Blergh
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Posts posted by Blergh
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Actually, I think that the townsfolks would CRAVE Mrs. Oleson's rag as something to look forward to after their struggles to survive. Sensationalist rags thriveda great deal in the latter 19th century among the literate farm and industrial workers (and even 'respectable' papers often pulled no punches in hyping and making the news as lurid as possible- e.g. Lizzie Borden's father and stepmother's double axe-murder and Miss Borden's trial,etc.) .
Cousin Sterling wasn't smart to have let that edition get distributed without having proofread it himself with a magnifying glass even if his eyesight wasn't what it once was which was why he'd hired the Ingalls and Garvey kids to set the type!
Oh, yeah, I can easily imagine that both Miss Grassle and the late Miss MacGregor had their fun with Caroline [for once] actually giving it back to Harriet (and amazingly, Harriet not ONCE looking up at the loft to see Laura and Albert snickering at her).
I also can't help but think that Nels (and Mr. Bull) had his fun when he conspiratorially winked at Willie after his young son read the altered version which had 'from a reliable source' that claimed that Harriet's hair and teeth weren't all grown from her own noggin. Could Nels have let those claims out to Laura when he got exasperated? Of course, it wasn't fair to Nels himself that the Mercantile had lost irreplaceable prized merchandise and monies to the '100 Percent Off 'sale. Willie seemed to be the only Oleson to have been unscathed from the Ingallses' Edit.
Of course, it wasn't fun for that one-shot German pioneer family to have gotten so meanly dissed by Harriet for the transgression of having their teenaged son beat Nellie in the spelling bee!
Yeah, more for their sakes, rather than the Ingallses themselves nor even the Garveys that I was glad to see Charles trash the paper from the pulpit (even though some if not all of his righteous indignation stemmed from ML's extramarital trysts being broadcast via contemporary rags).
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It's VERY lucky for James that that company mascot bird needed him to fix his wing, otherwise, it's probable that the CEO not only wouldn't have brought him home Christmas Day but likely would have had him court martialed for desertion (a capital offense) for his AWOL stunt. Yes, it was noble of James to want to be supportive of Helen as her confinement was getting close (and for Christmas) but that was by no means a unique feeling among the troops who were frequently composed of family men! It was interesting that this was the very first time that Mrs.Pumphrey had ever entered the Drovers but, thankfully, she seemed to be charmed by it and accepted Helen, Jenny and Mrs. Hall's invites to stay! I imagine that Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Pumphrey (and likely every other woman connected to the fete) had saved their rations for quite a few weeks to pull off this Christmas bounty (and it would have been nice for them to have made mention of it instead of just letting the viewer presume that food was as plentiful and with the same varieties as before the War). Nice that they just showed the midwife arriving in time to help Helen with her baby seeing the light but NOT the birth itself. Better to leave something to the imagination AND to have Helen introduce her newborn son to both her husband and the viewers! They sure picked a tiny baby for the role who actually appeared as though he might possibly have been only a few days old instead of older. Not surprisingly that Helen insisted that they name him for James (as would happen in the books and RL). No doubt, he'll get doted on by his new mother, Mrs. Hall and his maternal grandfather and aunt (and I'll bet his paternal grandparents will try to make a beeline there ASAP). Mr. Carmody awkwardly pulled off being Father Christmas with his injured backside AND getting more looped than usual. The booze sure loosened his tongue and revealed that he hadn't had a fun upbringing with his parents,etc.
Nice ending (though I imagine Siegfried and Mr. Carmody will find themselves soon struggling to stay patient with the newborn Jimmy's cries at all hours as the novelty of having a newborn under their roof fades). It also wasn't entirely clear whether the youngest Harriot was born during the waning hours of Christmas Eve or early Christmas Day. I hope it happened during the earlier day since that will give him more of a chance of having his loved ones celebrate his dedicated birthday instead of said birthday being overwhelmed by Christmas (although many a December baby has had that happen anyway).
Yes, I know I've been late with my comments but my work shift has prevented me from seeing the show any earlier than Friday nights. Well, I look forward to Season Five next year (and hope Tristan and Callum Woodhouse will return for it)!
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As per numerous news sources, on Thursday, February 22,2024, Roni Stoneman known as the First Lady of the Banjo died at age 85. She had been born Veronica Loretta Stoneman- and was the youngest daughter of 23 children [!] of the country music pioneers Ernest 'Pop' Stoneman (1893-1968) and his wife Harriet 'Hattie' Frost Stoneman (1900-1976) (both born in southwest Virginia)who first hit the heights of fame in the 1920's with their record 'The Sinking of the TItanic' (1926) . Despite their fame between the Depression and having such a large family, their fortunes had somewhat waned by the time of Roni's birth in 1938 in Washington, D.C. on 'a picking job' when when Mrs. Stoneman felt 'a sharp pain' which her daughter would recall with a laugh 'that was me'!Among other things she would recall was being unable to go to school due to the family being unable to afford shoes for the children! Anyway, she early learned to love performing in the family band and honed her talent with the banjo. She would become a regular on the syndicated show Hee-Haw for eighteen years initially as a banjo player backing the lead Buck Owens but later playing the rather frowsy, unhappily wed homemaker Ida Lee Nagger in skits. She would relate how the producers somewhat didn't consider it conventional for a woman to play the banjo and recalled how her heart broke as the song engineers cut her banjo's sound while she was performing in the band. Yes, she felt tempted to bolt right then and there. However, she said she also heard the voice of her late father 'Pop' Stoneman tell her 'you have five children to feed' (and he knew something about having to provide for a large family in less than ideal conditions) so she stayed put on the show for some time thereafter! Yes, she'd been married (and divorced) three times and had five children whom she wound up being the sole support of. However, she would eventually leave the show and perform in her own venues for over six decades until recently gaining her own fame breaking barriers as a female banjo player if not necessarily getting wealthy- and, to the end, having a strong love for performing, an authority of the history of the genre with a strong sense of humor of herself.
RIP, Miss Stoneman and I'd like to imagine you strumming away with your parents and the rest of your departed loved ones in a band not in this world!
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Does anyone think that Mr. Schneider would have considered it fair and just had The Dukes of Hazzard casting folks said ' Don't bother applying for the role! No viewers would think a strudel-eater like you could ever be believable as a WASP 'good ole boy'! Get some lederhosen and seek out an oompa-band along with that Fraulein Bach! '?
What a maroon and dommkopf!
And I say all the above as someone who's not a fan of Miss Knowles nor most current country music so I have no trapeze artist in either circus but I say let her sink or swim like any other singer attempting to try a new genre!
P.S. I seriously doubt they'd have gotten discombobulated had Billie Eilish or Lorde have attempted to try a country album!
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Yes, I felt sorry for Gerald even when understanding Audrey's belief that she needed to be stay longer in Darrowby to support Helen during her pregnancy AND to take care of her de facto family [who seemed to have treated her FAR better than her actual family had done]. However, it would have been a frustrating if not entirely futile exercise for Gerald to have dealt with the angst of tending to his ailing sister while attempting to pin all (or any )of his hopes on Audrey running to his arms the minute after Helen safely bore a heartily healthy baby!
While Audrey is no longer legally wed to Robert Hall, in 1940 an unmarried woman accompanying her swain to a new community even for the ostensible purpose of caring for the swain's ailing sister would likely have set all the tongues in said community clucking a mile a minute [to say nothing of possibly the sister herself who may have turned out to have been a small-minded ingrate not above holding over Audrey's head that Audrey was being boarded on HER charity]. I'm NOT saying that Audrey would have (or should have) obsessed about the above mindsets but I'm surprised that she didn't at least consider them when making her decision.
Sad but not surprising that Helen's father Richard Alderson and her late mother had had a stillborn son whom they never told their daughters about- which, of course, greatly contributed to her father's initial tight lips over how his late wife was when carrying Helen herself. Also, not entirely surprising that Helen would have actually believed it a probability that her own unborn child may have died before seeing the light after hearing Mr. Alderson's fessing. She's always been an empath- if not a bit of an insecure hypochondriac. Thankfully, Siegfried [despite the awkwardness of having to exam a human he was well acquainted with] DID find out to Helen's and everyone's relief that the baby's heartbeat is still going strong. In those days before ultrasound (and with X-rays being somewhat expensive -and rather risky to unborn children) , it was the best way to tell prenatal health (and no doubt Helen will wear out that stethescope before and during the delivery).
Nice of Gerald to fix the sink on the way out to show that he had no resentment towards Siegfried and the others even though he couldn't pretend to happily accept Audrey's final decision. Also, great that Siegfried and Mr. Carmody saved both Gerald's dog and Mr. Alderson's calf.
The only unresolved matter at the end seems to be Helen's father's bad knee. I can't help but wonder if he's worried that he'll be told that he has to stay off it for a lengthy time, have an operation and/or that there is nothing that can be done to prevent him becoming permanently lame [and as healthy and efficient as Jenny is, she can't do all the backbreaking farmwork that her father has had to do for decades].
OK, finale next week with James re-appearing AND likely the baby's first appearance. There's a 50 percent chance of me being wrong but since James and Helen's firstborn in the books, previous series and RL was a boy, I'm willing to wager that so will this one be!
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One interesting 'behind the scenes' fact is that, contrary to most pre-1970 performers [including Art Carney and the recently deceased Joyce Randolph], Audrey Meadows DID get paid royalties for the series' reruns the rest of her life.
That's because, in addition to her and her elder sister Jayne being performers, her missionary parents [with the surname of Cotter- not Meadows] had made sure that both their sons had become lawyers and the brother, in turn, were happy to use their skills make sure that the exec producer and star Mr. Gleason didn't nickle-and-dime their baby sister!
BTW, although she spent most of her preteen life in [of all places] Wuhan, China, before the family permanently relocated back to the United States, Miss Meadows had been the only one of the four offspring to have been born in New York City instead of China!
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2 minutes ago, debraran said:
Well Carrie and Mom got most of the attention...Mary was the belle of WG and the boys buzzed around, they all liked her even if she didn't like them. I imagine if he complimented her a little (probably sound sleazy now) she might have warmed up a bit.
I'm NOT saying that he should have done so to the underage Mary. However, it likely might have had her not be so frosty towards him- although in doing so, he'd have opened another can of worms.
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Why haven't we seen Helen's father and sister's reaction to becoming a grandfather and aunt- or, for that matter, Mr. and Mrs. Herriots' reactions to becoming grandparents themselves?
I think there should have been at least some discussion about whether it would have been better for the expectant Helen to remain in her husband's employer's domicile in town after his departure instead of returning to her father and sister's farm in the countryside.
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Does anyone think Mary's dislike of Ma being more the cordially civil to Chris No Surname may not have been entirely her being the Absent Pa's Avenging Angel but with the possible contributing factor of Mary upset that Chris No Surname wouldn't have considered her someone worth . . .at least being more than cordially civil to? And may not have wanted to believe that Ma may have been more attractive to him than she was?
Yeah, with no surname given, it would have been next to impossible to look him him - to say nothing of 'Chris' possibly being short for everything from Christopher, Christian to even Kris Kringle!
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I'm not the biggest fan of his music nor did I agree with all his stances. However, I couldn't help but be moved by interview in the latest People magazine of Lenny Kravitz in which he reflected on his impending 60[?!] th birthday in May and how he and his onetime wife Lisa Bonet not only just truced things over to be civil for their daughter's sake after their split but now are a family that includes her younger children [who consider their elder half-sister's father to be an uncle] and even said children's father Jason Momoa who he says he has no judgement with but has been family and will remain family forever! Yes, Mr. Kravitz admits in the article that it took work on everyone's parts [with no lawyers involved] but he's proud of how their daughter and entire family have turned out!
MOST refreshing compared to all the many petty grudges, backbiting,etc. from split unions that often go on for decades [literally] regardless of any offspring in common!
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14 hours ago, debraran said:
Just watching Handyman while I had a day off. Mary, the B***ch telling her Mom "I saw you!!" Good Lord. What a drama queen. She tells an adult to leave that her mom hasn't paid yet for his work. Then "it's all a mistake" It's a mistake because your mom tells you she fell? The tears from her pretty blue eyes. I'll tell him to come back...a bad script but I guess Mike didn't know how to get rid of Chris before he got back on the show full time saving people. Chris made a great almost room, made toys for Carrie, gave her more attention than Ma and left saying she didn't have to pay him. Hopefully he found more gracious people in the future. : ) I know some were off the set but I wont go into that. lol
Correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC, the episode closed with them seeing Pa coming home (from a distance since ML wasn't there) and saying that they couldn't wait to tell him about Chris No Surname!
Yeah, I get that Ma and Chris had done nothing shameful to hide [no comment on their performers] but exactly why would they have thought that Pa would have thought Chris's stay had been good news?
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I guess because I've seen this happen too many times in my decades long time in the workplace, I wish every parent/guardian of a new worker would give them the following advice:
If you are getting inclined to seek a new position and/or leave one's current position due to frustrations and you are considering venting to one of your current work colleagues about your intentions: DON'T.
Even if they've had a spotless record of keeping one's confidences instead of gossiping, it's not impossible for them to either blurt it out in frustration to either one fellow employees and/or blab it upon losing their own tempers to the bosses- and if you change your mind this could make the rest of your time there somewhat awkward with others unsure about your reliability,etc.
IOW, if you truly believe that you are ready to blaze your own path towards greener pastures- keep it totally to yourself at the workplace UNTIL you've found them and/or have actually given notice to your employers (and only vent to those with zero connections whatsoever to the workplace).
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On 2/7/2024 at 7:29 PM, PRgal said:
I read my book to my son's kindergarten class! The children were behaving like, well, 5 year olds, talking over each other, but in general, were paying attention (the teacher had to tell them to "crisscross applesauce" a few times and to put their hands up if they have any comments...at the end of the story). Even kids who only celebrated December 31 could relate, as did kids who celebrated other cultural holidays - whether it's New Year or not. My dad said it would only be relatable to kids from families like mine and boy was he WRONG!
That's GREAT news! It's always refreshing when one is able to help young ones expand their horizons to think outside their boxes and have curiosity about different traditions and cultures!
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I know it's a bit late but I actually somewhat liked this latest episode with James and Siegfried's 'lessons' just making Mr. Carmody a more nervous driver but with the interesting twist of Mrs. Pumphrey having him drive herself, Francois and Trickie in her prized Rolls and having THAT make him a 'careful' instead of a good driver. Oh, and I have to admit that I was somewhat entertained by his driver travelogue as they left Pumphrey Manor and circled around the Dales (and I think it might have also entertained Mrs. Pumphrey and Trickie but I'm not sure about Francois). Nice way to help him gain confidence and improve his 'pet side' manner! Interesting to see that she's had her gigantic windows taped in case of air raids. Sadly, tape usually was unable to keep glass panes from shattering from the blasts. Moreover, often if the homeowner had somehow lucked out via not getting bombed, that tape was often next to impossible to completely tear off after the War was done.
I also thought it was a good diagnosis on Mr. Carmody's part that the newer 'more expensive' shampoo was the cause of Trickie's skin irritation. However, in those weeks and months of the NAZIs invading the Low Countries and making a beeline to France (like a killer swarm), rations were getting extremely tight in Great Britain with not just the volume but the selections of virtually every commodity imaginable becoming rather scarce [ even just plain human soap wasn't as easy to find as before]. Speaking of invasion, I'm a bit surprised that Francois showed no anxiety (nor did Mrs. Pumphrey acknowledge any) on the fate of any loved ones in France itself!
Yes, nice picnic basket Mrs. Hall fixed for the soon to be parting parents-to-be. However, by this point, foods were also getting somewhat limited and I'm a bit surprised that she wouldn't have had a 'victory garden' as most homemakers with even the tiniest spots of green had to supplement their family's food supply. IOW, I'd have expected more homegrown treats rather than fancy picnic items. Yes, Mrs. Hall herself is taking a big leap to help her swain Gerald take care of his sister in her home with her divorce getting closer to being final but I wonder why neither Gerald nor his unseen sister considered the latter moving into his Darrowby house. All I can think of is that the sister might be too physically frail to handle her stuff being moved or even to travel but this wasn't spelled out.
Glad that Helen and James DID finally have a sincere talk about their hopes and fears with him going off to war with her in the family way. Yes, I know he likely wouldn't have enlisted AFTER he found out she was with child. However, as I've said before, in those days with only the spottiest birth control available, unless there was physical distance and/or one or both were known to have been infertile, babies were a matter of course for most newlyweds. Nice touch for him to have made a homemade airplane ('for the baby') which no doubt will give Helen herself solace as she anticipates James's visits, the baby's arrival and James's eventual return. Oddly, though, that neither seemed to consider whether the expectant Helen might have been better off living in her family farm with her father and sister instead of her absent husband's employer's abode in the town.
I'll be interesting how things progress with the baby's arrival [which, if the timeline is close to RL, means that France will have fallen and the Blitz will be on].
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While traditional history has maintained that the Azores Islands were first settled by the Portuguese in the early 1430's, genetic testing was done on the local mouse population and discovered that not only had they not been native to the nine Atlantic Ocean islands but that they were descended from Scandinavian instead of Iberian mice!
Further scientific studies of the soil core samples revealed that there had been a period of grain growing and either sheep or cattle ranching on the islands between roughly 700 and 850AD. As best as science currently can make out, the Scandinavian mice stowed away on ships to these temporary outposts which seemed to have been abandoned - and any remaining cows or sheep dying out as well as any imported grain grasses getting overwhelmed by the native species. However, these mice somehow survived on the native plants,etc. and would attract a species of raptor birds to the islands known as Eurasian goshawk known as Acor [the facade 'c' being used] (or Azor) in Portuguese which is what they'd name the archipelago for.
There are some structures, carvings and stone anchors,etc. of unconfirmed antiquity that some believe point to possible Roman, Greek or Phoenician settlement or visitation but these claims are in dispute and, at this time, only the Scandinavian mice are confirmation of pre-Portuguese settlement or visitation.
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Re Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), one has to wonder why Debra didn't make it a condition of marriage that they'd move AWAY from Raymond Barone's annoying father Frank and his smothering,manipulative mother Marie. .
Yeah, I know there wouldn't have been much if any kind of a sitcom without these two antagonists making trouble for the younger Barones but still. .. .
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I can't say I've liked Jay Leno for too many reasons to even summarize (and I don't want to rehash them at this time) However, IMO the one saving grace he's had over the decades is that he appears to have always treated his wife of 43 years Mavis Nicholson Leno like fine china. Therefore, when the major news outlets reported that she has now been hobbled by dementia and he has filed for Conservatorship, I have to admit that I was touched that he would do that and heartbroken on his behalf. Of course, since they have no offspring (and he's 73) I can't help but hope he's got help with the caregiving since caregivers have been known to get wiped out (and even occasionally have predeceased their afflicted loved ones).
No, this isn't a happy bit of news but I thought it was poignant enough to share (and it needs to be said that caregivers of afflicted family members need to have all the emotional and practical support possible).
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I didn't loathe Christmas one-shot evacuee Eva but I think it would have helped had they dropped a line (e.g. 'Eva found a fabulous stamp to put on that beautiful postcard from her family's new home in Australia- her OWN Oz!').
Nice to have Annie Chapman back while introducing her daughter Grace but it would have helped had they mentioned what had happened to Grace's son Tom's male co-parent. Had he ever been part of his son's life or had Annie and her own husband helped his mother Grace raise him from the beginning?
Interesting that Mrs. Pumphrey related a pleasant anecdote about her late husband Charles (IIRC in the OS I think his name might have been Arthur). However, I have some vague recollection of someone addressing Mrs. Pumphrey by her OWN first name but if that's the case, I can't think of what it might have been! Regardless, it's interesting that the late Arthur Pumphrey had gotten Trickie's double-great-grandmother to start the line at Pumphrey Manor AND that she had been one of many dogs instead of an only dog like her descendant usually was!
I think the newbie will work out- though not without quite a few misunderstandings between himself and Siegfried in the process [which everyone dealing with Siegfried has had happen].
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33 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:
The latest SVU episode where Olivia and the squad stood by and did nothing while masked group of team literally broke in and stole evidence, with the excuse being the teenagers were “unarmed” and they didn’t want the scrutiny was a new low of stupidity.
I wish I was making this up. They were breaking glass and throwing chairs, and Liv was screaming “Don’t shoot, they’re just kids!” Nobody even used a taser.
Forgive my willful ignorance [since I've long since quit bothering with the show] but what kind of evidence did these teens steal when they broke in?
One thing [I think] is for sure: had any thieves attempted to steal rape kits from an a police evidence storage room, Olivia would have torn them apart herself with her bare hands- regardless of where they fell agewise between Pampers and Depends!
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Mr. Gleason KNEW what was funny and what wasn't! For instance, despite Ralph and Alice one time considering adoption, he made sure that both couples were childless because 'adults struggling was funny but kids struggling was NOT' [and he knew that firsthand].
Also, when he did the sketches in the mid 1960's and had Sheila MacRae playing Alice, during rehearsal he noticed her tearing up and asked her what was up. She replied 'This Alice cries.'
Without missing a beat, he declared 'Not on MY show. If you cry, everyone'll hate me!'
And from that point Mrs. MacRae stayed as stoic as Miss Meadows had been during his bluster!
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On 1/24/2024 at 7:02 PM, Superclam said:
My two least favorite back-to-back episodes? "The Angry Heart" followed by "The Werewolf of Walnut Grove." Two episodes I can almost always skip. Season 6 has some real clunkers.
Ironic that the city thug Todd calls Albert 'the village idiot' first thing in Walnut Grove (in 'The Angry Heart') but I can't help but think that the bully who [but for Carrie's blabbing) actually bought that Albert WAS 'The Werewolf of Walnut Grove' was a much better candidate!
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1 hour ago, crazy8s said:
Well, most likely neither of them would be randomly carrying a pair of useless glasses in their pocket to accidentally cause a signal fire that leads Charles to them. So their best hope for survival would be Edwards has a gallon of moonshine in the wagon. 🤣
Or maybe Black Bart will find them. ..or at least find Mr. Edwards alone.
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8 hours ago, mmecorday said:
Ugh! I swear the commercial for Fage yogurt that features the famous aria "Un Bel Di, Vedremo" from "Madame Butterfly" aired at least 1400 times while I was watching reruns of "Modern Family" on the E! Channel last night. That is an absolutely beautiful piece, but hearing it so many times was overkill!
True, but IMO it's less annoying than when they had Bobby Flay shill for it!
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'Fiddle-Dee-Don't'- After the Colonel opens a branch at Nellie's Hotel in Walnut Grove (despite it being set roughly the same time as his birth in Kentucky), he invites Charles to perform with his violin at the Grand Opening and all goes well until Charles stomps off and refuses to play the Colonel's fave song- Hank William, Sr.'s 'Mind Your Own Business'! While Charles makes his churlish exit, the whole town eagerly serenades him with it, though!
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Milestone Moments: All The Celebrity Vitals
in Everything Else TV
I agree! Although (unlike Miss Spears's notorious case of parental greed and exploitaiton), I do think it's likely that Mr. Wilson has needed someone to ensure that his basic needs are being met and that he's well cared for despite his aging and galloping dementia. Poor Mr. Wilson had had a rough start then got badly exploited by a live-in shrink by the name of Landry for too many years. I only hope he got to have some peaceful years with his recently deceased last spouse Melinda Ledbetter Wilson before she became his caretaker. What's especially tragic here is that, no doubt, she left this world unsure of what was to become of her tormented spouse in his twilight that she'd spent so much time and effort advocating for.
P.S. Does anyone else wonder why his managers and not his adult children by his first wife filed for the Conservatorship?