Bastet

Even in a low-budget production shot by friends, there are quite a few people on hand for filming. No one thought to mention, "You know, those commuter trains go about 60 mph and you're not actually Superman, so this is probably not a good idea"? What a stupid thing to do! He's dead, his friends/the crew witnessed it, and the conductor, engineer and passengers on the train all get to live with the knowledge they ran over someone. All for what? Sad. Let me guess: his family will sue the energy drink company.

I hadn't heard about that, so thanks for posting. How cute.

The train tracks run pretty much right along the freeway at the point where this occurred, with a major street overpass close by and there's an industrial cluster (including a power plant) nearby, too -- lots of background noise (which begs the question why one would want to film there, but hey). But the train did start honking when he was spotted on the tracks. I think I read somewhere that a friend said he tripped, so maybe he was out of the way and then fell back into danger. But had there been someone there with knowledge of what time a train was due to pass by, he'd have been cleared out well in advance. I just re-read the LA Times article and, yes, people said he tripped -- while trying to "get the best shot." So it doesn't sound like a scenario in which they were surprised by the train -- they knew it was coming, but he got too close. I think he needed someone there to protect him from himself. What a shame.

According to the local paper, they didn't pull a permit to film on the tracks, a process that would have come with a flagman who knows the train schedule being on site for the entire shoot (to warn the film crew of oncoming trains) and notification of the filming going out to those driving trains along that route. What a tragic mistake.

I believe they just alternate between AFC and NFC from year to year.

I had stopped watching by then (Laibson and McTavish so ruined the show for me, I gave it up after 20 years), but my mom still tuned in occasionally, so one day I got a "Oh my god, they killed Ross!" call. I was pissed off for the rest of the day, to the point my assistant kept asking me what was the matter. Ross was a great character, and served as a bridge between so many other characters on the show. I can't believe they killed him off. I have a lot of that saved on VHS (that I really need to get around to transferring to DVD someday); I loved it. Soaps don't often do mystery well, but that was an enjoyable storyline that nicely tied together a bunch of side storylines within it.

Maybe it's the residual high of the Seahawks victory, but I was quite sanguine in resigning myself to a Patriots win and barely batted an eye at this game. I'm sure if I liked the Colts rather than not caring about them one way or the other (and disliking Luck), it would have been a more frustrating game, but I just sort of shrugged. My prediction had been for Indy to keep it fairly even for the first half and then get slowly but thoroughly trounced in the second, but I was certain they were going down. So having that confirmed was less painful than a Patriots win can be. I'd have rather been spared enduring NE in the Super Bowl, but whatever. My "please, just give me this" wish at the start of the playoffs was to have a team to root for rather than just holding my nose and rooting against the Patriots, so I'm happy. And if, heaven forbid, the Patriots do beat the Seahawks, at least I'll still know the Giants beat their ass twice.

I changed the channel once Wilson started blubbering about God; I'm not going to give him shit about it, but I'm not going to watch it, either. But as long as he also credited the guys who were actually out on the field playing the game with him for the victory, I don't much care.

It was his teammate's helmet that caused the injury, right? I was expecting a temporary stinger, but dude played the rest of the game with one arm. I hope he heals up quickly.

Even if the Giants were going to the Super Bowl, I'd be watching minimal sports media over the next two weeks; it gets really annoying really fast, no matter who is playing. The media gets more obnoxious about some teams than others, but they're just insufferable as a rule come Super Bowl.

To paraphrase Major League ... The Seahawks win it! Oh my god, the Seahawks win it!

Dammit. I knew Seattle scored too quickly on that drive, but was hoping the fact that disaster of a 2-point conversion attempt worked meant luck was on their side and the defense would be able to stop Green Bay. But since I thought the game was over in the first quarter, I'll just be grateful for overtime.

My cat just greeted halftime by puking up a hairball. I know how she feels. I did not see this coming. A Green Bay upset, yes, unfortunately. But I was thinking in terms of a back-and-forth game decided by a TD. Not this bizarre scenario in which Seattle would have had the same results sending in a local high school team in their place.

In the immediate post-Favre era, I was okay - as okay as someone who likes the Bears can be - with the Packers, but Aaron Rodgers started pissing me off with his mouth a couple seasons ago, so I've been back to disliking them. I'll grudgingly root for them if they wind up in the Super Bowl against the Patriots, but I would really like the ONE team I've been able to root for this entire miserable post-season to make it to the big game. So step it up, Seahawks, and maintain possession of the damn ball.

I'm rooting very hard for the Seahawks, but I've spent the last couple of days worried there's going to be an upset this weekend that won't involve a Patriots loss. So this trading of interceptions is not helping my nerves.

My luck ran out last night, and I finally saw this commercial. You are not kidding; it is so grating to the ears, it makes the original Hump Day ad seem soothing in comparison.

Thank heavens for that. Most of the season, I sleep through at least the first quarter of the morning game(s), and get really annoyed when the stakes are high or it's a great matchup and I thus have to set my alarm clock to watch a damn football game. If I had to do so in order to see a divisional or conference came, I'd be pissed.

I didn't trust him with this prior to IWTB, but after seeing that the M/S relationship was the one thing that made sense about that film (even though we still endured coy storytelling games and bad lighting), I'm a lot more confident in him in that respect. And with a limited-run series about two people who have been romantically involved for over 15 years, hopefully the relationship is treated as something that simply is. It can just exist as a backdrop, with some nice moments (made all the nicer by GA and DD) of teasing, arguing, sexy times, quiet times and all the rest, while they investigate. It would certainly be nice if what they're investigating also makes sense, and IWTB did not, sadly, restore that aspect of faith for me. But with time - not to mention the ability to undergo rewrites! - and additional sets of eyes on the scripts, this format could achieve much better results.

They're looking at bringing it back, as a series, and are at least giving lip service to their first choice being to do so with GA and DD reprising their roles, with a new cast reboot being their second choice. But the studio doesn't do itself any favors convincing GA to sign so much of her life away with this nonsense: Yeah, raising a family and starring in one series, while commuting to yet another country to shoot another one in which she's to play an expanded role. And picking up awards for her stage work back home. And writing. She's not exactly sitting around sipping tea. To get her to do a weekly XF, I imagine it would have to be a limited run. (To have this be any good, I imagine it would have to be a limited run, so that's a nice coincidence.) Like the nine-episode modern-day check-in with Twin Peaks that will air in 2016. That's on Showtime, so for network TV, it would probably be 13 episodes, but if they could work the scheduling so GA and DD could do it, that sort of TV series would probably come out a lot better than a third movie. Especially if some of the old writers got to contribute an episode. (Vince Gilligan!)

Rather than a chuckle, I'd be more inclined to suspect they'd have had a bit of a laugh at her expense over the twee "you work with tools, so I'll arrange some on the table while feeding you" centerpiece had any of it been real, but, yes, there is every chance they're more charitable than I am.

Pads/tampons are things that many women stock up on, so I can see having more on hand than you want to use up before switching to something else if you've found something different you want to use instead. (Or if you've hit menopause; I used to run the legal clinic of a DV shelter, and was based in the business office of the organization running the shelter, and the person who took care of the donated items brought in got a real kick out of all the women who'd come in with several boxes of pads or tampons to donate, gleefully saying, "I finally don't need these things anymore -- take them!") Especially among women using them (presumably) daily for bladder leakage rather than monthly for periods. But the basic "what to do with your period pads" backdrop of the "switch to Poise pads" pitch is just SO odd to me; it seems predicated on the fear that if women aren't reminded they can find other uses for their pads, they won't start buying Poise pads. Which is dumb. Because women who've been using regular pads for incontinence and now want to use Poise instead will either a) use up what they have and then switch (a minor delay in getting their business), b) continue to use the regular pads for their periods (if they still get them, and use pads for them) and use Poise for incontinence ... or, even better for Poise, use the bladder pads for everything, or c) donate the pads. Any woman with two brain cells to rub together will figure out something to do with pads she no longer wants. So I just cannot believe this is their chosen storyline for a "switch to Poise" ad. Show the difference in absorbency and move on.

I've been sitting at that table for years. I stopped watching some time in season five, so I was spared actually seeing them get together (or Donna become Superwoman), but even during the first half of the series I got sick of Donna being involved in things an assistant would not be involved in, and found all moments of UST between her and Josh forced - and icky. I liked them individually, and as a work duo, but not as a potential romance; this sounds odd, I know, but I thought each one wasn't good enough for the other.

C is for the many cheesecakes we saw them take out of the fridge.

I think the ad is silly, because the obvious answer to "what to do with these regular pads I've been using for bladder leakage once I switch to the special Poise pads?" is to donate them to a shelter rather than ... whatever the hell she is doing with them in this ad ... but I find it pretty benign within the TV commercial landscape.

I know there's some company working on a means of recycling disposable diapers into other products, with the hope similar techniques will work for doing the same with pads and tampons. But I'm not aware anything has come of it, certainly not to the point we'd see commercials about it. And I know someone in ... Kenya, maybe? ... came up with a pad that is reusable, so that girls too poor to avoid traditional pads don't have to stay home from school every time they have their period (or use potentially dangerous materials as makeshift pads). But that's different. So, basically, you have me quite curious as to what was being advertised!