Black Knight

When that day comes, I hope he will be able to be kind to himself and accept that he was only four. My best friend (mother of two) pointed out that you can't ask a 4-year-old to throw you your life jacket. They don't have that kind of wherewithal. Plus, she wouldn't have wanted to let on that anything was wrong, so that he would stay on the boat where he'd be safe(r).

This is so heartbreaking: Speculation, but it does fit in with her son's account that she got him onto the boat and then he looked back to see her slip under the water.

The reports I've seen say that her son said that they both went swimming. But he got back to the boat and she didn't.

It's so hard for me to think about her final moments and her son. All she wanted was to give him a fun outing, and instead he loses his mother and is traumatized. And if she knew she was in trouble at the end (as opposed to getting knocked unconscious immediately), she must have been so terrified thinking of her son being left all alone on the lake. Thank goodness he was found. Re: the comments about the amount of news coverage, I agree with others that it's pretty well covered in certain places: on social media and the younger pop culture sites, as well as LGBT sites. It's the mainstream media that's been relatively quiet, and I think that's because of the timing of this in respect to Glee. Yes, Glee was a huge show, but it was also a teen show, and the mainstream media can be pretty snobby about those, especially once they've stopped airing. She didn't die when Glee was still on the air, as Cory Monteith did, and she didn't die so many years later that the generation to which the show was most important had made it up the ranks of mainstream media and had lots of nostalgia, as Luke Perry did. But regardless of mainstream media attention, Rivera leaves an important legacy. Heather Hogan over at Autostraddle wrote well about this:

My opinion always was that Audrina made the whole thing up for attention (and also maybe she was bitter about Lauren not liking/approving of Justin Bobby and this was her weird revenge by trying to make it seem like Lauren actually hooked up with him and so he couldn't be a loser after all), but Lauren wasn't in on it and was genuinely upset. One thing that struck me was how Audrina brought that woman to her confrontation with Lauren. I don't remember her being introduced or otherwise identified and she certainly didn't look like someone Audrina would have for a friend. My suspicion is that she was Audrina's publicist or something like that.

I'm tearing through the Hunger Games prequel right now - I can't wait to read the spoiler discussion here once I'm done! I'm about a third of the way in, and really loving this look at the Capitol and its denizens not long after the rebellion ended. It's so instructive, I think, to see the contrast between then and Katniss's time. I keep thinking of Peeta's reaction to the way the Capitol people waste food, but just two generations before, they too knew what it was to starve. But the Capitol government, presumably under Snow's guidance, allowed all that to fade away, but of course never stopped trumpeting the rebellion and the supposed need for the Hunger Games to forever punish the districts for rebelling. I'm loving that Collins set this prequel here instead of giving in to fans' requests for a book about Haymitch's Games or whatever. That would have just been fan service and a cash grab, without anything new to say.

Far from going deeper into it, I expect it to be condensed. It's the sort of thing that works fine in a book, but is far harder in a visual medium. And there are so many characters and storylines to service.

And the thing is, there are all kinds of things that increase your risk of cancer or lower your risk of cancer. How much drinking do you do? Where have you lived? What kind of job do you do? What is your family history and your genetics, which is something that is completely out of your control? "Increased risk" sounds very ominous, but really, with not having children, we're not talking something like 50% increased chance. There are tons and tons of mothers who have gotten cancer. I know more mothers who have gotten cancer than childless women who have. Yes, if you smoke like a chimney and you get lung cancer, you can be pretty sure that was a huge contributing factor. But cancer is not always that straightforward. My stepfather died of liver cancer. We don't know why. He didn't have any of the increased risk factors and it didn't run in his family. One can manage to do everything "perfectly" and still get cancer. So for the doctor to dump that on Sam like it was the thing that made the difference was really just straight bullshit.

Cancer patients often get de-sexualized. I was happy the show didn't do that with Sam.

I read that last year. The first part felt like a bit like a slog because I guessed the twist so early, but once the book caught up and did the Big (Not-So-Shocking) Reveal, it was better. I just finished Michelle Obama's Becoming. It's a good read, although I was sorry that her trademark humor mostly didn't make it in. I can understand why she felt she needed to keep her narrative restrained and circumspect. My favorite anecdote was about the night of the landmark Obergefell decision, in which she and one of her daughters manage to sneak outside the White House to look at it all lit up in rainbow lights. I'm now halfway through Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons. I'm not sure that I think it deserved to win the Pulitzer Prize, at least not so far, but it's a good read, following a long-married couple through a day in their lives. Both of them are so well-drawn.

I remember Darren Star explaining that they shot TV-syndication-friendly versions of various scenes as they went along. It was smart planning. At least that way the episodes aren't butchered in the editing process. Agreed. Sam had depth to her. A little bit of it was Kim Cattrall, but it wasn't all her - it was there in the writing too. But Sam was the easiest to stereotype and so that persisted in the media and among casual viewers, as you say. I was just thinking this week about one of Sam's scenes - a friend of mine who lives alone and is quarantining alone (I also live alone, but my best friend insisted I come stay with her) wrote me that this is one of the few times in her life that she wishes she had a permanent mate. It reminded me of that episode where Sam is sick and her curtains are broken, and when Carrie finally goes to visit her (and hey, while it was overdue, at least she went, unlike the others), Sam has a little rant about how she should have gotten married, because at least she'd have curtains that closed. Hee.

It doesn't bother me either. It seems to me kind of like teachers who don't want children of their own. It doesn't mean they're not good teachers. Jackson's advice worked (and the problem was usually the humans, not the cats).

As the discussion has drifted from Alanna's casting to more general speculation of how the show will adapt the books, I have moved several posts to the brand-new Book to Show thread. Speculate away there!

My assumption has been that Min won't be in the series (or if she is, she won't be involved with Rand - but she's really just kinda pointless then as her only other function is to have visions, and they can just give any key ones to another character), and that Elayne and Aviendha will be not only best friends but lovers. It all works just fine then.

I remember Alanna more from later books. But my guess is that they want to establish her - and more importantly, the relationship between her and her two Warders - very early so Rand's situation doesn't seem so male wish fulfillment fantasy (doubtless his will be tweaked in other ways to further reduce that).