DramatistDreamer

Nadal has violated that rule many more times than he has actually been caught. Tennis is very selective about who they punish and it makes them look ridiculous as an organization. You have people who bash holes into umpires' chairs and pretending to fire guns getting smaller fines than players swiping at a blade of glass. Also, how is it determined that CSN was giving 'not enough effort'? How is that determined? You have verbal abuse warnings for some...fine, but let it be in a language or slang that an official isn't familiar with and the offender gets absolutely no warning, even if everybody heard it. Pundits still complain about grunting as though it is solely a women's tennis issue when, at this point there are just as many male players who grunt (and loudly) during matches. When the shot clock rule was introduced, I was one of those who dismissed it. One, I really thought the effect would be negligible on the actual running time of the match (surface speeds, balls, etc. are far more important factors, imo) and I just didn't care and third, like many other of tennis' rules, many players who are often habitual offenders would find a way around it anyway. Now that the shot clock rule is here and in effect, however, I think that either tennis needs to apply and enforce it, equally and judiciously or just get rid of the rule altogether. Tennis as a sport looks ridiculous nowadays.

And if there's any doubt about that, one only need look as the twitter feud he was trying to start with *squints at paper* John Legend and Chrissy Teigen as Teigen's incredible clapback at Trump that actually started to trend until Twitter shadowbanned it. People continue to tweet and retweet the insult hoping to get it to trend. Incredible how with a few well-chosen, politely delivered words Varadkar made Johnson look every inch the disheveled small bumbling fool that he truly is. Johnson can only grin and bear it.

Anyone who was feeling sorry for Billy Bush being out of a job because of the Access Hollywood clip, stop, Bush has a new hosting gig. He was also all over CBS This Morning with the PR blitz.

Some of you longtime GH viewers might recognize one of the actors in this sketch.

Well, there have been a steady flow of defections and resignations, haven't there?

Please don't remind me anything about that horrible serial slasher story they tried to do on ATWT in its final years. Just the notion of it...yikes and, in a bad way!

Just remember, there was a homeless black woman in Connecticut who got 5 years in prison for registering her child to a school in a different district from the one in which she "resided".

Why is Trump going around bragging about a failed diplomacy mission? Most people already see his administration as incompetent on all diplomatic matters and then he talks about flopping an already risky, diplomatic mission with an already low bar of success. Read the room already! Just when you think this keystone cop administration couldn't look anymore incompetent and out of their depth...

Maybe for actors who qualify as "Show Hoppers" but CLJ was no "Show Hopper", he's only ever done two roles in soaps that I can think of, Michael Baldwin and Kirk McColl and he's remembered quite well for both roles. One role, he's still in and the other, where he acted opposite two Oscar winners (Marisa Tomei and Julianne Moore). To exorcise that from people's, particularly soap fans' (who remember everything! LOL) memories could be quite challenging. It was bizarre enough to see him alongside Eileen Fulton as Michael Baldwin. People talked about it a lot when it happened and it was distracting.

I admit to not knowing much about Days since the only experience I have as a viewer is briefly when I had roommates that used to watch when I was in college but I think that Days hanging in there may also have something to do with it being the last remaining soap on that network. I think so few are left that if one goes away now, it would be highly noticeable and I don't think that any of these networks want the type of backlash that ABC got after dumping AMC and OLTL where the two replacement shows "The Chew" and "The Revolution" met with a lot of resistance. "The Revolution" in particular, flopped spectacularly. Any show that might replace Days could conceivably go the way of "The Revolution". I'm not sure that's a risk the network is willing to take, at least, not right now.

The perfect time to have begun to do these types of cross-overs would have been early-mid 1990s, come to think of it when both shows were kind of searching for their identities, especially at the beginning of the whole OJ Simpson saga and trial when soaps were truly trying to cling to their viewers to compete with the circus of the arrest, trial and aftermath. I don't believe the soaps really launched a serious fight for ratings with some compelling stories. The mid 1990s, starting in '94 were sort of a drab time for both shows, artistically and creatively. The talented cast were still there but the writing just wasn't. Procter & Gamble is the obstacle and it's a significant one since they, not CBS own the rights to those shows. How I wish that the mother of soaps Irna Phillips had an estate that had retained control of those shows, things might have been different then.

It was quite telling to me that Alison was the only one who did porn. It was implied that both Amber and Alison had done some meth but only Alison was the one who developed an insatiable appetite for it and was doing porn to support her habit. From what I remember, Amber was the one who ended up contacting Emily (against Alison's wishes) to rescue Emily and oddly, Emily engaged Dusty for help with the rescue effort. The show was just so random at that point. As unpopular as Amber could sometimes be on Y&R, I found it fascinating that the show still wanted to "protect" the character by restricting her to a little drug use but not the full-blown dark underbelly of drugs & porn. I just think that the two shows were in completely different places and it showed. I vaguely recall an online component, so you're probably correct on that. I know that ATWT was trying to develop more of an interactive feel and engage viewers with an online technological component. Had the show hung on a few more years, those interactive seeds that were planted may have borne some fruit but as it was, most ATWT viewers (who skewed older and were not exactly tech savvy) weren't quite ready for it and ATWT really didn't fully invest and implement it properly anyway. I was on and off with the show in the last decade but I do remember the InTurn contest as yet another attempt to engage viewers in an interactive way. I would have love a cross-over during the 1980s or even early 1990s when both shows still resembled themselves and were at a high in terms of critical success. To see a power conference of corporate leaders in the region with Lucinda Walsh and Alexandra Spaulding would have been lit! Or to see a medical convention with the likes of Dr. Bob Hughes, Dr. Ed Bauer, Dr. Susan Stewart, Dr. Rick Bauer, Dr. John Dixon! Or to see some big lawsuit over water contamination that is affecting Springfield and Oakdale's water pipes and have Ross Marler, Tom Hughes, Jessica Griffin all consulting on the suit! Or to see one of those natural disasters that hit several mid-Western towns and cities affect either Springfield or Oakdale, or parts of both and have the towns/cities pre-eminent families come together to raise funds to aid in the recovery. So. many. ideas!

Some would say that P&G wanted out of producing soaps since they canceled AW in 1999, which was a full decade before the cancellation of GL. I tend to think that by the time AW got canceled, the decision had been made to phase out their remaining soaps, basically to let them fade into oblivion without intervention.

No, they're really not. That little stint they did with Alison and Amber was something of a lark, borne out of desperation for synergy. Y&R was Sony/Bell and ATWT was P&G. Had both shows truly existed in the same universe, Michael Baldwin would never have been able to go on ATWT as Michael Baldwin, where he was once known as Kurt McColl. TBH, ATWT existed more in the same universe as AW and other P&G soaps. That's why the Jake and Cass cross-overs made sense. Bay City was often mentioned as existing not too far from Oakdale. I always wanted GL and ATWT to do a cross-over, they were both P&G soaps, had a legacy of having shared some of the same writers and had a similar feel of having a matriarch-centered canvas with "warmth" to it. Y&R had more of a cool, slick tone and it really had no legacy of being matriarchal-centered. I think that, for the most part ATWT and Y&R naturally existed in two different universes. The Alison storyline, for the most part was still relegated to ATWT's universe, it had no impact on any existing stories in Genoa City. I think the couple of episodes where they said that Alison was in Genoa City seemed oddly out of place with the regular show. It also seemed as if those episodes were filmed separately, apart from the rest of the show, as if it existed entirely in a vacuum, away from the regular Y&R.

Bianca Andreescu was hungry and played like there was no tomorrow. Serena's serve let her down and her footwork stopped and by the time she was able to play up to her normal standard, it was too late for her. Congrats to Andreescu! I've known since the beginning of the season that she has been one who could snatch titles. Let's not have a contest about who can be a drama queen because according to Kerber, Bianca has made a name for herself in that category as well, lol. That second set was thrilling. It's rare to see a tennis match get that level of full-on, full-throated cheering and excitement.

Arthur Ashe the man and his legacy deserved more than that ugly as* stadium.

To say that it hasn't been a good week for Boris Johnson would be an understatement. Even the average Conservative party member is wondering how such a small majority was able to get him in when the populace didn't vote for him. And the same tabloids where he used to rule the roost with his editorial pen, now assails him as the worst PM in history. Oh well.

Friday evening news dump incoming-

OMG.

To call this a "Longread" seems like a massive understatement. It is a highly granular, detailed and lengthy account of the ties between Tulsi Gabbard and the right-wing Hindu nationalist party. It begins with the origins of the RSS that had roots in fascism and even admiration of aspects of Nazism, it's spread the Indian diaspora outside of the continent, up to Modi's rise in Indian politics and how it intertwined with Gabbard's development in a Hari Krishna sect and her political rise and cultivation of as well as reliance on a network of Hindu nationalist donors. This article references an article that was published in the Intercept several months ago (which, I read, I believe it was the Intercept anyway) but this article is far more detailed, some might say exhaustively so. I read the entire thing, likely because of my interest in world politics, particularly in the Caribbean, Latin America and the Indian Subcontinent but to others who may not want to read the entire thing, the author has a series of subtweets that seem to highlight the important aspects of the article.

Naomi Osaka, the defending champ is out!

33 years ago, Kim Hughes had her own Labor Day, going into labor and giving birth to Chris, her son with Bob Hughes in a dynamic episode that still has yet to be posted to YouTube (or any video sharing platform AFAIK). Back then, ATWT always had truly memorable Labor Day episode's, usually a cliffhanger, made even more intense by the fact that the story resolution was delayed by increasing US Open tennis coverage often pre-empting episodes.

Well enjoy because Johnny's perspective gets plenty of story throughout the first season. It's actually a pretty entertaining show to boot, imo.

And hadn't there just been a mass shooting in Texas earlier that same day?!