Bastet

I don't know what is going on, but this is definitely not the season I expected Seattle to have.

I hope it's a runaway hit, so all the kids/teens will be on that show (that I won't watch), and never again darken the doorstep of the regular show.

But XX chromosome arrangement is female; male is XY (in the rudimentary XY sex-determination system that doesn't begin to cover the actual spectrum -- not trying to offend here, just saying that Stan, Ernie, Vincenzo and Buddy were most likely XY, not XX).

The NFL has fair number of "official sponsor" companies, and thus likely agreements not to take advertisements from direct competitors to those sponsor companies. But, really - demographics. NFL games draw huge ratings (even the mediocre Thursday night games), so advertising minutes are expensive. Many companies will look at the data and conclude there isn't enough overlap between their customer demographic and that of "regular" NFL viewers (with Super Bowl viewers being a totally different animal) to justify the cost. I'm a huge football fan, but it's clear from commercials during games that I am not the type of person the NFL and its advertisers think of when they picture who is watching.

The trajectory of the past three games has been typical USC under Kiffin and then Sarkissian: Lose a good game to a tough opponent by taking their foot off the gas in the second half, follow that up with great play in an explosive victory over an outmatched opponent, but then look past a team they should easily beat and thus instead turn in an embarrassing, losing performance. And now, as you said, comes Notre Dame, Utah and Cal -- in a row, and on the road. I know it's still technically possible for them to win the Pac-12 South, but they won't, so since the season is shot anyway, at this point I'm sort of hoping it for it to be so bad that they fire Sark.

I don't automatically have a problem with them being separated, I just have a problem believing CC will write or even conceptualize it in a way that makes sense -- I think he just wanted to hit a reset button and go back to the original dynamic rather than continuing to write them in a long-term relationship and that's all the thought he gave to it. Which is pretty much destined to result in Scully looking bad. And if he does the same reset by turning her into the perpetual skeptic to Mulder's believer, she'll look even more ridiculous.

Hmmm ... it's somehow simultaneously rich and subtle. A little salty, but mostly umami (like MSG, but healthier). I first came across squid ink pasta in Italy and Spain, many years ago - long before it became popular here.

These contestants don’t watch much college football, obviously. Not even knowing who won the most recent national championship? I’ve never heard El Paso pronounced Pah-so. I thought he’d seen it written but never said, but perhaps there are areas of the country that pronounce it that way. Ottowa surprised me as a TS. Same with Thursday, a bit. Das Boot was quite surprising, but the attorney pouting when she got it wrong was memorable. It was all downhill from there for her. I wonder if she’s a transactional attorney. Because I want to throw a fit like that in court sometimes, and certainly would want to if I went on the show and got frustrated. But you learn right quick to “never let ‘em see you sweat.” Her reactions went beyond self-deprecating to embarrassing. I’ve never played Tetris, but I know the concept, so based on the year and the slogan FJ was pretty easy for me. Thank heavens it was a video game from back in the day; I know nothing about modern ones.

I've tried to temper my initial "This is a hideous mistake and I hate Pat Haden like he was poison" reaction to USC hiring Sark, but, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and go back to it.

I've never seen it (I stopped watching some time in season seven), but from hearing about the episode when it aired, that was my impression -- Mulder had gone and knowingly done something stupid, and getting abducted was exactly what he knew was going to happen. The ultimate Mulder Ditch. But you're the first person I've heard speak of it in those terms in eons now.

I eat pasta with squid ink a fair bit, and have not experienced the green poop side effect, so I think it's from whatever synthetic substance they're using to color the buns.

Since the camera holds on each contestant long enough to give their name, occupation and city, and in the case of the returning champ also their X-day total winnings, Matt will have plenty of time to flash ten fingers and then one, so I'm assuming that's what he'll do if he wins eleven games. But I admit I'm curious, and will make sure to tune in early to find out (I often don't turn it on until about a minute in, skipping the contestant intros and Alex's opening remark). (At eight, I thought of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer accidentally flashes the gang sign for The Van Buren Boys by holding up eight fingers.)

Two (as of yesterday; I haven't seen today's) -- last night, and then one in the middle (his fifth game, if I'm remembering right from looking at the archive this morning).

I think she's even better with Katharine Hepburn (and Spencer Tracy and Keenan Wynn) in Without Love. Anyone other than Hepburn/Tracy in the lead, and Ball and Wynn would have run away with the film ... as it is, they almost do. (And I know, for some, they succeed.)

Check the archive for this season. His first victory knocked out returning champion Dylan, who had been a three-day winner (I think a rather underwhelming one, because his total for those three days was about $30k). Matt beat him by about $4000.

Indiana Jones popped into my head almost immediately, which wouldn't be surprising if I liked the film because there was a lot in the clue to get you there, but I've never even seen it. (A few minutes here and there on TV, probably, but it has never interested me; it's just not my genre, and I don't particularly care for the performances of Harrison Ford.) So I guess it's no wonder Matt also got it despite pop culture being a noticeable gap in his knowledge. What is surprising to me is that he doesn't seem to have done much studying of the type of info about sports, movies, music, etc. that tends to come up in J! If I was going to compete, I'd use the archive to give myself a fighting chance in clues about religion/mythology, opera, military history, etc. -- if a whole category about one of those things comes up, it's just too much money to basically wave away. Obviously it's not hurting Matt (yet?), but it's noticeable even to me, who hardly notices anything about the contestants. (They're just a vehicle for the clues, which is all I'm interested in, so they have to be pretty egregious for me to get distracted by them.)

I haven't noticed the interrupting being complained about; instead of interrupting - Alex speaking first and Matt deliberately cutting him off - I've simply seen Matt select his next clue immediately, which has sometimes overlapped with Alex saying something. So I decided to pay close attention tonight (since I rarely notice the contestant quirks talked about here). Tonight, he didn't even do that, let alone interrupt; Alex frequently got in an aside before Matt selected. I'll look for it again tomorrow.

All I said was it annoys me, and acknowledged Milano is far from the only person to pronounce it that way. Webster's has the kwa pronunciation (and only that pronunciation) listed, as it does for every other word beginning with qua. The other pronunciation bugs me. But if someone wants to go buy a kort of milk, study kontum physics, or vie for homecoming keen, go ahead.

Like it's spelled; the qua means it's a kw sound. I've never heard anyone say kort for quart (that would drive me even more batty), so how quarter becomes korter, I'll never understand. Plus, she's just trying to hard to be earnest, so the whole commercial bugs me.

Wow, that's good to hear, since critics stateside who saw episode one a while back were decidedly underwhelmed. I'm not thrilled by the reference to Samantha's abduction, since that storyline that tried to eat the show has long since been wrapped up. But I hope, in general, the storylines are good. Of course, I'm still highly skeptical of the M/S relationship being written in a way that makes sense given CC's many issues and delusions. And I'm not getting carried away by one article, period. But I do hope its positivity is warranted.

I was half-listening to the show while on the phone, so I missed a lot of tonight's game. So Matt gave a last name only, Alex didn't ask him to be more specific but instead simply accepted the answer, and then later the money was taken away? I'd be pissed too. That's one of the clues for which I was paying attention, and I heard Alex pronounce the H.

I watch that every New Year's Eve. It's so hard to pick a favorite Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant pairing - well, I can knock Sylvia Scarlett out of the race, but that's about it. Bringing Up Baby is tied with The Thin Man as my all-time favorite film, but The Philadelphia Story is great as discussed above, and Holiday is an unsung classic in my eyes. Wonderful characterization and storyline, with an outstanding supporting cast. Lew Ayres would be enough, but we also get Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon. I don't know, there were quite a few similarities there.

It's the pages of history (and best spent lying in bed) -- I know these missing words because I use that quote all the time. I'm also prone to saying, "I'm standing here solidly on my own two hands and going crazy." And a friend I will still occasionally do the "This is the voice of doom calling" routine when phoning each other. Everyone standing around telling Tracy what's wrong with her - while missing the irony of calling her out for not accepting the human failings of others - tries rather hard to ruin that movie for me, but the cast is so delectable (and not just the three leads; Ruth Hussey, Roland Young and Virginia Weidler are just as marvelous) and much of the dialogue so sharp that I really enjoy the film. Except Tracy's father's "It's your fault I'm a cheating louse" bullshit. That guy can get stuffed.

Myrna Loy was also good friends with Joan Crawford, from the time they met when both were first getting started in the business to the time of Crawford's death, despite rather different lifestyles. Loy said when you had a friend in Crawford, you had a loyal friend for life (and that's the type of friend Loy was, too, by all accounts).

If footage of the original ending still existed somewhere, I'd put good money toward restoring it so I could finally see it rather than just read about it. Because then the movie would be something close to perfection.