Blergh

^

In addition to ignoring the issues of the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977 which both our nations signed and agreed to abide by and the internationally recognized sovereignty of the nation of Panama over the area once known as the Canal Zone, I hope someone points to #45 (in front of a live video feed) that the Canal is not only showing its age but it can no longer pin having an endless water supply to keep safely floating the ships traversing it. Yes, back in 1914, there were constant monsoons that virtually shut down the construction of the Canal until someone got the idea of damming all that extra fresh water into something called Gatun Lake which could be used to ensure that the Canal would have an endless supply to maintain its locks. No one back then imagined that one day in the future, despite the Isthmus being between two oceans that the rains wouldn't be so abundant and that, in the last few years, the Canal has had to bar some of the larger and heavier vessels due to there being too little water to safely operate. But, of course, too many folks surrounding #45 would rather plug their ears and hum than to consider the existence of climate change despite what virtually anyone looking outside a window can see for themselves unless they'd opt to be willfully ignorant so they don't have to admit there's an issue that needs to be dealt with if not tended to.

Names can have some unexpected origins. Take for example of the time when the Phoenicians decided to explore and set up trading ports on the Mediterranean's western most extreme landmass now known as the Iberian peninsula. Anyway, at that time (c. 800 BC) the place was covered by a very thick and dense forest which was teeming with rabbits. So many rabbits that they termed the area 'land of rabbits'. ..which,as per most scholars would become the root for the name of the eventual nation of Spain!

Sorry about that. Well, FWIW, why didn't the Sultan set him up in a townhouse.N/M

Yeah, if any alleged adult at that shindig had had any decency, they'd have had that underage child sent home in a cab as soon as she was spotted (as would have been the case for that girl left in Mr. Polanski's company at Jack Nicholson's abode). Alas, nothing jaded and indifferent so-called adults appeared to have been at both places.

Actually, my fave character has always been. ..Alice- even as a kid! I suppose I liked the idea of having a quirky but heart-of-gold live-in referee housekeeper around. However, I always thought it was a bit unfair that Alice was never seen to eat meals en famille with the rest of the Bradys -except perhaps for a midmorning coffee with Carol or when they were all on vacation. Yes, it was a big boon to the family dynamics that they took her with them on vacations (and that would be the only waking hours when Alice wasn't seen in her uniform- except for the occasional bowling night dates with Sam the Butcher). . Although, I wonder if Alice might have preferred to have been left solo to tackle big cleaning projects without worrying about anyone interrupting or messing things up at Casa Brady. Oh well. .

Never saw that series but I have to admit that I'm impressed that they gave the character of the female djini's name as EDEN. Now, of course, as a given name it can be used for either gender. However, what's cool is that it seems they saluted the legendary star Barbara Eden (born 1931) of the classic TV sitcom I Dream of Jeanie (1965-1970) by bestowing her performing surname to that character. Oh well, N/M and thanks for straightening me out, @Spartan Girl .

7 days?! That's a tiny fraction of how long it would have taken for any hapless pedestrian to have been hospitalized had that thrown chair from 6 floors above injured them- to say nothing of said chair possibly KILLING a pedestrian had that landed on them and their loved ones' lives NEVER being the same! Does anyone truly believe that had this been a non-celeb who'd been convicted of throwing that chair that they'd have only gotten that pittance of a wrist-slap regardless of their sobriety or lack thereof? Oh, and I'm not also overlooking those fans who eagerly overlooked that crime (along with his vile racist slurs being caught on tape) to pay monies to pack his live-action concerts thereafter! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've said what I've said about my theory of Cousin Oliver's blood bond to Carol and everyone can decide for themselves whether or not my theory has credence. Moving on. . Did anyone else watching the Wedding Pilot believe (as kids) that Mike and Carol had been needlessly harsh to their kids and deserved to guilt trip themselves from enjoying their first (and last?) chance of privacy at their honeymoon hotel? Oddly enough, I recall siding against the Brady parents after the Tiger-Fluffy Chase Fiasco. However, does anyone else as an adult have since come to believe that Mike was right to chastise the boys for not having secured Tiger in their car during the wedding [e.g. having a leash tied to the inside door handle] if not have had them leave him home in the first placeand that Carol shouldn't have felt guilty for telling her daughters to 'stop that SCREAMING!' since it wasn't helping anything regardless of their feelings for their one-episode feline. ..and that the Brady parents SHOULD have done their best to enjoy their privacy in the honeymoon lodge? Of course, even if one's stance about whether or not the Brady parents had been right or wrong earlier hadn't changed, it's hard to imagine any viewer over twelve not wondering where all NINE humans as well as their canine and feline companions were supposed to sleep in that honeymoon suite with just the ONE bed! It was a bigger than usual bed but it couldn't have held all eleven lodgers so my guess is that some if not all the Brady kids (and Alice) wound up sleeping on the floor !

Let's not overlook the confusion that got sewn for those viewing ML's closing narration celebrating Mrs. Wilder's eventual publication of works that would still be popular in contemporary (early 1980's) times as evinced by the uncredited Landon daughter running in said library to pick this out. I'm sure the bulk of viewers knew that ML not only played Charles but also produced, direct and wrote the bulk of the series' episodes. Hence, no surprise he used all that behind-the-scenes clout to permit himself to do said narration. However, ML's narration didn't once say 'I'm Michael Landon' before the 'blah blah blah'. Hence, it's probable that at least some younger and/or naive viewers might have wondered if this meant that somehow Charles Ingalls himself was narrating Mrs. Wilder's and the Little House tomes eventual fates. .having somehow lived to the age of 153 yet still vocally sounding as though he was at least a century younger!

Hearkening back to President Lincoln. .. It's well known that he was born in a tiny log cabin in Kentucky in 1809 but by the time anyone actually tried to seek it out (after his assassination), they found a ramshackle ruined cabin in a spot in the vicinity where it was believed to have stood. .so an exhibitor wasted no time dismantling that particular cabin to exhibit in the latter part of the 19th century. Guess who else had been born in a log cabin in Kentucky? The Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1808 in a spot about 100 miles from the US President's possible birthplace. Anyway, it soon came to pass that someone got the idea of displaying these two cabins side by side. Since these two cabins were on tour, they had to be taken apart then put back together quite a few times but, as anyone who has ever played with Lincoln logs knows, it's not so easy to keep track of WHICH logs go into which parts of a cabin,etc.- and no one had thought to actually MARK the individual logs before taking them apart the first time. Anyway from 1906 onward, the cabin that has been claimed as the purported birthplace of Abraham Lincoln has had a permanent home sheltered beneath a much larger building in the style of Greek temple. The irony is that it's a virtual certainty that at least SOME of its logs came from Jefferson Davis's birthplace log cabin!

Both Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) had rather . ..complicated bonds with their respective original families. President Lincoln had grown up destitute and had been somewhat neglected after his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln's death when he was about nine and felt his father Thomas (1778-1851) had considered him little more than a workhorse. However, he supposedly was instantly charmed by his stepmother Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (1788-1669). Whatever the future President's feelings were, he did not heed the summons to his father's deathbed in 1851 and, for whatever reasons, never introduced his own sons to their paternal grandfather or stepgrandmother even when they lived in Springfield, Illinois about 90 miles away from the elder Lincolns' home in Coles County. As for Mary Todd Lincoln? She had been born into a very wealthy Lexington, Kentucky family and one of fourteen children sired by Robert Smith Todd (1791-1849)but also had lost her own mother Elizabeth Parker Todd (1794-1825) when she was only six. Alas, she did not get along with her stepmother Elizabeth Humphries Todd (1800-1874) who Robert married the next year and didn't always have the smoothest dealings with her many half-sibs by the 2nd Mrs. Todd. Three of Mrs. Todd's sons would join the Confederate Army and two of her daughters would marry Confederate generals while Mary was the First Lady of the United States which was at war with the Confederate States! Kentucky itself had become a Border State which meant that they technically stayed part of the Union but allowed slaveholders to legally keep their slaves- as long as they went to the nearest county courthouse and swore an Allegiance oath to the United States! Well, few of the Todd half-siblings bothered with that.Amazingly enough President Lincoln tried to keep peace with his in-laws -including his Confederate supporting stepmother- and sibs-in-law- to the degree of even inviting Mary's half-sister Emilie Todd Hardin (1836-1930) to the White House shortly after losing her husband who'd been a Confederate general. Of course, after President Lincoln was assassinated, Mary not only flatly refused to venture back to her home state of Kentucky but she refused to have anything more with her stepmother or those half-sibs who'd been Confederates- believing them to have contributed to the President's death via having supported the opposing government! There was a popular saying about the egos of the Kentucky Todds in the 19th century. 'God spelled His Name with one 'd' so that's why the Todds spelt their name with two d's!'

Can we just pretend that Blanche just dreamt that whole series after having fallen asleep watching a Petticoat Junction marathon while gorging on Mexican food? Speaking for myself, the only good that came from it was that it gave Miss Getty, Miss McClanahan and Miss White steady paychecks for another year but nothing more. I loathed how IMO they turned their three characters into cartoonish caricatures!

Perhaps her consumption might have gotten her to exaggerate- though it wasn't by much! Of course, the irony is that while Charles cried a river at the drop of a dime, it took a LOT to shake Caroline's stoicism yet I can't recall Charles crying once in Mrs. Wilder's works!

While some may consider today being Friday the 13th to be unlucky, no doubt Dick Van Dyke considers today lucky because it's his 99th Birthday and he's still in very good shape with his mind intact. Not to be outdone, though is the daughter of the performing legend Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) Maria Riva (born Maria Elisabeth Seiber) who seems to have inherited her mother's longevity and then some because she turns 100 years old today! Happy Birthday Mr. Van Dyke and Mrs. Riva!

While Mr. Hughes had a horrible self-wrought end winding up having nothing despite his billions, sometimes in his earlier life he'd actually do unexpected good. Long short is that years after his romance with Lana Turner was over. Miss Turner had remarried and had suffered a life-threatening miscarriage which prompted her mother Mildred to fly cross country to be with her. Mrs. Turner was surprised that at the flight's speed which, it turned out broke a commercial airline speed record but as she was deplaning, she saw that none other than Mr. Hughes himself had piloted that TWA flight JUST so she could be with her daughter- and never said a word to her before they parted ways!

Maybe I'm out of the loop but has anyone heard whether Miss Knowles has made any comment for public record re the accusations against her spouse? I mean adultery with a consenting adult would be bad enough but it's not a technical crime. However, one's spouse committing an assault (especially against a minor) would be beyond the Pale (to say the least). P.S. And I don't care if the claimant snuck out of her house with her parents being clueless or looked like she was forty. A crime against a minor would still be a crime against a minor!

But, as I said earlier, Carol mentioned Jack first when talking about the couple and most folks usually list their sibs first when talking about them and their sibs-in-law so I think it's more likely than not that Jack was her brother and Pauline her sister-in-law. Curiously Robbie Rist in recent years has made a webpage with the pseudonym 'Oliver Martin' so he evidently believes that Martin had been Cousin Oliver's surname- even though Mrs. Brady's parents' surname was Tyler AND Martin had been her own (and her daughters') surname previous to her Brady union so that might somehow offer a clue. ..or perhaps Mr. Rist got confused.

Well, in Miss Lee's defense (I guess), she and Miss Moreno had both been born to struggling parents in small towns that they'd leave soon after their respective parents' union ended (Miss Lee's via her father's sudden death, Miss Moreno's via her parents' split- and mother's kidnapping of her to NYC) and would each become the support of their mothers while still preteens. Then would each tour and perform to a worldwide venue then meet and befriend many others from diverse backgrounds so I don't think either of them would necessarily turn their nose at the other. FWIW, they both met Elvis in the 1950's. Miss Moreno had a rather blah 'revenge date' with him to get back at her then-flame Marlon Brando only to find Elvis to be handsome and polite but, in her POV, dull. Whereas, Miss Lee and he bonded over admiring each other's musical talents (though kept things platonic since she was only nine and her mother watched her carefully) yet would stay family friends until his 1977 death. Maybe the two of them might have their fun comparing notes even if they don't have the same points of view on Elvis or other topics!

Two tiny but mighty entertainment pioneers born in Georgia and Puerto Rico (respectively) are celebrating important milestones today. Happy 80th Birthday to Miss Brenda Lee (born Brenda Mae Tarpley) and Happy 93rd (?!) Birthday Miss Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverio Marcano)! I'm not sure these two have ever crossed paths but I can't help but imagine they'd get along like a house on fire if they've ever done so!

OK, some months ago, I got glare in my eyes from a sunset while backing my car into the driveway and didn't see a tree limb until after the tail light cover got smashed. I put the clear Gorilla tape around it to keep the working lights from shorting out from the weather but I thought since it was time to winterize the car to get that taillight cover for real. The winterization turned out to be no joke (including replacing the car battery) but they said the tail light cover would have to be done next time when they got that part in. Well, it wound up that not only did the whole thing cost over $700 but the bulk of it was for the labor because [wait for it], they had to take off the WHOLE REAR BUMPER to put in the new tail light cover AND, even though all the brake and parking lights worked fine, they had to replace ALL those too, along with the damaged cover! Why do they now make cars so EVERY single repair has not only costs $$$ but is unable to be done by oneself with the parts? I mean, it's bad enough that one can no longer carry a true spare tire due to trunks deliberately made too small for anything but those 'temporary 7 mile' spares but why should a tail light cover need to have the whole rear bumper removed just to get to it?

That's a good question. Ironically Miss Spears's mother Lynne has been a schoolteacher but it seems couldn't care less about education re her progeny which is too bad because I think Miss Spears and both of her sons could benefit from getting a college or university education to expand their horizons. P.S. I know that her elder son is an adult who has formed his own POVs re Miss Spears but that doesn't meant that said POV will forever be set in stone to the end of time nor that there's no possibility of him looking at the bigger picture re family dynamics. I can think of a situation I knew where one family member was the punchline/ whipping person for everyone else including their own offspring (and nothing positive whatsoever about them was mentioned to outsiders after they became adults) but no one in their immediate family ever considered how this person was raised led to how they related to everyone as an adult. Too bad. Hopefully one or both of the Federline offspring will avoid that trap despite the odds.

Thanks for the explanation. All the above dialogue about them makes me very happy I NEVER bothered to watch a moment of that show!

I'm sorry but hoping that someone (even a minor) may somehow find a means to have a broader perspective re their family dynamics is NOT 'putting the onus' on them. I mean I fully realize that it would be more likely than not that an individual would maintain their original perception of their family but that doesn't mean there is no possibility for growth. If there was no possibility for growth of change for the better than no one would have ever invented clothes or made shelters besides caves. Now, if I had said that one or both of Miss Spears somehow were obligated to seek out a more empathic perspective of their mother's MO OR they were bad or disloyal sons, THEN I would agree that would be putting the onus on them but I'm not doing that by any means. I also sadly concede that both Miss Spears and Mr. Federline ARE part of the problem re their offspring. Still, I refuse to pretend that there's zero possibility for change for the better or hope-especially when it comes to minors.

Thanks for the heads up on the podcast. One thing I found interesting is how his surviving offspring attested that Mr. French's entire offscreen demeanor did a 180 upon getting the role of Mr. Edwards since he actually had become quite burdened to the point of letting it darken his POV of himself by the villainous roles he had frequently played beforehand. I've often heard performers claim to have had their fun playing villains but I can't help but think that after a time, the roles would become somewhat of a burden if one truly wasn't a malevolent individual. In any case, despite his other faults, it's good that ML gave him (and his career) a new lease on life via that role -and it's also good that they gained a sincere friendship that (despite the Carter Country stumble) managed to survive to the end of Mr. French's days.