blackwing
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Posts posted by blackwing
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8 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:
From what I can recall from previous episodes, the items in the dishwasher are always clean. It's the items still left on the counter where they find food residue. I don't know that I would have made the leap from "there are four plates here" to "we must serve it as four slices" but they do count on what they find in the dishwasher to lead them to the correct bake. There's a fine line between weird but valid clues and true red herrings and TPTB are messing it up this season. I don't remember things being this arbitrary the first year.
Agreed. It's so hard to determine the real clues from the red herrings this season. The Cat Twins were not the only ones to notice the plates. Other teams commented that they were wondering about the plates too. And when the Twins brought the slices out and explained, one team said "it makes sense".
What I would have thought was weird was that this is supposed to be about presenting a whole dessert, why would the judges want slices only? I think I would brought out the whole cake. Then said that there were four plates in the dishwasher indicating that four slices were served. Then proceed to slice and serve at the judging table. One slice for each judge and one for myself.
At least that way I would have presented a full dessert first. I do recall that in a previous episode, Yolanda said something about how it's not possible to hedge your bets by adding something else since that would make it wrong. I cannot recall but the example there was something like instead of just apple filling, putting in both apple and pear.
If the Twins had presented the whole cake and then sliced, I do wonder if they would have been considered less wrong than Tarsha and Kristy. They would have had the correct 30 crepe cake on the judging table. But then erred on final presentation. Whereas Tarsha and Kristy would have been the only team to not have a 30 crepe cake on the table.
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12 hours ago, JH Lipton said:
Fadi and T's win of the Safety Bake was so bogus. First, they managed to do better in 45 minutes what they had failed at in an hour and a half (the whole "I have to start over" gimmick has never worked for me.) Then, the judges gush over the other 3 tarte Tartins, but they somehow win. Nope, not buying it.
I wish they had explained what the difference between what the twins made and a tarte Tartin was.
Fully agree, I think it was obvious that the judges wanted them to advance straight into the next round. Amber and Yass made pear, the cat twins made a galette. So that only left Fadi and T, Steph and Cherry, the French women, and Tasha and Kristy. The judges definitely weren't going to let Steph and Cherry win again. But I don't agree that Fadi and T's second effort was the best.
It seems to me that they advanced because they are the only men left. I would not be at all surprised if they already booked themselves a place in the final regardless of how poorly they do, the judges will find any excuse to advance them. As it is, in the final six we have a team of two gay Middle Eastern men, two teams of two Asian women, two teams of two Black women, and one team of two white French women. Show did pretty well on diversity, which is nice to see.
As for tarte tatin vs. galette, I looked it up. Tarte tatin is baked in a pan, while a galette is made without a pan or dish, it's shaped by hand and baked freeform.
6 hours ago, Mediocre Gatsby said:That SUCKED. Besides just being a huge mistake with a given clue, making only 2/3 of the crepes gave Tarsha and Kristy more time to get everything else right. I'm really disappointed.
Part of the issue with this show is that the judging is so subjective. It seems clear that if you made the actual dessert, then you're safe. In this case, all of the teams made the correct dessert. Then they say it comes down to taste and presentation. But it also seems like they consider who was most wrong. The twins made an error by cutting the cake and serving onto four plates. Tarsha and Kristy made an error by only making 20 crepes.
So perhaps the judges considered both of these to be equal errors and then judged on taste and presentation? We really need some kind of scorecard with elements
47 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:I so agree with this! The twins' ganache was still warm because they had to make/fill/stack 30 layers instead of having more time to cool it by only making 20 layers. I also don't understand the whole 'although there were four plates in the dishwasher it was obvious they weren't used...' How is that obvious? Don't people usually rinse plates before placing them in the dishwasher? Why were they even there if they weren't used/dirty? I think so much is manufactured to get the outcome the producers want. It could have easily been one of the judges saying 'why were dishes there if not used?' I like this show but I think it's easily manipulated and that takes some of the fun away for me.
I call foul on this as well. If the four plates were "clearly not used", then why the hell were they in the dishwasher? Most of the time it seems like the dishes in the dishwasher are dirty. But sometimes they could be clean. If the dishes were supposed to be dirty, then why would someone put four clean UNUSED plates in a dishwasher along with other dirty dishes? If the dishes were supposed to be clean, then wouldn't that indicate that the four plates were washed because they were used?
Similarly, in the Safety Bake, it didn't look to me like the pan in the dishwasher was used at all.
I don't like these clues that could be twisted to whichever interpretation suits the judges' needs. I think there are these clues that don't have a definitive answer and are put there simply to purposely screw teams up.
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I enjoyed the season, but I'm kind of miffed that just as I FINALLY had come to some general understanding of what was going on, the season ended!
If they are planning on spinoffs, why not just make a Season 5? Why was this already billed as the Final Season? Did Krasinski want out?
On 7/19/2023 at 11:32 AM, PrincessPurrsALot said:I did enjoy the whole not waiting for you to chat; just going to shoot you now from Chavez. November did the same thing with evil Croatian guy. "I will destroy you and your family." Nope, not with a bullet in your head.
Chao had said his family had the info and he went back outside to get the stuffed animal. What was ridiculous to me was Cathy was the one to figure it out. Nobody checked the stuffy?
Yes, those two killings were well deserved. None of this long drawn out banter.
I agree regarding the stuffed animal, none of the guys realised that it was important? Cathy is the one to figure it out? Cathy in the Amazon series was kind of a waste of a character. The Anne Archer version in the movies was fantastic. The Cathy in the books is a renowned eye surgeon. I never really figured out who she was here.
She seems to have been some kind of infectious disease specialist. I get that the character is younger. But why would she have been invited to be the keynote speaker at some conference in Myanmar? Have they even established that she's some kind of expert? It didn't help that she disappeared for two seasons so we barely saw her.
Then she pops up again this season, and the show never even bothered to explain where she's been and what she's been doing and how she and Jack got back together. Also, did I miss it, or did we not even see a scene of either Jack and/or Cathy finding out that one of the bad guys is her own dad? Seems kind of important, no? Was Dad that heartless that he would be OK with Bad Burmese Lady kidnapping and possibly killing his daughter? That part made no sense to me.
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I agree with others that I don't think Fadi and T should have won the safety bake. How did they have enough time to fail their first attempt, and then completely start over from scratch? If that's the case, then the allotted time was too much.
I know the French women got critical remarks for not being caramelized enough but it was otherwise perfectly executed.
Tarsha and Kristy got lucky that Sherry and Shelly cut their cake. Yet even if they didn't cut it, it sounded like a complete hot mess. Yolanda said that the ganache melted the cream filling at the top layers and that their layers were uneven. I think Sherry and Shelly were going home regardless of the cutting.
My favourite team is Amber and Yass. They work really well together, they understand each other, they don't blame each other or snip at each other, and they are really great bakers. I also like the French women. I love when they speak French to each other.
I have soured a little on Steph and Cherry. They seem like perfectly nice people, but if I was in a room with Cherry I would probably find her exhausting. I'm not sure if she has ADHD or if she's just that naturally peppy. I don't think she's playing things up for the camera, but the facial expressions, the clutching her partner, the falling down, etc. Too much.
Why was Martina McBride talking about her Fluff Salad? Was that brought up by Joel to give her some credibility as a chef and baker? Because to me it sounded like the kind of recipe you would find on the back of the Jello package or on a soup can. It sounds disgusting. Cheese and marshmallows and pineapple?
I just realised that they don't even announce who won the Elimination Bake. I guess it's because the judges aren't looking at overall performance when it comes to the final show winner, it's just limited to each bake. It would be nice to know who they thought won the Elimination Bake, and maybe the prize could be that they get more time in the next round.
I know the Safety/Elimination format is new this season, but I could have sworn they announced who won the second bake last season, did they not?
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https://ew.com/tv/george-r-r-martin-says-hbo-deal-is-suspended-winds-of-winter-update/
The latest from his highness. Writers strike has apparently put all of his TV projects on hold. Claims he has been working on The Winds of Winter "every day" although like a complete asshole he says "although probably not as fast as YOU would like".
I mean, yeah? It's been 12 years since the last book and he has found every excuse to not finish TWOW. We had the COVID pandemic during which in the early stages, many people stayed home and didn't go anywhere. Now we have a writers strike where most TV and movie projects are suspended. Now would be the perfect time to concentrate on finishing the book, if he ever wants to do so.
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So I'm on some kind of mailing list because I "attended" one of the virtual tapings during COVID. Show is asking for audiences for the taping of the live shows for Season 10.
The show is taping 7/20, 7/21, 7/22, 7/24, 7/25, 7/27, 7/30, 7/31, 8/2, & 8/5.
That's it? The entire show is taped over a period of two weeks? Obviously there isn't a week in between tapings to match the airings, but I didn't realise the shooting schedule was so compact. And perhaps multiple episodes are taped on each day.
This calls into question the whole "she didn't want to commit to being there for long and only wanted to do one show" suggestion. Like some of the big names that go out after one or two episodes. This gives even more credence to the fact that the whole show is scripted.
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I watch online and use the +15 seconds button a lot when watching, I didn't realise that the guy's name is actually Sunshine, I thought that was just a pet term that Niecy was using for him.
He picked Country for his dad and said he knew both songs but I guess he didn't know "Jolene" well enough.
Are the categories somewhat tailored to the contestants? There will always be one category that is a single artist. Am I reading too much into it that the black guy got "Earth Wind and Fire" while the Italian bodybuilder lady got New Jersey Italian-American "Bon Jovi"?
6 hours ago, Snow Apple said:The second contestant was so stupid. She should have used all three words to get the guaranteed $25k, or at least used it for the third word. I thought that was what she was going to do because it's easier to fill in the last word if you know the one before it.
She was so confident which is why she didn't use the last one. Using the word to confirm "Girls" was such a waste when it seemed likely to be the answer because the previous line ended with "Guys". I agree that she should have used the word for the third word.
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I think I have said this before but I really think the teams need more time in the crime scene kitchen. Two minutes is just not enough time. Even if teams had time to look in all of the cabinets and dustbins and refrigerator and drawers and dishwasher and purses and whatnot and found all of the supposed clues, the clues are vague enough that you could still end up making the completely wrong thing.
For example, in the Safety Bake, did Curtis or Yolanda explain why half of the rotisserie chicken was gone but somehow it wasn't used whatsoever in the beef and ale pie with a side of peas? So now we have things that look clearly used but apparently not used at all? "Oh never mind the half-eaten chicken, Joel just got hungry in between takes."
There were full bottles of ale in the fridge, leading Amber and Yass to say the ale wasn't opened. Sherry and Sally were the only ones to find the bottle caps in the trash, good for them since this led to their win. However... where are the empty bottles? Just disappeared into thin air? Or I guess that makes it too easy if there were empty bottles.
If this were the first season, I think DJ and his partner (I forget his name, I've been calling him Thomas Jr since he kind of looks and sounds like Thomas from last season) would have survived. They at least made a beef and ale pie, only with chicken stock instead of beef stock. They were way closer to the mystery bake than Camille and Laisa, who made a vegetable pie.
But it seems the slate is wiped clean for the Elimination. Both teams were rushed as Yolanda said, but DJ's cake looked really sad and apparently didn't taste as good either. Based on this cake alone, they were the right team to go home.
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I really thought that Helen Mirren had a chance at an Emmy nomination, she is far and away the best thing about this show. However, I guess even Kevin Costner couldn't get a nomination for Yellowstone, even though he won the Golden Globe a few months ago.
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I don't understand Djokovic doing the fake tears when his opponent loses the point. He knows the crowd doesn't like him, and he does the mock tears to say "sorry your guy lost, too bad, so sad". Is there anything more to it than that? Why would he do this? He has to know that he's among the most hated players in tennis today, is he just accepting it and going full blown Lord Voldemort?
Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Tennis has its origins as a gentlemen's game, why not show some class instead of being an arrogant ass? I guess he just doesn't care.
When was the last time a player was this generally disliked, and knew it? Was it Ivan Lendl? I remember disliking Lendl a lot, but that was mostly because he was always playing against McEnroe and Connors. I also remember disliking Martina a lot, because in the 80s she was always beating up on Chris Evert Lloyd. I grew to like both Lendl and Martina.
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On 7/12/2023 at 11:31 AM, ProudMary said:
Emmy nominations have been announced. While The Crown is nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, its only acting nomination is for Elizabeth Debicki in the Supporting Actress category.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/2023-emmys-nominations-nominees-list-1235533766/
That sounds about right to me. I thought this was the weakest season by far. Elizabeth Debicki was the only standout. Imelda Staunton was mediocre and made no impact at all, and I don't think Jonathan Pryce was deserving either. If Staunton and Pryce were to get nominations it would have been purely because of their names and because previous Elizabeth/Philip actors have gotten nominations.
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I like Steph and Cherry and they were spot on with their quiche. I like their enthusiasm.
I also like the mother/daughter team, they correctly got the elimination bake even if it looked like a mess. I would have been happy with either Fadi and Tee or the toque women going home, I found both teams equally annoying.
I too am curious if the format will change when the groups are combined. I tend to agree that safety is a huge prize and maybe too huge, but I also think the one extra clue last season wasn't enough. If you don't win immunity from the first bake, then what's the point? Because right now it seems there is a clean slate and teams are sent home based purely on their elimination bake and the first bake doesn't even factor into things at all.
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1 hour ago, roseha said:
I was sad for Berrettini also, though he has played so little this year that I guess it was bound to catch up with him. Let's hope he has better luck staying healthy in the future.
Yes the draw is really disappointing in Djokovic's section. He could have gotten the wildly unpredictable Alexander Bublik - who actually just won in Queens - in the next round but instead will get Andrei Rublev, who I think has the kind of game that will not trouble Novak at all. Just no justice sometimes.
Oh and I just have to join in on the big congrats to Chris Eubanks! What a story. and for anyone who doesn't know he is also an excellent commentator on TC -which he totally showed in his after match interview.
Yep. I was hoping for the dangerous Bublik. But instead, it's Rublev. Rublev is one of those players that Djokovic can glance at just once and he will crumple instantly. I feel like Sinner would crumple as well.
I like Eubanks, he seems like an intelligent young man. I saw him interviewed in the studio over the weekend and he said that doing commentary has helped to improve his game. Too bad he's in Alcaraz's half.
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Watched Alcaraz/Berrettini. I like Carlos, but I like Matteo more. He was able to pull off the first set but then made errors at inopportune times and couldn't capitalise on some of his chances.
I'm hoping Carlos makes it to the final as he is the one with the best chance to beat Djokovic.
Why is it that the top half still has more big names but the bottom half seems like people are falling all over themselves to get out of Djokovic's way? Bottom half seems so much easier, particularly since Ruud at #4 wouldn't haven't been #4 if Wimbledon still took grass court performance into consideration.
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I watched this movie on a long plane ride. Overall, I liked it. But I have some questions.
The rich lady that forced all of the crew to go swimming despite the chef saying the food will go bad. It's implied that this is what causes many of the guests to have diarrhea later on, since although the yacht was going through a bad storm, the storm seems like it would only cause vomiting and seasickness, not diarrhea, right?
The vomiting and diarrhea was a bit much, especially the scenes of the backed up toilet. Yuck.
I am not really sure what the message of the movie was supposed to be. It was poking fun at the mega-rich by turning the tables on them. Once they got to the island, it turns out that the lowly ship's maid is the only one who can keep them alive with food. It would have been nice if the rich survivors acknowledged how lucky they were to be marooned with her and that it caused them to re-think how they treat others who aren't as affluent as them. But then the lady simply became one of them, flaunting her power and forcing the young model to sleep with her in exchange for food. That was disappointing, what was the message supposed to be then? To me, it seemed to be a commentary that no matter who anyone is, anyone in a position of power and wealth ends up treating others poorly.
I'm not sure what to make of the ending. Yaya discovers they have been living next to a resort the entire time. Abigail doesn't want them to get rescued because that means she loses all of her power and loses Carl. So she moves to kill Yaya with a rock. Then we see Carl frantically running through the forest.
What does this mean? They were on the other side of the island or at least over a steep hill from the rest. Not sure if Carl could have heard Yaya scream. My interpretation is that Carl came across the vendor selling stuff that the German lady encountered and realised this meant that Yaya was in danger. So he is running to save her. But I think unfortunately he will be too late.
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On 4/27/2023 at 4:09 PM, starri said:
I like her a lot too, and it's definitely fun to see her do something dramatic.
But then you've got an American actress cast as Christie's authorial avatar. She doesn't seem to be doing an accent, so she's not playing British.
I agree. I like Tina Fey but I worry that she's miscast here. She's a comedic actor, why cast her as Ariadne Oliver? And why cast an American in this role?
Still, I'm looking forward to this movie. Jamie Dornan, the luminous Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Reilly, Jude Hill. Good cast.
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23 hours ago, proserpina65 said:
How do they avoid drowning right away? A plane isn't airtight the way a submarine would be.
Correct, the plane isn't airtight, especially when there's a hole in the cockpit windshield and water seeps into the cabin from underneath the cockpit door. However, apparently, something to do with air pressure equalizing, the existing air in the cabin prevents the water from fully flooding the entire plane.
But then there's carbon dioxide poisoning so they only have a finite number of hours of breathable air.
20 hours ago, grommit2 said:Hmm...only one guess?
Umm...how about running out of breathable air.
Or...sharks?
Or...Oh, I give up.This book would have been so much better if sharks had been involved, trust me. Maybe a shark can eat this author's hands to prevent her from inflicting future awfulness upon us.
14 hours ago, Zella said:I have gotten some good ones here too! In fact, I started reading the Matthew Shardlake mystery series by CJ Sansom and have really been enjoying the first book. I'd been curious about it for years but positive comments on here made me make starting it a priority.
Yes! I had been meaning for years to read the Matthew Shardlake series, and have read the first four books in a span of a few months. Planning to start the fifth book on my summer vacation in a few weeks, the only thing that is too bad is that my library system doesn't have a papeback version and I'll have to lug a tome with me.
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2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:
I'm guessing maybe fruit like that is brought in already cored/pitted?
The apple in the Safety Bake crime scene definitely wasn't cored, Bob noticed a single whole apple on the counter.
I think maybe it just depends on what the judges want to claim are the correct clues. I could easily see Yolanda saying "you should have noticed the cherries in the bowl which were washed and had their stems removed. This should have been an indication that cherries were used in the dessert." Just as easily as I could see her saying "although there were apples on the counter, the absence of any peels or cores in the trash should have told you that they were NOT used in the dessert".
In other words, I think things are made up and not particularly consistent. I think some things are done to purposely throw teams off, like the half-used pineapple from the other week that Curtis claimed wasn't used.
We don't see if Bob and Vicki actually peeled and cored the apples themselves, we see Vicki with some peeled, cored and chopped apples in a bowl or pot, I think she was cooking them.
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Good episode but I agree that as a season and possible series finale, it sucked. I know they had been negotiating for months with CW, but there was a very real chance that the show was going to get cancelled. This episode must have been in the can a while back, long before the renewal announcement was made. Knowing that they were ending the season on this cliffhanger, with a very real possibility of cancellation, is a huge disservice to fans.
Then again, perhaps they were already told that they were going to have to lose all the supporting characters, because there was an out written for each of them to leave town.
I wonder what the plan was going to be for Season 4. No doubt maybe "Superman is dead" and then Jordan and John Henry become the town protectors. But now John Henry will be gone, and I really hope we don't spend a chunk of the season with Jordan and his goggles. Hopefully Superman survives.
I don't fully understand how killing Bizarro over and over again would make him stronger and turn him into the grotesque Doomsday. How would Lex have known that? Mannheim studied Bizarro for months. Lex gets out of prison and instantly knows exactly what to do with/to him?
I noticed that Sam mentioned that the boys are halfway done with high school. They were definitely just starting freshman year at the start of the series in Season 1. So it took three seasons IRL to get through two years on the show? I guess it's posisble. They definitely were about to turn 16 at the end of Season 2, that was when Tal bought them those trucks. Most people turn 16 sometime during sophomore year, depending on the school system it could probably be as early as September/October. We saw their birthday party at the beginning of this season, which must have happened not long after Ally was defeated. So maybe Season 2 is supposed to have occurred over the course of just a few weeks or a month. And Season 3 took us through the school year. But the odd thing is, I don't recall that we actually saw winter on this season. Did we?
By the way, based on last week's episode that Luthor was released from a Kansas prison, I think the show is definitely trying to establish that Metropolis is in Kansas. However, the screenshot we saw of Metropolis in this episode is definitely Chicago, with CGI to remove the more well-known buildings like the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center (I refuse to call them by whatever the current-day names are).
Metropolis as seen on the show:
Chicago:
The Sears Tower has been replaced by the tall silver building at about 1/3 in from the left. And the John Hancock Center, the black trapezoidal building in between the assymetric Trump Tower and the squarish white Aon Center, appears to be wiped completely from Metropolis.
7 hours ago, baldryanr said:It's nice that they're close, but Sam and Natalie telling other people they're grandfather and granddaughter has to lead to some followup questions from regular people. Given her age she can't tell people she's Lois's daughter without making it seem like she cheated on Clark, so is she passing herself off as Lucy's kid? Is there a third Lane sibling we've never heard of?
4 hours ago, Affogato said:Like people call their parents friends 'uncle' and 'aunt'.
I think it's way different than calling parents' close friends uncle and aunt. That usually is done only one way, as a sign of respect from the child to the elders. It doesn't go both ways, the older person never calls the younger one "nephew" or "niece". Here, Sam was calling Natalie his granddaughter. I don't think it can be explained that Sam was just calling her that because she's his grandsons' friend. It'd be weird and creepy.
Instead, my explanation would be that after the Awful Ally Alston Affair, I would assume many people are aware of the different parallel worlds and how close they came to being merged with another world. This is also a world in which Kryptonians possessed many of the town residents. I can easily see people understanding that Natalie is Sam's granddaughter from an alternate world.
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12 hours ago, Lurk said:
Something I wondered about, do they completely reset the kitchen each time? What happens if someone picks the raspberry seeds off the smear on the apron - the next group(s) would only see a red smear? The other thing that made me wonder about that is if they stick fingers in things to taste or lick spoons, etc. The clues might be slightly different (eg the saltine cracker lump in the food processor, one team saw it and the others didn't notice it or was it there?).
1 hour ago, NaughtyKitty said:My assumption is that they reset the kitchen for each team in a process that can take hours and then put them in a room for a while to deliberate and think about a recipe, go over the rules, and do the confessionals. My guess is that they start cooking several hours after Joel does his spiel.
I too would have to assume that the kitchen gets reset for each team. We see each team walk up from the group. But I am thinking that has to be for the cameras, and that each team is in the kitchen by themselves. Otherwise the first team is at a disadvantage and the last team gets an advantage since everyone presumably can see what they are looking at (the note on the refrigerator, the piece of parchment paper in the trash, the apron, the "allergic to nuts" card in the purse) and perhaps hear as well. I think all the other teams must be sitting in a conference room while each team looks in the kitchen.
Then I would imagine the kitchen has to get reset. Things put back into place, lids put back on. What if one team wanted others to think the almond flour was used and opens the lid and leaves the lid on the counter? And most tellingly, Yolanda told the teams that "you all had the opportunity to taste the glaze" to determine it was apricot. That told me that because of health reasons, each team would have gotten a new spoon of apricot preserves instead of all licking the same one.
I was thinking that the earlier you went, the more time you got to think, since the kitchen has to be reset. But I do think each team is probably isolated in their own separate rooms in a process that probably takes an hour, so more or less everyone has time to think.
I also suspect that perhaps there are cookbooks and recipe cards in these rooms. How did the French team who had never cooked a donut before know how to make one? And not only know exactly how many eggs, how much flour, etc but how long to cook it for and at what temperature? Those donuts looked perfect for a team that had never ever made one.
The team that pulled out the Basque cheesecake seemed really convenient. Is there a big book of baking in each of these sequestration rooms? It would look really bad if absolutely nobody got it right. If she had an inkling that the parchment paper meant something was burnt and then looked through all the cheesecake recipes to see if any of them involved burnt, then good for her. Same with Cherry if she found the recipe for a Boardwalk pie in that big book by looking for any kind of pie with saltine crackers.
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10 hours ago, KerleyQ said:
I can kind of get the initial impulse to kind of wait and see if your spouse comes into that conversation intending to admit what happened or not. Because that could play into whether it ends up being something you can get past - if your spouse confesses and is really upset and remorseful vs. if they just cover it all up and pretend everything is fine. But, once it was clear that Hope was going to just put on a happy face and focus on the HFTF stuff and how much she missed her family, that's when Liam should have grown up and told her what he knows instead of playing word games with her. This whole story really illustrates that Liam has not matured a single bit in all this time. And, when all is said and done, Hope is going to have just as much to be angry with him about as he does with her.
I agree that it'd be nice if your spouse would bring it up. However, these two have played this game SO MANY TIMES before. There's a reason why they play it so many times. It's because Liam sucks donkey ass. I get that this is a soap opera, but Bradley is writing Liam the same way he wrote Ronnnnnn Mosssss Ridge for years, ping ponging back and forth between two women for years. It's insulting to the viewer that Bradley has presented the same tired storyline over and over.
1 hour ago, RuntheTable said:For a minute there I thought we were going to be saddled with weeks of Liam moping and talking in riddles, but it seems not since Hope discovered the luggage. Was that left there for a reason? Is Liam that incapable of communicating? By the time Hope made the discovery, most spouses would have already moved onto the next round of questions and would be asking if the kiss progressed to anything else. Of course Liam will wail and point his finger at his wife, but he will never tell her he did the same thing just moments later.
Of course he left it there on purpose, he's passive aggressive Liam, is there anything you need to tell me because you don't know that I know that you don't know that I know THE SECRETZ.
Liam truly doesn't deserve to be with anybody. They should force him to take a permanent impotence pill and move out to a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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Was Vanna interested? I think after 40 years as letter turner, Vanna would have made a good host. Or what about Pat's daughter?
Ryan Seacrest is overexposed and seemingly in everything.
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18 hours ago, Crs97 said:
Why would it be the Gwyneth Paltrow rule?
I thought she was one of the most prominent names who were openly campaigning for Andrea Riseborough. That, and I can't stand her. I would not be displeased if she and her vagina massage cream moved to Mars.
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1 hour ago, CountryGirl said:
So Hope kissing Thomas is the end of your marriage, Liam?
Not your fucking Steffy after Hopequin night?
Not your kissing Steffy literally minutes after seeing Hope kiss Thomas?
His sitting there, all sad lion, makes me want to punch this waffling, hypocritical waste of space in the face. Or the nutsack. Probably both.
Yes. He ALWAYS has that look, it's his patented look. I don't understand how this actor has won so many Emmys (then again, Jackie Wood is a crappy actor with multiple Emmys and might win again this year if they ever have the ceremony). It's always this look of angst.
I'm right there with you, I usually abhor violence, but this guy deserves a strong kick in the nuts.
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What Are We Currently Reading?
in Books
David Baldacci has a new book out that is possibly going to be an ongoing series called Simply Lies. The protagonist is an ex-cop single mom who works as an investigator for a PI firm. She works from home and is tasked with uncovering financial assets, mostly through the means of her computer. One day she gets a call from someone from another office in the firm who asks her to go to some mansion owned by a guy that they are investigating and see the assets in person. She goes because she is local. There she discovers a dead body and finds herself as a possible suspect. Soon, a woman contacts her and asks her to investigate the murder. Turns out, this woman is the one who sent her to the house in the first place. For some reason, the PI starts working with her.
This is a mess of a book. The biggest issue is that the story is told from two points of view... that of the ex-cop single mom protagonist as well as the con woman antagonist. Or at least ostensibly the antagonist. This was a strange device, and while I can see situations in which it might work, it didn't work for me here.
I think we are supposed to see both women's thoughts and motivations and wind up viewing both of them as the protagonists and like both. But it didn't work that way for me. I ended up disliking both characters. The PI because it's never fully explained why she agrees to work with this con woman who clearly tried to frame her for murder, and the con woman because she's just not sympathetic.
The plot itself... too many unanswered questions and the book just took way too long getting to any explanations. Which seems ludicrous considering we are privy to the con woman's thoughts.
I used to really like Baldacci, but of his current series, the only one I really like is the new 6:20 Man one. I'm lukewarm on Amos Decker and Aloysius Archer, dislike Atlee Pine, and now won't read this new Mickey Gibson one anymore if it becomes a series.
On a more enjoyable note, I finished the fifth Matthew Shardlake book, Heartstone. Like all of the other entries in this series, it was excellent. Well plotted and very satisfying. I'm sad that I only have two books left in the series until Sansom writes another.