Mondrianyone

I have to be obnoxious about this kind of thing for work all the time, so I'll risk it here. "Sog" (and its past tense "sogged") actually is a word. There probably would never have been a "soggy" if it hadn't been built on the root "sog." Here's the appropriate definition (there's also another meaning) from Webster's Unabridged: 1sog verb \ˈsäg also ˈsȯg\ sogged; sogged; sogging; sogs chiefly dialectal : soak Origin of SOG origin unknown Sometimes I'm amazed by words I think were just made up a week ago that turn out to be legitimate old English words, almost lost to time. I probably shouldn't be surprised anymore. ;o)

I think if you're Scotch-taping plastic champagne glasses together to make a fountain, you're not the queen of theme parties. Kate's BD parties may be the saddest thing on all of TV. Pretty sure they were sleeping in the same bed before he broke up with his girlfriend. (I could be wrong, too) If so, then unless they had one of those Puritan bundling boards between them at that point, I think something full-on happened while he was still in a "committed" relationship.

I forgot about that runny-yolks clue. I said "snot," knowing it had to be wrong. And then I laughed like an idiot imagining Alfred Hitchcock saying the word "snot." Good eeee-vening. I'm curious as to why you're bitter at Damon Lindelof, @ABay. I have a guess, but obviously I'm wrong a lot. Which rhymes with "snot." Which does not stand for "pool."

So sorry you've been feeling bad, @CarpeDiem54. I hope you're past the worst of it by now. Today I learned that my birthday is the day on which we honor the abdominal thrust. If I'd known that a lot earlier, I would've lived a very different life. Someone needs to tell Kyle that it's okay to move other parts of his body besides his eyelids during the opening camera shot. He reminds me of Jeremiah Denton, who blinked out the word T-O-R-T-U-R-E in Morse code when he was a POW in North Vietnam. Except Kyle is smiling. (RIP to Mr. Denton, by the way. I just found out he died three years ago. That was an incredible act of intelligence and bravery.)

I think that Desert Shield was the run up to the war and Desert Storm was the actual combat portion, so there's that. Also, when the first Gulf War was in progress, no one knew that there was going to be another Gulf War (kind of like calling World War One "World War One" before there was another world war--up until World War Two it was just called the Great War), so in 1991 it wouldn't have been the First Gulf War--just either the Gulf War or Desert Storm. That's my case, and I'm waving my arms like Pranjal if I get ruled against. And now my brain hurts, too.

Thanks, @AuntiePam, but it was two cases mashed together. I don't even know how they did that. The case I didn't see the ending to involved two African-American women who were either partners in a tax-preparation business or employer/employee, depending on who you believed. The plaintiff was accusing defendant of stealing money from the company to pay rent owed (to herself) by another employee who was a tenant in an apartment she (def) owned. Also of vandalizing the office space. Def counterclaimed that plaintiff was stealing her client files and deceiving her clients. But I never saw how it shook out, because instead of showing the end of that case, they picked up after commercial with the bulldog case, which I'd already seen in its entirety. So if anybody got to see the end of the crazy tax ladies, I'm still up for hearing about it.

Maybe they misdate old episodes as being 2017 ones to kick up the ratings. If the JJ people aren't responsible for supplying the info, what reason would cable/satellite providers have for doing it? We have Dish, and this is a constant issue. Also shows that don't match the description on the on-screen guide--at least one a day. Can anyone tell me what the disposition of the tax-ladies case was? It broke for commercials, and when it came back, they were showing the bulldog-rescue case. Our local affiliate is like a pack of Keystone Cops with a broadcast license, I swear. Sorry, I couldn't quote specific poster in edit. I think he had some kind of unusual form of Tourette's or some other neurological disorder. I've never heard anything quite like that, though, so who knows?

So Nico hit his funny bone and had to go to the hospital and then take to his bed for, what? Three days? While Bruno practically flayed the skin off his leg and kept working. When Jen was dressing up in the mime outfit, she said, "So I'll go out there looking like an idiot," and I said, "Well, you know, there are truth-in-packaging laws." In his parting speech, Tim Sykes said he was surprised that the charter was as good as it was, since based on his previous experience he thought he'd be disappointed. Who goes on a second charter with the expectation of having a lousy time except someone so in love with his own doughy face on TV that he can't resist doing it again? The story is that he fell off a third-floor balcony after a night spent drinking.

Congress of Vienna was taught in high-school world history, so I thought that was going to be a gimme. Apparently not. I said Desert Storm for the war that ended in 1991--no idea if it would've been accepted. I remember hearing Erykah Badu on some radio show--maybe Wait Wait Don't Tell Me--say that she named herself Badu because those were the syllables she most liked to sing when she was scatting. So weird the things that lodge in your brain (and don't!). Apropos of absolutely nothing.

I hear you. It's been a long time since anybody wrote poems dedicated to my upper arms either. ("Shall I compare thee to a cannèd ham? / Thou art more gummy and more gelatinous"--apologies to Shakespeare.) But I know how to dress myself for the body I have, not the body I'd like to pretend I have or what looked cute on me when I was 22. It's not that hard. I wish more litigants on JJ would try it. And Rocky better keep his damn hands off you, GM.

And never wear short sleeves on TV. 'Cause what you think looks okay in your mirror might not look so good in my living room. People may be eating. This means you, Lorie Foster-Whatever of the ruined-muffler case.

If the unbuttressed version survived the ice storm of '98 and that crazy windstorm we had a few weeks ago, I'm gonna guess that the new and improved version is good for at least another decade. Didn't Ashley (and maybe her brother as well) occasionally show up to work in flip-flops? So gloves are the least of it! I Googled the wife in that couple, who said she was an artist. Her work is quite beautiful--some of it very different from the pieces they hung in the house. A friend of mine who's into fiber arts lives nearby and probably knows her. I'll have to ask. Maybe take a spin by the house next time I'm in her neck of the woods. I loved the fish, too.

Well, a lot I know.

Zzzzzz. And when was a hairdo ever referred to as a lunatic fringe? Tonight's FJ continues the growing tradition of really badly written clues. Nobody knows wampum? Come on.

That seems so weird to me. He actually says, "Write who is" or "what were"? And yet contestants so often go for the wrong element of the clue. You'd think that would never happen with such a helpful hint nudging them in the right direction. Thanks, @proserpina! I don't know why I'm having such trouble processing this little glimpse into the inner workings!

You're very welcome!

That would explain some of the more wonkily worded questions. I never would've guessed this. Thank you both!

Really? This is surprising. How would they know which interrogative to use (what, who, where, etc.--though admittedly it's usually either what or who) before they hear the question? Do you mean they can start writing after the question is revealed but while Alex is still reading? (I'm not being argumentative--just honestly curious as to how this would work. Or possibly my brain is still functioning at turkey level.)

SMEG is an actual appliance brand. I think they haven't been sold in the US till fairly recently, but I've been aware of the brand for a long time, 'cause I've always wanted a colored fridge, and the other things they sell are always beautifully designed. I wouldn't be surprised if the "smegma" connection played a part in the choice of that brand for the show, though.

If somebody told me that my kid (I don't have one, but if I did) had been in some kind of terrible accident, I'd be on a tender to shore so fast that people's heads would spin. If I couldn't get a boat to take me to shore, I'd swim. Not stick around for brunch the next day. Total BS. But she loves Jesus, so she's forgiven for being a sloppy, nasty, self-righteous slob.

I'd give you "Drink more vodka." All things considered. I said ley lines, too, without a lot of confidence. But then I Googled, and there's one school of thought that says vortexes are places where ley lines intersect. So if they're going to accept something as New Agey as vortexes, they'd kind of have to rule in our favor, wouldn't they? "Stop" was really the right answer there, on several different levels.

This should be his business card.

That makes the whole thing sound a lot smarter than it was, but thank you. It's not like I got a conk on the head and woke up knowing Russian--it was a letter-for-letter substitution from English. I just figured it had to say something. I knew the counterparts of maybe two of the Cyrillic letters, and then I looked for letter and word patterns. It helped that the two final words were capitalized with letters that looked like D's, and then I kind of worked it out from that. This sounds like it took all night, but it really took only a minute or so. It helps to be the kind of person who sees an odd word or name and immediately checks to see if it spells something backwards. I was born too late for Bletchley Park, I guess. ;o)

The Wall was a pretty strange guess. I guess he really likes Pink Floyd. We do, too, but not delusionally so. My proud moment was figuring out what the Cyrillic said. And then I called my husband in (he knows Russian) to confirm. Just in case anyone else wants to play my little cryptic game, I'll spoiler-tag it.

You're welcome. I thought it was sweet that it didn't even occur to you. You obviously grew up on the more genteel side of the tracks than I did.