needschocolate

The show did a much, much better job with the Shamy sex than I ever thought they could, so, while I have always thought that a pregnancy would be the worst thing for this show, I am willing to see how it plays out. Bernie said she didn't want to have children and, after being in charge of her siblings, she didn't want to take care of children, so Howard would have to be the caregiver if they ever had kids. People often think they feel one way, but, subconsciously, their true feelings might be quite the opposite. If Bernie really doesn't want to raise children, why did she marry Howard? He is the least mature man-child around. Maybe the fact that Howard is finally growing up a bit, made Bernie subconsciously forget her birth control.

When they got to the end game and Gina Davis's charity was something like "The Coalition for Equality and Fairness for Women, Minorities, and All the Downtrodden Everywhere" I thought "Oh dear, she is going to be one of those who goes out of her way not to mention sex or color and the civilian is going to lose." Fortunately, she proved me wrong. Gina's clues were the reason the civilian won, because Ben Feldman's clues were horrible - He's a great singer! She is the best Actress!

I remember the "piñata cakes" (not the official name). They were supposed to have candy tumble out of the cake when they cut it (which is a concept I have never heard of anywhere else). I remember when I heard the description, I thought they had to bake the cake with all that candy in it, then I was surprised when some (most?) of them just baked a cake, cut a hole in it, filled the hole with candy, and frosted the whole thing. I assume that Jane was planning on only putting frosting between the layers, or else she made much to little frosting. When she realized she couldn't use both layers, she should have cut the layer into two smaller circles - plus then she would have had enough frosting (for the middle anyway). But I can't fault her for not thinking of it -- it took me two days to come up with that idea, and I am at least 3 times her age. That's Food Network! I wonder if they do that because they can't get companies to pay for product placement or because FN has to pay something if they use the brand name (some sort of copyright thing to protect their brand?). Maybe it is just because FN likes to use the cheaper generic products.

The valentine episode had cakes that were much better than the ones on the previous episodes. The Batter Up cakes were better, too, so I don't think it was because just they got a chocolate artist (although I am sure it helped - if only because it gave them more hands). I think these bakers were better prepared or more experienced or just plain better than past contestants. Proof of this is the lack of a "Big Catastrophe" this week. They kept trying to find one - "Oh, I forgot to put the pipe in the cake. We need to add it now" and "Oh, I can't find the pipe because the cake is bigger than I thought" - but they weren't catastrophic enough. The closest thing to a "Big Catastrophe" (which is always the "disaster" shown before and after a commercial break) was the frosting not sticking on the trunk. Usually, I try to figure out if the "Big Catastrophe" was re-created or if it was filmed live. This time, I was trying to figure out if it was an actual problem/disaster/catastrophe. While they were talking about how the frosting wasn't sticking, they were showing the cake with frosting covering the side - the frosting that wasn't sticking was sticking to the side of the cake. Maybe they were talking about the frosting not sticking to the top, that it was pulling off crumbs/cake when they tried to spread it (that can happen with a carved cake - hence the reason for crumb-coating before putting on the final frosting). They could have tried softening the frosting or piping it on instead of spreading with a spatula. I get the feeling that they decided to have the chocolate guy do the trunk texture so they made up the "frosting won't stick" story.

Me too. What are they going to do next, have a flashback where we get to see Howard's mom? And given the casting of Meemaw, Howard's mom would probably be played by John Goodman in drag.

From my eventual novel... And as she finishes the last bite of her tiramisu, he says, "I have one final course." He reaches under the table and presses a button. She hears a soft whirring sound and, to her surprise, the hexagon in the center of the table starts to rise slowly, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Once again she marvels, not only at his cooking skills, but at his decorating skills as well, for this table is a perfect match to the orange velour chairs and the lava lamp on the buffet. Before she has a chance to speak, she spots it, the black ring box. He gets down from his chair and onto one knee, unplugs the extension cord wrapped around his foot, and asks the question she had been longing to hear all of her 18.5 years. He had said this was the final course, but she has one more course in mind - it is time for her to show off her skills....

I am glad Leanne is staying, but I would have preferred if the whole incident made her realize that she needs to stay as chief of the residents (or whatever her position is called). Mike is good and he can stay, but Leanne would still be in charge. I just can't see Leanne being the one to enforce the rules in the ER.

There was so much threatening, paranoia, and accusations going on this episode that I think we have finally had everyone threaten to turn against them and have had everyone accuse everyone else of wanting to turn on the group - unfortunately, the accusing was all one on one, so it took up most of the episode. There seemed to be a pattern - put two characters in the same room, have character A tell character B "You are going to go to Gibbs, aren't you?" then B says, "No I wasn't, but I think you are considering it! How dare you!" Then have two other characters play A and B, until everyone has accused everyone. Then they added in the threats - "I don't want to hurt the people I care about, which proves that I, despite committing fraud and putting all the people I care about into a situation that can hurt them, must be a wonderful person, and if you don't perjure yourself to help me, then I will accuse you of something and get you into trouble." This whole episode was threats and accusations - we aren't any closer to a resolution than when we started - perhaps we are even farther away. I want this story line gone and go back to having real cases, but I don't see how that could ever happen.

In general, the parents of the sports-challenged kids think that, if their kid doesn't get to play as much as the others, their kid's self esteem will take a hit. Meanwhile, the sports-challenged kids usually know they are not as good as the others and are fine with warming the bench because they don't want to be the reason the team loses Many parents put their kids into team sports so they can learn about teamwork, but the kids understand the concept of doing what is best for the team better than the parents do.

Seems to me that they casted the character of Meemaw on looks more than anything else. She has that sweet little Mrs. Claus look. I bet they thought that having a sweet looking little old lady tell Amy off would be hilarious. I think all of the actresses listed above would have been great as Meemaw but none of them would seem right playing Mrs. Claus, and they may not have been considered because of it. I think the whole joke of sweet little grandma telling someone off would have been better (though not any more original - it's been done many times before) if they would have devoted more time to showing us the sweet side to Meemaw. Have her dote on her little Moon Pie adn be sugary sweet and adorable when Sheldon is around, and have her real opinions come out when he isn't. Of course, they don't have time to do that because they need to have 40% of their time slot devoted to commercials. If they are going to continue to have so many commercials, then I say it is time for them to be "revolutionary" and get rid the B plot. Just have one story line per episode, but do it well. And shorten the opening - we all have the song memorized anyway. But, don't get rid of that shot of the universe they have when they come back from commercial (and when they switch scenes) - it helps me know when to stop fast-forwarding. I can easily imagine Penny and Bernie telling their husbands about the Shamy sex and then telling them "If you say anything to Sheldon, he may never have sex with Amy again, and, if that happens, I will never have sex with you again!" Would have only taken 15 seconds to have this scene, but that's half a commercial.

After you quoted my post, I noticed that I had typed "none" when I meant to type "one." So, I changed my original post. Yeah, there is no way they had a funeral fast enough for Malaya to still be in the hospital, considering she was able to sit up and talk (if Malaya was in a coma, it would be a different story). Gina was murdered, and I have watched enough CSIs to know that the police have to do an investigation if there is a murder. What if Gordon had an accomplice? What if it was just a random coincidence that two ER employees were stabbed on the same day? There could still be a murderer wandering around.

I found the timing in this episode a bit fuzzy - Malaya is a patient in the hospital, the Chief and Leanne meet at the graveyard, Malaya is still a patient in the hospital, eye still swollen. I could believe that they have the investigation very soon after the incident - so soon that Malaya would still be a patient recovering from her injuries. Conversely, I could believe that it could take more than a wee or two before they have the investigation - enough time for a funeral and burial. But I don't understand how Malaya would still be a patient after enough time had passed for Gina to be buried. I thought it was a bad choice of Neil to turn in the paper saying that he and Christa were in a relationship right after sticking up for her in the investigation. I was hoping that one of the ER docs would say "Well, maybe if we could have surgeons actually respond when we need them, instead of their always being no surgeons and/or operating room available, we wouldn't need to do surgery in the ER." but, I suppose that would be too meta. I hope the people conducting the investigation grill the security people as to why they never noticed Gordon being in the ER 17 times, sometimes just wandering around, without even being a patient. Your hospital is in code black 450 days out of 365, and you expect the ER docs to remember every person who comes into the ER? I would have gotten off when she did, but I would have taken another elevator or the stairs in the opposite direction and found a security guy. I am not saying that this was, in any way, shape, or form, Malaya's fault. But, even if you did nothing wrong, there are usually things you can learn (to do differently the next time) to help keep the situation from repeating. If you leave your wallet on a park bench, that doesn't give anyone the right to take it. However, your chances of getting your wallet stolen increase tremendously if you keep leaving your wallet on park benches. Gordon had no right to attack Malaya. However, if you get off an elevator because someone on it, who is getting off on your floor, is creeping you out, and you continue to go to the floor you know he was going to, the chance of something happening to you increases. There are bad people in the world and you should try your best to do things that less your chance of being the victim, but not doing those things doesn't make it the victim's fault. I think Angus's reaction was totally reasonable under the circumstances - I don't think he made a conscience decision to let Gordon die. Even though he knew that Gordon hurt Malaya, he was yelling at Gordon to leave the knife in - Angus's gut instinct was to save Gordon. After Gordon pulls out the knife and there is blood gushing out, it is easy to see how Angus would be in shock and not necessarily thinking clearly. He may have been (subconsciously) trying to stop Gordon from doing further damage. Or he may have (subconsciously) been afraid that, if he let Gordon's hands free, Gordon could attack him or get blood on him. Having the security people come in may have jolted Angus back to reality. That's the story I am going with. Edited because "none" and "one" are very different things

Plus, in real life, a guy like Henry, who was the captain who lead his college debate team to the national championships and who is currently the president if the Washington DC Toastmasters Club, would have had more to say. But it is a TV show with only so much time available, so he needed to keep his remarks brief and to the point. His eulogy reminded me of a wedding I went to years ago. The priest spent a fair amount of time telling the guests that if either of the couple comes to you complaining about the other one, don't encourage them to get divorced. I didn't know the couple very well (childhood friend of the bride, but we hadn't stayed that close), but I got the definite impression that the couple had gotten a lot "You shouldn't get married. It won't last" comments from their families (I still get Christmas cards from the married couple - it has been over 30 years).

I would never buy the phone charging, hard-drive storage backpack, but it doesn't stop me from wondering if it really functions as a backpack, or if it is just a wearable phone charger hard drive. Is there any extra room for a lunch bag or to stash your purchases or a bottle of sunscreen? Did it have a little pouch to hold a bottle of water? The bra seemed like a good idea, but I can't believe that no one has ever thought of it before - it doesn't seem that complicated. I am thinking that someone has tried it before, but, for some reason, it didn't sell. I guess it doesn't get that hot where I live, because I can't imagine anyone spending that much on a giant, portable, individual "air conditioner." And where are you supposed to get blocks of ice when you are camping? The test prep guy's company relies too much on him being the test prep guy. Not sure how well you can train someone one else to teach the way he can teach it. The only way to make him be the teacher everywhere is to have it be an online course. But those have drawbacks - like not being able to ask the instructor a question in real time. I can see why most parents prefer paying for an actual live class instead of an online one, but if you do it online, you can have more than one child sitting at the computer and only pay for one (split the cost with a friend).

I am not into minecraft, so I watched this episode mostly to catch the "Big Catastrophe!" - and there were two of them this time! In the first challenge we got the "oh, no, we need to put on the head, but the cake is crumbling!" Big Catastrophe. I am pretty sure this one was re-enacted for the camera. First, the cake he was supposed to put the head on wasn't even frosted all the way yet. Second, the "head" he was trying to put on was not very professional looking - it was lumpy and lop-sided. Third, the "head" he was supposed to put on didn't look to be the correct size, like it was made out of leftover pieces (this is compared to the drawing, I forgot to notice how big the head was in the finished cake). Last, and more important, as they stand there complaining that "the cake is crumbling and they don't know what they will do now" you can see him digging into the cake with his fingers, trying to make it crumble. The second catastrophe - the character collapsing, I think was actual footage of the actual catastrophe, not a re-enactment. I felt sorry for them, it seems to me that, had their cake held up, they would have been the ones taking home the $10,000.

I am sorry to see any of these kids go - every time one leaves, we are that much closer to the end of the season and I don't want that to happen. I am really enjoying this show. I was fine with the lunchbox part of it - except the pears and cheddar cheese. How is anyone supposed to make a tasty dessert with cheddar cheese? Yeah, I know that some people like a slice of cheddar on their apple pie, but cheddar isn't a usually dessert cheese and pears aren't apples. Adding the carrots or banana chips so late was not nice at all. Some had already put their dish in the oven before they got the carrots/banana chips - so much for rewarding good time management.

Well, now I am positive I didn't pay enough attention to this story line.

Judging by what we saw in that one episode with Henry's dad and this episode with Henry's siblings, I am pretty sure that Henry didn't belong to a family that was open enough to have the conversation I suggested. Though he may have regretted afterwards (perhaps only because his father accidentally found out about the dinner), Henry likely did the right thing not taking his dad.

Random thoughts ---- After watching this episode, I had an urge to call my sister-in-law and tell her how wonderful she is (I didn't do it, as it was much too late and she probably would have wondered about my mental state). It would be crappy to have Maureen in the family. I suppose it has no bearing on the story, but I wondered if Henry's dad thought that Henry was ashamed of him being a working class guy, when, in reality, Henry was worried that his dad would lecture the other fathers. In a more open family there would have been a "Dad, there is a father-son dinner, but please don't try to explain to the other dad's why they should unionize. It is not the time or place for it. I know you are passionate about your work, but if you start arguing with anyone, I am leaving." Of course, Henry's son will be more blunt, if the he is in that situation - "Dad, there is a father-son dinner and we are not going" Now Henry can blame himself for his dad's suicide and blame himself that the Russian student turned spy was killed (I think there were a few other deaths that Henry was remotely connected with). Of course, Henry won't need to see a therapist. Elizabeth will just find him watching The Lion King in the middle of the night and he will be all better. Henry's eulogy was moving and had the desired effect on his family, but I couldn't help thinking that it probably felt quite odd to the people who weren't close family. I was a little worried when the police said that Henry's dad died of a drug overdose not a heart attack. I thought we were going to get another big conspiracy for them to uncover. But then no one even stops to think that maybe Maureen added the pills to the meatloaf she fed him the night before or something. And they didn't even drag out the finding the person who took all of Dad's money. Side note - He's in dire straights, so he scams a friend - and scams him for everything he has? That's low, really low. I don't understand the point to the department stuff. Russell gives them the report telling them to focus on the the effects on the environment and the fishing industry. After they have had the report long enough to read it, The CIA redacts a paragraph because it may lead someone to realize that a buddy of the president received money from a US subsidiary of a bad Chinese company. Was this just bad timing on Russell's part - "Oops! I didn't know that was in there, it is gone now, forget you ever saw it." I got the feeling that Russell wanted them to find the info and to let Elizabeth know about it, but I don't get why. I am afraid that this story will become relevant in future episodes and I don't think I paid enough attention to it.

First off, apologies all around, because I eventually got too lazy to press the "like" button, but I feel every post here deserves a thumbs up. Alicia and, guilty by association, Lucca have pissed off one, maybe two judges. They have few, if any, paying clients. They are barely scraping by, financially. I don't think they have won their last couple of cases, and lawyers on TV almost always win, so they must be bad lawyers. And Cary wants them back at his firm? Why? I guess it is the same Alicia "charm" that makes all men want her and makes everyone want to be her bestie. Some things never change - whenever the writers don't like a story line or have run out of ideas for a storyline, they end it in a matter of minutes, even if it was a storyline that lasted episodes, even seasons. For example, a few seasons ago, when everyone was still at Lockhart Gardner, the firm was in such financial trouble that they offered partnerships to all the 4th years because they needed their buy in money. Then, suddenly, "look at this big check we got in the mail!" and they took back most of the partnership offers because they now had plenty of cash. This time it was the sudden resolution thing with Alicia's "depression." For weeks/months/years she has been drinking more - first the wine glasses got bigger, then she switched to tequila, she wanders around wearing dark glasses with music playing in her head (better than voices, I suppose), she rejected anyone who was ever close to her (except maybe Grace), she became colder and less feeling...then she finally has an outburst, admits to drinking and not wanting to get out of bed, etc. And Lucca says "I want to be your friend" and suddenly Alicia is fine and ready to live her life. Huh? And why on Earth would Lucca want to be friends with Alicia? After the big Emmy Moment Scene, I turned to my husband and said, "Your business partner just admitted to having a drinking problem and being so depressed that she hates every aspect of her life. You need to say something because you are very concerned about her mental well-being. Would "I have no friends, please be my friend" be the first thing you think of? Would it be anywhere in the top 20 things you would think to say? Top 50 things? I thought Lucca seemed like a nice person who cares about others - kind of the anti-Alicia - but when Alicia has a breakdown, Lucca immediately switches the conversation to talk about herself! "I know your hurting, but lets talk about me now" Well, I can think of a couple of things Grace did to end up on Alicia's bad side (remember, this is Alicia's shit list we are talking about here) - -- Grace won the thing with the HOA people and she didn't even need Alicia's help. Alicia has to be the best, and won't tolerate anyone being better than her --- Grace got a few Cs on her report card, which means Grace is "Average" and that just won't do. No mention of counseling. Apparently all Alicia really needed was a friend. She didn't forgive Eli because she kissed Jason, she forgave Eli because she is now friends with Lucca. This show is so stupid.

It bugs me too - especially on Original Recipe PR. Heidi is 42, Nina is 50, Tim is 62, MK is 56, and, the baby of the bunch, Zac is 36. You would think they would realize that not everyone that wears fashionable clothing is under 30. And, as some 1105, mentioned, "mature" women tend to have more more money to spend on clothing than "young" women.

Starri, thanks for the reply. I was trying to ask how common it is that you need to do chest compressions in the ER - once a week, once a day, etc... which Weary Traveler phrased better. Of course, as you pointed out, it depends on how busy the ER is. On CB, they do CPR multiple times per episode - it seems like 20-40% of the patients code and need CPR. It is a TV show about an extremely busy ER and they don't give the "boring" stories about people needing an IV because they are so dehydrated from vomiting, or the person who needs antibiotics for pneumonia. Therefore, I can easily forgive the show for doing CPR so often. However, I am still curious about real life ERs - what percentage of patients end up having CPR performed manually on them? 1%? 10%? I would think it might be less than 1%, since they have the paddles to shock them with, but maybe they usually start manual compressions while the paddles are charging.

I am so glad they made the wife a sympathetic character. She was sad at losing her husband and I felt that she was only enforcing the DNR because she knew it was what he really wanted. This is an example of why I love this show. Other, more soap-opera-ish, shows would have had the wife be more hardened, insisting on the DNR because she tired of dealing with her husband's mental illness. In that case, Christa would have come across as a hero, an advocate for the patient. She would have administered CPR and the patient would survive and then we'd find out that the wife had pushed him off the building.... But the characters, even the guest stars, on CB are so fleshed out and everything is so well-acted, that viewers can understand the different points of view, even if you don't agree with them. I thought Christa was wrong, it wasn't her choice to make, but I understand why she would argue about following the DNR and why she would start CPR. Speaking of CPR...(but first some background) The opening credits on The Good Wife don't usually come up until around 14-18 minutes into the show. It has become a game at my house to guess when the credits start and whoever is closest wins. I think we might start doing the same game with Code Black, but instead of predicting the time of the opening credits, we will predict the time of the first chest compression. A question for those of you who work in ERs, how often do you do chest compressions (not the shock thing, but CPR by hand)?

Oh, I just thought that was your design aesthetic. I don't know why you are having that issue, perhaps it could have something to do with the system you are using, I don't have that problem and I use either Chrome or Explorer and a computer (no phone posting)

I love the designers - they are all amazing at their craft and all have wonderful personalities. They will all go far, but I think they one most destined for success is Peytie's sister. I am really hoping that it is an extra few days to finish, but, being more realistic, I hope it means that they are bringing back the auf'ed designers to help them finish. That would the only one of the surprises they done in the past (that I can remember) that wouldn't be a mean thing to do to these wonderful kids.