feminaformosa

So psyched for Yerevan! I wondered when they would go to Armenia, with the Kardashians and Conan going there, combined with the elimination of pretty much all middle eastern countries as safe destinations. I figured they'd have to go there eventually. I can't wait to see what th tasks there will be. It will either be cognac, rugs, or something churchy, because that is what Armenia is famous for.

I know, but I still didn't buy it at all. She wouldn't have done it.

This is my assumption too. Even from the NYT magazine article I mentioned above, I thought "He's gay. He is, isn't he?"

I really think that this kind of work is not something that Diane in previous seasons would have done, not ever. It just doesn't seem to hold true to the character. I could see Will going against his principles for billable hours in a hot second, and on almost any other topic, I could see Diane at least thinking about it, but not actually doing it.

There was a great New York Times Magazine cover story on this guy about a year ago- google The Pageant King of Alabama to find it.

How on earth did this boring, seemingly interminable show get a series 2 yet they cancel Bletchley Circle?

That would make sense. It sure looks like they come in last, and the recent seasons have had the last 4 go into the final with one getting eliminated halfway through.

Wasn't FauxSnowden/Gabe from the Office a former NSA guy who was monitoring Alicia? I don't remember how he ended up in Iceland at all. I thought at first it was going to be Jason Biggs/founder of FauxBitcoin she was calling.

Double names like that are common in the south, and yes, you always use both names. One of my friends from back home (TN) added a hyphen to her name when she moved up north for college because she was so sick of people calling her just Mary instead of Mary Katherine. I kept waiting for one of them to say something about this, but nothing. Justin seems so passive aggressive, oh, you make the decision, and then later haranguing her about it.

It reminds me of Mary/Lord G/etc's attitude towards the jazz singer last season. You can see they're about to lose their shit that this new suitor is Jewish.... yeah, like they would have been cool with an African-American jazz singer. At least the new suitor is upper class, even if the money and title are new. Fellowes wants to make them seem all tolerant and modern, when there is no way they would have been. They don't even want a damn radio! They are not going to be cool with homosexuality.

Edith has wanted to parent this child from the start, and everything she did was an attempt to stay in her daughter's life. Now that she has her own independent fortune, and it's clear that her family doesn't really care about her, who gives a crap what people think of her? She doesn't think she's going to get married, so big deal about her reputation, doesn't care about messing up her family's reputation (and the only one it MIGHT affect is Mary, and Mary is doing plenty to put her own reputation at risk, plus Edith never cared about ruining her reputation before). I was cheering her on, finally, for her to tell the truth and take back her child. My reading of the attachment literature is that the child needs to form a healthy attachment to someone at a young age to develop properly, and that part of that development is to be able to form attachments to other caregivers as well. Marigold will be just fine. I could not stand Mary's bitchiness in this episode. She was the worst, so awful. I know she hates Edith, but damn, she is a cold bitch. She has never been a nice person, but this episode in particular, she was terrible. I do think it is a function of the writing that Mary lacks nuance. And OMG this damn Bates/Anna story. I think it was the Slate spoiler podcast when they said that they wished they'd hang him already. Why does Brendan Coyle always end up playing these insufferable characters (Lark Rise to Candleford, North and South, and now this?). I am not sure if it is being typecast or just the way he has about him, but all his stupid self-righteousness about the birth control and not believing his wife, I just don't even with these two. I was so excited when this season started, but this last episode... I don't know if I can handle the story retreads and terrible characters. That is at least something that the Edith story has - it's relatively novel for this show. Oh! ETA that I am not sure I see where all this foreshadowed opposition to Rose's beau is going to come from. This seems like a match made in heaven - she is minor nobility, but not that high up because her dad is a civil servant, and the best connections seem to come from her mom/Crawleys. She doesn't really have much money, right? Maybe her mom has some, but it's not a huge fortune. Meanwhile this guy is new money and his dad has a new title; if no one cared that Cora was Jewish (which would actually make the children Jewish, which Rose's children wouldn't be unless they converted them) with money, they shouldn't care that this guy is either.

I wonder how much detail the pattern gives in the instructions? Because some of the stuff, like inserting an invisible zip, I have done, but I don't think I could do it again without referencing something. Invisible zips aren't hard, but they requires some thinking, because you sew the zipper face down onto the fabric right side up or something like that. You have to make sure the zip is twisted just right, and then when you sew up the seam, you have to be careful not to have a bump. I remember Ann (who won S1) said in interviews that she does a LOT of hand basting and hand sewing to finish in general. She had experience sewing couture clothing in her youth (for pay), IIRC.

Patrick with the mustache and his suit looks like he belongs in a Merchant Ivory adaptation of an EM Forster book (e.g. Howards End, Maurice, etc.)

Patrick's mustache is terrible!!! But yes, I am delighted that this show is back. I think 3/4 length sleeves would be totally appropriate in England in summer- it's a lot colder there than it is in California. Heck, even in New England, where I live, I could wear 3/4 length sleeves most of the summer if the dress were cotton. I am almost done with the Lisette Diplomat dress, and I am making it with 3/4 length sleeves (they may actually be more like elbow length). I expect to be able to wear it through almost the entire summer. I can't keep all the contestants straight yet - Alex and Lorna are the only ones I can really put faces with names, otherwise, it's stuff like "army guy" and "sewing dad" and "redhead" and "sews for his drag queen friend." Lots of men on this season, many of whom seem very good. The thing that always seems to make this show so hard is the time limit. 3 hours for pants does not seem very long at all! I have only been sewing for a couple of years, but I think even with kids' pants, I would probably need 4-5 hours. I am slow, though. I think many of them would do a very very good job if given longer time- some of the contestants said as much, which I think they've never said out loud before. I know in past seasons, they test the time limit by having a professional theatre costumer do the challenges (I can't remember the name of her blog, but it is probably easily google-able - she is a technical consultant for the series) to see if the time limit is reasonable, but it seems really tight for most of them.

Yes, this is what I am thinking too - it is almost like this should be the last season. Alicia loses, divorces Peter, gets with Finn, kicks ass as a lawyer. I was actually happy that there was no more Will because I found the triangle tedious, but I feel like they are thissssss close to making Alicia completely unlikeable - as it is, we only get glimpses here and there of her likeability. I have loved her flaws in the past, but I feel like I am not rooting for her like I have previous TV assholes like Don Draper or Tony Soprano. I feel like one of her flaws that is so real is that she is drawn to good looking assholes. Peter is a grade A asshole, and honestly, Will wasn't that nice either. Finn doesn't fit her asshole pattern. Good looking, yeah. But Alicia likes that ruthlessness that Peter and Will both have/had. I think it's attractive to her. Peter is never so attractive to Alicia as when he is fucking someone over for her benefit. Yes, I think we definitely are supposed to know that they were having an affair, and Peter was just lying to Alicia because that is how he rolls. I am not surprised that she was a former as well as current affair - when it was revealed that she was a former friend of Alicia's from the old place, I thought Peter must have at minimum been attracted to her back in the day.