DramatistDreamer

@ChitHappens I'm surprised I remembered her so quickly. Gwen wasn't exactly a favorite character of mine, lol. Back to Topic, pop star Billie Eilish is the daughter of Maggie Baird (Taylor Baldwin, ATWT). MLB Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito is the son of Lindsey Frost (Betsy Stewart Andropoulous, ATWT) and Rick Giolito (Nick Castello, ATWT)

Tiffani Caesar (Nella Franklin #1, ATWT) is the daughter of film and theater actor Adolph Caesar (A Soldier's Story, The Color Purple). Jake Weary (Luke Snyder 2004, ATWT) is the son of Kim Zimmer (Reva Shayne Lewis, GL). Phil Morris (Tyrone Jackson, Y&R) is the son of Greg Morris (Mission Impossible). Jennifer Landon (Gwen Munson, ATWT), is the daughter of Michael Landon (Bonanza, Little House on The Prairie) Julianne Moore (Frannie Hughes, ATWT) and Marisa Tomei (Marcy Thompson, ATWT) are cousins, only they didn't know it at the time they were on the show at the same time, although since they are distantly related, you can't blame them, lol. Scott Bryce (Craig Montgomery #1, ATWT), is the son of Ed Bryce (Bill Bauer, GL) Lauralee Bell, daughter to Bill Bell Sr. Finn Carter (Sierra Esteban Montgomery, ATWT), is the cousin of President Jimmy Carter.

It's really interesting to see how "first past the post" really warped results in this election for England, in particular. Scotland and N. Ireland were outliers due to a combination of allegiance to EU membership and internal politics. Speaking of internal politics, this is disturbing. I've been reading about the burgeoning "Hindutva" since Modi's election and am surprised that so many have turned a blind eye to this. With this new law, the issue seems to be reaching a fever pitch, as is evident from the protest and the ferocity of the government's response to turn back protesters.

Also, she was Deputy Parliament Secretary for Nick Clegg who entered that Faustian bargain with the Tories during the Cameron years. People don't forget, especially in Scotland, where national policies clearly and sovereignty had more importance than what has happening in the U.K. overall. "Politics is local" really does resonate sometimes.

An interesting article that proposes that, had Great Britain had proportional voting (e.g. Germany), the pro-Remain parties (Liberal Democrats, SNP and Labour) could have formed a coalition government. Instead, GB has what is described as a "first past the post" type of voting system, which allowed the Conservatives to win the general election. https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/other/the-uk-election-explained-in-one-number/ar-BBY5pI2 Another aspect that I hadn't considered previously is that it is possible that voters either didn't trust the Liberal Democrats due to their previous alliance with the Conservatives during David Cameron's administration and voting based on the fallout from that, particularly in Scotland, which might have come to view the alliance as a betrayal to their sovereignty might perhaps be part of the reason that Jo Swinson ended up losing her seat. Speculation on my part though.

Whoa, I guess I really haven't been paying attention to what's been happening in Pakistani politics lately!

Yeah, something had definitely changed in how the character was being written by then. What year did Larry and Susan get together, does anybody remember? Also, what year was that affair? Was it close to the character's exit?

When she was hoeing it up with Dr. John and then Dr. Bob? Seriously though, I think she had her dalliance with John around 89, when Lucinda pushed her into the Christmas tree and she injured her back. She had the affair with Bob sometime around 90. I was thinking farther along by the time she was with Larry.

I'm thinking Marland was dead by the mid 90s though.

Open-marriage Susan would've been better to the boring Mom the character morphed into. It was almost as if, Susan had to be "tamed" into eternal domesticity as retribution for her affair with Bob. Most of the women characters were "dulled down" after the mid-late 90s. They tried to make Carly "Superbad" to make up for all that dullness

They wouldn't have to bring back either of the parents though. I wouldn't have minded grandma Calla dropping in, every now and again.

So apparently, Tiffany Haddish is portraying Willona Woods and not Thelma. Jamie Foxx's daughter, who I don't know whether she has any acting experience is playing Thelma. Sigh.

Although, I know every new writing regime seems to relish the chance to create their own characters, I can't understand why they couldn't just create characterizations from existing characters, they'd likely be able to do virtually the same thing. I thought about this last weekend while watching vintage episodes from Christmas 1986, New Years 1987 and ended up trying to find out what happened to the kid that Simon Hall and Jessie Matthews had? He could've been an interesting character to develop and bring onto the canvas since he already had extensive ties to Springfield--he'd be tied to Lillian and in a way, the Spauldings. Sadly, P&G soaps seemed overly-fond of wasting their histories.

I wondered why no one ever brought back the Kyle Sampson character either. Question: what happened to Bridget and Hart's son Peter? What happened to him? I had fallen away from GL in it's last 15 years but I don't remember hearing or reading about him as a teen or anything.

Looks like Johnson has decided to change his tone. As recently as yesterday there were reports that he was practically ordering Scotland to get with the program. He must have realized that orders won't work with the Scots, so now he's attempting a charm offensive. Well, he usually gets the offensive part down pat.

Hm.

Okay, I had to go back and do a bit of reading because I admit to being less than fully conscientious in paying attention to Northern Ireland. (True story: I used to watch a weekly broadcast of RTE years ago, but since dropping cable, I haven't really watched on a regular basis. I'll have to try to catch a regular livestream in the immediate future.) From what I remember, the DUP seemed to have tied their party and the fate of their party to a semi-partnership with the Tories. It didn't work out, to put it mildly. From what I've been reading, Ireland pretty much rejected parties that were not in the center. Both the DUP and Sinn Fein (fun fact: a member of Sinn Fein once spoke to my class when I was a student in London, but that's whole n'other story) lost seats overall (DUP was the biggest loser of all) in yesterday's elections, while the Alliance party took the most gains. So the parties that were considered either extreme right or extreme left actually lost ground and the party in the center gained seats. We'll have to see how it impacts Northern Ireland going forward but based on this article in The Irish Times, the results seem to suggest that most Northern Irish prioritized looking toward the EU over the possibility of a united Ireland, which, tbh, I never truly thought a united Ireland was actually a genuine possibility, despite mulling it over in my mind a couple times in the past. By the way, here is the article in The Irish Times that I was referencing. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/editorial/the-irish-times-view-on-the-northern-ireland-election-heartening-results-1.4114734 Despite the fact that it's an Op-Ed, I thought it gave a concise summary without too much prognostication.

Is it any wonder that the Trump administration has been in such a frenzy to try to remake the courts? The courts are literally the only institution standing in the way of the country's complete undoing, at this point. Of course, someone might make the claim that the courts started this mess in the first place with Citizen's United. I just hope that Republicans don't figure out a way to disenfranchise Samoans some other way, like at the ballot box now that they can actually vote in elections.

Pretense? Which people say that? I would say that there is a veneer of politeness and wit but the racism and xenophobia are always there and it's always made plain. When I was studying in London. I saw a play about a young black man, a teenager, who had died in police custody after being beaten nearly to death by a horde of white youths. This was based on a true story and as it would turn out, years later, I discovered that the guy who died was born the same year and from the same ethnic group as me. I remember as a child in the '80s there was a case of a young black man, a teenager, who had died after being beaten nearly to death by a horde of white youths in Queens, NY. It was the talk of every public affairs show. In the U.K. and the U.S., it's like what flavour of racism can you expect. A death in police custody after being beaten to death by truncheons or a death in police custody after being shot in the back. And both use the n-word. A Bangladeshi friend once told me about England "they never let you forget that you are a guest in their country, you could have lived there for decades and they'd never let you forget". I'd say that in America, you are led to believe that you belong until you claim that you belong, then you will be put in your place to show that, actually you don't belong here, even if you were born here. And I personally met a lot of people who lacked a modicum of respectability in England, lol, same as in the good 'ole US of A.

Initially, I think that was the main criticism of Corbyn just after the referendum, that he didn't embrace the Remain campaign, under suspicions that he may have been a closet Leave proponent. That's not how he campaigned. I will say though that from what I saw, he seemed to try to split the difference between trying to grabbing those pro-EU voters and the 'red meat' issues that appeal to Labourites. And in the waning weeks of his campaign he seemed to throw himself at the issue of the EU/Remain but by that time, I think many voters believed that Brexit was a 'done deal' and just wanted someone who they believe would negotiate the best deal for Great Britain. JMO but I think that the Brits are delusional if they think Brexit is going to be anything less than hardship. I have been following the deadly shooting at a Kosher deli in NJ and I was struck by how the media desperately tried to tamp down any suggestion that it could have been a hate crime, though to most people with a brain it was obvious that it was. The media is carrying water for Trump (who pays lip service to being against Antisemitism)I don't think the U.S. has any moral ground over the U.K. I've had experience living and studying in both countries and find both to be vehemently racist, the difference is that the U.K. doesn't bother to try to hide this, while the U.S. tries to make one believe that you can ascend to any height in life irrespective of your color and gender, points to the few examples that managed knowing that it's not true.

The consensus on the livestream that I was watching (Johnson started talking and I turned it off) seemed to be that Corbyn lacked humility. He kept his seat but it will be interesting to see whether he remains in his position within the party. Ultimately, he's the leader of the Labour party, so it's Corbyn's Labour party that lost. Maybe it's me but imo, the U.S. and the U.K. seem to be on parallel tracks these days. Maybe I'm being 'glass half empty' but I just don't see that much of a difference between the two.

Presidential candidates? Because that one guy from the Young Turks is apparently running for office and Bernie apparently he has Sanders' support.

An aspect that kept getting mentions is that many thought that Corbyn focused too much on Brexit and not enough on other concerns of the electorate. I'm not sure how true (or not) that is, I will have to ask some of my friends and fam on this one. I'm not so sure about the far left being far better. The Young Turks spring to mind. Some guy named "Nick the Incredible Flying Brick" wearing an outrageous hat is standing on the stage with other candidates, including Jeremy Corbyn for elections in Islington. Jeremy Corbyn maintains his seat. FWIW, the Brexit Party did pretty awful in these elections. Maybe the sentiment that people wanted focus on issues other than Brexit carries some truth to it.