Welcome to the warm embrace of registration! *throws confetti, presents Barking Spider with a sweater vest*

I probably chew 750 pieces of gum a year, by the way.

Hm, you're right — I was already mentally moving on because of the foregone conclusion of who was gone. But I don't think Nigel promised her a spot in Vegas next season. He probably meant to and forgot.

I think Kent is great, I really do. But right now I'm calling the competition for Billy or Lauren. If we can't have Alex, they deserve it the most. Robert is an outstanding talent, but he's never going to be America's favorite. Too much of a big goof. And Kent's too much of a little goof.

One of my favorite dances ever on the show was the three-woman contemporary routine set to Steve Reich from the finale a couple seasons back.

… And now I feel unloved again. Le sigh.

NewsRadio by the numbers
Intrepid reader and stat-head Jamie Merchant has gleaned NewsRadio Nielsen ratings, share and rankings from news reports for the show's entire run, and presents them in table and graph form with commentary in this blog post:

I will be in mourning for that Bollywood number until they resurrect it and give it to me in an All-Star format next season, dammit.

And the artist show is kind of interesting, although frustrating as well. The fact that the artists have to deal with sponsored challenges, like this week's from Audi, grates against the authenticity of the thing more so than it does on Top Chef, at least to me.

I'm so glad somebody knew that. "Borrowed" didn't make sense, but this flyover correspondent couldn't figure out what did. I'll fix. (Now can someone explain unincorporated business tax to me?)

"Yes, but this is not closing time at TGI Friday's."

After the fun is over
I wasn't able to participate due to being on vacation in a place with no internet. But this was a fantastic week of posts and comments, and a very high-level chat which I devoured eagerly after the fact. I loved this book far more than I expected to, and I really appreciate everyone helping…

This is my favorite thread in this outstanding WUiB discussion. I have a lot of great work to go check out now. Thanks, everyone!

Yep, I noticed that, and I agree it's done well — almost too subtle, really, since the reflection is fairly dim.

You know, I didn't mention it because I actually didn't think it was very good drunk acting. But then, I don't spend enough time around drunk people to know, really.

Todd, Denzel Washington can get himself a Grammy anytime he wants, thanks to the audiobook category. Throw in a made-for-TV movie or a guest appearance on any TV show you name, and the EGOT is his. It's a cakewalk from here on out!

Many thanks to everyone who was kind enough to compliment these writeups. I'm just relieved I have a year or more to recover from the stress of keeping up the high standards the commentariat here expects and deserves.

I feel in the interests of full disclosure that I should point out that I watch and enjoy THE BIG BANG THEORY.

Anti-Cat comments won't get deleted here, but they also won't get any support from me. I love her beyond all reason. She is utterly fantastic on this show.

That's how I interpreted it — that the person he'd thought of as his father was not his biological father, this other person who just appeared was.