kassygreene
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Posts posted by kassygreene
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13 hours ago, ProudMary said:
I can't recall if it was here on FYR or if it was WDYTYA, but Queen Noor of Jordan--the former Lisa Halaby of New Jersey--was descended from Charlemagne. I remember thinking it was pretty cool that an American woman who became a Queen via marriage, turned out to have royal roots of her own.
HLG did two similar series before FYR: African American Lives & Faces Of America. Queen Noor was on the second series, and if I recall correctly, they traced her ancestry all the way back to the 300s.
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Hulu has the entire series still. And I believe they still have a free trial period.
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Except the real Victoria wasn't that sheltered, was brought up in the post-Regency decades (and apparently spoke Regency English to the end of her life), and she was a Hanover. The Palmerston arrangement was certainly not unusual for their class, and I thought they were kind of sweet together. The real Palmerston married the real Lady Cowper when they were both over fifty, and he was really supposed to be the father of that daughter (and one of the younger sons was generally believed to be the son of one of her earlier lovers -- again, not unusual).
What I hadn't realized was that "Lady Cooper" was Lady Cowper, who was one of the patronesses of Almack's (generally described as the nicest), which takes me back to Georgette Heyer, whom I should be re-reading.
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16 hours ago, Hyacinth B said:
Anyone crazy enough to build a house like that without thinking of the kind of problems Murphy's Law has proven over and over again can happen has bricks for brains. And any architect who would design and build it has the same, and serious ego problems as well.
Back in the mid 80's I had a friend/co-worker who had had this master plan for his life since he was a small child: marriage, first child to have a certain gender-neutral name, and to live in a house of his own design that he would build (well, oversee), all before he was 30.
And by gum he did it. He never had the money, and wound up being his own general contractor, which among other things meant that the guys he hired would take real jobs from real GCs whenever they occurred, and he had no leverage over that; and also meant he really didn't have the experience to order the right supplies and materials, so he had at least one "skylight" window that had a crank and could be opened, if they brought in a 30-foot ladder; and also that he had a general (and fairly standard) house layout with enough differences to be impractical as well as difficult to build; and also that the only lot in the area he wanted to live in was the cheapest in the neighborhood, and that was because it was a flagpole lot - where the driveway is the pole (two hundred yards, 10 degree incline, and a dogleg halfway up, bordered by tall and unyielding trees, and the house lot was the flag, and three feet too narrow for his house plan); and also meant that he wound up with a kitchen built over an unheated garage with the sink and water pipes on outer walls - at 7000 feet of altitude, so pipes freezing and bursting were a recurring thing.
But hey! He got 'er done before his 30th birthday! Five years later mutual friends of ours bought an actually built with proper permits and by god finished house in a subdivision which had the rational version of his floor plan for many $$$$ less. And the pipes in that house never froze.
Probably part of why that Arizona house bugged me - a guy gets an idee fixe, and the rest of his family is supposed to shut up and help. In my family that attitude is also known as Grounds For Divorce.
(I'm 62. I may have lived on my own a bit too long.)
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I was moving across country at the time and had limited access to Showtme for awhile (remember when this was only on a premium network?), but Emancipation was the reason I didn't subscribe to Showtime after the move. I didn't watch SG-1 until another move later, when I got Showtime bundled and caught up on season 4 there and season 3 in syndication, all wildly out of order, and all immensely better than Emancipation.
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Lots of hotels that offer room service have a card you can use to select from a limited menu, and put down what time you want it delivered, and then hang it on your outer doorknob. All the bad guys had to do was read the card and show up with breakfast earlier than the time requested. It's a hotel option that I always found to be nice, but I think it's kind of dumb for protective custody.
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The big change to Victoria's relationship with her mother (and apparently everybody's relationship with everyone else) was when Albert finally got Lehzen sent back to Germany. Apparently she was a problem maker (intriguer sounds too smart, provocateur too skillful, and shit-stirrer too "on the nose" - heh), always creating trouble (Victoria v Duchess of Kent, Duchess of Kent v Queen Dowager Adelaide, Victoria v Albert) to consolidate her own position. She finally screwed up her own duties badly enough (household finances, childcare of the little Royals, and so on) that Albert was able to persuade Victoria to let her retire - retire all the way out of the country, in fact.
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1 hour ago, illdoc said:
Guest star, episode 18: https://tvline.com/2019/01/22/hawaii-five-0-season-9-joan-collins-rachel-mother-episode-18/
That's inspired casting.
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I like "The World's Most Extraordinary Homes" (Netflix) with Piers Taylor and the inimitable Caroline Quentin. In the first episode of the first series they firstly visit the airplane house in California (made of parts of a Boeing 747 and known as the 747 Wing House), and then move on to a fabulously stupid concept house in the middle of the Arizona desert. It's indescribably bad - none of the rooms connect internally, so you have to go outside to get to the next room; everything has windows or walls that open up hugely to the desert; you can't drive up to the house, so there is a hike; the approach to the front door has high "risers" and no railing; the desert may be hot in the day but it is also going to be freaking cold at night, so inside halls are generally a smart and people-friendly thing; the owner/builder-of-his-lifelong-dream-home-in-his-dream-location spent $$$$$$ (or possibly $$$$$$$) building it; when it was finished in the fall they went home for the winter and somehow didn't close doors and windows, so nature invaded over winter; and the owner and his wife were interviewed separately. I had the feeling that the only reason the wife wasn't suing for divorce was because there were no funds left.
But kudos to the show for highlighting the stupid parts as well as the views and luxury baths.
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Mary was also really really irritated to discover that everyone else in the family knew about Marigold while she had been deliberately kept in the dark. For Reasons, Of Course, which she herself would have acknowledged if she'd been told at some point instead of figuring it out for herself. So I think part of her bitter vengeful fury was driven by her feelings of being duped.
I'm not sure Mary ever figured out just how large a fortune Edith inherited from Michael; not being landed gentry, paying the death duties would not have devastated his estate, and Michael seemed like a person who kept his financial affairs in order. But she had to know that Edith had money of her own. She could sneer at the source, but Edith wasn't facing a decades-long payment schedule for Matthew's death duties.
Being forever out-ranked by Edith would have had a major influence on Mary's feelings too.
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22 minutes ago, iMonrey said:
As far as I know, Victoria's mother never went back to Kensington Palace after Victoria became queen and they all moved to Buckingham Palace. I just assumed she must be dead at this point in history, so if not, her absence is bizarre. If the actress wasn't available they could have at least mentioned where she was.
As for Feodora getting married first, I'll admit I don't know what the protocol was but perhaps there was something which dictated the heir to the throne of England should marry first even if she was much younger since she takes precedence in importance. Otherwise, Victoria is just being a petty child. Admittedly, that's entirely possible.
The Duchess of Kent's two children from her first marriage were not part of the British Royal Family, and when Victoria was nine it was still just barely possible that the Duchess of Clarence (wife of soon-to-be William IV) could have a child. So yes, Victoria was being a petty child. Her beloved sister escaped their mother and Sir John Conroy, while Drina was stuck.
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Feodora said she'd been at the spa in Baden, and unable to return home.
It's been pretty well demonstrated that Daisy Goodwin doesn't really give a crap about historical accuracy. Loads of the courtiers are based on real people but cast at vastly different ages; Ernst and Leopold spend lots of time in England; people just show up without any kind of advance warning (even poor Royals didn't just show up knocking at the
doorpalace gate). Princess Louise was born in March 1848; the Royal Family decamped to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in April. IIRC the gates of the Palace were not attacked by Chartists, and no one threw a rock through a window - it would have been a helluva throw, as the fence shown on screen was set well back from the extant building of the Palace.It seems to me that the only historical fact DG is interested in getting right was the story of her great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Traill.
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Rachel was having an affair with Danny at the end of season one. She got pregnant, and they were all going back to New Jersey.
Then Steve and Kono got arrested (him for killing the governor, her for being part of the money theft out of evidence). Danny sent Rachel & Grace on to NJ while he tried to work on things in Hawaii without the task force and without his ties (something about defrocked cops not wearing ties). Also in the Show timeline week between the S1 finale and the S2 premiere, Rachel told Danny she had her dates wrong (Anvil) and the baby was Stan's and they were going to try to work things out, back in Hawaii.
So mid season 2 Rachel goes into labor early (Anvil) while Stan is on a business trip (China, I think). Danny wound up being the labor coach. Baby was named Charles William (Anvil) Edwards.
A week or so after that, Stan showed us all what a mensch he was when he allowed Danny to shoot him as part of the search for the kidnapped Grace. That's the last we saw of Stan (who was shot "cleanly" in the shoulder and who did survive), because the actor got a role on GCB.
As part of his career progression and part of their marriage therapy, Stan got a transfer/promotion to Las Vegas. This is when Danny put his foot down, and in Danny style embraced that he and Grace were now both locals.
Fast forward a few years to the season 5 premiere. Danny & Charlie "know" each other from the parental hand-offs of Grace. But Charlie got very sick and needed a bone marrow transplant (Anvil Hits Water And Makes Big SPLASH). Testing showed that Rachel wasn't a match and Stan wasn't the father. It is implied that a major reason for the Williams' divorce was Rachel's fear of Danny's professional risks as a cop, so when he chose 5-0 over his family, she decided to make as much distance as possible.
This was the point of no return for the Edwards marriage; they divorced and Rachel seems to have re-located full-time to Hawaii, with joint custody of both kids.
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Oddly enough, even though they dropped the show like last year's fashion, USA Network is still streaming the entire series (26 episodes) of Playing House here. AND, they actually list the Available Until date, which is January 1, 2021. So, about thirteen hours of show and two years to watch it. For me the greatest thing about this show is that all the characters are real people, not Trope-ish Stereotypes.
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Next week fer shure. I track the late night shows by the dates that tickets are available. What showclix is telling me at this moment is that Show has tickets available for eight straight weeks, January 7 through February 28, Monday through Thursday. They usually don't show more than two months in advance.
This doesn't work when they are showing special episodes (like the Best Of shows) during their dark weeks, as those are clip shows.
The other thing you can do is go to The Daily Show site after 11 p.m. (Eastern) on a show night - the full episode (if it's new, but not if it's Live) is usually up by 11:05.
I may perhaps spend a lot of time figuring stuff like this out.
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Since the house was apparently 20 (or so - I'm not rewatching) steps from the beach, yep, it would have been rebuilt. Or else someone is paying a metric ton of taxes on an empty lot, and tracking the owner of that would be easy.
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BBCAmerica is doing its usual holiday scheduling futz-up.
Anyway, currently January 4 will be the show broadcast in the UK on New Year's Eve, with Olivia Colman et al. January 11 is the Emily Blunt Lin Manuel Miranda Mary Poppins show, which aired in the UK on December 21.
At least they (so far) are not skipping episodes in this series, as they did with series 23.
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I think Capaldi's tenure was somewhat tragic, because he'd been a fan of Doctor Who since he was a kid (which made One his First Doctor), because he gave up a terrific role on The Musketeers (Richelieu) to take the part, and because he ran straight into the trope of Showrunner-Who-Falls-In-Love-With-A-Character-He-Created-Slash-Actress-He-Seems-To-Crush-On.
I liked Clara The Impossible Girl. I did not like Clara The Insufferable Brat. I liked the original concept and tease of Danny Pink. I did not like the change of course that led to his horribly pointless death. I liked the original "ending" of Clara's arc, where the Doctor visits Old Clara. I did not like that turning in to A Horrible Dream (With Wrinkles).
I even like that just as Eleven finished his run several thousand years old, Twelve clocks in at several billion years. I liked his finale with River Song, and how nicely it bookended the first episode with River Song. And I really liked the Bill arc.... That's the writing Capaldi should have been given from the beginning.
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5 hours ago, freddi said:
Rachel’s New Year’s Eve show: Is it pre-recorded? Is it live? Is it 1974?
(I know it was recorded in advance, but it’s fascinating to see how her historical context opening segments blur the sharp edges of contemporary news.)
But it’s amazing how often it feels like 1974.
ETA: Oh, I had not seen those pictures of new members of Congress with Shirley Chisholm. That made me cry.
Rachel’s show is by far the best New Year’s Eve show on MSNBC today. Very forward-looking, while other shows were doing bits on the ridiculousness of the past year. Even when she was talking about 1974, it was a slingshot into the future. Thanks, Rachel!
Actually I'm pretty sure tonight's (New Year's Eve's) MSNBC primetime line-up were all broadcast on Christmas Eve first...
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I thought he was too tall to be comfortable sitting on that couch, along with his clothes perhaps being too tight to be comfortable. Or he prefers a wider stance while sitting. Seriously, if he'd sat facing more or less forward, I think his knees might have been halfway to his shoulders.
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We did a 7-day Nielsen diary. I was very excited & carefully planned what we would watch. And then we got the damn things the week of the 2016 RNC, so there was a lot of dvd & on demand viewing instead.
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Last season (or was it the one before?) her wardrobe, camera angles (upper body & up, or face only), and the props she carried at waist level (and the hair framing the face) are all the tricks that are used when an actress is pregnant and her character isn't. Add in a fuller face and a seemingly fuller body, and people think pregnancy. Next choice is she's sick and the medical treatment, while effective, is adding at the very least camera-pounds.
Hollywood has taught us to make that assumption, just as we've learned to look for split-screen shots when an actor is (or seems to be) twinning. My favorite example of that was on Stargate SG-1, when O'Neill and his (thirty+ year younger} clone were in the same shot. It was framed as a split-screen of a twinned character, even though the twinned character was played by two different actors, and the shot was not a split-screen at all.
My labored point is that the camera setups are leading some of us (including me) by the nose to an assumption of actress pregnancy. Which is none of our business. So Show should make itself a more interesting subject for discussion.
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On 10/6/2018 at 6:29 PM, fishcakes said:
Jerry found an encrypted partition on Teague's laptop that had a bunch of documents in Chinese and from that they deducted that he was working for Chinese intelligence but didn't yet know he was working with the CIA. I think that's how it went.
How did no other passengers get sucked out of the plane when the emergency door was opened? I know the announcement had just gone out to fasten seat belts and prepare for landing, but there are always a bunch of people who don't do that until the Flight Attendant walks through to check and makes them.
The plane was on final approach, therefore a low altitude. If you hit pause at the right time, you could see it was on final approach and flying off the coast of Honolulu/Waikiki. Of course, for show purposes, they had to jump over a jungle, which wasn't the flight path.... This show doesn't get flight paths right.
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13 hours ago, anna0852 said:
I wonder what the working atmosphere is like on this set. We've seen lots of turnover on the other two shows in this universe and there's been lots of rumors swirling about the actual working conditions. But here, the cast has been remarkably stable for going on 10 years. All three female leads have remained past the length of the original contracts and have clearly reupped. And you can't tell me that Linda Hunt at least wouldn't have other projects to move onto. You never hear rumors about dissension on the set or creepy showrunners. And compared to the Mothership they have killed off far fewer characters. The only person out of the main title sequence that we have actually lost was due to the death of the actor. For a show going into their 10th season I think that's rather remarkable.
And the younger two female lead actresses have had babies, which the show has worked with. I seriously don't think either the Mothership or NOLA would have been accomodating. It may be nothing more than a coincidence, but Sasha Alexander officially quit because of the physical work load ("never been so tired in [her] life" is the quote, IIRC), and was pregnant by the end of the year.
1 hour ago, Kelda Feegle said:All of this!
Mosely and her pose drive me insane. And her character has no redeeming qualities.
It's interesting that LA is soo good and works so well when Mark Harmon dislikes it and stayed well away from it yet is heavily involved in the mothership and NOLA (which I have decided I cannot watch anymore at all).
This, so much. Harmon establishing some sort of "great wall of china" was a good thing for LA. Mosely actually came in for a good reason, the Special Operations group pretty much killed everybody they ran into, without consequences. Now, it turned out that while Mosely was the new sheriff cleaning up a gun-happy town, she was also using her position, her government resources, and the agents she professionally despised, for her own personal interests.
And yes, the high heels and the two-handed shooting just irk. It isn't quite the Crucifix of Combat, but still bad enough.
Holy crap, I just realized Mosely totally is the new sheriff come to clean up the town who isn't the hero, or even the anti-hero, but has all the fancy tricks.
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S16.E13: She
in NCIS
· Edited by kassygreene
The secret space thing is something I have seen before connected to Mossad agents (I can't remember why, but one instance involved switching cars and blowing up the old one). The usual silliness (not waiting for backup, etc) is the usual silliness, so <shrug>. Someone finally calling BS on a rule is new; Gibbs finding the written version and burning it is evolutionary for the character; but what gets me the most is:
I find this to be, hands down, the best Ziva episode EVER.
Seriously, I was never a Ziva fan, she was too perfect, too incessantly indulged in her rule-breaking (Gibbs telling her to stay in Israel is now my second favorite Ziva episode), and too clearly a case of Showrunner FanGirling. As I recall, Ziva was supposed to be a limited run, but apparently TPTB fell in Twu Luv and made the character permanent.
(Other examples of Showrunner FanGirling: 1) Vala Mal Doran on Stargate-SG1 - yes, Claudia Black is fabulous and she handled everything she was given, but it had been an ensemble; 2) Clara the Impossible Girl on Doctor Who. I actually like the Impossible Girl, but when they decided to keep going and turned her into the Insufferable Brat, it stopped being good storytelling AND turned Peter Capaldi's Doctor into a supporting character on his own program.)
So, for the first time in many episodes, I didn't fast-forward At All.