Lorna Mae

I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to eat ice cream during this episode. That house didn’t look like anything special even in the early photos. And even if it’s just a matter of preserving The Family Home, he was literally shitting on his memories! Also, I loved the logic of “These stuffed animals only got ruined because there was no room for them in the house, but now I’m gonna have room in the house, so I can keep them in the house!” I think Carl is psychologically impaired to the point where he can’t see dirt and water damage and mouse damage. Like an anorexic who looks at their emaciated body and sees fat. ———————————————————————————————— Now about the episode before this, Paul. I’m confused about Skippy’s age. The plaque at his high school said Class of 1953, which would mean he was born in 1935. But those modeling shots appeared to be from the ’80s, and he didn’t look like he was in his fifties. Or did I read the plaque wrong and he was born in 1953? Skippy’s ashes being lost is one of those moments I love, on this and the other shows. Once it was Dad’s medals and the flag from his coffin; another time it was genealogy charts that the hoarder had stolen (!) from another family member, and she couldn’t find them to give them back. They always get found (else we wouldn’t be hearing about them), but it’s still something that cannot be replaced, that has immeasurable value, but that the hoarder still treated with as much care as they would a used tissue. Maybe even less, since these are people who hang onto garbage.

And the funny thing is, John Lydon hasn’t used that stage name in years, professionally or personally. But calling him Rotten ensures a glimmer of recognition, while “It’s John Lydon!” would be a true WTF. (Kids these days…the Beatles are unavoidable, so they know who they are. It’s Wings they don’t know from!)

To piggyback on what I said earlier about all the elderly hoarders on the show lately, I wonder why that is. It could be that there are fewer young hoarders than there were 10+ years ago, due to increased awareness of hoarding. People might be better able to recognize hoarding tendencies in themselves and others, and check themselves or intervene before it gets past stage 1. Or it could be that TPTB want big hoards, floor-to-ceiling, filthy or both, and for that you need to find those lifelong/second generation hoarders.

The problem is that so many of these hoarders are elderly. They’ve spent decades building their hoarder habits. And as far gone as they are, seeing their grandkids is not an incentive. Dolores is in her seventies, and doesn’t seem to have hobbies or interests other than hoarding. What’s she going to do with herself in a clean house? I wish they’d go back to younger people/families; enough of these seventy-somethings. ETA: I also noticed the adult diaper. And the box of feminine products. I wonder, was that actually a box of pads? Or did she get the empty box from a bin, like at Costco, and fill it with junk? If they were what the label said, I wonder if they were in good enough shape to donate to charity.

She doesn’t have a cousin. I think it’s clear now that Andy doesn’t exist. And speaking of disappearing offspring, will we see Big Little Ed again, or was he a two-episode wonder?

A lot of people did, though. I'm convinced that the popularity of coin spots (polka dots in the US) in the '80s was because of her. I know her circa-1981 hairstyle was much copied. As far as the Fairytale episode, when Diana chose the blue ring, I said, with the correct accent, "Sapphire has been assigned!" (I've been watching Sapphire and Steel on streaming.) And do you think they had enough foreshadowing shots of Diana in a car? I think there was even one going through a tunnel. ---------------------- The late Mike Royko, columnist for various Chicago papers, wrote about Charles and Diana several times. First was at the time of the wedding, to the effect of "You're young and presumably in love; be good to each other." He later regretted it, thinking it glurgey before the term was coined, but it went on a lot of fridges. The others were published during the divorce, and there's one that was hilarious. (Not available online and wasn't published in a collection, dang it!) He'd happened to read somewhere that Camilla "shares Charles' love of tramping the grouse fields in the howling wind." From that, he extrapolated Charles trying and failing to get Diana to share his interests. "But darling, there's a howler of a wind, and the fields have never been grousier." "I want to go shopping. And then to a disco." He kept repeating "tramp" "grouse fields" "howling winds" and "I want to go to a disco." 😂 But of course, being a hard-boiled American newspaperman who mostly wrote about politics and baseball, he didn't know that Charles and Camilla had been tramping those fields, literally and figuratively, when Diana was a preteen. If she'd shot a brace of grouse, it still wouldn't have helped her situation.

Maybe to show that it's happening at night, and that she spends a lot of time doing this?

Eh, I wasn't denying the existence of the Balmoral test. Just saying that a weekend with any close-knit group will be a test, whether deliberately set up or not. You either mesh with them or you don't. I think I see this cold-bloodedly because I have a set of cousins who were very close with each other, and highly insular. I couldn't get beyond the superficial with them because I hadn't been to any of their events nor met any of their friends, and since that's all they talked about, we didn't talk much. And? By the time I was 18, I figured, forget them. I didn't need people like that. I mean, does it matter that much? Surely there have been PMs who didn't click, socially, with the Windsors. Did it make their job more difficult? Serious question because I don't know. But if I were in that position, I might say, "Forget those clowns: I'm Prime Minister and I was voted in."

It was excellent shorthand, IMO. I'm American, but I was a teenager during that era. What we saw of this guy, whether or not it was true to his life, matched up with the movies Rita, Sue and Bob Too and Riff-Raff*, and the Adrian Mole books, and the TV show The Young Ones, where Rik Mayall's character was constantly ranting about Thatcher. Someone upthread summed it up pretty well, how Fagan was caught in a bureaucratic loop, along with so many others. *Early Robert Carlyle!

I can't get past the idea that a lot of what was happening at Balmoral was just what the Windsors liked to do. And while "test" elements like "Don't sit in that chair that's right out in the open!" are unfair, pursuing your favorite activities is not necessarily setting someone up to fail. Some people are into hunting. Some people can take the stick out of their arse long enough to take part in a drinking game. I mean, drinking games aren't something you try to win. If you never mess up, you don't have to take a drink, and where's the fun in that? When you think of all the folderol they have to do, Trooping of the Colors and like that, the Windsors need a chance to just get silly once in a while.

IRL, she did contrive to meet him. He came to the Spencer estate for a shooting party, and Diana, who had been ordered to stay away, lurked on the grounds (not wearing a costume!) and struck up a conversation. Charles was charmed. And the "sorry about your uncle" convo also happened, at a polo match. Charles was won over, or at least a good way there.

Getting back to this, you've nailed it. At the time of the reboot, I was interested to see what DJ had been up to, because the original series ended with him wanting to be a filmmaker. (And what happened to that? 9/11, maybe, but we don't know.) I was also curious about what A&J would look and sound like, but for the novelty of it, not because I had a frame of reference. Also, what Patti said: Andy's absence makes it appear that Jackie has left no footprint. ETA because see how little they resonate?

Heh...Have you ever pointed that out to them? Sorry to hear of all the nonsense you guys get from your families! But it does make me feel better, knowing I'm not the only one. -------------------------------------------- Was also going to say, could be that the costumes Ben was wearing might once have been Dan's. They're both large guys, and it would be a passing of the torch.

It's in the 9-to-12 age that kids start wanting to be more involved with their families. They'll pull away again starting at age 13, of course, but in the tween years, family means a lot. Which brings me to something that kind of bugs: all the "Screw Andy and Jerry!" posts. Not denying anyone's right to their opinion, but speaking as the Jerry in my family, I have forgiven but not forgotten the way my family pushed me away when I was trying to be part of the group. I was never trying to be the center of attention, just didn't think I should be sitting in The Other Room reading while they all socialized. I know you guys are talking about fictional characters in the context of a TV show; I'm not taking it personally. But it is reminiscent of the attitude my family had towards me, like I was a failed experiment taking up space.

Cyndi Lauper was my guess for Popcorn last week, but now I think Molly Ringwald. In the clue package, there were candles arranged in the shape of a 1 and a 6. Sixteen Candles. There's no connection between that film and Lauper, and Ringwald can sing, and in that style. OTOH, nothing in the backstory fit what I know of Ringwald. Does she have any ties to the LGBTQ community? 🏳️‍🌈 If it's not her, this is a long shot, but Patti Smith had a song on the 16C soundtrack.

I finally watched the HBO Watchmen series, and I'm sure I caught an SNL reference. Not to spoil anything, but there's a scene where someone presses a button on a remote to open a trap door and drop the person sitting in the chair on top of it into an underground lair. There was a brand name on the remote: Wilson. I can't prove that it was a deliberate callback, but they didn't have to put a brand name on it at all. 😉

To avoid the possibility of Claire's knowing someone named Harrison, McCartney or Lennon in this time. (Or O'Lennain; John's family was Irish a few generations back.) There can't be anyone named Ringo or Starr in colonial America.

I've changed my stance on Frog. It may well be Alfonso Riebero. At the start of the clue package, the music from Always Sunny in Philadelphia was playing. I can only take that as a Fresh Prince reference. There was something else that made me think that, but I can't remember now. Bow Wow is not from Philly, and Alfonso started out as a child actor -- and dancer.

I'm still curious about one thing in Bear Palin's clue package. The camera panned over, then lingered on, a bowl of what looked like french fries. Still don't know what that meant. I was thinking, "If it's *french* fries, it must be someone who's spent time in France, or maybe is from Quebec. If it's french *fries*, I bet it's Drew Barrymore; she was in a movie called Home Fries." I still don't get how French *or* fries applies to Sarah Palin. ???

Frog is Bow Wow. His "team member" implied that he started at a young age, and mentioned an "entourage". Bow Wow was on Entourage, not playing himself.

Crazed Spruce: Why never mind? I was thinking Bindi too.

I was thinking Ryan Seacrest for The Llama, but the singing voice didn't sound remotely like him. Could Robot be a race car driver?

Two judges were right about Black Widow, and in the first round, two were right about Egg. Have there been any other correct guesses? I don't think anyone was right about Eagle. I'm with everyone else about Flower. And people are probably right about Thingamajig. Butterfly is probably one of the other two-thirds of Destiny's Child.

What costumes would you like to see? My husband likes to razz me about this show, and he just asked me, "D'ya think Lampshade is gonna beat Toothpaste tonight?" I don't think they'd do toothpaste, but they might do a lamp. How about a baguette? Or a giraffe? I'm trying to think of tall, narrow things.

Me, after someone (the son?) said "If you gave them a rock, they'd find something to do with that rock": OMG, I wonder if that's a callback! [explains "I had plans for that rock!" to DH] DH: You know what it is, it's about control. As long as he hangs on to that half-lifeing Mountain Dew, and the cameras are on him and people are focused on trying to reason with him, he's in control. He won't give up the Mountain Dew, or any of this other crap, because he doesn't want to give up control. Me: Why is the organizer talking about trust? These people haven't earned anyone's trust. They say never trust a junkie, and hoarders are junkies, in a sense. Never trust a hoarder. DH: [after the new organizer says "Why are we keeping a moldy Spice Girl?" BWAH-HAH-HAH! There's your new tagline, to replace the one about the rock! '"Why are we keeping a moldy Spice Girl?"'