ChicagoCita

I'm sure there's still money to be made. The show isn't on TV for the moment, and may not be for a while, but I'm sure the DVDs are still for sale. In spite of what we've learned about Cosby himself, it was a wildly successful, ground-breaking, long-running sitcom and it won't just disappear forever. The thing that irks me about Raven is the same thing that annoys me about Whoopi - she gives the impression that her opinion is the only one that could possibly be valid. I mean, I have strong opinions -- most people do on at least a few hot-button issues -- but I also realize that other people may disagree, and while I may secretly think they're idiots, I realize that there are other opinions out there. I'm also open to hearing them out, and have on occasion changed my mind on issues. (Shocking!) But I think Raven is one of those people with a locked-down mind: that's it, it's set in stone, period. Ditto for Whoopi and her pronouncements-from-Mt-Sinai demeanor. They don't want to be challenged, they don't want to open their minds to anything different, they don't want to freaking HEAR anything different. (Don't write me, don't tweet me, I don't care! or Raven literally shaking her blue card in the face of whatever host disagreed with her.) And that's what I find so very annoying. If you have that strong an opinion, share why you do. Listen to someone else and tell them why you think their opinion is wrong. Don't shut down like a bank vault and keep repeating the same thing over and over. Damn, I'm getting worked up thinking about it! ;-)

Just caught up with this week's shows, and I can't believe it, but I'm really liking it again. There's still a lot to snark about (thank you!), and let's face it, it will never be Graham Norton or Charlie Rose, but I feel like I can watch it again without hating myself. Whoopi's been declawed and neutered from the bully she was last year, I don't mind Paula a bit (in fact, if I hadn't read here that she's "the Conservative," I would never had picked up on it), Joy is a joy, and even Raven and Michelle aren't bothering me much. Last year's Whoopi-Being-Moses-On-High while everyone else kissed her ass was unbearable, as was being told Whoopi didn't care what the audience thought. So was the previous Jenny/Sherri Year of the Fluff. I like The Talk, but the lack of substantive topics gets to me. The audience oohing and ahhing over such probing hot topics as Kardashian hair cuts and Miley Cyrus breakups makes me feel like my mind is melting. I only wish The View would adopt their "no interrupting, no crosstalk" policy. But yeah, I'm pretty much back as a viewer, at least for the time being. After RosieO left last year, I was out. I can't believe I'm actually enjoying watching again.

She said she had finished with eight rounds of chemo on August 26th, and had just started radiation on September 14th. I'm a little behind and I'm just watching that segment now. It was really well-done. I wish you much success in fighting your battle.

I believe she was a churchgoer, but not "born again," which happened four years ago. The whole situation reminds me of friends who have become Christians, become vegans, become chanting Buddhists, started transcendental meditation, etc. They love that their lives are transformed and are eager to share the news with the world. They are empty vessels who are being filled with whatever they are told by the people who have more experience than they do in their new passion. As time goes on, the evangelical aspect of it usually fades, and while they are no less sincere in their beliefs, they sort out the wheat from the chaff and get a grip on what they fully embrace about their new lives and what is simply someone else's agenda.* If Kim Davis weren't hurting people, and costing taxpayers a boatload of money, I'd nearly feel sorry for her, because she is obviously not smart enough to realize that she is acting cruelly, and is not embracing Christ's teaching that one must love one's neighbor as oneself, and is not acting like a Christian at all. She has been badly taught. The zeal is there, but not the ability to realize that she is a puppet for someone else's agenda. * I've been a vegetarian since 1994. In that time, I've seen my BFF devour steaks every time we go out and buy herself a floor-length mink coat. Didn't say a word, not my business. Three years ago she became a vegan, and we actually had to put our decades-long friendship on hold because she was screaming "unclean!" at me when I was putting sugar in my coffee because it's strained through animal bones or something. She also started posting horribly graphic videos to my Facebook feed. She is still a passionate vegan and animal rights activist, but she is no longer at the KimDavisDefcon5 level of insanity, and boy, is the world happier for it.

Now my Facebook feed is starting to fill up with graphics about "Nurses Stand Together, Boycott The View." I sympathize with the nurses and their feeling that they don't get proper respect and credit, but I think it's an over-reaction. With all the war rooms TPTB have had over the past few years on how to "make sparks," who knew a throwaway question by Joy about a "doctor's stethoscope" would ignite some?

Alexander Hamilton is one of my favorite personages of historical significance (thanks, Bill & Ted!) Truly a great man. According to Wikipedia, he was "one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the world's first voter-based political party, and the Father of the United States Coast Guard. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. Hamilton took the lead in the funding of the states' debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain." He also wrote most of the Federalist Papers. Not being a Great Thinker, I totally blanked on FJ.

I think when a group of people has fought hard for something, and I'm related to enough nurses to know that there's a definite attitude of "she's just a nurse" that they are often confronted with, they get extremely sensitive when they feel they're not being credited with that hard-won whatever: whether it be a title, or respect, or being thought of as competent. I can see why they might perceive Joy's comment of "why's she wearing a doctor's stethoscope?" as a slight, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant that way. In an article I wrote once, I referred to Portia de Rossi as Ellen's partner, not realizing they had been recently legally married. Oh Em Gee, the wrath that rained down on me from lesbian readers incensed that I was "demeaning" their relationship. I saw their point, although being called names was unpleasant. They were married at a time when two women being married was still extremely new and controversial, and their fans demanded that their union be recognized. I believe the nurses are demanding that their competence be recognized, and poor Joy is the lightning rod.

I HATE the tweets, with Raven interrupting everyone to read them, but I do get a delicious giggle out of Whoopi saying, "Keep tweeting us!" Hahahaha. I guess a part of her being taken to the woodshed was to stop screaming at the viewers, Don't call me, don't tweet me, because I don't care! How she must loathe being on a short leash. I, otoh, am loving it.

Thank you! I was feeling like he suddenly started speaking another language, for all I could understand, and the fact that whatever it was made everyone nuts was making ME nuts. Appreciate your help.

I find that I hear best if I see the person talking, and the camera wasn't on Dr. Phil today when he said something about the Ashley Madison people that had the audience shouting and whistling. Joy asked him if he was feeling sorry for the male adulterer-wannabes who signed up for a site with very few women on it, and he said SOMETHING that got a huge reaction and I can't understand what it was he said. Does anyone recall? As far as Kim Davis, and gay marriage, and people praying outside abortion clinics, etc., etc., my response is, "There are a lot of smoke and mirrors to obscure the facts of the case, but in the end, the United States is a republic. We are governed by laws, which come from the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches. We are a republic, not a theocracy. We believe whatever we want, but we are governed by laws, not whatever Almighty one chooses, or not, to believe in." And I say that as a staunch Christian and lefty liberal who strongly believes both in God and the separation of church and state.

I don't think the circumstances surrounding RosieO leaving The View were as clearcut as being bullied, although I do agree with so many posters that Whoopi was horrible to her. But Rosie got a one-in-a-million reprieve from the Grim Reaper by surviving a heart attack in the part of the heart called The Widow Maker. She had bariatric surgery to improve her chances of long-term survival. When her doctors told her that the stress she was under was affecting her heart, she did what she could to relieve some of the stress in her life. Now, as far as we knew, there was tension on the set and that was the main source of her stress. But since then, we've learned she was separated and is now undergoing an ugly divorce. We've learned that one of her children has some sort of mental illness and was in deep rebellion. We know that her father was very ill and has since died. Of all the things causing stress, the easiest one to jettison was The View. My thinking is, even if it had been an outstanding experience this time around, she still would have quit. Other people and circumstances in her life needed her, and those are the ones she can't ditch. Seriously, if my doctor told me what Rosie's doctor told her, I'd be gone, too. She's fortunate that she's in a financial position to do what is best for her health without having to choose between it and supporting her family.

I don't often find much to admire about Sherri, but I did appreciate her referring to herself as a former fat person who lost weight and is now a fat person again. I'm not used to her being as frank about her shortcomings. She didn't try to make it a joke and it wasn't awkward, where no one mentioned it. Not used to things being handled like that by her.

I can't believe Candace has been on the show a total of 15 minutes, and she's already playing the victim card and positioning herself as Polly Pureheart, oppressed by those horrible big-city liberals because of her sincerely held, in-touch-with-the-real-America wholesome conservative beliefs. If that's her one-trick pony shtick, it's gonna get old real fast. Hell, it's old NOW. She's a little long in the tooth to be a Foxbot, although she really doesn't look her age, so this may be her audition. Roger Ailes, get ready for another one!

I took an online poll that looked legit about "which Presidential wannabe do you agree most with?". It was when I was comparing my results to my friends' that I realized a huge amount of them were getting the result that Marco Rubio was the candidate they had the most in common with me. Me: "Huh, I didn't know I had so many friends who are into Rubio." Then when I took it, my results were, "You don't agree with any of the candidates." Since I'd just taken a Pew Research poll the day before where I came up agreeing 86% with both Bernie and Hillary, I knew that wasn't right. Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the second poll was sponsored by Rubio's people to make anyone who had the slightest thing in common with him to have him be the respondent's "candidate of choice." Pretty clever marketing, to be honest, to have people think he's in total lockstep with their beliefs. I learned that day to never believe a Presidential poll unless it's from a proven unbiased source, like Pew, and never believe a poll result that comes directly from any of the candidates.

I think the larger argument about accommodations is that you need to spread it out over a larger sample size. What if you have two Muslim FAs or a Muslim FA paired with a evangelical Christian and neither of them wants to serve alcohol? Do the passengers not get to partake of booze on the flight while paying the same as passengers who get full service with less "conscientious" FAs? What if every County Clerk got to decide who gets a marriage license? What if a Muslim were in that job who wouldn't issue them to people who drank or ate pork? What if every County Clerk found some Biblical reason not to issue marriage licenses, whether it be because one of the applicants had been married before (Matthew 19:8-9), or one had a tattoo (Leviticus 19:28), or both were of the same gender? Basically, people are paying for services and people are getting paid to provide those same services to everyone. I understand that, for example, clerks under 21 can't legally sell booze at the Jewel-Osco -- (and trust me, when I am buying booze on a busy shopping day, I go out of my way to find a cashier who looks of age rather than hold up the line behind me while they go find someone who can press that button on the register). But I've always found it helpful to extrapolate circumstances to "what if this were the rule rather than the exception?" in deciding whether something is fair or not. Would the Muslim FA on the show today accept 60% of her salary because she's only doing 60% of her duties, while other FAs flying with her got a 40% bump in their pay because they're doing more while flying with her? Would Kim Davis accept minimum wage because she isn't doing the entire job she took an oath to uphold? That would be an interesting question to ask both of them.

Weird that they previewed the whole Mario Andretti thing and then it didn't make it into the show. I think 60 minutes is too short -- as someone said, 90 minutes may be the sweet spot. Hannah looked great at the reveal, but whose idea was it to give her a dress with a peplum? Those add weight to anyone except the skinniest women. For someone who carries her weight in her hips, as Hannah seemed to -- not that she didn't look fabulous -- it was a curious wardrobe choice for a weight loss show. How loving her relationship seemed to be with her husband and family. It was nice to see a totally supportive spouse and no nightmarish backstory of abuse. She was a beautiful woman even before losing weight. I agree, the hidden cameras and spy footage and private investigators are getting creepy. Show runners, you have a sweet, goofy, caring individual in Chris Powell! He was made for this kind of show! Stop with the creepy stalker gimmicks, and stop highlighting Heidi. She may be sweet, goofy and caring in real life, but she comes across as vapid, fake, and judgmental on TV. Stop trying to make Fetch happen. It's not going to happen.

At one of my former jobs, we had to do tape transcription for a particular project. The people on the tapes had potty mouths. One woman, who I considered a friend, absolutely refused to type out any profanity in the tapes she transcribed (and there was a lot of it). She said it was against her born-again religious beliefs to do so. So guess who had to listen to hours of tapes and type in profanity after profanity? Really an unpleasant week. As far as I'm concerned, she should have been disciplined for that. It wasn't that the job wasn't getting done -- it had to be. She got to hear all the bad language, but because she was too "delicate" to make her fingers actually type those words, someone else had to listen to it all over again. It was doubling the workload, and shifted the burden to someone else. I'm still slightly bitter. Too many "special snowflakes" in the world...

I think Paula Faris brought up her religion as one aspect of her, and I'm fine with that. Someone asked why the conservative hosts have such dislike thrown their way, and my feeling is that they brand themselves, rather than make their political beliefs just an aspect of the overall person. I think it was obvious, but unstated, with Elisabeth: she was there solely to present the conservative viewpoint, with a big dollop of jingoistic patriotism. With Nicholle, it wasn't even subtle: "As a Republican...." "I'm the Republican!" So, I do have a problem with people who brand themselves as Christians, or anything else, to be honest. I don't -- so far -- have a problem with Paula Faris saying she's a Christian, because -- so far -- she isn't making that her label. I think she brought it up to show where she was coming from, and Joy ("why do you have to be born again? Isn't once enough?") and Michelle ("Hey, I'm Jewish") both derailed her and distracted her from whatever point she was trying to make by bringing it up. And, just a personal note, not all Christians are conservative. (raises hand, displays Flaming Liberal, Falling Off The Left Side of the Planet card.)

I wouldn't mind seeing BaWa come back ... very occasionally. Say, every other Friday. She was clearly not in her best state during the last couple years she was on the show, but even during that time, she was able to pull it together for appearances on late night talk shows. I think she could be an asset to the show she created if used on a very limited basis. If she managed to come across as the Barbara Walters most of America remembers, and not as the person she was the last few years she appeared on a daily basis, it would not only enhance her legacy (and we all know how concerned she is with her legacy), but it would also be a throwback to her best work on The View. Maybe there was too much of a disconnect between her being on the panel nearly every day and then just disappearing completely. I am no fan of hers, but I would like to see her return, on a very limited basis, and only if she is not the embarrassment she became the last few years she appeared regularly.

Nope. I'm losing a lot of weight, slowly, no time limits, just healthier eating (90 lbs, so far, with moderate exercise, and it's taken 15 months, so Chris and Heidi would be appalled), and sagging skin is definitely a thing. I'd like to lose another 100, maybe 110, and I figure I'll look like I'm wearing a crepe suit at that point. I'm always interested in the skin surgery part of the show, because that's what I figure I'm looking at. I read somewhere while that the body has great recovery skills, it never fully forgives abuse, and that seems realistic to me.

Seriously, who does have the Woody Woodpecker laugh? Not as bad as Cristela, but annoying nonetheless. It was happening before CCB came out to join her colleagues, so she's the only one who's exempt from my rancour at the moment. I have a neighbor who has that Cristela laugh, and I swear, when they sit out on their deck and talk and laugh at night, I start Googling long-range super soakers.

I had a dear friend who was sober in AA for many years. In my late teens and early 20s, I would occasionally attend open meetings with him. I picked up a lot of wisdom from those rooms, things that have really served me well in the time since. One of the sayings is "Principles, not personalities" and I really wish Elisabeth (and many others) could somehow grasp this. If you think it's okay for a sports coach to baptise the team as Christians, then wrap your brain around how you would feel if he were to put them through the rites of another religion. What if he asked them to shave their heads and wear saffron robes? What if he had a reading about Joseph Smith finding the golden plates in upstate New York? What if the kids were required to handle snakes and speak in tongues? If those things are upsetting, then it's the principle of the action -- not an attack on Christianity -- that's at play here.

I had to laugh at the intro -- Whoopi is apparently in no need of a last name anymore. She's introduced as just "Whoopi." The EGOT. The Stah. The Legend. I am glad for a new announcer. A female! She may not have the most memorable voice, but she doesn't grate and it's nice to have a show that is purportedly about women to have a female announcer. Joy makes all the difference for me, in that I can watch if there's one person I like at the table. Couldn't watch the Jenny season, couldn't watch last year after Rosie O left. Just one person I like and can relate to, that's all I need. Thank you, show, for giving me back Joy (pun intended).

To give a historical perspective -- around 1980, I dieted down to 165 lbs. I'm on the shorter side, 5'3". I was THRILLED to be able to wear a size 14 blouse and skirt for the first time in my life. How sizing has changed -- and gotten more flattering -- over the past decades. She was a stunning woman from about the three-month mark on. It was interesting that her torso lost the weight, but her arms and legs retained it the longest.

My Comcast DVR program guide is showing it on the 14th. I have it set up to only show new episodes.