ZoloftBlob

Honestly the BSG allusions are what keep me entertained. :) We really need Captain Chandler to start the "So say we all" chant at one of the prayer meetings.

I will throw them a bone here. It was rapid quick, but the engineer did mention that they hadn't been "making water" in Cuba because they were worried about contamination and the making water process was shut down with all the generators going off line. So I assume that is referencing the reverse osmosis desalinization system.

And really, it was Coors light so is it even alcohol? And since when do Navy ships have beer? And wasn't the black chief petty officer's whole thing about killing his wife and daughters in a car wreck just incredibly random? I had Lesbian Dualla named from the pilot, and now we have her buddy, White Balding Gaeta. I am so hoping that XO Baldwin's bitchy hateful wife shows up and is played by Kate Vernon.

Hell, *Rick Grimes* has better luck than she does. If Walking Dead was set in England, she'd be Rick's new girl.

I think that is why auntl made a forum in genre talk....

A few points. I think some of the "huge issue" is that expressing concern about it is treating like its the same as calling Bill and Jen terrible parents. So one side insists how perfectly normal it is, how their kid wore diapers until fifteen and he's in Mensa and how dare anyone think anything is wrong when we should all be accepting Bill and Jen's decision to let Will shit his pants until he wants to go on the potty. Now, I don't think Bill and Jen are monster parents. They seem concerned. But yes, people are going to ask questions about a kid over four years of age who still wears diapers. Interesting tidbit, until the mid 1950s, toilet training typically began at 1 year of age and children were usually "dry" during the day by two. That we now have disposable diapers and people don't have to hand wash cloth diapers coupled with doctors saying to start later is a significant reason why toilet training has lingered to 3 years of age and older. So Will is over four and its a toss up as to whether he or his younger sister speak better. Cuteness and adorable stuff aside, he doesn't come off like a budding prodigy. That certainly isn't a crime, it doesn't mean he can't have a role in society... but he's on a reality show and people are going to ask questions. What if, heaven forbid, he does have to wear diapers for his lifetime? Since he's going to be displayed on a reality show, are we just supposed to ignore it and not ask why? What if his speech delay is indicative of a bigger problem? Is the only comment allowed "Will is a *bright* boy and we don't know the reality of his condition, but no matter what we see, Bill and Jen don't have to tell us anything and all we should say is how Will is a bright boy no matter what is displayed on the show"? I don't think the potential problem is that serious, but the more the kid is on tv, the more people are going to ask questions about things happening and its a reality show. Hiding stuff, or neglecting to mention things leads to things like despite years of insisting there's no problems and viewers don't know squat about the family, Matt and Amy Roloff separated despite their constant insistence that what was seen on the show was not indicative of problems.

Did I miss something? Is there an arguement being made that Will doesn't have speech delays? Because you're right, they're pretty upfront about the fact that Will has some delays so I don't think there's any requirement to prove that when Bill and Jen say Will has delays and is seeing a therepist, that we not take them at their word and Will is perfectly fine. And speech delays are usually easily resolved but the concern I express is due to seeing the lack of intervention cause lifelong problems. *I* was speech delayed due to hearing issues, as was my cousin. My mom got scared as heck when I wasn't talking the same way the siblings did, I had ear tubes inserted and intervention. Cousin who had the same problem had aunt and uncle who decided "he'll outgrow it" and ended up needing a lot more intervention at an older age and had constant teasing and bullying to deal with because he was a "stupid mushmouth who couldn't talk". Kids aren't kind. I'm glad Bill and Jen are having it worked on.

My pal who served on a carrier says not so much on a smaller ship like that. A carrier would have a contigent of Marines but a smaller ship like that, not so much. Realistically the crew of a ship is never going to ALSO lead ground assaults in a normal Navy situation.

Actually this was an interesting point of realism. The US Navy does not really focus on teaching the sailors how to shoot. It would actually be pretty unusual if all the sailors were suddenly infantry specialists. I mean, the ship engineer (the woman who was shot) very rarely in her normal duties would even leave the ship, let alone need to wear combat gear and carry a gun. While the dumb kid being nervous and scared is cliche, that also might be the first time since he qualifed at basic that he even held a rifle.

Oh thank god I am not the only one. I've already got one character I call Lesbian Dualla. Lets see, Captain Manly is Adama, only he can't do the speeches nearly as well, the president is some woman who got the role because everyone else died, Dr. Scott is a sort of good guy Dr. Baltar, XO Adam Baldwin is channeling Tigh, and the security dude who keeps crying is Lee. Add some glowstick religious ceromonies on the deck and a wall of selfies, and we're there. Followed of course by an enemy with incomprehensible motivations, the Cy-Russians.

I knew a level five growing up. She hoarded cats and newspapers and it was a small town and she stank of cat pee and everyone excused it because she was a nice old woman. It got worse and worse and then her house caught fire. She never got out. Neither did the sixty live cats. There were tunnels of newspaper and it took the entire day to put the fire out and they had to have the truck there for days as they tore the place apart and kept finding smoldering parts of the house.

I think the running argument has always been whether or not Bethenny was making significantly more money than Jason when they met, and when they married. Bethenny was, like it or not, the break out star of RHONY. She wasn't poor before the show, she was probably right where Jason was, making enough money to get by in NYC and to appear to have an upper class lifestyle publically, while returning to the miniscule apartment at night. But with the show, and the opportunities coming from the show, by the time she met Jason, her money position had already been seriously enhanced. (Even Simon and Alex, in season two and three, seemed to have had a better financial position than season one, the show itself was providing income) Jason wasn't even close to making what she was when they met, and seemed to drop his own career to attach to hers pretty quick. If his career was so rewarding, financially or otherwise, why was he so quick to drop it? Now, by any reasonable standard, I don't think Jason was dirt poor or anything like that when he met Bethenny (in part because I don't think Bethenny would have ever entertained a blue collar truck driver sort of guy, or anyone with a minimal income) but can we at least agree that Jason wasn't making as much as Bethenny when they met? And that there was some disparity between their income?

To be fair, no, I don't think Jason sought her out because of money, but I do think, by the time she was pregnant that he was aware that he would be walking away from a very wealthy woman. I think he figured she was already pregnant and decided to make do, and marry her, rather than walk away. But, if Bethenny could have walked away at any point, so could Jason. And Jason had a lot more financial incentive to stay and marry her. So if she's such a psycho hose beast that its easily discerned from a tv show that in season one,two and three, was usually edited in her favor, why did Jason walk right into that? I mean, I'd call him a moron (he never seemed all that intellectual to me) but people insist he's not stupid. Does Jason bear any responsibility for the mess he willfully inserted himself into?

I'd argue that ethically it is wrong. If you buy something and then return it, you get your money back. If you get your money back, and keep the item, because you want to teach the seller a lesson or because you fear the seller will screw over someone else, you're still stealing their property at that point.

Bethenny *was* rich by any reasonable American standard when she met and married Jason. Frankly, she was *rich* when she was on the first season of Real Housewives. By the time Jason met her, she had been on RHOYNC and was known to be making a nice wage there, and was already getting her own spin off where she would be getting even more money. Skinnygirl was booming to the point that Bethenny felt the need for a pre-nup over it. Jason had every right to say no to the marriage and chose not to. If her behavior on Real Housewives is so revealing, he could have rented the dvds and learned just who she was long before agreeing to become Mr. Bethenny Frankel. He didn't have to leave his job to work for her, he didn't have to agree to be on her reality show. Considering that Jason is now getting a free ride merely because he married Bethenny, while I am willing to think it wasn't his sole reason for marrying her, I'm hard pressed to say he had no idea who Bethenny was when he married her and had a baby with her.

Yeah. I personally think, and thought, Bethenny was way too obsessed with having a perfect set up, the boyfriend, the baby, the wedding and the career, to be all that great to be around... As in I felt bad for her when Jason #1 dumped her but I totally understood why - she was full of issues and drama and he had kids to think about. If I can see that from watching RHONYC. I have a hard time painting Jason #2 as Bethenny's victim when I am repeatedly told he's not a half wit. Bethenny's issues were on display. She didn't rape him, she didn't force him to marry her.... Jason volunteered for this. I am not saying Jason deserves mistreatment or anything like that, but neither does he deserve the whole "Poor little Jason, he was tricked by that witch!" when he's supposedly a grown up, and reasonably intelligent. If the collective "we" all saw Bethenny as damaged and toxic, then Jason needs to own that he whipped out the dick and intentionally had sex with, impregnanted, and married, the toxic beast. And he needs to own that he's the only person in the world who didn't see how Bethenny was toxic and since Bethenny's awfulness was on display since day one, he either is really super dumb, or he saw some reason to attach himself to a toxic person. My guess? The money.

Ugh, no. I work with this sort of asshole every day. He doesn't really shit care less about the woofer at this point, he just wants to insist he's the fucking victim and be self righteous about it. That's why he kept trying to harp on how he wanted what he ordered - because for whatever reason, she sent the wrong thing and he wants to *teach her a lesson* about her business practices. To him, his argument is perfectly logical, to those of us who are rational people, no, it's fucking ridiculous to dispute the charge because the item was incorrect, and not return the item. Vendors aren't required to jump thru that extra hoop and provide you the exact item once the money is refunded. That's why Judge Judy played hard ball with him and his principle of the matter attitude - he agreed by coming on the show to agree to her judgement and since he was being a total tool, he got treated like an untrustworthy child and told if he didn't return the damn thing, he was on the hook for his fun vacay to California.

Heh. People used to say this about the Roloffs.

First, I am 100 percent certain that when Bethenny said she was raised by wolves, that she was not literally calling herself a feral child and unless you genuinely believed when she said it that she meant she was suckling the teats of a wild wolf, you know she was speaking figuratively. I've used the term "raised by wolves" a few times myself and when I have, people get my meaning, that my parents didn't pay a lot of attention to me and allowed me to do not child appropriate things because they were busy doing their own thing. Not once when I have used this phrase has anyone ever immediately said "You were raised by a real wolf? How did you end up in a wolf pack?" and while I am fine with Bethenny hate (she's not my favorite either) there's a point where if other people say it, everyone understands it was figurative speech, but it Bethenny says it, she totally meant she was raised by wolves and is a liar since thats not true, and she's slandering her parents since she said she was raised by wolves and her parents didn't turn her out to be raised by wild animals in the wild. Second, its entirely possible to attend a posh boarding school and still have a rotten childhood. Does Bethenny exaggerate? Probably, god knows my own siblings do.

Maybe the high winds lifted her away and this cake is a mourning cake?

Just to be flip, doesn't this mean Jason can never prove he helped make it popular? ;)

There's also the unfortunate reality that we don't always get what we want as children. My mom for example? Adored going to the lake, swimming at the lake, hanging out by the lake. Every summer weekend,we were down by the lake. I hated the lake, and I didn't get my way because I was a child and Mom was the adult. My opinion, of course, but having a child doesn't mean you must always sacrifice your own happiness for the child's every whim. If Will doesn't like the beach, and Zoey does, who gets their way? It's important for kids to know other people have likes and dislikes and that we don't always get our way.

I will throw Jen a bone on this. Not everyone is huggy or touchy. My family is not touchy and we don't hug and we didn't hug as children except on rare occasions and we were not encouraged to physically touch others for affection. Jen isn't very huggy or touchy with *Bill*. She may simply not be physically affectionate.

This would be an example of how television production affects them. Its not as simple as "the kids just do their thing until they are plopped in front of the camera and then allowed to be natural".

So we can't compare The Little Couple to Little People Big World or Jon and Kate plus, Eight, even though they are all reality shows that are made by the same parent company, but comparing it to "I Love Lucy", a fictional comedy from the 1950s is fair and relevant? LPBW and Jon and Kate plus Eight were half hour reality shows filmed by TLC just like The Little Couple. I don't understand why the comparison in how they filmed the children isn't valid as we're talking the same channel, the same time frame and kids of similar ages.