Bastet

Scream 4 was on some basic cable station this weekend, and I shook my head - as I always do with American television - over the fact language was censored (as nudity would have been if the Scream franchise featured any), yet the various murder scenes were left intact.

I only watched a few bits and pieces of this, so I don’t have an overall impression of her, but the HH in one of yesterday’s repeats who vetoed her mom’s insistence that the kitchen was the most important thing by saying she didn’t care about the kitchen because she doesn’t cook made me smile. Well, I don’t understand being 30-ish and not cooking (nor do I understand being that old and never having moved out of your parents’ house, but, hey, different strokes). But I am willing to set that aside for a nice moment of relief from all the “I must have brand-new appliances with stainless steel finish … even though I’ll never use them” folks that populate this series.

I lean towards the "don't care" side. I certainly wouldn’t lick money, but maybe there has been a time when I stuck some bills between my lips to hold them while I rooted around for something. I can't think of a specific instance of that happening, but I don't rule it out because something at that level of exposure would not bother me (I have a healthy immune system).

Not to mention MTV.

I had a car named Towanda. Some asshole "tapped the bumper" of my car in a parking lot yesterday, and didn’t leave a note. Among my many thoughts: “Jackass must have Liberty Mutual.”

I have been grumbling for years that Discovery/TLC was shameful in putting the Duggars on the air in a way that glossed over the extent to which they are batshit crazy in their beliefs and lifestyle. While it makes me sick that the police report was so badly redacted most of the victims were readily identifiable, I am glad it came out what Josh did and how his parents (mis)handled it – all while going around blathering about the lack of morals in others, even accusing entire groups of people of being child molesters – and that at least a few members of the media finally bothered to look into and report on Gothard, ATI, Quiverfull, etc.

It's not suppose to be the Peacocks, just someone freakier than the Peacocks (according to the spoiler, that is): “Band-Aid Nose Man.” Described as intimidating, odd, weary, creepy and immeasurably strong, Mr. Man is a powerful, violent and frightening “thought” come to life.

Last night I made a variation on the old chicken divan casserole with the leftovers I had from roasting a chicken earlier in the week. I made a homemade version of that condensed cream of chicken soup glop in a can that was a staple of '70s casseroles to thin with water and use for the sauce. Then I just layered chicken, broccoli, and some lightly sautéed garlic and onion, poured the sauce over everything, then sprinkled with cheddar cheese and baked. Comfort food at its finest. Tonight will be pork chops, kale, and mac & cheese.

I missed last night’s episode because of basketball, so after commentary here I was expecting something like a Flock of Seagulls hairdo on Addison. Instead it looks like something I see regularly. My neighbors must often wonder why I’m yelling something odd at this time of night, and tonight it was “Macadamias!” I guessed NYDJ was Not Your Dad’s Jeans; I should have known from “age-appropriate” it was something meant to tell women what they can and cannot wear. (Although, yeah, I’m in the market for jeans that have a zipper more than two inches long … due to body type, not age.) Michelango was surprising as a TS. Poetry is often a weak area for contestants – and certainly is for me – but I figured someone would get that one either by knowing the poem or figuring it out from the portion given in the clue. The Road Not Taken was even more surprising to me as a TS. Dorothea Lange is another TS that surprised me. As was cioppino. The Butterfly McQueen answer cracked me up. I freely admit I had no idea what the Cars character was named, but I knew it wasn’t the actor who played Scarlett’s maid! I got FJ since I know a fair bit about classic Hollywood and MGM history in particular.

I need to start paying attention again to upcoming HHI episodes so I can tune in for locations I'd like to see. I've been to Warwick Castle and spent several hours wandering around the town afterward. I like watching episodes set in places I've been. In an Edinburgh episode, I recognized one of the homes they looked at (it was a new building I'd stumbled across on a stroll, memorable for how out of place it was).

People who hit a parked car and don’t leave a note. I’m off today to get things done without having to give up my weekend, and was at the supermarket. As I pulled out to leave, a car a few spaces over had just done the same, and I followed her up the aisle. She stopped mid-way, got out, and walked back to tell me she’d seen the man in the old blue car next to me hit my bumper as he pulled in. I looked, it was a couple of scratches not worth filing a claim for (I have a worse scrape on the other side from some other asshole who didn’t leave a note), so I thanked her and sent her on her way. I went back to my former space and waited, but quickly got sick of sitting around for something I wasn't even going to pursue beyond a tongue lashing. So I was just finishing my “Next time you hit a car, make sure there are no witnesses” note – let him live in fear – when he and his companion arrived and started to get in their car. As soon as I got out of mine and said, “Excuse me,” the “Oh, shit” look was in full effect. He readily admitted it, walked over and showed me the damage, etc. I told him he should have left a note out of common courtesy, and if he had I’d have called and said, “Thanks, don’t worry about it.” He was embarrassed and apologetic, so no need to belabor the point as perhaps he’ll think twice next time. But, goddamn. If you know you hit someone’s car, even if you just “tapped the bumper” like these entitled assholes in the Liberty Mutual commercials, leave a note. Maybe he was dead broke, undocumented, a fugitive from justice, or otherwise scared to leave his info. Fine. Leave an anonymous note apologizing, and I’ll assume you have a legitimate reason for not wanting to include your info and move on with my day.

Hadn't someone other than JA already said essentially the same thing, about Heidi having a different style that was hard for some of them to mesh with, in a DVD special feature (I think interview, since my vague memory has it as a visual, but maybe commentary)?

meep.meep, you were probably thinking of NYPD Blue, which did come after Cop Rock. While Cop Rock was a recent strike against him, he had Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law on his record. I don’t remember how well Doogie Howser, M.D. did in the ratings or with critics, but it was on for several years so that would be in the success column as well heading into NYPD Blue.

That would be too cool for school.

Weird; I never saw this post until today. Anyway ... Because her murky motivations are the things of a storyteller's wet dream, especially when every other recurring character is clearly on one side or the other. It provides an opportunity to explore something new for Scully, in her reaction to someone wanting to usurp her position in the XF division, when everyone else has pitied her for holding it. And Diana came along at a time when Mulder needed to be hit in the face with what he tended to remember only in a fit of desperation: what he needed was not someone who agreed without challenge, but someone who made him work for it. That, with someone else, he'd never have come so far. It's probable that Mulder seemed like even more of an ass than he actually was then because of what an ass DD was at the time, but the fact remains Mulder could be hard to take. Aside from being an interesting character in her own right, Diana could have been the catalyst for a natural transition into Mulder finally treating The Quest like something that was his and Scully's equally. All the time, not just when he was afraid of losing her.

What was released was not just the cover photo, but an extended excerpt of an article that included Jenner's thoughts on a variety of important topics. Coverage of that release focused almost exclusively on what she looked like -- what she was wearing (and whether she should have worn it), how much the image had been retouched, who she resembles, the "for her age" caveat about looking good, etc.

Other than a few funny lines and a great supporting cast, I have no use for that movie. So it's probably no surprise that I share in your decided lack of joy over Melanie taking out Kate. It's not cool to insult someone based on who they are rather than what they do, so using the mom's southern-ness to insult her is uncalled for. But Melanie is doing such a shitty thing, and Candice Bergen is so great, that I laugh at "Why don't you go back to your double-wide and fry something" when I otherwise wouldn't.

I'm not a big bread/dough person in general, so I get thin crust and either don't eat the edge that has no toppings on it or dip it in ranch. I regard many things in life as mere vessels for ranch dressing, but that's another topic.

I loved that piece. "Welcome to being a woman" is what I'd been muttering in response to media and online reaction to the Vanity Fair piece, so to see TDS - which sometimes does a great job and sometimes joins the masses in missing, or even perpetuating, the sexism underlying the latest media frenzy - lay it out so clearly was a thoroughly refreshing end to my day. I especially loved the "wait for it" introduction to the "for her age" line of commentary.

The widespread disappearance of union jobs took a jackhammer to the working and middle classes, and Roseanne joins Cagney & Lacey (another show that took an ongoing honest look at many issues, including class) as being one of the few television shows to both show and explicitly talk about the role union wages, benefits and protections play. The collapse of Wellman is a backdrop to so much that happens over the course of the series, which is spot on.

Although I didn't watch, I feel like I have a handle on the basics of what they did - coy, bullshit games to try and keep up some mystery as to the baby's parentage - and it just illustrates how hamstrung the writers were by CC's insistence on that shit. It was impossible to tell the story honestly while adhering to his edict, so it was doomed to failure. They both know what it is to come back to a world that has gone on without you. They both know what it is to have to keep working and generally functioning while wanting to find the other. And poor Scully knows what it's like to live with the knowledge she'll never see him again. These stories can't be told when someone refuses to even acknowledge that they're a couple!

Oh, I'll put it up to that being exactly the kind of person Disney hires for its parks ... or at least the kind of person one becomes after working there for a while.

I only know him from The Soup, which I hate, so hopefully I'll see him as his character and not as some asshole who makes fat jokes.

Oh, it was definitely rape; the women did not consent, due to fraud. Scully called it out, and entered him into the sexual offender database. Unlike PMP, this episode acknowledges its villain for what he is. But, yes, rather jarring for such a crime to exist within such a lighthearted episode. I feel like I should hate myself for loving it as I do.

It depends on how much I'm heating up and how long I'm willing to wait -- sometimes the toaster oven, sometimes the microwave. If you're serving these to guests, I strongly suggest warm over room temperature; they do taste better that way. Since they're so quick to make, if you will have access to an oven at this person's house, I'd just make them there (have everything ready to go when you get there, then toast the nuts, melt the butter, and combine). If not, make ahead and reheat in whatever way is available to you. They're always a big hit. I never have leftovers to reheat when I make them for guests; that's just when I make a half batch to snack on throughout the week. I'm sure your set of guests will be just as happy.