needschocolate

Sometimes when I watch older shows on a wide screen tv, the characters look a bit shorter and chubbier than the way I remembered them. I had the opposite happen with TGW. Maybe it is just the settings on my TV but Alicia looked very skinny, like unhealthy skinny, then I noticed that her daughter looked too thin also, and, later, I noticed that Jason and others looked thinner than usual too, even the doorways looked narrower. When they showed that lawyer laying on a couch, he looked a bit stocky, then he stood up and he was much trimmer. I got the feeling that they somehow stretch the image vertically to make everyone appear thinner. Was it just my TV? I wish someone would have pointed out to Zack that as long as he needs his parents money, he is not an independent adult. If he were my kid, I would tell him that he is old enough to not need my permission to get married and move to France, but if he wants me to foot the bill for his college education, he needs to stay in school - I will pay for 4 years of college if those 4 years are continuous. The cost of attending a university goes up so much every year, I am not going to pay extra because he wants to write his memoirs. Too bad they couldn't work in a scene where Eli has to stand on something to listen in through a vent. I thought that maybe Alicia had caterers or servers and I just didn't notice. If there was no help, and Alicia was in charge of al the details, then that was one lousy party to be a guest at - No one making sure the food is stocked and there are enough napkins and people know where to put their coats, etc... Hmmm....maybe that is the ending - Colin Sweeney comes back and has an affair with Alicia, and we know what happens to women who have sex with Sweeney.

Tyler Perry suggested that the show add an idol that could be used after the vote - just like the original idols (like in Yul's season) worked. It is the same way the super idol works but the super idol is made up of two regular idols, while the Tyler Perry idol was a separate idol all by itself. The Tyler Perry idol was only on one season - Tony found it. I don't remember which season, I don't remember if Tony used it well, and I don't remember what they called it on the show. I hope someone can fill in the details

It gets worse - when they decided to replace Grover Cleveland with Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, they moved Cleveland to the $1,000 bill where he is today.

I checked the history of the $20 bill and Jackson had replaced Cleveland in 1928 - there goes the don't change it because of tradition argument. Actually, according to Wikipedia, there have been a lot of people on $20 currency (before the current paper money) - such as Hamilton, Washington, Garfield, even Lady Liberty and Pocohontas. As long as they were not black...or Native American...and they were men, not women. He just thought that white men who didn't own land should get to vote. In the realm of voting rights, this was a step, I suppose, but certainly not a very big one. I agree that it is ridiculous to keep Jackson on the bill at all, but it helps to think of it as Jackson is being moved to the back of the bus.

I am okay with the regular idols, as long as there aren't too many of them - if it is possible for one person to find two of them, then there are too many of idols in the game, IMO. I don't like the super idol, although it does create the possibility of blindsiding someone (convince them not to use it so that it can be a super idol and then not hand them your idol when they need to make a super idol). And I may warm up to the super idol if it was always used to get rid of the biggest jerk in the game and burn the idol of the second biggest jerk, as it did this time. At least this season's super idol is better than the one Tony had, because the super idol requires someone else to give up their idol to save an ally. If they ever have Tony's idol (the Tyler Perry idol) again, I hope it comes with the stipulation that it can only be used at the next tribal. I think Scot definitely fits the description. It seems most seasons have at least one player who seems to forget that everyone else is there to win too.

I think the magicians got exactly what they wanted - to be able to put "As seen on Shark Tank" on their marquee. The sharks aren't agents, they don't promote acts. Plus, it always bugs me when the entrepreneur doesn't answer the question - how many times were they asked how they were going to attract people to come to see their act, when there are so many more well known acts in Vegas? I am assuming they didn't answer because the answer was "by giving a preview of the act on a major tv station." I can see the drink box holder having a market in a day care setting, which seems to be her main customer for her label bands, if they use it as a way to distinguish the kids' juice boxes. But it only has a chance if it doesn't need to be washed after every use. As far keeping kids from squeezing and making a mess, most parents don't give little ones juice - it tends to be more of a school age kid lunch box item, and you are not going to be packing that holder in the kid's lunch box. By the time your kid is old enough that you are willing to let them have that much sugar (even if it is 100% juice, it is still isn't very nutritional), the kid is is old enough to know he better not be squeezing it and making a mess. I was surprised that Barbara didn't complain about the name - My Drinky. Although I couldn't pinpoint why the name annoyed me until the woman was walking out of the shark tank and she said something like "Kevin doesn't get my drinky" and I thought "that sounds like something someone says when they are drunk." If I was in an ice cream shop and was buying a cone for a small child, I would pay an extra 25 cents to get a Drip Drop to lessen the chance of it becoming a mess. I would also pay an extra 25 cents to get a paper sleeve that did the same thing, and the paper sleeve would cost the store much less. Kids small enough to drip all over are too small to be eating the Drip Drip - their appetites aren't that big. I think there is a market for the jogger trailer, but not at that price. Amazon has bike trailers for kids to ride in that are only $100. And for a bit more your can get one with a handle so it doubles as a stroller. I originally thought that, instead of making a whole new product, they should make a product that will turn a bike trailer into a jogger trailer. However, the bike trailer has three wheels - a small one in the front - so that they are more stable, but that makes it uncomfortable to jog with. Their jogger trailer should have a 3rd wheel in the back to keep it from rocking, - and I would tell the inventor that except it would probably take him another 2 years to perfect it.

I usually skip over all the "posting while watching" posts at the beginning of the thread (I am in the wrong time zone), but I read them all this time - kind of re-living what I went through watching this episode. I don't think I could every be one of those people who fast forwards through the episode or skips part of a season. I have learned from my years of watching Survivor, that if you suffer through the bad parts, the good parts are much more enjoyable. This thought crossed my mind too - why use them both as a super idol instead of using them both individually and garuanteeing that they don't go home? If Julia hadn't told them the other 5 were voting for Tai, I can see how not playing the idols makes sense - Everyone knows they have 2 idols, the other 5 wouldn't want to take the chance that the one they vote for doesn't plat an idol and they vote out one of their own instead again. The goons might not have to play any idols. This makes even more sense since Jason won individual immunity - all three are protected, no one will vote for them, and they end up not having to play any idols. However, none of the above applies because Julia did tell them it would be 5 votes for Tai. So their plan was one of the following - --- Tai plays his idol for himself, and Scot and Jason get to keep the other idol for their use later, although they were telling Tai not to play it, so it is doubtful that this was their plan. --- They were going to combine the two idols and save Tai. If this was the case, why not just have Tai play hid idol on himself and save the other idol for future use? Probably because they were too impressed with themselves and with making a "grand move" --- They thought that Julia might be lying and that the 5 would vote for Scot instead. If they thought this was possible, then why not play both idols individually and make sure that Aubry goes home? Because they were too impressed with themselves and with making a "grand move" --- They weren't planning on saving Tai at all. Let Tai get voted off with his idol in his pocket (I wonder if there was any discussion of "hey Tai, we let you hold both the idols last tribal, it is Scot's turn to hold them both this time"). This would be a stupid plan because they lose a member of their alliance and next tribal it they are 2 against 5 (or, depending on Julia, 3 against 4). I think every scenario proves that Scot and Jason are idiots with over-inflated egos. Further proof of their idiocy, since you can apparently hand over an idol after the vote ifit means you will combine it with another idol to make a super idol that you play, then Jason was completely stupid for handing his idol to Scot before tribal. If Joe ever votes for someone other than the first person he is told to vote for, I will fall out of my chair. I vote thsi the funniest comment yet. Scot's and Jason's biggest downfall was that they were such fans of themselves that they couldn't see how their actions looked to anyone else.

Reminds me of all those park bench meetings with Henry and Dimitri.

Forget to mention this before - why would Alicia have a man's coat and tie in her closet? Perhaps it was her coat (he wasn't wearing it, so it didn't have to fit or look manly), but why would she have a tie in a drawer? Did she put Jason's tie around Peter's neck? Or was this a holdover from her Annie Hall period? I know her from Criminal Minds and from 24. However, every time I see her I think she was the woman who fell down an elevator shaft of LA Law then remind myself that she is too young to play that part and that I really know her from being the captain on Star Trek Voyager, even though she wasn't the Voyager captain (however, the actress who fell down the elevator shaft on LA Law did play the doctor on Star Trek: The Next Generation)

If this were real life, I would say that Alicia is still defending Peter because of the children (whom she doesn't seem to care about) and for the sake of her career. Since it is a tv show, I say that Alicia is still defending Peter so that the title of the show still applies. In real life, Eli would bother with them because he is secretly in love with one or both of them or they pay him really well or he is embezzling enough campaign funds to make putting up with them worthwhile. As a tv show, Eli bothers with them because he fears that if he leaves, he will end up in some office that is so small you can't open the door without hitting the desk again. Maybe you should switch to tequila. I am trying to figure out what OTP stands for - Occassionally Tipsy Partnership? Old Troubled Pairing? Off Topic People? Omnibus of Truth and Perfection? He probably isn't the only one but he is by far the best one. Everyone thought Kalinda was awesome, but she has nothing on Jason. Kalinda had to flirt, sit in dark cars, wear tight leather clothing and high-heeled boots, threaten people, hide guns in her walls, and often had to rely on her magic vagina to get information. Meanwhile, all Jason has to do is stare at someone and ask "What happened?" Then the other person tells him what happened and he goes back to whomever hired him and tells them what happened. This is why he can spend most of his time waiting in Alicia's apartment for her to come home. Wouldn't it have been great if Tascioni brought in Kalinda? My take on the whole Alicia - Jason relationship is that he has always wanted/loved her (as every man, except David Lee and Cary, always have), but Alicia started off with "This doesn't mean anything. It is just about the sex" so Jason didn't want to tell her how he felt. This is why his silence when she kept asking him what he wanted made sense to me, She set the relationship parameters, she should be the one to admit to caring first. (It should be noted that I usually find his smirky silence annoying, but I think it is appropriate in that scene).

I was disgusted watching them, but I couldn't help but wonder if I would feel the same if those antics would have been done by someone I liked and the ones without idols were Jason and Scot. I would like to believe that I would be a better person, but I may not have been so appalled at that grand show of obnoxiousness if the ones being hurt by it were the ones who have been bullying everyone and who put out the fire and hid the tools. In addition to what Nashville posted above - As far as we heard, Tai just said there was a super idol, and didn't say anything about combining two idols to make it. The others may think that it was like Tony's idol - a separate idol that is played after the vote, so they may have thought that any regular idols held by Scot or Jason would be played at the last tribal since Scot and Jason were the minority, They may have thought that they could flush out the idols and get rid of Debbie.

I would be fine if they changed the name of the show to "Madam Secretary's Family" (although that is a stupid name for a show) and they had more family stuff mixed in with the SOS stuff, as long as the Henry stuff didn't involve him doing spy/intelligence stuff for the government. Well, and he can't do any "save the world" or charity kind of stuff either. I don't want him to do anything that implies that he is the only one that cares and all government people are paper-pushing bureaucrats. I mean, all government people just might be paper-pushing bureaucrats, but I don't want to keep being subjected to Henry the Righteous anymore. My nitpick of the week - If they don't go up to their old house anymore, why did it look so lived in? I hope Henry gets some help (off-screen). It has always bugged me that Elizabeth was at a bombing where her friend was killed in front of her and she ends up seeing a therapist and/or taking anti-anxiety meds (well, that part didn't bug me), but Henry has had more than one instance (Dimitri, the woman who was killed in a bomb blast a few weeks ago, and I think there was someone before Dimitri too) where Henry could feel some responsibility for someone's death, plus he got radiation poisoning and could have died, but Henry doesn't need to talk to someone or get medication to help him through. Well, he doesn't seem like the type to throw any keg parties, so I am guess he is home alone playing video games. However, I think it was only one night that he was alone, while his sisters were out, and he is old enough for that.

This reminded me of a recent news item -

No U-Turns or W-Turns this season? Or did they have them but everyone is so nice to each other that not one used them so they didn't bother showing it? I don't think Matt wasn't listening, I think Matt wasn't understanding. I am pretty good at directions and navigating, but I didn't understand her the first time she said it - it was like she was saying to turn onto the same street twice. I wish we knew more about where she got the directions from and what it looked like - was it a paragraph with no commas or was she just reading a list? He is busy dealing with traffic she should be trying to interpret the directions. I couldn't help thinking about Dana watching this episode - hopefully alone on her couch or during a visit with a therapist (Free Matt!). I wonder if, as she watched, she was thinking "Wow, I was way over the line" or "See, this was all his fault." I found the puzzle intriguing - how did it work? Once a piece was in the right place it seemed to stay their, no matter how much they were moving the container around to get the other pieces in. There seemed to be indentation for the letters to sit in, but, with the way some of them were shaking the thing, it seems that they should have come lose. I was thinking that there might be magnets to help hold them, but I didn't see anyone get a letter stuck in the wrong place. When I saw the guys in their suits I thought they had to wear them so that everything would stay in place and out of view was they went down the side - just imagine what could happen if they wore the typical knee-length loose shorts. But then the women came out in their gold bikinis instead of one-piece suits and that was the end of that theory. Her calling him "baby" all the time doesn't help me find him less useless. I don't mind "baby" as a term of endearment, and she did give birth to him, but it bugs me in their case because he seems about as much help as a baby on this race.

I have a feeling the hand board couple had a discussion the night before, where she made him promise that they would not give up more than 20% of the company. She really didn't seem to want to take the deal and couldn't bring herself to agree to it - he finally had to be the one to say yes. I agree with Ashton, there was something about the earphone guys that seemed really shady to me. I like how every shark basically said something to the effect of, "This is an interesting product, but you suck. I'm out." I didn't quite get his marketing strategy, but I think the dog diagnostics (dognostics?) was a good idea. There are times that your dog may act a little different and you don't want to spend $100 at the vets, or more at the emergency vets because dogs never get sick during normal business hours. It would be a nice reassurance. I know that the segments we see were not necessarily filmed on the same day (although with Ashton there it is probably more likely than usual), but I found it interesting that $150 for a set of headphones was considered a fine price (but the sellers sucked), $150 for a mini surfboard that is just a bit better than a fast food tray was a good price, and $150 for an iPhone case that does all the stuff the guy said it did was way too high a price. I don't surf and don't wear gaudy jewelry, so the phone case was the only one I thought was worth the price.

Well, I obviously missed something because no one else has mentioned it, so somebody please set me straight ---- not long after Dre's sister and her girlfriend decided that they don't care about the name as long as they can call each other "Wife," Dre's sister says something about being tired of family and not having a wedding. I did like how the father of the sister's girlfriend said something about Johnson and Willie and Peter (I think he left Dick ot of the conversation). I know a guy whose whose last name is hismothersname-hisfathersname. When he was getting married he thought his new wife should change her name to hismothersname-hisfathersname. She told him that there was no way she was giving up her last name to take on both of his parents' last names and pointed out that if it was fine for his mother to keep her last name, then it was certainly okay for her to do it. The ended up being Mr. hismothersname-hisfathersname, Mrs. herfathersname-hisfathersname. Their kids all go by hisfathername only, because it was easiest to spell and it goes with everything. Well, she could do like women used to do a few decades ago - change their middle names to the maiden names - so Jane Marie Jones, married Albert Smith, and she becomes Jane Jones Smith, with the Jones being a middle name, not part of the last name. This way, Bow could be Rainbow Johnson Johnson.

It is like Jason wants to be a bully and and acts like a bully, but Scot is actually a bully and probably the kind who doesn't think he is a bully. I think to Joe, his alliance is only with Debbie and maybe Aubry (now that she has not voted with him twice, he may not include her anymore). It will be interesting to see what Joe does now that Debbie is gone, and this is a first, as I never been interested in what Joe does before. I meant that the best hope the Women + Joe alliance had was if the votes split 3-3-3 and one of the guys goes home and the superidol is used up, I didn't mean to say it was likely to happen. I can see why they would get rid of Debbie to save Cydney.

The thing that bugs me about Joe is his haircut, which I blame on the wardrobe/hair/make-up people. It looks to me like it is the same scraggly haircut all small boys have had on tv since Eight is Enough. I don't think I have ever seen a young boy with that haircut in real life.

My nitpick - Why would Gloria new PTA friend be talking about cursive (yeah, I know it is so they could do a cursive/cursing joke). Either Gloria knows her from the high school's PTA or from the pre-school's PTA (assuming they would have one). Cursive is a 3rd grade thing.

I have decided that if Russel and Dan Foley had children, they would be tattooed twins. I thought about all this but then remembered that my scenario was just a product of my imagination and, therefore, the women would all completely believe me when I say that my back is fine and here is the guys's plan, etc... The opportunity for the very best case scenario for the women+Joe (W+J) was this last tribal when they could have had 3 vote Jason, 3 vote Scot, and the 3 idiots vote Cydney. Jason then uses the Superidol on himself and then there is a re-vote between Scot and Cydney with Scot going home and all idols are gone. I think the best W+J could do now is pull Tai over to their side, then split the votes 3 for Scot, 3 for Jason, 2 for Cydney. If the guys think Tai is still one their side, they won't play any idols, and there is a re-vote between Scot and Jason, and Jason goes home with an idol in his pocket (perhaps with two idols in his pocket, but, more likely, Tai would be holding both idols and he would be stupid enough to give one or both to Scot after tribal). If the guys don't think Tai is on there side, then Jason plays his idol and Scot goes home (after a revote). If Tai is still aligned tightly enough to the other two jerks to let them use his idol to make a superidol, then W+J's only hope is to throw all their votes to one of the jerks, he plays the super idol, one of the W+J goes home (most likely Cydney) and next time it is 4 to 3 with no idols left in the game. All these different scenarios makes me realize just how unpredictable this season is - normally I would think this is a very good thing, but Scot and Jason are so unpleasant that I would much prefer a predictable season, but only if it means those to get voted off ASAP.

Last week, there were two different camps - Tai is an amazing strategist and Tai is naive. I was in the latter camp, but was really hoping I was wrong. Nope, I was right. Darn. Aargh! I hate it when I the bad guys win. I had to soothe myself to sleep last night imagining that I was on this season. When it came time for one of the majority to join with the minority for the challenge, I would join with the guys, and then "hurt" my back during the first part of the challenge and the guys would lose. While the winners were eating their reward, I would apologize to the guys (while still hobbling around with a bad back) and explain that I joined their group because I wanted to ally with them, since I was on the bottom of the majority alliance. The idiots would trust me completely and tell me all about their idols and the superidol and their grand plan (hey, it is my fantasy, so this is what happens), then I would share this info with my real alliance and it would be sweeter than watching Edguardo go. Splitting the majority votes - three for one jerk, three for the other jerk - would be the best plan if the superidol was played. However, I don't think anyone but the three stooges knew how the super idol works - not what it is capable of and not that it is created by combining two idols. If I am correct, then Aubry and Cydney probably figured that the guys would be sure that they would be targets and would play their idols. If the majority does target Scot and Jason and they both play idols, then the one Scot and Jason vote for, mostly likely Cydney, who flipped last week, is out. But, the idols will get played anyway, so why not use this opportunity to get out the member of the majority that they want out - know-it-all, loose-lipped Debbie. Sure, there was a chance that the Stooges don't have 2 idols or that the the idols would be used by the wrong people and one of those jerks could be gone. But it was a chance they weren't willing to take and, besides, they would still be the majority - 5 vs 3. Then there is the idea of Julia possibly flipping. Now, if they split the votes it will be 2 for one jerk, 3 for another jerk, and 4 for one of the majority, probably Cydney. They guys play their idols anyway and, even if the idols are played for the wrong guys, Cydney still goes home. Once again, have the majority vote for Debbie instead to get rid of the one you want, not the one they want (although this creates problems the following TC because now there are 2 groups of four - perhaps they felt that Julia would stay with the women+Joe alliance, or re-join it - if it was Debbie who was gone). Instead, we ended up with the worst possible scenario - got rid of one of their alliance and the jerks keep their idols. . But it bugs me that Scot and Jason think that their tantrum, I mean, masterplan, worked. The ones who were unsuccessful seemed to have their dominoes close enough together, but one of them fell sideways, instead of into the next one and they had to go back and re-do it. Great challenge. I remember Cydney lettng the guys know that What'shername had the idol clue, but IO don't think Cydney was there when they found it and probably doesn't know about the superidol "rules" I am guessing that they did tell her but Debbie was convinced that, if they had idols, they would have used them last week. Also, based on Debbie's "hey, let's split the votes 2-2-2, so one of the three people in the minority go home" plan, Debbie wasn't thinking clearly.

I never heard the one about black women either, but I remember hearing, at least 10 years ago, that condoms sold in eastern Asia were smaller than those sold in the US. Don't know if it is true, but the idea has been around for a while.

Waiting out on the curb at the airport, trying not to make eye contact with the security guy who is trying to tell you to move your car because the person you are picking up hasn't come out yet, is not nearly is exciting as waiting inside the airport, just outside the gate, with a crowd of other people, all excitedly waiting for their visitors and loved ones to come through the doors. But, it is all worth it, because it keeps us safe...hey, wait a second. The comments the people gave (about herpes in black women and the shorter endowments in Asian males) wee racist. And I am sure there are plenty of people who don't date certain ethnic groups because of something race related, but there are also non-racist reasons why someone might not pick people of certain races. For instance, a friend of mine used Coffee meets Bagel - they send you one prospective date once a day. When she set up her profile, she did not select any race, as she didn't care - race was not important to her. What was important to her was height. She is very tall - 5'10" - and finds it uncomfortable when she towers over a guy. It seemed like most of the profiles she got were asian men who were at least 4" shorter than her, without heels. So she changed her profile to "whites only" because she thought that was her best hope to find a guy tall enough for her. Soon after, she met her boyfriend through the site - he is a tall Middle Eastern guy, who put his race as white, because he thought it would get him more prospects.

How could I forget the best bounty hunter in Southeastern Michigan, between Schaefer Road and Miller Road, every other Tuesday when the other bounty hunter visits his mother in Ann Arbor?

My nitpick this week - They need a new wardrobe person. The 3/4 length sleeved jacket/sweater over a long sleeve shirt is really bugging me. And this episode had a lot of talk about the best boots for a DC winter and then Stevie is walking around the house in a sleeveless dress. I don't remember the exact details, but it seems to me that Stevie should not have been surprised that her parents weren't fond of Arthur.