Lugal

I've noticed Hallmark tends to do that, if a movie airs on one of their other channels like Mystery or Family, when they show it on Hallmark Prime they tend to bill it as a "Hallmark Premiere," which while technically true is still kind of underhanded. As for the movie itself, (which I did watch because the ads made it look like a completely different movie) it was kind of a movieloaf with bits and pieces of other more interesting movies all crammed together. They had a bunch of interesting ideas, but because there was so many of them, none got the development that would have made it interesting.

And on rewatch, I caught they said there was an hour until the ceremony, so that gave Flower plenty of time to forget why they went back upstairs.

I called it! Patience the Feral Puritan showed up. (Although I guess the DJ/Stripper also counts as a surprise guest) So she came and went to visit Flower. I guess she could hear Flower screaming if she wandered close enough. I can see why she came and went, after wandering through the dirt for 130 years, why not take another shot? Maybe she was able to Orient herself better and find the manor. I can also see Flower telling her about Isaac's upcoming wedding (what else is she gonna do at the bottom of the well?), and I can see that giving Patience motivation to go back and take some kind of revenge on Isaac. Although next season I hope we get a flashback of Isaac, Thor, Sassapis and Patience in the hole. I do kinda wonder if all Floor is the same level without steps, if so could they walk through the dirt from the well into the basement? Or depending on when the well was built compared to the manor, the water table could have changed, so the depths would match, maybe? Pete's story was interesting, and it's so cool how they tied it into Isaac. Pete met someone who excited him and made him feel for lack of a better world "alive", and his story drove home to Isaac how Nigel did not make him feel that way. I could see Isaac and Nigel eventually finding their way back to each other, but I think they need to both grow first. And he could start by not being such a jerk to Sass every chance he got. And of course, being nicer to the basement ghosts. I personally like Thor and Flower, and I like that they admitted their love for each other. I can see Thor not wanting to miss the wedding or stay with the basement ghosts and Flower chose to be with Thor (and I noticed they compromised by sitting in the middle). And I also liked how they didn't want to get married then and there out of respect to Isaac. Then comes Carol and Baxter. As for Carol, I don't want to see her get sucked off before Pete, so I'm fine with her becoming one of the background ghosts like Crash. We can hear about her occasionally and see her in an episode or two, but that's it. I can't wait to see where we go next season.

Which brings up the question: What the hell happened in that DealMart?

I think Thor's definitely screwing with us, but kennings were a common feature of Norse poetry (like using sail road for the sea) and land ship is a kenning for car.

Some local Arizona papers have been delving into that 1864 law (The Howell Code) and it's horrifying. The abortion section that they're using is Chapter X, Section 45. Chapter X, Section 15 States: "No black or mulatto, or Indian, Mongolian or Asiatic, shall be permitted to give evidence in favor of or against any white person.” And Chapter X, Section 47 sets the age of consent at 10. Probably because the Speaker of the House, W. Claude Jones (a "pursuer of nubile females") and one of the senators, King Woolsey, that passed the law both had child brides. But the good news is there's enough signatures to get the "Arizona Right to Abortion Initiative" a proposed amendment to the state constitution on the ballot in November.

By just horse and buggy, I could see it taking two months. By Hetty's time in 1895 there would have been railroads and she probably could have done it in a week or two. They seem to like the running gag of how much slower things were in Hetty's day, although I think they tend to exaggerate it a bit.

It may take time to collect my thoughts on this one. So much to say, and Rebecca was so good, but just the look on her face when she pulls down her collar to reveal the cord (which I saw as the copper wire that connected it to the wall) said everything. That's how I saw it too.

Surprise guest? Patience the feral Puritan ghost?

Sinema's out, she announced her "retirement" from the Senate last month. She blamed partisanship but really just read the writing on the wall that everyone hates her.

Yeah, right under: Secondly, I leave to my sons, Jack and Donny... I'm of the same attitude, but I would rather cull the Gruesome Foursome (Sonny/Carly/Jason/Michael) and then see if any of the others can thrive before I cut them. Pipe dream, I know. Counterpoint: Tanisha Harper is really hot! No wonder the cops are always losing to Sonny, they're clearly paid shit!

There's a lot of hours in a day they need to fill and they're hoping that the furor has died down enough to let it slide and those movies aren't making any money in the Hallmark vault?

It really does make me think of the Voltaire quote: It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Especially even after he knew they were innocent. I don't know if it would be a deterrent for them. If they do watch, I think they should have to keep their hands in sight at all times. Personally, I would have them spend a night in a jail cell and then actually be strapped to the gurney so they really know what it feels like.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ashton-kutcher-expecting-subpoena-over-013051777.html So, Ashton Kutcher's good friends with Sean Combs. Is it terrible taste in friends, or just birds of a feather?

We meet Trevor's brother. I assume Trevor, Pete and Flower are the only ones who still have any close family remaining. I can see the commonalities between them for good and for ill. But I liked that Trevor knew that it was best for Jeremy not to hang around the B&B all the time. Hopefully Jay will close the loophole on the sign up offer. I think Hetty's stories are worse than Thor's. Both of them are still grimly hilarious though. Isaac discovering dinosaurs was the highlight of the episode for me! Although having read the book Fossil Legends of the First Americans, fossils were being found in his day, but they had not quite realized what they actually were. They thought there could be mysterious monsters further inland, which incidentally was one of the side purposes of expeditions like Lewis and Clark's. I don't know if it was an act so much as it was just easy for her, now that Pete's been gone nearly 40 years, to apologize to (what to her was) an empty room. Now that they're back under the same roof, they seem to fall into old patterns, and we've seen over the years that Pete and Carol did not have the healthiest of relationships. While I don't want to see her stick around long-term, I would feel kinda bad if she got sucked off before Pete. Maybe she can fall down Flower's Well?

They're the people in that meme I saw: "Can't pay back those college loans? You should have skipped college and gotten a real job!" and at the same time, "Can't make enough money, well, you should have gone to college and gotten a real job!" My response: Oh, I see the problem, you weren't born rich. This "it was hard for me so it should be hard for everyone else" attitude is the main problem right here. We'd rather drag everyone down than lift anyone up. While I understand the anger when you aren't one of the ones uplifted, that's the reason to make these things universal. That's the problem with forcing children to choose a career/life path before they're trusted to go to the bathroom by themselves. It's that special kind of idiot that makes it impossible for people to have children and then they're shocked, SHOCKED! that people aren't having kids. Our government seems to be full of those special kinds of idiots.

My favorite Moroccan Amazigh Band/Youtube discovery Meteor Airlines has a new album out. One of my favorite tracks is Mani Aman (Where is the Water?)

And here I thought they were finally going to delve into the long awaited story where Laura, as mayor, discovers all the lead, cadmium, and (apparently) cobalt in the PC drinking water, thus explaining the high levels of stupidity and cancer in that town. (Personally, I'm still pissed that we were cheated out of the confrontation between Heather and Liesl after Britt's death)

Whatever he was in was extremely volatile if it oscillated between +200,000 to -48,000 to +187,000 in the span of a few moments. And he was shorting which opened Sam and Jay up to much greater losses than just the $10,000 he started with. I guess it's easier to take that risk when you're dead. But like all good investors, he was playing with other people's money.

Just skimming episodes and the thread, I had a realization: Does anyone else think that Port Charles is really just that gangster planet from the classic Star Trek Episode A Piece of the Action?

This one was fun, especially Hetty and Sass trying to get the candy from Carol's purse. "What kind of candy? Nose Candy?" And because I was curious, they probably would not have been snorting cocaine in Hetty's day. They did however put it in everything else, from wine and coca cigarettes to hair care, toothache drops to yes, actual candy. Pete and Carol working through things was good to see. Although when she first confessed to Sam and Jay about the affair she said, I think Pete may have known, which we can now see was just a way of making herself feel better. And Alberta and Nancy stepping in to help Pete was fun and showed the friendship's he's built there in 40 years. As for the main thrust of the episode, its one of those weird things of why they gave Isaac the money in the first place? I get that it is his book that he dictated to Sam, but still,and I thought being known to posterity was enough for him. Even Sass pointed out their poor business sense: "You're the ones who gave $10,000 to a ghost." I understand Jay's frustration. He still has a life to live and its not like Isaac can spend the money without Sam's help (or Trevor's, it seems). Still, his saying Isaac's not real was too far. Actually, he insisted on sawdust because Isaac wanted a high end restaurant. Same with the whale oil.

Nice interview with Yvonne Chapman, Avatar Kyoshi herself.

Because when she first saw them she messed with Trevor's tie.

Easy. The corporate execs that make the cuts and "save money" are lauded and rewarded by the shareholders and move on to better things by the time the costs come due. Then it's someone else's problem.

Flower was in the well all along. I'm just happy to have her back and honestly, her having fallen down the well and gotten trapped there was a very Flower thing to happen. But it does make me wonder what everyone saw at the beginning of the season. To me it looked like something came down more than went up, but we will see. Halloween as we know it is modern, but it goes back to older wheel of the year traditions (Samhain in particular), marking boundaries between the seasons, like the beginning of winter/the dark half of the year or in some cultures the start of the New Year. In Thor's time, it would have been the Winter Nights (Vetr-nætr) which was marked by feasting and sacrifices. As liminal time, it would be a perfect moment to call back spirits.