Lady Writer

Thank you very much, very generous. So we agree on the first parts of each other posts, but not the last parts! Shannon has her flaws, but you really think hers are greater than 99.9% of the women on these shows? Who do you think is less flawed than her? And the only franchises I currently watch are Potomac, Atlanta, OC, and NY, so I probably won't know anyone from any other show you might mention unless it's from the first season or two of a couple of the other franchises. Ashley from Potomac seems pretty cool to me, relatively, and Cynthia from Atlanta. There are probably maybe one or two more I could come up with. Okay, thanks for posting this. I never read the blogs or anything. So perfectly understandable she didn't go if she had to support the kids.

I haven't read all the posts, but I don't understand why David gets so much hate on here. Obviously, cheating on someone isn't cool, but probably 90% of the behavior we've seen by Shannon toward him since day 1 of her tenure on this series hasn't been cool either. We don't know what led up to the affair, since we've rarely gotten his side of things, but it's been clear neither of them has been happy the entire time they've been on the show. If David's only been happy two months, why isn't he allowed to express that honestly? Why are David's feelings any less valid than Shannon's? He has to suppress his truth, even in private, while Shannon's allowed to vent hers to foghorn Vicki, her daughters, her mother, that doctor she discussed David's libido with, and the rest of America? If you tell someone you're not happy in the relationship, as David has done many, many times, through word, deed, and body language, and you're informed that "divorce is not an option," what more do people expect of him that he hasn't tried? From what we've seen he's gone to therapy for her; put up with her lemons, buried crystals, hospital air, budgetless and possibly somewhat anal-retentive Christmas decorating rituals, and actual anal retention and required retrieval of wayward home colonic apparatus; bought her lavish gifts; planned a surprise second wedding and honeymoon; defended her against Terry during Lizzy's party, and against Vicki during the 70s party; and tried to comfort her by telling her he didn't care about the allegations Vicki made. But ultimately, if the passion's gone, it's gone. And she couldn't even muster up the support this season to go watch him run an event he trained hard to accomplish. Now if he were an abuser, certainly negativity would be justified. But Shannon, the only known witness to both alleged events, has steadfastly denied that, and Vicki's evidence has never materialized. Shannon could be lying, but without proof, there's really no way for an uninvolved party to know for sure. I really like Shannon, but I don't think I would have stuck around for another two years with someone who snapped at, insulted, berated, and condescended to me the way she has to David. She really doesn't seem to actually like him that much, which is understandable, given how he's hurt her, but then how can you really blame him for not wanting to stick around for a lifetime of that? (A lifetime of potato shaming! It's funny, because poor people tend to argue about money and the problems that arise from that, but seemingly, because they don't have to argue about money, their disagreements fascinatingly revolve around food: David not bringing enough wine for that first dinner party they threw and something about the service or side dish Shannon wasn't happy about, I think; David eating chips before dinner; David taking her to a sports bar for her birthday; Midwestern David and his potatoes; David not praising her quinoa; David drinking tequila in Mexico, and I think there was something she wasn't happy about him drinking during that party in her first season where she got in the charity fight with Megan; Shannon wanting to open a restaurant; David possibly learning to weaponize his chip eating with his silent, passive-aggressive crunching; then, has the dog been eating, etc., etc . . . Like Heather with the onion rings -- is this how rich women wield their power? And externally, Shannon actually throwing food across the table during her spat with Kelly, and trying to control the content of the drinks being served in Ireland. Can we have Top Chef Food Fight: Shannon and David, please? Even now, Shannon says the one thing they've decided to get together for is Sunday dinner.) Back to the point, maybe he's had to fake a lot of stuff for a long time with her, and hold his tongue out of guilt over the affair and not wanting to set her off, and now that he's on the way out the door, he wants to be honest. If so, I think that's a healthy thing. If I've been living in a world of fantasy, and you've only been happy for two months of our lives together, YEAH I want to know -- so I'll know what to look out for with the next guy. Truth can hurt, but it helps you grow. And Shannon has such great potential to grow into an amazingly evolved being. I think she's much closer to it than most of the women on these Housewives shows, who are way too bogged down in materialism.

That was my first thought after the vote too.

Thanks for getting me, even just a little!

The soul always knows. I'm happy that you're happy, but I think it would be really cool if the human race could aspire to more than "fine."

I don't know enough about the science to know how the egg supplied by one woman adapts to the body of another, but a child can't come into this world without a mother being involved somewhere. Women aren't just soulless egg factories. Genetics -- and infants' needs -- aren't something that disappear just because people may choose not to acknowledge them. I realize that Monroe will have a lot more than most children get, but I would suggest that we need to raise the standards of what other children get, not lower everyone else's. The fact that so many adopted children have, and often act on, a longing to find their natural parents would suggest that the human (and animal) soul needs more than safety and comfort. Of course love, as you mentioned, is the key element, and it's tragic that so many kids on earth don't get that; but love should be the baseline expectation for a child coming into the world, not some lofty height. Again, nothing is going to convince me that a baby who is pulled from its mother and immediately handed off to someone else, never to feel her warmth and rhythms again, is not going to sense that perceived rejection, possibly for the rest of their lives, no matter how much love is forthcoming from elsewhere afterwards. Part of the reason so many people in general end up in bad relationships is because they're looking to someone else to provide something they're missing from childhood, whether they're conscious of it or not. I don't think playing down the importance of a soul's earliest possible bond on earth is doing humankind any favors. Throwing water on a kid's head while you furiously do the math to find the richest possible godfather is going to make them bond with God, but the spiritual connection with a mother is meaningless?

I was describing the process of surrogacy.

Life is not always about what "one wants." One doesn't have to start with a newborn. The best decision for Jeff and Gage may not be the best decision for the baby, who is deprived of her mother's milk during her most formative period, for one thing, at the most basic level. And as she gets older, however nurturing Gage may be, there may be an emotional hole as she wonders why her mother essentially sold her like a piece of merchandise. Full disclosure: I'm a vegetarian who doesn't even approve of the way humans rip animal families apart or breed them because of their own desires to have cute little kittens or handbag puppies (I've seen way too many nature documentaries to buy the belief that animals don't bond to each other and feel emotional pain upon separation just like we do), so you're not going to convince me that human babies should be torn from their parents unless they are not fit to raise them for some reason.

I don't think humans can will biology away, as much as they try. Milk production, estrogen, symbiosis -- it's not an accident. Now certainly not every mother or father feels a healthy bond to their child, and there are plenty of unfit parents. But bringing a child into the world expressly to separate it from its mother seems like an unkind thing to do, to me. There are plenty of motherless children to adopt.

Really liking this season so far. I started watching again last season after a hiatus of many years. Are all the old-style challenges gone? Last season I noticed there was no auction (one of the very best parts of Survivor!), and I seem to remember there being a lot more intellectual and psychological challenges and not just endless physical ones. There were memory games, and ones where you had to solve clues to find things in the woods, and problem-solving ones that required more elevated strategizing than "Here's a thought: Why not get the heavier people to lift the light person to the top of this tower we're stacking?" Last season seemed to be about 70% swimming challenges, and 30% how long can you stand on this stump challenges. (With the obligatory puzzle or maze here and there, but how about giving the intellectuals more love?) Wasn't there once one where you had to be able to recite facts about your tribemates or something, to show how well you'd gotten to know them? More variety, please, CBS. Maybe they only did the less-physical challenges back then because everyone was starving all the time? Which doesn't seem to be the case anymore (which is a good thing -- no reason anyone should die for a TV show). I do miss the drama about who wasn't getting water enough and such, though. And whatever happened to Tree Mail? I'm old-school. (Yes, I remember the Conch Shell of Truth, or whatever it was.) Didn't they get riddles about what their next challenge would be or something and implements to practice for it? THAT'S what they should do. Tribes should have to solve a riddle to find out where one of the challenges will be, and if they don't make it in time they're automatically disqualified. Or any extra time they spend getting there compared to other teams gets subtracted from the time they have to complete the physical challenge. I love the creativity with the advantages this season, including strictly limited time frames, mandated passing on to other tribes, and secret placements in things like bags of chips. I feel like they're doing the quick expirations to avoid the advantage/idol Tribal Council overload of last season that resulted in things like the Cerie boot. Another cool part of this season is that the fallback policy of keeping strong guys around does not seem to be happening at all! Even all the "alpha" males pretty much seem to be allying with women or less-physically imposing men instead of each other. How are people just noticing that Devon's hot? Then again, I think I'm just noticing for the first time that there's someone named Roark. I literally was like, who the hell is that? I do think it seems fundamentally unfair to present a disadvantage as an advantage. I think for Devon the outside should have read something like "Another player has exercised their secret advantage on you." It still wouldn't have given the game away, but it would have kept the label from being fundamentally dishonest, which I think it was. So far I'm loving Lauren's play, and pretty much all the ladies'. I was pleasantly surprised that the woman allied with Allen was so easily able to overcome their differences and be pragmatic about the benefits of sticking together. He was growing on me despite his bumpy start, and I think he exited gracefully despite his obvious shock. Loved Cole folding sheepishly with, "I did tell Ben," after Jessica simply stared at him accusingly for a bit. I don't think she should necessarily give up on him on a personal level -- he doesn't seem to be a practiced liar, which is certainly a positive when it comes to men. If I were her I might start treating him as counterintelligence -- feeding him info that was advantageous to have spread around and only telling him what he needed to know on the way to Tribal. 'Cause now that he's known as so loose-lipped, people are probably automatically going to believe everything he says. Hmmm, maybe that could be a good strategy for him if he decided to start lying. He'll be like the anti-boy-who-cried-wolf. Maybe he PLANNED THIS ALL ALONG . . . Joe definitely isn't my favorite -- especially after having lobbed that potato away last episode that someone was offering to eat because he was pissy about how it was prepared; I would have been PISSED! -- but so far he's no Hantz-level villain; just comical, and it's good to have variety. I haven't seen some of the seasons with the people other posters have been comparing him to, but with his penchant for sowing discord by making up lies about other people and trying to keep people off balance, he reminds me of a much clumsier and less-sophisticated Sandra. A Clouseau to her Sherlock.

So I guess I'm the only one so far who found what seemed to be a nod to the Godfather with all the cutaways to outside action during the baptism somewhat unsettling. It was a great device in the film, but I personally wouldn't want any baby ceremony I had to recall that sequence. But I find religious ceremonies creepy in general anyway. And I guess I'll be the small voice on here to say that babies should have a mother. That's nature's design.

They should have a Best of Housewives Showing Their Medical Papers show. They could have Vicki emphatically clutching her flu diagnosis, Brooks and Vicki trying to sway Tamra with his testing records, Aviva from NYC storming in with her asthma(?) note . . .

Pretty much nothing's going to look like it did when you were younger. That's life. Accept that, and thrive. Physical appearance is certainly an important part of life, but maybe as you get older you realize there's more to life than worrying about how you look all the time. It's all just personal taste, anyway. Personally I'm generally not a big fan of really short hair on any woman of any age (with some exceptions), but I know lots of people do like that. I think this applies equally to short hair. If anything, I think long hair offers more camouflage for poor condition because you can always throw it in a ponytail or braid it or something. Not too many options with short hair other than a hat. I do agree that the super-bleached blonde look doesn't suit too many women, like a lot of the ones on Real Housewives of Orange County over the years.

Maybe she just didn't feel like wearing makeup? Is not wearing makeup equivalent to making a sex tape now?

I'm a big proponent of holism and natural health, so I've never understood voluntarily (or even involuntarily, most of the time) cutting one's body open at all. And I don't understand how a man who loves a woman would ever want her to slice her body open and throw a bag of toxic goop inside. To me, such a request would have me leaning toward Dumpsville. I have the world's saggiest boobs, but that's the way they're going to stay, 'cause I'm all about the real thing. And any man who doesn't like the package can move on. So many of the Housewives' breasts to me have just looked so painful, like the skin is actually screaming out against the tension. It's a phenomenon I don't understand. I guess many women use it as an attention-getting device; but I think the thing is, once they get that attention, if they don't have anything else of substance to offer a man, that attention often wanes. And then I guess they just keep going bigger to get more and more attention.

I've got to say, I never understand diktats like these.

Best diss: "There's no budget for that house." "Well, it looks like there was a budget for that bathroom." Seriously, how can anyone putting himself in charge of decorating actually utter the words, "There's only so much you can do with a bathroom," like Jackie's husband did? I've been planning my dream bathroom for my entire life. He shows zero respect for his wife. I liked how Jeff seemed to jump in protectively by immediately saying, "If you know any single rich guys for Megan..." when the husband inquired about her marital status. If I were a boss I would be even more forceful about protecting my staff from sexual predators, though, no matter how rich the client. Shocking that a sexual predator who abuses his position and wealth would have a Trump banner hanging in his gilded house . . . Funny and very true. In Queen of Versailles it was obvious she was a hardcore hoarder of children, possessions, and pets. They could do an entire season of Hoarders about that chick. About that warehouse alone! I wonder if they learned anything at all from watching themselves in that film.

Ehhh -- was it ever really that high? Someone called his two-year-old daughter a bitch on this show. If it sells the cars that buy her the diamonds she's probably okay with it. Even Lydia came back after her flight from the drama. Personally, I've been questioning Peggy's decision since she first started talking about it, so I'm not one to judge. Yeah, it was. I think Lydia's exterior with the pool is really gorgeous too.

I thought that was cool, actually. If I'm remembering correctly, I think she was comparing America to Diko's culture in Beirut, and implying that being in an environment less restrictive to females, her daughters were free to be independent women here. I actually thought we saw some nice fire from Peggy this episode for one of the first times. Her trying to insert herself in the Vicki squabble hasn't felt authentic to me, but her little "Maybe I do . . ." to Tamra sure did. And that quiet little challenge arrow hit its mark. Just 'cause she's not one in the endless pantheon of Bravo screamers doesn't make her boring in my book. For me the jury's still out. Maybe she just needs time to find her footing and emerge from the shell of the "Blank Slate Sidekick for Vicki" role Bravo's trapped her in. But yeah, the lack of English schtick (SP?) is getting rather tiresome. I thought tonight's episode was pretty funny. Give me humor and quiet little truths over big, fake drama any day.

Given how much of an animal lover Jeff is, I wonder if he was disturbed by the treatment of the animals in Queen of Versailles. Despite Jeff's many issues with his treatment of humans, he makes sure his animals are well taken care of. I'm not convinced about Jackie's family having all their money back; they don't seem to have made much progress on the house since the film. I can't believe she and her husband are still together -- their relationship came off worse than Jeff and Gage's.

Interesting that Vicki brought up "almost being killed" or something -- don't remember the exact words. I always wondered if Vicki would ever try to use the car accident as payback to Tamra.

Diko was totally cracking me up -- he was basically blatantly like, "Peggy, you better go downstairs and get a piece of the drama. I've got cars to move." I was feeling Tamra not wanting to move when she was eating cake. I thought that looked like one of the more elegant catered events on this show, shocking considering the giant boob cake. But something about the bar setup and the servers and the white theming of the house seemed really elegant to me. Maybe kind of Old Hollywood. At first I thought they were in a restaurant. Really liked Steve calling Vicki out on her B.S. of never thinking about Tamra. Why didn't David join Shannon for volleyball?? That would have been a perfect chance for athletic bonding. Also too bad we couldn't see if Jim was good at volleyball.

All four of theirs, including her boyfriend who claims to carry his at all times? The boyfriend who's been shown taking care of the children? If he'd been storing the gun in a safe at Vicki's or Briana's house, Vicki would know he carries a gun, so obviously he hasn't been doing that. They're going to have to be taken out of the safe when they go to the shooting range, at a minimum.

Shannon to me is one of the most fascinating characters in all of reality TV. I really hope she gets into the deeper side of holism and personality study, and chucks the worrying about limes, burying crystals in houses and teeth, the 5,000 different herbal supplements, and all the other suspect shortcuts she seems to want to take instead of focusing on true enlightenment. It's the same with Vicki and these other types with this OC Jesus who only seems to pop up between guns; cancer scams; bearing of false witness; adultery; pathological materialism; vicious disparagement of other women's appearance; vicious disparagement of one's husband, or, conversely, misplaced defense of bullying men; condescension toward the less-well-off; and the taking of teenage daughters to get nose and boob jobs. This superficial mentality that spiritual advancement can be purchased like everything else that seems to pervade the OC. I think Shannon could be really, really cool if she worked on herself a little more. Her essentially honest nature and openness in discussing her flaws -- physical as well as personality -- is very refreshing. And I've seen criticism about the way Shannon dresses; but I think it's a nice change to have a woman on one of these shows who's not obsessed with labels and price tags. Just please let your husband breathe. She had hospital-grade air in her last house but it seems like her husband's gasping for air. Adults are allowed to eat chips; if he doesn't want to eat your dinner, let him eat what he wants. If your dinner is a metaphor for the love you think he's rejecting, force feeding isn't going to fill either of you. Instead of bitching about his workout time, why not compliment his hot bod when he gets home? Cheer him on when he races instead of resenting the race for taking him away from you. I do wonder about their living situation. Have they (namely David) not bought a new house to keep the door open for an easier potential split, either consciously or subconsciously? I'd really love to see more talking heads from David. I'm always wondering what he's thinking. I was really surprised that the Vicki stuff didn't bother him; given Shannon's reaction I guess I thought it was a point of contention in their household or something. I love that Bravo has had more family TH's this season like they used to in the earlier seasons, but I'd still love to see more of the men -- Eddie, and Michael as well. It would also be interesting to know what thoughts are running through Doug's head, because I literally have no idea of his opinion about anything.

I think Diko's figured out flattery is the way to get to Vicki . . . But, that said, I don't have a problem with him so far like a lot of the rest of you do. Everything is subject to change as the season goes on, of course, but so far he seems fine to me, especially in the realm of Real Househusbands. I think it's sweet that he doesn't want his daughters to go away. I wonder if Peggy has some jealousy issues with them; I've noticed all season that she seems somewhat short and cold with them, and it struck me when she made that comment about their youth a couple episodes ago when one made a joke about her being menopausal or something. And why was Peggy pissed that Diko noticed her new lipstick? I wonder about their history. Maybe she doesn't like him noticing details about women in general. I don't care how pretty Vicki's backyard is, there's no way I would be going to a party around all those gun nuts. To me that was the most shocking part of the show, especially considering that Briana and Ryan's kids often assert control over situations and ignore instructions from adults. It seems to me there's a very real possibility of them getting their hands on one of those things, especially thinking of the scenes over the years of the camera capturing them doing something risky while the adults were focused on other things. And Vicki, if you've been going out with a guy for a year and you're not close enough to know he carries a gun at all times, you need to get to know men a whole lot better before you're talking about marriage, boat buying, partnering with them for vodka or cancer smoothie deals, or other such things. Get over your fear of being alone and your love of all things superficial and actually get to KNOW a guy, for once. I wondered where Christian was. He also seemed to be one of the better househusbands. I'm shocked that Gretchen and Slade are still together, so good for them if it's real.