Man, Ellen Burstyn knows exactly what movie she's in in this, doesn't she? "Screw it, if I'm playing the grandmother in this I'm damn well going for it."

Yeah, it's so hard. Oh wait, it's not. Thank you Wiki:

Wait, I have seen Snowbound: The Jim And Jennifer Stolpa Story. And no, I have no damn idea what the connection is.

Naw, there was a decent chance she could have been more ingratiating and tipped it to Monica.

Hot damn, it was fun watching Tina talk her way into getting voted off at Tribal.

Sarah Keonig's mom is a damn national hero. Every thing on her list is correct and the only story that TAL brought in that even tested it* needed to involve SPACE TRAVEL to make the subject interesting to anyone else. Excellent episode about how people need to freaking up their conversation game and stop boring…

And then going with a really good Merchant of Venice reference!

I think that was large driftwood for the fire.

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts."

Jeff had a look at the Laura M's burning of the idol clue like, "OK, we really need to rethink that as an option for next season."

I missed this from September, but it was interesting to see that Rupert Vansittart got cast as Yohn Royce (he's your favorite upper-class sleazeball from things like Midsomer Murders and the guy who tries to hit on Andie McDowell at the beginning of Four Weddings and a Funeral).

Plus, the coin game!

Poor Oliver Platt; Three Musketeers sucks and then the one time he gets to do sword fighting in a movie where the scene is great and the fencing/word play makes sense, no one goes to see Dangerous Beauty.

Yeah, but he has a best friend who's smarter than him and'll be his chief of staff!

Yeah, I don't recommend listing to that This American Life segment on the Hodgkins test at work unless you want to be welling up at your desk. It's a really, really good segment that earns the emotion.

Even better is who's prominently featured in a shot; Roland Burris, our (thankfully briefly) Senator who got named to the post by Blago after President Obama won election.

“Kirk versus Picard”

I THINK the beach scene works since they're unobserved and not interacting with anyone else, so I'm willing to let that slide. The New Years party is a little more troublesome, but ah well.

How damn, I remember seeing this on a rebroadcast a few years ago. It's really, really unsettling in a Wisconsin Death Trip sort of way.

I'm gonna go wash my ears out real good now. GAHHHH.