Blergh

OK, since this is a trivia thread, this would be as good a place as any to discuss the one who may be the least documented of US Presidential spouses, one Hannah Hoes Van Buren (1783-1819). She had been born in her future husband Martin's hometown of Kinderhook, New York on the Hudson River and, like her future husband, her first language was Dutch instead of English and was said to speak English with a strong Hudson Valley Dutch accent. Yes, in spite of the fact that the original Dutch colony had fallen to the English in 1660, many if not most of the descendants of the original colonists tenaciously maintained their ancestral homeland's mother tongue (and, in some cases would do so as late as the early 20th century before phonographs and radio somewhat overwhelmed the tradition). Anyway, Hannah also happened to be a maternal first cousin of Martin and evidently had been childhood sweethearts yet they would not marry until 1807 when Hannah was at the somewhat then-late age of 24. She would bear five children but only three sons would survive infancy and poor Hannah herself would die of tuberculosis at the age of 35 with her youngest surviving son not yet two years old. Despite his own loss of marital companionship and their young sons being motherless, her widower would never remarry before his own death 43 years later at age 79 in 1862. Their eldest son Abraham's 20-year-old wife Angelica Singleton Van Buren would serve as de facto First Lady from 1838-1841 after Martin had become the 8th President. Unlike his predecessor Thomas Jefferson (who endlessly memorialized his late wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson), Martin was rather private about his feelings towards Hannah- to the degree that he didn't mention her even ONCE in his 900 page autobiography ! Some say that he didn't want her to be scrutinized by future historians but who knows. I wonder how their sons felt about that!

Will someone clue me in WHY anyone would want to willingly be in the same hemisphere as him much less in any way patronize Mr. Brown after ALL his abuses of those who DID like him? NOT that this remotely justified ANY kind of alleged abuse on his part towards these folks who deserve justice after what he evidently did but I just don't see any benefit in having anything to do with him- regardless of whether they like his music.

Not the biggest fan in the world. However, I couldn't help but be moved by the French-Canadian iconic singer Celine Dion's powerful and triumphant performance in Friday night's Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics! Even if I had had no knowledge of how she's had very limited public appearances and performances in recent months due to her having to battle a neurological condition, it would have been quite a cathartic performance but since her recent health challenges ARE known, that makes it all the more vindicating! I can't imagine how she managed to appear SO healthy and invigorated last night after so many months of battling that condition but somehow, somehow she did it and even if she has more issues in the future from that condition NOTHING can take away from how she DID shine on the literal world stage- not even the constant rain that poured down and that's something she and her loved ones can draw strength from in the future!

In this age of so many conflicts happening, I think our Forum may take heart to hear about a longstanding rift FINALLY coming to an end. Namely, in the Little House 50 Podcast,they had none other than Melissa Sue Anderson guesting! Yep, Mary Ingalls herself! They ALL gave her a warm welcome with the hostess Pamela Bob saying she'd ALWAYS been on 'Team Mary' and thought she had been an excellent teen performer. MSA and Alison Arngrim confirmed that when they'd gotten together for the fan event in Monte Carlo, they took in the sights like 'two old lady tourists' and had fun- and cleared up 'old misunderstandings'. No, they didn't go into detail exactly what had been cleared up (and it's probably just as well since even mentioning them could have started needless speculations). And MSA was very diplomatic relaying what she thought of her fellow LHOTP cast members mostly just saying they were 'interestingly' but surprisingly saying that in her opinion, MG had had the most fun working! There was one moment when she completely broke up AA, Dean Butler and the hostess Pamela Bob. MSA said that after Mary had gone blind, she had gotten fan letters from viewers who'd thought that MSA had actually lost her sight AND that the scripts had been specially tailored JUST so MSA could keep working despite that' new challenge'! Yep, not only had they totally missed the memo that Book and RL Mary HAD gone blind but they totally defied logic in actually sending MSA support letters -inasmuch as if they sincerely believed MSA had gone blind, HOW did they expect her to READ the letters? LOL This was roughly the time when Ellen Corby had returned to The Waltons severely challenged by having had a devastating stroke- and the scripts had had her character of Esther 'Grandma' Walton also having to contend with that. So, perhaps those viewers that had gotten their wires crossed and believed that something similar had happened to MSA. Anyway, I thought this deserved a good mention in these parts!

OK, now that I brought up the late Ruth Gordon (1896-1985) elsewhere, I might as well add one of my fave one-shots she did was on Rhoda (1974-1978) as Carlton the [never seen] Doorman's Mother. Carlton's Mother [no other name given]was a flaky grifter of the first order who, even when pressing for Rhoda to get Carlton's job restored, never stopped trying to get the best of others (and likely contributed a great deal to Carlton's character). Oh, and she had one of the best lines ever: "You know who his father was!" Carlton's Mother. "No!"-Rhoda "Me neither!"-Carlton's Mother.

One of the only redeeming qualities he had was that his sneaky grandma was played by Ruth Gordon. She'd raised him wrong from early childhood and Kirk (and his new bride) wound up in jail thanks to her shenanigans. Yeah, she simultaneously brought the laughs AND somehow got the viewer to genuinely feel sorry for her framed grandson and granddaughter-in-law.

I'm not arguing with you on this (and somehow I don't think Rhea Perlman would either). However, Louie was the ONE sure-fire lemon in the batch for the Taxi lemonade. OTOH,IMO, Bobby Wheeler (the late Jeff Conaway) was annoying and arrogant and by no means the bestie he wanted the rest of the crew to think he was- and he was needlessly antagonist to Louie on those rare occasions when Louie attempted to muster civility to him. He kept rubbing it everyone's faces how he was an actor wasting his time driving cabs and would soon have his Big Break, be outta there & so long SUCKERS! That didn't happen and the audience was expected to throw him a pity party until he abruptly was gone. Frankly, I was relieved when Bobby was gone and thought the group seemed a great deal less tense thereafter.

I wasn't talking about [in itself bogus] EVOO. However if Miss Ray DOES use 'whatEV',etc. (actually needlessly shortening words and terms without re-translating them), then my stance re her being lazy as well as cute in doing so stands. P.S. All the above said though, I've tried very hard to avoid having to hear her for quite a few years (almost as much as Progressive Flo) so I don't claim to be an expert in her verbiage.

I remember Burger Chef- mainly because it had cheezy cartoon ads with the plumb middle aged calm protagonist of the same name with his frantic teen employee/sidekick Jeff (and called 'The Adventures of Burger Chef and Jeff'). Anyway Jeff had one of my fave early 1970's slang terms 'Increda-BURGER-ble!

IMO, Miss Ray et.al. are most likely attempting but failing to be cute but succeeding in being lazy!

Question: is the audience truly expected to believe that Jonathon had a more fun time with Alice than Nels did with Harriet?

Wouldn't it be less dicey to use a clothes pin on one's nose? And does anyone watching truly get the 'she smells as fresh as a daisy' vibe from that shill?

That's infuriating that these often literal life-and-death emergency services got messed up (in addition to the airlines,etc.)! I was very lucky in that all that happened re my workplace was that we were told to write down our clock in,lunch times,etc. because there was no access to the 'Net time clock for a few hours. However, by the time I clocked out, that had been resolved (and I'd written down the times prepared to email the supes with it). But how many times has some kind of essential 'Net service crashed, been hacked or otherwise failed- and there wound up having been no back up plan or alternative (much less any means to at least protect individual functions,etc, from being effected)? And yet instead of at least individual safeguards or alternates in place or being considered, the consumers from individuals to corporations to essential services are strongly encouraged to not consider using any option BUT the 'Net- regardless of how frequently these egg baskets get scrambled because WHY?!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I

Yeah, I thought 'zah' was a lame and lazy way to say 'pizza' but one of my college pals from Atlanta used it all the time in RL back in the 1980's but it seemed an almost unique usage in my circle . I have no idea if he still uses it in the post-Millennial 20's. FWIW, it's not as lame as 'what EV'- as if one can't bother to use the energy to invest in the 'er' when trying to communicate 'whatever'. What next? 'What-EH', perhaps?

Taking it to small talk. . .

To think Dr. Hartley outlived them all except for Jerry the Dentist!

I could actually believe Bernard the mouse was blushing while Miss Bianca (Eva Gabor) flirted with him- thanks to Mr. Newhart's hesitations and pauses in all the right spots! Yeah, they were an awesome team! Thanks for reminding me of the great cartoon chemistry and teamwork of Mr. Newhart and Miss Gabor!

Yeah, I actually looked forward to Saturday nights seeing The Bob Newhart Show so I could visit Bob and Emily as well as their offbeat colleagues, pals and patients. Even though by all accounts Mr. Newhart was a dedicated family man, oddly enough he grew dissatisfied with the sitcom because he missed having to prove himself to new audiences each night as a standup comic! Yes, here he was having reached the goal of being The Star of his namesake sitcom and all the security it promised his family and yet he never lost his craving for the live audience approval well into his 90's! Isn't that amazing? BTW, as long as I'm thinking about his standup one-sided 'phone' routines, I might as well mention a phrase Mr. Newhart at the very least popularized via his dry delivery 'Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?'- told about a century after the event! May the younger generations soon find their way to YouTube,etc. and see him in his prime instead of solely knowing him as the aging Professor Proton! RIP, Mr. Newhart and have a fun reunion with Mrs. Newhart, Miss Pleshette, Mr. Poston, Mr. Rickles,Miss Wallace and so many others!

To Be or Not to Be (1942): A black comedy starring Carole Lombard [in her last role] and Jack Benny as a clashing married theatrical couple who do all they can to save their loved ones in Warsaw after the 1939 NAZI takeover. To Be or Not to Be (1983): starring Mel Brooks and his RL wife Anne Bancroft in virtually the same plot as above but with some different touches. The usually dramatic serious performer Miss Bancroft displays excellent comic timing here. It's been 41 years since the last remake, could we be due for one in 2024?

ML: Directors are a dime a dozen in this town, but my chest is irreplaceable. It stays, YOU go!

In other marital news, Shannen Doherty's divorce from her 3rd husband was finalized -possibly as recently as the day before if not the actual day of her death. I wonder if she might have willed herself to stay alive to make sure THAT was taken care of. I know that she was quite worried about her mother in the event of the older woman outliving her. Hence, it would make sense that she wouldn't want her mother to deal with an estranged widowed son-in-law. It's by no means unheard of for terminally ill people to somehow hang on long enough to try to accomplish one last goal before letting go.

I think it sounds like a four-way tie re spouse-picking with only booby prizes netted. At least the former Miss Haack had no offspring by Mr. Hall so they can split and never have to see or hear from each other again (to say nothing of not having to deal with any custody clashes).

You mean, she wasn't talking about looking forward to sipping milk or juice? Seriously, I hope she gets the help and doesn't get overwhelmed by the replays of one of her . . .worse intonations. .

FWIW, one of my fave TV weddings was the 1968 wedding of the former middle son Robbie Douglas (the late Don Grady[Agretti] )with the fetching collegian Katie Miller (Tina Cole) on My Three Sons. For one thing it showed the dynamics of an interesting extended family on her side reminiscing about family history, while preparing for the latest wedding. I also liked how the brides' extended family and bridesmaids carefully strategized with military precision each step as they were getting ready for the big moment giving themselves plenty of time to get everything perfect. In contrast Robbie and the rest of the all-male Douglas clan frantically woke up just an hour and a half before the big event in a panic and had to quickly clean themselves up and get suited up before racing to the church while being worried about their missing family dog [which was where the bulk of the sitcom episode's humor arose]. Of course, the two parties came together (and so did the family dog Tramp at the last minute in the church itself) and they had an otherwise conventional and uneventful ceremony with the whole wedding party looking immaculate despite the male half of it having been zonked to the world 90 minutes earlier. P.S. Bonus points for them actually using a hithero unseen venue to conduct the wedding instead of a regular set (e.g. a communal apartment, an office, cafe,etc.) which few folks in real life would opt to use to tie the knot.

I know they had their reasons for having had a falling out (and I'm not going to rehash them at this time). However, I truly hope that Melissa Gilbert and Shannen Doherty were able to make their peace with each other before the end- or at the very least each made their peace with having decided not to reconcile.