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Blergh

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Everything posted by Blergh

  1. I didn't always agree with her stances. However; having to watch one's spouse die from the inside out over a very long period of time cannot have been easy for anyone so I have to say I salute Mrs. Reagan for her courage and resolve to make his last days as comfortable as possible even long after he himself knew who he'd been or who she was. I hope she and her daughter were able to resolve their differences before the end and agreed to disagree. RIP, Mrs. Reagan [born Ann Frances Robbins].
  2. While 'veggies' isn't my favorite slang term, IMO, it sounds better than 'Kyook' for cucumber and 'Nannies' for bananas. The first term makes me wanna do something that rhymes with it while the latter seems better fitted for 'Romper Room'. Yes, I heard all the above when I worked in produce long ago.
  3. Actually, I liked Ms. Bastianich's segment and found it sadly ironic that her Istrian family had been condemned by changing authorities for being not Italian or not Slav SO many times, that they'd literally lost track of what their REAL surname (and origins ) were! Yes, Miss Margioles's segment re seeing her great-grandfather's US citizen certificate was quite moving- especially considering that in Romania he'd had had NO citizenship whatsoever. Also, especially gripping to find out that her grandmother surviving that shipwreck as a small child AND had indeed been fed warm milk to revive her along with other passengers was quite amazing. I'd like to think that her grandmother considered that warm milk to be the start of her new life and 'rebirth' and perhaps even would always think fondly of it as a drink from that point on for that very reason! Miss Nafisi had an interesting point of view re wanting to proud of her heritage even though her family had had to endure a great deal of persecution by their very nation and things hadn't always been easy here. I like how she found out the poetry of her many times great-grandfather seemed to speak of her OWN experiences so many years later. Kudos to Dr. Gates for not only having a staff able to find documents but also able to so translate them so beautifully.
  4. At the very least the Mom should have made HER clean up her mess in the bathroom!
  5. Can I say that I didn't like Sam Smith as a person even before the Oscar dustup re his claim being the first openly gay winner? His revelation that 'Stay With Me' had to do with his angst over a disinterested man not leaving his wife for him was rather infuriating to me on the grounds that I dislike folks who want to encourage others to discard those they'd vow to stay with forever without a backwards glance. I mean, if either in the song's lyrics or in the explanatory interviews he'd reached the conclusion that he'd been totally selfish to want to have a spouse dumped for him AND that he hadn't considered how it would have been for the spouse had his intended lover dumped her and that he from that point on would only seek out those he believed were single(and interested) , that would have been one thing. But the WHOLE song was 'Woe is me! You don't love me back so you're totally selfish!' and I've never heard of him regretting going after someone he knew was disinterested and with someone else (much less married).
  6. I agree- and I always wished that Tim Reid could have gone further. I liked "Frank's Place" a great deal but I think I was one of the few who ever knew about it.
  7. I always thought it a bit ironic that Andy was so gung-ho on the station going to rock rather than expanding the country-western market to the Midwest!
  8. ' The Trade Ins' may have had a rather flimsy story but I have praise Mr. Schildkraut for being able to so skillfully convey the many emotions re being an old man tormented by pain to understanding that even a few years with pain was better than a century in a 'perfect' body so long as he was with the wife he adored. Also Miss Platt as his elderly wife did a good job being able to wordlessly express wanting to end her husband's pain even if it meant she'd stay old to suddenly being terrified when her 'new' husband declared his passions for her that there'd be no way she could begin to return the gestures much less have any place left in his life. I'd like to think this couple could have given Walter Jamieson and the Queen of the Nile a few lessons re how to appreciate what they had rather than continually craving said youth.
  9. Yes, I think those squabbling parents were awful to their kids but did they truly deserve the fate of thinking their kids had somehow drowned in the pool even though they could never find the bodies?
  10. Good point, attica re Mr. Harris, Ms. Steinem and Miss Cisneros actually having researched the times and places that shaped their ancestors' experiences before being told said ancestors existed. Interesting stories re Mr. Harris's Virginian ancestor not only surviving that attack but also managing to clear the young widow's rep and marry her himself! Still, I agree that while I could see how a momentary unguarded laugh from the shock of learning one's ancestress's fate re being tried then convicted and burned as a witch wouldn't be unexpected , I still don't think just laughing at it as though he'd just witnessed his detention teacher getting a pie in the face was apt. I'm not even related and wouldn't have known her from Eve but I'm still revolted and appalled. Yes, I'm glad he understood that it almost certainly was a case of her trying to protect her own family's lifestock from her neighbors' diseased animals but even had her husband and surviving son somehow bought that she'd deserved the charges(and we don't know either way), life for them during and after her execution would have been very hard and scarring. As for Miss Cisneros. Interesting how she only was able to learn of her mother's side's slow migration through the States to Chicago via the census itself noting where each of her mother's sibs had been born but that no one in her mother's family had talked about having had a rootless life for so long. Also, it seems that Dr. Gates didn't quite get that while Grandfather Cisneros went from being an aristocratic military cadet in Mexico to shoveling coal in his first attempt to live in the States, that didn't mean he wanted his family to think of him as less than an aristocrat even though he'd have had to do such backbreaking work to survive at one time of his life. Nice touch that she was able to find out that she was specifically about 4 percent Mayan from this new test. I wonder if said test could also break down where in Asia, Africa or even Europe one's individual ancestor orginated? Interesting for Ms. Steinem to find out that her own barely remembered paternal grandmother had herself been a proto-feminist (as had her own tormented mother in college). Sad that Grandmother Steinem's brother didn't take the opportunity to flee NAZI Germany after being released but at least his own son made it to the US. I wonder if any of his descendants may try to contact Ms. Steinem. Also, interesting to find out that Ms. Steinem's maternal side actually descended from over two centuries of folks living in the US and not a recent immigrant unlike the other branches. Does anyone know if Ms. Steinem's older sister had any offspring or has the line ended with the two sisters?
  11. OK, I didn't catch Aurelia saying she was from Roanoke Island. Yes, a MUCH smaller place than the entire state of North Carolina but hardly without its problems re how Samuel could have travelled there, found Aurelia's mother+son, then spirited them away from the slaveholder's place AND gotten them OFF the island to the mainland,etc. Yes, there WERE women Confederate spies but I'm not sure Alice Green would have what it would take to do that or anything else useful for the organization.
  12. forumfish, Your pet peeve re your sister and mother brought to mind one I discovered having to deal with handicapped friends and relatives: wheelchair ramps. Why do so many of them go up at too steep inclines for anyone to safely push the wheelchair up (or keep it from breaking away when exiting down) AND have too sharp angles to be able to effectively turn a heavy wheelchair? I know that things have improved from the days when few buildings outside hospitals had them at all but they don't seem to consider how cumbersome pushing a wheelchair of someone outweighing a helper can be!
  13. Pardon my dissenting re the Casey Affleck interview but IMO , Mr. Colbert was right to address his casual attire and profanities due to this being a network [not cable] show that viewers have invited into their homes. If Mr Affleck wants to dress that way while chatting that way with his pals at a sports bar, fine. However; he's not a homeless person who has no access to more formal attire AND he's not ignorant of non-profane terms so he shouldn't be surprised that Mr. Colbert didn't act as though the emperor was clothed but actually called him on that so he can understand that there are consequences to not attiring and conducting oneself as though one has at least token respect for one's host or audience. Oh, and I don't care how cute others view him.
  14. OK, I guess because I somehow didn't think a lone man with virtually no money or resources could somehow find Aurelia's mother and son with no surname and nothing more to go on than being from 'North Carolina' that's why I didn't believe it was Samuel himself. A poor defense I admit but that's what I've got. Anyway, as much as I'm glad Aurelia got to be reunited with them, I just didn't think that 'North Carolina' was the equivalent of a pinhead-sized village where one could instantly spot a random 7-year-old and instantly know whose child he was. It's interesting to me that Mr. Green appears to be having regrets over having been a participant in slavery (having been in the very prison in which his now-servant Belinda's brother had been a slave and sold away from) -yet has become more reluctant to sign the Oath while his son and younger daughter seem more determined than ever to keep the institution growing. Even though Jimmy Green DID sign the Oath at his mother's instance, I can't imagine he won't do something to screw everything up for the whole family before it's all over. And what would Alice Green have to offer to that organization besides being a 'comfort woman'? Will she stay with them even if Emma's pleas to President Lincoln and Jimmy's signature spring Mr. Green? Also, interesting that Belinda said she was NOT going to leave the Greens but while she may have just said that just to placate them at the moment, it DOES reflect what many older slaves felt re leaving the only homes and families they'd known even when they'd been mistreated by them. I wonder if Dr. Foster's good intents will prevail or will his morphine addiction resurface before the War's end? In any case with the hospital and (almost?) all the regulars still intact, it should be worth sticking around for the conclusion, I think.
  15. DeLurker, Not a bad idea in theory (and intent). However; be warned that even THAT isn't without its risks. I recall once in a store, I went up to mother of well-behaved kids and complimented her and her offspring while dissing some dervish kids in the same spot and she gave me an icy response. As best I could tell, the other kids were either her nieces/nephews or best pal's kids and she didn't like me dissing (by extension) the other mother. Learned my lesson and now ONLY compliment parents of well-behaved kids with no nearby brats because one can't be sure said brats might somehow be connected to the 'good' parent.
  16. In spite of the many anachronisms already enumerated in this Forum, I can't say I was surprised that this series didn't quite have the . . .nerve to totally change history by having the Gunpowder Plot succeed re blowing President Lincoln to Kingdom Come long before Appomattox was in the realm of possibility. A little irony in that Frank throwing himself on the fuse to keep Emma alone from being killed wasn't too dissimilar to how the REAL Gunpowder Plot back in England got foiled due to one of the plotters wanting to keep a cousin from being blown up in Parliament by writing a letter begging the cousin to stay away but the cousin got alarmed enough to tip off the authorities who stopped the plot and had the participants executed. Why the need to have John Wilkes Booth be in on it and what exactly did he do besides urge Frank on? Although I know the odds of having Aurelia's family finding where she was going and meeting up with her before she was due to leave for parts unknown to all but Mary herself were incredulous, considering ALL that Aurelia had gone through in Alexandria, I'm glad she got that one small break (and it would have been interesting to find out HOW her unspecified male relative somehow had learned to READ said notice with the laws so discouraging of literacy for slaves). Also, Aurelia's son, mother and unspecified male relative all seemed like they were middle class freedmen on their way to church NOT fugitive slaves who had had to flee through two hostile states to reach Alexandria. Yeah, I DO hope that's Silas's wounds prove fatal but I wouldn't be surprised if he survived long enough to try to frame Aurelia for it even though ALL she did was take what was due her (her salary). Mrs. Green must have gotten REALLY desperate to be urging Mr. Green to sign the Oath but what's odd that he actually become MORE resistant to it after being imprisoned. Interesting that Belinda's own missing brother had been in that very prison as a slave being sold off and neither she nor Mr. Green were shy mentioning it. I wonder if Mr. Green's 'haunting' could be regrets for HIS role in at the very least doing nothing to prevent Belinda's brother from having been sold off to parts unknown? Good that Jimmy finally got guilted to sign on his father's behalf even though I don't any of them should trust him further than they could throw him. I think Mary wasn't entirely selfless re staying with the dying deserter instead of meeting President Lincoln in that she likely felt a good amount of guilt re not being at her own late husband's deathbed when he died and was willing to roleplay the soldier's abandoning wife whilst she pretended the soldier was her own late husband. Will Miss Hasting and her co-conspirator attempt to strike again? Somehow I wouldn't be surprised. Even though this series had quite a few problems and inconsistencies, in showing how chaotic and volatile life became for folks of every possible background due to this war, I think this series had its merits and I'm interested to see how things conclude for everyone by the end of the Civil War.
  17. I know I already posted a tribute in "Celebrity Deaths" but I'd feel remiss if I didn't honor Miss Harper Lee who gave us her wonderful gift of "Mockingbird" and is now free to be Scout again!
  18. I'll always consider "To Kill a Mockingbird" to be one of the best classic novels of all time and nothing can erase that legacy(not even that debatably timed 'prequel' released last year). In any case, not only is she no longer afflicted by deafness and blindness but she can no longer be exploited by those who sought to use her aging decline to profit from. On a somewhat trivial note, she used her middle name of Harper for the pen name because she had never liked her actual first name of Nelle and didn't want to chance folks mispronouncing it as 'Nellie'. RIP and enjoy the reunion with your real loved ones, Miss Lee.
  19. jird, Maybe he was hoping to be a Sears-Robuck catalogue glove hand model in case the overnight carpentry career didn't work out.
  20. Despite not being a fan of either's music, I was pleasantly surprised by how intriguing both Mr. Coomb's and Mr. LL Cool J'[born Smith]'s genealogies. I think what happened with Mrs. Smith's case of finding out she was adopted late in adulthood wasn't that uncommon a few decades ago when many adoptees were only told of being adopted in adulthood if ever by their parents but it's interesting that it was a random donation linking Mrs. Smith to a half-sister set that ball in motion- and quite amazing that it turned out that Mrs. Smith's bio father had been a prominent boxer and that they've been united to a hithero unknown family. Let's hope things stay as pleasant as possible between these sides of the family. I wonder how many adoptees will be able to find their actual DNA parentage via these databases? Anyway, I thought this was very well done.
  21. In the 19th century, the 'treatment' for syphilis and gonorrhea was with mercury which only made the patient worse and I'm not sure it would have prevented the spread. Also, even if Mary somehow had 'cured' these particular prostitutes, that wouldn't have prevented the soldiers from finding others who hadn't been cured. In any case, it just seemed a bit OOC and from a future century for Mary to have taken this course of action.
  22. Not that I think it was just for Mr. Green to have been arrested but why didn't he hurriedly sign the Oath as soon as they left? He'd already said he'd done it in front of his objecting family and the soldier's own mother so what would it have hurt him to have done so? Didn't he think they'd have checked it out? So, with the putative owner of the property being arrested, does this mean the Greens are now entirely homeless and will that Confederate grave be disinterred? Yes, I agree Silas deserves to pay for what he did to Aurelia, framing Samuel in addition to being horrible at his appointed job of distributing food, medicine and supplies to the wounded and medical staff! Sad that Samuel had to leave (and will Dr. Foster step up to protect Aurelia from Silas) but, Silas virtually signed the man's death warrant so he had no choice. Who was the older woman in Silas's quarters who told what happened- his mother, perhaps? Surprised that Mary would have greenlighted the camp followers to entertain the wounded (and that she wouldn't have known the contemporary euphemisms but used the actual term prostitute). I guess we're to believe that with all the hubbub over the escaped prisoner, then the surprise inspection, Aurelia's emergency surgery somehow got overlooked. I hope somehow Aurelia WILL beat the odds and be reunited with her son Gabriel but those odds were incredible. I know that Mr. Booth had a very long simmering hatred for President Lincoln and all he felt he stood for but was he plotting to do the President in this early? Good that they showed that Mr. Booth was somewhat Elvis-like re popularity back then.
  23. Do I think folks should proclaim a dislike for anything without even the slightest knowledge of it? No, but one can decide re hype and others' descriptions whether one has any interest or liking in something to believe it would be worth giving it a try. If one has gleaned enough info via not personally seeing, reading, interacting,etc. whatever to decide one has no interest or liking for it, that's perfectly okay, IMO. Does this mean one MUST visit North Korea or drink Flint, Michigan water to have the 'right' to decide whether they're any good? I don't think so.
  24. OK, I'm going to buck the thread a bit and say one of my faves was the two parter 'Dr. Fever and Mr. Tide'. The rock vs. disco storyline may sound like it would be lame in hindsight but Mr. Hesseman did an unexpectedly good job of how Johnny was getting more and more enticed to become everything he hated to the point of being willing to destroy who he really was. Also, Miss Anderson got a good moment to shine there as Jennifer used a revelation to try to pull Johnny back. Of course, I knew that the one-note villainess played by the late Mary Frann would have no use for Johnny once she realized she couldn't use him. Oh, and it had a good amount of humor,too.
  25. Would it be considered an 'unpopular opinion' to say I like the 'Commander Audi' commercial? Yeah, I know that letting an old man with such diminished capacity that he's not eating drive a car may not the smartest move. However; I like the idea of letting him have his fun even if its entirely within his own mind (like Captain Pike's fate in the Original "Star Trek"). Also, those pictures and NASA footage were quite impressive!
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