts getting really fussy about seeing Steele, Laura says it's exactly the kind of case she created this charade in order to attract, and that the fees can give a huge boost to the bottom line, prompting Miss Wolf <g> to touch on all their expenses. So I think the agency is still fairly new (in its first year, maybe) at the time. But I'd have to go back and find the episode when the timeline is discussed to crunch the numbers again ... and then I'd have to see if that is contradicted by anything said in another episode, because I think it might be. (As usual, we care far more about continuity than anyone writing the show.) As for By the Book Laura Holt not giving any thought to the tax situation when she created a fictitious person, one must indeed just suspend disbelief. As one must do with anything surrounding the agency's official documents and books, really.

Alan Jackson has a lovely voice, but I don't like very many of his songs. Remember When is one of the few exceptions, and it always puts me in a mood. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton singing You Can't Make Old Friends does the same.

You Live in What? still airs in the wee hours sometimes; I've come across it several times while channel surfing during a bout of insomnia.

Some publication did a great article on that behavior - and the fact it's so rarely discussed - several ago, but now I can't remember which one it was.

The tighty-whities. I take the scene when Steele wakes up in the hotel room with no idea where he is or how he got there as proof positive that no one looks good in those things. Otherwise, though ... the man makes me drool. I don't like chest hair, so I prefer when he's covered up, but I'd get over it if the opportunity to get naked with him ever presented himself.

These go beyond peeves, but we don't have an "Unjust Shit That Makes Me Hate People" category, so ... yeah. That a gender slur has become socially acceptable for casual use makes the internet a very frustrating place for me to be. "Bitch" has specific meanings, and one hell of a history; seeing it hurled right and left when discussing anything from a minor annoyance to a major transgression just because the offender is a woman blows my mind. Complain about what people do, not who they are. Exactly. And if you spew that stuff to me, I will tell you in no uncertain terms to stop it. And if it's in a business situation, I will go elsewhere and tell you manager exactly why you just lost a sale. So simple a concept, and yet so elusive to many. Know your audience, and if you don't, say something inclusive rather than making assumptions.

Especially once Denver threw it on first and goal with over a minute left, leaving enough time on the clock for exactly what happened -- the Pats easily head down the field, kick the FG, and send it to OT. I thought for sure that was it. To instead see Brady on his ass? Now that's how to wrap up Thanksgiving weekend. If not for the Giants playing like shit, it would have been a perfect football weekend for me.