Bastet

Plus, from what we have seen, I think we can safely deduce they’re not the kind of couple who are overly touchy-feely (at any age or stage of the relationship). In intense situations, yes, and I'm sure we'll see some of that, and in sexual situations, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a bit of that mixed in with everything else, but they just don't strike me as the kind of people who have to be physically connected at all times; hold hands to walk down the street, have an arm around each other to watch TV, etc. I don't want to see CC's usual brand of coy bullshit, but I also don't want anyone going overboard in how they write their physical interaction, because that won't feel like M&S to me. (Before I could formulate that thought, I had to take a moment to trip out that Scully is in her 50s.)

R is for reading, writing, and rooster insemination – the “three Rs” Dorothy would have to teach if working as a substitute in St. Olaf.

I agree. I haven't yet hunkered down to start on season nine, but I remember watching that and, in my head, hearing the dialogue from the scene when Bonnie informs Roseanne that Rodbell's is closing down the diner: Roseanne has this "here we go again" look on her face and says, "I've got, like, three mortgages on my house." (And Bonnie has the great line about, "Yeah, and it's not like there are a lot of options out there for a couple of working gals like us.") They had to keep leveraging that house to either make ends meet or take a chance at something fulfilling and long-lasting, so every time things came crashing down they faced the prospect of losing it. We went through it with them for eight years, and now ... burn, baby, burn. It's quite powerful.

That quote says she hasn't so much as talked with CC about it, though, let alone seen something indicating that he’ll be part of the storyline in some way. (So I can still live in hope for now.)

Et tu, Gillian? I like your, "Eh, that would just drag things down" attitude of a few years ago better (best being pre-IWTB when she forgot there had even been a baby). William is pretty much the last thing I want to see in this revival. I’d still watch it, mind you, but that’s pretty high up on the list of “Ways to Ruin XF for Me.” Of the myriad things they sacrificed to their quest, I’d like for the biggest one of all to actually work – the kid is off safe somewhere with his parents. And I want to watch Mulder & Scully. Not Mulder, Scully, and some maybe-supernatural adolescent.

I love the original commercial - the actors all nail their lines ("What are you wearing, Jake From State Farm?", "Uh, khakis," and "Well, she's a guy, so ...") and, while the jealous wife is an annoying storyline within the overall context of how TV presents women in general, in a vacuum, she's not outlandish for jumping to the conclusion she reaches based on what she overhears and the time of night she overhears it - but resurrecting it for some ridiculous "ooh, something is coming for Jake" campaign is stupid. If they want to make a sequel, that's one thing, but this weird teaser is just too much.

My friend adopted a 22-pound cat (owner surrender) from the shelter a couple of years ago, and his thyroid, blood sugar, etc. all checked out normal, so we can only theorize that his previous owners were feeding him Big Macs and donuts. Because while, yes, he has a hearty appetite, he's perfectly content to eat a normal amount of good-quality (high protein, moderate fat, low carb) canned cat food, and it didn't take all that long on such a routine to get him down to 15 pounds. So while it's certainly possible they were just free-feeding dry food and that's how it happened, we tend to think he was given human treats. So when I saw the donut scene in the promo for the season and told her about it, we both felt oddly vindicated. (Now, I will admit that one of the cats I grew up with loved powdered donuts, so we would occasionally give him a small piece or two when we were eating one.)

Me too, but tomatoes are something I only enjoy fresh from the garden (mine or someone else's) and the crops aren't in yet. (In fact, I haven't even planted mine yet; I'm falling behind this year.) I have no idea yet for tonight's dinner; I, too, have been working in the yard most of the day and thus don't feel like cooking. But I have pork spare ribs marinating for tomorrow's dinner (at my parents' house); I'll do them on the rotisserie. Macaroni salad and roasted Brussels sprouts as sides.

I looked it up a while back, because I started seeing that all over the place and had the same hesitation -- it's just a URL shortener for YouTube links. As for the commercial -- worst slumber party ever.

Here are the YouTube video embedding instructions, with what to include and what to avoid in order to please the forum software, xaxat.

Dolly is reason enough for anything. (I used to travel to Nashville annually on business, and I'd always build in extra time to explore more of the state at the end of each trip -- lots of wandering, plus Memphis, the Smoky Mountains National Park, and, yes, Dollywood.)

Yeah, there is a lot of crap out there; it’s pathetic. But Al Jazeera America airs actual journalism many hours of the day – it’s such an oasis, I practically wept with joy when I first started watching - and PBS Newshour is still a reliable nightly source of information. I don’t take issue with panhandling – for people outside a store, I’ll ask what they’d like and buy it for them while I’m shopping (I have yet to have anyone ask for anything outlandish, and one guy just wanted a bottle of water), but I’ll also sometimes give cash to people while stopped at a light – but I co-sign the annoyance with many of the people setting up “GoFundMe” pages and such. There are lazy asses and outright scam artists in any group of people, but I’ve done enough work with the homeless to consider most panhandlers to truly be in need (homeless or on the brink of it, unable to get stretch their paltry public assistance to cover the whole month, unemployed [and often unemployable], etc.); the people behind those online fundraisers, though … fair or not, I feel like many of them a) are fundraising for something they want, rather than need, and/or b) could afford to pay for it themselves if they’d just give up a few things and sell some stuff. But for people soliciting money to pay medical bills, my biggest peeve is with the fact we have a system that allows anyone to ever be put in that place to begin with.

Holiday is a New Year’s Eve tradition here, too. Along with After The Thin Man. (Which, of course, necessitates watching The Thin Man first … not like I ever need an excuse.) Katharine Hepburn is my favorite of Cary Grant’s many on-screen partners, and while Bringing Up Baby is my favorite of their collaborations and I love The Philadelphia Story in spite of the major stumbling block of finding her father full of shit, Holiday is the unsung hero for me.

L is for the long johns they'd have to don to survive Minnesota winters.

Tonight I finally get to eat the chicken enchiladas I made for my parents on Tuesday. They called that night to say they came out great, so I'm looking forward to it. Between now and then, I need to figure out what I’m making for sides; something simple, as I’m feeling lazy. (And I don’t like rice and beans, so the obvious is out.) I have tortilla chips, so maybe I’ll make some guacamole – and a margarita – to snack on when I get home, and then just roast some broccoli or something to go with the enchiladas.

If the timing of these things being reported here is the same as how they happened, then Robert Patrick is saying he doesn't want to revisit the role after it has already been said Doggett and Reyes won't be included in the revival.

I grew up in a family that interacted similarly to the Conners, in that we all loved each other very much, but were not at all schmoopy about it, we were sarcastic with each other and would make cracks, we didn’t have to apologize every time we got crabby with each other for no good reason, etc. It was so refreshing to see that kind of family dynamic portrayed on television. So all the chatter about them being “mean” to each other always gave me a good laugh. I guess I can understand it seeming that way to someone who’s used to a different style of interaction, to me it's clear they love and respect each other. You don't have to talk like a Hallmark card to show it. I love when Darlene comes home after being snowed in at David’s and playing witness to how horrible a mother Mrs. Healy is. She doesn’t come up and give some big TV speech about how she’s realized how lucky she is, she just gives Roseanne a kiss on the cheek.

That whole thing was odd, and I wish we'd have been able to see what Valerie was doing. (The only thing Alex noted was she was smiling. How he got from there to "because she knows it's the uterus" is Alex logic.) I was kind of surprised Robert didn't know it. Or at least that he seemed to think his guess had a good shot of being right and displayed no recognition when the correct answer was revealed. No, he doesn't have a uterus, but has he never heard of endometriosis or endometrial cancer? Given the sexist notions evidenced by some of the clue writing, I couldn't help but wonder if they made that clue the DD precisely because it dealt with female anatomy -- figuring it would be a tough clue for men?

My Julie & Julia UO: I'm generally bothered by movies based on real people deviating so much from reality, but I don’t care that the film's version of Julie Powell bears little resemblance to the real deal, who is a rather crappy human being, or that I completely agreed with Julia Child’s reaction to Powell’s project – I find the film utterly charming and enjoy the fictional version of Powell despite knowing it’s very much a fiction.

Redux was fine, but poorly paced, when it originally aired, but in a rewatch it's just filler I slog (or fast-forward) through to move on to Redux II, which I love. (Except for the Samantha stuff that really could have waited until another episode in which Scully wasn’t on the brink of dying. And the arm-gnawing crying, of course.)

I finished season eight, and I hate Darlene's storyline as much as I ever did. There's a scene between her and Roseanne on the couch, when Roseanne asks her why she's decided to have the baby, and Darlene says, "Because I want it. More than I've ever wanted anything." It's partly Sara's acting (I think she was better as a child), but mostly just the totality of circumstances, that I don't believe it for a minute. There's nothing about Darlene wanting to get married and become a mother at nineteen that rings true to me. Plus, Darlene has taken a copywriting job - something she didn't want to do - that allows her to work from home, has been able to hook David and his high school diploma up with a graphic artist job with full benefits, etc. ... in theory, I love the way she's thought things through (and like that she's interested in marriage for its practical benefits, not just because she's in love), but it's just all too tidy. One of the things that sucks about the lottery storyline is not getting to see them deal with the reality of their grand plans. Poor Dan. He's always so disgusted and frightened when his daughters toss their lives away for a guy, and he doesn't really get to commiserate with Roseanne over it because she's so much quicker to accept that it's their decision to make and putting up a fuss after the fact only risks losing contact. I love the perfectly natural dichotomy that he feels that way about his daughters' choices, but gets angry and defensive when Roseanne talks about what she gave up by making the same choices back in the day. I love him at the wedding (when she needs a timeout to barf), shooting down her insistence she and David have plenty of time. You probably have to be of a certain age to appreciate the power of what he's saying about thinking you have all the time in the world to do the things you want to do, and the next thing you know you turn around and 15+ years have passed and your life is now more about obligations than aspirations. My favorite moment in the post-wedding episode is when Roseanne and Jackie are left alone at the hospital, waiting for word on Dan, and Roseanne just looks at her and says, "I've been with him since I was 16 years old." That one line contains pages of dialogue; she doesn't really remember life without him, and at their age she's never really sat down and pictured life without him in the future, yet here she is, confronted with the possibility. I'm so glad they had Lecy for the episode when Darlene intends to install the new garbage disposal and Becky tells her not to, as it will make Dan feel like they regard him as an invalid who can't do those things anymore. I think it's the last really great moment between the sisters in the series, and it wouldn't have worked with Sarah. The way Becky says, "That's Dad's job" is pitch perfect. And that fight after he comes home ... I've already babbled at length, but, wow, was that every bit as good as I remembered. Skipping back a bit, I love the "Don't get above your raisin'" storyline with Darlene turning down the job with good (by Lanford standards) pay and benefits because she wants to finish college and do something more meaningful with her skills than come up with ad slogans. The thing about her now being a "them" rather than one of "us" and thus the same sarcastic comments she'd been making all her life about the house, the town, etc. feel very different to those on the receiving end, Dan and Roseanne wanting all this for her, but also having a hard time dealing with it, etc. Very common, yet hardly ever seen on TV. I love that Darlene's opportunities get Becky thinking, and it's so sweet to see her sitting in that trailer telling Mark she wants to go to college and become an EMT or physical therapist or something, and him translating that to she's going to become a doctor and outgrow him. There is such amazing stuff building there with Lecy, and then she couldn't get away to go to Florida for the Disneyworld episodes so we get Sarah back and it just all fizzles out. Speaking of the Disneyworld thing, I like that this show makes you understand why Dan and Roseanne make some of the dumb financial decisions they make -- they don't know any better, experience has taught them they can't stay ahead so they're more apt to treat themselves when they have a few opportunities rather than put it towards debt, etc. And, here, Roseanne talking about this being their last chance - timing wise, given the kids' ages and situations - for a family vacation is a continuation of that realism and relatability. But come on! Dan spends his entire unused/accrued vacation payout AND cashes out his pension in order to buy plane tickets for eight people, then numerous rooms at a nice hotel, a several-day pass to the parks for that many people, etc. And they're coming home to Dan having a well-paying but temporary and benefit-less gig handling the drywall for the prison project. Go somewhere less expensive! Stupid Disney buyout of ABC creating this stuff. I do love, however, that their experience with the freak show that is Disney park employment led to the episode with David getting sucked into the creepy theme park. It's not a great episode, but there's some funny stuff. So, now it's time to revisit season nine for the first time since it aired. I think I better check to make sure I'm fully stocked with liquor.

I take your general point, but when she had the long hair was in IWTB, in which she was not shooting at fleeing criminals or working 24/7 in a dangerous field. The heels were always a bit silly on the series, but Gillian could actually run in them (Stephanie Zimbalist of Remington Steele is still the champ, but GA did pretty well) so I could wave it away much easier with Scully than with a lot of female law enforcement characters.

Same here; I knew immediately it wasn't right, but that's what popped into my mind first. It didn't take me long to come up with Havana, and I was a little surprised only one of them got it. The Dana Delaney picture didn't bug me because the clue wasn't asking for her name; she was named in the clue (so the picture was just rather randomly superfluous) and it was the TV show the contestants had to come up, so I was appeased.

Interesting. Is the "Friendly Islands" nickname a more commonly-known fact than I suspect? (I was trying to think of island nations with names sounding similar to a synonym for friendly, and since there is no Affableland or Convivialtown I was stumped.)

I love a cheese course to end the meal. I hadn't had much to eat for dinner last night, but had enjoyed a few drinks. I set the stage in order to say I watched the late airing in bed, after which I wanted a grilled cheese sandwich so bad. With that said, however, it was a bad idea for dessert. Smaller pieces and with something sweet incorporated, it could have been a hit. As it was, dumb.