DramatistDreamer

1983's Christmas episode seemed pretty stiff and formal to me, from what I saw. Maybe because I also watched Y&R, whose celebrations seemed much more choreographed, ATWT seemed warmer. I guess it's all about your perception.

This father needs to make formal charges of assault and risk of endangerment to a minor against the woman. Her actions were completely unacceptable.

Hopefully GA Democrats ignore that and continue to go to the polls to vote, the same way they ignored Trump's incessant whining about so-called rigged elections.

No need to apologize at all @JaneAusten I know that you are definitely pushing back against cynicism, which is an important reminder. Personally, I fight cynicism daily when I read the newspaper but try to remind myself that perhaps, I personally wouldn't be here if cynicism had been allowed to take hold. At times(if you remember a salty post that I made just before the general election about wanting to avoid negativity), I have forcefully pushed back when I thought I was seeing hopelessness, perhaps more for my own mental health, more than any other reason, but I definitely understand and relate to what you're saying and took it no other way.🙂 It will be interesting to see if, and when the needle can be significantly be moved in Texas, which is definitely 'Bible belt' territory and although the evangelical movement has lost a lot of people, still has a hold which is not easy to shake loose. People don't think of Florida as being connected but, spend any genuine amount of time in that state and you will see that Florida is part of that 'Bible belt' configuration (God, guns and football, NFL, that is). Whereas in GA, NC, AZ and increasingly, TX, you see those states being transformed hy the people that move in, Florida seems to have the opposite effect, those that decide to stay anyway.

The AZ comment was mentioned as a somewhat tongue in cheek utterance, as I know and have read about Indigenous/Native American groups and Latinx organizers working to get people registered. Having close friends and people who are 'like family' who have lived in GA since the early aughts, I know that GA has been slowly transforming for the past two decades and should be the least surprising of these Southern states that flipped. Abrams definitely gave it a jolt by bringing together what is essentially a loose confederation of grassroots efforts and bringing them together via her organization, she said as much in her tweets. ...when she acknowledged other groups that had been doing this work.

My thoughts exactly. Also, I am not sure that people realize that, even in the last election, as Abrams didn't get the governor's mansion, there were actual breakthroughs for a few Black candidates in GA at the local level. The media, so fixated on Trump supporters, rarely takes notice. Now Arizona, I can possibly see the miracle claim being attributed to that state!

It's hard to know how much of this is "inside the Beltway chatter that will never truly reach, let alone penetrate the consciousness of the masses. Just a few weeks ago there was talk about the so-called Squad going down to GA and campaigning for Warnock (which always seemed a dubious assertion, at best), which never materialized and seemed the invention of one shady blog. Here is one reason why I disagree with the notion that this result was the product of some miracle-- this election result was not an isolated incident, it was the product of years' worth of organizing. This is not to sound haughty but I just don't think most of us know enough of what's truly going on in GA to make the assertion that these gains weren't already in the making as a result of other factors that had little to do with luck and miracles, or some outside force.

The guys who commit atrocities such as the massacre in Nisour Square will never be the ones to face the death penalty.

There is a very high probability that by the time Biden takes the oath of office there will have been so much suffering that there will be enough concensus to push through a bill that is at least equal to the size of the one passed in the spring. Do you think that what happened with GA in the presidential election was a miracle? Personally, I don't. I saw it as the result of a lot of work.

Black people (who l must remind myself can also fall within the ranks of blue-collar workers) also caught hell (despite what we saw on 'The Cosby Show'). As a little girl, I remember family members who were often being laid off from their jobs. They were fortunate to return to work eventually but that type of financial instability took a toll. Most were never able to amass the amount and type of savings that they could/should have, if only their jobs were more secure (and paid better).

So are Kentucky voters that dumb or are voter suppression efforts that effective? I could've even overlooked Susan Collins' cowardice self slithering back in, but McConnell's reelection is unforgivable. For months now, I have been under the impression that no further relief will get passed until Biden gets in office. Each day that passes without a bill being passed strengthens that belief. Very sad to have to say that.

Jennifer Gatti (a.k.a. Original Recipe Dinah) didn't bother me the way I guess, she may bother some. It's just that the efforts to make her look more "carni" mixed with 80s styling did her no favors. When you see her photo stills from other show appearances she made like "Full House" and her stint on Y&R (controversial casting, though it may be), Hatti looked perfectly fine and comparable to her peers on the show. The styling for her Dinah, however was awful, with those bulky sweaters and lion's mane coiffure.

Sadly, it seems that Kirk Cameron was alienating people as far back as the late 80s/early 90s. When he became born-again, he seemed to separate himself from his fellow cast members and began to regard the show as if it were beneath him, from what I saw on the E! True Hollywood Story. A former girlfriend of his who had done some appearances on the show pretty much said he dumped her once he became born-again because she had once posed for Playboy. You can be a Christian without being a jerk but Kirk seems to have only become more obnoxious as the years go by. God bless Tracey Gold, who has maintained her sense of humanity, not to mention, patience. She demonstrated a lot of restraint in her remarks. Kirk let the screaming girls and the appearances on the covers of teen magazines get to his head. He comes off as something of a narcissist.

While watching the GL fundraiser livestream, I can't remember whether it was Robert Newman, or Peter Simon, or maybe Grant Alexander who mentioned how, for many years, GL used to focus on characters celebrating Christmas, rather than existing storylines for their Christmas episodes, and that in later years, the show did the opposite, using the holiday as a backdrop, while centering existing storylines. I mention this because I have noticed the exact same thing with ATWT. While watching an episode from 1985, the aspect of characters celebrating the holiday was the focus. Clearly, nuggets were being dropped of characters that we would see months, sometimes years later but the main focus was Christmas Eve, Frannie's birthday and Christmas. I don't know whether it was a budget thing but, in the last years of the show, having a meaningful celebration of Christmas seemed almost like an afterthought, where the episodes insisted on ploughing ahead with the existing storylines.

Yes, thanks @Vee for posting those stats on Black voter participation in GA for the runoffs. I saw something to this effect yesterday and wanted to post here but couldn't find the pertinent information in a tweet. Lots of people still seem to be ignoring this.

Seems like there are some disagreements on whether this Village Voice revival is actually a good thing. I guess the new owner is getting mixed reviews concerning his performance.

Wow, congrats to her! She looks so happy.

Doctors have been relying a lot on oximeters to determine whether a patient should be hospitalized or deemed well enough to be sent home.

Happy to spotlight that he pardoned people responsible for killing 17 people, including two children?? How disgusting! In any case, Pat Robertson, of all people seem more than ready to see the back of Trump and likely already has his 2024 pick and it is not Trump, which makes me wonder whether the evangelicals will follow suit. I definitely think there is a power struggle between the Russian asset and Moscow Mitch, but it looks more like Trump is more in a "burn it all down" mode and Mitch, who advocated recognizing Biden's election victory and moving on is in Don the Con's cross hairs. Pelosi looks like a bystander in all this. Also, Nancy's no fool, she won't stand idly by and be labeled by the foolishness of these men. Which is why I said, in my post last night, not to trust Trump, who has been known to make grand pronouncements, only to have to retract them, usually out of ignorance for what is actually possible and what his limits are. I personally would benefit greatly from a 2K check but I am going to need the word of someone who actually reads even a fraction of what is in those bills, and it ain't Trump.

Can't say that I trust Trump, who has a penchant for saying one thing on one day, then reversing himself days later. Although I was surprised by some of the items that made it into the bill, I have to see exactly what specific items he is referring to when he mentions "pork". That being said, the $600 individual payment is unconscionable. Also, I wonder whether his pronouncement (after basically sitting on his as$ during this entire process) may be a diversion meant to draw attention away from these pardons.

Y'all know that Bartoli had a bebé, right?

People in other countries have always side-eyed the U.S. in many aspects politically, while finding pockets of things/people to admire but this process leading to this emergency "aid" package has made the U.S. a laughingstock. Only GB has taken some of the focus away (but not much) from how entirely ridiculous this country looks right now. While I personally have my thoughts about the aspect of a candidate connected so intimately with Wall Street running for mayor in a city like NYC, speaking purely from an artistic perspective, this is a well put together ad! I've sometimes have had my issues with Spike Lee and how some aspects of his vision come across storywise but I have to say, over recent years, he's gotten better at presenting a picture that better encompasses complexity, especially across the spectrum of gender and intersectionality.

You should definitely read some of the tweets he's been getting, especially from Brits. Here's one example: