Blergh

Thanks! My area is getting hit hard enough that I wound up having to walk two miles to work (and its an essential business) and I'll almost certainly have to deal with a skeletal crew since buses and taxis are virtually non- existent today (and will likely walk BACK after a very long shift). Anyway, your good wishes are a boon before I rev myself for walking into this in a little bit. As soon as all the dust. .. er s- word settles, I'm going out and buy some waterproof high top winter boots- if they're any left in town!

I cosign you! I've already gone over WHY I'm not going to see it so I'll skip my reasoning for now but just tell all those who claim that ' You HAVE to see it and you'll LOVE it!' , nope! To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, you don't have to eat the whole egg to know that it's rotten and I've gotten enough whiffs conclude it re this movie without needing to eat a single bite - regardless of whether others believe it's a caviar omelette !

Not unless she herself converts to Judaism since she doesn't have the matrilineal DNA required to be automatically Jewish . I suppose her father and grandparents could have had rabbis convert her when she was a child but they didn't seem interested in doing that since they themselves had no interest in Judaism for themselves. I have to admit how touched I was by Miss Rudoph's crying at the thought of an ancestor being on a slave roll at the age of FIVE and identifying with her own small child. What's even more tragic is having to imagine being a mother who not only was enslaved but knew that the baby she's borne was ALSO a slave with no chance of being anything BUT a slave the rest of their lives. As for Mr. Wayan's ancestor who was kidnapped/'kidnapped' by Canadian abolitionists? Perhaps we might consider looking at it from the aspect of someone who'd been a prisoner their entire life who had been burned too many times by false promises to want to chance believing that this new 'offer' could be legit so opted to stay with the Devil he knew rather than chance a new Hell. Well, in any case, he DID stay on the staff long after Emancipation so I suppose he felt comfortable with the family and maybe thought it a boon he'd henceforth have to be compensated for his labors he'd done with nothing more than castoffs from that point on.

Co sign re the winter hysteria. In my area we've had ONE day of school on Tuesday. Monday was understandable due to the MLK Observance but they cancelled it due to yesterday's dusting thru today and already cancelled tomorrow's due to this majorly hyped system. And what's with everyone wiping out milk and bread at the supermarkets? Are there French toast parties going on during winter storms I don't know about [and would they still be on if power outages offed the stoves]? I just wish everyone would learn to accept if not like that these systems are part of life in temperate climates and calmly prepare ahead rather than react to them as though they're imminent tsunamis or Godzillas.

Medically speaking in terms of how appalling the conditions and 'treatments' were in what were termed 'hospitals', they definitely seemed to do their homework. However; why was Mary constantly drawing attention to her widowhood, yet calling herself ' Miss FInney' and not 'Mrs. Strudelmeister' [or whatever her late husband's surname was]? Even if his family had refused to allow a dynastic marriage to a non-noble and compelled him to have a morganatic union with Mary[which would have explained why she was NOT a baroness] , virtually no married or widowed woman besides Lucy Stone in that time would have used her birth surname . Also, had the late baron become a naturalized US citizen before his death [which could have ALSO explained Mary's non-baronessness in that US citizens have always been required to renounce any foreign titles as a condition? However; if the late baron still retained his Germanic subjecthood, then wouldn't that have automatically made Mary a Germanic subject instead of a US citizen since she'd have been the wife/widow of one? Two other minor points. Unless Emma Green had spent her ENTIRE time in a force field bubble while visiting and tending her sister's wounded suitor in that hospital, NO WAY would have had JUST a few tiny blood drops on her skirt's hem rather than have blood and all manner of filth covering a large portion of it. I'll also bet that, in addition to not wanting Emma to be punished too badly for sneaking into the hospital, the reason why the older 'house servant' quickly dragged her out of there then made up a pig slaughter story to explain away Emma's soiled dress was that she knew SHE would be severely punished for not having kept a closer eye on Emma. And who was that lone nun who had no dialogue and even if she was supposed to be a nurse, wouldn't she have been working with at least one other nun rather than being all one her own AND wouldn't she have been wearing a sleeved apron and hat to protect her habit from the filthy conditions she'd be exposed to. Still, I'll be watching to see how this plays out.

OK- here's another classic feud. WAY back in 1936, the movie "Garden of Allah" starring Charles Boyer and Marlene Dietrich was filmed in Death Valley under 100F+ temps. In spite of the fact that it was one of the very first Technicolor movies, with its rather convoluted storyline, it bombed in the US. Anyway, Dietrich scoffed at Boyer putting ice cubes on his hands to combat the horrible heat while she herself stoically endured until finally she had enough and staged a dramatic faint in front of the entire cast and crew. This achieved her desired effect of having the rest of the movie shot back in Hollywood on studio sandboxes. Not too long after the movie's release, it's director Charles Boleslawksi suddenly died at age 48. This prompted Dietrich to say that 'We ALL should have died shooting that movie but he should have died BEFORE. '

Here's another linguistic pet peeve: Using the term 'we' when referring to oneself. Sorry but it just makes you sound pretentious NOT royal [much less clever] so knock it off.

OK, here's [what may not be] an UO re the recently announced "Friends" cast reunion. I think I'll find something else to do when it comes on- as IMO, the show ended about four years too late and I was sick of how annoying and unappealing every single one of the characters had devolved to. It had all the appeal of cereal that had sat in milk that had long since curdled by the time it ended.

Here's a phone pet peeve: Strangers who call my voice mail and leave 'Hello. Are you there?' messages and don't even bother to say who THEY are. No, I'm NOT going to call you back to find out who you are if you couldn't bother to tell me in the voice mail- much less why you called me!

Thanks for clarifying, Foghorn. No way was I gonna watch the show but I just wanted to know if they did this.

JaneDigby- That sounds rather bad. Sad when a biographer is more interested in 'famous' names than the purported subject of their own work. Also, a good biographer gives the readers ALL possible documented reasons for a subject's MO rather than foist their own preconceived and/or agendist notions. BTW, did you by chance pick your name after Lady Ellenborough the 19th century British iconoclast who was known to marry at least nine times and was the inspiration for the work "Lily of the Valley".

Did they in any way refer to David Bowie's passing or did they think NO ONE in their audience knew or cared who he was?

Perhaps the former Mrs. Bowie could have opted to leave "Big Brother" to at least attempt to console her and the late Mr. Bowie's son over the loss of the parent who raised him solo most of his childhood (which could have gone far in healing their own rift) . However; she did not. And Duncan Jones is forty-five years old so he can decide for himself whether he wants her in his life so it's high time she quits blaming the late Mr. Bowie for their son's call on this.

He had the distinction of starring in the flop "Just a Gigolo" in 1978 in which he called his '30 Elvis movies' due to the scathing reception. HOWEVER; it was notable for being the last movie in which Marlene Dietrich appeared in and she sang the title song almost as an autobiographical ode to herself and a warning to Bowie himself. -even though the performers never actually met (they mostly filmed in what was then West Germany and had a mockup made of a set in Paris for Dietrich's scenes then edited the parts together to make it appear as though they interacted). Considering how he DID have a stable life the last 20 years (his creativity not a wit daunted), I wonder if he may have actually listened to the song's lyrics and Dietrich's poignant rendition and that may have helped spur him away from the cliff edge he'd been dangling on for so long? Good for him that he KEPT doing what he loved and created to the very end while being a vital center of a family AND good that he was able to deal with the cancer on his own terms rather than have a bunch of 'Last Sad Days of Bowie' junk foisted on him. RIP, Major Tom.

I know this is decades old and it was supposed to be a joke/spoof (complete with a video featuring both performers playing themselves supposedly having a torrid affair) . HOWEVER I always thought Bette Midler DID sing 'Beast of Burden' better than 'anyone'( including Mick Jagger) if for no other reason than she genuinely sounded as though she was rebelling against that condition that had been imposed on her rather than just whining about being asked to be monogamous.

Pepper Mostly, Glad you enjoyed Miss Ronstadt's IMO lacking bio. I'm afraid, though, this attempt it could enable some hack to attempt a hatchet job that she will have little recourse re self defense since she verified too few autobiographical details in her own work .

Funny new GEICO one with the spy being chased by thugs on a highrise roof and getting cornered with a chopper- only to have his MOTHER call him to complain about the attic squirrels her husband wants to try to take out himself instead of calling an exterminator. Maybe James Bond being an orphan may explain why he's lasted so long.

OK, the new GEICO one with the two guys working out while using derivatives of 'bro' is a head scratcher for me for several reasons. Maybe I'm not in the loop re current slang but is somehow using derivatives of 'bro' supposed to be a frenemy deal? Secondly, the older one appears to not only use have increasingly larger curling weights with each shot of him but he appears to transform to Herculean proportions so does this mean the commercial was shot over the course of quite a few months while the older performer increased his strength and muscle mass OR was it entirely done via CGI and I'm too dumb to spot it? Now if only the older one can drop his heaviest curling weight on Peter Pan to permanently ground him.

I never really had a problem with Will Smith as an actor per se (and, at times, he could be quite entertaining). However; how he and his wife have let their minor kids be exploited by their 'projects' is rather infuriating. Added to the ' what were they THINKING' list, should be that women's wear company that's now had Mr. Smith's teen son be their new 'model'. If an ADULT wants to do something that could bring lifetime ridicule and needless speculation, that's on them but either Mr. or Mrs. Smith and/or someone in that company should have put the brakes on that for the sake of not letting a questionable teen decision haunt him the rest of his life.

Sad that Schneider's no longer with us but considering that he seemed to have had Alzheimer's, at least he's no longer in that terrible limbo not knowing who he was.

I get what everyone's saying. I was overseas a few months ago doing my best to enjoy the ambiance of that city's unique natural beauty and historic sites but it seemed virtually every tourist under 35 HAD to do the selfie deal as in 'I don't CARE about this place but I just want folks to notice *I* am here!' . Vive that French girl and let's hope that means the NEXT generation will get burned out on this toy and 'tude.

Hanahope, I agree re Pat Banatar. Also, a plus on her bio that the Wilson sisters lacked- being willing to own her past mistakes rather than constantly do the 'not our fault that we did such and such. .' deal.

John Grisham- I mean, how many times can he do the 'young idealistic lawyer finds corruption and must try to overcome it' plot? About as one-trick pony as 'Scooby Doo' cartoons.

I guess everyone ELSE getting sick somehow takes care of it. I wonder if he (or Joanne) have ever given thought to at what point would he consider it going 'too far' re his consumption to chance his own kids emulating- ,coal slurry,nuclear waste or Ebola patients' dressings?

While it was a very tautly done, thrilling mystery, one thing that tainted it was the fact that Mrs. Christie originally titled it 'Ten Little N-----s'! Even taking into account that there were NO people of color as characters, it seemed a needlessly rude title and the term was NOT considered acceptable in polite British society back when she wrote it. Oddly enough, a few decades later it was released in book/play form as 'Ten Little Indians' despite there ,again, being no Native Americans as characters. I think it would have been best for all concerned (including Mrs. Christie) had she titled it 'And Then There Were None' from the beginning.