Bastet

I think the Flo/Carnie Wilson commercial goes on too long, and thus ruins the humor. Carnie being asked to “hold on” and then having her “Really?” moment when the hold music is Wilson Phillips’ Hold On is funny. (Which is impressive, as I find Carnie Wilson annoying.) And the first line from the song Flo uses is okay (although not as funny, because now we’re into the realm of things that wouldn’t happen), but by the time she’s onto “Someday somebody’s gonna make you want to turn around and say good-bye” it has thoroughly worn out its welcome with me.

Yes, with any new XF offering, I'm always nervous about two things: What he’s going to do to the relationship, and what he’s going to do to Scully. And, yes, I always assume he’s going to fuck them up and just hope it’s not too bad – that way, I have room to be pleasantly surprised. When I first read about the “they’ve been separated, and Scully dated someone,” tidbit I thought, “Okay.” Another thing that, while far from my first choice, could be written in a way that makes sense – just not by Chris, and, bottom line, not the kind of storyline I think anyone is looking to have take up precious air time. But when I read it was this conservative blogger character she supposedly dated, I thought, "Oh, please." (Not that Scully is the liberal I’d love her to be, but a guy so conservative he devotes his life to ranting and raving on the internet? Not to mention, another guy totally obsessed with something?) And then that their history would be some big reveal at the end of the episode? Not even CC is that tone deaf; this is not a damned soap opera.

In the promo, I like how giddy Maura is about the body farm and Jane saying, "It's like Disneyland for her."

I loved Sisters. I remember them in many a steam bath - much to the actors' distress, given what it took to simulate such an environment - but they may very well have mixed it up and congregated in a sauna as well. Good news on the DVDs, thanks.

That's a tradition I've never thought of as regional. I don't know how common it is in other countries, as I've never been abroad at the time of someone's death, but it's SOP in every area of the U.S. of which I'm aware. Was this friend who said that from the South herself? This requires all sorts of qualifications to avoid being offensive, but some - here we go ... I do mean some, and there are some people from every other region who stereotype as well - southerners talk as if various neighborly behaviors only occur in their neck of the woods.

Crisco is what my mom smears on the outside of potatoes before baking them. (I've never seen her use it for anything else as an adult, and don't remember her using it on anything as a kid, but I wouldn't have paid much attention then.) I don’t eat potatoes or Crisco, so this is my only exposure, but I know from observing this process at my parents’ house that the Crisco is in the pantry. Didn't Loretta Lynn do Crisco commercials? That's the other thing I think of upon reading about Crisco.

Jeez, I did completely miss that; I just heard something about sitcom legend. Or something generic like that; I somehow missed hearing Brady, which would have led me immediately to Reiner. (I wasn't looking at the TV at the time, only listening.)

I love math categories when you have to do math (rather than just answer questions about math). I think these contestants did better than average. I got them all, but some were hard to do in such a short time. I must need to clean out my ears, as both the contestant and Alex seemed to me to be saying gerber (daisies) rather than gerbera. I missed a big chunk of the first round after that thanks to my cat’s demands. I was loving the Emmy Awards category, too, because 1995 was back when I still watched a lot of TV. But I didn’t know Carl Reiner, either; I didn’t watch Mad About You and if there was something else in the clue to get me there, I missed it. 1491 was hideously overvalued as a DD since one need not have ever even heard of the book to get it (I speak from experience). Speaking of overvalued … FJ.

Wait, she stole your stapler? Are you going to burn the place down?

Saunas are dry heat, although you can sprinkle water on the rocks to create a little steam. I prefer steam rooms to saunas (despite generally hating humidity), but I enjoy both. And the thing I like better about a sauna is that I can read in there, so, yeah, you can do that.

I can see religion causing conflict in the general sense that it’s an ongoing, fundamental disagreement between them; that doesn’t automatically imply it's a serious problem for them. They both have good cause for frustration, with “You listen to every crackpot that comes along, but dismiss my religious beliefs” vs. “You scoff at the lack of proof for anything I believe in, but accept this one thing on faith.” I suspect they generally don't get into it unless circumstances force the issue. Scully the Religious Scientist is just annoying to me, rather than an interesting dichotomy or whatever they’re going for, so I’m not pleased at the prospect of revisiting it. But the “conflict” part of that line doesn’t bother me at all.

I had to pick up a bottle of Coke Zero for when my best friend comes over for lunch Sunday, and I couldn’t find one that didn’t have something written on it – not names, but family, friend, etc. (She has a common first name, but with an uncommon spelling, so even if they’d had names I’d have had to block out a letter if I wanted to give her a “personalized” bottle.) I found the whole thing annoying. I don’t drink soda, so I only buy it for guests and that sporadic purchasing means I don’t instantly recognize which bottle is which version of Coke. They were all turned with the friends/family/whatever side of the label facing out, and the diet, zero, etc. is written fairly small on that side. It’s not as if it took me a long time to find what I was looking for, but it certainly took me longer than it should to grab a bottle of soda.

I don’t think it’s akin to the Ireland/Northern Ireland example, because Northern Island is not a specific part of Ireland (like a double bass is a specific kind of bass), but a separate country. But I also wouldn’t have given a “be more specific” prompt on that one; the text of the clue so obviously required a specific kind of bass I would not have felt generous towards someone who simply looked at the picture and offered up bass as an answer.

Since I was in high school in Los Angeles around the same time as the 90210 gang, here's how it worked: You could get a learner’s permit at 15 (or maybe 15-1/2). Somewhere in here was a required Driver's Education class (high schools offered it) -- I don't remember if you had to complete it before getting your permit, or if there was an additional written test at the DMV. (It seems logical you'd have to complete Driver's Ed first, but I have only vague memories of the process of getting the permit; I just remember having it.) With that permit, you were eligible for the next required step, Driver’s Training, which was X number of hours driving with an official instructor -- it was a low number of hours. Not all schools offered it, but there were tons of private driving instructors. With your permit, you could also drive with a licensed driver of a certain age (I don’t think it had to be a parent, although that's possible -- whatever the rule, you definitely couldn’t be driving with your 18-year-old friend as the passenger). Most of us learned from our parents, with Driver's Training being something perfunctory we did only because it was required. So long as you’d completed Driver’s Training, you became eligible at 16 to take the driving test to get your license. If you passed, there were no restrictions on it – you were a licensed driver like anyone else. I got mine the morning of my sixteenth birthday.

Okay, let me amend the AKA of our potential storylines thus far to Four Things Bastet Does Not Want to See. Oops, I forgot the possibility of Gibson Praise, particularly Gibson Praise being such a big part of the story the actor is in town all summer. Okay, Five Things Bastet Does Not Want to See.

That "Why M&S Not Living Together Is Actually a Good Thing" piece was great. I agree with the thesis, but the fact remains that's not a story I trust CC to tell. I want to trust he'll at least end it in the right place. Wait and see, I know.

Yeah, not living together doesn’t automatically mean split up, and that sort of scenario would make sense so I’d be fine with it. In theory – as always, my caveat is I don’t trust CC based on his track record. Hopefully he has matured and evolved.

Watching porn is an edgy trait? Addiction/obsession implies a problem, not a habit, Chris; choose your words better.

I knew FJ, but I’m not terribly surprised two of them didn’t. If they weren’t aware of Kinky Boots – which is entirely possible – then even if Cyndi Lauper came to mind when thinking of pop stars who came onto the scene in the mid ‘80s I don’t think she’d seem like a good guess for the second part of the clue. What did surprise me, however, was how bad the two wrong guesses were. One who was a new artist well before 1985 and one who debuted long after.

From that link: As I said in an earlier post, this sort of scenario makes all the sense in the world to me, and could make for an interesting story. But I don't trust CC to tell that story, and, really, even in better hands it just wouldn't be what I want out of this revival. The one thing I really liked about IWTB was that it left me feeling, for the first time in the history of the franchise, that their relationship was unequivocally a good thing for Scully. I hate that this blows the M&S I've had in my head since then out of the water.

I pondered going because I enjoy NYC and haven't been for several years, but it's running during what will probably be such a busy time I'd have to go for just the weekend. And not even for Gillian will I fly from coast to coast twice in 48 hours, spend that kind of money on a trip in which I won't get to do much, etc. So we'll see as it gets closer, but I don't think I'll be able to go. Boo! Because it was such a stunning performance, I'd love to see it in person.

I know she's wearing a wig as Scully, but it looked red in a couple of photos, yet blonde in others, despite those photos being of the same scenes. I was chalking that difference up to lighting, since those photos were taken by random people on the street watching filming. But in these professional photos, it's blonde. It can barely be called strawberry blonde. One, why bother with a wig for so little difference in color and two, why make Scully a blonde of any sort?

Thank you. Setting aside larger concerns for a moment, I'm confused by Scully's hair. In a couple of shots posted earlier, it looked red, but in those production photos EW published, it's blonde.

Where are these photos?

In a perfect world, I'd be okay with that. For example, let's say in the years since the events of IWTB cleared Mulder to be a "normal" member of society again, he hasn't figured out what to do with himself after living so long largely isolated. If he has continued to sit at home scouring the internet, sticking newsletter clippings to the wall, and growing facial hair, they’re going to need a break – he’ll need to find a way out of his “dark place” and she’ll need to not come home to some crazy hermit after work. But this isn’t a perfect world, this is a world in which CC is in charge of these characters. There are fanfic writers I’d like to see tackle that kind of storyline. Him, I just want to leave the characters alone.