abbottrabbit

I don't think Aria's the author of Majority of None -- I think she works for the publishers (hence Ezra saying "your bosses are mad at me b/c they gave me an advance for a second book that I'm too saaaaad to write."). She seemed to be introducing the (male) author at a signing event before she went over to stare wistfully at Ezra's book. But yeah, Ostinato. Writing a book called Stubborn is exactly right for a poor little rich boy who won't hear it when an underaged girl tries to break up with him, or his not-baby-mama takes away his not-baby, or any of the other thickheaded fool things Ezra's done. Can someone remind me what Sarah Harvey has to be so upset about? I know she was Charlotte's lackey or whatever, but why were they all so keyed up not just when she turned up at the funeral, but at the prospect that she might turn up at the hearing?

When and where can we vote on this, because I have thoughts and feelings?

By 2018, we'll have found out that everything after Kim left RHOA happened in the possum's dream.

I was begging for ANYONE to punch that guy, or ram his face into a column, or anything. Carisi. Liv. The mom. Fin. The dad. The secretly awesome state trooper. The creepy judge. Literally anyone, and I wouldn't have cared if they did it for the right reasons, or because that was the only way to get him to shut the hell up and stop making things even worse for himself (if you're on someone's side, you do not let them keep sneering the three phrases they learned at Bubba Joe Bob's Unaccredited Christian Online Law School at the effing cops), or even because oops, my fist slipped. That face needed some breaking. And yes. Yes he is.

Coming from a family with a lot of gingers: you could have the entire U.S. army looking after them when they're kids, and at least one is going to pink up.

That was Marguerite's parents that were married before the siege -- the master stone mason and his wife? Marguerite wasn't even born until after the siege, in 1636. Not to say that she and Laurent may not have shared a rough childhood -- growing up in a town where the population was decimated and all -- but they weren't the ones eating cats and leather.

Laurent Jr. was 16 months when Marguerite's second marriage (sorry, can't remember the husband's name. Jacques? Jean?) contract was drawn up, and in that agreement the husband promised to care for him until he was 15. The children from that marriage ranged in age from 14 (or 16?) to 4 in the estate inventory, so Laurent Jr. would already have been past the age of the second husband's guardianship. I'm so glad they ended this season with this episode -- such a great note to conclude on. And the filles du roi thing was fascinating. I know that one of my earliest female ancestors in the U.S. came here as an indentured servant for essentially the same purpose, but the Canadian set-up sounds... how to put this nicely? Way more consensual.

I would actually start watching DWTS again, just for the LOLs.

I was thinking the same thing -- didn't the divorce records for Grandpa Cranston indicate that the marriage and his abandonment both took place in 1912?

I could not get past this. A fairly compelling story, I thought, but he was wearing what looked to be white denim jorts both in the Cathedral and when meeting with the woman in Montreal.

I was also outside Sonja's show, in that -- much like Madonna -- I was not inside Sonja's show. Personally I was way, way outside Sonja's show -- probably in DC or St. Louis, depending on when it was held. I cannot speak for Madonna, since it's been ages since the two of us partied together* with John John**. * By partied together, naturally, I mean that time in junior high when my swing choir did a choreographed dance number to "Material Girl." ** By John John, naturally, I mean John T. and Jon M., who were two of the boys I went to Junior High with.

It made me wonder if someone had pulled out at the last minute (ala whatsername, from Gilmore Girls?), and their contract stipulates they won't repurpose more than one UK episode per season, so they had to find another way to fulfill their stipulated # of episodes.

I've never heard anyone other than gay friends who are gents d'un certain age use it, but I'm told that some of my friends and some of Lu's friends attend the same parish, as it were, so it may be a term only that crowd uses.

Hands up if you think all those bitches were drunk before they even got to the party? I swear, either they pre-funked like it was a sorority formal, or the secret ingredient in Ramona Pinot Grigio is roofies. Most of them seemed to go from zero to wasted, with the slurring and the "lemme fight you now / ok I'm gonna walk away for twen'y minutes and then I'm going to come back and fight you again" and the fly-over strafing with random insults. It was a mango margarita. Mangoes make me gag, so Doris would've ended up with a lap full of that shit if she'd tried to make me drink it. And they cause serious intestinal issues for a couple of friends of mine -- ones no one would want to have to deal with in a public restroom, in a cocktail dress. :(. Let's just not force food or drinks on other people; you never know what their story is, and even if their story is just "I don't want a fucking cookie," you should respect that. I love you for bringing the word nalgas back into my life. I don't think I've heard it in 15 years. And Nello's too? Please tell me you're from Arizona? He also "goes to the other church" (aka is gay), so I think we can take Lu not sleeping with him as a given. (Although depending on what Ramona was lacing their cocktails with...)

That's a possibility -- I know they did that in the Finding Your Roots ep with Derek Jeter to prove that his (however many times) great-grandmother's master was his (however many times) great-grandfather. BUT. Are we ready for ANOTHER eerie coincidence? About an hour after I wrote that, I was diddling around on the Lancashire, UK records site on my lunch break to see if I can get a reader's credential for when I'm there in September. And I searched for Molly, just on a whim. And I found the will I mentioned earlier... and an "order of filiation and maintenance" for the bastard son of Molly and some jerk* calico printer! It's for two years after my 3x great-grandfather was born, but I'm hoping it just took that time to get the legal paperwork through, and that Molly wasn't just in the habit of making bad decisions (though that could be where I get it from...) *I've decided he's a jerk. Sorry, 4X great-grandad. Should've sacked up in 1810 when you had the chance

In a seriously weird coincidence, a day after I watched this episode, I found a baptism record for my 3x great grandfather (the one whose last name I have), and where it lists the parents, it said "Molly [lastname], singlewoman." And I've found Molly's baptismal record, and some things about her parents, but only one vague hint so far about her later life (a will from an "uncle" who has a different last name than either of her parents...). No marriage or burial record either in the parish where she, her parents, and her son were baptized or in the one where her son was married. I'm pretty sure that I will never know anything about who his father was -- centuries old secrets tend to stay well buried -- and it's a little eerie to me that I found that out a day after watching the Rowling episode and thinking "god, that's got to be hard to know you've dead-ended like that." But that's just where it is, in both of our cases. Barring the completely unbelievable twist of finding some sort of verifiable long-lost diary, there's no way to know. And part of me is bummed about that, and part of me is intrigued, and part of me thinks it's so cool that I secretly have a quasi-matronymic last name.

I personally have been wandering around starkers for the last 38 years because I couldn't find a pair of overpriced red drawstring tuxedo pants... until now. Every single damn thing you said, but especially this.

Giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that she did pick them and it wasn't just "here are the randos who showed up to Bravo's open call and/or wandered in confused off the street," she probably picked them from their headshots and their comp cards, and didn't figure out from their measurements that they would have "Versace bodies," or whatever that noise she said was. The first girl, for example, had a face that I think would be perfect if you're looking for a model for your "Ralph Lauren cut" designer imposters aspirational international lifestyle line. But she was kind of a surfboard, and apparently Sexy J Sonja girls need a bit of T & A (in addition to a smoky eye and an updo, natch). I found the Bethenny and Ramona fight tedious. Team Bethenny, if I must, but Team "After 18 Episodes, Why Are We Watching A Fight About Two Things That Were Never Shown On Screen?" really. (ETA -- I initially got denied permission to reply, and when I was finally able to it had scrapped the formatting, so sorry for not crediting whoever it was I quoted above)

I think that's particularly true of the generations featured in this episode --GG is a year younger than I am and her grandfather was about 10 years older than most of my grandparents. Anyway, when my grandparents and great-grandparents shut shit down, they shut. Shit. Down. They would tell you every detail of a a dress they wore in 1938, but God help you if you asked about my grandmother's first marriage, or why my two immigrant great-grandfathers came to this country. There was a lot of stuff that was just never a topic for discussion. Change the names, seal the records, what oldest sister? I thought her death certificate said "Minden Sanit" on it, as in Sanitarium? It made me wonder if late in life (and who knows, possibly earlier, given some of the other issues) she might have had mental health problems as a result of the syphilis. Al Goodwin, man! I totally understood Nellie falling for him -- who doesn't love a sexy bootlegger? I loved this episode, and I spent about half of it really wanting Ginnifer Goodwin to come to my house and show me how to do eye makeup.

I think it's probably easy to perceive Doris as "old fashioned" because it was WILDLY popular in the 1920s and 30s, so it gets associated with movie stars (and relatives) from the '50s. It's now on the Endangered Names list, having fallen off in usage by 98% in the last century. Dorinda (which I'd thought was completely made up, by the way), has been used rarely enough that it comes across as an unusual name rather than a name tagged to any given era. It's never been higher than about the 600th most common name in the US, but was consistently in the top 1000 from the mid '40s to 1970 or thereabouts. (Sorry. I find this stuff fascinating).

It was so sparse and empty! I half wondered if they didn't move some/most of the furniture out, either to accommodate production or because they'd just renovated or something. Anyway, I have a trip to the UK coming up, and I need a hotel in London for one night, so I've decided to let myself splash out a little bit (I'm a cheapskate by nature). So I looked up the Cafe Royal (and what a terrible name for a hotel, by the way). HA. For the night I'm there, rooms start at 425 pounds (roughly $665). Too splashy. I think the room Carol had was the Marquis Suite (again, imagine half the furniture missing) which runs a mere 1079. It's a fantastic location, though (and it has "access to UK, USA and European power points," which would save my life when I inevitably forget my plug converters). I wish they'd explained that more -- I half wondered if someone on the flight or when they checked in hadn't skimmed her papers, assumed her name was the more common Doris rather than the unusual Dorinda, and it became a joke between the two of them. Or if the hotel had entered it incorrectly from what Bravo sent them, with the same result (I was once registered for a conference as "Ms. Badger" [not my last name] and my friends latched onto that for the rest of the week. It was funny for the first 6 hours or so).

AHHHHH I forgot that, but it was MEGA shade from the producers, pointing out that these ladies don't need the BC dial-a-pack anymore. They need the senior special pills-du-jour tupperware to keep the Boniva for their osteoporosis and the Premarin for their menopause and the mood stabilizers and lord knows what else in.

Ovaries before brovaries, then. Regardless, Leslie Knope's girl code is the only one we need. LuAnn can step. I love the way it was shown with the INCRIMINATING JUICE close up. Like, what does that prove exactly? Someone drank juice? Have we swabbed it for naked Scots DNA? Are there incriminating dick prints on it? Really, I bet they were just bent that he drank the last banana chocolate juice and left them with just one carrot orange and three kale pineapples for breakfast.

Uteruses before Duderuses, to quote Parks & Recreation.

I'm just going to leave this here, and not say anything about whether I think it's a fauxmance or a super mega fauxmance: http://www.eonline.com/news/675865/bethenny-frankel-dating-modern-family-s-eric-stonestreet