Bastet

I probably shouldn't talk, since I had long since quit watching, but how is she wrong? Dude was dead. He can relate to what she felt when he was missing, because he went through that with her -- but, even there, it's only somewhat comparable as they were partners and friends when she went missing but partner-partners and co-parents-to-be when he did -- but he never lived through a reality in which she was dead. This was no prematurely-ordered (and ridiculously-quickly created, but that's another story) headstone, this was a dead body in a coffin. They both know what it is to suddenly be returned to a life that has gone on without them, with only hazy - and terrible - memories of the time away, but it doesn't sound like the show dealt with that connection. They were too busy continuing to play coy paternity games.

The idea expressed by all three couples is, basically, "We live together, so we have no shortage of time together. It's nice to have a sort of 'throwback' experience one day a year to just be with our family of origin."

The married/partnered couples I know who enjoy the holidays the most are the three who've stopped trying to decide whose family to be with each year and decided they'd each be with their own -- she goes to her parents' house, he goes to his. It started when circumstances pretty well forced the issue for one couple several years ago, and they wound up loving it and contined the tradition. Then, a couple of years later, another couple said, "You know, we should try that ..." Repeat the next year with another weary couple. We'll see how far it spreads, I guess, but it only works for those without kids. Anyway, I hope those of you who have people - whether someone else's family or your own - to endure rather than enjoy this holiday season get through it all with sanity intact! (Not having to deal with in-laws is one of the approximately 274 reasons I choose to be single. There is just nothing like people's holiday dinner stories to reinforce that.) Oh, and my day off to do all my shopping? I was on my way out the door when it turned into a day to get a tree for my parents and decorate it; my dad was busy fixing busted plumbing in the backyard and my mom's back was really bothering her. By the time I finished that (okay, with numerous breaks to play with the kitties), the last thing I felt like doing was shopping. So now I need to take tomorrow off, too. No big deal, really, but I definitely had a moment of "Oh my god, it's 10 days 'til Christmas!"

Heh; you did know that, queequeg -- I posted about it above (and you liked it).

Mr. Wilhelm! (From Seinfeld.)

E

I root for the Seahawks, and am so glad they won (especially against SF), but that was a bullshit call. He kept his head up, like you're supposed to, and hit in the chest rather than the head, like you're supposed to. A penalty (or lack thereof) is not among the things a coach can challenge.

Okay, y'all made me look up Epiphany. January 6th, if Wikipedia is to be believed. I can't find reference to the sheets thing, though. That seems like too long to go without clean sheets; I wonder what the basis of that tradition is. Maybe your mother-in-law made it up to give herself a rest. In which case, she may be onto something here. I think I'll declare it verboten to mop floors between Mother's Day and Memorial Day.

Those have been around for a while now, haven't they? I like it with dishwashers, but find it a bit overwhelming visually when it's used on refrigerators, too, especially when the cabinets are stained rather than painted.

See, to me that is completely normal -- growing up, we always got our tree right around the 15th, and I continued that timeline as an adult. (I take it down New Year's Day while watching bowl games and snacking.) I put the Christmas lights up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (They are extremely simple - just a strand of multi-colored lights around the roofline.) But the interior decorations I don't do until this time of year. I get irrationally annoyed by Christmas lights up before Thanksgiving, even though there is certainly no harm done; just one of those pet peeves.

It certainly brightened my morning (I wound up having the game on in the background).

So do I. Webster's lists that middle schwa as an either/or thing (it's in parentheses for the first listed pronunciation), and although I usually hear it pronounced jag-wär - or, in the case of far too many sports journalists, jag-wire - I've always used the middle syllable.

Here is the How-To post on embedding YouTube videos. As for the "sick day" commercial, I saw the Mom one first, and was so pissed that, once again, we had "Moms" do this and that in taking care of kids instead of "Parents." So I was relieved to see a Dad version, too.

That link is to an article about kombucha. How that happened, I don't know, but you used the /embed rather than watch=v and the forum software, as someone said, "doesn't like those." The Nyquil ad is here:

I think it's a wonderful thing to take the time to make gifts (food or otherwise) for loved ones at the holidays, and hopefully most of those who receive them truly appreciate the effort and sentiment involved. But I don't find it worth running myself ragged over. The years when I can reasonably make time, I do it. The years where I'd have to forgo sleep and stress myself out to get it done, however, I don't do it. My friends' holidays are even tastier the years they get Ina's chocolate bark, but they don't suffer for lack of it the other years. Now, I remember standing in a tiny kitchen at 3:00 in the morning making fudge and decorating sugar cookies to place into decorative tins for each of my coworkers to take home with them as we went into the winter holiday break. I had the energy to spare at 22; I don't now. I've become fiercely protective of "me time" as I've gotten older, especially as our modern society has come to dismiss, or even attack it particularly when it's taken by women.

D-a- D-a--, t-da- -- h-a-t --a-t -h-n A---t S----- s----st-d s---tan---s h--an ------st--n. Mrs. Paddock: A, T, H, S, D, N Lauren Kyte:

I haven't yet bought a gift, mailed a card, or put up a decoration. I'd have normally done that this week, but I know it will get done; the extra few days won't make much of a difference. I'll decorate today, take tomorrow off to do one marathon day of shopping, and sit down in front of the TV one night this week to do the cards (I don't mail many cards anymore, as I hate the waste of paper, so I just do them for those I know would be offended by not receiving one and send everyone else an email).

Well, I'm not small and I'm a lush, but if I played a game where I took a drink every time one of the characters took a crap on the Constitution or advocated doing so (looking at you, Grandpa!), I'd be hospitalized. There's some unfortunate realism to that, of course, but the show seems to consistently take the viewpoint it's hunky dory, that the ends justify the means. I tried another ION marathon this week, but this show is just too relentlessly offensive for me to continue. I'm a civil rights lawyer; I see enough of this shit in real life.

I'll be getting the Cincy/Cleveland game I care nothing about, but since I was never going to get Washington/NYG and don't care a whit about Green Bay/Buffalo, either, I'll just use the time to do some puttering in the garage before the SF/Seattle game. Go Seahawks!

I had forgotten Shirley Temple died this year, so I figured Lauren Bacall would be the closer. When she instead came early on, but got a clip, I thought that was appropriate -- I like that they intersperse big-name stars with lesser knowns, but also do a little something extra for the BIG names. When they got to James Garner, I thought he was the last one, and then "Little Shirley" started singing. Well done. Many on the TCM message board are criticizing the choice of music, and the overall tone these TCM Remembers pieces tend to take, feeling the song and images should create a more upbeat celebration of these people's lives/careers than a mourning of their passing. I think the balance between those two things is a struggle every time someone dies, so I take the point, but I'm fine with it the way it is. First of all, every year there are people memorialized who didn't die naturally at the end of a long life they were probably ready to leave behind given the state of their health. Even with those who were so lucky, though, I still think it's sad they're gone. I think of the rest of TCM's programming as a tribute to their work, so I rather like TCM Remembers being a mourning of their passing. I don't find it maudlin or manipulative.

Doug Emerson (Scott Scanlon).

Yep. I've never used one for cooking, but I use them to brine the turkey breast at Thanksgiving.

As was discussed in another thread (or maybe even in this one), that's not surprising, given how notoriously difficult many foot fungi are to get rid of.

I hate The Taming of the Shrew, but I love beyond reason the Moonlighting take on it. Thus, when I initially blanked on the setting for Romeo & Juliet, thought Padua then dismissed it, I did so with the "wrong play!" chorus from that episode ringing in my mind.

--a- --a--, t--a- -- h-a-t --a-t -h-- A---t ------ ------t-- ----ta----- h--a- -------t---. Mrs. Paddock: A, T, H Lauren Kyte: