DearEvette

Alyssa Milano optioned Brazen Virtue for Netflix ant it was released in 2022. It was called Brazen. I honestly think it was another clunker. I honestly don't think she'd mind too much. She writes primarily Irish and Irish-American characters. (Hey, now that the Irish have embraced Ayo Edebiri as on of their own maybe she can be a Nora heroine? Heh) But she has written books where the B-romance plot features non-white characters. The one off the top of my head is Black Hills. I don't believe she has written any LGBTQ+ romance arcs, but I think some of her books could easily change up character orientation and or race. A great candidate would be Montana Sky -- the one with the three sisters who co-inherited a ranch from their now deceased father. They all had different mothers and didn't grow up together. It would be simple to race swap one, and make one bi or gay. and it wouldn't change the story at all. Or any of her fantasy trilogies that features three couples -- like The Guardians trilogy (one of the characters was a friggin; mermaid) or the Year One trilogy which has a bunch of characters a la The Stand who come from everywhere. OMG! I think I have this one!!! I have to go look. This book is selling for like 150.00 on Amazon.

Agreed. If they are at the point where they are on the verge of proposing, the dates had to have been long and intense. If he isn't feeling her at that point then why is he still dating her? She was putting it all out there and he was still giving nothing. She deserved better. He can't say ILY to her but immediately can to Chelsea? I know there is some creative editing in there but I think his 'I got sudden clarity' had nothing to do with some lightbulb going off in his head about Chelsea and more to do with the fact that he knew Trevor was gonna propose and he didn't want to lose out on his chance of getting his Megan Fox look alike. I feel like the child was a deal breaker with Jess on the day she revealed it, but he strung her along fully knowing how into him she was to hedge his bets against Chelsea. Clay isn't as egregious as Matthew, but he is still giving me 'something ain't right.' with him. AD is so nice and bubbly. I wondered where the bible came from all of a sudden? How is this man quoting scripture now? LOL. It didn't come off as a natural at all. He sounded like a religious huckster. I feel bad for Trevor because I think he might get his heart broken. Unless of course Chelsea surprises us as doesn't go for Jimmy, in which case, I will laugh my ass off! The other two engaged couples so far are very much a Kenny and Kelly meh-vibe for me. I can;t even remember the names of the first couple that got engaged.

I think it is a "it depends" sort of thing. The timing in the pods is on the show is always a little deceptive and they play with continuity. We know that the first few dates are very, very short. And they get longer as you start to weed out people you don;t vibe with. It makes no sense for her to say anything on first date which might be all of 10 minutes and then the second round which only goes to 30 minutes. So I get it that she might wait to see who she likes and they get into the longer dates where she'll disclose. It felt like it was pretty early in the process when she told Jimmy. We have no idea who else she was dating or might like since her storyline was clearly the love triangle with Jimmy and Chelsea. Reminds me of the discussions we had about Carlton and Diamond about when he should have disclosed he was bi to her. At least Jess told Jimmy before a possible proposal. LOL. I am sooo disappointed in Matthew. Man. what a rollercoaster. I went from thinking... what an asshole. To thinking... maybe he is neurodivergent and just can't handle a deviation from a prepared script in an unfamiliar situation (I had a boss like this and it was ... interesting). To thinking... ok maybe he's not so bad he and AD are really great together. To thinking.... well, damn. He really is horrible. I wish he had stayed the guy we sw with his first interactions with AD, because I am not feeling Clay for her. He seems to lack the understanding of the whole purpose of the experiment. And he's annoying.

Oh... I love her Oxymoron books. Carnal Innocence is my hands down favorite but Public Secrets is a close second. I listened to both of them on audio a few years ago and the narrator for Carnal was fantastic. The narrator for Public Secrets was hysterically bad. I had to return the audiobook. They did an audio re-issue of Sacred Sins (which I also remember absolutely loving back in the day) but it comes off as a bite more dated than some of the rest. Also, I lowkey think Genuine Lies was an inspiration for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins-Reid. And yeah, Nora has terrible luck with tv adaptations. They either end up looking cheap or they are miscast. I wish Shonda Rhimes had chosen some Nora to adapt for Netflix instead of the Bridgertons. We would have at least gotten some really good looking man eye-candy and a lot of big bucks so the books wouldn't look cheap. If not her then Reese Witherspoon -- look what she did with Big Little Lies.

I wouldn't call myself a number one fan... I do concede that to @GHScorpiosRule but I have read everything she is written... up to last year... I did not read the last Becoming trilogy. But I do have the new trilogy and the last two JD Robb books sitting on my kindle idle. Two early memorable books for me was The Law is a Lady. For a Harlequin romance tin the 80s this was a bit of a game changer because the heroine was the sheriff (heroines were always coded in some very 'female' work) and she was written as someone who'd amble and spoke 'lazily'. It was. great characterization because Nora gave her the traits that males usually had in those books. And then there was the Pride of Jared McKade. The heroine was a single mom who was impatient, prickly and an ex-stripper. Again.. unheard of for Harlequin/Silhouette.

Pour one out. My free ride with Paramount+ has sadly come to an end. As of Feb 16th I'm out. No two more months free extensions for me. For almost one year I think I have only paid about 3.99 total for Paramount+. It was good ride P+!

I actually am liking the Manny character. I think the show's M.O. thus far has been to pretty quickly give you the personality of the people when they introduce them. We quickly knew what kind of person Ashley (Melissa's room aide) and Draemond (Leslie Odom's charter school guy) and Mr. Morton (Jacob's nemesis) and even Tariq. All in all I think he is just another "Janine" who happened into the job in administration where he wanted to make a difference, whereas Janine went into teaching. As someone upthread mentioned, the discovery that they read the same online message board and like each other's comments would shore up that idea. I am thinking he was given the job because the District has that job but it is rather thankless, but like Janine he has the optimism and the energy to do it as a young person who hasn't yet let bitterness grind him down. I also like how the Janine/Gregory thing played out. The awkwardness followed by the admission they are each other's person. It is a pretty refreshing approach to addressing this stage in the relationship and it allows the writers room to breathe on them. They are close and value the relationship but we have put the romance on pause in a very healthy way.

My favorite parts: The kids' reaction to the proposal. Especially the one kid who had his hands clutched on his head with an expression like "OMG, what is happening?" The entire scene of them pumping up Gregory to "seduce" Ava with his guns. And his look of utter shame, clutching his sweater to his chest as he walked away. Also when Barbara laughed diabolically when she came up with her plan, Melissa and Jacob looked legit terrified. Jacob being so excited to get Mr Johnson as his career day guy. Also Mr. Johnson getting as much respect as Jalen Hurts. I love the fact that the cosmetologist brought the styling heads (I had one of those when I was a kid) so that all the kids could practice along with her. Ava dancing to Back That Azz Up (which is such a GREAT song! also the NPR Tiny desk version is fantastic!) And finally... damn Jalen Hurts is F-O-I-N foine! And yes, love the reminder/shoutout that he has an all female management/rep team.

They are 8th graders. I don't know about PA, but the Korean war is definitely on the 8th grade history curriculum in NYS.

Ooh, agreed, Fantastic film. RIP Ms. Fernandez.

No. His father was played by Gary Cole and his mother who appeared in one Episode was played by Jane Kaczmarek. The kids called her 'White Grandma.'

Great casting of Ares. That is exactly how I would picture Ares in my head. Good casting of Hephaestus as well. Although in my head he is still a somewhat of a blacksmith in my head, not the steampunk inventor the show went with. But I'll take it. It works. Also good concept of the Three Fates as older lady knitters. Of course! So Atropos cut a thread. And yeah that means someone's gonna die. I wonder if Percy' technically 'died' during the minute he was frozen on that chair? I love this. Whoever is writing did their mythological research. Ares was always jealous of Athena. She always got the better of him. And she has always been presented as smarter at warfare than him. Grover being able to use that tweak him for info is great. And Ares comes off as just the right amount of beleaguered and thirsty for validation Also I really hope we get a scene with all the gods together at maybe a dysfunctional family event. I know who they cast as Poseidon, Zeus and Hades. All great choices. But nothing yet on Athena. I think it is the Iliad that has them choosing sides in the Trojan war and arguing about it like teenagers. I want to see something like that. LOL. I enjoyed how Grover was able to draw him out. But the nature of the conversation was pretty funny. Talking about Ares' war phases and 'softer' wars reminded of when people have conversations with, say, hard rock musicians who write a love ballad or something. That was great as was the accompanying short film of Hephaestus' life. What I liked the most... Percy's reaction to the song. He is 12 years old. That song is way older than him. One of my pet peeves is when writers write YA characters as if the stuff resonant with them when they themselves were teenagers would be the same things that would resonate with their teenage characters set in the present day. That is simply not true. So I love that Percy's only point of reference is that he kinda maybe recognized the song as something that was played in his orthodontist's office.

Are they published published? Or just link back to AO3 or some other fan fic platform? I know GR allows people to create a library entry of fanfiction work as long as it is complete, so it can be reviewed and discussed like any book, but the few I have seen don't have a buy link.

Agreed. The extra boys staying there would have been a different movie. One that I might have also liked. But this movie was about these three people. From a logistics perspective, I think they had to have the others boys there to start off. It feels realistic to think that there are maybe a handful of boys that don't go home over the break each year. Yeah they could've just made Angus the only one this year and get the same story, but as @snarktini points out, the story beat of making Angus doubly rejected is the engine that drives the car to the end so to speak, imo. It adds a lot of audience sympathy to Angus, it is what spurs Angus to visit his father, and it sets up that last scene in the Headmasters' office with Paul and his parents to feel earned, rather than plot convenient.

Nigel Lythgoe is leaving SYTYCD. He says he is doing it voluntarily with a heavy heart. I am thinking it was less volunteer and more voluntold.

Listennnn...! The choke hold those Danny Kaye movies had on me back in the day. I still remember the mnemonic of them knowing which drink had the poison: "The Pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!" The Court Jester was great and Glynis Johns was luminous in it. RIP MS. Johns.

Is that $99.00 Canadian? Dude, that makes me even more glad I cancelled. With tax my Prime is 150.00 a year. I did a look back and AZ prime was 79.00 from 2005 - 2014. They introduced Prime video in 2011. Their first foray into competing with the likes of Netflix to offer streaming content. Then it went up from 79.00 to 99.00 in 2014. Which... no surprise was the first year they offered their own original content. From then on it has gone up 20.00 every four years. 2018 it went to 119. and then in 2022 it went up to 139. I know you can get just the Prime video all by itself without being a member of Prime. Also some phone carriers offer it as a standalone perk as a part of the contract.

I liked this portrayal of Echidna. I mean her mythological claim to fame is being a mother of some of the most famous monsters in mythology. So her I thought her introduction of 'I am a mom' and her whole schtick of being the parody of a soft spoken suburban mom in her faux Chanel jacket and mom jeans was great. I feel like Athena would not be a proponent of 'soft parenting' LOL. Given that she is a martial Goddess, I feel that she'd be a hard ass. So yeah, this feels on point that she would not be amused. But to allow a monster into your 'temple' so they can desecrate it (I mean punching a hole through the arch is messing up the perfect math symmetry) is a bit much to teach your kid a lesson. Yeah. I like this. I took Latin for all of my four years in college and had to be immersed in the classics of which mythology texts were a huge part. And the one thing I learned was that the Gods were petty as hell. Childish, jealous just total assholes. LOL. They really do. But to be fair, having been around grown ass men watching episodes of Jackass, laughing at stupid shit is a joy reserved for all ages. I don't believe he said Pan disappeared because of Humans. He just said he disappeared thousands of years ago. As a result of his disappearance he was no longer there to look over the natural world. His terse response of 'Humans' to Percy's question of why there weren't as many centaurs riding around was referring to the fact that since Pan was no longer around to prevent it, humans were able to encroach on the natural spaces, i.e. the rise of industrialism, that in turn led to fewer natural spaces for the centaurs to ride so there are not as many riding around or there are just less of them period.

I honestly feel like this should be a universal truth. I absolutely know what scene you are talking about. The minute he takes off the glasses, he allows his posture to go from a self effacing, very slight slump to standing straight, tall, shoulders out, chest front, even his face muscles look like they get more pronounced. LOL. Such a good example of physical acting.

I am glad it won both death scene categories. Not just because I nommed them (pats self on back) but because the deaths were such an integral part of the narrative. They were meaningful on a whole story level but on a character level as well. And yeah, agreed it was my favorite show that aired during the eligibility period. It is amazing because horror and horror-adjacent is really not my jam. But I ate that show up. I think the only category I (again biased) think it should have won was diversity. That Roderick Usher got around! He managed to impregnate women of all races! And managed to have children that were straight, bi, gay, and pan. And married a woman with a disability. All of that in one family! I was also gratified to see that Reservation Dogs got a lot of love.

I watched this when it showed up on Peacock. Had no real expectation but was very pleasantly surprised. I just like little movies like this. No big, big swings but very intimate storytelling without coming off as overly pretentious and precious. Most surprising was Dominic Sessa. I went to see what else he was in an learned this was his first film, he is a college student and it was filmed in the prep school he went to. He is so assured and a natural. Total break out performance. Also, Paul Giamatti is not wall-eyed! LOL. I've seen him in so many things and I would have sworn that was just how his eyes have always looked? But it was movie make up/magic. They did a great job. My husband said he wishes we had gotten a little more time with the other boys. I agree. I wonder why the Mormon kid couldn't go home for Christmas? Or the Asian kid. Anyway, I enjoyed this. What a nice surprise.

Every New Year's Eve do a stay at home 'grazing' -- just a lay out of finger food that we can graze on all night and at midnight raise a glass of champagne. This year we had: a sushi platter, crab stuffed mushroom caps, salmon croquet bites(with remoulade sauce), various cheeses and crackers, bab ghanouj and tzatziki sauce with fresh veggies and pita for dipping, hot spinach-artichoke dip, cheesecake bites and macarons. Same. Only I am gonna do collards with mine. Since my husband has cut out meat in his diet in the last couple years I have to do two batches of collards. One I do with traditional smoked hocks. My family is from the South and that taste is hard wired in me, LOL. For my husband I try to replicate the flavor using a plant based smoked sausage and smoked olive oil for the fat. And man, I am fo glad the holidays are over. No more entertaining until summer.

Same. I have been a Amazon Prime member almost since the program began. I shopped at Amazon so much in the early days that the free 2 day shipping was a godsend. And they started piling on the benefits: free books, prime video etc. But I take less and less advantage of these things. When they announced this I took stock of how much I use the benefits. I calculated and the 139.00 annual cost is was an actual loss for me for the last two-three years. I don't even use the fire stick anymore, we switched to a Roku. I think I've only taken advantage of the The First Reads program i .. maybe 6 times over the last two years. They curate the same types of books every month and sometimes from same authors. It's Just not worth it. More of a money grab from a company that does not need it. So I cancelled yesterday. It felt great, tbh. As of now I am keeping Hulu and Netflix. Oh and I have Peacock until October. That was a ridiculously deep discount ($29.00 for the year) I could not pass up. Oh... and Paramount because, hilariously they keep giving it to me for free. I went to cancel it again and they gave me two more months for free. I don't think I've paid for Paramount since March.

For Christmas I hosted 12 people with varying dietary preferences. I basically excised all red meat and pork from the menu. For starters I had: Carmelized peaches and brie in puff pastry, roasted cherry tomato and balsamic bruschetta, and spinach artichoke dip Duck with orange sauce, and crab stuffed sole with a bernaise sauce, a whole roasted cauliflower with almond herb sauce, Broccoli wild rice casserole, eggplant rollups, corn souffle, garlic sauteed spinach and mushrooms was the main dish.

Mind you... I haven't read the books but the way I read the scene was, capturing the flag wasn't the goal for Percy, it was a mis-direction. Luke (who is kinda captain exposition) basically tells one of the other campers that the strategy was Annabeth's and she was Percy where she wants him. While Everyone else is preoccupied with the game she isolates Percy for a reason. Cut to Percy all alone, away from the action, flossing on the rock. I feel like Annabeth, knowing Clarisse's M.O. (corner your prey when they are alone) purposely parked Percy all by himself on that rock to lure Clarisse there so Percy could fight her. The flag game was small potatoes. The important part was Percy defeating a relatively powerful demi-god in a decisive way in view of a place where his father would logically be -- i.e. a body of water -- so he could notice Percy. Percy fighting Clarisse breaking Clarisse's special weapon -- which I assume was a gift from her father given how heartbrokenly she screamed when it happened -- was the real act Poseidon needed to witness. Unlike Clarisse, I got the impression that Annabeth never doubted that Percy killed the Minotaur. And she figured that if he could do that then Clarisse would have been no problem for him. So if you think about Luke's 'ten moves ahead' comment, it seems like Annabeth engineered her whole capture the flag team strategy just to put Percy in a place to be claimed. From a classics standpoint it also makes sense. Athena is the goddess of wisdom. But she is also the patron goddess of heroes. So the show seems to be imbuing Annabeth with these traits. Interestingly, someone on twitter noted that Percy's fight skills got better, less clumsy, and more assured the closer he got to the water.