Snarklepuss

Yes, all they'd need to do is find one ancestor with a well researched, published genealogy to be able to go back that far as the work has already been done for them. That's how I'm aware of my own link to Henry II. ITA, plus if it wasn't for this show I never would have learned that other blacks and even Jews owned slaves back then in the South. I am a firm believer that we don't inherit guilt and thankfully in our more enlightened times we don't have to inherit victimhood either. Our family history is significant and in many ways our ancestors make us who we are but what they actually did is still not our responsibility nor should we give what bad things they did any reason to affect us now. There should be no such thing as guilt by family history. JMO.

A lot of the DWTS audience is made up of women, which if influenced by politics would probably give Jordan an advantage judging from how women tend to vote in political elections, even the one last year. But I don't even think in his case politics would have kept a lot of people from voting for him no matter their political affiliations. I am sure there are a lot of audience members out there that would vote for him based on talent and wouldn't care about his politics. They also wouldn't care if he was a ringer or not or have to be aware of his Broadway show in order to get enthusiastic about him. This show isn't about politics and I'm sure a lot of people refuse to punish someone that talented on a dancing competition for not agreeing with their politics. I think a lot of people just don't work that way. When someone stands out that far ahead of the pack I think people feel obligated to reward that, and justifiably so. I think it would have taken someone with a really huge fan base to counter that and Frankie and Lindsay just aren't in that category. Jordan is such an amazing talent, that I would have been shocked if he didn't win!

I knew Jordan would win since early in the season. The combination of his talent and being the "it" guy from being in "Hamilton" plus his personal magnetism put him over the top. Don't tell me TPTB didn't have this figured out in advance this when casting this season. I would NOT believe they wouldn't have known going into this that he would be the heavy favorite to win. I don't think that set up this season as a fair competition from the get-go. I've been watching since Season 1 and while I am sure there were some previous seasons where there was an overwhelming favorite to win it somehow feels more unfair this season, I guess because Jordan was so obviously head and tails above most of his competition. I didn't post at all this season until now and I actually imagined more people would feel like I do about this and be saying "Let's just give Jordan his mirrorball and send everyone home now". I didn't think that what I thought was completely obvious from early on wouldn't have been echoed by everyone, but I guess not! Don't get me wrong, he clearly deserved to win, I just wish he had been cast on another season or something so Frankie and Lindsay would have had a fair shot. I can just imagine what Mark B. was thinking all along this season. It sucks! Plus, while pro Lindsay certainly is deserving of a win, I can't think she deserves it more than Sharna does. I know she's a talent but so is Sharna. I hate to think that this show has also become about a popularity contest between pros - If anyone should be judged mostly about their talent it should be the pros as that's their career.

Oh of course, I don't doubt that all of this is true, but it still doesn't mean I have to like it. I personally think the portrayal of women not being as ill as Rebecca has been written is a more inspiring and feminist storyline. This just feeds into the old garbage that women are all crazy. Plus, lot of "normal" people do some arguably crazy things when going through some life shit. She didn't have to be written as a suicidal bunny burner, but whatever. This show has always come off to me as a comedy more than a "dramedy", although right now it's pretty much over the line into a drama. I wasn't really on board with that just going by how the show came off to me in the first couple of seasons. I didn't read any of the background of the writers, but I shouldn't really have to, IMO.

And/or he may not have been the only guy in the picture at the time.

I actually agree with you, and I wouldn't be surprised if the show finds a very clever way to bring back some lightness after this "rock bottom" period, which I think will be a good thing. Judging from how they've handled the show so far I think they can pull it off successfully.

I don't know, even if intentional the show seems to be working on two different wavelengths. The quirky antics like stalking and all that can be viewed seriously or they can be viewed in terms of comedy. How many screwed up things have sitcoms had their characters do like stalking, etc., but it's all part of the comedy and not to be taken as a function of any serious illness? This show certainly took advantage of the comedic factor in all of the wacky out-there stuff Rebecca did on this show, plus all her quirky, funny friends, and now that she's gone over the line into really serious territory we're suddenly supposed to stop laughing, sober up and realize how fucked up all that was in light of her mental illness? I think that's a little too much of a 180 degree turn, but that's just my opinion. It may be too soon to tell yet, and it depends on where they go from here as well. I'm sure that for every person like me who has grown attached to the characters and won't give up on the show there is another one like the poster above that doesn't want to go where they're going.

This was one episode where I didn't reach for the Kleenex although I did find it heartwarming. Walter's incessant sobbing actually put me off. OK, shed a few tears but geez, get a grip, dude. I thought Kendra and her father had a cute connection. He was so young when she was born that they don't look like father and daughter although the resemblance is there. I could understand that she must have figured he was a nice person because she knew how she was and she wasn't like her mother, so therefore the "niceness" had to come from her father. In her case it appears she was right. They do seem to be similar in a lot of ways. I doubt that her mother ever knew he was gay as he said himself that he didn't come out with it until a couple of years later, presumably after he didn't know Kendra's mother anymore. And I'm sure he probably didn't broadcast it to everyone even if he did know her.

I hear you because I agree that this show has become something it didn't start out as nor did it need to become. I thought Rebecca was going to be "crazy" like the other quirky characters on this show such as Darryl and Nathaniel, but not in the dark way she turned out to be. I agree that this dark element was there from the beginning but I didn't think the show was going to push that to its darkest conclusion. When upset, people say and think a lot of things they wouldn't actually do. And a lot of people take medication but it doesn't mean they'd commit suicide or harm other people without it. I never thought that they'd make Rebecca someone that would actually try to burn someone's house down. Truthfully, I don't think they needed to go there with the character. I actually think the show would have done better to be a more lighthearted romp with our heroine being a garden variety neurotic that gets herself into all kinds of quirky situations but then somehow always comes out OK. I don't think this even darker turn is going to do any favors for the already low ratings, either. I love the characters and will stick with the show but I'm not loving this present direction either. I think it's a little too serious for the type of show it is. I say that in spite of thinking that they've actually handled it pretty well so far.

I thought Paula already did that last season when she realized she had to find her own life instead of living hers around Rebecca's and enabling Rebecca's self destruction, which resulted in her to going to law school and backing way off from Rebecca. I'm seeing this season's behavior as a regression into that former unhealthy behavior. I don't think Paula knows how to be Rebecca's friend without going over the line into enabler. She has to find the middle ground between smother-er and distancer. I think she could benefit from some therapy herself. Maybe Dr. Akopian is in her future?

ITA that the guys should know better by now and Kripke is mean, but I think the script was actually regressing the guys into "sheltered little innocent nerds" for the purposes of a plot line. Similar with Sheldon. I don't think he was knowingly being mean, just regressing into his socially clueless behavior where he doesn't realize what constitutes a betrayal and sees his actions as purely logical or whatever. That is actually getting harder to swallow now as the character has made progress beyond that in other episodes. I have said this before this season myself. I think it's really getting noticeable this season. I was actually surprised that through 9 or so seasons they hadn't changed more. With Penny it seemed to happen more gradually while with the guys it seemed to become more noticeable over the past 2 seasons. What I find interesting is how they have subtly changed Leonard's wardrobe to suit a more mature man, but they kept the Chuck's sneakers, only changed them to a more subtle, subdued version.

I think there's some specific reason the network isn't in a rush to put them back on the screen again. Recent developments in the family might be especially negative and despite Kody desperately wanting to put a positive spin on it, the network may have drawn the line. The rumors about him wanting to add more wives and Robyn being upset about that might be over the line for them to be willing to whitewash. They were pushing the plausibility with the fiction they spun about his divorce from Meri and marriage to Robyn. That and then there's the low ratings of course.

I'm sure you're right. I probably should have said, "I doubt too many people wouldn't find her attractive unless they had their heads up their asses". That was my personal opinion based on if she were considered purely on esthetics alone. Certain ranges of bone structure and facial proportion and symmetry, etc. tend to be universally favored among most humans and it cuts through all races and cultures judging from many studies on the subject. It also transcends any "white standard of beauty". The power of prejudice among some people to deny what many think is innately hardwired into our brains to find attractive is another unfortunate issue.

Alton as a judge is what's bothering me the most. There shouldn't be one judge for any aspect of this or any competition, IMO, and he doesn't come off that well doing it either, and I love him generally. He seems unnecessarily snarky at times. And I agree that the judges should all be food authorities in one way or another, not just stars with unknown food authority. It's especially hard for me to swallow with only two judges if one is a star with unknown food authority. It was better when they had two food authorities to out-vote them. But as much as I hate conspiracy theories, I think there could be a "secret" vote going on with Alton in this and his input is averaged into the scores put on the screen or at least secretly factored in when there's a tie or he doesn't agree at all with the outcome.

Even if so, it's still second hand information on at least one sister and the sister being questioned would have had to be believed without any doubt. But like I said, it's irrelevant now anyway since they pursued the brother angle and had success.

I found this TLC press release from this past March interesting as it mentions the return of Sister Wives. But that seems to be in question now: https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/tlc-announces-an-aggressive-2017-2018-upfront-slate-with-120-more-hours-of-original-programming/

I found this on YouTube:

I've seen guides online on how to train pot bellied or "teacup" pigs, but who knows about "regular" pigs? Their pig seems like the kind that keeps growing until it's a full-on huge hog, so I think eventually they'll have to get rid of him or build a sty and keep him outside but then how would he live through the cold winters? I'm hoping they give him away to a local farmer or something like that.

I grew up in the Bronx and lived there until I was 33. My father still lives there. I know all about skin lightening creams and the relative acceptance or non-acceptance based on lightness or darkness of skin shade. My point was that you'll never see a commercial or advertisement in the U.S. telling you that you're more likely to get a job based on using their product. At least I've never seen it even when I did see advertisements for such things in the Subway and in papers or magazines. P.S. When I went on interviews there was always someone taller/blonder/more WASPy looking than myself which was my own version of "colorism" as I am short, shapely and more "ethnic" looking with dark curly hair. Yes, that kind of prejudice does exist even in the white world. The only plus I had was that my last name didn't end in an "o". My own mother had to change her last name when she was young because it greatly increased her chances of getting a job not to have a name that ended in a vowel.

It must have been because I don't even remember it!

ITA that puppies are terrible - Terrible but oh-so-cute, which reminds me of the old expression that this is "why God makes them so cute". But I definitely agree that Rebecca is not in the right place to take care of a puppy, and I think that was the point of showing Josh bringing her one. Nathaniel brought her Ruth Gator Ginsburg and flowers which showed he was thinking about her. Josh is always thinking at a level of teenage maturity and so is totally off the mark. I knew a woman with BPD several years ago and it kind of threw me off a little with Rebecca mostly because the woman I knew was very paranoid and always thinking people were conspiring against her behind her back, plus she exhibited such intense anger that she was just an all around unpleasant person. At least Rebecca has some conscience and likability. But I guess everyone exhibits different aspects of the disorder differently and I do see where Rebecca fits the definition pretty well, especially because being around her feels like a roller coaster ride of constant drama. It makes me wonder if one of the writers knows the disorder very well either from themselves or someone in their lives and patterned Rebecca after them. Speaking of a trip down memory lane, I couldn't help but think that Nathaniel's parents lived on "The Quartermaine Estate" (old "General Hospital" reference for anyone that remembers that!).

Could be - None of those trace amount breakdowns appear on my Ancestry.com DNA profile.

You can watch it on YouTube.

It wouldn't just have "been nice" if he invited the guys to be a part of the project, in this case IMO it would have been the ethical thing to do since they were part of the foundation work that lead to his new breakthrough. I know the implicit social contract idea is out of style and it's basically every man for himself out there these days but IMHO that's regrettable. YMMV.

I know Sheldon has a license but does he use it? And where would he get the car to sneak away on a gov't project like that? We know he doesn't like to take cabs. I know, color me disappointed too. I'm hoping Ruchi realizes the error of her ways and comes groveling back. At least this time it wasn't Raj that was the asshole, though. I LOLed at his line about their "caramel bodies intertwined". Yes, I've noticed that Penny has even less to do than Leonard. I posted about him being pretty plot vacant last week. At least this week he did more than just stand around and nod (like Penny does).