proserpina65

The mere presence of Kristin Chenoweth is enough to make me hate it without ever having seen it. Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Who knows how long they might've had to wait, though.

Whatever it is, I'm missing too, because I also like them. (Mostly 'cause he's hot.) He must've really rocked that hut task.

I don't remember Doran being fat in the books, but I could be wrong. One does not, however, have to be old to suffer from gout; my brother's had bouts of it on and off for more than ten years, and he was well under 50 when it started. As for Lollys, I don't think the rape happened on the show, did it?

The election actually took place after the battle of the Wall. Ser Alliser was still in charge as acting commander when Jon was sent out to kill Mance; that meeting was interrupted when Stannis and his army arrived. But the rest of your post is correct: it wasn't that rah-rah, although Sam still did speak up like that, and the raven bit was really cool.

Well, Arsenal did their very best to screw up the FA Cup semi, but Reading's keeper wouldn't let them. Actually, all props to Reading. They fought for that to the very end. I actually felt a little sorry for their keeper for that blooper at the end, because otherwise he was pretty much man of the match.

He absolutely should not have been credited with a correct answer for "ark". There are two arks mentioned in the Bible, and the one the clue wanted was "Ark of the Covenant". Trebek should've required that Alex provided the rest of the name, and if he couldn't, rule the answer incorrect. UGH!

I've taken to laughing at the one woman in that ad who proclaims that having wi-fi in her car is "the dream" - honey, you have really sad dreams. And they're both pronouning chaise incorrectly.

Kind of ashamed to admit this, but my dad went to the doctor with ear bleeding from sticking a q-tip too deep REPEATEDLY whilst cleaning his ears (over a multi-week period). Turns out he'd damaged his ear drum. Q-Tips are cotton tipped weapons of destruction! (Yeah, we'd been telling him for years not to do that, but did he listen?) Since I occasionally have the need to acquire breakfast on the way to work, I have to confess that, were a Taco Bell actually on the way between my home and office, I'd probably stop there. Not for that biscuit thing - I hate biscuits - but for the crunchwrap with hashbrowns in it? Yeah. And I'll confess to having been intrigued by the taco waffle thingy, although not enough to go out of my way to get one.

Maybe, but since this site was one of those places . . . eh, to each their own.

I found The White Queen to be even worse than the Tudors. Crap history and crap drama in both cases, although at least The Tudors had Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill. I enjoyed every gruesome second. It wasn't the least bit sad to me. And judging by both conversations I had with friends who watch GOT and my perusal of various internet message boards, I was far from alone in my glee over that little sh*t's death.

That's how I felt when I was on the show. Fortunately I didn't even know places like this existed at the time, but I'd like to think I wouldn't have looked to see what was said about me. Doesn't keep me from snarking on other contestants, although I try to keep it about the way they play the game and not physical appearance/idiosyncracies/voices, you know, things people don't necessarily have a lot of control over.

I can definitely respect that. I don't apply it to Jane Austen, but there are plenty of other novelists/genres where I feel the same. :-)

So did I, even though I was sure it was wrong. Qadaffy Duck seemed so obvious, afterwards. :-( Universally, no. But there are some whom most of the commenters liked. (Ken Jennings seemed popular here, although he tended to annoy me personally. And more recently, Julia was relatively well-liked.) In certain stretches of it, yes. Particularly the stretch where Lorelai Rock is located. You can cruise down it and stare up at the castles along its cliffs. (Not that I've done that, but I've seen video. Someday . . .) Carhop did seem like an easy one. Wheelhouse threw me, though. I guess I've spent too much time on Napoleonic era navies, 'cause all I could think of was quarterdeck.

Alex has now officially reached Arthur Chu levels of annoying for me. I know some people have low-key personalities, but could he seem less interested in actually being on the show? Ugh. And his deliberate slow playing left clues on the board again, which I absolutely hate. I'll keep checking in here, but won't start watching again until he loses, just like I did with Chu. I missed everything before the first commercial break, but after checking J! Archive, I see I would've gotten most of those clues right. I knew Venice right away. Someday I'd like to see the Marriage of the Sea; I've seen a lot of paintings of it. My outside voice was cried "oh crap, no!" when he got it.

Shouldn't that be "Can this show BE anymore contrived?"? If ever a statement deserved the Chandler Bing added emphasis, it's this one. {Edited to note that I agree with the poster who said there were still some episodes left this season, so it could get worse. Why can't I quit this show?}

That scene made me look at him in a whole new way. Who knew he could move like that?

That's the only Baz Luhrman film I like, and I adore the dancing scenes, particularly the rhumba Scott and Fran dance to Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

I don't necessarily think that's an uncommon thing to do, even now, for people who are of a less decisive bent. Many people would continue to rationalize their old decisions unless forced to act, which, to give Anne credit, when push comes to shove, she does finally reach that point. Maybe it's because, in a lot of ways, I'm more like Anne than some of Austen's more dynamic heroines, that I have more sympathy for her. {edited to note: Dusang, your comments have made me think more about why I connect with Anne Elliot so much, something that maybe I hadn't really done to this extent before - isn't it great when internet discussion can do that?)

Okay, this might be a unpopular opinion, but I've decided that, although I love Elinor and, to a lesser extent, Marianne Dashwood in the Ang Lee film of Sense and Sensibility, I'm not sure I actually like their characters that much in the book. For women who are pretty dependent on the goodwill of others to maintain the lifestyle to which they, and their mother even more so, are accustomed, they are quite snobbish and judgmental in the novel. Of course, that's part of what makes them human, I guess, and maybe I'm not supposed to find them sympathetic all the time, but it did surprise me when I read the book (after I'd seen the film).

I'm not talking endless zombie scenes, just one or two of the attacks on either Sam or the Night's Watch as they were retreating from the Fist of the First Men would've been sufficient, and could easily have replaced something like the "Podrick as sex god who doesn't have to pay for whores" bit without altering any of the King's Landing drama. I think by the middle of season 3, bringing in a better balance of the Wall storyline in that way wouldn't have affected viewing numbers at all; people were pretty much hooked by then. I mean, they stuck with the show despite the seemingly endless "Bran is carried by Hodor" scenes, or the repetitive "Theon gets tortured" ones, neither of which appeared to be all that popular, at least not judging internet reaction. Just a hint more of the menace beyond the Wall would help.

Well, she was young when she made the decision to refuse Frederick, and obviously changed her mind later, ultimately marrying him and not Mr. Elliott as her family would've preferred, so she does seem to have loosened up on that propriety as she matured. And not every woman could be Lizzie Bennett. But yes, I'd say Anne Elliott is a harder character to wrap one's head around, given the differences in societal mores between Austen's era and ours. Now you've made me need to read Persuasion again. Thanks. :-)

Thanks, dusang. It's been awhile since I read the book. I still disagree with your interpretation, since I'm taking into consideration the time in which the character lived, when obedience to parental authority was important. But you've given me some insight into your perspective, and I appreciate that.

Wow, you have a very different perspective on this than I do. And I don't remember her saying that. Are you talking about one of the film/tv versions or the book itself? She certainly did not say it in the Amanda Peet/Ciaran Hinds film, nor did Amanda Peet's performance give any evidence of Anne feeling she had some moral high ground for previously rejecting Frederick's proposal years earlier. In that film (and, imo, in the book) it definitely comes across as Anne having been persuaded that marrying a poor man with no apparent prospects would not be beneficial to her family. Admittedly, that's not the best reason for rejecting him, but she was young and cared about her family, and with her mother's absence perhaps felt more responsible for acting in a manner which would help preserve the family's well-being. No moral high ground involved, imo.

If this is an unpopular opinion, then I don't want to be popular. I thought Brando had some good moments, but overall he was a mediocre actor.