One Imaginary Girl

I laughed out loud when Elizabeth said to the defector and his wife, "We understand." If they only knew. It didn't occur to me until Stan compared Renee to a female Philip that maybe she's another Soviet agent.

In case this happens to you again, there should be another airing overnight, around 3 am.

This article mentions the Mamacita story, and it does sort of sound like she arrived later: The 5 Most Incredibly Bizarre Joan Crawford Details. Between the article and the show, they're painting a much more sympathetic picture of Joan, whom I was really only familiar with through Mommie Dearest. The credits and production design already are making me super eager to see what they do with the '80s and '90s on the planned Charles and Diana season.

I was glad Rachel brought up the incursions-into-Belarus thing, which I read a few mentions of on Twitter over the weekend but didn't seem to be making many waves. It seems a little too close to a Gleiwitz radio station incident (providing an excuse for the Nazi invasion of Poland) for my liking.

I was kind of eh about the Darci plotline until this episode when she gave a subtly hilarious little grimace and head shake when Rogelio was about to dig into that huge fish dinner. She can stay now.

I also wished they had brought up Russell Feingold and asked whether people had voted for him. (I know there was one guy about whom it was mentioned that he'd voted Democratic in down-ballot races.) I'm still mentally untangling why people voted as they did, and part of it was the rejection of a guy so oriented toward the working class.

I'm reminded of the thirtysomething episode when we expect the worst for Nancy but Gary dies instead. Also similar because at the time I hated Gary for a cutting remark he'd made to Melissa shortly before (she was my favorite character), and earlier in this episode I was pretty annoyed at Toby for just showing up uninvited and again making one of his grand gestures. Didn't want him killed off, though!

I have to defend the "drinking in a garage." There is a bar called Garage across the street from Geno's cheesesteak shop that is in a converted auto-body shop, and they've kept a lot of the original signage. Compare the 2014 Google street view with how it looked before--it's almost incognito as a bar: Garage.

The friend I mentioned way back there is on tonight, so the answer to my question was about three whole months.

I live in Philadelphia, and that episode confirmed my belief in never traveling west of suburban Chester County. Oh, hell, I'm never going beyond the western edge of the city itself.

How old is Emma supposed to be? I thought she was a teenager, but she definitely looks well into her twenties.

Baby Susan was cute as a button. I guess we don't usually get to see them past their first few hours. As for editing, if anything had to be cut, I'd prefer it were the childbirth at the reception, which was way too contrived. They could have just kept the use of Sister Evangelina's wedding dress, and it could have still been a great day for the dress and the concepts of sharing and continuity.

I'm actually antihug, though I'm glad to see the friendship between Sidney and Geordie back on track. It just didn't seem realistic since the British are known to be not very touchy-feely, and I'd think that between two men and in the 1950s it would be even less likely. Maybe a real Brit could weigh in on this.

One thing I know for sure that she's working on is compiling amusing anecdotes for that segment.

A friend of mine recently got the word that she's on the show. So exciting! Anyone have any idea about how long between taping and airing? Just regular shows--I'll do the math if there are any tournaments in between.

I really liked that Sean contacted Finding Your Roots to have his genealogy done. He really is a self-starter. I wonder if any other guests have volunteered or if they all were recruited.

Heh. We have that Cherokee story in part of my family, and I've found a few things that indicate they were actually black, but it's hard to get people to let go of that belief, I'm sorry to say.

Holy mother of pearl. That would be one hell of a comeback to the U-turn.

I thought that showing her buying an expensive purse was meant to show how she's materialistic and status oriented and thus vulnerable where money is concerned. In real life, there have been well-publicized cases of American spies for other countries: for example, the Walker brothers, Robert Hanssen, Ana Montes, Kendall and Gwen Myers.

I don't see Holt saying sherbert instead of the correct sherbet, either.

I've read that my alma mater (which is an Ivy) does factor efforts to make a campus visit into the acceptance decision.

Maybe the video in this article is it? http://www.ew.com/article/2015/09/02/stephen-colbert-jeb-bush-raffle

It seems like the time that Stan spent undercover investigating white supremacists is brought up a lot, including the plane crash this season. I've been waiting for the significance of that assignment to become evident, so I've been wondering recently if Stan is playing some kind of long game with the suspicions he had about Elizabeth and Philip early in S1. Maybe he's a good enough agent that he can play along for a few years without the target noticing. However, I'd have to go back and rewatch any scenes with him and the Jenningses to see if there's an undercurrent of his observing them.

I like this show, but if Larry ever has that moron Nick DiPaolo on again, I'm walking away and not looking back.

I wish my dad were still around to have seen this. I used to say that contestants shouldn't get credit for FJ if they hadn't used a question mark (Come on! "Form of a question"), and he joked that they should also have to pay the producers if they wind up in the red.