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Blergh

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Everything posted by Blergh

  1. In addition to making no attempt to free Shmi even after returning to Naboo with her huge incomes from queenship and the Senate [and never even claimed to have tried but failed to do so (e.g. precious riches sent from Naboo for that purpose had been robbed by Tatooine bandits)]and essentially concocting excuses for Anakin after he fessed to her butchering even the innocents among the Tuskens [not just the marauding adult murderous kidnappers of Shmi], IMO what really sealed Padme's idiocy and having the judgment of pea in a henhouse had to be Padme's reaction to Anakin's slaughtering the Jedi youths and babies who'd sought his protection [ as opposed to adult combatants]: she wanted him to run away with her back to Naboo to raise their child together. So she thought that someone she knew had committed mass murders of children and even babies not only deserved zero punishments or consequences whatsoever for having done the above, but it seemed she thought that they instantly could just plunge into parenthood and he'd be an ideal co-parent to their offspring on her planet (with zero chance of any of his victims' loved ones,etc. seeking him out). Yeah, it seemed she embodied the old 'I don't care how he atrocious he has been to other folks because he thinks I'm SPECIAL and would never even think to so much as raise a hand to me or our own family' solipsistic idiocy! REALLY? Even his reaction to her plea seemed, at best, that he was annoyed by that suggested option like he'd just felt having stepped on a slug rather than wanting to lovingly embrace her and become the Galactic Daddy Walton- all of this BEFORE he realized that Obi Wan was with her! NOT that she deserved any violence on his part whatsoever but look how burying her head in the sand to be lovey dovey and wanting to play house worked out for her! All the above are among the reasons I could only see the first three eps once and couldn't bother attempting to watch the Abrams Add Ons -no matter how often all the above got replayed on TV.
  2. Since the younger Mr. Allman doesn't appear to have any career or even to be earning his own living and appears to have had legit issues which would require fiscal if not physical supervision, at this point, I'm giving his mother Cher the benefit of the doubt re pursuing this legal conservatorship of him. I can't imagine that the hearings will be pleasant for any of their family [regardless of what the judge rules] and I don't think this had been an easy decision for Cher. No matter what happens, I hope he can somehow find his peace and make the most of his middle-aged life.
  3. While I'd see their show rerun later on, the first place I recall Tommy Smothers was as the voice of the rebellious Ted E. Bear who wanted to see if winter might be worth skipping hibernation in The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas (1973)! I mean, it seemed there was an entire dimension of toy-sized bears who lived in a human-like world. Yes, it could have been totally sappy but somehow the way he voiced the character, it got me to think that he was curious about this parallel human world enough to rebel and leave everyone he knew to seek it out! On a more sombre note, this had been a rather sad year for him as not only did he find out he had stage 2 lung cancer but he lost his younger sister Sherry as well as his eldest son Thomas Bolyn Smothers IV by his first union (by who he has a grandson). It also needs to be noted that the siblings' father was Major Thomas Bolyn Smothers, Jr.- a West Point graduate who been a military man who died at age 36 being held in a Japanese POW ship in the last days of WWII in 1945 after surviving the Bataan Death March- having sent the rest of his family (including his wife Ruth pregnant with their daughter)back to California shortly before the Japanese forces invaded. I hope he soon gets to catch up with his father,sister and his son and the four get to share some amazing stories from their lives. RIP, Mr. Smothers!
  4. @debraran, I guess you could ask the performer if you could ask her about JG who briefly played her husband. The worst she could do is say that she couldn't/wouldn't talk about him.
  5. Let's keep in mind, as best anyone knows, being left be by the press was JG's wishes at the time of JG's parting ways with the extended Gilbert but if anyone knows what his current wishes/MO are at age 56, no one is saying! However, I agree that it's likely that it would be easier for the cast to not talk about or acknowledge the extended Gilberts' dealings with him during his youth/LHOTP production. Of course, I think that the late Mr. Bull and Miss MacGregor each had been starving performers long enough in their youths not to let anyone else bully them- including relating positive anecdotes re JG . Moreover, it's also possible that JG may have kept in touch with one or both of them until their own passings- more confident of their discretion than other cast members. One odd omission that no one has seemed to address is how ML dealt with JG much less whether he attempted to become a new father to him (as he did MG) after their adoptive but, at the time, non-custodial father's early death!
  6. I get that MG seemed rather jealous (and, as per her longstanding beefs with Melissa Sue Anderson and Shannen Doherty) VERY capable of holding grudges long after the initial schism's causes had been over. However, it's puzzling that every other surviving cast member seems to have adopted a code of silence- barely acknowledging JG having been present during the production- much less being candid re whether they have knowledge of his fate after adulthood. Hence, all I can think of is that since many of the cast members (especially those up in years) are depending more and more on nostalgic reunions, meet-and-greets,etc. for the a good part of their current livelihood, it's possible that MG may have subtly if not overtly threatened the above over the issue of JG's fate. Now, that you mention it, it's puzzling that none of the interviewers not only haven't thusfar interviewed him but don't even claim to have attempted to seek him out- much less asked others to level about him. I'm wondering if he may have changed his entire name to his original birth name when he and the extended Gilbert family parted ways! Again, I stress the above is speculation and NOT claiming any kind of 'inside scoop' on my part.
  7. Sitting on a tall sea cliff outside the northwestern Spanish port city of La Coruna/A Coruna is the Tower of Hercules (formerly known as Farum Brigantium], the world's oldest extant lighthouse at 130 feet tall which guides ships to this day! As impressive as it is currently, what's even more amazing is that it's been in operation starting since at least the 100's AD when the Roman Emperor Trajan (born near present-day Seville) commissioned an architect to either build or rebuild the edifice to be modeled on the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) . While the inner stairwell is definitely Roman in origin with later exterior walls and the upper part of the tower being built in more recent centuries, it's possible that this may be even older than the Romans. La Coruna/A Coruna harbor happens to be the closest port geographically via point to point from the Iberian Pen insula and the lighthouse points in the direction of current Great Britain. Why this is vital is due to the fact that its southwestern pen insula Cornwall had been the main supplier of tin since at least 1500 BC. Tin being the vital component of the metal compound called bronze ! Yes, Emperor Trajan wanted to establish/re-establish a beacon to safeguard the port linking Iberian and the rest of the Roman Empire to its vital supply link! Oh, and it's called the Tower of Hercules due to the its legendary foundation which, as per this legend, a local giant tyrant Geryon was finally defeated by none other than Herc himself after a three day battle. After which Hercules ordered the locals to bury the tyrants skull under the seaside cliff then build a lighthouse atop it. Regardless of the validity of this myth, the coat of arms for La Coruna/A Coruna consists of the lighthouse itself atop a rock sealing a giant crowned skull with crossbones- all flanked with scallop shells!
  8. If nothing else, Last Christmas's recent success has plucked the surviving Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley out of obscurity!
  9. I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible that MG may have threatened at least some of the surviving cast mates with a freeze (as in 'I'll never go to another reunion/con/meet-and-greet with you') if they openly said what may have happened to JG. She sure seemed rather . .. detached when mentioning how he amscrayed from the family when he became an adult in her autobio with more of 'never wanted him around in the first place so good riddance' tude than anything else! I don't claim any 'inside info' and the above is pure speculation but I can't help but wonder if it could be possible.
  10. It only took a few minutes of Elf clips to get me to do a permanent hard pass on that movie! If others like it, their calls no problem. To each own's own! However, DON'T keep trying to force it down everyone's throats via displaying memorabilia, etc.!
  11. OK, not the biggest fan but I've caught a few episodes here and there of Superman and Lois. Here's the deal. From Supe's original comic book concoction, to movies, to radio series and television, it's always had its audience suspend their beliefs that even Clark's nearest and dearest friends & colleagues are clueless that he could the Supe with JUST a pair of glasses and maybe oversized suits successfully disguising his ID. Even during the pre-'Net age of motion pictures and news photography that would have been impossible in Real Life to have happened. However, the successive depictions even into the age of 'Net, AI,etc. kept that premise. .. Until Supe's powered twin son Jordan showed up as a 'masked avenger' in a reptilian 'suit' that exposed part of his jawline in footage. ..which got his folks and DOD grandfather to go into complete hysteria over Jordan being linked to Supe for REAL. Never mind that they'd had Jordan's twin bro Jonathan's evil juvenile delinquent doppelganger from an alternate Earth show up and did massive destruction and nearly get BOTH planets destroyed yet somehow no one outside the family picked up on the possibility of him possibly being linked to Supe- to say nothing of Supe flying and zooming around maskless in his form-fitting suit with CCTV and news services worldwide picking up and broadcasting it to every online and offline viewer! Come ON! I mean,its bogus to suddenly dump the whole suspension of disbelief and panickly act as though a brief glimpse of Jordan's jawline somehow was the equivalent of broadcasting the process of making atomic bombs on Soviet television!
  12. I was doing some last Christmas shopping today- and noticed that even in the chain supermarkets and pharmacies, there are virtually no cards left for relatives. .but there ARE some for. . .pets. I hope the Fidos and Fluffies out there are amused at their humans reading said cards to them while they get their new chew toys and scratching posts,etc. unwrapped!
  13. Before I say anything else, thanks for the screenshot of 'Nurse Harriett'! Since Miss MacGregor DID state she was working on her autobio in at least one interview in her twilight years, I wonder how far along she might have gotten with it and did she have any heirs despite having no known surviving close relatives or did it wind up that the nursing home staff just dumped it with the rest of her belongings after her demise due to no one claiming anything. Too bad. As per Miss Arngrim, Dean Butler supposedly considered Miss MacGregor an acting mentor on the set (despite their characters usually at odds) so if he ever DOES an autobio, that might be interesting to find out his POV about her in particular. BTW, so far none of the male performers have penned any autobios about their LHOTP experiences.
  14. Archie Bunker and Hester Sue. ..? I know that Mr. O'Connor had little in common with his iconic character but. ..that's almost as hard to imagine as Will Geer being Larry Linville's father-in-law for a time! Grandpa Walton being Frank Burns's father-in-law. ..
  15. OK, one peeve I have had in my decades long worklife is when there has a dispute between two or more departments over. ..whatever so they go to the big chief to find out who's right,who's wrong and/or what needs to be done by whom- and the big chief says the departments can settle things among themselves! If the two or more departments could resolve the issue/s, why wouldn't they already have done so instead of asking the big chief's help?
  16. The episode was broadcast in 1973 (IOW about a year before LHOTP). Miss MacGregor was billed there as 'Scottie MacGregor' instead of 'Katharine. . .', Oh, and anyone watching it hoping for a battle between Archie Bunker and the Archie Bunker of the Prairie, forget it. They had Miss MacGregor play the role of a nurse rather straight with zero hint of Harriet's wackiness,sneakiness or cardboard villainy. I wonder if she might have known Carroll O'Connor when both were still starving unknowns?
  17. Perhaps Cher and Micky Dolenz [the Last Living Monkee] could do a Shmoo-Ewe Album to that organization!
  18. His first cinematic debut was in Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys (1959) starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, then he went onto play a neighbor kid called Barry on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Mr. Mooney's younger son in The Lucy Show before he became youngest son Chip's bestie then adopted kid brother Ernie in My Three Sons (1964-1972) [Chip having been played by the performer Stanley Livingston- this performer's RL sib]- and has had a steady television and stage career to the present day (e.g. The Conners and General Hospital)! Yes, I'm talking Barry Livingston who was born on this day in 1953, has been married for 40 years to Karen Huntsman- his co-parent of their grown kids Spencer and Hailey! Yep, time sure flies and Happy 70th Birthday, Mr. Livingston!
  19. There's no excuse or justification in Majors's abuse of Miss Jabbarri (much less in his lawyer attempting to trash her character) and the two of them deserve to have the book thrown at them. Regardless of how the dust settles in this, I truly hope Miss Jabbarri has gotten and/or gets help for any possible substance abuse issues for her own sake as well as any loved ones!
  20. OK, I've got this problem in my offtask life,too, but here's one that's worse in my office worklife: callers who think that one is doing NOTHING whatsoever besides attending to their very own phone calls and refuse to believe that one has other imminently urgent tasks to attend to instead of solely passively listening to their rants. It also needs to be said that some of the worse offenders blurt out stuff faster than the Fed Ex ad guy AND openly get annoyed if one politely asks them to slow down and/or spell out vital surnames! ARGGHH!!!
  21. I had too busy a workweek so I apologize for not doing this on the actual day but Monday, December 11th both Brenda Lee and Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverio Marcano) had their respective 79th and 92nd birthdays! They both started working in the entertainment profession from childhood onward and would have worldwide fame despite both of them originating in areas considered somewhat off the beaten path. I can't help but think they'd have quite a few tales to trade and maybe might hit it off. I wonder if they've ever met? Regardless, Happy Birthday to two of my fave entertainers !
  22. I wouldn't have minded occasional lightweight and/or humorous episodes but IMO, it was best in the first few years when there was still a sincere effort to depict the Ingallses as having to struggle and take serious risks just to survive instead of seeming to totally dump that gritty aspect for soapy stuff. All the above said, I actually agree with ML's call that it would have been too much for Miss Grassle to have worn prosthetic gunk to 'age' her hands- even though I know that pioneer women putting their hands through all kinds of tasks wouldn't have looked as though they had just popped in from the manicurist!
  23. Perhaps, but one thing about Miss Brenda is the one can't say she ever had the most predictable career arc even for an entertainer. She was born Brenda Mae Tarpley December 11,1944 to a struggling family in rural Georgia but she loved to sing as far back as could remember. Her father Ruben died when she was just eight after a hammer fell on his head (?!) and she earnestly started singing for her family's supper! Thankfully, she has said that she never felt pressured or compelled to have done so but, instead WANTED to use her beloved singing to help out her struggling widowed mother Annie Grayce and her older siblings and felt proud to be able to do so. Yes, the promoters insisted she only use the last syllable of her original surname. She'd never grow an inch taller than 4 foot 9 inches but she proved to be a dynamo who'd tour the Americas, Europe and Asia from an early age and even had the Silver Beatles as her opening act before they hit it big and dropped the 'Silver'! She has said that when she was sixteen, she asked Judy Garland for advice and has never forgotten what her elder colleague told her- 'Don't ever let anyone take your childhood away!' In 1963, she wed the 19-year-old 6 foot 3 inches tall son of a Nashville city council member one Charles Ronald 'Ronnie' Shacklett who's been a successful construction contractor and they'd have two daughters (the elder born prematurely but saved by the neonatal pioneer physician Dr. Mildred Stahlman [born 1922 and still living] and have since had three grandchildren and a great-grandchild. .and even more amazingly have stayed married to each other sixty years despite the odds of teen marriage, tour separations,etc. Yep, in the new video of her performing 'Rockin' Around the Christmas' tree with her in a floor-length red choir robe, she may resemble a hand puppet but she and the rest of the performers (including Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood) in that video sure look as though they're having fun!
  24. The deal of them crossing the Ingallses crossing the flooded river in the wagon with Jack trying to swim with them is rather nail-biting in that the viewer isn't so sure that they'll be able to safely make it across and one is ready to mourn the faithful Jack (and understand WHY Laura and Pa's bond has gotten strained while their dog's fate is unknown) so when Jack DOES return, it's quite a cathartic scene. Alas, the show quickly ditched the whole 'pioneers struggling to provide their own basic necessities' deal very quickly on the series!
  25. In 1957, the 13-year-old performer Brenda Lee recorded 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree' (accompanied by excellent musicians including Boots Randolph on the sax). OK, it became a holiday standard within a few years and has remained so. However, this week (of December 4,2023), the 78-year-old performer has FINALLY gotten to see that song be the Number One song in the Billboard Hot 100! Better late than never, indeed!
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