Starleigh

There are also a lot of full episodes on YouTube now (free).

True. And assuming Richie was born a year later, and that he was about 6 or 7 when the show started, Laura was supposed to approximately 24 or 25 at the start of the show. But it's pretty clear to me that Sally was supposed to be older than Laura, especially with Laura asking Rob why she "never married all these years" and to me (for those times!) it sounds like a woman in her 30s.

In the episode "The Bottom of Mel Cooley's Heart" there are at least 3 references to Alan being married to Mel's sister, including one where Mel said Alan made sure he wasn't invited to his own sister's wedding. I guess the writers figured it would be a bit more dramatic and make Mel's situation a bit more precarious than if his wife were Alan's sister (you'd figure his own wife wouldn't stand for her husband being mistreated by her brother and she'd encourage him to get a job somewhere else). Going back to Sally's age, I was reading some comments on a youtube video yesterday and someone commented that Rose Marie was 38 when the show started filming. I think that age makes sense for Sally--she certainly isn't written as though she's the same age or younger than Laura, and she seems to be about halfway between Rob's and Buddy's ages. The video I was watching was "Sally and the Lab Technician" and Laura was asking things like, "Rob, why hasn't Sally ever married all these years" which certainly makes it sound as though she is older than Laura and not her contemporary (assuming Laura is supposed to be in her upper 20s or maybe 30ish based on Richie's age and her age when she and Rob married).

I read her memoirs a few years ago...I think she just had a very distinct voice. She started singing and performing at a young age, and she got a lot of attention because nobody expected a tiny little girl to belt songs out with such a powerful and adult sounding voice. At least according to her memoirs, it sounded like she led a vice-free life. (Although smoking wasn't considered a vice back then, was it??)

I think I read that the Mary Tyler Moore show was planned to be a more modern update on the Sally Rogers type character. So, I'd assume that Sally was meant to be somewhere in her 30s. I also would figure the "27" comment was meant to be sarcasm, the way people will say they are 29 or 39 in a joking way when asked their age. I also don't think they'd have such a young comedy writer on the team! Was Rob's age ever mentioned?(I know Mary Tyler Moore at first didn't want him to know her age because she thought he'd object that she'd be too young to play Rob's wife because of the age gap.) I assume he's in his 30s and Buddy is, like, 50ish?

My reading from this past weekend: I read Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum--it was sort of the anti sappy beach read-it had a kind of dark undertone to it which reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies, just with a beach/summer season setting. It was a good read. I also read Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig. It was set during the Spanish-American war, which is a bit different from the typical historical setting for war novels published these days. It was also a good read. I am waiting on quite a pile of new books, but my library is super slow at processing new books for some reason. I did get notified that the newest Sally Hepworth that I had requested just came in, so I'll have that to read this upcoming weekend.

Thank you to the people who mentioned the Agatha Christie bio by Lucy Worsley. I picked it up from the library based on your recommendations and read it yesterday. It is definitely worth a read, I enjoyed it very much. It also made me want to go back and reread a bunch of her mysteries, especially the Miss Marple ones (Worsley is quite obviously partial to those!).

I could not get into Killers of a Certain Age, which was a bummer. It's going to go back to the library mostly unread. However, I did enjoy The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. It was a quick, enjoyable suspenseful read.

I have that on hold from the library...I will give it a try, but if it doesn't grab me within the first chapter or two, I'll put it down. I haven't started it yet, but have Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourne. It's gotten really good reviews and word of mouth, so I am hoping it lives up to the hype. I read a couple of her historical fiction books years back when she was a new author, but I never really got into them. I'm willing to give her another try, though.

As a child, I just felt bad for Pa. Like, obviously they were just poor and doing their best but unfortunately they had a lot of bad luck (like grasshoppers etc). Of course, now I see it wasn't quite as simple as that. But, to give him credit where it is due, he was genuinely a hard worker. He wasn't gambling or drinking his money away--there were definitely references to alcoholism/gambling addictions in the books. (I love that Laura included that one of the first businesses/store fronts in De Smet was a saloon, btw. And I am pretty sure she mentioned some gossip at some point about a gambler whose family brought him out west because he just couldn't stay away from the gambling tables). I don't know if the Wilders were actually quite as prosperous as Farmer Boy makes it sound, though. IIRC, the whole family picked up and moved west when Almanzo was a young teen. I feel like they would have stayed on their farm if their farming was really that prosperous, with opportunities for all their children back in New York state.

Yes, in the book it's Melanie who Belle shares this info with....not sure about the movie. I've seen the movie a handful of times, but I've read the book probably dozens of times😁

Yeah, if the war hadn't happened, she definitely would have gotten past her crush. She probably would have been stuck married to Charles, though. Unless they had a longer engagement (no war bride pressure) and she would have come to her senses and broken it off.

Started reading The Hacienda by Isabel Canas. Just a few pages in, but it's got a definite gothic-Rebecca sort of vibe going on. I've also been rereading the Tillerman family saga, by Cynthia Voight. I read most of them years ago as a teenager but am liking them much more now, reading as an adult. Today I read Sons From Afar which is one of the last ones.

I've actually been reading a lot of memoirs this summer: Jennifer Gray's--best parts were her memories of making Dirty Dancing. Boring parts were the endless analysis and explanations of why/how/when/the aftermath of her nose job😆 Minnie Driver--felt bad for her when she described her childhood, but the "literary" writing style was a bit of a turnoff. Kellyanne Conway's--was curious mainly to learn more about her marriage. She didn't really go into detail, but reading between the lines, it sounds like they are separated (even if not divorced). Wasn't expecting to find her early years in her career so interesting, but I did. I didn't realize that she cut her teeth in politics by being a pollster and having her own company. She must know so many people in D.C. and the inner workings on both sides of the political aisle, though she didn't spill the beans on anybody (you just know she knows all the dirt!). The closest she came to it was trashing Steve Bannon. Kathleen Buhle (Hunter Biden's ex)--she really had only nice things to say about the Biden family. Sounds like Hunter struggled with addictions most of his life, and they really lived life on the edge (financially) for years. It ended on an upbeat note, though.

I read We Need to Talk About Kevin years ago, before it was "discovered" so to speak. I just randomly picked it up from the new books sections in the library and checked it out, with no prior knowledge or hype to get in the way. I don't remember much about the writing style, tbh, but I did find it to be a page turner that kind of gave you a shock by the end. But, if I was reading it now for the first time, with high expectations (not to mention, having so many horrific IRL tragedies that have happened since then in the background of my mind...being vague so as not to spoiler it), I have a feeling I wouldn't have liked it that much--it would have come across as a cliched stereotype--both characterization and narration style. I recently read Vacationland, the new book by Meg Mitchell Moore. It was ok. It kept my attention and was a good read, but something about it seemed so familiar--kind of like a deja vu read, like I had already read the same exact plot in a prior book. If it wasn't a brand new book, I'd have assumed I'd read it already and just forgot. It was a weird reading experience that I don't think I've ever had before. 🤔