Bastet

"Oh, I'm stressed," complete with Krameresque hand gesture. That's gold, Jerry. Gold.

Baxter used to practically do a jig of glee when he realized I was staying home sick and thus he'd have me to lie on all day long. But he was also quite an empathetic cat; when I had a migraine, he'd curl up on the pillow, forgo his usual loud purring in favor of the silence I needed and tuck a paw under the cool cloth on my forehead.

I did my own research on feline kidney disease when Maddie was diagnosed five years ago (my vet was quite frank that she felt the standard protocol was rubbish, but wasn't well-versed in what it should be) and wound up putting together a memo and spreadsheet on the dietary needs of a renal kitty that my vet now hands out to clients with newly-diagnosed cats. People should be able to rely upon the advice of the medical experts who have knowledge and training a layperson lacks, but they also must be proactive in their own health and that of their pets. It's inexcusable that a vet didn't spot a neurological problem in Foley, but I also fault them for just accepting the non-diagnosis. Knowing something was terribly wrong with their cat, they ought to have sought out a second opinion and done some independent research instead of waiting until they could get advice - and air time - from Jackson. But it was nice to see people dealing with an unusual problem, and one that wasn't created by their own ignorance. I grow so tired of episodes featuring people who are complaining about behavior they could have easily avoided had they bothered to learn the very basics of cat ownership.

If a vet was given a proper explanation of Foley's symptoms and didn't realize there was a neurological problem that required further investigation, that vet would have to be incompetent. And, like every profession, veterinary medicine does have incompetents among its members. But I wonder if Foley's owners did a poor job of explaining all Foley's problems and instead just talked about him going crazy in his sleep, without getting the point across this is not just a cat who startles himself awake from a dream and in so doing falls on the floor (which my Baxter used to do from time to time) but one who routinely moves so violently in his sleep that he falls off things -- and does not wake up even upon landing on his head.

Most cats that are located are found within something like a seven-house radius of home, but some travel astounding distances, so the recommendation is actually to contact all shelters within 100 miles! And to visit local ones daily, rather than relying on the website or information given over the phone.

That would work well in an episode about a formerly-outdoor cat who is pitching a fit at being kept inside, or any cat prone to "door dashing" -- it would be a good segue into tips for finding a cat that gets out and doesn't come back on her/his own. I'd love to see him include the trick on searching with a flashlight in the dark because the light will reflect off the cat's eyes. I found my own cat that way when he and his partner in crime pushed out a window screen and went exploring while I was out; she came back as soon as I came home, but he was hiding behind a bush in the neighbor's backyard (ignoring the crazy lady running around the block in the middle of the night calling his name and shaking a bowl of dry food). And among regulars on a pet forum I participate in, a surprising number of people have found their cats the same way.

My main exercise is walking various routes around the neighborhood, about four miles, with the first mile being all uphill. On days where the last block of that hill seems to be growing longer like something out of a horror movie, Eminem's Lose Yourself or Bruce Springsteen's The Rising will get me through. Other walking songs include: Christina Aguilera, Fighter En Vogue, Free Your Mind Animotion, Obsession Kanye West, Stronger Shania Twain, Man! I Feel Like a Woman Haddaway, What is Love The Chemical Brothers, Block Rockin' Beats Marky Mark, Good Vibrations Waylon Jennings, Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way (seemingly an odd choice, but walking to the beat makes for a good pace)

That's one of my favorite moments from the entire season. Mostly for the pure joy with which she does it; she really enjoys freaking him out, and I very much enjoy her enjoyment. It's one of the reasons I wax rhapsodic about season one Scully's humor.

I used my Scrabble experience to come up with FJ, too. Z came to me right away without any strategy, and then thinking of Z and Q (from the clue) brought to mind high-value Scrabble tiles and I took it from there -- I first thought of X, then realized that appeared in two states, and moved onto J. So it was fairly quick and easy for me.

I'll be she can pronounce them just fine, and was directed to speak that way out of some insipid notion such a thing is cute.

There are two ways through the TCM website: the "Suggest a Movie" page (in which people suggest stars of the month, specials, and many other things in addition to films) and the message boards.

I wish the Dreamland episodes had been condensed into one spectacular hour; I think they're good as two episodes, but could have been utterly fantastic as one.

I was hoping this would be a frothy fun sitcom, and as someone who has been best friends with her best friend since childhood I'm a sucker for this sort of tale (although since I hate kids, there is no way I'd be offering to raise a child with her should she wind up parenting alone), but I just can't deal with another story of professional women being unfulfilled and small-town life being where it's at.

Excellent -- while I don't get Encore, my parents do, and since I'll be at their house for Mother's Day ... guess what we're doing, Mom? (Good thing she's a fan, too.)

I think season four still would have been the last season; as I recall, ratings were down well before Amanda's reduced screen time, and I know I was pretty bored with it post-Nightcrawler. But Suitable For Framing could have been a pretty good episode as originally written (meaning not having to plug Francine into Amanda's role), so I have this fantasy world where that gets filmed as written and airs as the series finale.

It's interesting ... season three was always one of my favorites, but when I recently tried to marathon it after finally buying the DVDs, I found myself bored with it. I think I was just in a mood, but the things that always bugged me about the show seemed so very present this time around. I'll have to try again. I did enjoy Utopia Now as always, though.

So did I, which became quite predictable when I selected "in the lab" for the location of the truth.

On days I don't go for a walk, I do free weights at home, and when I'm doing the exercises I do lying on the floor, I wind up with a cat on my chest. The best was when my kitty Baxter was alive; he would lie down next to me on his back, with his front paws curled like he was holding invisible dumbbells himself.

I agree; I watch a lot of TCM, and it feels like about 80 percent of the time the opening credits included "Based on the novel/short story by ..." I like the Thin Man movies more than the book, thanks to Woody Van Dyke's instruction to Hackett and Goodrich to lose some of the mystery and add more of the marriage. (And when the marriage gets brought to life by Bill Powell and Myrna Loy, well, even the greatest book is going to pale by comparison in my eyes.) In general, classic films based on dark tales tend to annoy me if I'm familiar with the source material, because the films were almost always softened up and often outright given completely different endings in order to have a happy one.

I like America's Test Kitchen, Martha's Cooking School, Ciao Italia, Sara's Weeknight Meals, Everyday Food, and various shows from Rick Bayless, Lidia Bastianich, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan and Julia Child.

Amelia Peabody fan, are you? I used to travel to Boston annually, but it has been many years since my last visit. It will be fun if they have challenges at restaurants I've been to, but regardless of where the show is set I hate when they get bogged down in location-themed challenges. Local chefs as guest judges, challenges set at local restaurants/events, etc. are all fine, but not when they start stretching to relate everything back to the city.

I'm a neat freak, so I can't properly enjoy my meal if I'm sitting there looking at the detritus of its preparation; I love that my kitchen and dining room are separate. And while having the kitchen open to the living room wouldn't be a big deal for me since I live alone, I think I'd find it disruptive if I had others in the house. Even though I don't want it for myself, I don't automatically hate the look of open floorplans. I just get very, very tired of seeing them on this show. And get extremely irritated by people who complain about the presence of walls between the kitchen, dining room and living room in older homes, when they damn well ought to know "open concept" wasn't a trend back then.

Here is the Eater article, Lamb.

I don't get why they're sucking the rolls to their mouths, but I have to get behind the comment about parking in front of their house (which I didn't even notice when I saw the commercial). Yes, it's a public street, so anyone is free to park there. But people who routinely park in front of a house other than the one in which they live/are visiting even though that space is available annoy me as a violation of common courtesy; I park in my garage, and I don't want to look out my window and constantly see someone's car, and I don't want my guests to have to park in my driveway or down the street because someone thinks my tree provides better shade than their own.

I've actually only had one cat in my life - a wild stray who became admirably domesticated - who didn't like belly rubs, so I always have to check myself before petting other people's kitties on the belly. Baxter liked visitors, but he didn't appreciate when they stayed past the time he felt I should be in bed with him. He'd come appear in the doorway with a glare on his face that cracked everyone up, so it wasn't terribly effective, but it sure was cute. Some have been less sociable, but none truly hid when people came over. The late, great Bailey ran down the hall and took refuge on the master bedroom dresser every single time the FedEx or UPS truck went by, though. So odd.