Bastet

My favorite parts of the Salt-n-Pepa Geico commercial are those when Spinderella makes an appearance in the background, especially in the elevator. The guy mowing his lawn is pretty funny, too.

That was the first thing I thought of upon reading that comment, too. Classic. I think the fact it was her first answer of the game added to her disgust, like this was what she'd introduce herself to the competition with.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving weekend and probably won't get online much, so this is likely my last round. Alien Bounty Hunter Krycek, Alex Hosteen, Albert Mulder, Samantha (Yeah, yeah - impetus for the whole thing. But they should have wrapped that up about three years before they did. And, you know, in a far less stupid way.)

I don't know how you can watch films in bits and pieces like that; if I fall asleep while watching something for the first time, I have to start over rather than picking up where I left off because the flow has been interrupted. And walking away with only 12 minutes left of something would make me twitch. I may have issues.

That's how I'll be on Sunday. I've timed it wonderfully so that all the fresh food is gone as of today's lunch, tonight a friend and I are going out, and I leave tomorrow morning. Sunday afternoon I'll think, "I need to go to the market. Or if I went to help Dad put up their Christmas lights, Mom would feed me and I could go Monday ..." I hate going shopping on the weekends; too crowded.

Will Brandon fit?

Alien Bounty Hunter Fenig, Max Spender, Jeffrey Krycek, Alex (never, ever felt the Ratboy love, and after a time he felt shoehorned in to things so his number is up at this point in my rankings)

Ours is simple, because there are only three of us and we're in a motorhome, so while we do have all the conveniences of home, there just isn't room to be feasting on a dozen different things. The dinner isn't our favorite, anyway; it's a normal meal that just happens to involve turkey after we've been noshing on appetizers all day while watching football. We do a turkey breast, deboned but skin left on and rolled/tied up like a roast, on the charcoal grill. It's a natural, organic turkey and we brine it and then baste with butter while cooking; it comes out wonderfully moist and flavorful at 165 degrees. (A world of difference from the frozen Butterball breast I grew up with, before we knew about brining and not over-cooking -- based on that, for the longest time I thought I didn't like turkey!) The gravy gets made ahead of time; I cook up some turkey wings/legs for drippings. My mom makes cornbread stuffing from my paternal grandmother's recipe, but I don't eat it (my mom isn't overly fond of it; my dad gets his tradition for Thanksgiving and my mom makes her family recipe to go with whatever we have for Christmas dinner). I have rolls instead; I'm not a big bread person, but for some reason I crave them on Thanksgiving. Whatever roasted veggies we're in the mood for - often Brussels sprouts - plus a mixed green salad, and that's it. My mom makes a pumpkin pie for dessert, but I don't eat that either. I'm full by then, anyway. I like hearing about others' traditions as well. The camping tradition started many, many moons ago, when I was seven. My maternal grandma had died early December of the year before, so Thanksgiving was her last holiday with us; she was released from the hospital for those few hours, but needed to go lie down in my bed after dinner. We used to watch family movies after holiday dinners sometimes - the old Super 8 films you showed on a light-colored wall if you didn't want to mess with a screen - so we set up the projector in my room and watched them on the closet doors. Anyway, that Christmas obviously sucked, and then when Thanksgiving was on the horizon the following year, my mother just couldn't deal with the thought of that empty chair at the table. My parents had bought their first motorhome that spring, and my grandpa had accompanied us on several of our weekend excursions. So my dad suggested we just can the traditional Thanksgiving routine, grab a turkey frozen turkey breast, and hit the road to one of our favorite campgrounds. My grandpa came with us, and we all loved it so much it became our family tradition from that year forward. So, here we are, just the three of us for some time now - four when my best friend (who has been my BF and part of the family since we were five) decides she'd rather endure my family than hers - a different motorhome, sometimes a different campground, the same old arguments but a greater ability to agree to disagree, but the same general idea. My parents are already at the lake (they go all week), and I'll drive down Wednesday morning. I'm taking Maddie with me this year; now that she's an only cat, I don't want her home alone that long with no companionship other than once a day visits from my friend. So this could be interesting, heh. But she's a very easy-going cat who actually likes being in the car and doesn't get antsy in new situations (she was always fine going over to my parents' house), so I think she'll enjoy it. Fingers crossed! I may wind up back at home sharing a tuna sandwich for Thanksgiving dinner.

Which is a real shame, as that's a great script (Susan Baskin is my favorite of the shows writers). Bond Girl was about the extent of her acting capabilities, rest her soul, but she did an okay job with Felicia. And I think she's better in these later, European episodes than she was in the first one. But she's just blah as Anna, on top of the fact it was ridiculous - even in an era where seeing the same actor in multiple roles within the same TV series was commonplace - to cast her as a woman from Steele's past who's still interested in him when we'd already seen her the season prior as another woman from Steele's past who's still interested in him. The worst, in terms of casting a mediocre actor because of a connection to one the principals, was Michael Gleason and Lynne Randall's kid as the granddaughter in the Mulch episode where he want to market the Courtney doll. Even Edgar Bergen couldn't work with someone that wooden.

We meet Felicia in Harris' first episode, the season one episode with the cursed Five Nudes of Cairo painting (also the first appearance of Laura's mother). Then we see Harris as Anna. After that whenever she pops up it's as Felicia.

Yeah, I'm going by an "interesting/adds something to my enjoyment the show" sort of criteria. So Pendrell is just sort of there as this tertiary character, but the wonderful touch of normalcy provided by his crush on Scully was appreciated. X was an asshole, but I found him compelling to watch. I don't much care for Melissa as a character, but what we got to see of Scully by having her around was enjoyable. Etc.

I hate everyone.

"Give my daughter the shot!" And then everything about the death scene, from the way Emma does the little wave to let her mom know it's time to when Aurora tells Flap she's so stupid, because somehow she thought when it finally happened it would be a relief.

The Mulders were shitty parents, but I think Mrs. Mulder (I just can't deal with "Teena") is an interesting character, and well played -- the icy calm composure, and this wonderful mix of emotional fragility and stubborn refusal to break down under the weight that really speaks to what her life must have been like in this bizarre world her husband and CSM had her embroiled in. Her comportment is also a nice window into what Mulder's childhood was like, so she's an important piece of the show's puzzle to me.

I'm going to edit that into my "almost on par with" section, because I can't quite believe I forgot it. It's a wonderful cover.

Spender, Cassandra Praise, Gibson Miles, Billy Spender, Jeffrey Alien Bounty Hunter

Johnny Cash's version of Hurt owns this, but Aretha Franklin's Respect, Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower, Janis Joplin's Me and Bobby McGee, and Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah would be fighting it out otherwise. I don't think Whitney Houston's cover of I Will Always Love You is better than Dolly Parton's, but it's pretty damn good. I feel the same way about Rod Stewart's take on Tom Waits' Downtown Train and The Indigo Girls' version of Bob Dylan's Tangled Up in Blue. Getting back to covers I do think outshine the originals: Joe Cocker's version of A Little Help From My Friends Nina Gordon doing Skid Row's 18 and Life Eva Cassidy's version of Fields of Gold Elvis Presley's live recording of My Way The Fugees, Killing Me Softly Sarah McLachlan, Ol' 55 Juice Newton's version of Angel of the Morning, which for years I thought was the original Tori Amos' take on Eminem's '97 Bonnie and Clyde and her version of I Don't Like Mondays. (Not so much her take on Smells Like Teen Spirit.) I love Patti Smith, but ... I have to give Because the Night to 10,000 Maniacs Tina Turner doing Proud Mary, on her own or back when she was with Ike Blake Shelton's version of Home just edges out the original for me

I still have that on a VHS tape somewhere. One of these days I'll have to go through all my tapes of random XF stuff and see what I want to transfer to DVD; I'm sure that will be good for a laugh. When, years ago, I finally went through my boxes (yes, plural) of XF magazines, books, clippings, etc. and tossed most of it, I wondered why my family didn't have me committed in 1997.

Yes, it's still in production and that row house is the project currently airing. I've always found brass fixtures ugly, too. (Unlike some of the HHs, however, I don't declare a bathroom a gut job upon seeing them or act as if a house should be crossed off my list because I'd want to replace some light fixtures.)

It wouldn't be a forum, just a new thread within this forum -- that is, if someone wants to create a separate one for the international renovation episodes rather than discussing them in this thread. We already have so many threads, and the renovation episodes are weekly rather than daily, so I'm content to continue discussing them here.

Heh; my reintroduction following the Turner/Dish blackout yesterday was Duel -- a TV movie by then-unknown director Steven Spielberg. Why it became a cult classic I cannot say, yet I'll watch it any time it's on. Speaking of TV ... I know it would be longer than the usual interstitial, even if they could make business sense of buying the rights, but in a perfect world I'd love to see TCM air episodes of TV shows in which classic film actors appeared.

Spender, Cassandra Praise, Gibson Miles, Billy Spender, Jeffrey Sim, Emily

Disc popped in and timer set -- thanks for the heads up!

It's a cute little film, and he's decent in it. It's the one in which he's paired with Gillian Anderson; Jolie plays her sister.

It was a nice touch seeing Mei have Katsuji taste (and evaluate) an element of her dish, in light of how they worked together the first time around.