Mondrianyone

Suetonius questioned the death account in real time, in the paragraph before the Zirkle mention, on the page you linked. But that was just incidental to the point I was making anyway, so no big deal. And he co-starred with Nick Nolte (don't judge me, but I still love him in spite of everything--I thought he was the handsomest man in the world back in the Rich Man, Poor Man days, even though he looked alarmingly like an adult version of my brother) in the film of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, and they were wonderful together. It seems to me we've seen more people of color on the show in the last six months, say, than practically in the whole past decade. Which is a great thing. Partly for that reason and mostly because he wasn't irritating, I was happy to see Gilbert win. ETA: Shocked that no one got Warren/Warner. I thought that was super easy.

If you read to the end of the Death section on the page you've linked, you'll see this: Science historian Conway Zirkle has written that "there is widespread and persisting misinformation" about Pliny's death. He suggested that despite his rescue attempt, Pliny never came within miles of Vesuvius and there is no evidence he died from breathing in fumes. Zirkle stated that Pliny was overweight, in poor health and had died from a heart attack. I don't think it was unheard of for stories surrounding the deaths of famous men to be dramatized for the sake of glory, but I can't say for sure, since I wasn't there. I had a toga party to go to. ;o)

I wonder if Dorit didn't tell herself (or be told by production) that nature abhors a vacuum and has decided to fill the loudmouthed-asshole slot that's been vacant for a while. I think they really need the paycheck and this is the way she thinks she'll hang on to it. I also wonder if Erika's glam squad isn't getting kickbacks to showcase some of those comical clothes. Or getting deep discounts while Mr. Girardi is being billed full price, with the difference going into someone's pocket. She really is the walking definition of "fashion victim." Glen is overweight--significantly. I don't see any point in denying it. And the fact is that in shallow Beverly Hills that's a disqualification for many if not most jobs. So it seems to speak well both for Kyle for seeing past what a lot of her cohorts would see and for his professional skills. Every party he's planned has been beyond beautiful.

Yeah, but there's no law that says an uncle and nephew will have the same name. His uncle could have been Livy or Suetonius or a bunch of other historians or scholars, especially if you didn't know the date, which they didn't supply. And since the clue didn't include the words "the Elder" in reference to the uncle, I'm going to say that BMS was the only smart way to word the answer. I debated during the think music whether I'd include "the Younger" if I were in the game, because it's usually better to include less info than more, and I decided no way would I lose like that--Alex telling me that it could've been either Pliny, sorry--so I wrote it on my imaginary screen. And then of course was annoyed that it wasn't obligatory. I just looked at the clue on the J! Archive: "Letters written by this Roman recount the events of a natural disaster, like the death of his uncle, a famous scholar." (He didn't die at Vesuvius, apparently, contrary to popular belief, so that's wrong even if that's what they meant.) And let's get all these dead historians off my lawn while we're at it.

Maybe she's planning to sell it to Kris Jenner. Or some random Kardashian.

I never changed my name, and it seemed to confuse some government agencies beyond all reason. We would get letters from the Social Security people every year, asking me to confirm my identity. My husband finally wrote a poem about celebrities like Marilyn DiMaggio and Sophia Ponti to try to make the point for them. He sent them a copy of the same poem every year till they quit demanding to know who I was. But the legal fact, as I've always understood it, is that you can call yourself Count Chocula--or I guess that would be Countess Chocula in this example--or Minnie Mouse or Chef Boyardee or anything else you want to call yourself, as long as you don't do it for fraudulent purposes. Since LuAnn clearly isn't using the name to commit fraud, I think she's totally within her rights, regardless of whether or not her ex is telling her to stop.

My husband said Virginia Woolf while I was still dithering about 1941 being too early for Agatha Christie. That should've been my category. Now I'm going to fill my pockets with stones and walk into the river. (Which, fortunately, is frozen over.) The only reason I got the appendicitis DD--because I had pain on the right side, not the center, so that part of the clue threw me off--was I remember the surgeon who did my appendectomy saying they'd given me a McBurney incision. I think it was experimental at the time--I was around twelve. You never know what's going to stick with you.

Doesn't Velvet Elvis seem like a good name for a band? I wasn't lying--I really did love watching Bob Ross on TV when I was a kid. Everything about painting seemed like unattainable magic to me (lucky you for being good enough to go to art school!), and I'm positive he gave a lot of people confidence to try their hand at it who never would have otherwise. So nothing but props to Bob, and RIP. I just think it's such an affectation to name him as your favorite artist when there are Frida Kahlos and Claude Monets and Romare Beardens and on and on in the world. It didn't seem cute, just dumb. Maybe Alex really didn't know--though I agree he should have. He seems to be getting less sharp and falling back on familiar shtick more and more often.

Me, too. I was all primed to fire off a protest e-mail. Fortunately, it didn't matter in the end result. Also Bela Karolyi (I think that's the right sp), the gymnastics coach. I liked Henry less after that convo about Bob Ross. I loved his show, but the only way to admire him as an artist is hipster-ironically. Seriously, Bob Ross is your favorite artist, Henry? No wonder you lost hugely.

What I do to find a particular day's episode--because they're not always posted by the same person--is type "Jeopardy" into the search line and when the results come up, click "Filter" on the right side of the page. If it's toward the end of a day and you select "Today" under "Upload Date," that day's program is likely to show up near the top of the hits. I think maybe Alex wasn't feeling Ami either, and her frenetic, careening vibe. When she called out another clue after he said to hold on (for the first break), he told her, "I said to hold on," in not the gentlest way. A lot gentler than I've been talking to her, though.

You're welcome, Saber, but I'm not sure if I did you a favor or not. Donna might've been even worse on her second day. (And thanks to those angels on YouTube--we're on our third or fourth day with no signal. Maybe it's time to launch our own satellite.) I'm kind of hoping that Ami decided to take some amphetamines just for her Jeopardy! appearance. If she's like that all the time . . . Yikes.

Check YouTube. That's where I watched the Xmas Day episode due to ongoing issues with snow and no satellite signal.

Neither are we, so I make it a habit not to check the forum anytime between 7 and whenever I get around to watching. If I look in after 7 and get spoiled, it's on me. It's supposed to be safe to check in here before 7, hence the rule not to post spoilers earlier than that.

Can we remember not to post (or hint at) the name of the winner before 7 pm Eastern time? I made the mistake of looking in here and got spoiled. Thanks.

Pocahontas, I think. If I remember correctly, there was a hat trick of Franken, Petty and Pocahontas, all on one show.

Why the hell do people keep doing this?

To continue this (OT, I guess) discussion for one more post, I was reading the list above of short-term Bravo shows last night, and I was trying to think of the title of one about a fashion publicist and her minions. I racked my brain, and I finally remembered it--Kell on Earth. So I Googled the show title to find out the name of the woman who starred in it. And weird coincidence. Apparently that very same day, or the day before, Kelly Cutrone came out as one of the women accusing Russell Simmons of sexual assault. Nothing ever really goes away, especially in the crazy Bravo world. If she and Jenny Lumet are to be believed, Simmons isn't just a groper or a masturbator or a creepy talker, he's a full-on rapist. [\OT]

Right. It doesn't penalize Johnny, since everything he's accused of doing is in the past and not associated with this show (as far as we know so far), which anyone who's able to read can learn for him/herself. So why penalize the viewers and the competitors? Most of us are smart enough to separate out the the one rotten apple from the whole apple pie. If ABC and all the other networks are going to start pulling shows because one actor--or director, or script supervisor, or set designer--has behaved inappropriately, we're going to be looking at that old test pattern for most of the foreseeable future. There has to be a smarter way to handle this kind of thing. There couldn't possibly be a dumber one than the way they've chosen in this case.

I just sent the very same message. Punish everyone except the offender. That makes sense. All ABC needed to do was run a message at the beginning of each show and then a periodic crawl throughout the show explaining that the allegations came too late for them to investigate, but they didn't want to deprive viewers and contestants of the pleasure of watching the competition because of one person's bad behavior. But that would've taken some actual thought.

That does make sense as a reason for having them all come to NYC. But when there's a NY Housewives reunion, they don't get squeezed into the clubhouse, even though they're already in the city (I haven't seen this BD reunion yet--we had a snowstorm that knocked out our satellite signal, so I'm only assuming that's how it was). Just seems strange to me that BD doesn't rate a fancier, themed venue after all this time.

I wonder why they keep having the reunions at the WWHL clubhouse, even after five seasons. By this time, don't most shows graduate to some actual venue? It seems like kind of a dis, but I don't know why. (When I think about it, I'm thinking there was one that wasn't held in the clubhouse, but that could just be my faulty memory.)

It's a little scary to think that a stylist has been responsible for those wardrobe and makeup choices. I've been assuming that was all just Sunny's colossally bad taste and questionable judgment. I agree the stylist should've been paid, 'cause she did the work and Sunny wore the clothes. But I also think that as part of the settlement she should've been forced to serve some serious jail time.

I thought it was a conversation. I'm already at peace, but thanks.

Language always changes. If it didn't, we'd be having these conversations in grunts. Dictionaries take a long time to catch up to actual usage, but if you go to Google Books and look up the phrase, there are tons of examples of its being used in mainstream books as well as blogs. If a show is otherwise entertaining and informative, I wouldn't let some random word choice shut everything down for me. Our local PBS has been preempting the Saturday cooking shows the last couple of weeks, so I'd even forgive sogged-out chicken if I could just get to watch!

I think the tent might be a holdover from the first season of the British original, which moved from one location to another with each episode. I'm guessing the tent was easier than finding a workable venue in each different place. Or that could be totally wrong. I hope they never stop using the tent--I love it, and I especially love seeing the weather outside, and the wildlife, and the changing light, even an occasional human strolling by. It's one of the best things about the show, IMO.