random chance

You could tell it almost killed him to have to say Obama was born in the U.S.

That's what worries me, that this won't go away on November 9. That he'll continue to hold rallies and whip up his supporters. I watch him preen in front of them, and I have a sinking feeling that there is no way he's giving up this drug.

I think it's the combination of that and some kind of mental disorder, because from what I can tell he believes he's telling the truth about things like "Hillary started the birther movement," either that or he's such a glib and expert liar that he has no tells at all.

I couldn't agree more. And with every scientific advance, what we're required to do just to keep up gets more tedious, expensive and time-consuming. Whiten your teeth! Wax everything! Botox! Body sculpting! Hair extensions, mani-peddies, eyelash-growing serum, lip injections, it's endless.

Awwww Outsourced. I thought I was the only person in the world who watched it. Oh wow, that's a great description of it!

It would help to know how the actress felt about it. I'm assuming she knew that her storyline would start out with her saying she wanted to lose the weight, but that doesn't mean the storyline will be her actually losing the weight. Maybe it'll be her becoming happy with herself as she is. Or maybe it will be her just losing enough weight to take her out of the category of worrying if a chair would hold her, but not so much as to make her life miserable with self-deprivation.

But they aren't real people, they're fictional characters - the story could go that way if the writers wanted it to. It would be nice to see someone save herself (so to speak), instead of being saved by some pushy guy who's mainly doing it to have sex with her.

How is she learning anything if someone else is shoving her out of her comfort zone? You have to learn to step out of your comfort zone yourself. All this is accomplishes is making her dependent on him for a life - the same way she was dependent on Kevin.

He bothers me too. I am not all "awwww" about his "romantic gestures." To be fair to the writers, it might be my personal bias - I've been there with the "romantic gestures" that are actually manipulations, and the strategy of "wouldn't you rather spend time with me" that's the first step in cutting people out of your life. I'm leery of him.

Yep! I've had their salad, it's pretty small and pedestrian. Katy Mixon was a lot thinner in the early years of Mike & Molly, but I don't have the ambition to look up photographic proof. I don't care, I just wondered if that's why she gained weight. It wouldn't be the first time someone gained weight for a role. (This used to be titled something like The Fattest Housewife in Whatever Town, right?) Is she hugely fat? No. But for some reason that's the premise of the show. I think it's kind of a stupid premise, and I think judging the judgy people who judge in a vicious circle of judgery is a terrible theme, but I'll watch it a few more times and see what happens - maybe that was merely the hook and now it'll settle into something else. Like Cougar Town did.

I thought the point of the different name with a different letter was so that he didn't grow up being the dead third triplet's replacement baby. But on reflection they call themselves the Big Three so that doesn't make sense either.

I wonder if Katy Mixon deliberately gained weight for this role, because up until the last season she was thin on Mike & Molly. I didn't hate it, but there was something off - I'm not sure what. Too much "you're not going to be that kind of kid," maybe. Weird judginess of the fitness moms - why is an obsession with food ok but an obsession with fitness is not? It's not like the fitness moms were in her face putting her down. Her husband on the toilet. (I don't need to see that on TV, sitcom writers! Feel free to go back to the days when nobody shat on TV, I'm fine with the repression, I promise!) It's kind of weird to make people who are trying to exercise and eat healthy into the bad guys? (Can't we all just get alone?) I don't know, but I'm sure I'll watch next week since it's on after The Middle.

I know! We were speculating last week that he wound up with Randall because they didn't want to saddle him with the dead triplet's K name. But it turns out they did! Well, it made for a good plot twist I guess.

That was quite the surprise having Kevin turn out to thoughtfully fire her for her own good. I was all prepared to roll my eyes at him for the rest of the series. Randall's story is still the most interesting for me. And as someone else mentioned, commercials kept cutting into scenes in a weird way - they need to fix that!

I don't remember the first ten episodes being so depressing but possibly I was in a better state of mind myself back then. This back half was hard to get through, and I'm really grateful I wasn't watching that sad Christmas episode during actual Christmas. I agree that there wasn't much character development - or development of any kind, really. I didn't understand why they got a divorce if she was just going to stay in town and tend bar anyway. I didn't get why now all of a sudden Rooster decided to jump ship, it made no sense. Colt was using birth control in every other encounter wasn't he? Am I misremembering that? His new relationship is boring. (Can't think of her name - Elisha.) I'm already tired of what'shisname Valdermolt but I didn't like him on 70's Show either. Rooster is too much of a pig to be amusing. I was sorry they made Kenny kind of an asshole, not that he didn't have a good reason. But I'll watch the next installment anyway, just because I can't stand the thought of it ending in this depressing way.

It all feels very warmed over, like "here's another twist on a book club meeting" and "here's another twist on getting out of chores." I realize he can only play himself, but maybe play himself as an actual retiree with adult children, not himself with the wife and children he would have had 20 years ago? (Ha, just thought - what if he was "the Arthur" living with his daughter. But he's not that old yet.) I'm still watching it out of basic inertia but eventually they'll move it to another time and day and that'll be that. "See ya on Netflix."

I think it's like when you quit smoking and your muscle memory keeps wanting to shake a cigarette out of a pack and light it. It takes awhile to figure out something new to do with your hands.

He would be a complete and utter disaster of a President, how is he even up there with a chance? You could pick some random person off the street and do better. Any candidate from any past election (of any party!) would be better. We might as well put a carnival barker in charge of the country. If he wins ... well, it will be interesting times, I guess.

The sniffing is even more pronounced this time. Is that shortness of breath or allergies or what?

I would rather watch any rerun of KoQ than a brand new episode of this show. I wish they had gotten the original band back together.

I was told it was a one-time thing.

Emily had terrible manners! She broke just about every single rule of good manners at one point or the other. She would invite people into her home for a meal and then insult them to their face while they ate it - that's hostess rule number one, you never make your guest feel uncomfortable. She would correct compliments instead of saying thank you. ("You congratulate the groom and say best wishes to the bride.") She didn't bother to learn the names of anyone she thought was beneath her. ("Your Asian friend.") She rarely phrased a request politely. She talked about her money way too often. She treated people well or badly according to how high up the chain they were. (Maids: yelled at. Store employees: yelled at. Richard's rich friend: oozing charm.) She didn't bother with please or thank you all that often. She was a manners horror show. Now that I think about it, it's amazing Lorelai's manners were as good as they were.

I know! Also I half-watched that maybe a dozen times before I realized they weren't talking about body weight.

Yep! It's an expensive vaccination but one person had shingles very near their eye and all three were completely miserable and I thought what the hell, I'd pay $250 to avoid that, so I did.

I wouldn't voluntarily get any carpet with cats. It's much easier to clean hairballs off a hardwood floor.