Blergh

OK, I'm someone who doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs. I also dislike restaurants/ bars where the 'background music' is at least too loud to be able to converse with a person next to me without raising my voice (and I only go to bars if they have good food to offer since I have no interest in booze ). Lastly, having been warned about how rapidly unpleasant and even dangerous crowds can become (and not wanting to risk catching any bugs or be in a spot where I'd be a sitting duck for assault or theft) I tend to avoid crowds including political rallies, sporting venues and rock concerts. I don't broadcast these quirks of mine to others but it's surprising how often folks feel I'm 'missing out' if I don't partake in these activities. Why are some others insecure I don't share their tastes even though I don't dis theirs? I don't get it.

I'm not sure if this is unpopular. However; I have to give praise to the upcoming 'BvS' flick for having Wonder Woman actually APPEAR to be an Amazon princess far more authentically than the comic version or even the iconic Lynda Carter! I mean, if one put her on a battlefield with Classical Spartans, they wouldn't attempt to laugh her off the premises as they likely would have other incarnations.

I'm grateful for the fact that, no matter where I go, if someone finds out I'm my mother's child, they'll ALWAYS relate how nice a person they consider to be. I agree but I admit to being a bit biased on the subject.

Yes, I can't say I was usually a fan of the show itself ( mainly because it kept hammering the 'hey we all KNOW we're on a sitcom but can't hit you dumb viewers over the head with our smugness enough'). However; I really DID like that appearance by Miss Radner. At the time it was produced, her cancer was in remission and it appeared as though she was ready to start diving back into the entertainment scene. Sadly, the cancer returned and took her too soon afterwards and the show proved to be her swansong. But what a sweet swansong it WAS for her and, for that, I will always be grateful for him giving her and the rest of us that opportunity. RIP, Mr. Shandling.

Oddly enough, even though I never met the man, I somehow considered him to be a member of my own family growing up(and despite liking the show and most of the characters a great deal, I did NOT feel that way about any of the on-camera performers or characters). I guess because the way he spun the stories, they DID sound could have been familial. Sad about his passing and it seemed he had to endure a bit at the end but reaching 92 is quite an accomplishment -especially since he seems to have lived longer than any of his immediate ancestors. Ever see that episode he wrote for the "Twilight Zone" in which a man's hunting dog somehow made a crucial difference in his fate? RIP, Mr. Hamner.

One thing they never mentioned re Mia Farrow's story was exactly WHO it was who raised her father John after his poor mother was railroaded into the asylum and it would ten years before the First World War so was his father raising him or someone else and who cared for him during that war? It seems evident that John didn't have fond memories of whoever raised him since he didn't pass them on. Very poignant story about her O'Sullivan grandfather (who she DID know) being saved by his own brother-in-law who lost his own life even though he wound up with a crippled arm. I wonder if Miss Farrow will at least consider helping her surviving adopted children and grandchildren attempt to seek out their own families of origin even though they came from lands decimated by war and poverty and the records may be fragmentary if they exist at all? At least DNA could help unlock some puzzles. Yeah, too bad that Mr. Hoffman wasn't given the chance to even meet his surviving grandmother and great-grandmother in Chicago even if his father was upset over his OWN father's tragic rescue attempt of Dustin's great-grandfather. Perhaps the child would have been frightened at the sight of an ancient woman missing her left arm but it may have opened his eyes re the horrors his family had had to endure so he could have a privileged life. I wonder if his surviving family in Chicago may have somehow helped engineer the great-grandmother's liberation from the Soviet concentration camp, exit from the Soviet Union, then passages to Argentina then Chicago because I don't now how she could have possibly done all that on her own especially considering her frail, dismembered state.

OK, thanks for doing this! It's good to find something to counterbalance the drive to wanna kvetch! Here's something that always brings a smile to me: chocolate chip cookies! No matter where I've gone, or what I've been doing or how bummed out I might have been, chocolate chip cookies have never failed to cheer me up and put me in a good state. This was best epitomized when my connecting flight to Vancouver got cancelled due to fog and I had to 'overnight' in Denver in a hotel 20 miles from the airport and knew I'd have to be BACK at the airport a mere four hours later to try to get to Vancouver the next morning, the complimentary chocolate chip cookies made the difference to keep me from being totally bummed out re missing a day's time in BC and having to 'hurry and wait' to get the next connection. Nope, they didn't change the outcome any but, as illogical as it sounds, they made me feel as though a quick crash in Denver would be okay even though I wouldn't get to see any of the city or sites.

Why do they have Flo on the 'boy bands' and 'shopping network' commercials behaving like she's a gnat who refuses to get the hint that everyone's sick of her and won't be swatted away? Come on, if the folks running these spots are starting to get that fewer and fewer folks tolerate much less like her, what's the point of them keeping inflicting her on us!

Do the folks having those toilet cleaner ads realize that for their subjects to poke their heads out of the commodes [and say 'It's clean'], that they'd have had to crawl up a sewer line?

I hated the ending of 'Sue Ann Gets Canned' and wish Mary had told Lou to stuff it when he tried to guilt trip her into hiring Sue Ann and that she'd learn to live with his disappointment. Then again, I wish Mary had also let Phyllis [on her show]celebrate her birthday ALONE instead of getting guilt tripped at the last minute and taking pity on her.

Cheezwiz, That's a very interesting (and sad) turn of events. And I read some more on the subject and found out that the plug got pulled three DAYS before they were due to shoot an episode- with Sammy Davis, Jr[ of all folks]. I can't imagine Mr. Davis was happy having his own guest turn being yanked out from under him either. Well, I hope Mr. Reid was able to make his peace with later doing the less deep 'Sister Sister' and that he used the monies for worthwhile purposes.

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].

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.

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.

At the very least the Mom should have made HER clean up her mess in the bathroom!

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).

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.

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!

' 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.

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?

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.