Passing Strange

Whatever Kenya has said about her family has seemed like an explanation, not an excuse. Her mother acted as if Kenya didn't exist, and other family members wouldn't talk with Kenya about her mother's behavior. That's some pretty significant trauma. It's not a given that someone would grow out of it or stop referencing it. One of my friends experienced severe PTSD as the result of witnessing a murder as a child. She saw a therapist for most of her adult life and was still struggling when she died at age 60. We do our best with mental health treatment, but as a society, we're still a long way from understanding and supporting people in that situation. Porsha is saying that the photos were given to Kenya by a current cast member and that they were taken when Brit was underage. Since Porsha has been shown to have a very casual relationship with the truth, I'm not putting much credence in her claims. Kenya says the photos were not given to her. If Brit really was a sex worker in the past, it's likely she was an adult. I'm not sure what Porsha was trying to do with these statements. What's done is done; there's no need to try to make it worse.

I've been thinking they weren't over the breakup, but this makes more sense. They were friends for a lot longer than they were lovers. After the first breakup, they were able to be friends again. This time, they weren't, so they're both floundering, each in his or her own way. I'd like to see more of Imrul, too. Unlike West and Jesse, he's straight up offering sex, not tooling women with the false promise of a relationship. On another note, I'm not sure I'd want relationship counseling from either West or Ciara.

I can help! Yes, Brit apologized, wrote a note, and brought flowers. I think that was even genuine. What I meant was that she's not doing that now. She's gone from complete apologist to total victim. Sorry, I thought I was clear that I meant now. As soon as Brit could assume a different role, she did.

There's a difference between Kenya's action and her reaction. Watching Kenya during the conversation about Kelli's violent ex, I remembered that there's violence in Kenya's past. It's possible that Brit's remarks triggered her. Whether Brit meant anything by what she said or not, if Kenya felt threatened, she felt threatened, end of story. Her emotions, her reaction, were valid. It's Kenya's actions that were reprehensible. She suffered the consequences of her actions, but I'm going to give her some grace for her reaction because of her mental health issues. She has since accepted responsibility for her actions and apologized to Brit. Brit, on the other hand, gets nothing from me. She's taking no responsibility for her words and is behaving like a victim who has been vindicated. Regardless of what she intended, the statements themselves were repulsive, especially in our current climate, as Keywestclubkid pointed out. It would have been great for Bravo to send a message about that and fire her, too. But this is Bravo, where bad behavior is often rewarded with another season.

I agree that Carl and Lindsay shouldn't have gotten married. The problem is that Carl saw that early on, and instead of ending it then and there, he spent the summer whining about Lindsay to anyone who would support him. We've seen him try to get women to take responsibility for ending the relationship before, e.g., Lauren Wirkus and Lindsay herself in their first relationship. When it didn't work this time, he summoned the cameras after filming was over so we could all see how sorrowful he was. He's following up with this redemption tour, which is smart, but doesn't negate his past bad behavior. Lindsay's still pissed at him for that behavior and I'm OK with her not being a good sport about it. Carl said he invested over $100,000 of his own money in Soft Bar. He is now trying to crowdfund $1,441,000. His ideas are interesting, and while I hope he succeeds, this doesn't seem like the time to launch a new business. My $250 is staying right here in my wallet because I might need eggs soon.

As much as I don't want to see another dinner table shouting match, I get why Lindsay is still pissed at Carl. She's right; he spent last summer gaslighting and manipulating, now he's trying to make himself the victim. The sad thing is that he could easily accomplish that by just owning his bad behavior and apologizing for it. He won't, though, because neither he nor Lindsay are over each other and might not be until they're both out of the public eye. With West, it was like he borrowed Carl's playbook. He spent last summer love bombing Ciara until she slept with him, then he dumped her. And told the NY Times about it. Now he's the victim because he's being all civil and everything while complaining about Ciara, who's not giving him any space in her head. She's done with him, but he and Jesse can't seem to respect that. Now the playbook has now passed to Jesse, who is really working it with Lexi, like the schmuck he's turned out to be. There's got to be more to Imrul than his playboy activity. I wish the show had chosen to focus on his other experiences instead, but here we are. Carl, West, and Jesse might learn something from Imrul, though. He's getting way more feminine attention than the three of them combined, and he does it simply by being honest about being DTF. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not that it will change anything, but the "condition" is actually bitchy resting face, meaning a face that looks bitchy when it's just sitting there, not intending to express anything.

Article about cruise ship doctors: TL:DR They don't do surgery, there must be medical staff available 24/7, they're reasonably well equipped and backed up by extensive resources onshore https://www.cnn.com/travel/cruise-ship-doctors-medical-center-onboard-nurse/index.html CNN — Ah, life on the open waves: a place to relax, get away from it all and watch the world go by — literally. Millions of travelers love cruises precisely because of their blend of remoteness and comfort. But what is a much-needed break from the real world when you’re feeling well can be trickier if you fall ill or have an accident onboard. Break your leg hundreds of miles from the nearest hospital or have a heart attack, and you might not be so pleased to be offshore. Of course, every cruise ship has a medical center — but how big is it — and what do they do in there? Are the doctors general practitioners or is it more like the ER? And if worst comes to worse — what happens if a passenger dies onboard? Dr. Aleksandar Durovic, who’s spent the past 20 years as a medic on cruise ships, says that a doctor’s life on the high seas is very different from one on terra firma. “Watching ‘The Love Boat,’ you think it’s just going around having dinner and drinks with guests, but it’s really not like that,” he says. “It’s a job full of stress and responsibility. The medical side can be very demanding. Most of what we do on big cruise ships is emergency services, like in an ER, but we are also general practitioners for crew, and take care of chronic medical needs.” Amy White, director of medical operations for Vikand, which provides medical services for over 150 ships on 33 cruise lines, says that staff are cherry picked to have a background in emergency medicine of at least three years. “The reason is you can have any and all types of medical emergencies [onboard], she says. “You need highly trained staff to do that. Lots of vessels have one doctor, so you’re it, there’s no backup other than us [shoreside]. So you need to be able to work alone.” The other thing you’ll be tested on before boarding is your bedside manner, says White. “On ships you have to have hospitality — guests are always right,” she says. Durovic spent 13 years working in his native Montenegro before moving onto cruise ships. He spent two years with MSC, and 17 with Carnival. Right now he’s taken a job unlike any other in the industry: he is the sole doctor onboard Villa Vie Odyssey, the ship that is making its way around the world on a three-year voyage. White, meanwhile, started as a nurse working in emergency departments in her native South Africa, and was lured into cruise ships by two co-workers “who’d been on ships and talked about it all the time.” In 2012, she joined Royal Caribbean as a nurse, then moved to Viking where worked up to the role of fleet nurse, before joining Vikand as medical operations manager. Whether a cruise is for three years or three days, the setup is usually the same, using guidelines laid out by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Cruise lines that are members of CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association, must have at least one onboard medical professional available 24/7, as well as two medical rooms, one of which must be for intensive care treatment. They must also have onboard equipment for monitoring vital signs. Many large cruise ships have at least one other doctor, as well as a small team of nurses, though this is down to company policy rather than legal requirements. White compares it to a “small community urgent care or emergency department — we have a treatment area, one or two ICUs with a ventilator, cardiac monitoring capabilities and a defibrillator.” From 2026, ultrasound capabilities will also be mandatory on CLIA members’ vessels. The onboard team is backed up by shoreside staff, including doctors with extensive emergency medicine experience. “The big companies — Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC — have a medical department in the office giving you full support,” says Durovic. Smaller cruise companies, such as Villa Vie, work with external providers to get the same service. Vikand is one of these companies, providing medical services for over 150 ships on 33 cruise lines, including the staff onboard, and an on-the-ground team to help with logistics. Then there’s the ship’s captain, who is ultimately responsible for all the souls onboard. They get involved with logistics if a patient needs to be offloaded, or in the case of a death onboard. But otherwise, the medical team is all at sea — alone. For Durovic, working on a cruise ship is a great combination of adrenaline-fueled emergency medicine and general practice, where doctors can build a relationship with their patients. While most interaction with passengers will be of an emergency nature, when it comes to dealing with the crew, onboard doctors become general practitioners, helping them with chronic conditions, building a relationship and even overseeing their mental health. That’s also the case on Villa Vie, where some passengers plan to remain as long as they are physically able to. The vast majority of cases cruise doctors see, however, are emergencies. “Respiratory problems are the main thing, but anything can arise,” says Durovic. “Heart attacks, heart failure, cardiac arrest. Strokes, injuries, fractured bones, spine injuries and head injuries. It’s similar to any ER around the world, and some ships can be very busy.” He says that on large ships, doctors tend to deal with around one death per cruise, while White reckons it’s at least one per quarter. “It’s pretty common — more common on lines with more elderly passengers,” she says. White says that while emergency medicine on dry land tends to involve a lot of accidents, on a ship the caseload is different. “It’s not necessarily trauma — we saw a lot of chronic heart disease patients in acute cardiac failure,” she says, remembering how she had to put patients on ventilators in her on-ship days. The other thing they see a lot of is stomach flu and respiratory diseases — not a big deal on land, but crucial to contain onboard. “You come into the ER with diarrhea, we get you on a drip and send you home. On a ship you get isolated for 48 hours. Those kind of things they don’t teach in nursing school,” says White. For Durovic, his early experiences with MSC Cruises, when it was still a young company with a handful of ships, taught him how resourceful ship doctors can be. “I saw the scale of medicine that you can do on the ship, with support from the land,” he says. “You don’t have CT scans, you’re in the middle of the ocean and need to stabilize the patient long enough to reach the next port, or transfer to a helicopter to a facility on land.” So what happens if you have an accident or feel ill onboard — and are your chances of recovery as good as they would be on land? What actually happens below decks? Firstly, here’s hoping you bought travel insurance — because cruise ship medical care is expensive. Be sure when buying your policy that it includes cruise cover, which usually costs a little extra, and to detail all the countries you’ll be calling at as port stops. “The likelihood of falling ill while on a cruise is low, but when you travel — by air and land as well — there’s always the chance that it could happen,” says Adam Coulter, executive editor at Cruise Critic, who has only had to use a medical facility onboard once — for sunburn for a family member. Whatever the time of day or night, you can call for assistance — ships are mandated by law to have at least one member of the medical team on duty 24/7. If you’re able to, you’ll make your way to the medical center, usually on a lower deck. If you’re unable to move, staff (usually the nurses, says White) can come and see you in your cabin, and can help transfer you downstairs — certain members of the housekeeping team on every ship are also trained to be emergency transporters and CPR responders, taking clients on backboards or stretchers downstairs. You might see the doctor immediately — or the nurse might book you in, sometimes running blood tests so they can have the results ready by the time the doctor gets involved. Yes, blood tests. Although ship medical centers might be small, they can run a barrage of tests, from bloods to X-rays, and can carry out small surgeries, put casts on broken bones, insert catheters, and even intubate and put patients on ventilators. They can reinflate collapsed lungs and stabilize heart attacks. They can even do blood transfusions, appealing over the loudspeakers for volunteer donors amongst the other passengers. “You’d be amazed what kind of things we can do,” says Durovic. Surgery is not possible, however. Patients requiring that will need to be offloaded from the ship to an onshore medical facility. And even for relatively straightforward surgery, the logistics can be trying. For a burst appendix, for example, doctors can give you antibiotics, and stabilize you with pain medication, then evacuate you to the nearest onshore medical center for a CT scan and surgery. But getting patients onshore takes planning. The onshore medical teams help, says Durovic. “They work with you on the best route, they coordinate with the navigational team to see where the ship can be diverted, and the weather conditions — a helicopter can’t fly if there’s dust or if it’s too windy.” The captain has the last word on logistics, liaising with the nearest coastguard. If the ship is at sea, depending on the situation (both of the patient and the ship), it might make a diversion to offload the patient by pilot boat or helicopter, if time is of the essence. This is where travel insurance becomes crucial – because the patient will be sent the bill. “I can’t explain how many people who need a helivac don’t have medical insurance,” says White. “It’s very important that you do — it depends where you are, but the cost can be up to $50,000.” And while passengers are able to decline, she says, “They need to understand what the risks are if we don’t get you off the vessel.” Heart attacks at sea Cardiac arrest is one of the most common incidents medical teams deal with onboard, but while having heart failure at sea sounds like a recipe for disaster, they can often save patients’ lives. Teams can’t do an angiogram onboard — but not all hospitals can either, says White. What they can do is administer thrombolytics — medicines that break up a clot in the event of a stroke or heart attack. “We can mitigate any further damage” before getting patients to onshore care if they need, she says. The same goes for a stroke or a bleed. Even straightforward accidents and injuries can be repaired onboard — teams can X-ray then splint, stabilize fractures and even do full casts. “If it’s a femur fracture we have a traction splint — we can position you properly and get you off in the next available port. It’s the same with a hip fracture,” says White. Death onboard Of course, sometimes the unthinkable happens and a passenger dies. Urban myths abound — supposedly, a sudden influx of ice cream on the menu means that someone has died and their body has been stored in the freezer. Shockingly, that was indeed the case until about 40 years ago, says White. “Before they had morgues, they put them in the ice-cream fridge.” Now, though, most vessels have a morgue, with the exception of expedition ships, which rarely have room. “Sometimes the body is put outside, when you don’t have any land for three days, or [the possibility of] a helicopter,” she says. Today, says Durovic, there are tight procedures around passenger deaths. The medical team must immediately inform the captain, as well as the medical team offshore. They must bathe the body, and notify the authorities on dry land. In the US, that means the coastguard and the Centers for Disease Control, says Durovic. “The decide what to do. Sometimes medical examiners will come onboard, and take the body for an autopsy. It depends case by case.” Security is stepped up around the body while it rests in the onboard morgue. White adds that usually police will board the vessel at the next port, to take notes and sometimes interview the doctor. “But I’ve never been on a vessel where there’s suspicion,” she says. Local funeral directors usually offload the body in port, since most authorities don’t allow ships to set sail with a body onboard. The only exception, she says, if it’s a US-Mexico return cruise, where they might be allowed to depart Mexico to bring the body of an American citizen back to the States. But before all that, says White, there is a moment of silence. “Obviously the doctor pronounces the death, but for most medical teams, the person is given some respect. There’s a moment of silence before the body is prepared.” If the person has been in an accident, they must keep all the medical devices used on the patient as testament to their recovery efforts. If, as usually happens, it was a natural death, they are taken to the morgue. “There’s a lot of administration, and we also speak to the family if they’re not there [onboard],” says White. “Guest relations take good care of the family arranging flights or trauma counseling if they want to stay onboard. And if any crew need mental health support — because sometimes it’s crew who passes — we provide mental health support to crew, too.” And although your mind might go straight to a Hollywood-style scenario of a passenger dying of a communicable disease, Durovic says that in his 20 years in the industry, it has never happened (although he’s had several patients in a critical condition with Covid since the start of the pandemic). All the deaths he has handled have been from natural causes. “It’s not a nice feeling for the whole ship,” he says, of a death onboard. “Ships are supposed to be fun places, for people to enjoy their vacation. Any event like that is really stressful for everyone — but at least we [medics] have training.” Dealing with a cardiac arrest, he says, is the most stressful event for him and his team. “Sometimes you manage it, sometimes not,” he says about CPR. White has never forgotten one of her onboard losses. Once, she had to deal with a man who was on his 40th wedding anniversary cruise when he went into cardiac arrest. “All he’d wanted to do was see the Panama Canal and we had just left it the day before,” she says, the emotion still in her voice. “It was just a few minutes before New Year’s Eve. We resuscitated him but we didn’t get him back.” While passenger incidents can be the most dramatic duties for a cruise doctor, what’s equally important is general practice for the crew, from long-term support for chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, to acute problems — “We get lots of galley teams who have rashes from the chemicals they use to clean, and they’re cleaning all the time,” says White. Durovic says crew can have online psychological help online as well as an evaluation in ports of call. “Being at sea is very lonely – you miss out on a lot of things,” says White. “My mom became very ill and it took me three days to get home. You’re at sea, there’s nothing you can do. I got to her — but many don’t.” She says that getting a good team together is crucial: “On ships you have to learn a lot more than just medicine.” And the teams tend to endear themselves to the rest of the crew. “The medical crew parties are the best,” she says. “You put stuff in syringes and dress up as nurses.” The fast pace, distance from friends and family isn’t for everyone, but Durovic is in no hurry to give up. “People say it’s time to come home, and I eventually will, but I learn a lot about what people are doing around the world,” he says. “There’s always something to take with you.” His patients on his current three-year cruise will be hoping he sees it through to the end of their own odyssey.

The hysteria over 500 calories per day of string cheese was ridiculous. Scott hasn't lost a significant about of weight, so he's eating over 5000 calories per day. I'm thinking string cheese isn't the problem here. I'm not sure Megan is the best person to be giving weight loss advice. Someone needs to tell Vannessa that sex is like money: Those who really have it don't talk about it.

Em isn't wrong to be angry; she's wrong to let her anger and frustration allow her to act in an unprofessional way. When your boss is wrong, you tell him so respectfully, you don't dress him down in the office. She and Sonny are both terrible managers and a bad team. They need to watch a few episodes of Star Trek:NG to let Picard and Riker show them how it's done. It makes sense that Jenn is suspicious of Laka. He needs to earn her trust. But she pretended to bring a friend on their first date. He's been decent to her: there was no need for her to make a dick move like that.

I agree. Hina is rude, Em is angry, Jenn is dismissive, and Julia is entitled and selfish. It's like the writers don't think it's possible for a woman to be capable and agreeable at the same time.

I agree. If they really were one big, happy family, they wouldn't have to keep saying so. I think the older siblings provided temporary housing and some transportation, but it was out of obligation rather than being close-knit. We never saw all this togetherness or references to siblings until the second season, i.e., after the TLC checks proved legit. Until the show, I doubt there were all those family barbeques, restaurant dinners, vacations, and back-and-forth visits.

I agree that it's not a stereotype. To me, it felt more like a lack of faith that either of these characters could carry off a show on her own, so they had to add a punch.

I would have watched this without the twist; now I'm going to watch in spite of it. I thought it was going to be an "Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance" thing and I was here for it. But, no, here's a second woman-led lawyer show that someone thought needed a twist, so they reworked the one from Elsbeth. At least they didn't make Matty quirky. The grandson isn't a hacker. He's a teen. Creating a LinkedIn profile and routing a call require no more skill than navigating a forum like this one. I hope they don't go the route of having him there to help out the technologically incompetent old people. Also, I love it when people here call out errors. I don't mind handwaving things, but I want to know when a show is trying to spoon-feed me pablum.

To which I always respond, "In a park, where nothing good ever happens."