Hanahope

I agree that Sycamore Row wasn't a good book either, but i think the Exchange is worse.

finally reached the black jacket stage of S4 and I can't believe any of these people actually win the competition. Unlike S1-3, i no one seems particularly competent moreso than the others. Maybe Petrozza.

I read John Grisham’s latest book The Exchange. I was very disappointed. He took the protagonists from the Firm, Mitch and Abby McDeere and did nothing with them. Completely unnecessary first several chapters. they have Mitch travel back to Kentucky to handle a death row case that is mooted when the prisoner is found dead. killed or suicide? who knows, who cares. Mitch then takes a 'detour' to visit Lamar from The Firm. they chit chat, Mitch leaves. no purpose whatsoever. The actual plot of the story was stupid, undeveloped and boring. It involved an associate of Mitch’s new firm who got kidnapped in Libya during Gaddaffi’s reign, and paying her ransom, and which for some strange reason the kidnappers wanted to use Abby to participate in the exchange. Despite so many possibilities there were no twists at all. So many set ups I was sure would lead to a shocking revelation and nothing. Mitch just happens to get very serious food poisoning and the associate doesn’t even get some mild nausea despite their sharing all food and drink in Libya and no one thinks that’s strange, possibly done on purpose to separate the associate??? And how did the terrorists know the associate would be without Mitch and their primary corporate/govt liaison (who "had to" stay with Mitch in the hospital) in order to kidnap her during the trip outside Tripoli? Just dumb luck? Or was the corporate/govt liaison who seemed to know everything part of the plan? who knows? never considered. the story ends coincidently in the Grand Caymans. No thought of a revenge plot by the mob or Mitch’s former law firm? I thought for sure that was the whole reason for the early foreshadowing visit with Lamar. but nope. nothing. Then why involve Mitch and Abby (especially Abby) at all in the money exchange? And apparently the terrorists are completely unstoppable , they take out numerous trained soldiers, no one can track the people following Abby and Mitch, they have access to all sorts of tech. The only drama is over who/what gov or company was contributing how much to the ransom pot . Snore … who cares. And at then end the terrorists get away with $85million, the associate lives and yeah that’s it. Worst Grisham book ever.

So thinking back to Ep 1, when the group from vault 32 (or what 33 thought was 32) showed up for the wedding. When someone from vault 31 shows up, don't the people from 33 wonder why its just the single person showing up and not a group to help celebrate the wedding? and when Betty announces that vault 33 (who was already low in numbers after the wedding slaughter) was going to repopulate 32, and they sent like a dozen people, why isn't anyone asking, 'hey can't 31 send some too' since a dozen people can't really be a large enough gene pool. or are we just to assume there's more people in these vault than we actually see? and where were vault 33's storm troopers during the wedding slaughter?

well, that's quite a 180 degree turn from his prior statements, and of course Bill did not push back on it. Notably RFK chairs the Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization that focuses on anti-vaccine messaging. He also continues to support claims that covid-19 vaccines caused deaths and that vaccines cause autism.

Very compelling movie. goes to show what people can get away with (or think they can get away with), when no one with power stops them.

he has a medical condition that causes the problem. he is difficult to understand sometimes because of it, but even when i do understand the words, i don't like the content, which gives me another reason not to listen to him.

Tbh I did not watch much of RFK Jr because it became clear he was going to be anti-vax and complain about being cancelled for misinformation. the panel was better imo. A lot of discussion about the protests on college campuses and why young people are upset with the status quo. The opinions were that the young adults had good basics but went a little too far with the protests, that being pro cease fire is one thing, anti-semetic is another, and administration encouragement went too far.

well, cleared the board alright, of side characters that is, Spider, Duffy, Duffy's side-kick, plus new characters, Douglas, Sean and Ben. Poor Sarah, losing both siblings and damaged house. will she get any compensation? wonder which of the new slow horses will return, i presume the older ones will be back in S4. both Shirley and Marcus are at least capable fighters. Ho needs to stay behind the computer. Yes Catherine, MI5 cleans house when it has to, though at least they stuck to traitors mostly before Ingrid. i was under the impression that Cartright Sr was desk 1 to Partner's desk 2, but Catherine made it sound like Partner was desk 1. so who ordered Lamb to stand down, was it still Cartright as desk 2 and who was he taking orders from? did home office know about Partner? i had hoped that maybe those two chieftain soldiers would have balked after seeing Duffy kill douglas, but i guess not. they just had no qualms killing anyone else. guess river is finally wising up that the service isn't always doing the right thing. can't wait for S4, though now i'll have to wait week by week for the episodes.

how did bottle caps become currency? its an interesting form.

i got the impression that the Moldaver worshippers are former Shady Springs residents; the mutated residents are the former 'test subjects' that were used by the scientists that were the primary inhabitants of V4. I didn't recall seeing any mutated residents part of the worshipers. the original scientists appear to have been attacked/killed by a mutated test subject. the surviving former test subjects, plus the Shady Springs survivors, are trying to help remaining pregnant test subjects.

i got the impression that Partner was Second Desk and Cartwright Sr was First Desk (which is why River wasn't drummed out altogether). yeah, the agents are in Slough House for reasons, they make stupid mistakes. its why they are usually given real grunt paperwork to do. though river really didn't make a mistake landing him in slough house, that was lady di's machinations. but river definitely proved he's in the right place this season. very enjoyable show. i love how Gary Oldman is just absorbed into the role. i'm guessing that Chernitsky realized that River put his cellphone in Chernitsky's jacket pocket and that's why he drove to London and then ditched the car and jacket. Shirley did a decent fighting job, but didn't finish. i guess we have to have Webb around as a foil. mores the pity.

almost surprised Pashkin held out on shooting Spider as long as he did. sheesh what an annoying idiot. can't believe Louisa didn't check the car boot. i guess that's why she's still in Slough House. Did we ever hear what got her assigned there?

the only problem with calling it Filly is that i keep thinking Philly, which is on the other side of the country.

Wanted to add, both Bill and Jillian correctly point out that the food industry is also to blame because it intentionally makes bad processed food more addictive. yet hardly anyone blames the food industry directly. most people blame the people who can't stop eating the food. as a comparison, people blame smokers too . but when they seek help, pretty much everyone is fine with their using nicotine patches and other outside ways to help. hardly anyone says, "oh just use your will power" anymore, they realize it is a physical addiction that most people can't just go "cold turkey." and at least the tobacco companies were finally held to some accountability, with high taxes on tobacco products and funds used towards treatment and addiction. perhaps something similar should be imposed against food companies on foods with high fat and/or sugar content.

she is trying to sell books, fitness app subscriptions, DVDs, etc.

Quite myopic of River to not think the wife Alex was a cicada. Why else would she suddenly show up at the flight club? im curious why Nevsky was killed now. Why the charade about the meeting?

Just finished S1. Good story , I liked finding out why River was at Slough House, because of the photo he just happened to take due to his own initiative and Diana got Spider to fuck him up. But now I wonder why Charles was killed by Lamb. Diana kept saying that they looked at Standish for treason but couldn’t find anything. We’re Lamb and Cartwright grandfather traitors? Or was Charles? I hope we get the answer to that question. I may have to add the book series to my queue

Just about every medication has some side effects and lots of people take medication for a lifetime. The issue is whether you are affected by the side effects and if so what can you live with for the benefits? Not everyone needs Ozempic but for some, losing weight is better for their health than not.

guess i was wrong about Lucy actually experiencing the sun. the show sure made it look exactly like the vault's corn field. how did Moldaver survive 300 years? she obviously wasn't a ghoul since she died (from something other than a head shot - which appears to be the way you kill them). apparently ghouls can heal their injuries, at least to a point - i actually hope that gets explained more - why did thaddeus heal fully when given the elixer, but Cooper clearly has some injuries and poor Rose was virtually a skeleton? For as long as it has been since the vaults were created, not too many 31ers were brought back to oversee 32 and 33, and 33 had 3 current 31ers before Moldaver's raid. were the vault dwellers living longer? and it seemed like even before the raid, 33's numbers were quite diminished (same with 32) that they must have had issues with interbreeding. so why didn't cooper go into whatever vault Beth and his daughter were taken to? and are they in cold storage chambers too? or will he only find descendants?

Clearly Norm finally found his calling as a detective. was NCR around during the video games? Who bombed it? The mechs or someone else? Lucy was a vault baby. The scene with her mother was clearly in their underground corn field.

Loved the Louisiana ginger root, lol

that certainly seems to be the case.

the ending was very anti-climatic. a merger of two networks and laying off of half the employees is no better a solution that selling off UBN for parts. instead of Marks getting rich, its the shareholders/board. i doubt the fired employees are getting nice golden parachutes. probably 2 weeks pay.

the show runners/writers have difficulty creating a good cohesive story without source material. S8 was indicative at that. they knew how it was supposed to end, but they had no idea how to get there since GRRM hadn't written it.