So the production process behind the scenes will have to be a train wreck of unimaginable proportions next season, right?

It's slightly odd for Catholics (I still kind of consider myself one, despite being incredibly lapsed pretty much since confirmation) because we were brought up to regard the church hierarchy as a monolith. That's part of the difference between Catholicism and other denominations, the standardization, in theory.

I've been reading Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and it's really fascinating. He's great at giving historical context in a really entertaining and involving way.

The same thing happened with my brother - tubes in his ears made a huge difference. He ended up needing speech therapy for a number of years because he didn't get a chance to develop it while he was a toddler, but you couldn't tell now.

Poor promotion seems likely to me. I live in a majority-black area, and typically get overloaded on advertising whenever there's a Tyler Perry movie coming out - in addition to commercials, ads on the side of every bus and in every Metro station, on the radio, just everywhere. This time I was only distantly aware this…

It's not often I identify with Gene, but this episode managed that. My run on the 8-year-old girl Boys and Girls Club basketball team was very similar to this episode. On one occasion I had the ball and was being guarded by the other team, and just handed the ball to one of them. When later asked why, I said "she just…

The little two-second ominous music sting when she said that was absolutely perfect.

Felt a little like an Earl Weaver homage to me, but then I may be biased as a Marylander.

Baseball thread?

I used to work for a nonprofit that worked pretty closely with local health departments, and my impression is that this varies by state to a massive, massive degree. Some have very little going on beyond the state level outside of a few large cities (Massachusetts basically has Boston and a few others, and then some…

Working in DC near K Street, it's kind of astonishing how often lobbyist types live up to their stereotypes perfectly. The other day there was an NRA lobbyist protest, and I saw a group of expensively-dressed guys with shirt sleeves rolled up like an '80s stockbroker. One of them sneered, "Ugh, *anti-lobbyists.*"

He is great, it's true. Unfortunately the other teams have figured out that since everyone else is slumping they don't have to give him anything to hit - the Cardinals starter gave him an intentional walk last night to load the bases, after a streak of not walking anyone for four starts, because the next guy was…

The Nationals are also super-depressing right now (the poor defensive play is what gets me - like, don't hit, fine, but at least *field your positions* properly), if that makes you feel any better?

When my debit card number got stolen, all the person spent was $20 for something from Home Depot and then a $250 donation to the Quebec chapter of Amnesty International. It was fairly baffling.

I need to never go there, because I know I would take it more seriously than WebMD, which I spend an unhealthy amount of time on. At least with WebMD I can try to talk myself out of it - "pfft, random website. What do they know?"

Ha, yeah, I'm pretty much there.

Ha, I know - all these things are not abnormal for this time of year, and in December or so I'd shrug it off. But late February/March? Panic!

I think part of my problem is that my nail polish remover was really really old, as I probably haven't gotten my nails done in…two years? So it got all extra-concentrated or something.

OH GOD OF COURSE HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT, OH NO.

RANDOM THOUGHTS thread, so far down in the comments no one will likely see it!