DramatistDreamer

And this is, what the fourth time in a week??! I've lost track. Bumping this to the next page to continue the discussion.

The commentary is pretty self-evident.

Two more people died as a result of their injuries in El Paso. That stupid fool called Dayton Toledo during his speech, which I am relieved to have missed. The only reason I know is because it's trending online.

In retrospect, it would've been for the best to let Steve and Betsy leave together (as Marland originally did with Craig and Sierra before Craig had that comeback in the mid 90s only to reconcile with Sierra again) but Frank Runyeon had chemistry with other actresses who had been on the show like Kim Johnston Ulrich, so from their P.O.V. they should've been able to make it work with another actress-- and honestly, when you look at Frost when she first entered the scene, except for the hair, she looked more like a clone of Johnston Ulrich's Diana McColl than she did of Meg Ryan's Betsy. ATM that they recast with Lindsey Frost, it was unlikely that TPTB had any reason to believe that they would eventually get completely flummoxed by the pairing of Runyeon and Frost. That Betsy/Rod pairing was a disaster, there's no "ifs ands or buts" about that one. Honestly, if they could've sent them off for a few months after Ryan's departure and maybe had Steve (Runyeon) pop up in Oakdale (a la Penny Hughes) from time to time for business and then brought back Ulrich in the role as Betsy, I doubt that many fans would've quibbled about that. I know that Runyeon did other soaps for years until the early 00s, so they could've had Steve and Betsy around a lot longer than they did. But hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

I suspect as much. In fact, many East Coast states and cities that had a chapter of The Black Panthers also have some gun control policies, which have only gotten stronger in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook. The problem is often when people enter from states that have lax gun laws or smuggle guns from those states. And yeah, I already know that if these guys on Capitol Hill see a bunch of POC walking around with guns, many would become instant converts for gun control. There'd be flyers mysteriously showing up in people's mailboxes contending as much.

Which can only stand for so long. Soon we may be seeing POC armed to the teeth, after getting sick and tired of being targeted. We know the Blank Panthers have been itching to make a comeback in a big way...if this doesn't provide an opening for that to happen, I don't know what is.

I was really young back then but from what I can remember, yes they were. I know Meg Ryan gets a ton of derision these days but throughout the 80s and 90s, she was regarded as the queen of the romcom and part of that goodwill she got on the silver screen was due to the popularity she amassed while on ATWT. Frank Runyeon is a classically trained musician who sometimes got to show his piano skills on the show, and we all know how far being musical will get an actor with soap fans (see: Michael Damian and Rick Springfield). So yeah, I'd say they were highly popular. Also, for a minute P&G and CBS actually promoted their soap stars and you could see Meg Ryan and Frank Runyeon making appearances on The Price Is Right and in the 1980s, few daytime shows were as big as TPIR. Even while they were in it, without the benefit of hindsight there was a West Coast bias. Also, Luke and Laura's wedding had the benefit of timing, after coming on the heels of the enormous Royal wedding between Prince Charles and Princess Diana that had occurred months earlier. Now I know that the official story was that Monty had planned to postpone it and somehow Liz Taylor offered to appear on the show if they pushed up the wedding but I'm sorry, that sounds like pure PR spin to make it seem as if no one was exploiting the aftermath of wedding fever left behind by the Royal wedding. I just don't buy the explanation. I think the GH folks were very clever with their timing on that. The West Coast soaps were entertaining, don't get me wrong and there were years, decades of great entertainment but those shows were a product of their Hollywood environment where glamour and gloss was much more important than it was for the grittier, often earthier East Coast soaps. But what went along with that is the fact is the benefit of the Hollywood PR machine at their disposal. It's very telling that all of the soaps remaining on TV are Burbank and Hollywood adjacent. Those soaps were/are no better than their now cancelled East Coast counterparts but they had the benefit of better PR and more Hollywood razzle-dazzle. I mean when you can turn a rapist into a romantic leading man for years... that's some PR spin, don't you think?

Oh, whoo, when you read late at night...I thought Marisa seemed a little young for him, LOL. Thanks for sorting that one out. I probably should've revisited the article in the clear light of day. This will probably be shouted down and I accept it's an unpopular sentiment/opinion but I think that the 1980s ushered in an era of pro-West Coast soaps bias.

I would say that Bernie is f*cking clueless but I suspect that he knows precisely what he's doing. (Also, perhaps trying to signal the disaffected Trumpers that he hopes to pick up support from, maybe?) Seems as if Bernie hopes the rest of us and the world are clueless to not figure out his game.

There was a thread about the use of popular music in soaps, and I wanted to put this post in there but I honestly cannot find that thread now. Reading the WLS blog post about this, I decided to look up the original blog post by the songwriter Jimmy Dunne who wrote "Nobody Loves Me Like You Do" that became Steve and Betsy's signature song, which Whitney Houston and Jermaine Jackson would perform on the show. There's a great backstory to the song that Dunne (who also made an appearance on the show during that story arc) that gives background on the song and the show's effect on the song (and vice-versa) as well as what it meant to have Whitney sing the song. Also, did he say that he and Marisa Tomei (Marcy Thompson) used to date?? http://jimmydunne.com/remembering-whitney

The sad fact of the matter is there is a distinct lack of will in the U.S., which will go to other countries halfway around the world, drop bombs in the name of anti-terror but doesn't recognize that these mostly white males are terrorizing the American public, who cannot go to an outdoor concert, a food festival, church, synagogue, temple, mosque (there have been two reports of mosques being set on fire), school or even to the mall without fearing for their lives. These guys are terrorists and the sooner the American public faces that fact, the closer we may get to a day where people don't have to fear being gunned down for doing the most everyday activities. Perhaps if it were American citizens Americans and the U.S. government might be a bit more meticulous and no so haphazard about how they drop bombs on people-- although the U.S. has been known to drop bombs on its own citizens (see: Philadelphia in the mid-1980s). The U.S. abhors having honest discussions on racism but if you mention the word "Terrorism" oh boy! Perhaps the answer is to mention these guys as being terrorists. Full stop. Then watch how the process in how they are dealt with develops.

19 Dead. Good Lord, what kind of country is this?!

And Duckhee Lee is deaf, which makes his on court exploits that much more impressive. From what I've read Tsitsipas has been having issues with the court and his shoes all week. You'd think he would bring a couple pairs with him. Benoit lost his cool but Stef can annoy players sometimes with his various stalling tactics (challenging calls that are obviously going to turn out to be erroneous just for the extra time).

This time in a Walmart in El Paso, TX. I'm going to wait to post anything specific because what I'm mostly seeing is not official yet but I hope it's not as bad as initial reports suggest.

IKR. I read some of the remarks from people when Snapchat goes down and whew, people lose their sh*t! It's really easy to spot bots these days, they all have signature hallmarks. The ones masquerading as black "folks" are the funniest because they are so sloppy, the use of vernacular is laughable and the photos that they use on their AVIs. I swear that yesterday, I saw an avi from an actress that played a recurring character on the show Empire. Most of them can't even be taken seriously, other than a nuisance. Please, the Beyhive has those folks beat!

Actually, in a way, it's the opposite. China is waiting and hoping for a new administration to deal with, at this point. Trump is very bitter about this. Nobody truly believes that the U.S. can outlast the Chinese in regards to willingness to endure hardship, especially since many who endured Mao's Cultural Revolution are still alive-- many of them wrote the blueprint on how to endure brutal circumstances. China has also advised N. Korea on how to string Trump along, although those two missile launches this week show that even advice from their big brothers in China has its limits.

Probably depends on how well-traveled they are. If they disapprove, I suspect that she doesn't care. Gauff is still in the doubles tournament, I think.

Especially Finn who was one of my all time ATWT favorites. I had always hoped that she (alongside Scott Bryce) would return to the role(s), even if only for occasional appearances and brief story arcs (separate and together) but it was not meant to be. I just hope that someone reaches out to her to help her get back on her feet. After seeing that Kristoff died alone in his home after a major psychiatric rupture, it would hurt a lot to see another fave-- I don't even want to think about it. One of the reasons, I'd hoped that the SoapClassics people would've done a box set on her and Scott Bryce. I know that the residuals wouldn't have been much but perhaps it would've provided a morale boost.

From what I've heard, there is more than one threat of Tory defections. Speaking of buffons in higher office- Trump is flailing and failing with North Korea, which launched, not one but TWO missiles in ONE day (that must be some kind of record) and threatened another tariff on Chinese goods, to which China threatened retaliation of their own (of course). Yeah, master dealmaker and negotiator. Certainly, a lot of people think so. How many GOP retirements in the last two weeks? Cumulatively, that's going to be bad for the Republicans.

They've already started some time ago. It started with the MAGAts and has transferred to the Russian bots and troll armies. They must really see her as a threat. Anyone who has truly been paying attention to U.K. politics should've known this was coming. More people need to pay better attention to Scotland and the Irish border-- those look to be hotspots in the offing.

Well damn, that's just so sad to me. She looks to be in a very bad space. I hope she gets some help.

Tim Scott will be the sole black GOPer in all of Congress.