Black Knight

One touch I liked is that both Madeline and Pym, after attempting to kill Verna only to learn that that doesn't work, each apologize to Verna. Very simply, just "I apologize." It was such an irony when Verna was promising Roderick that if he took the deal, his kids would never want for anything and never struggle, because we saw in the previous episodes that those kids were nothing but want and struggle. Verna appears to be essentially omniscient, so I would say that in this way she indeed was a trickster who was misleading in the terms she set out. I don't know if it would have changed Roderick's choice at all, and the show was very clear that it was his doing that all the kids were such a fucking mess (but also that that did not remove their own culpability for their awful actions), but the picture Verna presented was not remotely what the kids actually got. Yes, they had all the money they could want, but I went back and rewatched Verna's speech and she heavily implies that she's not just talking about material wants. Her closing lines are, "What's more loving, 40 years, 50 years of a gilded life? Or 70, 80 years of anxiety, tribulation and heartbreak?" Madeline and Roderick went from accidentally burying their mother alive to intentionally burying Griswold alive. I wonder if that's why they chose to kill him the way they did. Except for Lenore, the kids died in reverse birth order, but I think the reverse birth order is a red herring. They actually died in the reverse order of importance to Roderick, which fully accounts for Lenore - and Madeline as well. The three younger "bastards" were basically throwaways to him. We started seeing actual emotion from Roderick when it was Victorine's turn - Victorine who we also learned was the only one of the four "bastards" to have a board seat. He was pitching a fit about Tammy, who he mentioned was the most like him out of all his children. And it was obvious that Roderick really did favor Freddie (hence "Froderick"), because otherwise there is no way that useless git would have still been in the position of being the heir apparent. He got a billion chances from Roderick even though he was clearly the least capable of any of the kids. (Even Perry was actually onto something with his statement that his real business would be the leverage over all the important people at his parties. Verna no doubt appreciated that and Pym would have, had he known.) I'm not saying Roderick loved any of them outside of Lenore and Madeline, but there were varying degrees of mattering to him.

The safest bet in the NFL remains picking the team that just fired its coach to win its next game. It doesn't matter if the interim coach turns out to be awful and the team goes back to its losing ways thereafter, the team always wins that first next game. My Raiders were on the receiving end of that last season with the Colts playing under Jeff Saturday (LOL), so the pendulum swings back. But I think they would have beat the hapless Giants anyway, so I kind of wish Davis had saved the McDaniels firing for a different week when the Raiders were set to play a better team. Then again, it's better that the Raiders be able to draft as high as they can...

If Madeline finds it so hard to believe there are genuinely good people, does that say something about her mother? Roderick said something in the first episode about how their mother influenced them completely. Okay, we know she had an affair with a married man that produced two children, we know she thought modern medicine was basically the Devil's work (ironic given which company she worked for), and we know she killed their father. I suppose that's enough. Come to think of it, her mother's abhorrence of modern medicine does put an interesting light on Madeline's comments to Pym in this episode about moving the company away from "pills and poison" to tech. Maybe she's always had an abhorrence of Ligodone even as she got rich off it? I'm very interested to hear what the exact terms of the deal between Roderick, Madeline, and Verna are. If Roderick's children were promised as part of the deal, could that have something to do with why Roderick sired a bunch of them? He obviously knows how to wrap it up, as he's not gotten his current wife pregnant (as noted by a smart poster upthread, he'd never risk the consequences of his special project getting pregnant). They died in the reverse order of their birth, so did he hope that by putting as many kids as possible in the path between Verna and his two children by Annabel Lee, he could save his "true" children, or at least for longer? (He wouldn't necessarily envision Verna taking out his kids in such quick succession.) And then a couple of decades ago he convinced himself that the whole thing with Verna was nonsense to begin with and so he didn't need to keep fathering kids - which would explain why there were no children after Perry. As Verna noted, Freddie's behavior cannot be excused. He's responsible for his choices. That said, it's interesting to contemplate how things might have gone differently had Morrie heeded Verna's warning to leave the party. If she had left, there would not have been the situation where Freddie took her teeth out with pliers, which was what so disgusted Verna and set her on intervening directly to make sure Freddie had an awful death.

Totally Tammy's mind, because the audience had no reaction to the video. It was just typical product launch stuff that was actually playing.

Like Verna said in her speech, so many animals are used for research and 90% of it doesn't pan out. If any of the Ushers ever had an issue with animal abuse for research, they made their peace with it forever ago. Their fortune comes from it. Camille didn't care about the chimps, who were merely the latest victims. It's just that she wanted to destroy Victorine and would use anything that would work regardless of how she personally felt about it. It's not even torturing the chimps that would have been the issue for their father (animal abuse being nothing new), it was that Victorine was fudging the research to make the procedure look like a success when it wasn't, and not being honest that that was what she was doing, thus wasting Fortunata's money. The family's supposed to be honest with each other about what awful things they're doing in the family business. I remember when Roderick was explaining about the acidic materials in the tank, all that they had been doing to circumvent the law regarding those materials to avoid fines and charges, and said that if Prospero had paid the slightest bit of attention to the family business he would have known. So while Victorine was the most on-the-nose person for the choice of who the chimp would kill, Camille is a reasonably appropriate target for the chimp's rage as well. Verna noted that Camille was as awful as Victorine.

There are two comedies I've seen so many times I can quote them by heart. One is, of course, Clue. The other is My Cousin Vinny. And I only just learned a couple of days ago that they had the same director, Jonathan Lynn. Coincidence?

I don't mind Ziegler going too, but the thing that concerns me is that it will put the Raiders behind other teams in the race to sign HCs after the season ends, since they'll have to first hire a GM. Unless Davis plans to hire a HC first and force it on the GM. And then there's getting ready for the draft. This is a QB-heavy draft and the Raiders need to get it right or it's going to be back to the QB carousel we had until Carr's arrival. Meanwhile the HC carousel continues. (I really wish Davis had just stuck with Jack del Rio longer instead of chasing after Gruden, but here we are.) It sure seems like McDaniels is nothing without Tom Brady. At least Belichick has his defensive accomplishments to point to.

I remember the Diamondbacks were ranked last of the postseason teams by sport pundits, and now here they are in the World Series. I'd like to see the Rangers win it, but there's really no telling how things will turn out. Offenses go cold, pitchers get injured, people make boneheaded decisions, etc.

Did you find a Spurs game that would work? I just saw this article on CBS Sports now and thought of you.

I saw this last night. I read the book a few years ago and was glad during the film that I did, because it meant I knew Mollie would survive the poisoning. There was so much evil and misery going on that otherwise I would not have been sure. It was such a relief when the FBI arrived. Regarding the running length, I had cognitive dissonance because while watching it, I often thought that it seemed like it could be tightened up, yet whenever I checked my watch I was surprised at how much time had flown past. It didn't feel like a 200 minute movie. I've sat through 90-minute movies that felt longer. Ernest was such a weak and contradictory man. And that moment where he signs the papers his uncle gives him? How dumb can a person be?

Not that I'm in favor of the idea, but certainly the bars and pubs would make an exception for the day of the Super Bowl and open early rather than miss out on such big business, which Goodell certainly knows. Many of them already do that for the World Cup. And on the west coast the Sunday NFL slate starts in the 10am hour, so people are used to it. Hosts may well like the thought that any party they host won't necessitate cleaning up in the evening, and employers would certainly like the reduced absenteeism the following day. I suspect the corporate fat cats who attend will have the final say on this one. They do like destination Super Bowls, but it's quite a trek to London from most parts of the U.S.

Although I've been a Purdy skeptic all along (when he said last season that he found playing in the NFL easier than playing in college, that was a red flag to me that it was the system and personnel making him successful), I'm not looking forward to the slew of "Purdy was overrated and has been exposed" articles. Poor guy.

The Celtics and Bucks should both be great teams this season. Another fun possibility for your uncle would be the Spurs, because they have Victor Wembanyama.

Well, this CNN article sure makes it abundantly clear why the focus on Swift. I assume Swift's people carefully vetted Kelce after the previous fiasco, and the NFL is a juggernaut, so this particular showmance will likely last at least through the season and postseason. The NFL's dream will be for Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl cheering her boyfriend on.

Indeed, especially since MetLife last had grass in 2002. It's over twenty years later, technology and techniques have advanced. Plus it's a two-team stadium in the #1 media market, so you've got not one but two uber-rich ownership groups who can split the cost. Lambeau has grass, and the Buffalo Bills' new stadium is going to have grass.

He's still an Angel through the end of the season, and since he's not playing, he doesn't need to have anything in his locker. Not sure about the Japanese airport report - could be a false identification, or he's doing a quick trip. The appeal of the west coast teams to him was always the relative proximity to Japan compared to the rest of the mainland U.S.

So true. WAR value shows this very well. Someone is considered to have had an all-time great season if their WAR value is 10 or more, and very few players have accomplished this. A 10 WAR is just roughly 6% of the 162 game schedule each team plays.

This episode was Legends of the Fall, the 1994 Brad Pitt movie.

MetLife is hosting the World Cup, and FIFA requires grass turf. Funny how they can do it for the World Cup, but not for the NFL. It's a matter of will. The players' advocacy for grass fields and eliminating turf has been ongoing for years. They're more aware than anyone of the higher rate of injuries on turf since it can happen to any one of them, and most of them are not making generational wealth, unlike someone like Rodgers who is set for life even if he never plays another down, so the vast majority of the players are especially motivated to advocate for grass. We're just hearing more about it due to Rodgers being so high profile, since the media and general public don't much care about the players who aren't stars and it doesn't particularly mess up a team to have an average player go down. But Rodgers to the Jets was supposed to put them in the conversation for a Super Bowl, and the NFL expected high ratings for the primetime games the Jets were consequently assigned, and that's all blown up now. This is when the league and teams might finally be motivated to care, so of course the players are using their bullhorns.

The Jets get to keep their first round pick in 2024 after all, so it'll be interesting. Do they spend it on getting a nice piece for the OL? Or do they get a QB? It will depend on how much they really trust in Rodgers's recovery. Sure, he says he expects to be back and they say they expect him to be back. But whatever they say about Zach Wilson right now, they probably do not want to risk spending another year of a top-shelf defense with him.

New York teams really seem snakebitten lately: The Nets imploded with dysfunction, the Mets ended up doing a fire sale with their loaded roster, the Yanks might have their first losing season in a long time, the Giants got absolutely stomped, and then the Jets lose Rodgers, perhaps permanently, before he completes one pass for them. (And then somehow the Bills, another NY team, lose the game anyway because Josh Allen has a zillion turnovers.) I hate artificial turf, and maybe the biggest storyline of the offseason being ended after a handful of plays into the first regular season game might convince the NFL to get serious with the holdout teams. I was living in Houston when the Texans began, and I remember the organization being very clear about how they were going to spend the money to have real grass despite the challenges involved because it still made better financial sense than to risk the players with so many millions of dollars invested in them.

I finally finished my binge watch of all three seasons today. Which was poor timing, because it was very hard to watch the bombing of the JSC on the anniversary of 9/11. It's not really about the Democratic party being the more gay-friendly party; it's about who would replace her if she were convicted. We heard multiple times about how her VP is far more conservative. Now if she had committed high crimes and misdemeanors, that would be one thing, but as she pointed out, what she did doesn't rise to that. So the Democrats will overlook her lying about her personal life because she's preferable to her VP. The fact that she will owe them doesn't hurt either. A pregnant Kelly being strapped to the top of a space vehicle was so ridiculous that it was actually awesome. I have no idea how the show will top that one in the next season. I would have been fine with it if Ed had been killed off. Back during the stuff about Dani getting the first Mars mission, Ed said something about how he'd be pushing 76 at the time of the second Mars mission. So either he's gonna be in his 80s or we'll learn that he died during the time jump. I wonder if Karen's death will open the door for Dev to stay on at Helios and take power again. The board wanted him gone when they thought they could replace him with Karen. I'm glad that Margo wasn't killed off. Her defecting to Russia opens some intriguing storyline possibilities. I expect Aleida will be running NASA now, and she and Margo will end up working together again on another one of those U.S.-USSR joint projects. I really hope we don't see anything of Danny and Jimmy next season. This show kills off so many people; no need to keep these two around!

I don't think the air is toxic either. They must be pumping poison gas into the chamber where the cleaner waits for a minute. There's really no reason to be blowing anything into that chamber at that time otherwise. I'd understand if it was happening AFTER the cleaner had left, to decontaminate the chamber of anything that came in from the corridor that leads to the outside, but before? I keep thinking of the Georgia book. My guess is that the issue with the book is that at least one of the pages contains a "fun fact" that references a year that is after the silo came into existence. That's why Paul could take one page and burn the rest of the book, which I assume he did because it is much easier to hide one page than an entire book. I'm thinking the Founders were some kind of doomsday prepper cult that sent their people down into these silos assuming everything would go completely to shit aboveground shortly thereafter. That didn't happen, eventually there was a rebellion - probably among the first generation of children born into the silo, hence the emphasis now on controlling who reproduces in an attempt to ensure meek and compliant new generations - and when that was put down, they shifted from "something bad is going to happen aboveground" to "something bad already happened aboveground that made it too toxic for people to be outside." The landscape immediately around the silos looks to be more due to what happens when you dig huge construction projects in the ground and don't bother to clean up the rocky rubble that is generated. The Founders wouldn't bother since they were going to just go into the silos. And from the distance, it was impossible to tell if the city was functioning or completely deserted. There obviously have to be some problems with the outside world; the one that comes immediately to mind is that air travel has ended, because otherwise the camera would have picked up airplanes and helicopters from time to time. We don't know why it's always grey - maybe a geoengineering project to combat high heat and drought issues (which could be what killed the trees). I just binged this over the course of a week and am looking forward to S2 and some more answers!

Yes, eventually entirely or mostly outdoor sports like golf and tennis are going to have to go with a mix of changing the season of certain tournaments when they don't want to change the location, and changing the location of certain tournaments when they don't want to change the season. But a summer golf tournament in Arizona, for example, will soon not be viable, and AZ will have to start hosting in winter instead.

Yes, because pitchers started making endless pick-off attempts. The guys who were doing this a decade ago weren't contending with that. It was simply easier for them to steal bases. So one can say that the guys back then shouldn't get accolades for putting up higher numbers than in the last decade, because they didn't have to contend with what players in the last decade had to contend with.