wendyg

Going back to the travel agency thing...the internet wasn't around in the late 1980s, but what *was* beginning to appear was "bucket shops" - discount air travel specialist agencies, quite often working with the help of the airline (to sell off tickets for flights that weren't selling well). My reading was that Philip's client had found one of these. (It wasn't always easy; they were limited in how they could advertise, and you often found out about them by word of mouth.) They were the first step towards discount travel and travel generally becoming a commodity rather than a luxury.

That whole thing reminded me of the episode of TRANSPARENT where Maura meets Leslie Mackinaw and is forced to realize that as Mort she had hurt people. Similar case: Leslie spent ten years trying to get on the editorial board of a journal, and Maura blocked her and a group of other women every time and took only men except, as Leslie went on to remind her, one woman with big tits Mort couldn't take his eyes off. I think TGF was trying to get at the idea that even men who've never done anything actively wrong may still have exercised unconscious but damaging bias. But it was a bit ham-fisted, especially compared to TRANSPARENT's handling of it. As presented, it didn't make much sense: if there was only one spot, someone was going to lose, and they didn't seem to be suggesting that the woman who got the position was underqualified. But maybe that was just one piece of a pattern that didn't get clearly spelled out for us.

I couldn't really believe that anyone could be allergic to *all* natural fibers (wool sure, lots of people are, but *also* cotton, linen, and rayon (which is made of cellulose), *and* silk?), so I looked it up. She has a long list of food allergies and also lists wool, cashmere, and down (well, cashmere is a form of wool...). She may well be difficult to work with given such a long list, but few sitcom characters were down, and you can do a lot with all the fabrics that aren't wool. So either the clothes she wears on this show are deliberate or someone is incompetent.

chocolatine: CS degrees. You and your friends weren't physicists and engineers. Wozniak was always the one who IME was admired by a lot of geeks because he actually built things and made things (including a lot of people's first home computer), and because Apple set the standard that Microsoft copied. It's true that in the last decade or two Gates has become admired for his philanthropy, though (in the 1990s, he was often criticized for not being engaged in good works).

For me, what made it a good episode is that both viewpoints are reasonable and neither party is really wrong. Remember it's only a week or so since Christy herself was very tempted to drink when she didn't get into any of her law school choices. Patrick might think differently if he talked to Violet and got a picture of what Christy was like before.

It shouldn't have been news to Patrick, since Adam told him when he first got involved with Christy that this was how it was going to be.

What bothers me about this is that these guys are physicists and engineers, not software developers. I just don't see Bill Gates as someone they'd regard as a hero. Far more likely they'd despise Microsoft because they're Linux users who use "real" software. Of all the famous people they've had on the show, this one just doesn't really work where all the others did.

William Daniels was wonderful in ST ELSEWHERE - arrogant, yes, but also deeply emotional in a repressed kind of way. And also really trying to push the envelope on surgeries that are now routine but then were first-time ground-breaking stuff. They're not doing anything nearly so interesting with Bell.

Microdosing originated in sports doping, I think; it's been a known technique for some years - it means athletes can expect the substances they take to clear their systems much more quickly and they're less likely to get caught when they're tested.

The one thing I didn't like about the ending was that I really wanted Carol to end up running the network. I didn't find it particularly satisfying to have her wind up (effectively) married with a baby, given how good she was at her job.

I love Judge Abernathy. The happiest bleeding heart on TV!

I don't find it unrealistic that an admissions person would meet with a prospective candidate, even one who'd just been rejected. I do find it unrealistic that they'd tell Christy to get her LSAT scores up. There are many reasons to be skeptical about those standardized tests. I'd have found it more believable if the admissions person had suggested Christy take some law-related courses and show she can do the work and get respectable grades. Or do volunteer work at a law center or NGO to add to her references, etc.

Driad, PinkRibbons: There's a bit in Carrie Fisher's wonderful WISHFUL DRINKING about this. Her parents named her brother Todd for Mike Todd, who, with his wife Elizabeth Taylor, were their best friends. "A silly superstition," Fisher says, and pauses..."Or so we thought..." Not long after, Mike Todd was killed in a plane crash, and within a *very* short time Eddie Fisher divorced Debbie Reynolds and married Taylor.

I disliked Erlich from episode 1, so I'm looking forward to seeing the show without him. Like the writers said, I miss Christopher Evan Welch all the time, though.

OtterMommy: Not quite. The Jewish tradition is that you are only Jewish if your mother is Jewish. I think it's because where you couldn't, pre-DNA testing, be sure who a child's father was, you knew definitely who its mother was. There's a similar mode of thinking visible in medieval tales where nephews are so important.

I would think she could still train as a paralegal. Or get some advice on courses to take (or paid/volunteer work) to improve her profile for another try. There's nothing wrong with applying to one school you don't think you can get into. Other than losing the cost of the application, the worst that happens is they said no. She was realistic enough to expect not to get in - the only school she thought she could be sure of was North Valley. But I loved the thing with her holding the glass and the phone call. From sober friends, I always hear that AA really does have those magical moments.

I don't think taking psilocybin once qualifies as drug addiction. But I didn't think it really fit that Diane would try it at a professional event. I'm sorry that Erica Taizel is leaving - if she is, since they could simply be transitioning her into a different place in the show. She was wasted in the first season, so I'm glad if it's the latter of those.

It was a somewhat malicious suggestion he made to Sean and Beverly during the period when they were split up, that they should write a sitcom about a couple who came to Hollywood to write sitcoms and then split up. It wasn't the show he was running.

If you're interested in Lorre's history and how TWO AND A HALF MEN came to be, I suggest his enjoyable essay about his early career: http://chucklorre.com/index.php?p=writtenby Besides TBBT and 2 1/2M, Lorre worked on ROSEANNE before creating or co-creating GRACE UNDER FIRE, CYBILL, and DHARMA AND GREG. After those experiences, he fled to working with men for a while.

CherryAmes: While it's tempting to blame everything on Lorre, I'd point out that the main showrunner for TBBT has been Steve Molaro for quite some years now. Molaro is the one who brought in the FRIENDS-redux flavor. Plus, all of Lorre's show are room-written - that is, the entire writers' room collaborates on pitching jokes and writing the script. I'd say Lorre and co-creator Bill Prady were a lot more closely involved for the first five or so years, when there was a lot more science (and the show was much funnier, IMO). I think MOM, now in its fifth season, is probably a lot closer to Lorre's heart. Five main female characters, all over 40, and none of them is a shrew. Re the names of the characters: as @roamyn says Rajesh is a very common Indian name. Penny and Howard are pretty common, too. Sheldon and Leonard were very specifically named for the great TV producer (THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and many others) Sheldon Leonard. Neither name is all that unusual, but in any case it's an homage. I've also known at least one Bernadette IRL. I actually love the richness of the names on this show. Except for Penny's unknown last name, which I've decided personally is "Moss" because I knew some people by that last name in Nebraska.

I think the writers probably think more of the general public is familiar with space science because it's so photogenic and on every front page. Among microbiologists the best-known choices are probably: Robert (Koch); Louis (Pasteur); or Ignaz (Semmelweis). Ignaz Wolowitz.

The problem is it's not the athletes who should be banned but the coaches, doctors, trainers, etc, who develop and administer the doping system. To those guys, the athletes are fungible.

bitterapples: One look at tennis parents will tell you there are bound to be some crazy enough to dope their kids if they think it will gain them a pro career.

Sharapova and hundreds of others. It appears that meldonium was in quite widespread use among Eastern European athletes.

Tambor has been officially fired: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jeffrey-tambor-officially-fired-transparent-wake-harassment-claims-1085236