fivestone

Back in the day you used to be able to wear glasses in passport photos. I'm wearing glasses in my current passport from 2009, but when I renew shortly, I won't be wearing glasses as its not allowed anymore.

F this show. I'm out. It was so promising, but I don't know what happened, it's like they couldn't leave well enough alone and I no longer care what happens to the Pearsons.

Ah yeah, fair enough.

Maybe the kid didn't exist back then? It's probably different doing Hell's Kitchen as a parent. You can have an idea of what you're getting into, but then find that the situation is harder than what you imagined. That's human and I'm not going to hold it against them.

I thought Frank killed Lila?

Hm, interesting. Where I live (not the U.S.), with one Polish parent, you'd likely be considered Polish (depends on the other 50%). With a clearly Swedish name, why can't he be Swedish? If a black person whose ancestors came to America 7 or 8 generations ago from Africa can be African-American, then why can't a guy with a Swedish name with obviously Swedish roots be Swedish? #AmericanNinjaofmixedScandinavianAncestry just doesn't have the same ring to it. But I agree with you on Jon Alexis Jr's run - it was made of win!

To me, it makes sense to train in a Ninja gym, because this has become a sport. Maybe ANW competition is the most visible competition within the sport, but there are Ninja competitions taking place all over America, and if you want to participate and excel in them, showing up at a Ninja gym makes sense - and a fair amount of Ninjas, male and female, are choosing to do just that. It's just like how with track and field, the Olympics isn't the only competition, but rather there are smaller races run over the country and track clubs a person can join to help further their running skill. That doesn't mean the track clubs are the only way, but it's a lot harder to go it alone, and I'm not necessarily going to give someone extra merit at the Olympics just because they chose to train without a coach. Same with people who choose not to visit a Ninja gym or don't live close to any. They can achieve success without one, but I'm not going to necessarily give them extra kudos over somebody who decides to maximise their ability by joining a Ninja gym.

Good idea for a topic. I was just thinking today, I get really excited when women "legitimately" qualify for finals or Vegas without needing the benefit of the Top 5/Top 2 women rule. We've seen this season, in some cities, the rule wasn't even needed because many women landed in the top. At this rate, we will probably get to the point that they may gradually phase that rule out in a few years. I think the growth of the ninja scene and women getting a lot of practice on the ninja circuit at competitions during the year is behind the strong showing we are seeing from many female competitors in recent years.

Sure, normally, but this year, the friends and supporters of the "K9 Ninja" who ran in Minneapolis styled themselves the Dog Pound.

Yeah, but what were they supposed to do? Let the kids freak out for their last 10 minutes left alive on earth? Better to die oblivious and happy, right. Ugh, I know, right? That's why I stopped watching for a while back in Season 2 I think it was. But this season pleasantly surprised me, Henry has been more of a supporting character for the most part, with no annoying petulant child drama on his part.

Eff this show. I'm out.

Did anybody else watch this episode? I don't know what this episode is supposed to make me think of Hank. At this rate, it looks like it's gearing up to phase Jason Beghe out of the show, but then what would this show be without him as lead?

Same. I can't take going through this every week. I wish Hulu would drop the episodes all at once like Netflix.

I read that she did Top Chef Mexico and Top Chef 15 back to back... I can understand how being out of her element socially and doing two reality shows back to back could be stressful and maybe bring the worst out in her... either way, it's a shame that some of her worst moments were caught on tape like that (after all , we all have bad moments), but she probably just bit off more than she could chew. I would be interested to see her a few years down the road after she has had some time to mellow out and grow a bit more mature in certain ways.

I thought that this was going to reference her sexual assault while going undercover in prison... but the show acts like that attack never happened at all, so... WTF did I just watch? Such a waste of time...

Really? I thought it was pretty disingenuous, actually, because of the following reason: Exactly this. Shawn didn't call the model fat or plus size. The fact is, yes, the model looks like a perfectly lovely, normal woman, but in the modeling world, she's not exactly the sample size model that she might be used to designing for. In comparison to someone who is a size 0 or size 2 (like the typical models appearing on Project Runway), the model is a good size 8 or so. Nothing wrong with being size 8, and it's certainly not "large" or "plus size" but someone that size is curvier in comparison to someone of a much smaller size. I'm not going to knock the twins for the way they speak. We don't know their background or why they speak the way they do, but I'm pretty sure it's not some fake affectation. Maybe they're even on the autism spectrum. I don't know, but for whatever reason, I like them pretty well. I like the cast in general. This should be a fun season.

I thought that Mark was realising what was happening as the drug was taking effect. He realised that he was dying and that Coady got rid of Gracie, too, and he was saying that all they wanted to do was just have a life together. But maybe I interpreted it wrong....

Great episode, but isn't Jessie in trouble come city finals time? Then she might end up having to be the recipient of one of the wild cards, which I know she really wouldn't be a fan of. Can't help but think that maybe she ran the wrong city course. Oh well, hopefully she makes it far enough at finals to make Las Vegas. I will never get tired of watching her runs. Geriatric Ninja was great too, as was the 21-year-old who designed an obstacle.

I didn't see Frank being the leak coming. I thought it was Claire and that she was doing it to either get him to resign or for someone to try to assassinate him. I like Claire (lord help me, I do) so I'm looking forward to her running things.

She explains her reasoning behind her actions (including the Brad and fishing thing) here on her channel in her recap videos (Tea with Michaela B) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGistxMvJzW-HP1cYUwk5aQ She's well-spoken and has a way of summing things up well. I think anybody doubting her intentions when she talked to Brad about the fishing thing (admittedly not in the most eloquent way on the island) will come away most likely believing her point of view. It's been a pleasure getting to know her through the videos (I didn't watch Millenials vs Gen. X just because of the dumb theme) and this season, and understanding her and her backstory not only helped me better understand her actions on the island, but even understand myself better.

Annoying episode, but the casting for Ann was spot-on.

I see what you're saying - after all, "nobody believed in me" doesn't exactly make her husband sound like the most supportive guy ever. Still, I thought she was being pretty tactful about it in terms of not actively badmouthing the guy. After all, not supporting someone's vision with their invention doesn't exactly make someone a bad guy. If my husband woke up tomorrow and wanted us to go into a lot of debt so that he could start selling a new invention of his, I don't know that I could get behind it. I love him, but we have a measure of stability in our lives that I value and I'm just not feeling shaking things up for a niche product. Maybe her ex felt similarly and couldn't get on board with the idea of her jeopardising her retirement for the unknown. So I didn't come away from her presentation thinking, "what a piece of crap" about her husband, the way I might have had she gone into detail about more specifics.

I get the the double entendre sounds kind of naughty, but "laid" is a slang word a lot of people use to refer to their hair, especially if the hair has been flat-ironed and looks really awesome (or you'll have some women who buy nice wigs or extensions that have that same effect and they'll post online stuff like "girl, my wig is LAID" or "hair is LAID today", etc.) So I feel like it was actually a clever name, because a lot of folks in the demographic they are going for use that slang word to refer to hair, but obviously there's the tongue-in-cheek double entendre, too. For all we know, they may have explained the name to the sharks in their pitch, but maybe it didn't make it to air. Usually Barbara has a good spidey sense about fake, slick salesman, and the fact that the guys came across as sincere to her goes a ways with me. In other news, I really liked the bridal lady. She had ample opportunity to badmouth her husband or delve into a sob story, but she didn't - she only expounded upon the lessons that her tough experience taught her. I really respect that she didn't badmouth the father of her children. Who knows, maybe her ex is a terrible husband but still a decent father involved in his childrens' lives. Anyway, maybe the kids will look back on her pitch one day and notice that Mom went out of her way to avoid harping on negativity, but instead focused on how empowered she feels now. That impressed me so much. I really hope she does great things and good on her friend for jumping in there and giving a beautiful speech on her behalf.

Wearing rings on the right hand is basically a continental European thing. It's what we do here. The wedding rings from my husband and I are also rose gold, but only because they're the rings from my husband's grandparents, so rose gold was a hit back in the day in European villages, I guess. I agree. Maybe it's because Paige's parents are still so involved and try to be there for her and try to see to it that her needs are cared for. But I don't think it what she is being exposed to rises to the same level of psychic wounding as with sexual abuse. Yeah, OK, maybe there's a parallel with the keeping of secrets (like when my mother told me as a kid that "what happens in this house stays in this house"). My family was super screwed up and it was a really bad situation. My mother literally married a convicted rapist when I was a kid and just kind of hoped for the best. I really wish my stepfather had just been a Russian spy instead. OK, so my situation was kind of extreme, I guess. But isn't there is a certain level of that in every family, as in not telling all family business to outsiders? No one needs to know that dad likes wearing women's underwear, that your parents hardly ever have sex, or that mom is super passive-aggressive in arguments, right? Anyway, I can't help but think that Paige should be grateful she has people taking care of her who provide for her and love her and just do what she needs to do to help protect the family. I know she has worried about her parents in the past when they go on missions. I can imagine that children of law enforcement officers, military infantry, etc. have similar fears. I'm not saying it's the easiest situation for a 15- or 16-year-old to cope with, especially one as sensitive as her, but if she toughens up, she'll be OK.

I'm never really crazy about that, unless it's obvious the Shark is really into the product and believes in the entrepreneur, and swooping in there is more about investing in something than they believe in than screwing another Shark over.