simplyme

All right. Yinz ran my tablet out of juice, so time for bed. Final deep thoughts: Go Nat, Paul, and Vic! Boo Corey, James, and Nicole! And enjoy JH, Meech. (HGs listed in alphabetical order within category.)

But by that metric, there is pretty much no such thing as a good player. Everyone who was evicted made crucial mistakes. Victor has made several and been evicted twice. James has thrown comps that he shouldn't have. Nicole and Corey are targeting the wrong people. Paul only managed to save himself from being evicted through winning veto. I would also argue that targeting Vic/Paul was not a bad move given the information she had. She had no way of knowing that a) Paul would win veto, b) Vic would come back AGAIN, and c) that Nicole would win HoH (because really? Nicole?) and throw them to the wolves. Nat tried to take out the targets she couldn't win against when she had the numbers. It went to hell, but that doesn't make it stupid or her a poor player.

I don't know about calling her a poor player. She made some crucial mistakes, yes. But I think they all made mistakes that could have been crucial. Timing is important. I certainly think she was a better player than at least half the house. (Speaking of crucial mistakes, usually getting evicted counts as one.)

How probable is it that Paul threw this, hoping Vic or Corey would win and do his dirty work for him but leaving him eligible for HoH next week?

I suppose Vic could put up James and Corey/Nicole. That makes Paul the swing vote. The only issue would be if Nat won veto. Or they could simply bro down with Corey and try to talk him into James if they put up James and Nat. Corey's a beta male who follows the alpha male. There's a decent chance he'd do it.

At this point, Vic and Paul might see her as the bigger threat, too. What's James going to do? Use a foodstuff inappropriately? Nat could conceivably win a comp.

I wonder if James will go or Natalie? I can see Vic nominating James/Nat and if veto doesn't get used then Corey and Nicole vote out Nat.

C'mon, Nat! Access your cheerleader and Gimme an H!

Tell me how you really feel. Also, give back our states! And thanks to Haycole, you, and MrHufflepuff, I can't get the song O, The Canada out of my head. (My brother was amused and sang the whole song adding in "the" where he could. Argh.) Just not Corey.

If I'm not covering my eyes and praying for it to end, watching in horror to see if someone is frantically flailed to death (probably Alison), or stabbing myself in the leg with a pencil to stay awake, it certainly ain't bad. After that, we're getting technical!

I love this entire post. I agree that "small town" folk are not necessarily conservative (I'm probably an example of a fairly liberal small town product), but taken as a whole, small towns are often more socially and politically conservative than large cities. There are always exceptions to this (university towns may skew one way or another, etc), and any given individual is, well, an individual. :) We're mostly talking BIG generalities here. I'm in a similar camp. I don't see James/Nat working out in the long run, and it has nothing to do with money, looks, or coolness factor. I think they like and respect each other, but there are some base values that differ that will be difficult to overcome. There are certainly couples who have surprised me before, though. Sometimes it's just one or two things that makes a relationship infeasible if they're the right (or wrong, I guess) one or two things. Granted, not being on camera and not being together 24/7 could be a big help to them... or could kill it faster than a New York (City!) minute.

And apparently never saw a reindeer in either Europe or Canada. :) ETA: Those reindeer need to go to more clubs.

He knows all of Canada? Cuz that's pretty big. (Speaking of geographical nonspecificity...)

After watching that someone, somewhere on one of these boards* said, "I thought he was the smart one?" Maybe, but that's like saying someone is the tallest Munchkin or the classiest Kardashian. *Darned if I could find it again.

I'm mostly just teasing people, though the NY vs NYC thing is a pet peeve for many NYers not living in NYC, partially because so much of the world really doesn't know that most of NY state is cows, farmland, and truck stops. So please, feel lovingly and affectionately teased. I truly wasn't offended. Just amused. :) My apologies if I made anyone feel bad. (I'm from one of those families that teases to show affection.) I get what you're saying. Having a "small town" mentality = more culturally conservative, which is what Wichita Falls is regardless of actual size. The size thing is not a strict correlation, as geography, etc does play in somewhat (ie small cities of comparable size in another state may be more liberal or more conservative depending on other factors), but as a base rule it's fairly accurate.

Well, @StatisticalOutlier, it will be fascinating to see if Henner can drag one foot out of the grave to give us a good performance! It's a good thing she has Derek, who will be able to incorporate her walker seamlessly into the routines. Maybe she can even toss in some denture tricks! I'm sure wardrobe will make sure her outfit conceals her Depends. Yes, the entire previous paragraph was a joke. Admittedly she isn't Shawn Johnson, but I've known some 64-year-olds who outdance, outwork, and outmove most 20-somethings. So I'm going to wait and see. :)

There are LOTS of nice guys out there. They may have other reasons you aren't compatible, but this statement isn't true. Most people say things like this when they're frustrated or in a bad place, so I take it with a grain of salt. Women who say it repeatedly and mean it tend to have shit taste in men, though. ETA: The reverse camp of "All women are evil golddigging whores" is just as incorrect, while I'm at it.

Stop using New York to refer only to NYC! :P --the other NYer *My friend once named a dairy cow after me (yeah, SimplyMe, the cow). It was Grand Champion of the NY State Fair. *struts* Welcome to the other NY, where Wichita Falls is freakin' BIG!

Yes, actually. *grins* As well as about his personality, blah blah. Fewer comments about his hair and outfit than Julianne usually gets though. One thing I liked about Kirstie Alley was that I was pretty sure Max wouldn't slap her on the butt a la Brandy without getting his butt slapped in return. Tony's win wasn't a set up, IIRC. I believe he had someone else originally and Melissa was a last minute replacement when they pulled out, and she pushed the hell out of Tony. The others... like I said, TPTB are invested in keeping favorite dancers on as long as possible for better ratings. That said, I don't think they have absolute power in how a star is received or how they dance. I certainly think Paige probably did better than expected last season and Mischa much, much worse.

I don't know that I would say "Derek always gets a ringer!" I would say that the worst partners I've seen him get were Bethany Mota and maybe Maria Mewhatsit. That's a pretty high bar. To be fair, I can't recall Val or Maks getting someone truly god awful either. Please note, I haven't watched every single season. I'm always stumped by people pointing to Amber Riley and Rikki Lake as shock success stories. They both have personality in spades and had prior dance experience. No, I wouldn't call them pros, but I certainly knew they had been exposed to dance and done it competently before DWTS. I think the main reason they get that reaction from some people is their weight. (This just in for those folks: There are large people who can dance too.) To me it seems fairly obvious that TPTB know that more people watch certain dancers and so they try to keep them on the show longer by giving them more viable stars. (I suppose certain dancers get requested more too.) I can't say I like this, but I understand why they do it. I certainly don't see it from a dancer vs dancer perspective.

Fair enough. :) I didn't mean to pick on you. I've seen multiple people post that sentiment and wanted to point out that Sharna has had a mix of partners. (As to Nick being capable of winning his season, let's agree to disagree. For my money, the guy was pretty bad after years of dancing and didn't improve much while on the show. Obviously others disagree.) I certainly don't think Sharna has had the bad assignments of poor Emma, who appears to be the female Tristan. I just don't think Sharna necessarily gets great ones all the time (and has had at least one, Andy Dick, that she got much farther than I expected). Then again, it seems to be much harder to accurately gauge the male celebrities coming in than the females. Or maybe that's just me?

Eh. I think it's a combination of Victor being good at challenges and the majority of his opponents being pretty horrible or not even trying. I'm grateful Paulie manhandled Julie Chen and was taking a lot more water spray than Vic in the wall challenge. Not that those are necessarily related.

Ah. Ok. So... Amber Rose is best friends with Blac Chyna and used to date Kanye. Everything else is just other people being inter-related and tweeting.

Wait. Who is the mother of Kylie Jenner's boyfriend's son? This reads like a soap opera. All we need now is a long lost twin and someone with amnesia.

I don't really understand the "Sharna always gets winners" theory. Sharna's previous partners that I recall have been Andy Dick, Keyshawn Johnson, Charlie White, Tavis Smiley, Noah Galloway, Nick Carter, and Antonio Brown. Andy Dick was bad. Keyshawn Johnson was god awful and arrogant. Tavis Smiley was bad. Noah Galloway was missing body parts and made the finals based on the patriotic vote and Sharna choreographing to his strengths. Her three best partners were Charlie, Nick, and Antonio, and Charlie was the best of the three of them but was never going to win that season. I dkn't think he even made the finals, did he? Nick was hyped but was a pretty poor actual dancer (which could have been predicted had anyone seen him actually "dance" before), and Antonio couldn't be bothered to put the effort in (and wasn't going to win vs. Nyle either). One of the reasons I like Sharna is that I thought she handled Andy Dick well, and she put Keyshawn in his place. I thought she said the right things to Noah when he got frustrated, too. She's certainly had her share of bad dancers, so I'm not going to assume that Hinchcliffe is decent.