Bastet

I've already expressed my objection to Titanic, so I'll just chime in to say those are my favorite scenes of the film as well. Those two brief moments move me far more than the eleventy hours we spend with Rose and Jack.

The frittata is an idea I didn't have on my list, and eggs are a good source of iron, so thank you for that. Mixing up the non-wet salad ingredients so my dad can just chop up some cucumber, avocado, tomato, etc. and be ready to go is what I had planned, and my mom bottled some dressings that keep for a while, so the salad part should be easy (like me, my parents eat a side green salad with every dinner). I completely spaced on dessert (I rarely eat it), so thank you for reminding me to make sure to stock the freezer with sweet treats!

Come back! I can sing every song in the film. Including that one guy's fantastically awful audition song about his fiance getting killed by a tractor. "That really happened to my Loretta!"

This is the recipe I make, with the citrus vinaigrette. I include mint in the salad, because I love it and always have a ton of it growing, but I imagine it would be good with basil, too. I do think an herb is an important component to offset the arugula. The only other one I can think of from Ina is this one, that uses parmesan instead of feta and a simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing.

Okay, fellow cooks, I need some suggestions. My mom goes in for her knee replacement surgery tomorrow; she's scheduled to be in hospital for two days and then pretty much completely dependent on others for the first two weeks she's home, gradually working her way back to full independence over 6-8 weeks. My dad can handle breakfast and lunch, and barbecue a main protein for dinner, but I'm going to need to take over some side dishes that he can just heat up. Plus some one-dish mains I can also make at home and take over for him to pop in the oven. I've got several things plotted out - including Ina's spinach gratin, yum - but since I'll be doing this for weeks I need all the good ideas I can get. It's important for my mom to eat iron-rich foods (and foods high in Vitamin C to increase iron absorption), so bonus points for things meeting those criteria. She does not like organ meat, though. Any good crockpot recipes for beans would be appreciated as well; I hate beans of any kind, so I've never cooked them (and, come to think of it, don't even know where they are in the market, heh). I know my mom doesn't like lentils, but I think they both like pretty much all types of beans. I'm just getting over the flu, so I'm at about 80% of my usual energy level; any quick-prep dish suggestions would come in handy the first week.

1. Scully to Mulder in Syzygy (She says it twice, but I think it's to him both times.) 3. Mulder to Scully in Paper Hearts 4 Scully to Mulder in Deep Throat

One little change by DD could have saved the Elegy scene where Mulder berates Scully for not telling him about seeing an image of the victim -- if his eyes hadn't been as cold as his words, I would find it brilliant characterization for him to be frustrated and trying to anger her into telling him something. As it played, however, I think it was just a jerk move. Scully doesn't owe it to anyone to handle HER health crisis the way THEY want. She processes things alone and then decides what to share, and that needs to be respected. This "you're working against me" bullshit needs to go; it's not all about you, Mulder. (On my Mulder, It's Me mix tape, that exchange leads into Fiona Apple's wonderfully angry Sleep to Dream.) I love the episode, painful though it is, but I think that scene missed the mark when it so easily could have worked for me. My favorite part of the episode is the way Mulder says, "Oh, Scully" when she gets a nosebleed. His heart is in the right place, even when his head is up his ass. Zero Sum just doesn't stand a chance for me -- almost anything would be a letdown after Small Potatoes, but no Scully = no interest. Plus, tighty-whities. <shudder>

Sleepaway Camp! I didn't even realize there was a third one, but I do love showing the first one to people. And I'll cop to having the second one, too. Shifting gears, I watch Miss Congeniality every time it's on TV and cannot explain why. I like Sandra Bullock, Candice Bergen and Michael Caine, but I loathe everything beauty pageants stand for and the film tries to sell them as some great feat of sisterhood. And the tacked-on romance between Bullock and Bratt's characters is too awful for words. Very much a stupid movie in my book. And yet, I watch. The sequel I tend to skip, even though I like Regina King, unless I happen upon the scene with Dolly Parton. Which brings me to another one: Rhinestone. Stupid personified, if, you know, a film was a person. And yet, it has been part of my collection on VHS, laserdisc and DVD. The powers of Dolly.

They were in the 1941 version.

Ooh, I like When Ladies Meet for all the reasons you do and didn't realize it was on -- damn, I would have recorded it.

That dancing scene is so adorable. I loathe the episode, but that scene in isolation is made of win. There's a slightly extended version (really just an extra twirl or something, but it's cute), but I can't remember if it's on the DVD, dailies, gag reel or something randomly pulled off the internet long ago. Taryn, so sorry to put you through the hardship of watching Small Potatoes again, heh. I remember noticing the pantless shot, calling my friend who was equally obsessed to report it to her, and then by the time we got off the phone it was all over the XF newsgroup from other eagle-eyed viewers. Ah, such good times watching this show in the early days of the worldwide web.

I'm just not a cruise person in general. First, I have horrid motion sickness that is at its absolute worst on the water and would have to drug myself even on something that large. Beyond that, I like to wander when I travel; I usually have a return flight, a rail pass and hotel reservations for my first destination, and beyond that I make it up as I go. So having a set, limited time at the various ports of call is not compatible with that. Also, the at-sea days stuck on the ship surrounded by people, buffets and games sounds like punishment rather than vacation.

Pools also eat up a lot of yard space, and can carry liability - and thus increased insurance - concerns. I live in Los Angeles, where it's pool weather almost year-round, so they're a common point of discussion in house hunting, but whether one wants one or not, most people I know are pretty firm in their preference. So I have to laugh when a HH has a casual "oh, well a pool might be nice" reaction upon touring one home out of the three that has one.

Most of my food waste goes in my compost bin, but I do like having a garbage disposal for the rest simply for convenience. But I never miss having one when I travel. While they're somewhat ubiquitous in much of America (and a fair bit of Canada, it seems), they're not common in the rest of the world. I think "We have to build a house around a garbage disposal because kitchens don't come with them over here" was one of HHI's stupidest storylines yet.

I can't do B&Bs due to that forced togetherness (and, yes, the fact breakfast is only served until maybe 9:00). I'm not even overly fond of staying in the home of people I know, so sharing a house with strangers is definitely not my cup of tea. Give me the freedom and privacy of a hotel any day. Similarly, one of the many reasons I'll never go on a cruise is there is no way I'm being assigned to a group dining experience.

The first one must be Grotesque, unless I'm forgetting gargoyles in another episode. I'll guess Mulder to Scully.

Small Potatoes is one of those episodes I will never, ever tire of watching. Like Bad Blood, it's pretty much perfect from the first frame to the last. I'm a fan of the humorous episodes in general, but this one is art. I love that Scully is one big ball of "WTF?" as FauxMulder leans in, and then the look on her face when she's got two Mulders in front of her is priceless. I also love that Gillian isn't wearing any pants in a shot from behind the couch where we're only supposed to see her upper body (a situation in which actors frequently have on only boxer shorts or the like to avoid wrinkling a costume that won't be seen), yet the camera catches a shot of her bare legs as she moves. It's the little things that tickle me. "Where do I sleep?!"

Were they disqualified for having switched partners, or for taking too long to return to the dance floor? Since Blanche was explicitly given a certain amount of time (one minute?) to find another partner, I've always assumed it wasn't the switch that got Dorothy and Rose DQd, but the time spent not dancing.

"It's an awesome spectacle. An audacious display of seething opponents, once again parallel in an obstinate attempt to prove superiority of the roads unequaled in our lifetime. The crowds swell in anticipation as the light turns green."

Thank you, queequeg, and I'm sorry about the loss of your dad. My mom was cancer free for 14 years after that, then it metastasized several years back. But she quickly went into remission with treatment, and has been doing well ever since. We kind of live from scan to scan, but things are otherwise normal. Re. Sheila Larken, in case as a new fan you don't know ... She is married to Bob Goodwin, co-exec producer (and periodic director) for the show's Vancouver years. When she popped up as Mrs. Scully, I immediately recognized her from a terrific early episode of Cagney & Lacey. I've actually never formed a good grip on how I think Mrs. Scully feels about Mulder. She recognizes their foundation of trust and respect early on, and as time goes on she must know how much they love each other, but I'm not sure she really understands the attachment - or completely forgives either of them for all the trauma they seem willing to walk into over and over. She's not myopic and dickish like Bill Jr., but I do think she feels separated from Scully in a way she didn't prior to the X-Files coming along.

1 is Mulder in one of the crappy season one episodes -- Miracle Man, I think. To Scully, because she reminds him he wasn't at Woodstock. "I saw the movie."

My mom was just about one year out from her first cancer diagnosis when that aired, and it really hit her. And, of course, Kim Manners called Rob Bowman to say the episode was the best depiction of cancer and hospitals he'd ever seen. Horrid opening VO aside, it's just an amazing hour of television. "I will be right there." Oh, Mulder, this is why I could never quit you. I love that as we hear "you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention, something you might have done," we see Mulder breaking into the lab. But don't get me started on that stupid snowglobe password. I also love Mrs. Scully all nervously babbling until she finally lets her anger fly. And Scully's response is so perfect. That's a terrific scene between the two of them, where they really feel like mother and daughter. Sheila Larken always physically reminded me of GA's mom, so it was funny years later to hear GA say SL reminded her of her mom in some ways.

I quote Major League a lot. I live for wild pitches so I can say, "Just a bit outside." I really wish I had occasion to use, "Hats for bats. Keep bats warm." That horrid owner had some great lines. The aforementioned, "Cross him off then" is my favorite, but I also love "That ought to shut these people up." "You put snot on the ball?" "Yo, bartender, Jobu needs a refill."

We are of the exact same mind on that one. I love that movie ... right up until the shot of the ball coming out of Dotty's hand. Kit was a fucking baby. She had a meltdown every time she made a mistake - or had to face the reality that her sister happened to be a better player than her - which is something to be corrected, not coddled. I'm supposed to have my heart warmed by her supposed triumph? The only thing heated up is my blood.

I love Never Again, and don't think Scully is out of character at all. She's doing things we haven't seen her do previously, sure, but it fits with what we have seen of her. One of the myriad reasons I hate the implications brought about by airing the episodes out of order so that NA comes after Leonard Betts' ominous words is I absolutely love that Scully's "rebellion" is a flare-up of a four-year slow burn of frustration, not a highly-emotional response to any one incident. I find it so much more realistic that way, to just one day reach the "enough is enough" point with something that has been bugging you for years. And it's nicely juxtaposed with Mulder seeing her attitude - and later, actions - as coming out of nowhere. Because it's just as realistic for him to be oblivious to how she has been feeling, and his role in that. So when he suddenly is confronted with it, he's at a loss, and displays his usual lack of social graces -- Mulder is a petulant jackass when caught off guard, and here he's completely out of his depth. He can profile strangers who fit a pattern, but he can't figure out his own partner when she throws him a curveball. So he sticks his foot in his mouth time and again, but he does try to understand what's happening. Now that, I would have found out of character.