Blergh

Speaking of serial killers, interestingly enough there has been recent scholarship on the infamous Whitebridge Homicides of 1888-1889 (in London) which has actually called to doubt the veracity of the letter written to the newspaper editor gloating about the horrific murders in which the writer would tag himself as 'Jack the Ripper'. Most notably in a recent documentary by Dr. Lucy Worsely in which she and at least one other scholar presented evidence that the letter itself may have been a hoax written by one of the editor's employees to skyrocket that newspaper's sales!

Of course, to be fair, AA herself admitted that she had never heard of much less read any of Mrs. Wilder's tomes before she started performing the character of Nellie. Now, of course, Miss Arngrim has become a very diligent scholar not just of her character's three RL models but of the works themselves and of how very different Mrs. Wilder conveyed her family's story to what the historic record has clarified! If nothing else, it was good that the original show got Miss Arngrim and others to read the books and become scholars of this literature AND historians of this timeframe. .and perhaps this new series could do the same!

Happy Black History Month- because history is something vital to know so folks can be inspired by triumphing over odds and lessons can be learned on things not worth repeating-regardless of whether they share the ethnicity or shape of the protagonists or the culpable. FWIW, I'm a lifelong lover of history from virtually all corners of the world and always will be- and NOT of bowlderized propaganda (and I recognize that there are folks from my ancestries who didn't always do the right things but that doesn't mean I have to fake otherwize). BTW, I don't get those folks who get upset at being called racist yet openly tar entire ethnicities and belittle those who evaluate others via their individual actions and characters rather than ethnic backgrounds.

While I disagree re considering the late Mr. Springer's mindset to have been sincere or positive, I won't belabor that. However, I agree that Miss Jones and Miss Raphael were even more unwatchacle with Miss Jones initially saying she was 'responsible' for a guest's murder after she brought a loose cannon kook,etc. only to evidently backtrack later to save herself from having to pay out monies to bereaved family members. Miss Raphael was openly a bully who, (among other things) rather than consider that troubled teens might possibly have had reasons for having acted out that might have placed at least some of the blame on those who raised them, just screamed at said teens while belittling their attempts to explain their POVs, then had them sent to boot camps to the cheers of her audience drones! IMO, she was egomaniacal with all the sincerity of a fly-by-night used coffin salesperson and despicable. As for Miss Lake, I found her annoying and not worth watching but IMO not as duplicitous as Miss Jones nor openly detestable as Miss Raphael. However, none of these three (as far as I know) had producers seek out guests for them to sleep afterwards.

[No spoilers please] but was it just me or were they trying to build up Tris as though he'd almost become SuperTristan via his war experiences in Egypt? I mean, apart from being cashless at the Drovers, he somehow managed to make zero missteps and even seemed to pull open Mr. Biggin's gate with ease while poor Siegfried got stuck in it! Nice sentiment expressed by Siegfried (which likely reflected Mrs. Herriott's own feelings) about being relieved that his work of having raised Tristan was done. ..but OTOH feeling sad that his onetime dependent no longer needed him! Well, at least the story ended with Siegfried and Tristan having a spat- somehow I knew that Siegfried wouldn't be able to 'never have a cross word' with his younger bro forever even with Tristan coming back unscathed from war. .and perhaps extra fortified. Still, I have to agree [again, no spoilers please] that it seems probable that Tristan could be overcompensating re bravado to avoid having to deal with very real PTSD AKA 'shell shock'.

Glad you asked that! I agree that Lady Fraser did a well written work (both in detail AND documentation) on the still-intriguing only ruling female monarch of the-then independent Kingdom of Scotland. However, I agree that Lady Fraser did tend to overpraise the Queen of Scots when things went her way while easily downplaying or concocting excuses when she either blundered or things blew up in her face.

To each one's own. However, AFIAC, even if the late Mr. Springer wasn't as bad as others that doesn't mean he was good (and I don't believe that he fought the show's downward spiral very hard if at all- regardless of any claims and crocodile tears on his part). Moreover,even if one attempts to minimize the sordidness of the alleged transactions (and is willing to excuse his culpability re these evident actions here), there's still the issue of the effect of these alleged transactions destroying the objectivity and credibility of both the guests and, especially the host that can't be erased. Even though it quickly became a pure spectacle for the ratings instead of remotely close to anything benefiscent or educational.Period.

In other news, on a recent podcast, Patrick Labyorteaux told the tale of how a new mother had been a bad situation so she put up her newborn up for adoption, then later married a man with children and helped him raise those children. Anyway, the woman's new children would see LHTOP and would compared Andy Garvey's blue eyes to their new mother's eyes- 'teasing' her that he could have been her long-lost 'son'. Well, Mr. Labyorteaux added the final twist to the story by reminding viewers that he (and his younger brother Matthew) HAD been adopted by the Labyortauxses. Thus, even though they were happy with them and have never considered them to have been anything other than their parents, eventually he DID have curiosity over the fate of his own birth mother.. .and yes, he found out that she had died before he found her but also found out from her widower the tale of their children comparing ' Andy''s eyes to their new mother's . .. .with the mother herself quietly admitting to her husband that she herself believed that that was the case. Even though she wasn't fated to raise him, at least she knew he DID survive and wound up being well cared for and could SEE him on a semi-regular basis on this and other shows! To bring this full circle, I'm a bit surprised that ML never considered an episode of someone identifying the child they knew they weren't able to raise via a seeing photograph in photographer's window display then deciding whether or not to leave things be for said child.

I also hope everyone's stocked up on coffee for a while.. .

As per Men's Journal,etc. a former producer of the Jerry Springer Show has claimed that the host would also have them find attractive female guests for the host to cavort with after the show. Even if one has no issues with the technically single late Mr. Springer allegedly having had flings with those individuals he allegedly compensated, if these claims are true, this raises serious ethical issues about the integrity of the individual segments that the guests appeared in, as well the guests to say nothing of the so-called host himself. Let's just say that I always considered this show (and its copycat ilk) to have been a contributor the the debasement ,jading and coarsening of our society (regardless of the late Mr. Springer's pious 'final thoughts' at the end tag) - and, if the above claim is true, this would appear to add even more validity to that (and all the above doesn't even touch how he cruelly exploited the physically unconventional to the audiences' jeers).

I'm putting it in this sub-Forum because I've needed to vent this for a long time (and I know it's just a tiny drop in the deluge that made up the perfect storm). However: I always said that no good would come from glorifying, and lionizing the Palpatine and the Dark Side with cruelty, depravity and deception celebrated while all the Jedi and all the heroes along with the concepts of kindness, compassion, mercy and empathy got belittled, demeaned and reduced to punching bags by virtually every production, publication,etc. after Return of the Jedi. Add this to so many other entertainment productions that have celebrated evil (with zero comeuppances or triumphs by good) in the last few decades and then why should we should be surprised that so many have sided with it re their own lives. BTW, to keep this from being a total rant and bummer, I also would beseech anyone with access to first edition historical books, documents,videos,etc. to SECURE them as carefully as possible so we have the means to teach later generations even if those in charge would want to destroy them- and teach as many younger generations as possible the actual facts do they can make their own individual decisions based on what had actually happened to the best of documented knowledge- as opposed to lopsided propaganda!

From 1961 to 1989, the NATO Ally controlled sectors of Berlin were walled off from the Soviet controlled sector of Berlin(and the surrounding nation of East Germany) and was called West Berlin but was also technically part of the nation of West Germany while the Soviet controlled half of Berlin was called East Berlin but not only was technically part of East Germany but also its legal capital city! After the fall of the Wall (and the Soviet Union) East Germany and West Germany were united to become rejoined as Germany with its capital Berlin. ..while the West German capital city of Bonn somewhat went back to obscurity. However, there is one other city that's been divided between two nations- Nicosia. Ever since 1974, Cyprus has been divided between the Greek dominated Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (with British and UN controlled bases and buffer zones between the two main areas). While only the Republic of Turkey itself recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cypus as an official nation, both consider the Turkish occupied northern part of Nicosia as the latter's capital while the southern part of Nicosia remains the capital city of the Republic of Cyprus. Until recent years not only were the two parts of the city completely walled off from each other but citizens from one part of the city couldn't visit the other part of the city without having to travel all the way to the Greek/Turkish mainland/s then fly BACK to the other side of Cyprus and make one's way to the opposite part of the city. Nowadays, while the border still is strictly enforced between the two parts, at least the capital city's citizens can venture to the other part of their own city- albeit with proper documentation.

I wouldn't count on that re performers of any age - much less bet on that always being the case even with Monopoly money!

There's SO many awful things that have been wrought since Monday's DC Debacle it's hard to know where to start. However, in an effort to attempt to laugh to keep from screaming I'd like to say that party loyalty or not, I don't get why anyone would have voted for RFK,Jr. to be in charge of the US's healthcare. I wouldn't trust him to efficiently pass out crayons and cookies at a doll hospital waiting room.

I wonder if anyone can beat Keith Thibodeaux's 'LOS' record? Billed as 'Richard Keith' he'd played Lucy and Ricky's drumming sensation son 'Little Ricky' from the time he was four. Now at age 74, Mr. Thibodeaux has been the last surviving regular cast member of I Love Lucy (and the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour)since Lucy herself got her reward in 1989- 35 years ago! Of course, it helped that he was a preschooler while the rest of the cast was zooming if not already past their 40's during the show!

Dame Joan Plowright's passing got me to think of one of IMO her best roles as Mary Wallace, the middle aged British secretary of this Italian aristocrat who enlists a group of her British and US American friends living in Italy to help raise the aristocrat's nonmarital young boy after his mother's death in Tea with Mussolini (1999). Anyway, while I was perfectly willing to suspend belief re historic realities for the storyline of these eccentric ladies trying to hold onto their freedom despite the impending war and hostility towards them as 'enemy aliens' as World War II escalates, there was one subplot that just I just couldn't overlook. Namely, the self-proclaimed leader of these ladies Lady Hester Random (Dame Maggie Smith) the widow of a British ambassador is desperate to protect her last surviving family member from being taken away to an unknown fate and- her grandson Wilfred [Paul Chequer] so she has him dress up as her granddaughter 'Lucy' -for years. OK, I understand and sympathize with her motivation (and it's for the right reasons) and perhaps having him disguise himself in skirts and wigs as her 'granddaughter Lucy' might have worked for a single time in a pinch before he could escape to safety. However (speaking of pinch) it strains even this somewhat already incredulous movie's credulity to have had him stay in skirts in such close quarters for YEARS with none of the guards ever seeing him relieve himself. ..or attempt to take advantage of a 'girl prisoner' by (at the very least) pinching! At least he was finally able to talk his grandmother into letting him take the risks and join the Italian resistance instead of staying in this very awkward figurative and literal limbo. OK, the storyline which shows the power of art and history is intriguing (and nothing can take away from the climatic scene in which the most impassioned art afficionada Arabella [Dame Judi Densch]literally barricading irreplaceable cultural artifacts with her own body against the invading NAZI troops) -and I liked how Mary Wallace spurred/guilted the boy to do the right thing instead of letting their fates be doomed due to his own feelings for Elsa [Cher]. And, yes, I liked seeing how the British ladies snobbish disdain over the US Americans Elsa and her friend Georgie [Lily Tomlin] evaporated as they discovered their true value. However, all the above said, I still think the movie could have done without the ongoing subplot of Lady Hester's grandson disguising himself in drag for X in prison for X number of years.

Oddly enough, Miss Barr appears to have been the only patient who has had these possible effects!

I think we need to take strength in the fact that today IS Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr.'s Birthday and use that to draw strength via his and so many other examples of how to endure tough times and persecution to eventually have fairness prevail!

I think we could use some at least vaguely positive news so I'm going to bring up what was reported in the January 13,2025 People magazine: Namely that Britney Spears mentioned that her younger son Jayden Federline had a brief reunion with her on Christmas Day. I know that they've had their issues (collectively and individually) and that this alone doesn't guarantee that they'll forever have a totally positive maternal-filial bond. However, the younger Mr. Federline is now 18 and had he not wanted to at least give Miss Spears a chance to be together over the holiday he COULD have avoided it altogether (and I'm doing my best to give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't just trying to kiss up for funds now that he was past the age of her mandatory child support). And, maybe- just maybe, they're each on the way to learning to love (and like ) each other for who they are staying stuck in toxic ruts. We can hope, right?

Yes, after going online and buying a 'skip the line' pass, I wound up having to wait in TWO separate lines before I finally got into the Vatican Museums which, with it's Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Medieval. ..and Palmyran artifacts was quite fascinating to me but, I have to confess my fave part of that tour was seeing all those fantastically detailed. .and truly beautiful Renaissance MAPS of so many cities and regions. While I found the main Basilica a bit too opulent and overwhelming for my personal taste, I had to admit I was fascinated by the Crypt of St. Peter under the Main Altar which seemed to hearken back to Byzantine times and I liked climbing to the top of St. Peter's Dome to get a fantastic view of the tiny gardens and fountain behind the tourist route within the Vatican grounds- to say nothing of the many surrounding Roman city landmarks! As for Da Vinci? Yes, he was quite amazing in his own right but it appears that his father went out of his way to have FREED poor Caterina (who may have been from a Circissian from the Near East) right before she gave birth. Evidently, he was worried about getting punished for having gotten another person's slave in the family way! However, even though the elder Da Vinci wound up having the main custody of Leonardo from infancy onward to give his son a chance, he DID help provide Caterina with a dowry so she could marry someone else (and, as you said Caterina stayed in contact with their son). Of course, this is as good a place as any to mention that a dowry could be invested by a woman's husband and in-laws and they could reap the benefits of any interest. However, if the woman's husband, died before her, the principle of the dowry was supposed to revert to her in her own right and that would be the end of the in-laws' obligation to support her. Now, if the husband died young- especially without having sired a living son, this would mean that the widow would somehow have to make the dowry stretch the rest of her existing hand-to-mouth often as a de facto unpaid servant in her in-laws' place. However, if the husband died after X number of decades and left behind at least one living adult son, this often meant the widow would herself have become the family matriarch and mother of the new head of the family with dower rights to live in the marital home until her own death AND would use the dowry as her own 'mad money' in addition to being comfortably provided for by her progeny.

Two things: One is that it seemed evident to me that Miss Barr wore the cornrow [wig?] to go along with that video that went out of its way to deliberately insult African-Americans for derision (and not remotely 'humor'- unless one chooses the most mean-spirited derivation for one's definition) as opposed to in any way try to jar anyone's memory of Mrs. Derek (though now married to John Corbett). Secondly, IMO via her tude, Miss Barr has been a complete ZERO for some time as opposed to anything resembling a '10' -unless possibly on a scale of one to a trillion!

Since I mentioned it in the History Nerds SubForum (and there is a bit of legend involved in this as opposed to strictly documented historical fact), I thought I'd talk about the other independent nation that's totally surrounded by the Republic of Italy- the Republic of San Marino a mere 24 square miles/61 square kilometers with about 33,000 citizens but far from having unimaginative origins. To begin with its namesake capital 'city' of San Marino is located on the summit of its highest point the three-peaked Monte Titano (at 2425 feet/739 meters) which got its name due to the legend of an attempt by the gigantic rebellious Titans who decided to build a gigantic hill to climb upon to attempt to storm the sky where the King of the Greek gods Zeus reigned supreme. Well, Zeus got wind of it and threw off the Titans then crushed the hill to the present size but it's still the most prominent peak overlooking the port of Rimini on the Adriatic Sea which is just six miles (ten kilometers) away from San Marino border. Anway, as per its official [if not entirely documented ] history, the Republic of San Marino was traditionally founded on September 3,301 A.D. as by a stonemason later called Saint Marinus who had converted to Christianity despite the Roman Empire's edicts, then fled up to the mountaintop to escape persecution. Among other legends that have arisen about Marinus was how either after he returned home from visiting a Christian bishop OR was fleeing bandits, he found that his trusty donkey had gotten mauled and eaten by a bear! Rather than run away from this bear, Marinus actually TALKED to the bear and told the bear about how the bear's gluttony towards the poor donkey had made life harder for Marinus. .and the bear actually got guilt-tripped and agreed to take the donkey's place to pull Marinus's plow to sew his field AND even let Marinus put a saddle on him to give him rides (and, as per the bandit variation, gave the chasing bandits a scare to convert then joint Marinus's new refuge). Regardless, by the time of Marinus's death in 366 A.D. when he was about 90, a community of Christians had been established around the peaks of the mountain and, after he was declared a saint, they'd name it for him! It may have been that the Romans seeing their Empire starting to fall apart at the seams might have simply decided not to enforce their rule on that mountaintop so they could concentrate on trying to stabilize their main ports and roadways. Be that as it may, by the time the Roman Empire fell, San Marino had become a completely independent domain and evidently (with only a few interruptions down the centuries) would have a republican form of government from the beginning to the present day. It often would play its larger neighboring territories (Venice and the Papal States,etc.) against each other to maintain this independence over the centuries. In the early 19th century, Napoleon had a rare moment of sentimentality in deciding to preserve it despite his intent on conquering the REST of the Italian peninsula- even offering to have its domain expanded which the San Marinese authorities very politely but firmly declined. Then, after giving refuge to the founder of modern Italy (Garabaldi), Garabaldi himself proved grateful enough to his onetime sanctuary that, as soon as he had any power, he mandated that San Marino would always be a completely free and independent domain even though it was entirely surrounded by Italian territory! San Marino wisely declared itself neutral in both World Wars- despite being somewhat pressured by the Italian government especially under Mussolini. However it HAS stayed independent- although it has used the Italian lira and now the euro for its currency. Tourism is its main economy - and among many other souvenirs for sale, one can buy t-shirts with the sky-blue and white striped national flag with its coat of arms in the middle AND even a teddy bear (hearkening back to the Saint Marinus's own bear) wearing a t-shirt with the national flag!

Roseanne Barr has just released a new 'video' in which she deliberately crudely trashes African-Americans for not . .. agreeing with her about . . .something. If one thought she couldn't have possibly sung worse than her infamous attempt at the US National Anthem. . this proves that there's no such thing as 'too far' for her! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Virtually from the Fall of the Roman Empire onward, there were numerous properties and territories controlled by the Catholic Church all over Western Europe that dotted the landscape. However, essentially in the upper shin of the Italian boot, there existed a wide band known as the Papal States that were directly ruled by the Popes themselves from Rome via their main palace compound known as the Vatican (and it needs to be said despite being ruled by the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church wasn't above going to war with other neighboring territories down the centuries) . Meanwhile other territories in the Italian boot ranged from numerous independent city-states (which the tiny Republic ofmSan Marino has wound up being the last survivor) to territories within controlled by empires in other parts of Europe (e.g. what's now Germany, Austria, France and Spain). However by the 19th century, there was an increasingly strong momentum of folks from all parts of the Italian peninsula (as well as neighboring islands including Sardinia and Sicily) that wanted to form a united nation of folks who spoke the basic Italian language (albeit with many dialects and variations) and under the leadership of the Kingdom of Sardinia this would become a reality- granted not without wars and bloodshed involved. One thing that virtually everyone who wanted the whole peninsula united under a single nation DID agree upon was that they wanted the onetime Imperial namesake capital of Rome as their own capital city. Guess who still controlled Rome and the Papal States during that time? That's right the Popes- and they weren't about to give up the their own capital city much less its surrounding territories. However, by 1870, Rome did indeed get captured by the newer Kingdom of Italy and made it its capital city. The ruling Pope Pius IX refused to recognize Italy's right to the govern the Papal States much less the city of Rome being the capital of the newer nation and proclaimed himself the 'prisoner of the Vatican'- and all his successors would do the same for the next 59 years. Flash forward to the 1920's, while the Kingdom of Italy still existed, by that point, the king was merely a figurehead head of state while the actual ruler of Italy was none other than Benito Mussolini! Well, Mussolini was by no means a devout Catholic but he didn't like the idea of someone openly protesting the existence of his nation (much less his own rule) within his territories. .who could potentially rally other Catholics within and from all over Western Europe to do the same so he and his representatives decided to approach the current pope (Pius XI) and, essentially, agreed that not only would the Kingdom of Italy itself but would encourage all other nations to recognize the Pope as the sole temporal ruler of a brand new territory consisting of the Vatican palace complex and grounds that would be known the completely independent nation of Vatican City. In exchange, the Pope [and his successors] would recognize the Kingdom of Italy's right to exist AND be governed by the city of Rome( outside the Vatican itself) and this would be concluded by the Lateran Treaty in 1929! Yep, so this is how the world's smallest independent nation of 0.19 square miles/0.49 square kilometers came to be!

Maybe they could try their luck in Sleepy Eye. There doesn't seem to have been much that ever happened there- and it was very close to Walnut Grove!