Enero

I think the movie had many scenes that would’ve been considered risqué at the time ie the interrogation scene, the implied blowjob and cunnilingus, the bondage, the gay lover (being gay was still taboo back then) etc. I can’t recall if Sharon Stone showed her breast in the movie. I think Michael Douglas showed his ass though. Anyways I think it was risqué for 1992 when it was released but nowadays would be considered tamed. 😂

Anna was a blond bombshell. She might not have been a size 2, but she was hardly obese. She had a perfect body of curves when she modeled for Guess and Playboy. Perhaps due to the changing times, but she’s considered one of the most iconic models to ever represent Guess. For a period in her career after Guess and Playboy she did get quite heavy. However, by the time she passed away she’d slimmed down and had been that way for a few years I think.

I agree with everything said here, especially the comment about the little girl. She likely has a tough road ahead with her mom’s revolving door of boyfriends whose characters are shady at best. There was also mention that both guys with whom she was involved has/had substance abuse issues. So I’m guessing she may have similar issues as well. The little girl witnessed what happened and will likely be traumatized for life from it unless she gets therapy. Very unfortunate situation for her.

The case this week was just awful. That Ben guy was a POS. How awful to command dogs (pit bulls) to attack his love rival out of jealousy. They said CJ had injuries over 90% of his body and his parents said he was unrecognizable when they went to view his body. Even when Ben learned CJ had died he didn’t respond. He didn’t care that CJ was dead. And unfortunately the poor dogs became victims in this too as they were put down due to the attack. SMH. Sidebar - The Tulsa detectives can be so unprofessional. When interviewing the witnesses they oftentimes seemed to leading the witnesses a bit with their statements. I hope the case holds up in court.

I recently watched the episode on Soul For Real. I never knew the members were all brothers. I did feel really bad for them as I watched. They are talented, but truly were just a one-hit wonder. Candy Rain was their only hit, which I think worked against them (meaning having only one hit) when they wanted to write their own music etc. They acheived great success with that one song, but had not proven they could sustain it with numerous hits. Moreover, they likely had not displayed any strong writing and producing capabilities either, which is probably one reason why the record label was resistent to letting them have creative control of their album. All that said, I do think Heavy D and the others who were managing them, absolutely took advantage of the situation and milked their success, as short as it was, for all the money they could make off of it, with little interest in helping those guys come up in the industry. It was nice to see that despite their struggles, the brothers still seemed close. I'm very interested in the PM Dawn episode. They were an extremely talented group. Though they sampled a lot, if I'm remembering correctly they wrote all of the lyrics to their songs. They also wrote and produced for others. One of them passed away I believe some time in the early/mid 2000s, can't remember which one. But their episode should be one of the more interesting ones of the season.

I agree. Alex did seem like she needed a lot of help. I also couldn’t believe she threw the party and afterwards all her friends and family (mother) left her alone with Jamison. That could’ve turned out very badly and almost did when he tried to strangle her to death. Someone should’ve continued to stay there with her after she’d obviously irritated him to the point of threats. I also agree about women taking in grown men who they don’t know as roommates. That was baffling to me. Yes women can turn into roommates from hell too. See the still pending case of the Clark Atlanta student who was sexually assaulted by her roommate’s boyfriend ( a roommate whom she thought was her friend for years) then later murdered by both. But a single woman probably has a better chance of things turning out okay with another woman as a roommate than a man. I do think that all the women who roomed with Jamison were very naive ot just made poor decisions in general in taking him in as a roommate. Thank goodness they all escaped with only a couple of pets stolen, bad credit and/or minor physical injuries. All of which are horrible things to endure but they got out with their lives which is most important considering how unstable he was.

Just finished this series. All the stories were pretty crazy. I think Dorothea had help killing all those people and burying them in the back yard. I wonder why they didn’t arrest anyone for accessory to murder after the fact? Did they not have proof that she had assistance? Or did the tenants mental issues play a part in the police not pursuing that angle? There’s just no way she murdered several people wrapped them up in her living room to bury them without her housemates knowing more or even participating in burying the bodies. Also, did none of her neighbors smell dead bodies rotting in the backyard? The properties were pretty close together. The story of Maribel was heartbreaking. Her 911 call to report her roommate threatening to kill her was very sad. She was obviously terrified. I don’t understand why she didn’t leave the home being that she was so scared. Though her sister claimed there was nothing between Maribel and the roommate I do wonder if they did have some sort of sexual relationship and he became obsessed. Some of the pictures they took together were a little strange and looked like more than just friendship was going on. Perhaps that’s why she wouldn’t leave the home even though she feared her life was in danger. She may have genuinely cared for him and was hoping things would turn out okay despite her fear. I also question the closeness she had with her sister. I don’t believe there were any pictures shown of them together. But there were pictures of her with her teenage niece. This could also be why she didn’t leave the home because she had nowhere to go. Very sad story. The guy who was faking being Pakistani was the Tinder Swindler all over again. The only difference is his marks seemed to be mostly platonic, and he tried to kill the young woman whom he was due to pay back the money he’d borrowed. Thank goodness she survived. I have no doubt though if the Tinder Swindler got pushed into a corner he’d resort to the same methods. It’s scary that this guy is still out there free after attempting to kill someone. The last case was pretty crazy. Jamison was nuts! How you gone make a living moving into people’s homes and apartments and squatting, then becoming enraged when they ask you to leave due to not paying rent? Crazy. SMH. I do think some of the victims in this case were desperate to have someone help with rent etc and thus logic and suspicion went out the window. This was specifically evident with the woman who was trying to keep from losing her home because she couldn’t afford the mortgage alone. I think there was more to the story from the lady who dated him but continued to live with him for 4 years after learning he was crazy and breaking up with him. She claimed she stayed because she didn’t want to put out the landlord. Sounds thin to me. Don’t know if much of that time they were off and on or what. But I do not believe she continued to live in what she described as a horrible situation simply out of loyalty to the landlord. I liked Alex, who threw the Wu-Tang, rock and roll, weed party to get him out. That was extremely risky but thankfully she escaped that situation with her life considering what he did to his brother. I wonder if they’ll add more episodes? I’m sure there are a lot more stories out there about people having to deal with dangerous and/or deadly roommates.

Trusova is about to age out of the system anyway. So she has nothing to lose by leaving Eteri at this point. She may receive some blowback with scoring and making international competitions because as I understand Eteri has a lot of power there. But then again, with the war in Ukraine severely impacting the Russian economy (negatively) and with the ban, the system may be turned on its head anyway. This has the potential to cause some serious damage to the state funded program, really all the sports programs in Russia.

I’m surprised China is not sending anyone in pairs. Chen and Yang didn’t do too bad at the Olympics. They came in 5th. With the Russians out of the picture they could actually make the podium. Surprised Nathan will be attending. I guess he wants another World Championship title. If he wins, which I have no doubt he will, he’ll be (4) times world champion and undefeated for 4 consecutive years at the event. The last male figure skater to accomplish that feat was Scott Hamilton.

With the Russians not competing at Worlds how will it affect their spots for 2023 worlds? Or will their results at the Olympics determine their worlds spots for 2023?

Just finished watching the episode on Steve Irwin. There was a lot of denial going on in that episode from his friends i.e. he'd never take pain medication even though he suffered from a shattered knee along with, at one point a broken neck and a litany of other painful injuries that were never treated with surgery. They were saying he just pushed through the agonizing pain and did what he needed to do without needing medication. The other delusion was that he never took risks. He was always in control. Okay. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. This is one of the few times I did agreed with Dr. Papadoplous' assessment when she said him managing to escape many dangerous situations gave him the confidence that he was always in control and that all would always turn out fine, which ironically caused him to let his guard down and not be as dilligient with being cautious when working with dangerous animals.

I doubt this would stop them. They could fly to China, then fly from there to France on another aircraft.

Isn’t Nathan pre-med? I agree. I’ve heard about his hip issues as well. He seems to love to skate but also have other aspirations. He’s won Nationals, worlds and has numerous Olympic medals including THE OGM for men’s singles. He has nothing else to prove. So I too think he’ll move on. Regarding Eteri, I’m betting she and her girls will be at worlds with bells on. Though as I understand Kamila has been making the media rounds too, the Russian’s approach to training and drugs to support that training will no doubt have her ready to compete at Worlds despite her busy off ice schedule.

Indeed. Though Nathan is awesome I’ve never heard anyone refer to him as one of the greatest of all time ala Yuzu. Granted I’ve not heard every comment any commentator or sports reporter has said about him. That said the greatest has come up in recent years with ladies, Of course there was Kwan with that label back in the day, then came Yuna Kim, then this year everyone was saying Kamila Valieva was the greatest ever to grace the sport. The greatest or best ever is certainly in the eyes of the bolder. That’s not to say these skaters are/were great but “the greatest” is subjective.

Could not agree more. And I’ll go even further to say that her unadulterated joy, and uninhibited passion in her free skate along with its technical difficulty is what won her the OGM. Many will disagree of course, but I think she earned that gold medal. That night she was better than Kwan IMO.

I definitely think modernizing the way they promote the sport will help. The younger generation is not flocking to the sport to fill those gaps left by older fans leaving it behind. So USFS has to figure out a way to engage the younger sec. That said, I think increasing interest is predicated on creating world and Olympic medalist in the women’s discipline. Without winners there will be no interest. I do think figuring out a way to scout phenoms in the sport early on and designing programs to cultivate those talents will go a long way in establishing a deep field of skaters. Don’t know how soon phenoms start to exhibit extraordinary talent. Or if the problem is these phenoms leave the sport, for various reasons, before being discovered. But in order to be relevant again I do think the USFS will need to overhaul how they find and cultivate talent. I also think diversity is key. The world has changed and being progressive and working to attract minorities (ie African Americans, Latin-Americans etc.) to the sport will go a long way in drawing more attention to it and increase interest.

Bringing this over from the Olympic Figure Skating thread. Interesting thoughts from Scott. He gave a little more context in the article below about why there no longer being a professional discipline for the sport, contributed to a decline in it's popularity. He stated that the professional part of the sport promoted it to general audiences, which worked to help maintain it's popularity and that the ISU expanding opportunities for amateurs essentially undermined this strategy. Which resulted in the sports decline. I don't know if I agree him. Here's a more recent article on the decline of U.S. figure skating. Figure Skating is on thin ice. Here's how to fix it. It touches on a lot of interesting things. It seems the most common reasons stated not just in this article, but in other articles I've read is a) a lack of figure skating champions on an International level, specifically in women's b) the new judging system (which I think people would figure out if there were U.S. ladies who were world and Olympic medalists) and c) money to compete in the sport. The article also mentioned some alternatives to FS that are outside of the traditional competition we see at worlds and the Olympics. I've heard of Ice Theatre and even seen some of the performances. Very creative and contemporary stuff. But I doubt it would ever be incorporated into any type of competitive discipline.

Yes. I was referring to the red dress. And I agree. The color was stunning.

Watching Sui/Han again such an emotional skate. Beautiful. And their program was so engaging that it didn’t even feel like 4 minutes. I could’ve watched them keep skating…but then it was over. Congratulations to them again! I wonder if they’ll skate for one more season or go ahead and retire? The Russians are practically on top of them in scoring so it will certainly be a challenge not only competing but winning if they continue.

Love the sparkle of Tara’s dress tonight. The design is nothing special but the color is beautiful. Moksvina(?) looks the same as she did 30 years ago. Or maybe it’s the mask. 😂

Watched Sui/Han’s SP and LP. Both were great skates! Despite her error in the free skate, her side by side jumps didn’t look as effortless as they should’ve in the both programs. She looked to be barely landing them, I thought their gold was still well deserved. It was very cool seeing Shen/Zhao in the K&C with them. I loved hearing about their love story back in the day. I remember when he proposed to her after their WC skate. He got down on one knee to propose and she had no idea what he was doing and got down on her knees too. Lol. Anyway lovely couple. It looks like they’re still together after all these years which is sweet.

As I understand, one reason why weed is banned, specifically in archery, is because of the calming impact it has on the body. Archers can use it to steady the hand and thus be more precise when shooting. I really don’t think any sport is beyond doping. Of course some sports may be more prone to it than others, but there are a plethora of drugs or other unethical methods that can help an athlete be better in any sport. It’s just a matter of determining what is needed to be better and finding the drug or other unethical method to support that.

I believe a Russian was stripped of his bronze medal from the Pyeongchang Games due to doping.

Honestly I don’t think just promoting our ladies, who are not winning competitions,will suffice either. The bottom line is the popularity of a sport is synonymous with winners. Hanyu would not be Hanyu if he’d not won two OGM medals, numerous world medals and stuck at or near the top of the sport for 8 years. Russia and Asia seems to have no qualms about men being figure skaters, unlike the U.S., which helps too. As someone said up thread, the U.S. needs at least 2-3 rockstar ladies figure skater who are consistently winning the international events and is around for at least an Olympic cycle or two. I think that MAY get people interested again. The generations that would’ve been heavily inspired by Kwan and/or Cohen would be reaching the senior levels by now or should’ve already reached that level and obviously none of them are medal contenders. So a new crop of skaters will have to inspire little girls (and their parents) to go into skating. I will add, that the cheating at these Games will not help the sport. I mean who wants to spend ten of thousands of dollars a year on their kid training for a sport that’s rigged and has a governing body who does nothing about it? Gymnastics and other sports, at this point, are a more appealing option, cause at least right now the US has had numerous women over the last several years be at the top of that sport. There have been no situations were known cheaters were allowed to compete. The diversity is so much better than FS. And there is a path in gymnastics and other Summer sports from high school (for some), to college, to National/International circuit to the Olympics. Which results in the athlete (and their parents) potentially getting a much better ROI from the sport than FS. BOT - Congrats to Sui/Han. They won by the skin of their teeth but they won. I may watch the replay of their performance later. Or perhaps it’s up on YouTube which will be even better.