Bastet

The revival of XF will mean the revival of crazy fans. The mediums have changed, but this was all over atxf and such back in the day, too. They're just better sports about it now.

I knew FJ pretty quickly. I can’t point to exactly why I know the room housing radio equipment on a ship was called the radio shack back then (and still is?) - maybe from old films - but, at any rate, I do. So the language along the lines of "calling up the tube that [something] had been torpedoed" told me that part of a ship was the "small, two-word room" to which the clue was referring. There being a chain store by that name in the news recently confirmed it for me. (As a side note, Radio Shack used to be such a useful store, but I haven’t shopped there in probably 20 years. It really strayed from its purpose.) I’ve never been interested in Sherlock Holmes, so I didn’t know much in the Elementary category. On the other hand, I loved the category about elements (where you had to identify the one that follows alphabetically). I was surprised she couldn't come up with silver, but she probably just skipped too far ahead for her starting point (trying to think of elements starting with "sin," "sl-something," etc.). I also ran the “vo”cabulary and plurals categories. And the liqueurs category. It was obvious to me the champ appended an S to “Standard” (in the S&P) clue, which I heard even over muttering aloud that a clue asking what S&P stands for should not need a secondary hint. I thought the Cape Horn clue was highly over-valued as a DD in DJ, so was surprised the contestant missed it. The Tonga/"friendly" association went right over my head, too.

You fine people are now in my head when I go grocery shopping, as I did today. Someone had placed their cart in the corral (which had only one other cart in it, down at the far end), but only just far enough that the front wheels passed over the strip that keeps it from rolling backwards. So the cart is sticking out into the aisle. I don't get this. They walked the cart over from wherever they were parked, but pushing it all the way into the corral was just too much to ask of them? I guess they had a child with them. (It's possible they pushed it further in than that, didn't realize the back wheels hadn't cleared the strip, and it rolled backward to the position it was in when I came along, but those things start to roll pretty much immediately, plus they make noise as they hit the strip and come to a stop, so they should have noticed.)

My grandpa bought me one of those at a police auction when I was a kid, because my best friend and I loved to play grocery store. An old, huge adding machine was the cash register (so we were over the moon when we got a real one) and the coffee table was the conveyor belt, so we'd roll/slide things down to whichever one of us was playing bagger at the other end. Most things had price tags on them back then, but any pantry item that didn't come with one - we added one.

I thought they'd be broken up (or at least physically separated) at the start of IWTB; I figured CC would want to try to avoid writing them as being simply and undeniably in a relationship as long as possible and the studio would want the "will they or won't they reunite?" thing as a hook for the film. I couldn't relax until we got the spoilers and knew they were living together at the start and still together at the end. This time around, though, while I'm always a little nervous because CC has such serious issues with sexual relationships, I don't have much real fear of a break-up. My "Oh god, I hope they didn't get married" reaction was my immediate one upon reading that blurb. If it had just been the line about their relationship being in a different place now than it was at the end of IWTB, a mini (or not-so-mini)-freakout that they'd broken up would have commenced. But between CC noting they weren't married (at the time of living together in IWTB) and the line about it maturing and some word I'm forgetting that indicates moving forward, not backward, my instinctual reaction was marriage, not break-up. And hopefully with only six episodes to play with, CC and the rest have better things to do with their scripts than write break-ups and reconciliations. There will be conflict, of course, but hopefully everyone is approaching those conflicts with the understanding they'll still be together at the end of them. The one thing IWTB did well was show me Mulder had the ability to "get out of the car" when need be.

X is for all the XXX video rental stores and theaters Sophia would have to choose from.

That one surprises me a bit. I don't think Ina is great as host of a cooking show, even though I love her food. I figured either Vivian Howard or Pete Evans would win. In the in-studio TV program category, I'm glad Martha Stewart's Cooking School won, although I was kind of hoping for a tie between that and Sara's Weeknight Meals. It’s kind of funny that, in that category, none of the hosts of the nominated programs were themselves nominated, and none of the programs hosted by the nominated hosts were up for best program.

T is for the tokens they'd have needed for the subway back then. (Of course, Rose probably would have taken the wrong train and got lost, and Blanche would be too scared to ride them in the first place.)

I never took the IWTB scene as a break-up, just as Scully saying she didn't want any part of this anymore, so if Mulder insisted on continuing with the case, she'd be staying at the hospital until it was over. And count me in as having far more faith in the writing abilities of Morgan and Wong than CC. They have one strike on their record. He has ... I don't even know. They're more consistent. Plus, they embrace the relationship, and don't run screaming from the room at the thought of Scully as a sexual being. I think it will be a fairly collaborative process as it was back in the day, only hopefully this time CC isn't coming through with his red pen trying to keep things about the relationship ambiguous.

The late, great, Bailey - he of sitting silently at the door at 3:00 a.m. - would give love bites on the hand: bites so soft a toothless baby would use more force, followed by licking. We'd joke that he even bit politely.

Every place I shop has baggers -- an independent market, plus the local Ralphs and Pavilions. I don't know about Albertson's because I've never liked that store, and it's been so long since I've been to Vons that I don't remember. The ones at the independent market are great; freakin' speed demons, and nothing gets squished. The two best at the local Ralphs both have mental disabilities of some kind, so I'm always pleased to see them employed (especially since Kroger as a whole has some ugly discrimination incidents on its record). When I first started shopping at the independent market after moving into the neighborhood eight years ago, they were quite perplexed by the fact I brought my own bags (which I've been doing for about 20 years; I'm such a trendsetter). And my reusable (mesh) produce bags really threw them for a loop. But now everyone has to bring their own bags or pay for ones from the store, so they've long since gotten used to it.

Oh god, I hope they didn't get married. (Although that's preferable to broken up!) And, yeah, I'm sure I'll roll my eyes at whatever explanation there is for the Gunmen being alive, but I roll my eyes through a lot of things on this show -- I'll be happy to do so in order to have those guys back!

On one hand, it's a shame about Spotnitz, as post-series interviews have indicated he has a real grasp of the M&S relationship and why their dynamic is so appealing to many viewers. But on the other, he was the co-writer of IWTB, so if you're only as good as your last project ... (I have no idea what he's done other than XF). If CC shares his twisted views on sexual relations with Dori, I’m frightened by the prospect of them writing together. I haven’t read her book (the one Scully was reading in IWTB; I don’t know if she’s written others), so I have no idea what kind of writer she is. Oh, wow – I just looked her up and she was one of the (two) screenwriters of Big Business, the Bette Midler/Lily Tomlin ‘80s comedy.

While I do know grinder is a synonym for sub, it's not my first association, and thus until I got to your parenthetical I read that as, "The fish goes into a grinder," and I was most perplexed why you'd stick the fish in a meat grinder after all that. I don't function well early in the morning.

Along with the grocery store scenario is waiting in line at the gas station, and when the person in front of me finally gets their turn at the pump, they take forever to get out, then to start pumping. What have they been doing with their time? When I have to wait, it means by the time I get up there, I have my gas tank cover popped open, my credit card in my hand, and my seat belt off. And even when I can pull right up to an open pump (I get my gas at Costco, so there are only certain times a day this may happen), it takes me very little time to get what I need and get out of the car. And what takes them so long getting the pump started? Even in the statistically unlikely event this is their first time getting gas, that machine only asks a few, uncomplicated questions -- payment type, PIN if applicable, maybe zip code, what octane, and whether they want a receipt. Yet, time after time, I'm behind someone standing there studying the thing as if they're taking the SAT.

Yeah - CC is as delusional now as he was then. And thus I hope he's strictly an Exec Producer, and not a writer, for the revival. If he wants to claim that the mytharc became much more sci-fi after season five and thus those fans who - like me - loved the show in spite of it being sci-fi lost interest in it for our own reasons, that's fine. But the majority of fans I know (or "know" online), even those who love sci-fi and even those who, like that TWoP poster whose screen name I am completely blanking on who was a huge 1013 supporter and tried valiantly to make sense of the mytharc, not just stuck with but enjoyed the show - including the mytharc - through the end, still say the mytharc lost its way as time went on, and was a jumbled mess by the last few seasons. To hand-wave that away rather than saying he made many a wrong turn (because he never thought he'd have to stretch things out that long, because he smoked too much pot to keep track of his own storylines, whatever) and, having learned his lesson, he's going to pare down to something cohesive and accessible (not dumbed-down, just accessible) now ... this is why I've always loved the show in spite of him more than because of him. As for what any of my babbling has to do with nitpicking ... I've got nothing. Just that the mytharc was one of the many reasons for the "conti-what?" joke popular on the newsgroup, referring to the idea CC and the writers were unfamiliar with the concept of continuity.

Oh, I still throw them away rather than sticking them in an album, but I am "Auntie [bastet]" to her cats; we spent a lot of time together, I take care of them when she's away, I'm on her veterinary accounts as authorized to make decisions, etc. While I don't save the photo cards (if for no other reason than I probably have most of the individual pictures on my computer from her emailing them to me), I at least enjoy looking at them. But even if it's somebody's kid - which I'll barely glance at, because I don't care - or house, or portrait, or whatever, I'd be more amenable to the photo card idea if it included a personalized greeting, even if just a line or two. It would still go in the trash rather than the recycling bin, which doesn't thrill me, but at least I'd know they put forth more effort than stuffing an envelope.

Hmm. It's hard to judge having already read posts here, but I'm pretty sure I'd have come up with Indiana Jones; between the year, whip, and fedora - given how beloved the film was among friends even though I bowed out - I think that would have come to me instantly. But, FJ, I'm not so sure. The only thing in there for me to go on is the year and the fact it's obviously a famous man, presumably married to a non-famous woman since she's only described in relation to the family fortune ... if given enough time, I probably would have guessed Prince William, but I doubt I'd have come up with it watching the show in real time.

I didn't see the episode and the DJ round isn't up on the archive yet -- what was the Indiana Jones clue? As one of the handful of people in this country who have never seen that movie (for lack of interest), I’m curious to see if I’d find it as easy as the rest of you. I’m also curious to see the FJ clue wording; I remember from wedding coverage that Middleton’s parents are wealthy business owners, but no specifics (and that’s about the last time I paid attention to any coverage of British royalty).

The “after” pictures (the ones in clothing) in that commercial are downright frightening. If they're real (as opposed to the "before" pictures involving padding, deliberately loosened versions of the clothing, careful camera angles, etc.), I cannot imagine how tight they had to cinch those things to get the shot … and how long it took to revive the women after they passed out.

I have a friend who does that, and it doesn't bother me, either. It helps that the picture is a collage of pictures of her cats and places she traveled that year.

I made some asparagus soup with lemon and parmesan Saturday while it was raining, and even though it was in the 80s today, I'll have some with dinner tonight, along with a piece of salmon. The soup was a new recipe for me, which caught my eye for not using cream, and it was a tasty twist on my typical asparagus soup. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off; I have a delivery for which I need to be here in the morning (they gave me a one-hour window, but we know how that can go) and a 1:00 dental appointment, so I'm just going to work from home until then and go over to my parents' house afterward to do some more cooking. I have some surprisingly tasty tomatillos for this early in the year, so I'm going to make chicken enchiladas with a green, sour cream-based sauce (just tomatillos, cilantro and jalapeños in the food processor, then stirred into sour cream). I'll get it to the "ready to go in the oven" stage and stick it in the fridge, since I won't be staying until dinner. I'm also going to make a casserole with rigatoni, Italian sausage, cremini mushrooms and fontina cheese that is designed to be assembled a day in advance. That way my dad can just pop it in the oven tomorrow night. I love both dishes, so when I go to my parents' house again Thursday to take my mom to her physical therapy appointment, I'll be taking some of the leftovers home with me! Oh, and my dad is going to change my oil for me while I'm there tomorrow. I mentioned that I didn't get around to doing it this weekend (because I wound up having to fix my floor jack, and by the time I was done with that I no longer had time to get the oil changed before I had to leave for dinner), so he said he'd trade an oil change for food. :-)

This show worked so well for a variety of reasons, and I think the fact the cast all thoroughly enjoyed working together is one of them. Actors can turn in great performances with people they don't particularly care for, and actors who get along swimmingly can nevertheless result in mediocrity together. So it's not automatically a positive. But to have the entire core cast, especially a cast playing a family, genuinely like each other as people - they all still keep in touch to one extent or another - and adore working alongside each other ... it was a big bonus here, on top of a solid foundation of sharp writing and storylines both relatable and thought provoking. Because they all liked each other, we got such great interaction between the family as a whole, plus all these individual relationships -- Roseanne Barr and John Goodman work so well together, as do each of them with Laurie Metcalf. So any combination among Dan, Roseanne, and Jackie just feels right. Roseanne is great with kids, and had a special bond with Michael Fishman, so her scenes with Lecy, Sara and, especially, him are very natural. Et cetera, et cetera. And while Roseanne was a bit rough in the beginning, overall they don't break character. Yet even though you're completely in the moment, seeing them in character, you can also tell when the actors are particularly enjoying each other as scene partners. And, yeah, going back to that "I wish I'd never marr-"/the kids are failures fight: I think it's even more powerful as a scene from the book. Roseanne used that book to change the things she didn't like about her life. Thus fictional Dan didn't die (but because she had to use her writing to work through the feelings of abandonment, betrayal, and anger she was feeling following his death, he did have an emotional affair with another woman). So, that fight is invented out of whole cloth; it never happened, because in reality he was gone. She could have written it any way she chose to help her sort through what she was feeling in the early days of her new life as a widow and single parent. But she writes it in probably the ugliest way possible short of violence, and has her children's father call them failures, blaming it on her failure as a mother. Looking back and viewing that scene as a manifestation of how she's feeling about Dan, herself, the kids, the family's future ... that doubles down on the wallop the scene already packs when taken at face value.

That bugs me, too, when I know for certain it happened that way ... but, unless I see it happen in a wide shot, I can't say for sure it did. When it's just a one-shot on that contestant's face, and thus could have been edited in from any of the extensive time they spent standing there in front of the judges, it could be typical reality show editing shenanigans.

It can be grown either way, but mine was in rocks and water. They say the fluoride and some of the minerals in tap water can cause a problem (brown leaves, maybe), but it worked fine for me (I would use water from the Brita pitcher rather than directly from the tap, but that’s it).