Bastet

Amen to morning people who think they're superior because of that. If I have to be in court, I'm up early, there on time, and quite productive -- but it was something close to misery getting up that early. So, otherwise, I sleep in - I start later and end later, because what matters is the work is done well and by deadline, not what time of day it's done. I am so ever-loving sick of this notion that getting up at 8 or 9 is laziness compared to getting up at 5 or 6, rather than just a different schedule.

Bilgistic, my late kitty Baxter pretty much did the Dance of Joy when I was home sick or injured. Maddie enjoys the extra cuddle time, too, but Bax was over the moon -- so long as I could still get up to feed him. But he was also a remarkably empathetic cat; when I was in bed because of a migraine, he'd curtail his usual (and quite loud) purring and tuck a paw under the cool cloth on my forehead. It will be two years December, and I still miss that little character so much. I hope your unlucky streak is over and you're pain-free soon!

I was hoping for a birthday mini-marathon like they did for William Powell’s birthday on Wednesday. But since they aired a couple of the Loy/Powell films during that block of programming, I guess it sort of counts – and is fitting, since they used to celebrate their birthdays together.

I'm in Los Angeles rather than Orange County, so I don't know for sure it's the same custom in the areas they're staging in, but it’s extremely common here for homes – for sale or rent – to come without a refrigerator.

I wonder this about some of my neighbors. We have weekly rubbish collection, all on the same day, but three separate trucks for the three types of bins we're issued - one for yard waste, one for recyclables (not everything recyclable is accepted, but as the city has expanded its list over the years, it has become quite extensive), and one for trash. We're only supposed to put out the bins that are full each week. If I waited until my trash bin was full, it would only be put out every couple of months! And, since it's mostly filled with litter box waste, that would get quite stinky. So I put it out about once a month, not full. But some of my neighbors have their trash bin out weekly, and full (I can tell because it's not fully closed). I just know - and can sometimes see for certain - some of what's in there is recyclable and belongs in the blue bin. How hard is it to put stuff in the right bin? Recycling is almost literally the least we can do (reducing and re-using are more important), and the city makes it so easy by allowing all recyclables in one bin ... no excuse.

I don't care how '70s cheesy it is, I still love her song Rose Garden.

They addressed that in the documentary, as one of their big hesitations, and it looks like it will be discussed in an upcoming episode, too.

That's just part of being transgender, not an indication they aren't "real" women. The body doesn't always function properly without help; would you have any doubts about the realness of a Type I diabetic who needs to take insulin because their pancreas doesn't produce it on its own? I understand that being transgender is more complicated - and less understood - than being diabetic, of course. But the fact her body needs help doing something it should be doing on its own doesn't automatically become some suspect, diminishing thing because it's related to being transgender rather than something more common.

Going by the OWN documentary when Jazz was eleven, she does. She participated with her mom in several speaking panels, and listened to the horror stories of many who had come before her and faced all the same things she has plus willful ignorance, or even rejection and hatred from their families.

I have the special edition DVD, complete with commentary by Mark Harmon and Carl Reiner plus interviews with some of the cast. I know the movie verbatim, which should embarrass me, but doesn’t.

I missed chunks of clues here and there, but this was the first episode I’ve been able to catch at all in several, so I’ll take it. There were several TS tonight that I can’t decide whether or not to label surprising. They were instagets for me, and thus I was initially surprised none of the contestants got them, but on further reflection I realized I have specific knowledge of them and thus maybe they’re not so widely known at least one in three J! contestants should be expected to know them. Plumb bob – I do my own home improvement projects. Phrenology – I learned about this during a hilarious exchange in a stupidly funny movie long ago (Men at Work, with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) and have remembered it ever since. Shasta – I live in California, so put “Mount” in the clue and I know that’s the county. FJ was also an instaget for me. I don’t pay enough attention to the Diamondbacks to know their colors, but as soon as I saw Sedona it was a gimme.

Oh, that's perfect. That commercial inspires a huge eye roll in me, because I don’t for a moment believe a kid would say that, so now I can just picture that scene and laugh instead.

Parents make medical decisions - some of which are irreversible - for their kids all the time. And when we're talking specifically about whether or not to block puberty, that decision will have to happen when the patient is a child. If doctors hadn't intervened, the changes to Jazz's body brought about by male puberty would have been irreversible. The medical steps they took to prevent that puberty were reversible; the doctor explained Jazz could change her mind, stop taking them, and go through the puberty she'd have gone through earlier. Jazz had been consistently and happily living as a girl for eight years by the time the parents and doctor endorsed her decision to prevent male puberty. The I Am Jazz documentary filmed when Jazz was eleven shows what she and her family learned from talking to transgender adults who had to go through puberty as the gender they were assigned at birth, and how much they'd have given to be able to stop that, and thus why they opted to thwart male puberty in Jazz. That documentary really brings home the fact that, while Jazz is still young, because her gender identity presented itself at such a young age and so clearly, many years have passed since they were all first confronted with this issue. At the time of the documentary, the parents had already spent eight years consulting with various experts, making sure they were following all recommended guidelines for Jazz. It also shows one major reason they may have all decided telling Jazz's story to the world at large was worth the risks -- when Jeanette went looking for information on transgender kids, she had a hard time finding any. What a different world Jazz and her family have helped make it for today's transgender kids and their families.

That an e-Harmony commercial will be annoying is a given, I know, but the one where the granddaughter drags her friend into her creepy grandpa's office drives me nuts. This little boy is obsessed with finding a girlfriend, and instead of calling the parents to say they may want to get this kid some therapy, Creepy Grandpa encourages him and says when he’s 21, he can sign up with e-Harmony and find the love of his life. Spouse hunting at 21? What year is this?!

I’ll have to catch the late airing of this one, as I missed a big chunk catering to the every whim of my old lady cat who’s recovering from illness and injury. What an honor, and burden, for Jazz to be a role model. I hope the parents do understand the pressure Jazz is under, and regularly reevaluate themselves to make sure they're not pushing too much, rather than just saying that for the show. (And it bugs me that the criticism is leveled at the mother, rather than the parents.) I’m still struggling with the inherent fakery of reality TV, and especially the entire concept of putting kids on reality TV, but I’m telling myself this serves a purpose. That family in the audience at the book signing certainly showed the benefit that can come from Jazz putting herself out there.

“Mom tries to help me, but she hasn’t been a teenager in, like, a million years.” Ha! Didn’t most of us feel that way at Jazz’s age? It was sweet seeing how much Jazz relies on the input and support of her big sister and thus how it had affected her to have Ari away at school. She has a wonderfully supportive family, but it’s easy to understand why there’s a special connection with her older sister. Ari’s dorm does look like a jail, so Jeanette’s line cracked me up. The campus was so empty, I wonder when they filmed those scenes. Maybe winter break? Rather ridiculous to have the parents do the campus tour as if they didn’t know where anything is – they’d presumably done the tour with Ari, then moved her in, then visited … minor, yes, but this is just one of the things that bug me about reality TV. Since this family has thus far been preternaturally perfect, it was nice to see the gift of a car turn into a sibling squabble. And for Jazz, the one who can’t drive anyway, to be the one to say “Who cares which car is whose; there’s an extra car.”

I hear you on the first tomatoes being ready. I worked out of my home office today, and for lunch made my first BLT of the year. I don’t know how something so simple can taste so good, but I eat a lot of BLTs during tomato season. (Which, yes, means I consume more bacon than is wise, but the nitrites are natural rather than synthetic so -- saturated fat, whatever.)

Bully (the 2011 documentary, not the horrible fictional film of the same name about ten years prior) is starting right now on Pivot. I recommend it to anyone, with the caveat that you may want to take some blood pressure meds. It chronicles the lives of several kids across the country who are being bullied at school (and tells the tale of a bullied teen who killed himself at 17). The staggering ineptitude of school administrators and, in some cases, parents, who fail them is infuriating. You just want to hug these kids and tell them it gets better, but it's heartbreaking what some of them are subjected to. Who raises these bullies?! Kids tease each other, tear others down out of their own fears and insecurities, and make bad decisions. But bullying is so far beyond that, yet time after time it all gets lumped together as typical adolescent behavior.

I love Vietnamese food. You can expect a lot of fresh, barely-cooked vegetables and herbs, vibrant color, and well-balanced taste. There will probably be many options for pho, vermicelli noodle dishes, and bahn mi sandwiches. Ginger, mint, Thai basil, and lemongrass are all common ingredients providing the flavor punch. Does the restaurant have its menu online so you can read the descriptions in advance and have a better idea of what you might like to try?

Do you mean women saying "I have to pee" rather than "I have to use the restroom"? There's nothing strange about that to me, depending on who she's saying it to; I would think for both men and women, how it was phrased would depend on the company in which it was said.

Because you can use them, and also to know the carrots are fresh. America’s Test Kitchen did a segment on how the taste of carrots changes as they age, while their appearance stays largely the same, and thus recommended buying them with the greens attached (since if those haven’t died yet, you know it hasn’t been too long – up to two weeks, I think – since the carrot was picked). Prop bags are usually not real bags, precisely because of the crinkling sounds. Silent bags.

Jo Friday is Jane's dog (I think Korsack rescued her - as he tends to do - and then Jane wound up with her somehow). Who stopped being seen or mentioned, until last night when we learned her original owners had been found and she was back with them. Now we just need to know how Bass (Maura's tortoise) is doing.

Only better -- to me, anyway. I grew up watching the film multiple times thanks to my mom, and while I don’t love it, I enjoy it, which is more than I can say for the average episode of I Love Lucy. I often like Lucille Ball on film. I consider Without Love the unsung hero of the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy filmography, and Ball’s performance as Kitty is one of the many things I adore about it.

I couldn't remember if it was here or in real life (<sigh>, the mind goes first), but I knew there had been discussion of how they should just burn Jane's apartment down to explain why she's perpetually at Maura's. So I laughed my ass off when she got that call. And when everyone was laughing over the couch. But that one scene aside, fuck off Maura and Angela -- Jane likes her couch, it has one hole that is hidden by a pillow (so well that Maura has never even noticed the flaw), and if she has told you repeatedly she does not want to replace it, respect that and stop shoving fabric samples at her and buying her a couch she has explicitly stated she doesn't want. They were the Skeet of this episode. They finally addressed Jo Friday ... to make clear she was no longer living with Jane before they burned the place down. The actor playing the diabolical teen was good; I liked him imitating his mother's poses and his sadistic smile at the two-way mirror.

As far as I know, there's no notification. Ignore is a standard feature of Invision forum software, so most boards using it allow for ignoring -- on TWoP, it was disabled because of the 15/15 rule. I believe it has always been available here, or at least as long as I've been around. But I've never used it, so I can't say for sure.