Small Talk: "I'll Take Non-Show Chat For $400, Alex."

[Bastet]

17 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

An amazing find! Now we need to know what Kit's connection to that street and to LA is!

He stayed for awhile in Avila Adobe on that street; here's a brief history of the street that mentions it.

[SoMuchTV]

>>  9 hours ago, MrAtoz said:

When Alex does leave, I'm sure his replacement will be an experienced broadcasting professional.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if they already have a short list of candidates lined up.

Like, say, Drew Carey?  Wayne Brady?  Both of whom would not have been my first guess for replacing long-time, iconic game show hosts, but sometimes it's surprising what skill sets overlap, I guess.

>>

Bringing this over to small talk because I don't know if there's a better place for it...

I don't want to get all quota-system on things, and I know I don't watch every game show out there, but a non-male game show host seems to be about as rare as a rainbow unicorn.  I can think of Aisha Tyler on Whose Line, and I think there was a woman at some point on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but the default game show host seems to definitely be male.  Am I missing something?  Certainly haven't seen any non-males floated for Jeopardy.  When Vanna took over for Pat when he was out sick, I admit it took me aback!

Weird how in my 40-plus years of adulthood, I've dealt with a reasonable M/F mix of doctors, lawyers, dentists, vets, coworkers (in IT) ... but I don't think I've ever had a female plumber or HVAC guy or handyman.  (ONE time I had a female "phone guy".  She was the most helpful I ever had - showed me how to rewire my phone outlets to access my 2nd line.)

Anyway, just seems odd how game show hosts seem to be stuck in the "male" professions.  I wonder if it's just something limited to my viewing habits.

[ABay]

The only female game show host I can think of, other than Aisha, is Ann Robinson (?) who hosted The Weakest Link and that was years ago and British. Wait, Jane Lynch does/did Pictionary or some such? Ellen deGeneres has something or other. And I keep seeing commercials for something with Tiffany Haddisch and brats. Compared to the legion of male hosts now and forever, barely a drop in the bucket.

[Prevailing Wind]

It was Meredith Vieira on Millionaire.

We have a firm of lady plumbers in pink trucks running around our town, but whenever someone in the condos hired them for something, it was men that showed up.

[dcalley]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

When Vanna took over for Pat when he was out sick, I admit it took me aback!

Speaking of that, you can see her hosting again starting Dec. 9.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/vanna-white-hosting-wheel-fortune-pat-sajaks-emergency-surgery-1253614

[saber5055]

3 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Certainly haven't seen any non-males floated for Jeopardy.

The only "host floaters" I've read about are from posters on this thread. So go ahead and float some women if you want equal floating time for both sexes. Did no one here watch Press Your Luck?

My insurance covers flat tires, and both times I've called for repair, a woman did the change, plus fixed the flat for me. And a woman changes the oil in my vehicle at the shop I frequent. I'm treating myself by paying someone else to change oil after doing it myself for the past 25-plus years. Yeah, I'm female. And I can do anything a man can do. Go ahead and make me bristle by saying I can't.

Jane Lynch hosts Hollywood Game Night. Tiffany Haddish's show is a remake of Art Linkletter's Kids Say The Darndest Things, not a game show. Ellen DeGeneres' game show is called Ellen's Game of Games.

As for women being "barely a drop in the bucket," that's a fight that has been going on in every field since the beginning of time, not just on television.

Edited November 23, 2019 by saber5055

[suebee12]

Another female host(ess) was Brooke Burns on The Chase. I really enjoyed her on the show and she nominated for Outstanding Game Show Host losing to Craig Ferguson.

[opus]

Betty White won an Emmy for hosting the game show Just Men! (show didn’t last long though)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Men!

Edited November 23, 2019 by opus

[suebee12]

11 minutes ago, opus said:

Betty White won an Emmy for hosting the game show Just Men!

I think she might be a bit old but who knows? She is like the energizer bunny!😉

[saber5055]

Betty White is all kinds of awesome. I can imagine her reading Jeopardy! clues as double entendres.

[SoMuchTV]

21 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Betty White is all kinds of awesome. I can imagine her reading Jeopardy! clues as double entendres.

That would be quite a twist, if Alex retired and was replaced by someone almost two decades older!

[saber5055]

With so much spec that Alex will announce his retirement after the big hoopla of K-B-J since it's on a prime time network, I can't see him leaving in the middle Season 36 unless things are really bad. Alex gets mega coverage on all networks and national newscasts. Even Dhruv's FJ comment got more publicity than Kanye West's revival. It's not like it's some one-time window of opportunity. JMHO.

[Browncoat]

Greetings from Charlotte, NC airport, where I was horrendously early for my flight to LA. In my defense, it was snowing a bit at home, and I overestimated rush hour traffic leading into Charlotte.  And parking was easier than I anticipated, as was check-in. So here I am for the next two hours, just hanging out at my gate.

[saber5055]

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

And parking was easier than I anticipated, as was check-in. So here I am for the next two hours, just hanging out at my gate.

Time to buy a lottery ticket, the Good Luck Gods are smiling at you. Unbelievable that your day is going easily and smoothly. May that trend continue for the rest of your trip. Check in when you can so we can travel vicariously along with you. Inquiring minds want to know every detail!

[BuckeyeLou]

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Greetings from Charlotte, NC airport, where I was horrendously early for my flight to LA. In my defense, it was snowing a bit at home, and I overestimated rush hour traffic leading into Charlotte.  And parking was easier than I anticipated, as was check-in. So here I am for the next two hours, just hanging out at my gate.

Have a safe trip!  Check out the gift shops in the Terminal, I like to do that 🙂

[Browncoat]

My luck has run out. Apparently there’s a taxi strike or something here in LA, and I don’t have Uber or Lyft (which both have horribly long lines), so who knows how long it will be before I get to my hotel. Good thing I came out a day early!

Also, at least the weather’s great!

Edited December 2, 2019 by Browncoat

[Mindthinkr]

2 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

My luck has run out. Apparently there’s a taxi strike or something here in LA, and I don’t have Uber or Lyft (which both have horribly long lines), so who knows how long it will be before I get to my hotel. Good thing I came out a day early!

Also, at least the weather’s great!

Have you tried getting in touch with the hotel? They sometimes have shuttles or private cars for these occasions. Good luck and enjoy the warm weather. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

My luck has run out. Apparently there’s a taxi strike or something here in LA, and I don’t have Uber or Lyft (which both have horribly long lines), so who knows how long it will be before I get to my hotel.

LAX recently banned curbside pick-up by taxis, Uber, Lyft, etc. and shunted them off to a separate lot, LAX-it, which is probably where you are.  It pissed off everyone, especially taxi drivers, so while there isn't a strike (unless one started today), there are fewer taxi drivers willing to deal with it.  The wait for a taxi still tends to be shorter than for the rideshares, though.

You can reach the green line (metro rail) from LAX, but without knowing where you're going, I don't know if it or one of the connecting lines would get you there; you may be better off just waiting for a taxi.  Good luck.

You can still be dropped off curbside via taxi, so you won't deal with that LAX-it lot on the way home.

I regret to inform you the weather is only going to get worse, but if you think today's is great - it's cold to us - you may not mind.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

[Browncoat]

Yep, @Bastet, I was in the LAX-it lot.  Enough people bailed from the taxi line that I moved up a lot, and then I saw a woman at the head of the line who had a tag on her bag from the same company I’m travelling with.  Turns out she’s on the same trip that leaves tomorrow, so I jumped line and we split a cab.  And yes, the strike or protest or whatever it is just started at about the time I got to the LAX-it lot.  But I’m at the hotel now, and I’m extremely glad I decided to come out a day before we embark.  If I’d waited a day, I would likely have missed the boat.

I looked at the weather forecast, and decided that upper 60s and rain beats mid-30s and rain/snow any day.  I could even wear shorts!  And probably will wear sandals!

[saber5055]

Your luck is back, @Browncoat. May the Force (continue to) be with you on your journey! Did you look out the plane's window at all the snow you are missing as you flew over my house? I waved, but the clouds obscured me I am sure. Maybe you'll find a new avatar on your trip. Have fun with that time difference, and don't be an old fogey by going to bed on eastern time. Party up!

[Moose135]

12 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Greetings from Charlotte, NC airport, where I was horrendously early for my flight to LA. In my defense, it was snowing a bit at home, and I overestimated rush hour traffic leading into Charlotte.  And parking was easier than I anticipated, as was check-in. So here I am for the next two hours, just hanging out at my gate.

You're up in the mountains in western NC? I'm down in Charlotte, and saw the weather up that way last night. Glad it didn't get down our way!

A few years back, I was up in Pittsburgh for a business trip and flew home on a Friday afternoon, got back to CLT around 5pm. The flight from Pittsburgh took an hour and 25 minutes. Driving home at rush hour (about 15 miles) took an hour and 40 minutes. It was quicker to fly from PIT to CLT than to drive home from the airport!

[Browncoat]

@saber5055, I’m not sure what the flight path is from Charlotte to LA, but I did see some snowy mountains from time to time when the clouds parted.  Lots of them, in fact, when we got closer to LA.  And the lovely brown layer of haze as we landed...

@Moose135, I’m actually in Virginia, and just on the edge of potential snow.  What we had did not accumulate, but I think it did within 20 or 30 miles of where I came down the mountain to NC.

And I got lucky again!  I finished dinner and got back to the hotel room in time for Jeopardy!  I missed the very beginning, but saw most of the first round!

[saber5055]

13 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

And I got lucky again!  I finished dinner and got back to the hotel room in time for Jeopardy!  I missed the very beginning, but saw most of the first round!

Based on comments in the Season 36 thread, you getting to see this episode means your luck has tanked and gone south. Your window to buy a lucky Lotto ticket has closed.

Photos tomorrow, please, from the ship!

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, Browncoat said:

Yep, @Bastet, I was in the LAX-it lot.  Enough people bailed from the taxi line that I moved up a lot, and then I saw a woman at the head of the line who had a tag on her bag from the same company I’m travelling with.  Turns out she’s on the same trip that leaves tomorrow, so I jumped line and we split a cab.  And yes, the strike or protest or whatever it is just started at about the time I got to the LAX-it lot.  But I’m at the hotel now, and I’m extremely glad I decided to come out a day before we embark.  If I’d waited a day, I would likely have missed the boat.

I still can't find anything on the local news about a protest/strike today, but they've held them before on this issue.  Sorry for the bad timing, but at least it all worked out.  Where are you sailing off to?

25 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

And the lovely brown layer of haze as we landed...

Heh.  Yeah.  Welcome to L.A.  The only time we don't have the lovely smog to look through (and breathe) is during/just after times of high winds.

[Browncoat]

@Bastet, just a quick trip out to the Channel Islands, with a stop on Catalina.  I’m looking for marine mammals, a couple of birds that don’t live anywhere else, and the fox that only lives out there.  Some of those might be more elusive in the rain than they would be in good weather, but even if we don’t see them, the scenery will be worth it.

[Bastet]

38 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

@Bastet, just a quick trip out to the Channel Islands, with a stop on Catalina.  I’m looking for marine mammals, a couple of birds that don’t live anywhere else, and the fox that only lives out there.  Some of those might be more elusive in the rain than they would be in good weather, but even if we don’t see them, the scenery will be worth it.

Sounds like a great trip.  I have pretty severe motion sickness that is at its worse on the water, so I've only been to the Channel Islands once (but I did all of them) and Catalina a couple of times, despite being local.  They're beautiful, especially Channel Islands - and, yes, the unique animals and plants are something to behold; it feels like seeing an area frozen in a long-ago time.

I hope the Anacapa islets are open to visitors this week; I know a construction project is causing intermittent closures.

Have a great trip!

[Browncoat]

Unfortunately, Anacapa is closed, so I think we’re meant to get more time on another one — Santa Cruz, maybe?  They sent an e-mail a couple of days ago to let us know. Plus, I’m not sure how the pouring rain tomorrow will affect the itinerary.  

And yes, it’s 4:45 AM local time, but my body thinks it’s 7:45, so I’m awake for the day.

[saber5055]

12 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I’m looking for marine mammals, a couple of birds that don’t live anywhere else, and the fox that only lives out there.

What birds? I love to watch birds and get a kick out of seeing different ones. In the winter here, big sport is photographing the bald eagles that fish in the open water off the roller dams in the Mississippi. They all go back north once the ice melts. Once when I had some puppies out in the back yard, when I checked on them, there was a bald eagle circling over the yard, and rather low. I brought the pups inside.

How weird is it that it's raining in southern California. Mother Nature timed the annual rain to coincide with your trip. Too bad it didn't happened earlier (fires).

Pictures!

[Browncoat]

Fortunately it isn’t raining yet, so we had a delightful day wandering around San Pedro. The Cabrillo Aquarium is quite nice!

I am mostly looking for the island scrub jay. It only lives on Santa Cruz, so if I’m going to see it, tomorrow will be the day.  In the rain. There are some seabirds, too, but the jay would be a life bird.

[saber5055]

[Browncoat]

That's the one!  And we saw five, maybe six.  I am reluctant to count the sixth one, since we saw it independently of the rest, and near where we saw the first three.  It could have just been one of the first three.  Very pretty bird!

And for some reason, Safari wouldn't open the forums here while I was gone, or I would have posted.  I'm back and on Firefox now.  I still can't get Safari to open these forums on my iPad, and it's even looking questionable on my laptop.  I can get to primetimer.com and lots of other things, just not the forums. It was all fine before I embarked the ship.  No idea.

It was a fun trip despite the rain, and it did rain every day at least a little bit.  I was very glad I tossed in my rain pants at the last minute, almost as an afterthought.

[saber5055]

Safari won't open any primetimer anything for me, on my desktop Mac. Firefox and Chrome, no problem.

Three cheers (five cheers) for you getting a lifer bird. I hope you got photos. I'm sure you did not even imagine it raining during your trip since it basically never rains there. Go figure. Glad you had a good time though. What other birds did you see that you can't find at home? Do tell all, please!

[Prevailing Wind]

On 12/3/2019 at 12:08 AM, Bastet said:

I have pretty severe motion sickness that is at its worse on the water,

Have you tried Sea-Bands? They're stretchy bands for your wrists that have a lumpy button that's supposed to rest on the acupressure point that controls motion sickness. They work wonders for me.  When I was in Maine this summer and took a lobster boat cruise, they loaned them to the passengers. The wag of a guide said his wife's been wearing them for 25 years and she's not sick of him yet...

They work for me on planes, too. I'm horribly sensitive to motion, so I'm ecstatic that I discovered these.

[Bastet]

21 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Have you tried Sea-Bands?

Yes, I use them.  I use several things, and I still get nauseated on the water under many conditions.  It's a shame, because I love being near/in/on a body of water - I even have a tattoo representing water, because of how much water calms me - but boats and I have a contentious relationship.  It's a good thing I have no interest in going on a cruise for several other reasons, so I don't feel I'm "missing out".

[Browncoat]

7 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Safari won't open any primetimer anything for me, on my desktop Mac. Firefox and Chrome, no problem.

Three cheers (five cheers) for you getting a lifer bird. I hope you got photos. I'm sure you did not even imagine it raining during your trip since it basically never rains there. Go figure. Glad you had a good time though. What other birds did you see that you can't find at home? Do tell all, please!

I'm on Safari on my laptop now.  Firefox won't even open on the laptop any more!  But I still can't get the forums on the iPad.  I can get to the homepage, and all the other links work, just not the forums.  We'll see what happens at work tomorrow -- I usually use Firefox there.

I have a crappy point-and-shoot camera, so the photos I did manage are grainy at best because I had to zoom in so much.  I don't even know why I tried to take a photo, tbh.  Maybe 2020 will be my year to get a real DSLR and actually learn to use it.  Or at least a new point-and-shoot, provided I can find one (either kind) that takes the same memory card AND the same battery.

I actually got several life birds, mostly because the bulk of my birding has been done east of the Mississippi.  A great many western birds are new to me.  Other life birds include the surf scoter, red-shafted northern flicker (we have yellow-shafted ones here), black phoebe, Say's phoebe, western meadowlark, black-vented shearwater, spotted towhee, Bewick's wren, rufous-crowned sparrow, and black turnstone.  I'll have to check on the gulls to see if any of those are new.

Each day we had several options for activities.  Some were just a Zodiac cruise, and others were more strenuous, like the hike to the Torrey Pines on Santa Rosa.  I would have liked to have seen the pines, but I didn't feel like I was up to a strenuous hike.  I took the more moderate hike, but after seeing photos, I think strenuousness was determined by time/length rather than the actual trail conditions.  The hike I went on involved a fair amount of steep elevation gain (and loss!).  I was glad I had a walking stick -- it was not only steep, it was slippery from all the rain.  It was a good hike, though -- lots of scenery and birds, but no foxes.

Our best morning, weather-wise, was on the "other" side of Catalina, away from Avalon.  It was sunny and warm, and there was a bit of hiking, or some people just hung out on the beach.  There was also kayaking and paddle boarding on offer.  I took a very short but (again) very steep hike to a beach a couple of coves over, and saw more birds, and some really good geology.  

It poured the rain on us for the first 45 minutes or so in Avalon, but as we were ashore for several hours, we dried out.  I wore my rain pants into town!  And I wasn't the only one, either!  I managed to get almost all my Christmas shopping done, though some people are just going to get little knickknacks that say "Catalina" on them.  We were allowed to stay out until 6, but the shops and museums and things closed at 5 or even earlier, so most of us were back on our ship way before 6.  Also, it got dark.  They told us that they did have lights for the Zodiacs, but I was good with going back at dusk.

That evening, before we left Avalon, we got a lovely bioluminescent light show in the water off the bow of our ship.  It was super cool.

I didn't take a lot of photos, and I haven't had time to download them from my camera, but I'll see if there are any worth sharing.  I think I probably took more that were "artistic" than just nice shots (example:  a photo of the single fox footprint in the sand).  I guess I'll have to go back sometime to try to see that adorable and elusive fox.  All of us on the moderate hike on Santa Rosa just knew it was somewhere up along the canyon walls, watching us and laughing.

I think I'm glad to be home, but I do dread getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go to work! 

ETA: We went to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro before we embarked on the ship -- it's really nice!  I also enjoyed just standing on Cabrillo Beach (the "wild" side) and watching/listening to the waves roll in.  There weren't a lot of people there, since it was a Tuesday morning, and it was very peaceful and calming.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Browncoat

[zoey1996]

I am so annoyed at the "banner ads" along the bottom of the page!  On the PC it's not so bad, but on my phone or kindle, it's infuriating!

[Mindthinkr]

37 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

I am so annoyed at the "banner ads" along the bottom of the page!  On the PC it's not so bad, but on my phone or kindle, it's infuriating!

It has forced me to spend less time on PTV. Sometimes I don’t hit the little x to get rid of it wrong and then I get the stupid ad. I don’t want them to add more of those, so I avoid clicking on any ads. It drives me nuts. 

[suebee12]

1 hour ago, Mindthinkr said:

It has forced me to spend less time on PTV. Sometimes I don’t hit the little x to get rid of it wrong and then I get the stupid ad. I don’t want them to add more of those, so I avoid clicking on any ads. It drives me nuts. 

I am with you! They are so bad that I too, am spending less time here and I hate that! If I work on my laptop, it is much better but I don't use that often...it is mostly for my sewing stuff. I know that money is needed to run a site like this, but this is "over-kill" to me, driving people away instead of drawing folks in. One other thing that has happened because of the ads, I sometimes forget to hit submit, and don't post what I think I have...anyone else do this?

[saber5055]

3 hours ago, suebee12 said:

I sometimes forget to hit submit, and don't post what I think I have...anyone else do this?

What you have typed into the reply box should still be there next time you are on that thread, or it should. Sometimes my reply disappears when I go to the next page, and sometime the reply is still there when I close my browser and reopen it the next day if I forgot to submit/send it. It's a potluck.

I do hate that the pages jump around now, I scroll down to read the new posts and the window jumps back up to nearer the top. Irritating.

I never click on any ads ever, on any web page. Doesn't stop the ads from trolling me though.

[SoMuchTV]

8 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I am so annoyed at the "banner ads" along the bottom of the page!  On the PC it's not so bad, but on my phone or kindle, it's infuriating!

I already had an ad blocker on my desktop (for other reasons), and I was able to find one that works on Safari on my iPhone, so I’ve pretty much abandoned browsing on my tablet, which I couldn’t find one for. They’ve really accomplished the opposite of what they wanted here. Now instead of seeing “polite” ads, I’m seeing none at all. 

[zoey1996]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

I already had an ad blocker on my desktop (for other reasons), and I was able to find one that works on Safari on my iPhone, so I’ve pretty much abandoned browsing on my tablet, which I couldn’t find one for. They’ve really accomplished the opposite of what they wanted here. Now instead of seeing “polite” ads, I’m seeing none at all. 

Which app did you find?

[SoMuchTV]

6 minutes ago, zoey1996 said:

Which app did you find?

For safari, I think it was just called Adblock. I searched on the App Store and it came up with good reviews. 
For the desktop, I was using Adblock plus, then multiple people recommended something else, which I switched to. Something like ublock express?  I’ll update when I’m back on that device. 

[Mindthinkr]

I bought Adblock ($1.99) Plus, but it didn’t seem to make any difference on this site. 

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, Mindthinkr said:

I bought Adblock ($1.99) Plus, but it didn’t seem to make any difference on this site. 

I know I didn’t pay for anything 

[suebee12]

I, too, have an ad block but it does not work on this site either....

[chessiegal]

I went to the Microsoft store, found a free ad blocker called Ad Blocker Ultimate, installed it, and it's working. The app did open a window asking for contributions. I closed the window without contributing (don't say something is free and then ask for money).

[Driad]

I use AdBlock (Chrome on Mac) and see no ads here.

[Browncoat]

I just installed Adblock (Safari on Mac) and the ads have gone away.  I haven't looked, though, for an ad blocker for the iPad.

[Prevailing Wind]

I use AdBlock Plus on Firefox - it's a free "add-on."  I only use the laptops (I have two - one for "home" and the other, with minimal stuff on it, for Road Trips) so that's all I need.  Sometimes I'll haul out the Road Trip Laptop in the living room and do internet stuff while I'm half-watching cooking shows.  It's an HP and the damn thing "hits" enter all by itself if the cursor hovers over something for too long a time. I don't know how to stop that, but I've inadvertently clicked on a large dog crate on the right side of my FB screen many, many times. The cursor's over there on the right while I'm reading some long post and RTLaptop decides I REALLY wanna look at a dog crate.

[SoMuchTV]

14 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

For safari, I think it was just called Adblock. I searched on the App Store and it came up with good reviews. 
For the desktop, I was using Adblock plus, then multiple people recommended something else, which I switched to. Something like ublock express?  I’ll update when I’m back on that device. 

On the desktop (Firefox) it's uBlock Origin.  It's one of the free ad-ons/extensions you can get.  People on another forum seemed to think it slowed things down less than Adblock Plus.  Not sure if I can really tell much difference; they both seemed fine.