Mondrianyone

We're about a month or so away from garlic scapes in this neck of the woods. My absolute favorite kind of pesto. I hide it in the bottom of the freezer so I can hoard it all for myself. Not honorable, but then again I did make it. This (scroll down below the pizza recipe) is the recipe I usually use, although most of the time I go with walnuts instead of pine nuts.

They couldn't come up with a single female name for that "Call Me by Your Name Category"? Like black-eyed Susan or Queen Anne's lace or Bloody Mary? I thought of three in the time it took me to type them. It's like they're trying hard not to. Get off my Santa Ana grass! (I had to look that one up. Took another thirty seconds.)

Back when it first became a thing, skyjacking was referred to as "airplane hijacking." I don't think it became differentiated from other kinds of jacking till carjacking became a thing. I said hijacking, and I would've argued myself blue in the face if they didn't accept it. I'd've gone full Pranjal on those judges. Probably every kind of item that can be stolen should have its own "-jacking" term, like "Unionjacking" if you steal a British flag, "Crackerjacking" if you steal a popcorn snack, "humpbackjacking" if you steal a whale. I can also think of a bunch of X-rated ones, but I'll spare you. You're welcome. I used to see Greta Garbo on a regular basis when I worked in the UN neighborhood--she lived nearby, and she'd visit the local produce stand to smell melons and squeeze tomatoes. She was pretty elderly at the time, but in color she looked much the same as when she was young. I'd never recognize her in black and white, though. Kind of like Superman wearing glasses.

Even though you've been spoiled for a bunch of answers, @Mindthinkr, you can still watch the show. I can't fix the rest of the problem (I hope you can), but I also do have a punching bag. I'll be home all day tomorrow if you want to pick it up. Just don't you be the punching bag. You're wonderful as you are--you shouldn't have to pass silly tests to prove that. <3

I said it exactly the way Alex went on to say it, because it makes my husband laugh. And four years of French shouldn't go completely to waste. Nobody heard me yell "Dengue!" either. I did say that I wanted a bullhorn for my birthday (based on watching a crazy old lady who had one on Judge Judy a week or so ago), and now I can see a good use for it. If I really want to end up in a mental institution--or getting my own viral YouTube channel--I guess all I need to do is sit in front of Jeopardy! screaming answers through a bullhorn.

Wow. At first I thought this was some kind of bad joke. So sad. And I think she has a daughter who's still quite young. She must've been in some sort of terrible state to do such a thing. It's true that you really never know what battles people are fighting just from outward appearances. ETA: Posted before I read @Toothbrush's mention of the daughter. Didn't mean to be an echo chamber. That makes it so much worse, though.

Absolutely. Especially since JW's father and brother, also obviously named Booth, were actors as well, which is how JW was ID'd in the clue. And Booth was even the last name of the outgoing champ--who I'm pretty sure didn't assassinate Lincoln. (Or did he . . . ?) I've been at the Buzzy table since the get-go. One difference between him and Austin is that Buzzy gets that a little goes a long way. (I'm trying to ignore the fact that Buzzy's real name is Austin, too. And that Austin was an answer tonight. That's weirdly unsettling.) I thought the belt was hilarious. And as Carpe said, who knows how much of Austin would've been inflicted on us, and for how long, if Buzzy hadn't won the ToC.

I think she talks constantly to make sure she gets constant camera time. And probably even more because she seems very insecure, so she has to continuously reassure both herself, the audience, and her fellow hosts that she really does belong there, by always saying things like, "Well, when I make this, I do such-and-such" or "You know you can take this ingredient and also use it in whatever" or some other tip that's usually very obvious and that nobody needs to hear while we're trying to follow the person who's actually preparing the dish. She's perpetually trying to prove how smart she is and usually ends up proving just the opposite. I ff through as much of her stuff as I can, but oh, what I would give for a selective mute button! This is the only cooking show I watch where I find myself regularly yelling "Shut up, would you!" at the TV. And don't forget to buy his cookbook. Seriously, chef? I can't believe that's the kind of stuff you fed the Obamas.

I'll take Happy Places for $2000, Alex. What is an endless fountain of birthday wishes? This board! Thank you again for all the happy birthdays! And for that completely adorable card, @saber5055! You people really are the opposite of trivial.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everybody! I wish you'd been there so we could've hashed out (guacamoled out?) once and for all, live and in person, who Jeffrey really looks like. He had one more chance last night to squirt Alex with his boutonniere, but alas . . . Get in line, hon. ;o)

Today's my birthday, so I was out eating Mexican food and getting drunk with friends while J! was on. (So it's ironic that I couldn't pull "chipotle" out of my brain.) Then I came home to find we'd had a power outage at the beginning of the show. The DVR recording started just as Jeffrey was explaining how he looks like Brad Pitt. I figured I must still be drunk. But I see from above that that really happened. My husband's b'day is a week from today, and he asked for one of those 8645 T-shirts. I hadn't seen the logo till just now. Thanks, Tunia! I got Nixon, but I couldn't remember whether he died in NY or NJ. It turns out that he was living in NJ but was taken to the hospital in NYC. Forgot about the Steve McQueen pic. Every time I happen so see that The Great Escape is on TV, I tune in just to watch him go airborne on that old motorcycle. I'll never get tired of that.

That's what I thought, too. But then I remembered that they show pictures of poppies when the answer is "poppy." So I went with Europa. Never underestimate the writers' penchant for stating the obvious. Michael McKean also hosts Food: Fact or Fiction on the Cooking Channel. He's adorable in that context as well. And I learn all sorts of fascinating things that I then immediately forget.

I see that. I loved him in The Wire. I was also seeing this guy, John Getz. Apparently he's in Scandal, but I know him from Bosch.

I am more jealous of this than of anybody else's wedding ever. Imagine what could happen to the divorce rate if we all nipped things in the bud by having an exorcist officiate. Lucky duck. This is one thing I've never had a problem with (only one thing? oh, come on, M, surely you jest!). But seriously, if they were just playing in somebody's living room, it would be pretty bad manners on the host's part. But there are millions of people watching, and I think AT might feel an obligation to leave them with the correct pronunciation of a word or name. To me that's among the least offensive things he does. And speaking of Trebek, was anyone else here hoping that that pink flower lapel pin Jeffrey wore on his first night was really one of those slapstick squirt boutonnieres and that he'd get Trebek right in the old kisser? (I Googled. You can still buy them.)

Yeah, I realized this just as I was about to hit submit, but I decided I liked the alliteration. (You can blame the Jeopardy! writers for that. And Austin, too. What the hell.)

The cigar got me to Twain as well. Three terrible guesses, but at least one of them was corrected in time. That sounds like something Lewis Carroll might've written.

Agree with everything in your post. I especially liked what she said about believing her patients' complaints, since by that age there's a lot to complain about, and it's real. I wouldn't mind seeing her stick around for a while either, even given my conviction that fish, houseguests, and Jeopardy! champs all start to stink after three days. ;o)

As much as I'd like to blame Austin Rogers for every bad thing anyone ever did--including kidnapping the Lindbergh baby and inventing Classic Coke--he wasn't the one who left the puppy on the pyramid. That was Ryan of the pleather jacket, starting on this page.

I didn't mean to suggest he should've been ruled incorrect. My point was that the possible answers should've been reviewed and the clues changed if need be ahead of time, so that the category could've unfolded as intended and not been derailed by an alternate answer that had to be accepted. That falls on the writers and the judges, as I said. Also, Alex explained at the outset what the contestants were expected to do with Take the Category in Order (he said, "Because each correct response as we work down the category will help you with the next clue"--not "the categories" plural), so I don't think there was any reason for confusion in that regard. Josh has been picking the top clue in each category every day he's been on, so doing that is totally consistent with his established pattern.

He wasn't. But assuming the judges review the clues ahead of time, they were. That entire category, about taking things in order, and the whole board for that matter--"Trust Us"--was all about the logic of starting at the top and working down, and how you'd be rewarded if you did. So don't the judges have an obligation to check all the clues for alternate answers that might derail the single category that was supposed to show contestants (and viewers, who they're obviously aware are mostly annoyed by board hopping) why it's a good thing to trust them by following that instruction, just this once? And to adjust the wording of the clues or the desired answers so the category didn't get derailed? This was their big push, and there was supposed to be some payoff (maybe the answers would've gone full circle, from "Life" to "lifeless" to its antonym, "peppy"--something funny that proved the point), but that never happened because the writing and the judging were, again, lazy and sloppy. Just look at Alex's expression of dismay and resignation when they had to rule in favor of what, from the goal of the category, was a "wrong" answer.

Party of two. Scooch over. Me either. But from what I could see, they fucked up whatever progression they had going when they accepted the "pepper grinder" answer from the furry, rather than "pepper mill." It looked as if we were moving from "pep" to "pepper" to "mill" to "Miller"--and maybe from "Life" to "lifer," but we'll never know because the judging is so lousy that they undercut their own work. I may be over this show, after 800 years.

I'm bailing on this one! That was the upside. I like my current job better, though. Still get to read some wonderful books. That book's probably worth rereading. I think I might've missed a few things. And now that I'm older and have more IN-surance . . .

Yeah, all of this is what I meant when I said "if you're going to play along with the whole engagement/ring/fancy wedding business." It's all pretty archaic (and I write this from the perspective of a straight woman), and the older a person is when first embarking on it, the sillier it seems to me. But if giving a ring is tantamount to the man marking the woman as his property (and let me say I'd rather be marked with diamonds than peed on), then what is the point at all of the woman marking herself by paying for and presenting herself with her own ring? It's a tradition that doesn't seem to benefit by updating. None of it really holds up to scrutiny in light of current mores. Or I could be missing the point entirely. ;o)

Freeze it first? Over my green visor? Or the green tomatoes? Congratulations, Teebax! So happy for you!

Well, you have only yourself to blame for that. ;o)