Bastet

Yet only Brenda's resulted in a letter-writing campaign by pearl-clutching parents. I so loved the episode in which Brenda slept with Dylan for the first time. Sure, she gushed about a completely generic hotel room and somehow emerged without a single hair out of place, but she was completely confident in her decision and all giggly with her friends afterward -- extremely refreshing for television. But now I can't watch it without being pre-emptively annoyed by what's to come, in capitulation to the sexist twits who couldn't abide the thought of a teenage girl enjoying a sexual relationship. Among the main female characters, the show had two virgins and the reputed school slut, but tossing into that mix a girl happily engaged in a monogamous sexual relationship was apparently just too much.

That looks pretty similar to the way I make them. So it must be good, ha. Any crab cake recipe with a long list of ingredients, I just skip right past.

I watch for the clues, not the contestants, so I rarely care how long anyone does or doesn't stick around. I did get rather sick of Ken, though.

Ha! I don't remember Two Fathers/One Son at all, but Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas I do remember. That was a childhood tradition.

Haven't they done that before, though - using the same category title in both rounds, with it referring to one thing in the first round and another in the second? I like it.

The one that surprised me most was foyer. Kyoto was ridiculously over valued as a DD clue in DJ. The breech position clue was weird; I took Alex's point that "baby" had to appear in the answer, but at the point in time referenced by the clue, there was a fetus, not a baby.

Oh, I loathe that "like a lady" line with the heat of a nova. I actually find it offensive, and certainly out of line with what we know of Blanche.

Despite trying more than once, I can't get into Juno. I love the cast, and I'm generally good with films where everyone is much wittier and sharper than people actually are in real life, but I just can't get past how completely unbelievable I find it that she'd change her mind about the abortion.

I think they're both in the "there should not be beans in chili" camp; I know at least my dad is. (I eat neither beans nor chili, so I have no dog in this race.) I've decided to add beans to one of my usual sausage and greens soup recipes when it's time for the next soup - right now they're enjoying Ina's cream of wild mushroom. They also have Ina's spinach gratin to feed on (well, about 2/3 of the half batch; I kept some for myself). We all love dark, leafy greens and they're a good source of iron, and the cheese ... well, everyone needs a treat. So tonight my dad can just grill a steak, heat up some of the gratin and the last of some potato dish I spotted in their fridge yesterday, and add a few veggies to the bag of mixed salad greens I made up. Tomorrow I'm going to make a casserole and freeze half of it. I love the broccoli and raisin salad idea.

Pump's owners sent him to live with relatives, but I'm not sure if they admitted that on the show or just had to cop to it later after being chewed out from one end of the internet to the other.

I know Clue verbatim, and rather than being a stupid movie, I think its humor is actually quite sharp. There's wonderful social commentary mixed in with the fun. "Communism is just a red herring."

Speaking of air conditioning blasts ... I don't have air conditioning in my house, but I have one of those Mitsubishi Electric ductless AC units (which I can't recommend highly enough, btw) in my bonus room, which is connected to the garage and makes up the outer boundary of my backyard. I call it the cantina (it has a bar, pool table, fireplace, etc.). On the few days of the year it's just too hot in the house during the day, I put Maddie in the cantina, and used to do the same with both of them when Baxter was alive. Well, Bax had a comfortable temperature range of about 15 degrees; anything above or below that and he either huddled up or sought cool places. So he was always very excited for cantina time. So much so that he knew the exact spot on the floor the air would hit, and would thus run through the yard into the cantina, plop down on that spot and wait for me to turn on the air.

I still enjoy it because of the performances and so much wonderful dialogue (and it resurrected Katharine Hepburn's career, so I'll forever love it just for that), but I agree about the dumping on Tracy. Especially by her father. There is truth in some of what Dex says, but everything out of her father's mouth is bullshit. And, of course, no one notices as they pile on Tracy about her inability to abide the human failings of others that in so doing they're just as guilty of refusing to accept hers.

I don't know, the whole "what, no screens?" reaction was long my default, but I've stayed in quite a few places around the world where the windows had no screens, and have never been invaded by bugs (or seen a child fall out, crazy-ass Michigan-to-Paris woman). And at home (in Los Angeles), I leave the French doors from my home office to my patio open quite a lot, with no screen, and don't have any problems.

Is that the one with Kefla from old-school Road Rules? I know he was in an Atlanta episode, and although I may be conflating it with another one, I think he was the crazy foot-skin guy with a "man cave" obsession. Which is thoroughly annoying, but he has always been a reasonably charming guy who makes it work. Atlanta episodes are usually so dreadfully boring, though, in terms of largely interchangeable homes. There is varied housing stock, but one wouldn't know it from watching HH.

Actually, her bone density is terrific (perhaps due to the fact she has guzzled milk her entire life); she's in remission from a metastasis of breast cancer, so her whole body gets scanned and tested six ways from Sunday every year to keep an eye out for any new metastasis, and her bone scans/density tests always yield a "damn, you have the bones of someone 30 years younger" response. It's just the cartilage in her knees that went on a permanent vacation. And excess calcium is contra-indicated during her recovery for reasons my very tired brain cannot recall right now, so I'm concentrating on iron (although there will definitely be some serious cheese intake as I have fabulous gratin recipes that reheat beautifully). Yikes! to the centers of your bones not even being visible. I'm sorry you're dealing with such a severe case of osteoporosis.

Neither our tomatoes nor corn are ripe yet, which definitely puts a crimp in my plans as I make an excellent Mexican corn chowder that uses both. They love kale, and it's something I'll saute when I'm over there, but the only way I can think of to make it advance so my dad can just reheat it is to use it in soup (I figure I can add beans to my usual kale and sausage soup recipe for extra iron). I guess braised greens would reheat decently, though.

Not to mention the few but delightful scenes of Myrna Loy as Countess Valentine. My favorite parts of a thoroughly enjoyable film. Like Charlie Baker, I wish her musical number (cut in Code release due to the transparency of her nightgown) had been restored for posterity.

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>