Blergh

Well, it makes sense that, if there wasn't firsthand confirmation, that these euphemisms were used so that the papers couldn't be sued for slander on the off chance that the claims they made were NOT true! One example would be that Warren Beatty didn't marry Annette Benning until he was 55 in 1992 yet was known to be quite the hetero . ..rogue before then. Hence one could have noted he was ' a confirmed bachelor' before that marriage and be factually correct even though, to the best of public record, he was NOT gay. Imagine if a publication had leaped to the conclusion that Mr. Beatty was gay via the mere fact that he had never married up that point while ignoring his dating history! Speaking of euphemisms though, one of my faves has to be the British way of describing someone who has been arrested as 'detained at His/Her Majesty's pleasure'- as though the individual in question had been such a charmer to the monarch that the ruler insisted he/she had to stick around the palace after the wing ding was over! 😄

I don't have any idea of the now-deceased Mr. Jarman's family life as a child. However, he WAS able to believably convey a boy so DESPERATE for affection [in no small part because his poor mother (played by the always marvelous Jane Wyman) was too haunted by his older sibs' earlier deaths to feel it was SAFE to show him any affection, and his one same-age friend who'd been physically challenged himself had unexpectedly died] that he was willing to literally put his own life on the line to care for this increasingly wild deer! That was a tough order especially for a newbie and performing with cinematic giants such as Miss Wyman and Gregory Peck who played his sympathetic father would have overwhelmed quite a few other performers! In any case, I hope he found contentment with his loved ones in his later life. RIP, Mr. Jarman!

I wish 'things change' would include that dinosaur of a show FINALLY taking a leap into the tar pits so we'd never have to hear from it again! Sorry off topic! OK, here's something somewhat ontopic! Patrick Labyorteaux has now said that Jason Bateman was a bit of a pain to him when they were pre-adult performers via taunting him with the term 'has been'(and the two evidently have NOT become friends as adults). Anyway, since I doubt that the elder Mr. Labyorteaux totally kept his own council about this as a teen re his younger brother, IF he did indeed share his dislike for young Master Bateman,it would somewhat make Albert's disdain for James (after James 'borrowed' then broke Albert's one shaving razor) seem more believable beyond the mere words in the script.

Call it looking on the bright/spiritual side or just something I think needs to be put out (and I'm NOT trying to proselytize or convert anyone): However, for those upset that #45 is having no legal consequences for his actions, (IF one believes in the next world): remember that if #45 goes to his grave completely unrepentant and unremorseful over his heinous villainous actions (especially those that have caused harm to others), he WILL have eternal consequences that would make whatever worldly punishments might have been meted a comparative walk in the park. Just something to keep in mind. ..

As long as we're doing medical breakthroughs, let's not overlook the vaccine that started it all for smallpox. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was an English physician who had heard the old wives' tale that folks who had contracted cowpox from having milked cows somehow were protected from them on from contracting the much more virulent and frequently fatal smallpox. To test this theory, he took material from the cowpox postule of the milkmaid (a Sarah or Lucy Nelmes) and injected it directly into the skin of James Phipps - his own gardener's eight-year-old son! Yes, young Master Phipps soon developed cowpox after a week but quickly recovered. Then, Dr. Jenner injected material from a smallpox postule into Master Phipp's skin six weeks later but, thankfully, he did NOT develop smallpox which proved to Dr. Jenner (and the world) that the old wives' tale of catching cowpox giving a person immunity to smallpox to be medically true. Although one must consider how much Dr. Jenner had risked Master Phipp's very life and wonder if the boy's father Mr. Phipps's consent for these experiments on his son would have been so readily granted had Mr. Phipps been totally dependent on Dr. Jenner for the means to support his family, it DID work out. Whether to acknowledge the boy's contribution to medical science and/or out of possible guilt over having risked the boy's life to test his theory, Dr. Jennings DID give the adult James Phipps (1788-1853) free lease on a cottage for him to shelter his own wife and two children. BTW, 'vaccine' comes from the Latin for 'of cowpox' with 'vaca' meaning cow!

Here's a trope I don't recall being detailed but seems to happen on TV (though I sure hope not too often in RL), one protagonist spouse is nice to family friends while the other is openly rude and hostile to them which often compels them to make a hasty or angry exit- yet rarely if ever will the nicer spouse will consider visiting the family friends at their place to minimize the friends' exposure to the rude spouse. Examples are plenty but few epitomized this more than The Jeffersons (1975-1986) which had George Jefferson constantly trash Tom Willis's ethnicity and Helen's having opted to have wed Tom (and even would insult their daughter Jenny for being biracial despite otherwise liking her as his son Lionel's fiancee then wife). Tom and Jenny were FAR more patient with George than he deserved while Helen was more openly combative to George's insults to her family dynamic. However, in hindsight, it's puzzling that it seemed to never occur to any of the Willises to quit visiting the Jefferson's apartment so frequently when they knew George would dis them upon sight but instead invite Louise (and Lionel) solo sans George up to their apartment (in the very same building one floor up!) - and oddly enough, Louise never seemed to spend much time there visiting them despite her being welcomed there (to say nothing of getting some respite of her own from George). Yes, Louise and Helen seemed to spend a good part of their time together volunteering in the charitable Help Center but they'd usually interact away from there in the Jeffersons' instead of the Willises' apartment. Of course, before too long, Florence would spar with George and deflect a good amount of George's barbs away from her employers' neighbors (and seemed to get along fine with all members of their family). Also, interestingly enough, Mother Jefferson seemed to be fond of all members of the Willis family despite her son's hostility- and they all seemed to like her despite her son's 'tude and her frequently putting down their friend Louise. Thankfully, at Sherman Helmsley's instance, George's hostility became much less overt in the latter part of the show. Still, it's a bit off that they (and Louise) would want them to have kept returning to Jefferson's apartment knowing that George would show up and insult them instead of Louise visiting them in their own apartment.

Do you mean that Doc Baker's upstairs living area somehow was supposed to shelter all those one-shot besties,citizens,etc.? Perhaps they may have been living in Hansen's Mill,etc. That would make as much sense as so many other Walnut Grove housing arrangements. LOL

The good news is that the big boss decided to let our department just wrap up the current projects we were working on so we could head home an hour earlier than usual to take advantage of the main roads being wet in daylight rather than having us contend with driving at night with things freezing so I left early. Mama had earlier tried to plea with me to shelter in my workplace because she believed the roads would have been too risky for me to have driven home. I didn't want to leave her home alone over the weekend (with no one to help her out since she's in her 90's) so I resisted. Anyway, instead of my usual shortcuts, I opted to use the Interstates and,for the most part, they were wet and OK to drive on. However, there were parts that were overpasses that were frozen and I was careful to go slowly the entire way home (and thankfully most of the other drivers avoided speeding). All was well until time to turn into the hilly grid of side streets in my neighborhood I had to traverse which were blanketed with the s-word but I drove in what ruts I could to hug the road. I nearly got stuck,though, backing downhill into my driveway (and frustratingly my rear view camera's lens had frozen H2O distort the picture so I had to totally rely on my 20th century driving skills of solely looking at rear view and side view mirrors to see). However, I made it but I was surprised at how thick the yards, trees and streets in my suburban neighborhood are coated with it whereas in my downtown locale workplace, there was barely any on the pavement or ground (thankfully we have a covered,heated garage ). The important thing is that I made it safely home and will be cocooned here until Monday (unless somehow things melt on Sunday). . at which time I'll have to contend with seeing about inching my way up my driveway then down a very steep hill [used by sledders] to reach the nearest main street that I could then use to reach the Interstates). I'm sorry to heat that so many folks in Asheville are still in limbo after all this time and I hope that housing and jobs will soon become more available (and the same goes for so many in California at this time).

I hope everyone's okay ! In my Southeast neck of the woods , we're due to have a thick coat of the flaky s-word .Funny how each flake is beautiful but put a zillion together and it's a mess! Well,I did my food shopping yesterday instead of Friday (when it's due to hit)and the store was packed with panic shoppers with so many shelves already sparse and empty. I don't envy anyone trying the stores today or tomorrow .I just hope I can get home safely from work tomorrow evening going by Interstate instead of my usual hilly shortcuts through neighborhoods without too much delay or problems. Take care everyone in the path of this system(and I'm praying everyone in California will be OK with their homes intact despite those horrific conflagrations).

Yes AA has good reason to worry about those fires! I hope she and so many others will be okay with their homes intact. Oh I sure can imagine Miss MacGregor stirring up the Home in her twilight times even if she was nicer than Harriet.

That would make sense that the Bulls might have decided that the Motion Picture Home would have been more feasible due to both of them having had longtime performing careers which would have qualified them for spots- as opposed to hoping to afford a place with their funds in the Chicago area. Still, I imagine they likely had spent in their relocation attempt that they truly couldn't spare. Funnily enough, MG says she went to visit Mr. Bull in the Home- and virtually the first thing he said was that there was 'no escaping' Miss MacGregor ( he may not have been entirely joking).

Thanks for the link,@Debraran! Interesting that the author claims Miss MacGregor wrote him that she had already finished her autobio (evidently their correspondence took place a few years before she entered the Motion Picture Home) ! I wonder if she might have attempted to shop it around to have it published before she moved from her apartment? Also, I wonder if either AA or Dean Butler [both of whom, by all accounts, stayed in close touch with her to virtually the end] might have seen a manuscript and/or knows its ultimate fate? I'm wondering how many personal affects she was able to bring with her TO the Home since many assisted living places have very strict guidelines (e.g. a family friend donated quite a few tons of books due to only being allowed FIVE books in her retirement home). Maybe it didn't even make it to the Home. Perhaps we could see about asking AA or Mr. Butler and see if they might respond. Yes, I heard about Miss MacGregor's joint dinner with Mr. Bull bona fide widow and that was touching. IIRC a few years before his death, the relocated to his hometown of Chicago but evidently this didn't work out and they wound up at the Home in LA. I wonder what might have spurred their return (and why they didn't seek out any Chicago area retirement homes). Anyway, thanks for the article!

I think it's safe to say, unlike Charles, you listen to people. .Period!

Yeah, there's some evidence that Vic (who had the power to invite or BAR Al from her bedchamber at any time) might have gone through numerous loathed childbirths after the de rigeur male heirs and spares (though technically ANY of her marital daughters succeeded her had she had no surviving sons or grandsons) was due to Vic wanting to give Al some more purpose in life via being a parent of a larger family. BTW, soon after the birth of her 2nd son (and 4th child) there was a song that made the British pub and music hall rounds called 'We'll Do It No More' which had Vic plea with Al to leave her be so as not to drain the national budget (which had been imperiled by her grandfather George III's 15 children). It should be noted that, regardless of how tenaciously heiresses to thrones would fight for their rights and the respect of their male ministers, they usually sought to have an unquestioned male heir either by birth or adopting their nearest younger male relative to help give some extra 'legitimacy' to their rule. Speaking of births, though, it should be noted that when chloroform first was used, there was an outcry by the clergy to have it used for women bearing children citing Eve's fall,etc. However, Vic happily used it for her 8th and 9th children and wasn't above using her status as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to greenlight its use for other laboring mothers (and putting a sock in the dissers' protests). FWIW, once Vic said 'after the 7th granddaughter and 14th grandchild, it becomes a very uninteresting thing- for it seems to me to go on like the rabbits in Windsor Park'- and she'd have a LOT more than that! As to Cleopatra? You're probably right but where would they have found a female performer willing to look like a female version of the last Spanish Hapsburg Charles II? BTW, it seems Cleopatra DID share in having red hair and a large nose with him but at least she didn't have a tongue too big for his mouth,etc.

Not to mention, if they drink too much, wouldn't it have the same effect as. ..castor oil (in which case, they'd need to trade their happy dances for jitterbugs and jitter their ways to the nearest restrooms)?

I agree that it would have been nice to have had more tender moments between Nels and Harriet depicted. However, since Harriet was THE main Walnut Grove Strawperson Villain who most of her fellow citizens at best were patient with (and at worst openly disdained her) while Nels was supposed to have been universally considered 'such a nice man' by the whole town (despite being the husband and father of the two biggest Walnut Grove nemeses), I suppose that ML believed that if the Olesons were depicted as being TOO tender with each other, then it wouldn't be believable her to be mean and him to be nice with neither totally reforming the other! Of course, it must be said that there were times that Nels seemed to keep secret and side with Laura,etc. when she'd pulled stunts that irrefutably had made Harriet and/or Nellie look like fools or even had risked them having had serious harm (e.g. Laura pushing Nellie in the wheelchair down the hill just to 'prove' that Nellie had been faking paralysis). I mean, on the one hand I appreciate Nels wanting to be fair and seeing beyond the Harriet and Nellie's myopic worldview but, on the other hand, sometimes it seemed as though he was more interested in letting Laura prevail than in considering whether his wife and daughter may not have entirely been justly treated by a customer's child.

How horrible! I'm not about to speculate on what possible demons/issues may have led up to that horrific decision on Mr. Baena's part. However, I truly hope there's at least one trustworthy loved one in Miss Plaza's life who will help her cope with the aftermath in the immediate future as well as any unexpected tsunamis of grief for the foreseeable future! I don't say this out of mere concern but because even before this happened (and I'm not saying this to be mean), Miss Plazas has seemed as though she has had some serious (possibly unresolved) issues in her earlier life to the point of appearing to be a disturbed individual in X number of interviews.

Thanks. I hate to tell you this but Vic and Al had had NINE children before the docs told her no more- to which she supposedly replied 'Can't I have any more fun in bed?' Late in her reign, one of her generals was recounting a battle with Ashanti warriors when he got caught up in the moment from discussing how the warriors ran over a hill to meet the British troops like ants over a hill then (evidently forgetting the formal setting of Vic's home) likened their movements to something resembling intercourse (I've cleaned it up somewhat). This caused virtually the entire royal household to gasp/clear their throats in shock with one exception. Yep, the 70-something , 5 foot zip rotund Vic was hysterically laughing at that sexual reference!

OK, here's one: Queen Victoria was one of the first famous people to have had a motion picture made of her moving in 1896- when her granddaughter the Empress Alexandra of Russia and her grandson-in-law Czar Nicholas II of Russia came to visit- the three of them were filmed at Balmoral with Vic riding a carriage holding a dog and the four of them were followed by her one of her fave servants Abdul Karim (AKA the Munshi). What's more Vic became somewhat of a film buff in her twilight years and it's said that one of her fave movies was a comedy about four girls in a boarding school having a pillow fight called . . .The Pillow Fight (1898).

As long as we're talking WTF moments on kids' shows. Under the umbrella of a rather goofy Saturday morning show called The Banana Splits (that seemed more tailored for the Romper Room set) there was a teen adventure series called 'Danger Island' (which featured, of all people, the late Jan-Michael Vincent in his first notable role). Anyway, 'Danger Island' (1968-1969)was about this kidnapped professor's teen daughter (Ronne Troupe- later Chip's teen bride in My Three Sons) and his assistant (Vincent) trying to find and free the academic from bloodthirsty pirates in a somewhat vague ocean locale. The teen quickly team up with a pair of the pirates' victims Elihu Morgan (Rockne Tarkington) and Chongo (Kim Kahana,Sr.) . Anyway, Elihu and Chongo proved to be the new Skipper and Gilligan wannabees of the motley crew with such antics as Chongo virtually wrecking their bunks when it was time to sleep (funny to watch- as long as one didn't consider how many hours this 'ritual' had to take. .every night). Chongo would usually inadvertently cause some unintended disaster which would lead to the others saying the show's catchphrase 'Uh-oh CHON-GOH!'. Alas, when having been captured by the pirates, they somehow had tortured Chongo so that he could no longer speak but could only communicate through bird and monkey sounds! OK, the good news is that the series DID have the professor found and freed with the pirates vanquished. ..but here's where the WTF comes in. While the others are ready to go home, Elihu flatly refuses ... because he doesn't want to chance Chongo being considered a freak and outcast in the outside world and he believes that he (Elihu) must stay behind to watch out and care for Chongo! I mean it's great he wants to make sure Chongo is cared for but to isolate oneself from one's 30's onward to do so?! And why didn't anyone pipe up the possibility of them seeing if Chongo might possibly respond to some intense therapy to attempt to see if he could overcome the trauma from the pirates' torture that had left him a mute to regain his speech so he could live a productive and autonomous life? And ALL the above was for teens who'd hung around watching their kid sibs' umbrella Saturday morning show!

Just saw the Patrick Labyorteaux Sheaux [sic?] podcast with AA! Talk about a house on fire with a straight man trying to corral a live wire! Yes, she told tales of how she bonded with Gladys Whitten the hairdresser (and learned many tales of the Golden Age of Hollywood) via listening to the elder woman's recollections. AA also detailed how she, Dean Butler were able to get the faithful Pamela Bob to moderate their own 50th Anniversary Podcast series (which she now says has been so therapeutic and fun that she sees no end to). One tale I hadn't heard before was how she was offered something like $20,000 a day salary to perform on a Bahrainian cruise ship for a month but despite being very tempted to do something that would have put her on easy street for a long time, she decided against it because it would have required her to perform two shows a day and she didn't believe she could have provided the material. HOWEVER, itturned out that the timing of this cruise would have been right in the middle of Operation Desert Storm when Iraq invaded Kuwait,etc. and that cruise ship would have been somewhat in the middle of all that so she was somewhat grateful that she didn't take the gig. Interestingly enough Patrick Labyorteaux himself did admit to having disliked (of all folks) Jason Bateman (and evidently the two have NOT become friends as adults). .and feeling somewhat vindicated when he (PL) and Todd Bridges one day dumped Mr. Bateman into a garbage can! He told the story after AA retold of having gleefully dumped (with MG) PL's kid bro Matthew in a garbage can as a welcoming to the show (and the two Labyorteux bros as well as MG and AA have all stayed friends down the decades).

Regardless of who claims what, it's important to keep in mind that while figures don't lie, liars CAN figure (which is one reason WHY one should study the methods of collection, tabulation AND the statisticians' objectivity before implicitly believing any claim).

Well, at least all his 'I didn't MEAN it!'s got Mary out of her catatonic grief for her lost son so I guess that's something. However, note that that would be about the last time that he and Mary had any dialogue so maybe she didn't totally forgive him.

Remember President Carter was born in a tiny town in rural Georgia in 1924 during Calvin Coolidge's Presidency yet he beat so many ODDS- including being fairminded in a time and place when this wasn't encouraged- and putting his physical energies to help those in need well into his 90's! Would anyone in 1924 have thought all he achieved would have been possible back then? But it WAS despite incredible odds! I guess the point I'm making is that if we hold him as an example to aspire to, we can be inspired to do our individual bests to beat so many odds regardless of how bleak things may seem at this time!

Sad that Miss Lavin is no more but 87 is a fairly good age to have reached! RIP, Miss Lavin! Now only Polly Holliday (Flo), Diane Ladd (Belle) and Celia Weston (Jolene) are still with us in the Alice cast- playing three US Southern servers with 'tudes who'd never meet!