Toaster Strudel

From the beginning I considered a strong possibility that the children, who appeared close in age, might abundantly gripe to each other about their shared situation and discuss certain traumatic events repeatedly. I did not appreciate Phil suggesting that a judge would make a less desirable decision from the family than what they could work out together backstage, especially since the father is probably physical with them.

I could feel the psychic strain of dialing up the perkiness to 11. I adore her, love the show anyway.

I live for the catfish stories, shame on me!

Glacier wedding: the peek-a-boo dress with light flowing fabric worn with clunky studded rubber boots was ridiculous. Her skin was beet red from the wind and the cold, the dress was misshapen, almost looking like it was being shredded, by a merciless gale. She picked a lovely dress in the shop, but in the context of the wedding, it turned into a shapeless rag. What she really needed is some solid fabric and a white cape with fur lining, or a faux fur stole... Oh and by the way, love is a powerful emotion, but it's not a cosmic event deserving of disappointment if it happens in the forest rather than on a glacier.

I approve of the virtual reality headset solution because there is no way this woman won't drink herself to death under the unwatchful eyes of her dazed, low-effort, enabling parents. Might as well put something on her head and forget about her while she stares at a Dr Phil avatar. Does the book on financial planning have a chapter on how to mooch off people to keep the alcohol flowing? It must, otherwise Phil would never have a segment like this for no reason.

I am a molecular biologist which helps me understand the medical literature and research on the topic. Full disclosure, my area is not directly related, as it is the role of the cytoskeleton and genetics in development and differentiation. I suggest you read up on the hormonal basis of hunger control, there are easy to understand summaries available online. It involves a very complex interplay of hormonal signals between the hypothalamus, physical stomach fullness, blood glucose levels, intestinal absorption, and even signals from your fat cells telling your body how much you fat have stored right now. We only know the tip of the iceberg. Genetics come in when any part of this system is knocked off or partially disabled by a mutation. The extreme cases on this show might have genetic defects in several parts of this complex system, on one crucial part. I don't know what the latest is on that, but there was a theory that one of the way a bypass works is by altering the hormonal signals that the stomach sends out as part of the satiety loop. If you are slim, and your siblings aren't, thank your lucky stars that you got the better part of the genetic lottery. It's easy to control your portion sizes when you have normal hunger mechanisms. These people are an endless pit of hunger and are never satisfied. Their struggle is real. They have to be ready to endure constant discomfort from hunger in order to lose weight.

Some thoughts. The childhood pictures. I don't care that they explain they went to food for comfort. Looking at the whole family, the genetic portion of their obesity is undeniable. They were obese as infants, enormous as teens, and crippled by fat rolls, aprons and tires as adults. They found comfort in food because their dysregulated hunger mechanism demanded it. Dysfunction and poverty contribute to the situation, and conversely family obesity contributes to the dysfunction and poverty. I doubt they'd be slim had they had a perfect childhood. Younger Rena and Rena's dad were shown smoking in the photos. I wonder if she still smoked, the show tends not to show anyone smoking so we wouldn't know. Maybe that's why Rena needed oxygen and was susceptible to pneumonia? What's the deal with them 'having to leave' the weight loss camp because they 'fell in love?' They were probably sneaking in pizzas. Admit it. How do these people who can't take care of themselves get the genius idea of adding pets to their misery, and making pets miserable by bringing them into their miserable, bed bound lives? Is it fun to be like a giant stretched canvas or something, that Lee got so many ugly sagging tats like the ones on his bouncy manboobs that looked like cancerous nipples from a distance? Lee said about the poor woman preparing shovelfuls of breakfast biscuits, gravy, bacon and scrambled eggs "if she doesn't do what we want... we're really gonna get upset!" The way he said "we're really gonna get upset!" with a menacing sing song gave me the creeps. Grocery shopping: "we'll eat all this today or tomorrow" aka "in the next 3 hours" LOL. Lee's 'snack': 4 pieces of fried chicken, 2 lbs of macaroni and mayo mush (I refuse to call this a salad), and a snack cake. On the trip, they talk about the logistics of Lee's urinal. What I am really interested in is not the urinal, but the poopinal. Now how do they deal with that? Lee was just nasty, coming back from bariatric surgery grilling himself 4 large sausages while being mouthy with Rena who's trying to remind him of better eating habits. Lee said at the end of the show that they now can have intercourse. Maybe that'll be the last straw for Rena, LOL.

Dr Phil: "You complained about her taking strawberries to her room" Stupid parent: "it's just a little thing part of the big picture, we're over that" Daughter: "You're not over it if you bring it up on Dr PHIL!!!!" The daughter's problem is that she's smarter than her idiot parents.

What kind of shameful lung disease did terminally-ill yet "murdered-by-the-hospital" dad had, that no one would name it? Given everything else wrong with him, it probably was smoking-related. I say emphysema.

The 48 hours episode was quite harrowing and full of extraordinary details. Such as the fact that Alejandro Santoyo Guzman had received a million dollar settlement stemming from his whole family dying in a drunk driving accident. Only 20 yrs old, he had purchased a mansion in Texas, gold bars, $1000 designer belts and other nonsense, yet held up a Chinese restaurant at gun point! Texas police showed the Tulsa detectives a video where he gleefully tortures someone with big knives for fun, and is wanted in connection to 4 other murders. What a waste of money, some psychos can't be helped. http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tulsa-man-enters-guilty-plea-to-first-degree-murder-in/article_9af63d7a-152f-5540-9fb4-07e0b7a12bc8.html This was the car accident: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-a-second-time-funeral-marks-loss-of-family-5676003.php His family was driving to Oklahoma to meet him. He had been sent there days earlier because of problems with a local gang.

That guest with the (gasp!) beige dress really popped! It was a gaudy, vulgar, garish, almost fluorescent shade of beige. The color bouncer at the door was sleeping at the switch no kicking her out of the event, or throwing a black sheet on her. However, nothing stood out so much as the bride's greasy monkey-piss yellow hair! With the cattiness now out of my system, I am free to declare that her monolithic crystal dress, with its tulle underskirt, was spectacular. The more subdued, but still glittery bridesmaid dresses looked very upscale and tasteful - yes, a nice change from the colored ones. Romantic grey clouds, with their diamond waterfalls, rolled in expecting to be welcomed by a surprised, delighted, and grateful bride, but rolled out leaving nothing but rainy tears of heartbreak at receiving her bitterness and scorn. Said the sobbing cloud: "there's no pleasing some people." The nanny dress was nice, but the nanny herself lacked camera charisma.

She was holding back tears and cooing to him to sit with her at the Tell All... I think she's full on Danielle level of delusion, and misplaced pride. Also, sunk costs.

I don't see records of a divorce filing, so maybe it's just threats. Maybe they'll reconcile. Maybe she's waiting for the Sharp Entertainment cameras to actually head to the court room.

Was that a new episode? If so, I'm so glad they returned to the old format, I'm loving the beautiful dresses, the feel-good candy nature of the show's 30 minutes and I was relieved to be spared drama. That pink Mark Zunino dress was 100% dream. I was sad that the Charlotte Gainsbourg lookalike bride didn't find anything she liked. I liked that huge bling 'bolero' but it was cool optical white and the dress was warm off-white, they were mismatched. It would have been nice to see this with the right color dress.

They are just as bad, but differ in how they are acquired (alcohol legally, drugs not so much) and how addicts are weaned off (weaning off alcohol has to be done gradually, cold turkey may be dangerous). There is also a certain synergy between alcohol and drug consumption which together is worse than the sum of its parts, hence the value of naming them separately.

No one that has watched Intervention is surprised with this. I totally understand why Dr Phil's show might often have to do that in pursuit of the goal of getting a guest to rehab.

I just saw "Sexy Vegan" that Dr Phil tentatively labelled a narcissist. He's waaaay beyond personality disorder. Is it wrong of me to think he looked better with the cartoony face tats and blue eyebrows than he did before? He probably has more of a delusional disorder, maybe even schizophrenia. After I watched the show, the skin on my face felt dry, and wrinkly like silk paper. I longed to hear of potions to find relief from this affliction, but alas! Dr Phil was silent on the matter.

https://www.instagram.com/chanoknatsuwan/ The posts are actually Annie's, not Penguin's.

With her shitty choices in mates, Molly should STFU. I'll take Andreii talking in my stead over Molly's lunatic, sneering baboon telling me how much he loves strippers while complaining about ceramic figurines.

He has zero experience working in a restaurant, let alone running one. He'd probably clean out the bar shelves ever night. After the tell all, I realize it's probably a lot about the money, now.

Loren was denied as a petitioner, right? Azan is denied as a petitionee.

Libby & Andrei: She wore a very flattering dress with outstanding lace, lovely neckline, perfect earrings and her hair was very well done. These two kids are going to make it. Nothing wrong with one partner being a bit more domineering, that's almost always the case anyway, as long as the person is rational and reasonable, it's OK. Penguin & Sad Sack Annie: Penguin didn't waste anytime to start binge drinking with Chris, he had several vodka shots before the wedding. These two. So much co-dependency and dysfunction. The more I see of Penguin, the more it dawns on me that he's a huge sack of excuses for everything. He apologizes all the time, and very quickly, tacks on a promise about learning from his mistakes and changing his ways, then he goes and does it again. He is so glib about it. The guy has decades of practice, he sounds so earnest. Because he's such a good actor, how can Annie believe anything he ever says, whether a fact, or a sentiment? Annie criticizing Azan for gold-digging was pretty rich! Penguin nodded in the positive that Azan is in it for the money. Well, sure, a mooch will recognize another mooch faster than anyone! Nikki is an angel, she tells it like it is but with kindness and love. She is an amazing person and I adore her. Antonio is adorable and I don't begrudge him embracing his new fame. I don't know if it's the editing, or Annie's personality, but everyone is ragging on her like she's at the very bottom of the pecking order. She's quite bland and doesn't have much of a personality, or much intellect. It's like she never knows how to react, how to soothe people, how to convince them... she's always on the defensive and is terrible at it. People trying to make conversation with her have to do all the effort, do all the talking... like pulling teeth. Evilyn & Walking Constipation: Evelyn insisted on tuxedos and bridesmaid dresses but couldn't be arsed to produce a decent dress. Now, she's a gorgeous young woman and would have looked good in anything that fits properly. Every time I see Father Evilyn I have that vision of him picketing abortion clinics (take it up with your government, dude, don't harass women). I have great respect for Evilyn's enthusiasm for popping her cherry. Shut up David no one wants your ignorant, religious cult opinion about Buddha statues. Evilyn had great poise and confidence, she had a lot of charisma. She may be a bit of a snotty brat but she'll grow out of it. She's very well spoken and mature for an 18 yr old. Mollynielle & Luishamed: Mollynielle is almost as practiced as Penguin with the excuses and the downplaying of her bad decisions. "But the marriage is different from the wedding oh I'm so confused" "I'm sorry you felt that way" - wow, nice faux-pology to your daughter! Did she really call her own wedding "Olivia's dream?" She's is such a narcissist. I hope Olivia realizes it some day. I liked how her dad gave her the tough talk that she needed, but with love and kindness. Good thing Andre was there to point out that Luis is a punk and call out Luis' on his witchcraft BS. It's my opinion that Luis and his permanent, wholly inappropriate affect requires a psychiatric diagnostic. Maybe it's treatable somewhat. "I know I'm bad" he said, with his usual detached grin, looking deranged. "We're here and I thought we were doing good", Mollynielle cooed, trying to get her demented bartender to sit next to her. That was quite the pecan pie in the face when he decided to sit across from her. He still insists the Buddhas are evil, and I'm not sure what I think about Mollynielle fighting to keep her Buddhas. On one hand she seemed petty about it, but on the other hand, his thought processes and emotional reactions are seriously disordered, should she cave in? Toddler & Aladin: When her mom say was nervous about Aladin, Toddler smirked, shook her head back and forth with a little attitude, and hissed "nervous about not getting the visa?" Robbalee is an angel not to just get up and walk away. Like many others, I don't understand why Robbalee doesn't call Toddler's bluff about moving to Morocco. Neither of them works! She can't work in Morocco, she doesn't speak the local language, she can hardly speak English with her 100-word vocabulary. Toddler didn't like getting called out on her frequent flyer Western Union transfers. She's too dumb to realize that the one-directional flow of money is now obscuring her ability to judge Azan's intentions. Is it a real relationship, or a scam? Now she'll never know, and she'll fall into the 'sunk costs' fallacy. She has zero self-awareness, evidenced by the way she tried to warn Mollynielle that Luis is a rat. She really stood out at the tell all as not being at the same mental age as the rest of the couples, she sounds like a 7 yr old.

So what happened with Aika's passed down ring? Are we ever going to know?