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Steak with cauliflower puree and roasted cauliflower, with za'atar and toasted sunflower seeds. Head-to-head with Tim on the steak, and not quite as strong, apparently. (His fiancee might be grateful not to be the only adult at home right now! Two brand new babies, a toddler, and still recovering physically. I know they both knew this, but it's still a lot to ask of your partner to shoulder it all alone. I'm sure there's family support, but still.)

Kaiser's nursery school project reminded me of this book, which was so much fun to fill out when I was a little kid. I also remember having fun writing stories in kindergarten/first grade with a bit of an assist from teachers and/or Mom. Kids' answers can be a little bit like mad libs, but they're great fun to read and kids really enjoy being the author even if someone else is doing some of the stenography. Whether Kaiser really chose to write about David instead of Nathan, I have no idea; it certainly makes sense that someone "suggested" to him that he sub in David, but I also think Nathan might have been a little MIA at the time, and David's worst qualities may not have fully emerged yet.

It was some kind of mother daughter fashion show thing, if I remember right. Even dumber. She’s sick..fucking cancel. I think it was - no Ensley, no ticket to NY. So, Ensley had to go, sick or not, so Jenelle could go. It looked like a pretty miserable affair.

I ended up wondering - if it hadn't happened that night at Chernobyl, would it inevitably have happened sooner or later, there or somewhere else, with a reactor with that design flaw? If you think you might ever actually need to use that emergency button, surely you wouldn't want it to potentially make things worse.

This timeline piece also has a lot of good material: http://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/timeline/ Excerpt that includes info on the bridge:

On the railway bridge spectators, the credits say only "it has been reported that none survived." However, it seems it's not so clear what happened. Here are some excerpts from a couple of articles from 2016 The article cites an interview from the Guardian, from 2016, with one couple, Pasha & Natasha Kondriatov, who were there, with their two daughters, Tatiana, 12, & Marina, 10. https://www.mamamia.com.au/chernobyl-bridge-of-death/ https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/07/chernobyl-30-years-residents-life-ghost-city-pripyat In truth, it seems we don't know what happened to all those people. It seems at least these two were alive 30 years later, although one of their daughters had died a few years after the accident, and no doubt others also died prematurely, although how many of them, and how soon after the accident, isn't clear. I think in the interests of condensing things it was a fair way to put it - it's apparently true that this is "widely reported," but I certainly noticed that it wasn't a definitive statement about what happened, as many of the other statements in the credits were, and took that to mean it wasn't certain what had happened to them. No doubt many did die - it appears the plume that went over them was quite strong - but there's just no way to know for sure what became of them all. It's one of many things where the miniseries prompted me to look further, which is something I'm grateful for. Some things are just unknowable, though.

Oops, just didn't remember where I read it I guess.

I doubt that she's dumb. She graduated from Cal. However, in this business, dumb sells, and so that's what MTV is offering.

Meanwhile, somebody else excitedly posted pictures she took with Chelsea and Cole at what looked like a Target or something, having just run into them while shopping. Everybody seemed very happy. Maybe the other person just caught her on an off day or was rude in the way they went about asking. (I can't find it but must have seen it on reddit. The person had posted the pic to their social media and gushed a bit about how thrilled she was to run into Chelsea, and this got spotted and someone posted it there, and then some made fun of her for being excited about it.) You just can't win sometimes.

So glad to see Walleed come through! I was worried for him when he got a bit of a feature in the previews. I'm ready for Ben or Joe to go home tomorrow - Tessa & Simon may have made the errors on the prawns, but they've been excellent to date, and once again I'm not sure what Joe or Ben even did during the challenge. (I went back and rewatched last week's team challenge earlier, and it turned out that Ben basically spent all night cutting up pumpkin for Joe's ravioli and putting it in the oven; I suppose this time he also did sous chef work for someone else. That stuff needs to get done, and he does put his head down and get to work, but I'd rather keep the people who are coming up with ideas, even if those ideas don't always work.) (Ok, I went back and checked to see what Ben did. Basically, he assisted Christina with her idea of the sunshine salad. He gathered pineapples. He carried equipment to the station. He chopped papayas and chiles and coriander (and presumably other stuff). During planning he stood in the back and nodded his head a lot but was not shown offering any ideas. I didn't rewatch the whole thing, but enough to see that it was the same essential pattern. My impression from the way he hung back in planning was that he might be losing heart a little.) Speaking of prawns, kudos to Abbey for singlehandedly preparing 150 prawns faster and far more successfully than Tessa and Simon put together.

My take on Abbey is that she's always trying a little too hard to be and do what she thinks others expect of her. She (justifiably) has confidence in her cooking skills, as do and should they all, and is likely getting encouragement from the producers to keep doing what she's doing in terms of offering commentary. The results can be a little grating at times, and the enthusiasm for everything sometimes seems a little forced - not dishonest, but said because it's what she thinks should be said - but I think it comes from a good place. A lot of viewers seemed to think they were talking about her dish rather than Anushka's, too. I wonder if Abbey didn't overplay the ginger - that's often an issue with ginger-focused dishes and their guidance seemed to push that. Ginger in the noodles and ginger in the broth - and then the fish well-cooked but probably not with a ton of flavor of its own - I'd definitely be interested in trying it, but it's not shocking that Anushka, who has made chicken stock that they've raved about before, was able to punch up the flavor on her broth successfully. I guess they edited to maintain suspense rather than to explain the justice of the outcome on that one. A beetroot cake: that's a new one for me. I like beets, and I suppose it would work in much the same way that using carrot or pumpkin or zucchini would, but the color certainly calls attention to it. I'm not sure I'd want to use it unless it was also a chocolate cake. It looks like using beets in a cake is a normal thing in the UK & Australia but I don't think I've seen it in the US.

Is it a coincidence that the three women from Queensland all have essentially the same hairstyle (dyed blonde, same length, etc) or is this a typical Queensland thing to do?

I don't think this one (about who is seen competing as part of a team in the previews) is necessarily a spoiler - sometimes there is a team round in the first episode before any eliminations are done. He added more eggs to his pasta dough - I think he said he wanted a softer dough. Agreed as to Ben's dish. At least I finally figured out what he did during the team challenge - mostly, chop up and cook pumpkins for Joe. I would be surprised if he lasts much longer. Here are the previous dishes we've seen from him: fried chicken tacos (desert island dish), fish & chips (fish & potatoes challenge), lamb with parsnips & beetroot (audition); the ricotta, pear & honey dessert in a previous elimination that was derided as an underwhelming bunch of bits on a plate but edged out Blake's disaster, with the wall paste potato puree; and this week, duck ragout with vegemite. It seems like the fish and chips were the highlight. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and guess that he probably cooks better outside a competition setting.

I wondered if the baby protected Lyudmilla because its rapidly growing body took up much of the radioactive material. Radiation does more damage to rapidly dividing cells, and perhaps the isotopes would also concentrate there - just as the thyroid takes up radioactive iodine, the heart & liver (the baby died of cirrhosis & heart damage) may selectively take up other radioactive elements, & developing organs more so than adult ones. I assumed Pavel was drinking vodka in the late scene - I didn't remember what he was drinking from but if you'd asked me I would have guessed a flask rather than a canteen (it would make sense to be carrying both - water for hydration, & vodka for the occasional numbing dose necessary to cope). I didn't think the puppy scene was excessive - I found it very powerful. They did not show what happened, and it had that sudden shock of seeing how Pavel had become inured to much of what they had to do, but could not bring himself to go further, and how Bacho had to be the one to do it. Both men's roles in that scene really brought it home for me.

Thank you for the tip-off to these. The one for the latest episode is especially powerful as it turns out his father-in-law stepfather didn't want to watch because he had been there. The thread starts a tweet or two above this & it's all worth a read.

Lyudmilla Ignatenko was 23 in 1986 (her husband was 25).

Yeah, he's definitely the sort of person where alarm bells should go off if he were to buy a huge lot of fertilizer. Sure, he's "homesteading," but God knows what else he might do with it. I would guess the ATF has a file on him, too, and I think sellers are supposed to report such purchases.

Even before they went in, as they were going up the steps, I was thinking about the generational differences between these three: Kyle just in the early stages of setting up life with his young family, Anushka with her kids already grown or nearly so, and Leah still essentially in late adolescence herself (she seems a young 22). And what do you know, those differences really showed in the cook, with Anushka's fuller lifetime of experience in the kitchen really paying off. Kyle's nerves seemingly partly due to how much is at stake for him and how much is on his shoulders at this stage of his life, as well as knowing enough to know that he doesn't know enough and to worry about it, and Leah with all the enthusiasm, optimism, & inexperience of youth, with some obliviousness about what she doesn't yet know. That's over-analyzed, of course, and obviously set up by the intros, but it certainly seemed to showcase the strengths and weaknesses someone might bring to this competition at different stages of their life.

I think because there are a lot of varieties of ham and bacon. What if they asked you to be more specific? If you know your deli meats, distinctive things like prosciutto & coppa & mortadella are actually easier calls. I don't know why Blake didn't go for the roasted peppers right after Tati missed on those.

Good question. He may not be a felon, but for concealed carry you also can't have a drug problem, or convictions for misdemeanor domestic violence: The sheriff shall deny a permit to an applicant who (among other things): - Is an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana, alcohol, or any depressant, stimulant, or narcotic drug or other controlled substance; - Is or has been adjudicated guilty of or received a prayer for judgment continued or suspended sentence for one or more specified crimes of violence constituting a misdemeanor within three years of the date of application (See N.C. Gen. Stat.§ 14‑415.12(b)(8).); - Is or has been adjudicated guilty of or received a prayer for judgment continued or suspended sentence for one or more crimes of violence constituting a misdemeanor for certain types of assault and battery, stalking, child abuse, and domestic criminal trespass crimes, and a violation of a protective order; - Is prohibited from possessing a firearm pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) as a result of a conviction of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; There are also provisions about mental illness etc but there's probably no official finding on that and it doesn't look like they check for it beyond making sure there are no involuntary commitments or adjudications of mental illness that would raise concerns. "He's obviously nuts" isn't enough. etc. https://lawcenter.giffords.org/concealed-weapons-permitting-in-north-carolina/ And, he'd have to take an 8-hour class and get fingerprinted. Somewhere there was something about felonies that haven't been resolved - not sure if the car towing thing was just a misdemeanor - and DUIs within a certain time frame (3 years?). Elsewhere in my quest to figure this out, I discovered that it would have been perfectly legal for them to have left the gun in a locked glove compartment or console rather than on the dashboard. So, either they were trying to be in your face about it, or they don't have anywhere they can lock it up in the car, which seems pretty stupid for somebody with so many guns. Of course, David doesn't care about rules and it might require effort, so . . . Here's another, more succinct, source: https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/open-and-concealed-gun-carry-laws-north-carolina.htm

Yes, she did - it's a hard bit to transcribe because Lindsie jumps in at one point and they talk over one another a bit but Kail turned aside the ridiculous question about whether she'd consider taking Ensley by saying she's not considering it but that she "hopes the children are, you know," (here, Lindsie interjects "they're safe, right now") and they talk at the same time for a moment & Kail finishes "yeah, and that they are happy and healthy overall." That doesn't look smooth in print but it's because of the interruption - it sounded fine to me. It seemed to me the main takeaway was that she doesn't want to get drawn into it but hopes the kids are ok. Yes of course she talks about the impact on the franchise, too - because the reporter asked her about it.

The photos seemed fine to me, too.

To be fair, I think her taste in Classy Court Heels has improved a touch. Experience, I suppose.

I don't think the court would just take her word for it - CPS would be checking up on them, and anyone else who caught them violating the order could call it to the court's attention, which would result in the kids being taken away again. The failure to abide by the condition that David not be present would also be held against her going forward because it would show that she couldn't be trusted to follow the order.

I hope the ratings are dreadful and they stop thinking they need more of that on the regular show.