Mondrianyone

No, the divan. Weren't you going to cook something?

Webster's says dressing is "a seasoned mixture usually used as a stuffing (as for poultry)." We always called it stuffing in our house, but I learned pretty early on that the stuffing/dressing nomenclature seems to be a regional thing. I think it's just two names for the same stuff (so to speak). My grandmother used to make a stuffing whose main ingredient was ground beef. I've never been able to find a recipe that duplicates it. It was so delicious, but you didn't need to eat it again till next Thanksgiving, because once consumed it lived there in your gut for the rest of the year. ETA: Clearly should've read earlier posts before making the brilliant bolded observation. Just to say something that hasn't already been said ten times, I thought both Tristan and Alex were wearing really nice ties. I love a floral tie on a man. And Alex's pairing of the green plaid tie with the blue shirt was an audacious touch. Thumbs-up. Also, he may be pretentious, but I think it's fair to say he's pretty well educated, too.

You'd be dating every woman in the entire state of Maine in that case. The first New Year's Eve party we were invited to after moving here, the host, a gay man, laughed at me for wearing high heels. I learned fast. That's unconstitutional, I think. You have the right to be offended for yourself. I forget what amendment it is. I can't wait to see you on Jeopardy!.

And don't forget about Pad the Puss, for those "heavier-show" days. Available in FlashBack and FlashForward sizes.

Lynn made me laugh when she left room for speculation that her mother "was pregnant with Art Fleming." I thought cedars always = Lebanon, so that was a surprising miss. My grouchy comment for the day is noting that I always snarl at contestants to stop giggling and concentrate on the game. The gigglers never seem to do well, and I feel personally embarrassed by them as a WOG (Woman of Grouch).

Yeah. Even if it was an oral contract.

A nanoget? Maybe that's when you know the answer just from the category. Psycho was a nanoget for me today. I hated Chris from the moment she told her horrible story. Who boos live actors from the audience, no matter how bad the play is? That is such disgusting behavior. I would give her something of a pass if she was very young when it happened (like under twelve, but I don't think she was). Regardless, if you did that and you're very well into adulthood now, why on earth would you make that a J! anecdote about your life that you're willing to tell on TV as if it were something cute? That's one of those stories to be ashamed of and never tell anyone. My fiercest wish was that there'd be some snot (like me) in the studio audience who'd boo her on every wrong answer, or every time she couldn't get her words out. That'd bring her to Empathyland pretty fast. So glad she didn't win. This hat is starting to pinch. ;o)

I think you qualify as an orphan in the Hamptons if you have fewer than three nannies.

How much more do you want, Saber? Do we march at midnight with flaming torches? Send him anthrax in the mail? We hated it! I was profoundly embarrassed not to get Octavia Butler. At first I thought Octavia Spencer, but I knew that was the actress. Then I said Attica Scott, who's an African-American woman who writes mysteries, but I knew that was wrong. My only defenses were that I've never seen a photo of either woman and that except for a couple of books I worked on recently, I haven't read sci-fi since I was a kid. But she's a big deal, and I should've known her name.

Yay for you on Cerberus, Carpe! My husband, who knows a lot about mythology, said Cyclops, and I thought it was the Minotaur. We both thought the clue implied that the monster, whoever it was, lived in some kind of enclosed space (the cave or the maze). Cerberus never occurred to either of us. I think there were lots of confusing and badly written clues today. I was rooting for Dan just as a default, because I thought Peter's FJ answer from yesterday should've been nixed and Rahul was making the game incomprehensible with all the board jumping. But Dan was hopeless. I think he was just too nervous. I've obviously still got that hat on.

Bryn is an old Welsh name. My best friend in high school went to Bryn Mawr College. There's nothing new about it, as @SuprSuprElevated says. I never suggested the Hoppys are Jewish--unless they go to church as some kind of strange Sunday pastime. I'm pretty sure that no name Bethenny didn't like, regardless of how much the Hoppys might've wanted it, would've passed muster. And since it starts with a B, it pays tribute not only to her father but to Bethenny herself (and her mother, but I doubt that was a factor). I have no idea how the Duggars figure into this discussion, except as givers of stupid names, which I don't think Bryn is. I think what it is is a rare glimpse into Bethenny's tender side, which makes it even nicer. And I say this as someone who was once a fan of hers, but definitely not anymore. Even a stopped clock and all that. And I do think that the Jewish tradition of keeping loved ones alive in the names of their descendants is a lovely one, even if that was said sarcastically.

Among Jews of European descent, it's a deeply rooted practice to name a child after a deceased relative. The idea is that the soul of the departed loved one, or his or her good works, will live on in the child given that person's name. Bryn doesn't have the exact same name as Jason's brother but a name that's suggestive of it. Often the name that's chosen just has the same first letter as the namesake's name. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bethenny chose the name based on this practice, since her father was Jewish. It's meant to be a joyous reminder, not a painful one. I'm the product of a mixed marriage, and I was named after my Jewish grandfather (but an Irish name, so it brings in both families). If anyone ever asks me why I'm named what I am, I'd be happy to say why. It's good to be connected to your heritage. And I think Bryn is a very pretty name.

You can almost always find the recipes on someone else's site by Googling, especially if you add "ATK" to the name of the recipe. I made the mistake of signing up recently to get access to something I couldn't find any other way, and I've been getting phone calls from a number that says "Cook's Country" every day for the past week. Thanks be to caller ID, but it's annoying nonetheless.

See how well it works? You're already very grouchy.

Gimme back my damn hat!

I'm gonna put on my grouchy old bat hat and say I don't think Peter's answer for FJ should've been accepted. I remember someone here telling me a while back that Alex tells the contestants during the break which interrogative word they should write for FJ before the clue is revealed. So if they're already spotting you the first word, how hard is it to write the verb--"is," for Pete's sake, two letters!--to make a complete question? "What Ukraine?" The one by Romania? I think we were all alive when Saddam Hussein was captured and swabbed for DNA. Again, already spotted the last name, you seriously can't come up with that? If my lawn weren't buried in snow, I'd be chasing people off it.

So . . . do you want someone just to tell you, or do you want to see for yourself? (Clearly I'm pimping out YouTube full-time today.)

You're welcome. When it's not snow around here, it's usually girls' HS and college basketball. But at least they care enough about girls' basketball to televise it, so it's hard to get too mad.

Watch on YouTube, @Browncoat. Our reception keeps getting blizzarded out, so that's what I have to do. Yesterday some lovely person posted that day's game the very same night.

Weather porn. I'm guessing they've done focus groups that tell them enough people like to watch the field reporters get tossed around and drenched that it's worth pimping out storms 24/7. Not to say that legitimate warnings aren't merited. But they turn it into a real orgy, on the slightest pretext sometimes. I'd like to see one reporter try to get up my driveway after this last snow dump. It would be high comedy.

I agree with this. I worded things badly. I can conjure up a lot of reasons he might only be able to work part-time. One of which is that employers get out of paying benefits by having people work under the full-time threshold. What I meant to say was that JJ was laser-focused on the young woman, almost to the complete exclusion of her male partner. When I think about it, it seems to me that JJ is often hostile to women trying to get some level of higher education. Kind of ironic coming from someone who's always talking about how many years she spent in college and law school. She forgets that not everyone can "write a check" when college time rolls around. My own parents had zero backup plan if I hadn't managed to cover tuition, etc., with scholarship money, but luckily for me they didn't need one. I could easily have been that young woman. Maybe Judy's parents would've offered to fund me, too.

I think we're having the same snowstorm, BusyOctober. Buckle down, they're predicting another one next week. Our satellite reception finally gave out just as Jeopardy! was starting (thanks, YouTube, once again), but I did watch the JJ rerun of the mother/daughter grifter team. I'm refraining from saying something mean about the daughter's nose. Bless her for her unwarranted self-confidence. I thought the female half of the security-deposit case--the one with the speed-jittery landlord--was very well-spoken, and shame on Judy for how she treated her. The sum in question wasn't exactly astronomical. You can save up less than $3,000 by living rent-free for a few months. Maybe she should've grilled the guy instead, as to why he was only working part-time. But they weren't on Section 8 or food stamps, as far as we know, so what the hell was her issue with that girl? Did she think they were robbing banks or selling black-market babies? She really does get a mood on her sometimes.

Apropos of nothing, I'd really like to see what would happen if either Hazell or Steven actually showed up to apply for the job that one of those restaurant owners offered. It seems as if that's an annual thing: "You could come work for me!" Except these are people who can do one menu at most, with a coach standing beside them, not trained line cooks. I'd watch that show for sure!

You're right, too, of course, @Spunkygal. Her mere presence elevates the Klown Kollege that FN has become. It's probably wrong of me to want more.

I think I must be a very bad person, because I was so disappointed with today's new show. The guide description said it was going to be about bread, so I naively thought she was going to be baking bread. But except for that Irish oat bread (which was a quick bread, so in a sense not really bread-bread), she used store-bought bread to make pretty basic stuff. And with the whole feature on bread crumbs--it was literally filler! Plus the old faithful cheese board. Just for my own amusement, I went to the Poilane bakery site to see what it would cost to have a loaf of their sourdough delivered: $11.57 for the bread and $49.11 for shipping. So around 60 bucks for just the bread in those appetizers. (I know she said you could use any rustic loaf, but jeez . . .) And lobster sandwiches from Wolfgang Puck. I ended up feeling as if she really is just phoning it in, even though she's doing such a limited number of shows and could put more effort into the few she does. I don't know why she doesn't just retire to do whatever it is she loves doing, because I think it isn't TV.