Bastet

So far we have the possibility of estrangement, William, and looming alien colonization. Also known as Top Three Things Bastet Does Not Want to See.

I generally like the flashback episodes on this show, thanks to the new footage. It was a good way to use good bits the writers couldn’t spin into entire storylines.

No, I only read what's posted here. So thank you. Interesting. I figured they’d be living someplace better now that Mulder can be completely out in the open. Back in the city, maybe. I hope Scully is working someplace different, at least. Everything in IWTB – their house, the hospital - just looked so depressing.

Tiffani Thiessen has a show on the Cooking Channel (Dinner at Tiffani’s). I rarely watch it, because she makes stuff I already know how to make and the storylines with her guests either bore or annoy me (I like cooking shows where the host just stands there and cooks). But last night there was an episode with Willie Garson, and I like him in everything I've seen him in, so I watched for a bit. Another guest was Lindsay Price (Curtis Stone’s wife), and Tiffani said they met on 90210. That was after I quit watching, so I had to look her up – she played Janet. Anyway, I figured I’d give fans a heads up, if you want to see a reunion of sorts. There is also an episode with Jason Priestly and his wife.

The Tallahassee couple had several annoying statements of their own, but it was a nice change of pace to hear someone want a big lawn to mow given how often we get HHs who recoil in horror at yard maintenance (and watching him mow what was mostly dirt was entertaining). Also for someone to have rejected new construction right off the bat because they couldn't afford all the upgrades they wanted.

Roseanne took a healthy approach; Darlene experimented with a few drugs, wasn't into any of them and moved on. It's all revealed in a couple of casual conversations, rather than ever being a plot. Very refreshing.

Wow. The few FN/CC hosts I watch all have had some clunkers for recipes, but that canned monstrosity is on its own level. If that's typical of her cooking, I can’t believe she has a show.

When I was first starting out on my own, I lived in a great townhouse in a neighborhood that was a nice mix of houses and small (6-10 unit) buildings like mine. On one side of me was a house and on the other was a building of the same height as mine. So, great sunlight on one side, so-so on the other. Fast forward seven years, and with the city council bought and paid for by developers, huge buildings were going up everywhere, including a three-story behemoth on what had been the house side of me. Bye-bye, sunlight (and bye-bye me). In all the complaining I did during construction and the year I lived there afterward, I don't believe I ever once uttered the phrase "natural light."

I grew tired of this show last season, and haven't watched this season. Last night I was going around the dial while waiting for a friend to arrive and happened upon the new episode just as they were going into the commercial break between the two segments. I saw the tease of a ghost-hunting segment and decided this was definitely not going to be the night I returned to viewing. That's even more stupid than Jackson going through the simulated fire.

It is for non-show stuff, but I assume anything more than brief discussion of another show that has its own forum should go in that forum. It was the bar used as the exterior on Cheers, not the show itself, being referenced -- a tourist attraction rather than a hangout for locals. I've been to Boston several time and always enjoyed it ... except the time I was there in Dec/Jan, because I hate temperatures that cold. But a day spent playing in the snow in Vermont was nice.

I think so, too, because otherwise "estranged former" is redundant, but without knowing who wrote it, it's hard to evaluate because there is no context -- how precise is this person in their language, what agenda might they have, etc.

There has always been something fundamentally sad about their relationship, since they came together partly because so much shit happened to them they became so removed from the norm that being with anyone else became impossible (think how bizarre their answers are to the basic "getting to know you" questions). They love each other in a way that’s truly special, but that’s only the beginning of the equation when trying to maintain a relationship. They both have a lot of sadness and regret in their lives, and it’s difficult to live together. As much as I’d like to have the relationship just sort of exist in the background, I can’t realistically object if they have problems since there’s a strong foundation for that. But it should make sense, and there’s only so far to take estrangement and have it make sense to me. But, like ABS, I wondered if estranged referred to their relationship to each other or to the FBI.

This is pretty much how I thought IWTB was going to play out back before we knew anything about it -- being estranged, coming back together due to a request from Skinner. It would have made more sense then than now. And, yes, it sounds like setting the time machine to season five. That's not what I meant by wanting to kick it old school, Chris!

I hate when I can't remember how someone's toilet was arranged before I got to it - lid up or down - because I like to leave it how I found it. I like to leave the hand towel looking just as it did, too. And if I have to put on a new roll of toilet paper, I look first to see if they're an over or an under so I can put it on the right way for them (even if it's the wrong way to me - I'm an over).

It’s an allusion to the ruling on the Carson City clue a couple of months ago. (After accepting last name only answers the likes of Roosevelt, Adams, and Guthrie in recent games, they required the full name of Kit Carson.)

I don’t know, but I’m flabbergasted by the idea that putting your damn phone away and paying attention to the people you’re with is such a radical concept there needs to be a one-night experiment in basic manners.

Yes. Also, if you're going to revive a nine-year-long TV series about FBI agents who investigate unexplained cases involving potentially paranormal phenomena, you kind of have to give the audience ... FBI agents who investigate unexplained cases involving potentially paranormal phenomena. Especially if the episodes are going to cover a variety of case types as they always did, rather than following their investigation into one thing as IWTB did. They have to acknowledge the passage of time in how they present the characters and the investigations, but they also have to maintain enough of a foundation from the first nine years to make it feel familiar as well. IWTB showed their willingness to work with the FBI again despite the way they were treated, and cleared the way for reinstatement (with the whole "do this for us and all is forgiven" thing). Regardless of their feelings towards many in the Bureau, they have no beef with - and are, in fact, tremendously loyal to - Skinner, so I think it's pretty easy to come up with a plausible scenario to bring his "two wayward kids" back for him to get "all grumpy and bitchy with" again. Plausible enough for TV, anyway.

As I said, I'll buy any explanation so long as it gets them back in the FBI for this revival. I want to watch Special Agents Mulder and Scully again. Not whatever the hell kind of doctor she was in IWTB Scully and nutcase blogger living off his inheritance Mulder (or author Mulder, or whatever Mulder). Speaking of them as special agents (“What’s so special about you?”), GA said in an interview (no idea which one, something I was reading a few weeks ago) that she wants to go up to somebody’s door while they’re filming in a neighborhood, and introduce herself in character, with her badge and everything, and see what they do. Ha! I’ve never wanted to live in Vancouver (lovely city, shitty weather), but I do now.

I like when contestants make a DD wager that would give them a nice round number if they get it right … and hate when they wager so that the round number will come only if they get it wrong. Let’s say they have $3200. An $1800 bet makes me happy. A $1200 bet makes me cranky. Last night’s game was pre-empted for basketball, so I had to check the archive again. I can’t believe Syria was a TS. Maybe because it’s ongoing, reference to specific months in 2012 made them think it had to be something that was over. The only Simpsons episode I’ve ever seen in its entirety is the X-Files one, but apparently I’ve picked up a few things along the way – I knew Krusty the Clown and Moe’s. Geometry goes down in my personal history as the only C I ever received, so I was pleased to get three of those right. I had no idea on FJ, so basically picked a Mediterranean island out of a hat. I picked the right one by pure luck; there was zero reasoning involved.

The filming permits only allow him to move people so far back, and he’s filming in downtown Vancouver right now (rather than in frozen Canadian tundra, like with IWTB); add in the number of people with picture/video phones and social media accounts, and it’s going to be quickly and widely spread. Anything he wants kept completely secret he’s going to have to film on a soundstage.

It comes across to me like he's thanking her for something (meeting with Joel McHale?). It happens after they talk, rather than as a greeting right when he comes up to her, right? Assuming they’re still together, they see each other all.the.time. and have for eons now -- that they’re kissing anywhere is impressive. All joking aside, it seems like a casual gesture rather than a meaningful one.

My dad used to divide it up into six portions in college, which I find oddly impressive. I have no idea if he was down to just cheese dust by the sixth one, but he says he had it down to a science.

It must be in another thread, because there's horrified discussion of it somewhere around here.

I've never heard of that, no. My best friend owned a McMansion in one of those god-awful, tell you what colors you can paint your house, what kind of landscaping you can use, etc. developments in Florida for a few years before high-tailing it back to Los Angeles. It was a brand-new development. Someone else had bought the parcel and selected all the cabinets, carpet, etc. from among the developer's options for the house, but then turned around and sold it to my best friend before the developer even broke ground on it. Even though the house did not yet exist, she couldn't change what would go in once it did, so she was stuck with forest green carpet. And when she tried to say, "Look, just have the painters prime the place, because I'm going to paint different rooms different colors," that was a no go, too -- it was part of the contract that the painters come through and slap beige up everywhere. The house would be built per the original agreement with the developer. However, this idiocy aside, once they finished the house to the specifications of that agreement, it was hers to do whatever she wanted with inside (she replaced the brand-new carpet downstairs, which also had a lot of tile, but left it upstairs, and painted over all the beige) -- it was just the outside subject forevermore to HOA rules.

I don’t particularly care if they got/get married at some point along the way, I just think it’s a bit silly and very unnecessary, so I’d rather skip that storyline. But maybe she needed to add him to her insurance or something. Whatever; if “Really, they got married?” winds up being my biggest complaint, I’ll be over the moon. As always, I just don’t want it to suck.