AuntiePam

Well, it's a good thing that I've ordered the book, because the ending left me with questions. How did Helen find Leonard? First she's searching far and wide for him, with no luck, and then she's carrying his child. And where did they have their assignations? Did she rent hotel rooms? What happened to Jacky? Did anyone know where she was, so she could be told what happened? How did Leonard know that Helen would be at Howard's End? Was it because he'd seen Margaret on the street and figured that Helen would be with Margaret? I'm really looking forward to the book. I think I understand why Margaret decided to stay with Mr. Wilcox, but I don't fully understand why he was so adamant about Helen spending one night at Howard's End. Surely having a sister-in-law bearing a child out of wedlock would be shame enough, so having her in a hotel where anyone could see her would be worse. I wanted to see another kiss or two, some physical affection from these two. The chemistry was there.

I liked Ellen and Portia's Alexis ad too -- and the Doritos western showdown and the Reese's, especially the kicker at the end (You got your head up your a@@?).

The hooks shown in that article would work, but I can't see how do you use them without help putting them on? You'd have to put the hooks/strap onto the bra straps and then slip the bra over your head, wouldn't you? Maybe I'll look for a video.

Except that if you're in that position -- can't pay your bills -- you probably wouldn't qualify for a reverse mortgage anyway. They'll only lend a percentage of your home's value, and if you have an equity loan or a second mortgage, the loan would be even less. How long before you're short of money again? I think they're taking advantage of people who -- like me, I'll admit -- aren't good with money. If you own your home, there should be other options. Equity loan, second mortgage, rent it or sell it and move someplace cheaper, file for bankruptcy, put the deed in your kids' names, get financial counseling, make a budget and stick to it, etc. A reverse mortgage just seems too good to be true. Actually, I popped in to complain about the Hyundai Super Bowl ad, the one with Rachel Dratch, Chris Evans, and John Krasinski (sp?). The car parks itself, and they show the car being parked into such a small space that the driver has to get out of the car before it's parked -- and the drivers of the cars on either side won't be able to open their doors. That's gonna piss a lot of people off.

This week's episode about the origins of the Food and Drug Administration was fascinating. The documentary followed the work of Harvey Washington Wiley, a scientist who pioneered food safety. This was necessary because of the change from agrarian to urban/industrial. It was necessary for city dwellers to consume manufactured/processed food. There were no regulations -- manufacturers could put anything they wanted into their products, and they did. He started by organizing a "poison squad", volunteer federal employees (healthy young men) who agreed to eat only what Wiley provided. He fed them adulterated food and recorded the results. The men got sick from these experiments, but thankfully, none of them died. Even if you're familiar with the time period, this was fascinating, and frustrating. It seems that nothing has changed. Corporations and big business had too much power in the 19th century, just as they do now. Anyone who complains about "big government" and "too many regulations" should watch this. If not for Wiley and others, we'd still have formaldehyde in meat.

There was no follow-up on the white puppy. They did say that she didn't look like she was starving, and there was some kind of plastic in the pen, which might have served to keep the rain off. I think they stopped to feed and water her just because they're dog-lovers, not because the dog appeared neglected. I still don't understand why someone has a dog and keeps it outside, alone. Our Sadie (see avatar) is never outside unless one of us is with her. She's family, we're her pack, and she wants to be wherever we are. My office window looks out onto a yard where a man used to live, with a dog, a yellow Labrador. The dog was always outside -- fenced yard, dog house. When the man would come home, the dog would run to greet him, tail wagging, jumping happily -- 9 times out of 10, the man would ignore the dog and go inside. The dog's head would droop and he'd walk back to his doghouse. The man would come out of the house and the dog would go into his greeting frenzy again, and the man would get in his car and drive away. WHY DO YOU HAVE A DOG?

Who could blame her? Plaintiff was scary! I do wonder if there was more to the story. Was he in jail because defendant accused him of stealing the car? Then he complains that the rims were all wrong. What do rims have to do with a car's driveability? If he had money for rims, he could have paid the defendant. What TV show was it where we saw people renting rims? I can't come up with the title -- main character named Daniel, he's on death row for 20 years for rape and murder, then released. His stepbrother opens up a rim shop and gets beat up when trying to repossess some rims. What the heck was the name of that show? It was excellent. It'll come to me in the middle of the night. Toaster Strudel, exactly, with the carts! She's gonna park in the handicapped spot and the handicapped spots are almost always next to the cart return. But yeah, her cart got away from her. I had some sympathy for her though, schlepping around with her mom in a wheelchair and two dogs.

Yes, and she had drawn them way too close together over her nose, and way too far down on the sides. Her friend also had sharpie eyebrows but hers looked fine.

I haven't read the book or seen the earlier movie, so all this is new to me. That's a big part of it, isn't it? There is time for silence, so the characters seem to be speaking and behaving naturally. Leonard is growing on me but I can't explain why. He's awfully pretty, maybe that's all it is. I can't figure if he really has any character. He's letting himself be pushed around too much. He seems a mismatch with Jacky -- I'd have liked to see how they got together. I liked Mr. Wilcox's excuse/explanation of his relationship with Jacky: "I'm a man. I've lived a man's life." But then it makes you ask, well then, what's a woman's life? I suppose a woman could say the same if she had a child outside of marriage: "I wanted a woman's life" -- in the days when women were expected to breed. I like that Margaret and Helen are financially independent. But is 600 pounds a year really a lot, when Leonard moans that 8 pounds is a lot of money? Or is 600 the income and they have more money invested?

Understandable. For awhile I thought the saloon was a pass-through on the way to Heaven or Hell, sort of a purgatory. Joe was sort of "god-like" in the way he managed people's lives, set them on new paths. I looked for video of Paul Draper but couldn't find anything that compared to what he did in this movie. I'm not usually impressed by dancing but this was extra-special.

The eyebrows on that woman in Pomona -- don't people usually to avoid the uni-brow look? There used to be an advertising slogan -- "Even your best friends won't tell you". Somebody tell her! I'm getting tired of old coots who think they're cute. Walter Brennan as Grandpa McCoy was cute. Stinky drunks who've worn out the crotch on their jeans are not.

That's a shame. Does your town not have a leash law? One lady in my neighborhood is having a hell of a time walking her dog. She goes one way and has to deal with a pit bull who is chained up but who has previously broken the chain. If she walks the other way, she has to deal with a wolf-coyote-? mix who isn't tied and who keeps trying to jump its fence.

The Voice of Bugle Ann, 1936, Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. I'm a sucker for Lionel Barrymore. It's set in Missouri with hill country farmers who raise hounds to hunt fox. It's explained early on that the fox is never killed -- the dogs just chase until the fox goes to its hole. The enjoyment is in the men's ability to recognize the sounds of their dogs, their location, predicting their behavior, and calling the dogs off the hunt. We know from the on-screen guide that a farmer kills the man who kills his dog, so when we see Barrymore raise Bugle Ann from a pup, and we hear everyone talk about how much he loves her, we know Bugle Ann's fate. Thankfully, it doesn't happen on-screen. The movie starts with puppies, and they're so cute! The runt of the litter becomes Bugle Ann, named because of her distinctive and rare bugling voice. It was interesting that the newborn pup has the same markings as older Bugle Ann, so either the movie took a few months to film or they managed to find two dogs with the same markings. There's a funny scene where Barrymore is holding the pup and the pup starts to lick his face. Barrymore pulls back and then decides to just go with it -- who can resist a puppy! The movie's cinematography is outstanding, so much so that I looked up the cinematographer -- it's Ernest Haller -- Cinematographer for Oscar Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind (1939), and seven other Best Picture nominees: Captain Blood (1935), Jezebel (1938), Four Daughters (1938), Dark Victory (1939), All This, and Heaven Too (1940), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Lilies of the Field (1963). He does great stuff with light and shadow and the hunt scenes -- we see shots of foxes, skunk, raccoons, and other furry things as the hounds race by. There are a couple of scenes where it seems to be daylight in one section and night in another, but that's okay. Worth watching also for a courtroom scene where Barrymore talks about dogs, how special the relationship is.

The Time of Your Life, 1948, based on the William Saroyan play that won a Pulitzer and the NY Drama Critics Circle award. James Cagney, William Bendix, Ward Bond, Broderick Crawford, Spring Byington -- the only actors I recognized. It's another film that I almost stopped watching (I didn't like Jeanne Cagney's character, who showed up early). But this movie might be permanently on the DVR. It was really surprising. It's set in a bar in San Francisco in the late 1930's. Cagney plays Joe, who spends his days sitting at a table interacting with various people who come into the bar. Joe is all about people -- being involved, listening, understanding, not judging, not being obvious, not always butting in, sometimes just watching. But the main reason the movie is a keeper is the dancer, Paul Draper. I'm no dance expert, but if Fred Astaire is considered a 10, Draper is an 11. His character wants to be a comedian but his routines are inscrutable and humorless. And then he starts to dance. One of his dances was an interpretation of a politician, giving a speech. He said that's what he was going to do but even if he hadn't said it, you'd know that's what he was presenting. It was stunning. The other revelation was Reginald Beane, a man who came to the bar looking for work. He faints from hunger, Nick the bar owner feeds him (Nick feeds everyone), and after he recovers, he walks by the piano, sits down, and starts to play. There's also a character described as an Arab who plays harmonica, a newspaper boy who wants to be a lyric tenor, an old coot who looks like Kit Carson and tells stories that had me laughing out loud, and a few others, including a bad guy who tries to shake Nick down. It's kinda messy -- unstructured -- but just wonderful, and I'm so glad TCM showed it and that I watched it. I just wish there was more Paul Draper on film. Because wow.

I didn't watch this one until today. I remembered what you wrote so I was paying attention. JJ notices the short dress and thigh high boots. She doesn't quite roll her eyes. It's more of sigh and "What is the world coming to?" And then later she talks about living too long. It's understandable. Those people are just evil. It's one thing to give a dog a sip of beer, but to fill a water bowl with vodka?

First I've heard of it. I live in the rural Midwest. The Indians around here are mostly physicians. Gas stations are all a part of chains. No clue who owns the car washes.

I don't see the comment as disrespectful. There's a term for that kind of comment but I can't come up with it. It'd be like me wearing a cocktail dress, my kid asking me where I was going, and I say I'm going to clean the basement. Sarcasm? Here's your sign?

Ha! That's the one. I used to be able to make my voice sound like that but I've lost that talent. I wonder if it's something that could be corrected surgically -- tonsils, adenoids, vocal cords -- ? Or not -- he speaks clearly and that's what's important. It's distracting the first time he speaks, and then I get used to it.

I wonder if Missoula will be back in the spring. Winters are severe up there. Although wasn't there a bit of Missoula in the last episode? Wasn't that where the tall cop with the odd voice was talking to a drunk who had threatened a 12-year-old? And Officer Bill was doing a drunk test on someone?

I wouldn't be able to handle either of your jobs. Until you're both better paid, thank you. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have to treat some of the sadder cases. You know that a lot of those folks haven't been able to bathe in days, weeks, ? They're likely to be frightened, if they're even aware of what's going on. We see them being surly and obnoxious with people who are just trying to help them, and it's really hard to be sympathetic. And then there are the ones who are just a@@holes. I just want to smack some of 'em upside the head, and tell them to shut up.

As I sit here for about five minutes, three of the ads being discussed were just played. I'm okay with the puppy being in the Chewy ad, as if he's already in his new home. We want to see the cute puppy. A puppy ad without a puppy is just wrong. And it's true that new dog owners will get all kinds of advice, even if they've had dogs all their lives. It's what we do. Same thing with new babies, new cars, new appliances, new lovers -- people will give advice on how to care for them. I like McConaughey. He's a great talk show guest -- really knows how to tell a story and doesn't come off as narcissistic as the ads imply. Have no clue about his personal hygiene. I just hate all the pharmaceutical ads. Whenever I see one, all I can think is "Why don't you put that money into research?" And I imagine all the people who have those conditions bombarding their caregivers with requests to prescribe the drug. Pimping drugs to patients just seems wrong. We're not being shown new surgical techniques -- why show us the new drugs? Especially when the possible side effects are so potentially devastating.

If they were going to be that shady, why didn't they just sign his name? I doubt anyone at the SSA would take the trouble to dig out something else he'd signed and compare the signatures. But it's unlikely that the cover-up was to protect the husband's personal info. What's dad gonna do? Memorize the SSN and open some charge accounts? And why would his name (the son-in-law) be on those papers anyway?

Could be, but I think the old-time shirts were linen or cotton. Dog Man's shirt looked like knit. I've seen those for sale as sleepwear, but in the women's section. It did look comfortable. I pity the judge (or attorney) who has to explain to Mailbox Man that a simple touch can be assault. He probably pushed harder than what he admitted.

The Great Divide: Obama to Trump -- it's an eye-opener. I'm a Liberal Democrat but I've voted locally for Republicans and Independents. My husband is a Republican but has also voted off the ticket. I've had a hard time understanding what happened in 2016 and this documentary is just what I needed. I guess I don't have any profound insights about the doc, except that there are some profound insights to be had -- like how Trump felt that his legitimacy was being questioned, with the investigation into Russian interference. It's ironic that he couldn't see that his Birther movement did the same for Obama. It's sad that (apparently) Trump was prepared to be "presidential" from the beginning -- to tone down his rhetoric and try to appeal outside his base -- but was stopped by Steve Bannon and others. I'll probably watch this more than once -- there's a lot to digest, even though none of it is particularly complicated. I'm interested in opinions of Trump supporters.

I think it's partly the unnecessary CPS call and partly allowing her son to shack up with a teenager and make a baby. How bad must the girl's mother have been that the father gets custody of the other two girls? Damn.