Minneapple

I figured the lady at the end would be either Kate's mom or Yelena. I also figured Kate and her mom got a bunch of insurance money after her dad died and that solved their money problems. I enjoyed these first two eps. Hailee and Jeremy have good chemistry. Love Clint with his kids, how his daughter knew right away that seeing Fake Nat was bothering him and Nate signing "I love you." And how Clint doesn't stop being a dad even when he's not with his kids. Kate is a total disaster and I love her so far. I cracked up at her wearing her aunt's clothes. She and her mom are what I like to call exasperatingly rich. They are greatly privileged and know it but it's so much a part of their lives that they're completely casual about it. Oh, you destroyed a bell tower and I have to write a check? Make it up to me by going to a charity auction! Your credit cards are canceled but you can swan off to your high rise loft and pout about it!

Let us know if you liked it. I like Liane Moriarty in general, but I hated Nine Perfect Strangers.

Just finished The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. Very creepy, almost a gothic setting, perfect for Halloween season. It's a horror novel, but it's not supernatural and it doesn't have a BIG TWIST; rather it builds toward a conclusion. It's honestly confusing until you finish the novel and then you'll be like, "What did I just read? Oh, that's what I just read." But I would definitely recommend it as I enjoyed the slow buildup to the end and the characters.

The finale was the most drastically different turn from the book. I gotta say, it disappointed me a little; I never was under the impression that Jake could be smart enough to mastermind a murder and a coverup. And I assume that with that cliffhanger they want a season two with the same main characters rather than Maeve being the focus? I loved in the book at the end when Bronwyn's confession about cheating was on the news and Yale tweeted at her that they were looking forward to receiving her application. Too bad we didn't see that in the show.

It's different from the book. But here's what I think happened: Jake wanted to get revenge on Addy, so he threatened Simon into having an allergic reaction so that one of the Murder Club would rush to the nurse's office and get the epipens. But Jake stole the epipens from the nurse's office (he signed Addy's name on the sign-in sheet in the nurse's office). So no one could save Simon. I won't spoil the book in case anyone wants to read it. I'll just say it's different. I'm also not sure why they covered up Jake's death. Like they had the Xbox, just hand it over, all the messages were there. Maybe they just didn't want more attention or police investigations?

This looks interesting! I am a huge NFL fan and The NFL on CBS was required viewing for me growing up. Imagine -- a time when only one network had a pregame show, and it was only a half-hour long. I just finished As Good As Dead, the finale of Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder trilogy. It's very very good, but quite a bit darker than the other books. Pip is messed up, clearly suffering PTSD. But I still love her and Ravi and the morally grey parts are very understandable. I do wonder if this series has been optioned for a streaming movie or TV show. One of Us Is Lying is on Peacock right now and it's a fairly decent adaptation.

I miss Ashton as well! I loved her relationship with Addy and how the two of them helped each other break out from their mom. It seems like the show ditched that and expanded TJ's role so Addy could have boy drama, which...eh. I prefer Addy's sister.

Loved the cover of "Don't You Forget About Me" over Bronwyn and Nate kissing. My favorite parts are also of the Bayview Four discussing the murder.

Should probably be a spoiler warning on this thread? I re-read the book to refresh myself (I remembered the big overall story, but had forgotten some details). The secrets come out through little hints, but it's fairly clear early on what they are. Bronwyn says something about how teachers probably don't want her teaching other kids her methods of passing chemistry. Addy is at a party and dreading seeing TJ. Cooper is texting with "someone." So it wasn't hard to figure out what the secrets were.

I've watched her show a few times and it's OK. I get it, she has a staged quasi-reality thing going on with the ranch and all. The thing is that her recipes are great and always always work for me. Her pizza crust is my staple pizza crust.

Broke out of my reading slump with The Last Graduate, the second book in the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. It's amazing, better than the first, and the only thing I'm sorry about is that now I have to wait probably a year for Book No. 3. The book features an incredible cast of characters with great character development and I really do hope we see all or at least most of them in the next book. I love the politics of this particular wizarding world and the "enclaves."

I doubt there would be much pushback. And anyway, who cares. You're out to win a tournament, not be nice to everyone.

The game will be on the Peacock premium tier. If her mom doesn't have internet that's a tough one. It's only one game in this case, but ESPN has already moved a bunch of games to ESPN+. Don't be surprised if even more games move exclusively to streaming.

I read that Usain Bolt will eat McNuggets wherever he travels because he knows exactly what he's getting in a McNugget and won't get sick after eating them. I tolerate sushi. My husband and kids love it so I've had it a billion times (they like to choose sushi restaurants for their birthday dinners).

There will always be free network TV; that's mandated by the FCC. Live sports have gradually moved off of broadcast television to cable and now streaming, I guess, though there are still live sports on broadcast TV. NFL football, college football, some baseball games, college basketball. Though NBC just announced yesterday that Notre Dame's home opener will be exclusively on Peacock, and ESPN has a ton of stuff on its ESPN+ platform. Anyway. Murica, fuck yes.

Right, I just meant that Skinner did NCAAs and then elite.

She's gorgeous, athletic and SMART -- she goes to freaking Harvard where she's studying neurobiology!

The last 15 years or so, the ladies haven't really looked prepubescent. They have powerful arms and thighs from all the tumbling. They're small, but they have muscles. They don't really develop hips or breasts, but that's a natural byproduct of working out for several hours a day, every day. You see that in other sports too. And, the average age of the women's gymnasts in these international competitions is going up, which is a good thing. It's super awful to throw young children into these competitions, particularly when they can get hurt at a very young age. McKayla Skinner just competed in NCAAs and then in the Olympics. So it's possible. Suni is only 18 and she's about to go to Auburn; hopefully we'll see her in three years in Paris. And Jade is going to Oregon State. Well. For now, anyway.

The US team is hardly a bunch of all-stars. Kevin Durant is the biggest star on the team. None of the big guns like Lebron James or James Harden or Steph Curry are there.

Yeah, they're human beings. Nobody gets along with, for example, all of their coworkers. Some people will like each other and some won't. Same thing on TV/movie sets, same deal in sports.

Actually since they removed Al, the commentary hasn't been awful. I could do without Tim but I like Nastia. And I don't think they have been all that biased. The streaming commentary is solid too. That said, it's an abomination that NBC didn't show all the medalists' floor routines in primetime (Mai's routine was adorable). There is zero reason for them to not show all the beam routines tonight. The whole thing took less than an hour, and that included the gymnasts' introductions which NBC typically doesn't show. They can even edit out the long waits between the end of the routines and the scores coming up.

Bronze for Simone! China goes 1-2. Tonight on NBC: SIMONE BILES overcomes adversity to compete on balance beam! Oh and we suppose some other athletes might be there too. Who knows? WATCH SIMONE BILES ON BEAM!

Simone! I'm getting all teary. She just competed on beam and LOOKED AWESOME doing it, only one small hop on the landing. She's in second now (I think she was underscored).

A lot of elite gymnasts go to college though. Jordyn Wieber would have competed for UCLA had she not taken endorsements. Kyla Ross and Samantha Peszek competed for UCLA. MyKayla Skinner went to Utah. Suni is going to Auburn (as of now), Jade is going to Oregon State. Plenty of other ladies like Katelyn Ohashi and Maggie Nichols have been elite and then moved on to NCAAs. Given that they have been very successful on floor exercise, I don't think the American women should change anything. Hell, Jade just won a gold medal with choreography that featured waving her arms around, sort of in time to the music.

It was clearly intended to capitalize on gold medals in Tokyo.