Mondrianyone

How do we know that Rebecca's parents aren't crazy rich and have put her in the enviable position of being able to go to any school and pursue any career she thinks she'll love? Or that her favorite great-uncle didn't leave her the $10 million he hoarded under his mattress for the many decades he spent clipping grocery coupons? Or that she didn't win every scholarship in sight? Of all the things to find fault with, being smart, getting into an excellent school, and studying what you're interested in are pretty low on my personal list of quibbles.

She reminded me of some classic Old Testament heroine, like Judith doing that unfortunate thing to Holofernes (not that he didn't have it coming). I did listen to Johnny pronouncing "sophomore," and I didn't hear a long o in the middle. I thought he said "soph-uh-more" with a schwa. Actually, according to Webster, the preferred pronunciation is just "soph-more," two syllables. That's how I say it, so it must be right. ;o) I was instantly prejudiced against Carsen (oh, please), for her southern sorority-girl persona, so I was very happy she got her ass handed to her.

I think AP was just meant to be a play on Advanced Placement/Associated Press. You know, to keep the academic theme going in the category titles. Chicagooooo!!! That's what we use in the Big Six publishing industry. I mostly like Chicago style, but I despise the Chicago Manual, which was clearly designed to be as unhelpful as possible and manages to weasel out of addressing any difficult questions. Or maybe they just hate fiction, which of course is what I work on. At least he wasn't wearing a Ball State shirt. ETA: Re the Pre-Rec answers. They definitely did not explain it well, since it could be anything from A to Reb (unless I missed something in the explanation). But the answers weren't all Re- words. I remember "raptor" was one--there might have been another. So kind of a fail in specificity.

I don't know how it works on Poshmark, but on eBay if a seller is donating the proceeds from an item to charity, there's a designation on the item page and I think on the "about the seller" page, too. I didn't see anything like that on Carole's items or on her account page. I've sometimes bought vintage jewelry from a seller who was part of a group that donated to a particular charity, and I always knew what/who was benefiting. You'd think that would be a selling point and would be mentioned prominently, if true. I'd go out of my way to buy from that seller.

Not to mention that "Brrrr!" was in the clue. I hate those tops, but I do know what they're called. There's been a lot of that multiple-guessing business going on lately. And Alex doesn't shut it down. So whatever you blurt out before he gets around to calling time is apparently okay these days. Why, in my day . . .

I've gone from one giant-size bottle of cheap supermarket vodka to another, any brand, over the years. I keep it on a shelf in the door of my fridge, so it's chilled in case I want to make the vodka piecrust recipe on a whim (although I now mostly make the cornstarch version) or top off the bottle of vanilla extract that's brewing in the pantry. All you need is the alcohol, so it doesn't really matter what brand you buy. Except I do add a dash of rum to my extract, for a hint of sweetness. It does make a great gift for baking friends, especially if you make up a customized label of your own.

Well, that takes all the fun out of it! ;o)

You're welcome. And now you may ascend to the lofty heights of the meme creators. I don't know if there are swords or crowns involved--can someone else help with that? Maybe I should change my screen name to Mulderanyone. (I'd rather be Scully, but that doesn't work as well.)

Because this sort of mystery feels like it needs solving, I delved a bit. I think it began here. All credit (or blame) to @GreekGeek for creating a monster.

Gah, that was painful to watch. Andrews, who started out so confident, looked like he lost every drop of saliva in his mouth at some point--maybe even during the chat segment. I was seriously expecting him to pass out or stumble off the set. Which in the long run might've been less embarrassing for him. And just to nitpick, "nebula," singular, is not a correct answer for a category asking for words containing "ae." Should've been "nebulae." I was surprised there was no score adjustment. Maybe they felt it wasn't worth bothering.

Thanks, @ProudMary. That was a fun clip. They forgot "dweeb," though.

Could not agree more with this. I used to be one of those mockers, and then I got corrected by a friend and was embarrassed (turned out I looked up the word years later and we were both right, but whatever). So I remembered how it felt to be on the receiving end and tried not to do it. About a year ago, I read a line from someone named Morgan Housel, and I posted it in another forum here: "Never make fun of people for mispronouncing a word. It means they learned it by reading." That still leaves us a lot of room for other kinds of mockery, though.

You're most welcome. And be careful, Alex got to say Chopin repeatedly today. Pace yourself.

Fixed it for you. ;o)

Do you mean in the answer/question? It was in the others: Threepenny Opera, three-card monte, I forget what else. I can't figure out why they couldn't come up with something so easy, especially since the clue did the math for them. I'll be dictionary girl for the night (like every other night of my life). Webster gives two pronunciations: Cull-ODD-en and Cul-OH-den. I said the latter, but I've never heard it pronounced either. Annnd . . . Webster also gives two spellings, one with four z's and one with just three (pizazz). Surprising they don't have someone check spellings before they use clues like that one.

So you were there for the Lincoln assassination, too? You might be older than I am. Here, take the hat. I think "amazing" was in the clue. But yeah, he was. I also have a collection of jewelry in the shape of some specific thing. (It's one of my planned anecdotes for when I never go on the show, so I don't want to give it away here and steal my own thunder.) But I have it because I love it and it amuses me, and I have some enthusiasm for it. Getting Emily to talk about her collection was like pulling tusks. I'm not sad to see her go. They really couldn't deduce three-point landing in a category of threes? I mean . . .

Thanks, Saber--that was very interesting. I had one dog that lived long enough to develop cataracts and another that had entropion, where the lids curl into the eyeball, but neither one needed to see a specialist. You just taught me a lot. I suspect that Alex might be affiliated with the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, which is the veterinary powerhouse in NYC, but I haven't checked yet. I thought he seemed like a very nice guy.

Wasn't that Heidi Klum in the sheer black cover-up? If not, a dead ringer for her. That was surprising!

Me three. I also thought she shouldn't have been credited with "sportsmanlike"--the clue specifically asked for a "quality"--that's a noun, not an adjective. Goes back to my old POS (part of speech) rule--you shouldn't get credit unless you answer with the right part of speech. Don't get me started on SAP (singulars and plurals). I'm gonna be a barrel of fun in the old-age home someday. I started dreaming up an eye chart for dogs, but this being the Internet, I figured there probably already is one. Actually, there are lots. Here's one I liked:

I have a whole new respect for our current former champ. Go Dimitri!

Bingo! (He did.) My husband asked me why I kept yelling at her to "Stop making that face!" He didn't even see what I was referring to. Maybe it's a face that's invisible to men, at least on a conscious level. Like those whistles only dogs can hear. (We have one of those, and I only half believe it makes any sound at all.) I said it was that "Eek! I'm just a girl!" face. I told him it telegraphs a lack of conviction in your answers and confidence in yourself. And then I got to say "Aha! See?" when FJ happened. She's my polar opposite, too. I'd bring a switchblade onto the show if I thought I could get away with it. ;o)

I think the point may be that what inspired the song is so inside baseball that nobody except the Beatles and their inner circle or music journalists might know it. I agree that it was a lousy clue, because it's not close to general knowledge.

I have an inkling. My favorite Yogi Berra story has one of his schoolteachers getting exasperated with him and saying, "Mr. Berra, don't you know anything?!?" And Yogi supposedly said, "Ma'am, I don't even suspect anything!" Probably not true, but I hope it is. What was our topic here again???

Did you make Chicken Divan? Nice story about Warren Zevon.

Eggs pickled with beets taste pickley but not particularly beety. The pickling spices, etc., have a stronger flavor than the beets. I first saw them when I went to visit my boyfriend's (now husband's) parents in PA. I thought they were so beautiful (the eggs, not the parents). My MIL let them pickle till they were purple all the way to the outside of the yolk, so there was this bright yellow circle in the middle of a purple oval. I made them a couple of times back then, then not again till a few months ago, when I found a recipe that sounded the closest to hers. And it turns out my husband now confesses he was never crazy about them. Go figure. I, on the other hand, love them. But I don't think I'd love beets in the yolk. I would try making deviled eggs with them--no beets in the filling--just to see how they'd taste. I know they'd look fabulous.