If you enjoy Polly Walker here, do yourself a favor and take in HBO's Rome. She plays Caesar's niece Atia, the mother of his adopted heir Augustus. History remembers her as the Emperor's pious and respected mother, a model Roman matrona. The show characterizes her much differently, but the role is similar to Portia in that she recognizes her role in society and knows her children's advancement is paramount. She's a bit more cutthroat there.

Also, at one point she defends a gauche conciliatory gift to a political rival (a well-endowed slave) by saying "large penis is always welcome," and it's funny.

When my ex's dad died, suddenly and without warning, in his recliner, I was the one to drag it out to the curb. A friend had already come in and cleaned it, so it was no longer soiled like this, but the knowledge that the love of her life died in that chair was too much for his mom. She needed it gone and I needed to be helpful, so I took it upon myself.

And that's what I thought upon seeing this: somebody had a silent widowmaker and died in this chair.

Indigo Girls' whole Rites of Passage album kinda qualifies, but particularly "Ghost" and "Three Hits." Admittedly, when I was 8 my favorite was "Chickenman," but none of it has left my regular playlist.

I knew a lot of TMBG songs from Tiny Toons as a kid, and obtained a few songs from the Flood album from Kazaa in the following decade, when the album was already 15 years old.

A bunch of pieces about Flood's 30th anniversary came out in late 2019, and I gave the whole thing a listen all the way through, and damn does it hold up. I play it all the way through all the time. I think I want "Road Movie to Berlin" played at my funeral.

"A tendency to overweight" is archaic usage now but was fairly standard for the period in which the show is set. (I collect early 20th century cookbooks and sex ed texts, and it comes up occasionally in both.)

Yeah, no CAS re-entry in TS2. You can adjust makeup/jewelry/hair with any mirror, but the interface is different. (I've never played TS4, so I don't know how that works.)

Face structure can be edited with the plastic surgery career reward.

What do you want to edit? Have you already created a family of Sims? Are they moved into a house/apartment, or still in the sim bin?

My grandma was 17 and working at the candy counter at a department store when word reached her future mother-in-law that she was pregnant. My great-grandma (Grandma Dekker) was from a strict Dutch Reform Calvinist tradition and went downtown to sit on a bench across from the counter and stare her down for hours when she found out.

I really wish my grandma had been alive when I discovered the timing of Grandma Dekker's own birth compared to her parents' marriage registration.

Flying reptiles!

Yes, and as a child that would have pissed me off to no end.

Dinosaurs did not have trains! Good day.

When I was in elementary school, there was a pretty distinct line of Barney hatred. Those graduating in 2004 or later sang openly of the desecration of Barney's corpse. If they ever watched Barney, it would have been social suicide to admit it. Kids graduating in 2006 or before were watching and enjoying Barney, even if they denied it later.

Those sickos in the Class of 2005 were blended, so more than half were watching Barney and more than half were mercilessly mocking Barney-watchers (and yes, that's more than 100%).

I have long said the whole show is the Sara Snap supervillain origin story.

Of all the shows my kid watches, Hero Elementary is the absofuckinglute worst.

I originally typed "like, carnitas and fish tacos" but didn't want it to seem like he transitioned from goat's milk right to exclusively Mexican cuisine.

Yeah, it was acknowledged by Grandma and everyone in the family that they "had" to get married, with the timing such that they could hold off until my grandma graduated high school and not much longer.

(Their marriage was happy but short. He died of cancer just two days after the aforementioned preemie uncle turned 13.)

My grandma had a somewhat abrupt wedding and an actual preemie in 1956, and some neighbor wondered why her little Eddie was so sickly when all these other girls' early babies were plump and rosy-cheeked. She had to explain that maybe these other babies weren't as early as they thought.

My uncle is still kicking and was born around 30-32 weeks, I think, based on my grandparents' wedding timing. They married in early June and Grandma thought she was due after Christmas, but his birthday's in early October. He had pulmonary issues from the start and lifelong asthma, but he also smoked for like 30 years. He was also too weak to feed adequately and couldn't tolerate regular 1956 cow's milk formula, so the hospital fed him goat's milk for the month or so he was there. He, uh, eats normal adult people food now.

In all honesty Megan is cool and has zero recollection of this. She moved back home a few years ago and we just talked about getting together for our shared 38th birthday next month.

It was a lynchpin of mid-1980s Nickelodeon in the US. I'm told I loved it, but I don't remember it much.

I had a Clash doll, and she had a bright green fur coat and purple hair and a cassingle that I could play in my red and white Fisher Price tape player. My friend stole her from me in 1989 but nobody believed me because we were three years old.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, MEGAN.

I had a good two generations of Crusader Kings III with whatever DLC I could get cheap on Steam. I was having a good time with the kingdom management mechanics and betrothing my strong genius son to my granddaughter, the heir to the throne of France. The courtly intrigue was great!

And then there was some reason to go to war, and I couldn't figure out the mechanics of how to place and assign armies for battle, so I just gave up. It was just one system too many for me.

Adding to that, I don't know how much faith your critic puts in Merriam-Webster, but their definition 2b, "autobiography," notes "usually used in plural."

EtymOnline gave this passage from the Century Dictionary, a widely respected encyclopedic dictionary of the late 19th century:

Biography, Memoir. When there is a difference between these words, it may be that memoir indicates a less complete or minute account of a person's life, or it may be that the person himself records his own recollections of the past, especially as connected with his own life; in the latter case memoir should be in the plural.

Emphasis mine.

We taped the Red Riding Hood music off the television so we could listen to it in the car when I was very small.

I bought a copy on Amazon recently and it's better than it ought to be. Isabella Rossellini! Two Craig T. Nelsons! And... some... other people!

There are a lot of great scenes in this thread, but the Walken strip-tap in Pennies from Heaven is the one I wish I could see for the first time again. He's just such a beautiful dancer, and a fantastic actor to convey that much sleaze through his beautiful dancing.

I had pickled turnips in Dearborn on New Year's Day 2014 and they still haunt my dream.

My cousin just started a janitorial job at a middle school. On Day 3, he called and asked to speak to my second grader (not super weird; he takes him fishing/does outdoorsy stuff with him sometimes).

He asked for and received a 7-minute primer on the epic that is Skibidi Toilet before my son confessed that he has never actually seen Skibidi Toilet.

I can't even share my worst name on my main because it's so unique that Googling it yields only the girl in question. Her Pinterest, her Instagram, various documents stored on our local school district's server that maybe don't need to be, condolences offered by her mom from the whole family 15 years ago on my high school bully's obituary page... It wouldn't be tough to doxx her, and if I mentioned her she could easily identify me. But in two decades of sharing tragedeighs with like-minded people, I have never gasped so audibly as I did when I reviewed her application. (She seems great! We hired her! I only slightly mispronounced her name on the phone! It's like Xylus in that it's a creayedive spelling of a slightly uncommon but "normal" name, which I never would have guessed by reading it.)

May I be lucky enough to share in six more years, though, because this one's gonna stick with me.