Snarklepuss

Yeah, it happens on eBay all the time. People bid up an item or click "buy it now" and then never pay, but at least there they have accounts with credit card information on file and can suffer consequences if they do that. If she were smart, she'd make buyers enter their verified credit card information FIRST before being able to "reserve" anything. But of course, we all know how not smart any of these people are.....

Wow, you just brought me back 47 years - Back at that time my mom used to take me to an eye doctor around the corner from B. Altman's. When we went there we always ate at the restaurant in the store. What a blast from the past! And what a story to hear! I have to confess I've heard a similar tale or two myself in my time, mostly when sitting at lunch counters back when single people did that and started up conversations with nice young people that happened to sit next to them.

Do you know how the Dakota apartment building on 72nd Street got its name? Way back when it was built in 1884 there wasn't much there yet. It stood out like a huge house on a wide open plain way uptown outside the "outer limits" of the city proper. Someone started calling the building the Dakota because it was so far out in the middle of "nowhere", LOL. So the attitude goes waaaay back in NYC!

Well, my love for the show's handling of the Charles/Liza plot was short lived. I think they're veering into shark jumping territory now with all the unbelievable plot twists. Just in this thread alone we have collectively uncovered several "I'm not buying it" out of the blue head scratchers such as: Charles' out-of-proportion protestations to love Liza, which seemed to come out of the blue. Liza's out-of-proportion admission to being "in love with" Charles which also came out of the blue. The show's complete amnesia about Liza's divorce not really being final, unless they're saving that for some kind of bombshell at some point. Charles' wife seems contrived and one dimensional, more like a plot device than a real person. Liza hitting it off so well with a one dimensional, contrived plot device that happens to be the WIFE of the man she's supposedly in LOVE with. Not buying THAT one either! The fact that a book supposedly about a middle aged housewife taking a "break" from her marriage and family to "find herself" being a smash with millennials is a real stretch that I don't buy either! At the very least Kelsey would have thought it would be more appropriate to Empirical. Her getting upset when Charles wanted to take it back to Empirical seemed ridiculous and unbelievable. The fact that Charles would be OK with letting his wife have potential power over him when he's trying to move in on Liza is ridiculous too, especially given the force of his protestations of love for Liza. The whole thing doesn't add up unless he's that desperate to generate money for the company. But at what cost? This is his EX after all. But I guess Charles doesn't understand the concept of not pooping where you eat. Maybe he has boundary issues? The fact that Pauline would be so deluded as to think she could spin leaving her kids into some kind of wonderful spiritual journey to find herself instead of the abandonment that it was and everyone else just accepting that because of her book being marketable is just sickening if you ask me. The fact that Charles is OK with his ex just walzing back into his and his kids' lives and the kids not being depicted realistically as confused and perhaps upset about their relationship with her. It's just not realistic nor believable. And you don't even have to have kids to realize that! I think Charles is sort of whoring himself out to Pauline to make a buck. The company has been unable to generate enough good book deals so he is selling himself out to his ex to get one, I guess. Unless her manipulation is really working. Of course they want the audience to think that because they're screwing with us to keep us tuned in. Only they're going overboard with it, IMO and alienating us instead!

ITA, especially because US News ranks a hospital in Washington, PA outside of Pittsburgh as the #3 hospital in the country for knee replacement! That said, it did rank a NYC hospital as #1 for general orthopedic surgery. But the point is, they should have at least checked it out before just assuming that NY would be the best. But that's IMO typical for Darren Star. His is an outdated NY attitude. A lot of his attitudes remind me of New Yorkers 20-30 years ago. Similar attitudes can be found in old "Seinfeld" episodes and ancient "New Yorker" magazine covers.

The celebrity edition of this show has always been awful with mostly washed up stars overacting and looking to breathe new life into their careers. The original version with regular people started out as @mlp says above but has devolved over the years to be more of a sideshow version of itself than anything genuine. Even this version started out better. Now there's no evidence that there is anything genuine about the show. They put the cart before the horse now with complicated recipes before simple knife skills. And even Anne and Rachael are slacking off on the skills teaching now. Anne used to focus in on uniformity of knife cuts, etc., but now they don't even show her saying anything about that. Rachael looks better on her daily talk show, but that's only because she has a team of people styling her. She admits that when she's not on that show she's usually in sweats. I figure that she's on her own for her wardrobe on this show, and it shows. I think she films this show when she's on summer break from her talk show, so she's on vacation mode and pretty much doesn't care about this show anymore if she ever did. It's probably the only current tie she still has left with Food Network so she's keeping it around for now. Plus I think she and Anne are kind of friendly in part because they're both from upstate New York.

Every state has different laws about which type of alcohol beverage can or can't be sold in a grocery store like TJ's. It runs the gamut. In some states only beer can be sold in grocery stores, while in others only beer and wine, and in still others everything can be sold there including beer, wine and hard liquor. In yet other states any kind of alcohol must be sold in separate state run facilities. I think the laws are ridiculous and left over from Prohibition. When Prohibition ended the states were left up to themselves to decide whether and how to regulate the sale of alcohol. In some areas of the country there are few regulations. In the Northeast the strict fussiness about when and where liquor is sold goes as far back as the Puritans. In my state the prohibition against selling it on Sunday was only loosened up a few years ago, but it's still OK only within certain hours of the day. IMO, very ridiculous.

Me too. With him gone I'm just "meh" on the rest of them. Figures. Any time I like someone on these competition shows lately they go home early.

I'm an older person too, and you sound just like me, LOL. I happen to know three people on the cast, which is not a lot (Drew Lachey, the Property Brother and Barbara Corcoran). But do I like any of them enough to watch the show because of them? Not really. I don't think the show gives a rat's ass about the older audience anymore. They used to give us a nudge and a wink every season with a few "back in the day" stars, or at least current stars that most people in any age bracket would know. But now it's like they don't care anymore and just zero in on people that only young people would know. And even some of those would only be known to a very limited segment of young people, so I don't know how hard they're really trying to please anyone anymore. It's getting to the point that I tune in only to see the pros anymore because I know all of them much better than any of the cast, and it used to be the other way around! And yes, you are very right that getting older is a privilege and it happens in a flash. I know people in their late 40s that don't see it coming but it's right around the corner. You wake up one day and wonder where 15 years just went!

Here in CT we can only buy beer at grocery stores. But we have lobster! BWAAHH!!!! I call my TJ's a demolition derby too! Especially the parking lot! We also went there today and it was so bad Mr. 'Puss didn't even park the car. He just waited for me out front while I ran in for more of that spatchcocked lemon-rosemary chicken that I'm addicted to. I cut it up and threw it on the grill. I was inspired by the first episode of "Bobby and Damaris" on the FN. It looks like Bobby is trying to capitalize on Damaris' winning personality to make up for his own lack thereof.

I agree with the others that Tyler Florence wouldn't be a good fit for ATK. I always thought Alton Brown would be, though, but I'm sure he wouldn't be interested in doing the show.

None of the photos of him make him seem even remotely charming. In fact, just the opposite. He looked like someone you might miss because he was so unremarkable. The actor that plays the re-enacted version of him seems more like what we have been told he was like. Oh, and pretty much all the men I've ever known under 5'7" have reported their height as 5'7" even when I've known better!

They actually might have had to do that. I'm thinking getting permission for the exhuming plus the DNA test might have been the reason the season premiere date was delayed for over a month.

They could sleep in the same bed and end up having a lesbian affair! OK, I'll see myself out now........

I think it would have been a little too "femme fatale-ish" for Liza and not within her comfort zone to act that way, given the way her character is written. It would have been very Lauren Bacall-ish in "To Have and Have Not", which was fine for her but IMHO wouldn't work for Liza at this stage of the game with Charles. Anyway, right now Liza is feeling uncomfortable with pursuing Charles since his wife is back in the picture and so she has pulled way back as a result. I think if she were 100% comfortable with pursuing him she might feel right about doing something like that, and yeah, it would make him more besotted with her than he already is. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what Maggie meant by that but I think that there is a lot going on between Liza and Charles that is largely unexpressed but smoldering beneath the surface. To me it feels like an affair of the heart, which can get pretty deep even though the 2 parties have never even dated in the traditional sense. As far as Peter Hermann goes, I think his under-playing the role is deliberate because actually there are those women out there like me that prefer to see him as a thoroughly intriguing man of mystery. I'm hoping the writers continue to tease us with the "real" Charles that we have only seen a tiny bit of to this point. I'm thinking that even his own wife has never seen the "real" (AKA interesting and genuine) Charles but I'm hoping that somehow he will feel comfortable about showing that side of himself to Liza eventually. At this point in the series, Charles is trapped. It was his decision to publish the book, and it was obviously a good business decision, but he is trapping himself personally in the process. Because of the book he has to humor his ex and so is not representing himself genuinely in front of her, which is throwing Liza off and making her think he is one step away from getting back with the ex when he's not, and no matter what he says to the contrary, Liza's not buying it right now. I'm wondering when it will get to the point that Charles says "Screw her and her f-ing book, I don't even want to publish it anymore if it means I can't have YOU" to Liza.

For me it's more the Humphrey Bogart effect. You know, Bogie sitting there at Rick's Cafe Americain in his white suit, looking depressed and dragging on a stogie as he laments, "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she has to walk into mine". Bogie was never more attractive to me than in that scene! Charles had that kind of effect on me. And yeah, I'll cop to being immature about it too, LOL. I think working with his ex and seeing how much she is still trying to get back with him is like a huge bucket of ice water poured over Liza's head. She feels like she's the "other woman" and is trying reeeaaallly hard to not have feelings for a guy that is potentially unavailable. I can't say that I blame her from her POV to be honest, but I'm hoping that both of them eventually come to the point where can't help themselves and overcome any guilt or confusion to FINALLY get together.

The title of this series is beginning to have new significance for me because I would have to be "younger" to really appreciate some of the predictable soap opera plot twists it's degenerated into. I know I've seen them a million times before. Who didn't see Josh's Irish girlfriend's visa problem from 10 miles away? Wasn't that straight out of "General Hospital" 30 years ago? Or was it "One Life to Live"? I can't remember. But I really don't care because I've checked my mind at the door for this show by now, and I have to admit it's all because of Charles. And oooooooh, now we see another peek at Charles' hidden "interesting" side with the cigarette. What's next, a binge drinking problem and a criminal record? I know the show is manipulating me and yet I stopped caring about that because it's making me completely unable to resist Charles no matter what he does or says. So now in spite of myself I'm a complete slut for Charles. Yeah, I know what I said last week and the week before, etc., but all that rational, mature stuff is becoming increasingly irrelevant to me because of the way the show is FUCKING with my head, LOL. And I guess I'm along for the ride, but how frustrating has THAT been so far? They're not going to let us Team Charles people have our way until they have US smoking cigarettes, stripping naked and howling at the TV screen. By the time it's all over I won't care if HE strips naked and pounds her in the middle of Times Square as long as it finally happens! I know it's probably me, but I love the way Peter Hermann is playing the role. He's being so "Clark Kent" about it, but I just FEEL there's a Superman under that suit that he keeps hidden. And I personally don't find anything sexier than THAT. The more layers they peel away from him like an onion, the more intrigued I am to see what's really under there. I'm hoping they're not setting me up for disappointment. There has to be more there than meets the eye with him and I took the cigarette and "page 58" as little teases to that effect. Plus he is showing signs of having a lot of emotion under there that's threatening to erupt at any moment. He has to get angry and take a stand for Liza at some point, so having her date someone else will only help that process along. I hope, anyway!

Yes, I do remember you telling that story. I wonder if Justin's insistence on doing a travel/eat show had something to do with the friction. I always had the impression that Alton had another concept in mind for him. It's too bad Justin was such a douche.

I just wanted to voice my love for TJ's new "Everything Bagel" seasoning. It makes anything taste exactly like an everything bagel, which if you're like me is a good thing. I usually sprinkle it on plain cream cheese on a plain bagel if I'm out of everything bagels and it's great even on eggs and baked potatoes. They also just came out with a new onion salt which is good for the same purposes. It's verrrry oniony, but in a good way.

The guy with the beard (if I recall correctly). He was a pro and very obviously one, too. I spotted the other guy for a con right away. I'm more often right with this show than wrong these days. Not sure why, maybe it's intuition.

I know, compared to some of the strange names out there these days, Henley is positively tame!

Well the show still takes place in VT so why don't they just move the show to a country setting closer to Boston then where they film ATK then? I don't think that would work because being in VT is still relevant to the show. I think "Cook's Country" still carries the ghost of Chris like all of ATK. The more of my friends I talk to about ATK in general, the more of them come out to admit they don't like it as much as they did when Chris was on the show - And all of them said they didn't especially love Chris either! It seems he was this snarky curmudgeon that people loved to grouse about but when forced to live without him they realize they like that even LESS. Go figure!

Tregaye - Just saw her on an "All Star" tournament on "Guy's Grocery Games". Glad to hear Damaris is back on the air. I'll watch that show! She's not a FNS alum, but I just caught YouTuber Hannah Hart on her new travel/eat show and it makes me mad that they didn't just give Justin Warner a show like that since he wanted to do a travel/eat show. He would have been far better and the fans would have loved it, I'm sure. It was like they were determined not to give him a series from day one. Hannah Hart is just not that interesting, IMHO.

I take back what I said about Erik not ageing well. I didn't realize he was 68 years old. I thought he was several years younger. From what I've read about him, he supports and does work for a fair amount of charities/community causes. He has also at various times actually been sworn into police departments in different states as a reserve officer or sheriff to work on various task forces. He's also a native New Yorker (born in Brooklyn). Interesting guy, so why is he on this train wreck?

No he does, I thought it too, LOL. I don't know why I bother to watch this. It's so bad even the regular version is better! I know most of these people but that doesn't make it any better. Eric Estrada hasn't aged well and as much as I loved Carson Kressley on other shows (like on DWTS) he is overacting even more and therefore more annoying here. Plus him saying he doesn't know how to cook when he won "Cupcake Wars" is still bugging me.