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The country has paid with 40 years of acrimony and payback for Nixon's resignation. I am not anxious to see this repeated on steroids (though, granted, the people who have held the grudge all this time are unlikely to be alive 40 years hence). Returning to LWT, I didn't care for the Japanese segment.

I'm not surprised if Maddow and others are less keen on Sanders this time around: he's four years older and he's no longer the only one with progressive goals. Before appearing on TRMS, Pete Buttigieg gave an interview to The West Wing Weekly podcast, and he made an interesting point that although we think of them as different generations because their ages were so different when they were president, Clinton, Bush, and Trump were all born within a few weeks of each other in 1946. (Curiously, since Obama was born in 1961 we have never had a president who was born in the 1950s, and unless something happens to Trump and Pence succeeds we are highly unlikely ever to have one). Sanders was born in 1941, Biden in 1942, Nancy Pelosi in 1940. I would never say that someone should be disqualified from a job because of their age, but so many current issues are are late arrivals in the lives of people born in the 1940s but things younger people have grown up with that I really do think there's a lot to be said for moving on from the 1940s. Plus, of course, the US Presidency as normally executed is a hugely taxing job; even younger presidents like Obama and Clinton visibly age by the day. The exception was Reagan, who was 70 when first elected - but he always looked like he dyed his hair and wore makeup.

More likely it's just that the people running the show now are more attuned to/intersted in the characters and couples they had more to do with creating. Leonard and Penny were the original show. After Steve Molaro took over as showrunner the focus shifted. Lorre credits Molaro for opening the show out and making its long run possible. (I still prefer the early seasons even though I think Amy and Sheldon are a highly original TV coupling.)

I think this is unfair. The most likely situation is that Baranski signed a contract before the show began under which she is committed to play the character for x number of years, at the show's option. She couldn't know three years ago how the show would evolve, but she did know that Diane, developed by the same showrunners, was a great character she enjoyed playing. Things change. A professional honors their commitments - and keeps in mind the 200 other people whose jobs depend on their doing so.

ScoobyDoobs: swimming with a USB key isn't ideal, but one of mine has been through the laundry cycle *twice* and survived just fine.

Small point: it's Mike Massimino.

I think the writers of this show need to go out and spend some time refreshing their ideas - perhaps by spending the summer working at Wal-Mart, Target, etc. The damage-the-store plot, like several others this season, was just stupid. I also think they could have made more of the idiot nephew, who I really thought looked like he could have been Glen's son.

The Ig Nobel awards ceremony every year includes several Nobel Laureates from the Boston area, so it doesn't surprise me the show found some. I imagine a lot of the things you get asked to do aren't as much fun.

I'm fond of saying that children make parents, in addition to the other way around. Everyone discovers for themselves how to be a parent with their own child - often sparked by "I don't want to be like my parents were". But marriage comes with huge baggage of social expectations, and over my lifetime I've met countless people who feel alienated from that social institution of marriage. Some of them end up doing it anyway - for tax reasons, or to assure parental rights, or because they want to be able to emigrate somewhere. The 1970s in particular it was quite common to find people who consciously rebelled against the conformity marriage implied by saying they wanted being together to be a daily choice rather than an obligation they'd signed onto.

Yes, and also the fact that it's then marketed to the general public as entertainment. I don't think it's a small story at all. Not as far-reaching as corruption in the Olympics, maybe, but this is a business that millions of people watch and ultimately pay for.

Jimmy's family...one sister was utterly absorbed in her flying career at "the good Tesco's" until her dreams were smashed in the supermarket; the other was relentlessly mean ("Shitty Jimmy") both to Jimmy and to their sister Lily. His father was more mixed, but mostly dismissive of a son he showed no interest in understanding. In a way, I'd rather have Gretchen's mother. At least you'd *know* there was no point in pursuing a relationship because she has no human parts.

Re TAXI DRIVER: I recall reading that Jodie Foster was very carefully managed during the making of that film. From my memory of seeing it, she played a prostitute who rode in Travis's cab; she didn't have sex scenes.

It was an interview in the London Times (paywalled). She was probably *asked*.

The Guardian has a summary of the Streisand interview. Bonkers: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/mar/23/michael-jackson-barbra-streisand-leaving-neverland

I think they're piling every marital problem from MAD ABOUT YOU into this final season. 🙂

They used songs before, but that's the first time they've broken the live action with a cartoon.

One thing that strikes me is that even if you want to say that both men are lying about the sexual abuse...it should be obvious that the emotional abuse of having this intensely close relationship with MJ and then having it removed without any explanation was serious all by itself.

I am so glad Oliver pointed out Jay Leno's behavior during the scandal. It was why I permanently stopped watching him at the time: he was mean and unfair, no matter how funny people thought the Dancing Itos were.

Glad this show is back; it makes me happy. Broderbits: Diane's taste in men, back to the beginning of THE GOOD WIFE, has always been for the rugged outdoors type. "The Marlborough Man," she called one of them. Kurt fits that perfectly, even if she disagrees with him on a lot of things.

Lindsay also stopped sleeping with Edgar in the interests of meeting someone right for her. I loved this show so much, and this season is just not up to its former self.

Without looking up all those names, I can tell you that some of those weren't journalists - they were *publishers*. Katharine Graham owned the Post; if she actually did the journalist's job before she became a publisher I didn't know that. Luce was the publisher of Time; William Paley ran CBS, he didn't report for it. Etc. But I'll have to concede the point.

You can't make this stuff up: fans in France are *suing* Robson and Safechuck over their appearance in the film: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/15/michael-jackson-fan-groups-france-lawsuit

In other news, Transport for London is removing bus-side advertisements protesting Jackson's innocence that were paid for by crowd-funding (£20,000): https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/14/adverts-declaring-michael-jackson-innocent-taken-off-london-buses The piece also has quotes from someone from The Simpsons saying that one reason for withdrawing the Jackson episode was his thought that Jackson may have used it to groom victims.

Lots of people are in favor of "just not" doing it, but there's still a large percentage of the population that voted for it and expect it to happen and who will be really angry if it doesn't. But in any case, nearly two years ago Theresa May formally triggered Article 50, the one that covers withdrawal by writing to the EU. The clock runs out on that on March 29, at which point unless the Article 50 request is formally withdrawn (and accepted as withdrawn) or there is a deal in place to cover the EU/UK relationship going forward...the UK will crash out with nothing in place. And as of today, the politicians seem unable to agree on anything.

I would not discount the Scientology theory. Slate has an interesting piece on the reaction of Seth Stevenson, who covered the Jackson trial at the time and treated it as entertainment, to seeing LEAVING NEVERLAND: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/03/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson-2005-trial-changing-mind.html