DearEvette

Smashburgers and onion rings. Also for desert I made apple fritter rings. We live in an area where we are surrounded by apple orchards (and vineyards)and my husbands LOVES apple season and all the varietals. This yesr Crimson Crisps and Macouns are the faves, sweet and tart and with a satisfying snap when you bite into them. But we got a bunch of Jonah Golds that were a little punky so those I am using to cook with.

My son had some friends over last year, they were all college students and were in the family room playing video games or something, joshing at each other. I was vaguely hearing snippets of their conversation and at one point one of the guys asked another, "But what are you gonna do when...muffle muffle'(I didn't hear that part) but the other kid said as loud and clear as day 'That's a future me problem.' I think that is the main characteristic of these types of 'bargain with the devil' stories. The person making the bargain is so venal and eager to get something big now they aren't too concerned about some future nebulous payback, they grab at the now and shrug away the consequences as a 'future me problem' thinking that they'll either be able to deal with it then or wiggle out. Over time they can periodically forget that there is a payback waiting in the wings while in the back of their head worry/wonder when the bill is gonna come due. I believe both Roderick and Madeleine both remembered the parts of the deal that worked for them, but were so blinded by the shiny thing on offer they didn't pay attention to the details as @shrewd.buddha pointed out, people don't often read the 'terms and conditions' they just want to click through and get the access. But Verna's terms were very clear. 'You all exit the world together' and 'Your bloodline dies with you' and 'you two die together. You two came in this world together, you die together.' and 'when that curtain falls, everyone takes a bow together' And she almost literally told him when he would die when she said they'd have '40 to 50 years of a gilded life' which is about how many years Freddy and Tamerlane had. But I think the only thing they heard was 'let the future generation foot the bill' and over time just conveniently forgot the details.

Oh my heart is broken. Like Madeleine I figured there was a way to loophole that deal and maybe could save Lenore. Her scene with Raven was so good. Y'all I was legit upset! Look, Griswold was no prince, but to cold-bloodedly brick someone alive in a wall is some real monster shit. I liked the symmetry of a) Roderick drugging Madeleine's drink (which I immediately suspected he did when he only smelled his) and b)him calling her a 'Queen' and a 'Goddess' and he prepped her to die just as she called him a 'King' and a 'Legend' in the previous ep when she was prepping him to die. There was shot in the 1980 flashback when they are sealing the deal and Verna is pouring Cognac where the camera lingers on her hand pouring it, and the hand is in shadow and filmed in such a way that it looks like a Raven's wing. It was pretty cool. Mad respect to Pym for not making any deals with Verna and taking his chances. Also Camille's assistants get their last little bit of payback. Heh. I would have liked an update on Bill and Julius, but overall this was simply excellent. 10/10 no notes.

Fuck you, Freddie! While I was curious to see how all the kids would die I didn't have any personal animus against any of them, but Freddie changed all that. I wanted him so dead. So very dead. And was happy to see he sufferred! So like Tammy he was sliced to death with debris falling from above. With her was just a mirror, but his was a whole damned building. Ha! couldn't happen to a worse person. Truthfully they took the gloves off on showing how really awful the remaining Ushers (minus Lenore) really are. Roderick was just really horrible to both Dupin (in the past) and Juno in present day. And Madeline with Annabel. She always knows she 's the smartest person in the room, so I was so glad to see Verna knock her down a peg. And the dialogue in their scene was crackling and quick: and Heh. I loved it. But yeah that poem offered no clarity. LOL. I am trying to figure out what Madeleine was thinking when she gave Roderick the pills to kill him. If the deal was "into the world together, out of the world together" then how could killing Roderick void the deal? This is Verna we are talking about, a woman who talks in riddles and poems. And deals with a devil aren't that easy to wiggle out of. it was obviously not Verna's intent (as we see with her resurrecting him). The "out of the world together" sounds to me like the twins are a package deal. In order for the deal to void, they have to both die together just as they were born together. Now I am curious to see how the whole deal came about and what happened to Gris. I have a feeling I know where he is.

I would have love to have seen this. The Brazil version does have the parents on the reunion. One time a toxic meddling mother of one of the guys got read for filth by someone else's parent (not his significant other). It was great. I wonder if they will do an after the altar with this crew since only one couple made it to the altar? They are already so messy. LOL.

I am irrationally happy that Bill survived. Poor guy. And he'll probably get to keep his BILLT empire. Aww, poor Juno. She and Tammy had a breakthrough and she went to support her during her launch. But now she'll always think Tammy assaulted her with a mic stand as her last act. Tammy's downfall was public and her death was brutal. Yikes. Now onto Freddy. At first he just came off as an incompetent boob but generally ok. But he is doing shady shit with Morelle. I don't like it.

Ooh I liked this one. And what a neat detail to use the chirp-chirp of Vic's artificial heart instead of the usual beating of an organic heart to symbolize Vic's sins. I thought she'd hit Ali during at the beginning when we see the start of the whole argument, but then the next scene was Vic pleading with her to call her back. I thought the throwing of the statue was the fake out. Turns out to be it wasn't a fake-out after all, jut a false scene transition. The most I've liked Freddy was his matter-of-fact talk with Lenore about what comes with being a member of their family and how Pym operates for them. But Poor Lenore. She is too good for this family. I liked the camera work in Roderick's office when he was contemplating how to kill himself. It looked like his entire office became a glass elevator. Again, another Usher child dies because of their own family's creation. Perry and Camille's death's have been quick, violent, gory and something was obviously done to them. While Leo and Vic's went on a bit longer, had a taunting edge, had been marked by paranoia and hallucination, and would be considered suicide. Wonder if Freddy and Tammy's deaths will take a different turn as well. Also been wondering about who gets to be saved from being collateral damage? Verna apparently warned the wait staff and Morelle to leave Perry's party but not the rest of the party goers. I can understand the wait staff -- they were just doing their jobs. But why not just the random party goers? Is it because they willingly signed on to be part of Perry's debauchery and/or are corrupt (per Verna) in their own way? And why not Morelle -- even though she was married into the house of Usher. Was she gonna be spared because she was basically decent and really the only thing she did was bake cool looking cakes and wasn't really involved in the family business? Julius wasn't ever even introduced to the family formally and just seemed to be Leo's live in boyfriend so he isn't even tangentially involved with the family. So that could be why he was spared. But Ali of course was part of the testing on the animals so I could see why Verna would not spare her. Which leads me to wonder if Bill will survive. Based on the convo with Tammy in this one, it is as I suspected and he wasn't on board with the hookers. He was just doing it to please his wife. And his fitness empire was his before she came and took it over. He seems harmless enough. I hope he did leave and it saves his life. So little has been revealed about Tammy that I am very curious how she will go.

I have to say, outside of the big storytelling... I am liking the little things. For instance, Leo bashes trough his walls to get at the cat with Mjollnir (Thor's hammer). And the bits where the show making fun of 'tech that works on tv shows but not in real life' The first time was when they were looking at the security cam footage of Verna at the lab and Roderick wonders what he is saying. Pym reminds him it is just security camera footage there is no sound. And then when Roderick sees Verna he tells Pym to 'Enhance it' and Pym exasperatedly tells him they can't enhance it, they can zoom in but it won't enhance it. And then the second time was when Bill asked if Tammie 'freeze framed' the girl and she says 'it was a live stream there is no freeze framing.' And then we get poor hapless Freddie who tries to unlock the phone using face ID on Morella who is a) prone b) eyes closed and c) welll... her face is kinda all melted off. And so far they are all being killed by their own products. Which is great, imo. The little scene of August correctly figuring out Roderick and Annabelle's home dynamic was great. Really happy that Leo's boyfriend wasn't collateral damage!!

Sigh. Ok I used to like Leo. I figure we needed a reason to be ok with his death when it eventually happens. Verna was everywhere with everyone so I wasn't sure who would bite it this episode, but am glad it was Camille. Her line delivery is funny, but her brand of 'I am rich and powerful Kneel to Zod' entitlement and privilege gets old fast. She was really high on the annoyance factor scale to me. They gave the ape who killed her the same expression as Caesar's from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes poster. Pissed and wise. Will we ever find out why she hated Victorine so much? Was it me or did it seem like Verna- as - Tammy sex stand in not only put them off their stride because she wasn't their regular, but also because she actually asked Bill about HIS day? For once it wasn't all about him catering to her? And I have to wonder how on board Bill really is about all of this? They are underwritten so far.

Bruce Greenwood is really fantastic in this. But he looks kinda like Sam Neill is the scenes with Carl Lumbly that it takes me a minute to remember it is him. Also because he is so good, it is hard to root against him. So I like him and the grand daughter only. The kids, maybe except Leo? I hate them all. And am watching to see how they die. Mary McDonnell is also quite good. Her line delivery gives me chills.

It is interesting because to hear them tell it their stores are so different. The only way Uche's scenarios works, imo, is if Lydia is indeed his obsessive stalker. She says that they both acknowledged they got contacted by producers (and according to her there were other people in their friend group that got contacted as well) and had a convo about it. Both decided to apply independently. He says that she obsessively stalked his instagram, saw that he was contacted and then went on elaborate steps to follow him there. I am inclined to believe Lyda if only because Uche's MO feels really calculated. I really feel that he has modified his story wrt to Lydia over time as it benefited him. Even his interactions with Aaliyah he twisted the narrative to make himself the victim (always). And by not attending the reunion live so he can be confronted in real time to his face he is pulling a Jackie. Where he gets to see what everyone else said and shape his narrative after as a thought out response without any real time push back. Also, frankly nobody had a good word to say about him, not just Lydia but even the guys.

Aaliyah and Taylor looked gorgeous. Stacy did not do her own make-up. Didn't have Chris being an utter cad on my LIB bingo card. Uche sending both Lydia and Aaliyah -- two women he was completely done with -- the same text and also texting Milton on his wedding day is .... something. Are we sure he's not the bunny boiler in this scenario? Huh, Milton and Lydia still together and his family loves her? Well... goodness. Good for them! My husband said Johnie's LIB experience could be a country song. When Vanessa asked Chris "is cheating something you do to the one you love?" Lydia's face reaction would have done Marshall proud. Imma need someone to tell me what exactly Johnie did to Stacy because she still has such a nasty spirit toward Johnie over a year later. And I loved how Johnie just tuned her out to have a smiley whisper conversation with Chris. CHRIS! The guy who ghosted her and immediately boo-ed up with another woman. That was perfectly pettily played! Milton is my season MVP. But overall this was a clanging dud of a season.

Wasn't surprised by the Stacy/Izzy non-marriage. The run up to it was too smooth. They were lovey-dovey. No doubts were expressed except by her mom. They seemed too ready. There would have been no surprise if they had said yes. Netflix is not dumb, they are not going to give us smooth sailing. Even with Tiffany and Brett, who were probably the least drama couple throughout the entire franchise, they manufactured the drama before the wedding with the pants tailoring thing. So yeah, I wasn't surprised. I just wasn't sure who was gonna say no. Regarding the finances thing: What exactly was Stacy's issue with Izzy's finances? That he doesn't carry a credit card? That his credit score was bad? Or that he wasn't going to be able to spend a lot of money on her flying first class to Dubai whenever they got the itch? Those two things are a bit different and goes beyond credit scores and into financial disparity. And a Rich person marrying a poor person is a bit different than a marrying someone with a bad credit score. Credit scores can be repaired over time. But the ability to amass enough disposable income to live an affluent lifestyle isn't attainable for many people at any point in their life. I feel like the narrative has about his credit score has been up played (never mind that one major disaster can happen in a very short time to ruin a credit score and we were never told exactly what ruined his credit) but her mercenary ways have been down played a bit. As others have said, what would Stacy's financial profile look like if she didn't live off her dad? I don't blame her for not wanting to marry him if money and or a specific type of lifestyle is that important to her. You have to choose the person that will make you happy. But I also don't blame him for being a bit blindsided by it if that hadn't been made clear that it was a deal breaker for her. In other news, are we really surprised that Izzy is less than chivalrous when it comes to women? Look at how nasty he was with Johnie for no reason. And she didn't even dump him. Was surprised by Milton and Lydia actually getting married. I thought for sure Milton would do the math (ha!) and realize that maybe the equation wasn't adding up. Someone on twitter said Milton got married to get away from the HR department that is his family. LOL. I would be very curious to see how long they last. I don't dislike Lydia like I did at the start of the show. I actually kinda feel bad for her in some ways because it sounds like she has had a lot of bad luck with men. But I still don't think she and Milton work. Again, Milton with his friends are comedy gold. I could watch just them riffing on each other for awhile. They sound like they are fun to hang around. And finally, I am a bit surprised with how accepting his mom and sister were at the wedding. I mean, I didn't expect Shelby levels of disdain but wasn't expecting the smiles and 'awws' either.

I think I read Will and Jada a little more charitably, I guess. It sounds like they were no longer happy in the relationship but also either did not or just could not break away easily. It sounds like even though the romance or sexual spark was gone, there was still some sort of emotional connection there. A lot of people find it hard to give up. And I would imagine that if you already had one divorce under your belt, it might be doubly hard to see yourself in that boat a second time. I also don't see the slap any differently either. Although they may have not be together-together at at point, she is still the the mother of his children and was his partner of many years. He can still love and respect her enough not to want to see some other man disrespect her. And Chris is still incredibly problematic all on his own. It was very clear he had a personal animus against her going back at least til 2016, if not earlet. So, yeah, he is still a trash human, imo, regardless of the state if the Smith marriage.

In honor of Oktoberfest, we had a beer themed dinner. Oktoberfest beer, natch, was the beverage. But the main dish was beer brats -- my husband had his with saukraut and his favorite locally made Horseradish mustard. I had grilled onions and another locally made spicy beer mustard. We had loaded fries and spinach salad on the side.

This is the first time they've shown the couples actually going to get their marriage licenses. I never once thought about it. But based on the fact that that segment was all filmed by cell phone/selfies I assume one it is because they could not get filming clearance at a government building. Stacy looks like she could easily be cast as the evil, job obsessed other woman who has a high powered job and wears power suits and gleefully fires people on some Hallmark romance movie. Where she'd ironically lose the main guy to someone who looks a awful like Johnie. LOL. She just has one of those faces. So wait… Izzy talked money and his deBt to Johnie but not Stacy in the Pods? Hmmm…. For me, Milton is carrying this season. I like his outlook, his general philosophy, he is really smart and what he was saying about how he wanted to raise his kids was spot on. I know people think he would get steam-rollered by Lydia but this is a man who knows his own mind. Also whatever they were eating at their dinner must've been good because they were chowing down! Do people really say: "That marriage is like a business arrangement”. like Milton's sister says? Who says that? From an American perspective, I don't think I've ever heard marriage expressed that way. It always seemed to me that most Americans (if asked) would say it was an emotional/spiritual thing. There are vows and promises and it is a union sanctioned by God etc. etc. If his sister sees it that way, I kinda get why Milton was trying to delicately talk about the less emotional aspect of their family dynamic and why he might be a little thirsty for it. I liked the small shot of Izzy's mom chillin' and laughing with Milton's buddies. Yeah, I am not feeling either one of these couples. I don't hate Lydia anymore. But I still am not sold on her and Milton. And Stacy and Izzy are just no longer doing it for me. I liked them at first but their cracks showed up real quick for me. Now I can't stand them together.

Cameron Hamilton from S1 had a really nice interview with Aaliyah where she talks about the whole Uche and Lydia situation and how things panned out from her prospective. It is a really good interview and worth a listen. Cam had great questions and she was really good about explaining her thought processes. She actually shows a lot of grace toward both Uche and Lydia. I like how she speaks of them with nuance, making sure to not villainize either one. She comes to the conclusions that both were telling their versions of the truth where some truth and lie both meet in the middle. Sounds an awful lot like what Milton was trying to explain in Mathematical terms. Reinforces my opinion even harder that Uche is really a Duche. Two things she says that makes me shake my head even more about him 1) He lied to her that he and Lydia only dated for three weeks in 2020. and 2) In the end she didn't think he was attracted to her physically and repeatedly told her she "isn't his normal type." Someone of Reddit found a picture of one of his other exes and she kinda looks like Lydia. So.... Anyway here in the interview. it is about 50 mins.

Man, what a difference an episode makes. I have come to dislike Stacy and Izzy. Stacy especially, man she was awful. And I have a much more charitable view of Lydia. Uche became a bigger asshole than I thought possible. Milton has gone way up in my estimation. You could tell he really doesn't think of Uche as a friend at all, despite what Uche may think. First he talked to him in mathematical terms -- this was pure shade because Uche was not following despite the "mmm hmmms' and Milton knew it. Second he promised to hit Uche up "in the group text" -- which burn! because this says that Uche was not friend enough to even get a personal text. And finally the disdain that dripped from Milton's voice when he was telling Lydia about the math analogy "He may not understand it. He is no engineer. No STEM major." BWAH! Milton was giving me everything I needed this episode. Hi family tho... yikes. His mother must work in a corporate environment throwing out terms like 'SWOT analysis' and approaching Lydia like a job interview. I understand that families find this whole thing weird and off putting, but Uche's sister was outright rude. And if she isn't feeling it from "James" why isn't she talking to James about it? I feel bad for the women from the pods who came for a nice get together and got sucked into toxic drama. Between Stacy and Izzy being nasty to Johnie and Uche being nasty to, well, everyone... they earned them little LIB pennies. The way Uche speaks over women is just terrible. Glad Miriam called him on his shit.

So Drew Barrymore's writers have declined to return to her show citing her intent to scab. The show is interviewing new writers. Man, if only she had waited a week...

Ha. Literally 2 minutes ago I saw a tweet by Mo Ryan where she talks about a 2017 article she wrote on Andrew Kriesberg where 19 different sources spoke to her about his harassment and inappropriate behavior. I idly wondered why that came onto my timeline. And I see this is why. Heh.

Yeah, my husband said the same thing. We decided that since she was living in the quarters with Lydia and she had to be around her 24/7, that her escape route. My guess is that Aaliyah maybe wanted to try to pursue something with Uche outside of the whole 'experiment' because by doing it as part of it, she would still be in Lydia's sphere throughout the whole thing. I mean, they all buy dresses together, they live in the same complex, they have their bachelorette parties together etc. She would have been joined at the hip with Lydia the whole time and since Lydia didn't respect her boundaries re: Uche before, Aaliyah probably felt she would continue to ignore her wishes and continue to dish about Uche when given the change. She also probably didn't want to see Uche and Lydia interact with each other. But by bouncing she could have still gotten her man without all that. Oh well.

And you know what... for that he is the youngest one there, Milton seems to be the one handling a lot of this bullshit with the most maturity. They tried to drag him in to 'defend his woman' and he was all 'she can handle her own shit. ' Also he just looked so over it all 'Yeah we got somewhere to be in 10 minutes." LOL. It puts into perspective an earlier scene where Uche was trying to give him advice about Lydia and he shut that down. It may turn out to have been a bad move -- I am really not feeling them as a couple, but at least he knows his own mind, good or bad. See, I was gratified to see that Milton did no cave to Lydia. I was SURE he'd give in and wear those black shorts. She was so insistent and he looked like he'd do it just to shut her up. But no, dude was like an oak! He wore those grey shorts. I feel like a similar convo happened, where she was trying to get him to be more dressed up for the little party and he was like 'Nah, I'm good' and rolled up in his grey hoodie. And I thought her laughing at his carpet was in line with all the other couples we've seen over the years -- especially the women seeing the bachelor pads of the guys. Again he just let it roll off his back. If they get married, I'd be curious to see if he kept those rugs.

And the Divorces keep a-comin'. Jodie Turner-Smith files for divorce from Joshua Jackson. This makes me (a tiny bit) sad. I liked them together.

Hah... we had the same food, just in a different format: Porterhouse steaks, baked potato, creamed spinach.