blackwing
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Posts posted by blackwing
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All of the discussion about the KFC bowls is making me really want one now. I am taking a kid on a road trip for a soccer tournament this weekend. KFC is my favourite road trip fast food (and unfortunately, the rest of my family's absolute least favorite). I'm thinking we will be making two stops for lunch. I am absolutely determined to get my "big ole bowl for five bucks"!
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Finished a few lately...
Fogged Inn, the fourth Maine Clambake mystery by Barbara Ross. It's fall, so there are no clambakes, and Julia and her boyfriend are opening Gus's bar for dinner service. A body is found in the walk-in freezer in the morning. But the doors were locked overnight. The man had dined at the restaurant the previous night, along with four couples who all say they had never seen him before.
Iced Under, the fifth Maine Clambake mystery by Barbara Ross. It's February. Julia's mother Jacqueline receives a mysterious package in the mail that contains an expensive black diamond necklace. She says it belonged to her family until it disappeared a hundred years ago. Who had it, and who sent it? And how does this relate to Jacqueline's long-lost cousin?
Curds of Prey, the third Cheese Shop mystery by Korina Moss. Willa Bauer is asked to provide a cheese bar for a bridal shower of the elder daughter of the town's wealthiest family. The groom-to-be is discovered dead, and Willa's sort-of boyfriend is the chief suspect.
I can't say enough good things about the Barbara Ross books. It's easy to see why she is so popular, the mysteries are well-crafted and well-thought out and they seem to be a little different than the typical cozy. Not formulaic at all. I was particularly impressed with "Iced Under", who would have thought that a cozy about a woman that runs a Maine clambake business could be so successful when the setting is in Boston in the dead of winter and there is no clambaking at all?
I really like the Cheese Shop mysteries, this author crafts tight plots and well fleshed-out characters.
Oh, and I cooked my first ever recipe from the pages in the back of a cozy mystery! I made the Split Pea with Ham soup from the back of "Fogged Inn". It sounded so good in the book, and the recipe looked easy, and we had a ham bone from Easter. Very easy and very tasty!
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3 hours ago, Rushmoras said:
Just finished reading Volume 1 Part 2 of War and Piece (tells a story about Duke Andrej's exploits during skirmishes of Franco-Russian war). I liked it more than the first part, mainly because at least something was going on (something other than salon talks and gossips between noble-women), but I get the feeling that the remaining Part 3 of Volume 1 will be back to salon talks of Russian nobility.
I admire your commitment and dedication. "War and Peace" is a book I've always felt like I "had" to read but haven't been able to bring myself to do it. I tried starting "Anna Karenina" during Covid and stopped... too many characters, too many long Russian names and I couldn't figure out who was who. One of these days I will have to try again.
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It was good to see Gar, and I had been wondering where he was. But wow, I found this episode to be interminably boring. The metaverse clips of other heroes/characters was interesting, but I found myself not caring about the journey and whatever the beast mask guy was trying to tell him.
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6 minutes ago, Artsda said:
This will be big mainstream for him.
I see her books at B&N and the airport all the time. I had never heard of this woman before a year or so ago, it seems she has exploded in popularity and has so many books on the best seller list at one time. So a movie adaptation seems inevitable.
However... Brandon Sklenar? Really? He's possibly among today's worst actors. A block of wood has more personality and acting ability than him. Admittedly I haven't seen him in anything but this show, but my perception of him is that he has limited range. Even when his character was supposed to be carefree and happy, he seemed dry and devoid of joy.
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Taio Cruz is actually a two-hit wonder, I hope it's ok to list him here. But I've always wondered why he hit it so big with these two songs and then disappeared, at least in the U.S.
"Dynamite" is still occasionally on radio airplay here in the U.S., but I never hear "Break Your Heart" anymore which I thought was his bigger hit.
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This song was pretty huge in 2001, and then they were never heard from again.
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I finished the second and third Matthew Shardlake books by CJ Sansom.
In Dark Fire, Shardlake is asked by a friend to help his niece, who has been accused of the murder of her cousin. The girl refuses to speak or to defend herself, and things look bleak for her and she is about to be tortured to death. However, Shardlake is granted a delay by Thomas Cromwell if he agrees to locate the source of the ancient weapon commonly known as Greek fire. Cromwell has fallen out of favour with King Henry VIII because he is viewed by the king as being responsible for the disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves.
In Sovereign, Shardlake is asked by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to join the King's Progress to the city of York, which had rebelled against the King, and ensure the safe return of a conspirator back to London where he will be questioned. But while in York, a glazier is mysteriously murdered. Shardlake finds himself in possession of documents which threaten Henry's reign.
I greatly enjoyed both of these books, and despite their length, found them to be fairly fast reads. What I like most about these books is the historical atmosphere and the well-drafted plots. I liked how both books had two distinct mysteries which end up being somewhat intertwined.
Looking forward to the reading the rest of the series.
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On 4/15/2023 at 5:50 PM, millennium said:
It might have been more merciful to leave them in limbo. I will seriously miss Brenton Thwaites as Nightwing. I always hated Robin, and Brenton plays the character as if he understands that and wants to fix it.
Tim Drake is boring. I wish instead of the Tim Drake plot line they had found a way to bring back Donna Troy. But I expect too much. After all, this is the series that foisted Hawk and Dove upon us.
Fully agree with all of this. Brenton Thwaites and Anna Diop are the only good things left about this show. I hope they both land good gigs soon.
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Admittedly, I didn't bother to watch this Recrap. Masked Singer ALWAYS does this, a recrap of their journey and a new performance and new clues for contestants that have already been spoiled by the internetz as soon as they stepped foot onto the stage. Typically the first hour of the two hour season finale is a recrap of the final three. So is there going to be another one of these at final 3? Filler episode just to stretch out the season. Not falling for it.
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I'm liking Dick and Kory, but that's about it. Dick's hair looked different this episode, it very much looked like the hairstyle Burt Ward had as Robin.
The rest of the show, ugh. Tired of Evil Connor. Tired of the constant whatever it is about Rachel/Raven's powers. They're here, they're not, they're here, they're different, they're gone, they're back... whatever. Really dislike Tim Drake. And I'm sick of Bernard. It's like this show realised "oh! we don't have any gay characters, and the show is ending, let's make sure we pack in as much of their relationship into the show as possible". Their relationship/storyline literally adds nothing to the plot of the show.
I don't like May, although this episode she finally looked like an actual normal person, she was actually pretty. Not sure what it was... was she allowed to grow her eyebrows? She looked a lot different. I like Joseph Morgan but I'm tired of the Sebastian character.
I'm feeling about this show the way I felt during the last season or two of "Legends of Tomorrow". Watching because I've been with the show, and now just waiting for it to limp to the end. That's not good.
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22 minutes ago, Ceindreadh said:
I think they were still in the Arda office. The intern comes back and kills them. He's dumping their bodies down the elevator shaft when Ben sees him. Ben leaves the office and John sees him go into an alley beside the building just before it blows up - although I'm not sure he realised it was him.
Meanwhile, the intern, having dumped the bodies, goes back into the main office which has been all set up with the cadavers and the balloons of the teams blood hanging up, ready to be dispersed when the explosion happens.
Ah thank you for the further explanation. That makes a lot more sense now. I didn't understand what was happening with the balloons.
Agent Madi mentioned that the woman employee just bought a lot of wine and there was no wine at her apartment, so she must have taken it with her and is in hiding somewhere. So she asks the other agent to track her cell phone. The part that I'm confused about now is that this took her back to the Arda offices and she didn't even notice? She asks the other agent to call the woman's cell phone and it rings from the elevator shaft.
I must have missed her saying that she was back at the same office building. Also, I don't think Kyle would have been so sloppy as to leave the phones behind and turned on. He didn't know that they were going to blow up the Arda office and that there would be false dead bodies there. He was going to leave and hope the three were never found. The first thing that would be done when trying to locate these three would be to ping their phones.
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On 4/14/2023 at 11:25 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:
Sorry to have a tin-foil hat, but it felt like this episode was a conspiracy to decrease the chances of Team Arrington pulling a repeat. Not that I ever thought Shay would be the winner, but I don't think Ramsay and Blais liked losing S1 and they like the prospect of losing S2 to her even less.
My prediction is still that the final five are Nuri, Omi, Pilar, Tucker and Mehreen. I'm thinking that the final 3 will be Pilar, Tucker and Mehreen (so that each chef can claim a rooting interest in the finale), with Tucker taking the win. But them seeding the information that Omi's husband is sick may portend an Omi win.
Ugh, I just remembered that last year there was one chef from each mentor in the finale, and I do recall us talking about this last season about how it seemed so rigged so that would happen.
If that's the case, then I can see it happening again this season. It does seem a bit unfair as my perception is that Nyesha's team is the strongest. My preference would be Pilar, Mehreen, Michelle. But I think it will be Nuri, Tini, Tucker. Tucker gets a pass into the finale since her only competition is the awful Michelle, so she's a given. The show seems to absolutely love Gollum Tini, it's inexplicable to me. She seems like she is high all the time but she seems to get a lot of camera time even when she didn't factor at all into the best or worst dish, like in this episode. And I think the show would really avoid having three white people, three females, or three males in the finale. So the third finalist has to be a man. I loathe Chris, which means that I hope Nuri is the male representative, even if that means my favourite Pilar is out.
And if the other judges don't want Nyesha to win again... that means that Tucker will win. Ugh. But hopefully it won't be Tini.
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On 4/17/2023 at 3:56 PM, Ceindreadh said:
The bodies in the office were the cadavers that had been sourced so that the team could fake their deaths. Kyle wasn't expecting to see them, so that's why he was all WTF? when he went into the main office after dumping the bodies.
My question is, his team was hanging out at some other location, right? They sent Kyle to Katz's to get lunch and then left to fake their deaths. How did Kyle find them? He kills them at this other location, dumps their bodies in the elevator shaft. Then he returned to the Arda office and saw the three cadavers. He heard the bomb about to go off so tried to run. And that's why he was found in the wreckage alive.
I liked the reveal that Ben was the one to call Valence. And I liked that Weir figured out that the GPS chip was in the scotch.
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How was this not a red card? Primadonna Ronaldo again, pouty when he gets beat.
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Shay was among my favourites, I knew he wouldn't win, but it was still sad seeing him leave. He seems like a really nice guy and left graciously and was so appreciative and thankful of the opportunity.
I don't know how Michelle is still in this competition. She seems like she's ripe for being the next elimination. Salmon and cheese? I love salmon, I love cheese, but salmon and cheese together sounds disgusting. She was in the middle level, that salmon should have absolutely been left for the bottom level.
My absolute favourite is still Pilar, and I also like Nuri. As long as Chris or Tini don't win, I'll be happy. I also don't particularly care for Tucker.
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I just finished this episode and I swear that I don't recall any appearance of Liv, Weir's ex-wife. What did she do in this episode?
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1 hour ago, PatsyandEddie said:
I think, but could be wrong, that her face was ruined by the beating. Nikki had hit her with a rock and Deacon made it worse. The body was dressed like Diane and had blonde hair. Seems to have been enough.
Everyone seems to have been violent towards Diane that night. It was a brutal s/l really.Ah, for some reason I thought she had been shot. And I recall that we very clearly saw her face, she was lying face up in a pool of water.
Here's a screenshot I found... her face is very clearly visible, and it's clearly Maura West Diane. Doesn't seem "battered beyond recognition". So I guess her return from the dead just has to be one of those hand-waved things.
Why hasn't she gotten charged with faking her death, obstruction of justice, child abandonment, etc. Just as how Phyllis should get charged with obstruction of justice when her plot to frame Diane for her fake death is revealed.
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1 hour ago, PatsyandEddie said:
IIRC she said it was a body from the morgue. Deacon Sharpe was her buddy in crime.
Did they explain how the dead body had Diane's face? Was it a mask or plastic surgery? Or did they just ignore it?
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16.10 Dash to Death
On 11/15/2022 at 6:26 PM, Trey said:I missed the first few minutes of the show so didn't see his name in the credits. Thus, I was surprised and happy to see him playing a character. I would have liked to have seen him run too.
I've never trusted Mrs Hart even though they've tried to make her more likeable, and I certainly don't like her father. Arthur wasn't too nice either. So they can all kill each other and I won't care. I don't really know why they introduced this pointless plotline.
The victim was a thoroughly rotten person who deserved to die if anyone ever did.
It was nice seeing our Olympic athletes from long ago.
On 11/16/2022 at 12:58 PM, Grundoon59 said:Season 16 E: 10 Dash to Death. I saw the first few minutes but then got interrupted by a wonderful kindly neighbor bringing me over some food (hard to be mad about that) so it took me awhile to figure out who was who. I did like the superimposed explanations of the historical Olympic figures - even for a non Canadian, that was cool to see- heaven knows if I am watching Olympic coverage, I am just as likely to watch CBC as a US network.
I also liked the outcome of the race that Iggy entered - it isn't always where you place, it is sometimes the impact that you have.
I have grown much more fond of Mrs. Hart than I ever thought possible in earlier seasons but I am not thrilled with all her family drama. I hope the writers find a way of resolving it without losing her as a character. Right now it seems like the future is very bleak for her.
I enjoyed the mystery with the Olympic athletes, and liked seeing the names attached to each character. I went to Wikipedia to look up each one.
I just want the writers to decide what to do with Mrs. Hart. She's been all over the place. When she was first introduced, she was suspicious and nefarious, then continued to be sketchy. Then at one point they seemed to decide she was firmly good, and seemed like she was becoming friends with others on the show (like when she joined the women's volleyball team). Then last season and this, the husband who was drugged up and catatonic came back suddenly no longer drugged with no explanation of really why he had been drugged and then undrugged, she seemed like she was a helpful partner to Cassiopeia in the nightclub, now she is working well with Julia, but in the end, she's back to being evil again, but it's explained that the dad is controlling her and Arthur.
Enough already. Arthur is now dead. Either keep her evil or make her good, but don't try and ping pong back and forth. Maybe the idea is that she is a grey character, but the writing is not good for her. It seems inconsistent and it's like she is being written by different writers who did not get the notes on what the overarching story is for her.
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I've been meaning to ask this, I missed the episodes when Diane came back from the dead. How exactly did they explain how she faked her death? I mean, we saw Maura West Diane's actual dead body in that park. Was it someone else's body with plastic surgery to look like Diane? I know it's a soap opera, but "back from the dead" is more easily accepted when viewers never actually saw the body. And her body was clearly dead.
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On 4/15/2023 at 7:23 AM, seacliffsal said:
I'm on the opposite side-I think Frannie has shown us her gameplay. She chose to put her showmance with Matt ahead of other gameplay. She tethered herself to him and when he said that if he won an individual reward challenge he wouldn't take her as it would expose too much, she basically told him "no." So, in terms of hoping to see something different from her-I don't care. I've seen her gameplay this season. It also kind of bothered me that she could have saved Matt, chose not to, but when Heidi had an advantage that Frannie thought could save Matt she very strongly told Heidi that she had to save Matt. Um, Frannie, you could have done that yourself but chose not to do so.
On 4/15/2023 at 11:37 AM, fishcakes said:I agree. I'm not seeing that Frannie is a great player who was held back by Matt. They're both pretty terrible and their strategy has been: schmoopy schmoopy schmoopy hope no one notices! Whether she and Matt are a couple or not, he was her number one ally, and it was stupid of her not to throw the IC. She had immunity, she could have given her number one immunity, and it would have made Danny, who they already had talked about blindsiding, vulnerable. By hanging on to win the challenge, all she got out of it was a PB&J.
I agree that I don't think Frannie is a great player. They were both bad. Some people may think that now that Matt is gone, her game will blossom, but I disagree. She's going to be at a huge disadvantage because Matt is already on the jury. Nobody is going to want to let her get to the end, since her 14-day-old boyfriend is on the jury and will do everything he can to convince everyone on the jury to vote for her as the winner. She's going to be jettisoned before Final Tribal.
She sunk her game when she made her obvious close connection to Matt known to everyone. It doesn't matter whether he's in the game or on the jury, either way, her game is done. I don't think she deserves to be brought back in any future second chance season... she had her chance and stupidly threw it all away for 14-day-old Matt.
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5 hours ago, peacheslatour said:
Yeah but those bowls are gross.
4 hours ago, Crashcourse said:Yeah, it looks like a big ol' bowl of probably stale leftovers.
I’ve not tried them and I agree they don’t look the most appetizing (and probably aren’t as big as they claim they are). But she seems so happy about her bowl, I can’t help but be happy for her.
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On 4/14/2023 at 8:58 AM, Black Knight said:
GRRM has now posted about this on his blog, and doesn't this paragraph just induce such a sense of déjà vu?
Wow. How many more years does he expect to live? It’s been 12 years since the fifth book. He thinks he can write The Winds of Winter, all of the new Dunk and Egg stories, and either A Dream of Spring or Fire and Blood book 2, all before he dies? He’s delusional.
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S02.E11: Fry Me A River
in Next Level Chef
Good riddance to Gollum Tini. So funny that in last episode’s thread, I said that the finale was going to be Nuri, Tucker, Tini (one from each mentor) and then it this episode, all three were in the bottom.
Let me try to work my juju again and say… Chris will win because he’s the most awesome ever! Hahaha
I’m not a fan of pork tenderloin, I always find it dry, so I was happy to see that Toni’s was awful and dry.
I found out that “airline chicken” isn’t because it’s fit for airplane meals, it’s a boneless breast with a drumette. She acted like such a spoiled brat, disgusted she got it and just throwing the plate onto the counter. Then she cut herself and lost more time, serves her right.
it does seem a bit interesting that there is salmon, ribeye, and chicken. I mean obviously chicken is the least desirable. Why wouldn’t they try and make things more fair? Everyone gets salmon or everyone gets steak or everyone gets chicken. But Tini is gone so good riddance