Silly Angel

In the This Season On clips there's a second of

If there had been any Russian bugs in my workroom, and who's to know there aren't?, they would have been very confused or perhaps titillated by me breathing, "Oleg, no. Oleg... Oh god, Oleg." I was so relieved when he didn't jump. This show is better than that. My heart broke almost as hard as Elizabeth's when memories of Young Hee flashed through her mind. She's doing the big work, with global consequences, but nothing keeps her warm, certainly not the comforts and conveniences of life in the U.S. that Philip so adores. She has no friends and can never have any. No wonder she tried to forestall Gabriel's exit in the form of a bribe with super worried eyebrows. Can't wait to see Commie Grandpa and Codename Quiverlip bond, and to see what Claudia will make of it.

Those looked like real mah jongg hands. Grandma had a an obscure but high-point variation with those odd-numbered ball tiles. Well done, show.

Loving this show but what keeps me breathlessly waiting for the next week is the moment when Florence Godbotherer's daughter goes over to the dark side. She's clearly fascinated by whoring and by whores. I can't imagine wha hell will break loose if Margaret or Lydia turn her out. Also waiting to see if Charlotte is dumb enough to run off with the fancy man or be smart enough to retire from whoring and start a fancy-man's fancy house. It's funny (not in a ha-ha way, but weird fact of life way) to see a girl as tremendously pretty as Alley Ho (the one the parson keeps asking for absolution via banging) lifting her skirt in the gutter for shillings when Margaret's place has its share of middling looking girls. I guess in a class-based society, she could never hope to be trained up to a better station of bawd, although Emily's making a go of it. Then again, presumably the street girls keep what they make--the show has not addressed Big Pimpin' in the 18th Century--and better-kept brothel women are trapped into "paying off their debt." Still, ain't nobody getting rich from selling themselves. I watched Maison Close, which Hulu also carries, for comparison, and while it's interesting and the costume and set porn are to die for, it is but a mere shadow of Harlots. Note to self: Shadow of Harlots for next book title.

Stop saying "off the record," you cocknozzle! That's not what it means.

Sorry, my dumb joke. Frikkin Kimora talking all "We do not sew," which are the words of House Greyjoy in Game of Thrones--only it's "sow."

Did NOT see that coming from Aja. She, Trinity and Valentina are in for the slaying. I enjoyed how well-spoken Sasha Velour was, seeing as how the vapidity of some of the queens is played up (I'm looking at you, Pee-on Greyjoy, also, buh-bye, you ain't that pretty) and how much Charlie Hides' sidekick looked like Sarah Palin. So excited for this season's Snatch Game.

Seriously. No one cares whether the scent on the wipes is "masculine" or whatever, unless you're a very specific type of sex worker whose clients request your butthole smell of Drakkar Noir. Jesus, American people, put your money into something useful. The cat wine guy had me howling. He came across as someone who won a bet to create the most ridiculous product and get on Shark Tank with it. I didn't get the passionate belief in his idea that so many Tankers have, whether their products are great or silly. As if cat ladies don't deal with enough derision, now they can share a lonely glass of wine with their furbabies. What's next, Kitten Knittin', which lets cats play-knit along with humans while drinking wine and perusing dating sites? On second thought, don't steal my idea! I think Lori would pony up half a mill for it. I don't get why the Cropstick lady didn't talk about the Asian population in the U.S. or about taking her product global, as the market in countries where people eat with chopsticks is huge. Instead, she wanted P.F. Chang's to spend extra money to solve a problem that doesn't really exist. The idea isn't bad, but she could have pushed the numbers more. I use hashi holders at home and there are many beautiful designs you can pick up in the Awesome Housewares aisle of your local Asian market. The seed mat was cool--I hope they do well among novice, apartment-dwelling and lazy gardeners. I'd use it if I didn't enjoy getting my hands dirty among the flowers and weeds. (The only ST product I've bought is from Elephant Pants. A lot of great-sounding products get bad reviews for flimsiness or expense, but some of the stupid ones turn out to be great.) Kevin is so Trumpy I can barely listen to him. Ugh.

The best things about this episode was that the plots weren't predicated on everyone lying to or hiding something from a loved one. The writers are wearing their go-to plots thin. Although I enjoyed the wedding segments. Otherwise, too much Widdle Joe, too much Pam, and plot holes you could drive Joe's crib through although you'd probably miss.

I wish I could explain my feeling on this, but I think Philip disguised himself to look like the est instructor out of some combination of emulation, running out of/trying something new with disguises/a private joke, a personal movement away from his work that he could express without anyone knowing, like his est thing was a bubble, compartmentalized like so many aspects of his life, and he carried that bubble into the work that was making him feel unsafe, unreal and the depository of bad memories. I told you this would be inarticulate. Almost a taunting, or a lancing of a wound. Ugh, forget it, more coffee... As for Tuan, if he was assigned to P&E to deal with the agriculture situation, and there turned out not to be a situation, I don't see why he'd be reassigned and the Eckerts quietly have to "move" to Atlanta or some likely-sounding airport hub. Although with Ekaterina getting a new job, they might want to stay on the family for a while. Especially since I doubt the show would have toggled back and forth between the USSR and the US, grain- and food-wise, for half a damn season without resolution.

God, please tell me that was blackened bread. I find it interesting that just as Paige melts down into a near-comatose state from her skulking/spying/Matthew-boyfriending, and indicates to Philip that she's not cut out for spy stuff (note she did not offer this confession to Elizabeth, which...would you?), Henry emerges from virtually out of nowhere to be great at something that will become crucial in spycraft v. v. soon. Also, since we don't know his personality, perhaps he's more temperamentally suited to the craft. Also also, we already had a sort of shadow of a rabidly pro-Soviet teenage boy who did the unspeakable for his cause. Eenteresting.

Like liking salad is for Gene!

Kelly, bitchfacily: "Donna's going to be humiliated!" (Not, "Oh my god, my dearest, oldest friend was being ABUSED by this monster!") Brandon, brayfacily: "Well, for Joe's sake, let's hope [the judge] allows it." (Not, "But I hope bringing this shitbird's abuse to light will free Donna and perhaps save women in the future from getting the same treatment. Because she's the one I care about, not No-Future Joe.") GAWD, people. Was Erin supposed to be...slow? That weird way of speaking, derpy facial expressions, touched-in-the-head reaction times, and the fact that she drops or spills everything in sight do not add up to a portrait of a child in the process of healthy development. The Taylor-Silvers should trade her in for that cute picture Colin painted in his one and only redeemable moment on the series.

I thought there was supposed to be a bonus episode of the first season called "Apostasy," that detailed Leah's own experience with the CoS. Still waiting for that.

Right, thank you, Sarah 103. Very well said. I skipped Casey because I'm not a legal beagle and would have been unclear/incoherent, but it took steps to get to Roe v Wade and its undoing has taken and continues to take--ah, Indiana--http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/11/16/total-abortion-ban-proposed-indiana/93954670/ steps as well.

Such a great point. There has always been a divide between assimilationist and radical activism. We saw it in African-America history in the United States as well (Frederick Douglass vs W.E.B. DuBois; alas, only Douglass is alive, apparently, to discuss this). It was nice to see all our heroes content after their long struggles, and what a fantastic roster of guest stars! Just a quick note on Roe v. Wade: Abortion was not constitutionally illegal in all 50 states before Roe v. Wade. What the ruling confirmed is that the state had an interest in protecting the health of a pregnant woman and that the state cannot prohibit abortion in the first trimester. Before the ruling, abortion laws varied by state (Norma McCorvey was from Texas; 'nuff said). In 1989, Webster essentially threw the decision back into the states. So we are, to all intents and purposes, living in a pre-Roe v. Wade time. Anyway, great episode; great series. The next time Chad Griffin pesters my inbox, I'll throw the HRC some cash.

Wow, right. So she'd have been old enough to march with Act/UP, or did she become a little Alex P. Keaton? I remember the impact of And the Band Played On. Shilts wrote the book while AIDS was still a death sentence. It was horrifying to read it (in the house of my roommate and editor, who would die from AIDS a year later) knowing the carnage was continuing all around. It's nice to see that behind the scenes, people were mobilizing, agitating fast and hard, leading to the medical advances that have made the disease more manageable today. One quibble I have with the show is that the men are almost entirely about Fight Fight Fight while the woman is torn between two lovers and Feelings Feelings Feelings. That's a reductive version, of course, and it was reconciled fairly quickly, but still, for a while I was like, "Damn, Roma. Dry your tears, pick up a megaphone and move on."

"I am very much invested in this miniseries. What I find most fascinating is the levels of prejudice found in groups who have experienced their own oppression. " Yeah, DLB is really pressing hard on this, and I like it so much. It really highlights the difficulty in those early years of how to find one's own identity and locate it within a group AND fight for your rights within that identity. Being asked to join others' battles must have led to some wrenching shape-shifting of the soul for many who had just undergone or were still undergoing the painful process of figuring out who they were. Loved the sour old Mattachine Society-era men looking down their noses at Ken. Of course, Mattachine was revolutionary in its time, and its contribution cannot be overstated. Harry Hay was putting himself on the line before any of these youngsters was conceived. But these white men had fought hard for gay rights and acceptance; they must have taken one look at a black guy and thought, "Shit, I'm 60. I ain't got time for another battle." If understandable is yellow and unforgivable is blue, the result is a morally murky green. So interesting to see how social justice is a process, depicted so well. One wonders what little Annie's life will be like when she's her mom's age. Would that be almost nowish? God, how horrible to think all this crap is so recent. Hard, hard, hard to watch the second half of this episode. It makes me see red when shows like Looking (which I liked) are all, "Yeah, Bill's positive, it's all good. Let's get brunch!" or refer to "some old Stonewall queen." (I forget which show said the latter.) Remember your history, people. Those who fought and suffered and died and whom the powers that be tried to throw in the dustbin of history allowed you to hold hands over Eggs Benedict. Damn, now I want brunch.

I think they were those under-eye gel thingies you're supposed to put in the fridge. I use some that have cooling coconut water or whatever. They feel great, but it's probably the cold, not the ingredients, that calm down under-eye puffies. He just called them chicken cutlets because he's a moron and doesn't know words. Wonder if he knows fists, though? If he did assault Brittney, she was being awfully cheery and normal to him afterward. And if he didn't, it's worth saying, "Sorry you ran into a door while drunk/fell down on a sidewalk while drunk/started a fight with a stranger while drunk/hit yourself with the karaoke mic while drunk; the bruise is looking better, babe." But he didn't.

Loved this so much. It's inspirational and much needed in this difficult time. The way the layers get sliced thinner and thinner was just painful--the lesbian-exclusionary polices of the leisure-class women's movement, the male-exclusionary policies of the middle-class women's movement (still not addressing a persistent and contemporary, alas problem--the exclusion of by sorta-kinda default of working-class, poor women and women of color in the largely privileged and white womens' movement); black men excluded from white gay bars; women, including lesbians, excluded from white gay bars (still happens; I've overheard many a "who's the fish?"). Mother Jose is so right--we are stronger together--sexual minorities, people of color, women, the poor and working class. That's the 95 percent and if we all stopped sniping at each other, we could be a force of unfathomable political and social power. I gotta go sign up for stuff and start volunteering places. Brb...

But he had such a smart, detailed business plan for shopping Lisa's sangria all over St. Louis, remember. That kid's going places. Every single shot of Schwartz and his drunky-eyes--excuse me, eyeballs, which are FINE--was comedy gold.

I knew William was going to die. I was girded for it, without much thought. I just watched someone die on one of my other favorite shows, and it was just...TV. But this broke me. Broke me. Fuck. If you'll indulge me, my beloved, worshiped stepfather, a renowned lung doctor, came down with, yes, small-cell lung cancer. Just a fluke, like Andy Kaufman, it happens. But not to him, not to this gentle, dapper, intellectual, philosophical, funny and charming man we adored. I flew back home numerous times as he failed. The last time I stayed for two weeks and finally had to go back home and pick up my life and responsibilities. I felt awful but he'd hung for so long. He died the next day. It was just time, and the wonderful doctor who was caring for him, a friend of the family and formerly one of my dad's fellows, saw his breathing was ragged, he was unresponsive, and gave him a last, big dose of morphine on my family's yes. My husband and I were 1,000 miles away watching The fucking Newsroom. I saved a voicemail he'd left me when getting out of the hospital during his illness, saying, "Hi, [nickname here]. I just want you to know I'm fine. All is good. I love you." He sounded so weak. When I replaced the phone, they could not save my messages. It breaks my heart every day that I can't hear his voice again. Just had to get that out. Ok, on topic. Not sure why William turned to drugs. It seemed sort of sudden. His mother dies and he's shooting up?

Seriously. Also, isn't it like, late July? There are no parades, no reason to throw or get beads. Didn't Stassi tell them that the last weekend in August when the Black Men of Labour Social Aid and Pleasure Club kick off second line season through Father's Day Sunday, when the Uptown Swingers roll, is the only window for throws? Granted, Bourbon Street is a year-round shitshow and I can't imagine any local saying Pat O'Brien's is her "favorite bar," although the fountain courtyard is nice in the off season, if you stay away from Hurricanes. Better to hang at Johnny White's and watch the bridesmaids line up at O'Brien's in their penis tiaras or whatever. Katie remains the worst. She is so prickly, so touchy, so looking for a fight. I'm no fan of Schwartzie, unless he's shirtless with his mouth taped up, but she's the definition of high maintenance in a really sneaky way--not the obvious Scheana type high maintenance, but emotionally. This union will not last. Voice Of Reason Kristen tickled me no end. "Do you want a return of crazy Kristen?" Oh, yes, I do! But I'm loving smart, reasonable Kristen. Not that any of these chucklefucks listen to her.

Brandon did you...did you just...did you just fucking defend minstrelry? This episode is enraging. Kelly actually squeaks "kith you." I was shredding rolls of toilet paper with my bare teeth by the end of it. Everyone is such an offensive idiot.

But the FDC does have strict rules about claiming efficacy on a label. As a soapmaker, we go through the bends just with the labeling rules for a simple soap--if you claim health or medical benefits, your product is characterized as a drug or a cosmetic, whereupon you have to jump through FDA hoops, registering your ingredients and process, and go through an approval process. There probably are no safety issues with their formula. Beeswax, vitamin E, coconut oil and essential oils are the components of a billion handmade lotions and lip balms. There's absolutely nothing new or special here, and many EOs (spices, like cinnamon and clove and some herbs) can irritate the skin, many citruses are photosensitizing and can worsen burns exposed to sunlight. They did not talk about, and were not asked about, their research in formulating the ointment, so it all may be safe, but I was rolling my eyes in tandem with Mark. My lip balm sells for 4 bucks, btw, and I make a profit. $15 forsooth!