Bastet

The least-interesting villain of season two is the Unholy Trinity, with six votes. Augustus Cole and the invisible attacker both got four votes, but with the weighted voting ol' sleepless is out second. For season three, the jaguar spirit and the succubus both got five votes, but with weighted voting the killer kitty is our clear least-favorite. Third out is Simon Gates. Season Two: Flukeworm (The Host) Duane Barry (Duane Barry and Ascension) Dr. Trepkos/Volcanic Lifeform (Firewalker) Harry Cokely through BJ Morrow (Aubrey) Donnie Pfaster (Irresistible) Mrs. Paddock (DHDV) Col. Wharton (Fresh Bones) Contaminated Water (Dod Kalm) Leonard, the detachable conjoined twin (Humbug) The spirit of Michael, the dead twin (The Calusari) Dr. Banton (Soft Light) Walter Chaco and the other townspeople of Dudley (Our Town) Season three: Darren Peter Oswald (D.P.O.) The bellhop, Puppet (Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) Neech Manley (The List) Virgil Incanto (2Shy) Sgt. “Rappo” Trimble (The Walk) Carl Wade (Oubliette) Robotic Cockroaches (War of the Coprophages) Terri and Margi (Syzygy) Special Agent Bill Patterson (Grotesque) Robert Modell (Pusher) Organ harvesters (Hell Money) Big Blue (Quagmire) Again, vote for the three you'd like to see eliminated next, in the order you dislike/least like them.

I'm sort of immune to the "shents" now and don't really notice them when watching the show. But any time we see her legs in those flood water pants (e.g. when she's out picking something from the garden, a long shot when she's walking somewhere), I am so distracted! If she insists on wearing those things, I wish they'd only shoot her from the waist up.

Here is what we've had so far on that front (unless any of these games were rescheduled; I'm going by what I put in my datebook when the schedule was announced): The Colts played Sunday night week one and Monday night week two. The Steelers played Thursday night week two and Sunday night week three. The Bears played Sunday night week two and Monday night week three. No one who played in prime time week three did so again week four. The Patriots played Monday night week four and Sunday night week five. Washington played Thursday night week four and Monday night week five. No one who played in prime time week five did so again in week six. The Texans played Thursday night week six and play again tonight. The 49ers played the Rams Monday night week six and played the Broncos last night.

Tony Shalhoub! Dr. Chester Banton is the guy with the deadly shadow (it's like a black hole) who winds up being held by the government (or shadow government, I forget which) to be a test subject. I've always found him a sympathetic character in an episode that isn't as interesting as it should be (it's rather slow-moving).

I just looked up that recipe, and it sounds delicious! Next time I pick up some artichokes (they grow pretty much year-round here), I'll be giving that a try. I'm drooling in anticipation.

Having remembered Taryn's desire that we rank the villains of the mytharc at some point, I'm now having second thoughts on including Duane Barry in this game. Let me know whether you'd prefer to include him with the villains of the week or with the villains of the mytharc.

Peyton looks like Eli in that picture.

For season two, I'll start with those I don't/barely remember, since by definition they can't be interesting to me: The Unholy Trinity Augustus Cole Invisible Attacker With season three, I remember them, but some definitely bored me: Succubus Carl Wade (actually, him I don't remember, because Lucy annoys me so much I always skip this episode in rewatches) Simon Gates

You can make a casserole out of almost anything, and feed a large group easily (assemble it whenever in the day is easiest for you, and then it's ready to pop in the oven half an hour before dinner time). I second the suggestion above of a taco bar; that works great for a large group. You can also make a few pizzas one night -- if you buy the dough pre-made and have your guets help you assemble the toppings, it will really take no time at all. A big batch of a hearty soup - again, something you can cook when you have time, and then just make garlic bread or similar to go with it at dinner. As for me, tonight I'll be making pork chops (bone-in, thin cut, brined and pan seared) and some sort of greens (either collard or kale; I have both to use this week) and pairing them with the little bit of mac & cheese that is left over.

Looks like we're ready to find the most-interesting villains of the week for seasons two and three. Season Two: Flukeworm (The Host) Augustus Cole (Sleepless) Duane Barry (Duane Barry and Ascension) The Unholy Trinity (3) Dr. Trepkos/Volcanic Lifeform (Firewalker) Invisible attacker (Excelsis Dei) Harry Cokely through BJ Morrow (Aubrey) Donnie Pfaster (Irresistible) Mrs. Paddock (DHDV) Col. Wharton (Fresh Bones) Contaminated Water (Dod Kalm) Leonard, the detachable conjoined twin (Humbug) The spirit of Michael, the dead twin (The Calusari) Dr. Banton (Soft Light) Walter Chaco and the other townspeople of Dudley (Our Town) Season three: Darren Peter Oswald (D.P.O.) The bellhop, Puppet (Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) Neech Manley (The List) Virgil Incanto (2Shy) Sgt. “Rappo” Trimble (The Walk) Carl Wade (Oubliette) Simon Gates (Revelations) Robotic Cockroaches (War of the Coprophages) Terri and Margi (Syzygy) Special Agent Bill Patterson (Grotesque) Robert Modell (Pusher) Jaguar spirit (Teso dos Bichos) Organ harvesters (Hell Money) Succubus (Avatar) Big Blue (Quagmire) Vote for the three villians you want to see eliminated first, in order.

What did AAA call it in her recap, The Case of the Blurry Witch Hat? Because, yeah, for a skeptic - or, you know, an adult with functioning eyes - Scully was ridiculously certain of an indeterminate blob's identity. I hardly ever watch this episode. Lisa Waltz will always be "that Hallie Lowenthal person" to me, and I can't stand chirpy Hallie Lowenthal. And I think this is where the ridiculous shenanigans the scripts got up to in order to avoid Scully seeing what Mulder saw were at their worst. If it consisted of "Howard Graves is very dead" (RIP, Lorena Gale) on a 44-minute loop, though, I'd be in.

I can't stand John Elway, but I can't stand Jim Harbaugh either. I like Colin Kaepernick, but I like Peyton Manning more. I kind of like John Fox. So I was half-heartedly rooting for Denver tonight (and definitely wanted Manning to break that twit Favre's record). But all in all, a very blah day in the NFL for me.

I could get motion sickness from that commercial.

Exactly. Because it's going to be a long season as a Giants fan. If I have to endure the Cowboys deep into the post season on top of that, I'll be one unhappy camper. I like Jeff Fisher a lot, but hated the Rams during their time in LA, so I've never been able to make the shift to rooting for them. And certainly not against Seattle, since my love for Pete Carroll has turned me into a Seahawks fan. So I'm not having a good day.

I love Brussels sprouts; I could eat them almost nightly. Especially just simply roasted with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, but occasionally roasted with pancetta. There's also an Emeril recipe I love that combines them with walnuts and parmesan. They're the only thing in the cabbage family I like cooked, though; I love green, red and Napa cabbage raw, but not cooked. I know it's a longstanding notion that most people hate them, but everyone with whom I routinely share meals loves them as I do.

What I most love about that is Keshia's real-life embarassment when Rudy explains she wants to be alone in the bathroom not to say goodbye to Lamont, but to use the toilet. Some of my favorite little moments of the series were ad-libs, like Lisa Bonet riffing on Bill Cosby's "dogs get mad, people get angry" diatribe by asking, in perfect tone, "Are you angry?" after spinning her Tommy Watkins tale. Or Bill Cosby saying to Peter's dad (as he, Peter and Rudy are on the way to the dentist), after Keshia accidentally runs into the door, "And take her to the eye doctor while you're out."

Well, it's not as if it aired during cartoons. If kids are watching a Law & Order: SVU marathon, they're hearing about a lot worse things than erectile dysfunction. For me, the biggest risk of that commercial is I'll sprain my eyeballs rolling them.

Okay, season two. The ultimate villain in Blood seems to be the ubiquitous shadow government, so I skipped that one rather than listing the stuff that got sprayed on the crops and made the machines tell people to kill. Same with Red Museum; the doctor was the one injecting the kids, but someone else was the one marking them (trying to expose what was happening to them?), but it again seems to be this shadow “let’s test alien DNA on people” government calling the shots. The shadow government was also the culprit in F Emasculata. And the Fearful Symmetry zoo animals were being manipulated by aliens. Or something. Now, Duane Barry is an interesting case, but he does plenty of his own accord - albeit for sympathetic reasons - to count, IMO. So I came up with this; any clarifications or corrections, as I had hazy memories of a lot of it? Flukeworm (The Host) Augustus Cole (Sleepless) Duane Barry (Duane Barry and Ascension) The Unholy Trinity (3) Dr. Trepkos/Volcanic Lifeform (Firewalker) Dr. Larson (Red Museum) Invisible attacker (Excelsis Dei) Harry Cokely through BJ Morrow (Aubrey) Donnie Pfaster (Irresistible) Mrs. Paddock (DHDV) Col. Wharton (Fresh Bones) Contaminated Water (Dod Kalm) Leonard, the detachable conjoined twin (Humbug) The spirit of Michael, the dead twin (The Calusari) Dr. Banton (Soft Light) Walter Chaco and the other townspeople of Dudley (Our Town) Season three. Am I the only one who didn’t know the homicidal maniac bellhop in CBFR was called Puppet? Anyway, as always, shadow governments and aliens were left out (which means no Lord Kinbote, damn). So that produced the following; let me know if you have any thoughts on adjustments to it: Darren Peter Oswald (D.P.O.) The bellhop, Puppet (Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) Neech Manley (The List) Virgil Incanto (2Shy) Sgt. “Rappo” Trimble (The Walk) Carl Wade (Oubliette) Simon Gates (Revelations) Robotic Cockroaches (War of the Coprophages) Terri and Margi (Syzygy) Special Agent Bill Patterson (Grotesque) Robert Modell (Pusher) Jaguar spirit (Teso dos Bichos) Organ harvesters (Hell Money) Succubus (Avatar) Big Blue (Quagmire)

I've got chicken stock simmering away on the stove, but it's not soup weather here, so I'm going to freeze it rather than use it tonight (the stock takes up less freezer space than the ingredients to make it, and I need the room). But with the smell tantalizing me, I'm sticking with chicken for tonight's dinner: chicken thighs stuffed with broccoli, onion and carrots, lightly seasoned with a parmesan/bread crumb mixture, and baked.

With three votes, Luther Lee Boggs is our winner. With two votes apiece, the Eves and Tooms tie for second place. The Most-Interesting Villains of the Week, Season One: 1. Luther Lee Boggs (Beyond the Sea) 2. The Eves (Eve) Eugene Victor Tooms (Squeeze and Tooms) 4. Cecil L’Ively (Fire) 5. Phosphorescent bugs (Darkness Falls) 6. That beast woman (The Jersey Devil) 7. Parasitic glacial worms (Ice) 8. The Eurisko computer (Ghost in the Machine) 9. Brother Andrew (Genderbender) 10. Howard Graves through Lauren Kyte (Shadows) 11. John Barnett, AKA the salamander hand guy (Young at Heart) 12. Dr. Arthur Grable through Roland Fuller (Roland) 13. Warren Dupre through Jack Willis (Lazarus) Charlie Morris through Michelle Bishop (Born Again) 15. Mars Face ghost/alien/whatever-the-hell-it-is through Lt. Col. Belt (Space) Leonard Vance (Miracle Man) 17. Deputy Lyle "Werewolf" Parker (Shapes) I think it's interesting that, although the season's (and series') very first VOTW tied for second, we generally felt the villains got less interesting as the season progressed, except for a big surge in the middle: Other than the phosphorescent bugs, the villains of the late-season episodes ranked toward the bottom. From the mid-season episodes came our other second-place villain, along with our winner and our fourth-place villain. Thanks for playing, all. Having used this first round to work out my behind-the-scenes logistics (how to keep the tally, exactly how to handle the weighted voting, etc.), I'm going to move things along faster in future: We'll do two seasons at a time and vote for more villains each round. Shortly, I'll put up a draft list of the season two and three villains so that you can weigh in with any tweaks, and we'll be ready to go tomorrow.

I still can't decide. I think I've settled on Tooms as my number three, but I can't make up my mind on number one. I want it to be the Eves, but Brad Dourif is making it pretty hard to put Boggs in second. Forcing myself to make a decision already, I'm going to go with Boggs as the most interesting, for the same reasons Taryn noted.

I can relate. When I started up the car after having a cat put to sleep, Macy Gray was singing, "I try to say good-bye and I choke, try to walk away and I stumble." The song was forever ruined for me. It doesn't make me cry, but Against the Wind always hits me hard. All of it, but especially, "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." What does make me cry, without fail, is Conway Twitty's That's My Job. George Jones gets me every time, too, with He Stopped Loving Her Today. Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt, because I see the video in my mind whenever I hear the song. Other songs that can really get to me: REM, Everybody Hurts U2, One Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror Pink, Perfect Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit Miranda Lambert, The House That Built Me Sarah McLachlan, Hold On Tori Amos, Carry Bruce Springsteen, Streets of Philadelphia The Verve, The Drugs Don't Work Brad Paisley and Allison Krauss, Whiskey Lullaby Hank Williams, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry Harry Chapin, Cat's in the Cradle

Both Cecil L'Ively and the phosphorescent bugs wound up with 11 points, but the bugs got there by way of 8 votes to Cecil's 7 votes (although Cecil got more first-choice votes). So the difference between fourth and fifth place is narrow, but it will be the bugs in fifth and Cecil in fourth. So, here we go. Vote for your most-interesting villain of season one: Eugene Victor Tooms (Squeeze and Tooms) The Eves (Eve) Luther Lee Boggs (Beyond the Sea)

I keep re-ordering my top three. Boggs probably should be the third most-interesting, since the Eves and Tooms are more unusual, but Brad Dourif just does such captivating things with him. And it's surprising the Eves are in contention for the top slot, because two of them are kids and I can't stand kids, but those girls are perfect. And then, of course, there's the wonderful Harriet Sansom Harris.

Cecil L'Ively Phosphorescent bugs (Sorry, critters; you're pretty fascinating bugs, but you've got nothin' on the Eves, Boggs or Tooms)