DearEvette

Abbott also cleaned up at the NAACP Image awards this weekend as well. They got Best Comedy Series Best Actress (Quinta) Best Supporting Actor (Tyler) Best Supporting Actress (Janelle) Best Breakthough (Quinta) Best Writing (Student Transfer -- the Courtney episode) Also... I think collectively their outfits for NAACP awars were better... LOL

Yeah, we didn't see the whole clue for what he was trying to guess, only that final win part. So I am assuming the early clues were more pointed and it was the final AKA clue that tied it to her.

Airdate: 02/26/2023

Cheese Tortellini with baby spinach in a creamy tomato sauce and garlic bread sticks.

I got the impression that most of the scenes we saw were the after hours stuff. Most conferences, the professional sessions are all scheduled during the day. The evening is free time. A lot of time at the conferences there will be some kind of organized social event in the evening. At one conference I attended there was a different theme party every night. There were sometimes prizes for silly things. I won a bottle of wine at one of them where they had a balloon dance. You and your partner had to dance with a balloon held between you that couldn't fall. But even so if you go to the same conference every year, sometimes the professional sessions could become repetitive, sometime the same ones are offered every year even by the same people with the same material. So if you've been around a long time, you might actually get some free time during the day too. Maybe an hour or two where nothing is offered that strikes your fancy. So you can go lounge by the pool or get a little local shopping in.

I am sorry, but the bolded part made me legit laugh out loud. Girl, whut? What help? What black folks has he been helping?

Yeah, the first reports of the project, under a different name, were all abuzz (ha!) because Malia Obama was hired to be a writer on the show. But as far as content, it was supposed to be about the Beyonce-like figure herself. That was about a year ago. But since then it seems like they've re-tooled it, gone darker and now centered it around a crazy stan. Not what I was expecting, LOL. but I like Dominique Fishbeck and I keep her projects on my radar.

We are now a post-racial society? Ha! Just kidding.

There are quite a few Federal and State funds available for public schools for the sole purpose of professional development. And the CARES act allotted quite a bit of money for educators to use to help with development, especially as so many schools had to close due to Covid and educators had to learn how to use alternative teaching strategies. Also, remember Abbott got a big grant at the end of last season and Barbara helped Ava allocate that money so that could be a possible extra source. And it looked like Ava was a presenter at one of the sessions, so her costs were probably comped by the organization. When I would present at conferences the conference organizers always footed my entire bill including travel and food. It sounds like from what Janine and Jacob were saying, they had to fund their own transportation costs and probably had a per diem for food. Alcohol is usually not included or it might have been something the organization itself negotiated with the conference center/hotel as an inclusive price with the room as a way to keep the conference goers at the hotel and using all their amenities as opposed to going out to bars. I thought it felt about right for a local public school conference. I never worked in public schools but I'd go to a lot of conferences in my role as an IT person in the college and Universities I worked for. And also when I was an education software consultant for a big software consulting company. In my heyday of conference going I'd go to about three or four a year. One was given by our accrediting agency of which I was a member, that was usually in Lancaster, PA or Atlantic City. One was given by my national professional organization and would hit some bigger East Coast cities like NYC, Chicago, Boston. The best one though, was the one sponsored by the big software vendor we used for our student system. That was Hawaii, Vegas, Los Angeles, Florida, New Orleans etc. My expense account for those was great an I was able to drag the husband and kids along so they could sightsee while I sat in sessions or presented. Anyways, I liked seeing them outside the school. This was nice because even though they were outside of school it was still very much work related and therefore it very much still felt like a workplace comedy. One of my favorite episodes of the season.

Very funny episode. I laughed quite a bit. And the writing for this episode was simply excellent. They absolutely got the conference vibes correct. The vendors, seeing people from other places that you see on the conference circuit, the flowing alcohol, some people being excited to go to the various sessions and taking notes, while others slack off and visit the sites of the city. The only thing they didn't really include was the sheer joy of eating out at expensive restaurants on the company's dime. Another thing I really liked about this episode was how many callbacks we got and the continuity (Kristin remembering she thought of Janine as "Bilbo" to the return of the teacher that kicked the student and she is a mess, to mention of Draemond again and the revisit of the charter school possibility that was left hovering from the first half of the season, and Barbara's penchant for losing shoes -- I guess since she spent so much time at the pool 'Sea Barbara" made a quick appearance). Oh, I loved the pointed irony of being a white teacher who has made a conscious effort to learn about other cultures and be enlightened only to be dismissive of the students who are less likely to "make it out" and be so unaware at how tone deaf that is. Some people would characterize her as "woke" but her actual attitude literally the opposite of what that word means. Yikes. I saw Jacob's face fall when she was saying all that. Also, of course Jacob would know about the AKA pinkie sign! A couple of things that made me LOL the most: The "Damn" -- both of them by bystanders re: the Amber/Gregory breakup. The photographer who was so over it and his sarcastic asides “No one’s ever done that.” said in thee most deadpan voice. Kristin showing up on the down low in her Inspector Gadget/Carmen San Diego get up with her spy vs. spy whispers only to have Janine loudly blow her cover by saying her full government name loudly several times. HA! "Absolute Gasp!" And finally... I am so glad they pulled the trigger on the kiss. I hate the idea that a will they/won’t they has to be dragged out until it limps along from old age. I like the progression of this. Also the deployment of the kiss was really nice — the setting, the absolute lack of any ambient noise, the continued flower/plants motif that has meaning for both of them… so nice. It was a great scene for them.

I was watching Back to the Future and as we know the movie makes a point of showing the big effects of the changes that Marty's intervention in the past made to his family. But I always get tickled at one small thing. In the present day, Marty meets Doc at the Twin Pines Mall that has a bright neon sign that says 'Twin Pines Mall' at the entry of the mall parking lot. But when Marty time travels to the past he knocks over one of the twin pine trees at the Twin Pines Farm which was the original site of the current day mall. First thing he does when he comes back to the present day, he runs to the Mall to see if he can save Doc from the Libyans and he runs right past the neon mall sign that now reads 'Lone Pine Mall.' I love that scene because the movie didn't try to draw your attention to the new sign because all the tension was on Marty trying to get there in time to save Doc. But it was there, and they let the audience realize the significance on their own.

Not only did the younger actors look like a younger Will and Angie, they sounded like them… especially the guy who played young Will. The Faith and Will banter remains top notch. Also that awkward hug after his rescue was great. I get why Amanda is invested and has a personal relation ship with Faith but she also has a major soft spot for Will. Feels more than just a commanding officer who respects and is invested in their subordinate. She was visibly shaken and distraught by his disappearance. So I want to know more about their back story. The way Will said “Babs’ every time he spoke to Bars tickled me for some reason. Also, the fact that Babs just wanted to get to her pole dance class until shit got real also tickled me. Man, I have not heard cheap sneakers referred to as ‘bobos’ in a minute! When we were kids, that was a legit insult and quite shameful if your footwear was called out as being bobos and not a named brand. I dislike Ormewood, but I also appreciate that the show is showing the kind of cop that he is. Most cop shows have their POV cops of the "And justice will prevail and I will work this case with a burning fervor to bring the bad guy in" at all costs type of cop. Or what on the Wire they referred to as "good po-lice" and what Trevor Noah calls Copaganda. But Ormewood is the type of cop who does a convenient, expedient type police work which may or may not lead to to justice. Oh he may get a bad guy off the street, but it may not necessarily be the guy who committed the crime that he is currently investigating and he doesn't care. From the moment that woman basically laser pointed him to a person who she didn't like and was inconvenient to her business and he just fell in with her plan because she had something on him, it spoke of sort of a lazy, work-a-day type of corruption that is likely more common than not. So yeah, I appreciate that we are seeing that and especially because it is coming from a main character that they are not trying to make out to be evil, per se.

Airdate: 02/22/2023

Barbara's husband on was on an episode last season. He came by and they had lunch in her classroom. He was played by Richard Brooks (or as I will forever think of him as Paul Robinette)

Love Is Blind Season 4 drops on Friday, March 24th. All the singles are from Seattle this time. Per Tvline:

Yeah. In retrospect, I think Cole and Zanab were doomed the minute she asked him to rate her against the other girls. Why would you do this? I can't think of any other person on the show that has done this. But I think that poisoned (to her) the entire relationship from there on out. And I think if she had picked any other guy she would have asked the same question. The only difference would have been if he'd responded differently than Cole.

Airdate: 02/19/2023

RIP Richard Belzer. I know that his character Munch appeared on several different shows but I never realized just how many and in every genre: Of course he started on Homicide: LOTS and ended on one of Law and Order franchises But he also appeared in: Arrested Development The X-FIles 30 Rock American Dad Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt And there was even a Muppet version of him on Sesame Street!

The Podcast with Nick is here and I listened to about an hour of it. First of all, Raven looks gorgeous. I really like her with the dark hair. And her make up looks great. Second, SK comes off as even more shady than I originally thought. The one thing that kinda floored me the most: He and Raven were engaged during the reunion show. But couldn't reveal it because it was going to be part of the After The Altar show that had already been filmed. But... some of the revelations about the women had come out by then. At that point (during the taping of the reunion) Raven believed the women were relationships before they had gotten back together. But apparently, the one woman he went on an intimate couples trip with happened after they got back together and after the engagement. That hadn't been revealed to her yet. But SK apparently (during the reunion taping) told the producers and had begged them to remove the proposal/engagement footage from the After The Altar. This was apparently was him trying to shore up the claim he wanted to make that the other women happened before he and Raven got back together. After Raven found out about the third woman, he had asked her to lie and claim that they weren't together then either. He was apparently upset that the opinion of her on social media had gotten so much better (people began to like her more) while his reputation was tanking. He wanted her to lie to help him out. Anyway there was a lot more really not cool stuff he did in relation to his cheating including trying to get her in trouble with the producers, claiming she was posting things that they were prohibited from posting because not everything had aired yet So he'd narc on her, she'd get calls from the producers and it would turn out that she hadn't violated anything. So yeah. he was a peach.

What a great Barbara episode. Gregory was channelling All About Eve. Ava better be careful, LOL. "What is the number one cause of fire in a school?" "The CIA" -- Oh Mr. Johnson, never change with your conspiracy theory loving self! Although I a not surprised he is so well adjusted. Shalita Grant was great in this. She really made her small scenes work. She was on Season 3 of the show 'Search Party' and she killed as the lawyer. And then she topped that with her suburban wife role in Season 3 of YOU. Actually, all the guest stars were great, including the two firefighters that got most of the face time. Favorite line hands down this episode. I DIED! I believed her. Her facial expression showed disbelief. Also she told them to cut the tape after she said it. Also one of the firefighters who had used the cookies to try to knock off the frisbee on roof, licked off some of his fingers and he did a "hey this is actually good" facial expression. It really was a nice blink and miss it moment. I think it was supposed to be a quick foreshadow that the cookies were good. Yup, yup, yup. I loved her running after Barbara and Barbara opening up to Melissa and not hiding behind her facade with her.

The Will/Faith partnership really has become a highlight of the show. I liked the whole paranoia 'big brother is watching' concept of the COTW. The diner murder was really shocking. I knew intellectually the relationship between Faith and Amanda was quasi-familial in nature and that is probably was long standing. But Faith lashing out at Amanda brought home just how personal and long-standing their relationship is. No quasi-familial about it at all, but straight up family-close. I wasn't sold on the casting for Charles. He just reads as younger than Faith. When he first appeared I thought he was a younger brother or a friend of her son's. Even her interactions with him felt more maternal than those of a parental partner. The way they were playing it, the Director definitely was aware. I can only assume that it was just greed that motivated him to look the other way as a software company mined his organization for information that could potentially put his agents in danger. But the company sounded sophisticated enough with their spyware that they didn't need him to be aware. They could have simply mined all the data and gone about their business. It sure sounded like maybe no one in IT was even aware that anything squirrelly was going on until this case. I still maintain that Angie/Ormewood feel like they are on a different show. Even their cases feel like easily solved busy work. I like Will expanding his connection group first with Betty and now Nico and his looking out for Faith. Good episode.

I just saw this on Will Trent and it made me think of this forum. When you are sent to hide in a closet for your safety when an imminent home invasion/crime is about to happen, the closet will be one with louvered doors, easy to see out slats, so you can witness the crime/murder being committed but they can't see you in the closet.

Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn and Grim trilogy is a fantasy/mystery series. The first book, Dreamer's Pool, introduces the two protagonists, Blackthorn is a woman who was imprisoned for attacking the powerful man who killed her family and Grim, a quiet, giant of a man who tried to watch over her while they were in prison. Blackthorn is laser focused on one thing. After one year she will get her day and in court and will seek her revenge on the person responsible for her incarceration. But things don't go as planned. In order to save her life she enters into a strange bargain with an elf lord. The bargain entails her to travel to a far land and take up the role as a Wise Woman. For a period of seven years she must help anyone who asks her. Grim, still in his self appointed task as her guardian, accompanies her. The two of them settle in the principality of Delriada and somehow word gets around that Blackthorn can help you solve a difficult problem. In this first book Blackthorn and Grim become embroiled in solving two mysteries both Fey and mundane. The start of the book is pretty dark with the scenes of the two in prison which is rather a vile place, but that only lasts about a chapter or two. The rest is very much high fantasy/mystery.

Airdate: 2/15/2023

Agreed. I don't care one way or the other that he doesn't want to do sex scenes. It is totally fine not to want to kiss or caress someone even when it is a job and everything is choreographed. I have never been on a movie set but have heard enough about the need to have intimacy coordinators on some sets to know that sometimes intimate scenes can get a little heated and may disregard previously agreed to choreography and standards. That some directors become over zealous and some actors feel they are not able to voice consent when they feel uncomfortable about an ask. So it can go beyond just acting. Using that reasoning would have been fine. And In listening I think he glanced on that. But I think using marital fidelity as a reason not to do love scenes just seems a little extra. I think if he had kept it to himself nobody would have ever noticed his lack of love scenes. But then again he probably thought he was just chatting on a relatively obscure podcast and didn't expect the likes of GMA to blow it up, LOL.