DramatistDreamer

I read that article earlier this morning. ICE left and returned, banging on the door at 5 a.m. with the teenager huddled in an upstairs room of the house with her parents. This is America, folks, don't let anybody tell you any different. This is the country that had 'slave-catchers' hunt down blacks who ran away to get their freedom. Same country, different eras.

Is his Casey the one who went upstairs and never came down? ...that is, until another actor portrayed the character?

That tweet that she sent out was a blanket statement but the basic point that ICE is not going to the places where undocumented labor suits the U.S. economy is still a valid one. The White House and the GOP don't want another situation like the one they created where they terrorized migrant farm workers and had produce rotting in the fields as a result of not being able to cull enough fruit and vegetable pickers. And I still maintain that the point is to terrorize immigrants, both legal and undocumented, the majority of whom migrate from mainly non-white countries. The cruelty is the point.

That was...not grass court tennis. These are not grass courts, I've maintained that from Day 1 and I've seen nothing to change my mind but hey, let's continue to make the courts slower and have ridiculously long matches at Wimbledon. Fortunately, I only caught half of this match because I had sh*t to do today!

Many are skeptical that these protests will lead to a true reckoning as Ethiopian-Israelis, who are a small minority, have little to no political power.

When I was studying abroad in London, one of my next door neighbors was a young woman (about my age) from Finland. One of the reasons why she loved London was because of the many people from different ethnic backgrounds. "We don't have much diversity in Finland" she once told me. So, it's absolutely stupid if Trump and those of his ilk think that having a mostly white country is going to bring people to the U.S. from Nordic countries. People from countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden come to the U.S. specifically because they can interact more with people who do not look like them. Countries like Norway have made efforts to actually bring in people from other countries, particularly African and Middle Eastern (which has triggered a racist backlash) and Sweden has had a significant Ethiopian descended population for decades now. Trump is likely turning off potential migrants from the very countries he claims to want to attract but we all know he can't see anything except his insatiable greed and stupidity.

+1 I can definitely understand why Holly begged off any possibility of a reconciliation.

By the way, this is being done to terrorize not just undocumented but immigrants who are in the U.S. legally as well. My mother told me of a church sister of hers who called her worried, even though this woman has a green card.

IMO, OTOH, the weight of all this talk of record-breaking and history has got into her head. It's been put there by media, sponsors, some tennis pundits (who also happen to be ex-players) and even some of her fans and in a way, she has bought into it. In the past, talk like this had fueled her but as some players have claimed, when a player gets older they get more nervous and tend to play with less freedom in tight situations because too many things are going through their minds. Chris Evert (who we all know is no fan of Serena) once talked about the closer to the end of a career a player gets, the more anxious thoughts tend to get into their minds during matches. OTOH, the way the court played throughout this tournament was less like a grass court and closer to a clay court, and Serena was definitely not able to power through on her serve as she might have in years past. Simona was a highly motivated and well-coached opponent today. Unlike Alison Riske (who had a genuine chance to pull off the upset) in the QFs, Simona had won a major title (RG) and was not going to be overwhelmed by the occasion and realizing that the focus more steadily on her opponent (Serena/history) than on herself, made it much easier for Simona to play with little pressure. Court conditions aside, Simona's footwork was really her best weapon today. Sometimes Serena's footwork drags and volleys have never come easy to Serena (on her best days, Serena was cognizant of this and would make the necessary adjustments) and Serena needed both to be sharp to have had a real chance today and both were lacking and helped raise her UE count. I disagree a bit with @Fevuh about Serena lacking a Plan B. I know that Chris-what's-his-name mentioned this but I think he's wrong. In years past, I've seen Serena pull out whatever tactic she needed when she knew that her bread and butter shots weren't working for her. At RG, in particular, I've seen her struggle, use guile and an array of shots that were far outside her comfort zone in order to take the title but her mind wasn't with that today and on some level, Simona, whose game put a lot of pressure on Serena, wouldn't allow it. I think that Kerber's win over Serena last year gave many baseliners belief and why not? For the past six years, the grass at Wimbledon has been getting slower and slower. I've noticed this and even Chris Evert (a devoted baseliner who preferred the clay) mentioned it. This is no longer the fast grass courts where players like Sampras used to reign. Also, like others have mentioned-- Serena hasn't played a whole heck of a lot of tennis this season. Considering her first grass court match was Round 1 at Wimbledon, the Finals (while disappointing to many, including Serena herself) is a great effort at 37 years of age. Was I the only one who noticed how chewed up the show courts looked from Day 1? I know parts of Europe has a bit of a heat-wave this year and Wimbledon's courts were adversely affected. The baseline was brown on Day 1 and Court 1, Court 2, in particular looked in really poor shape with brown patches in the back court. As evidence of how few people serve and volley now, the greenest parts of the court were closest to the net.

Welp. Welp. I could've done without that shoutout to that racist, sexist Ion Tiriac but congrats to Halep. That's not grass court tennis, that's clay court tennis! The grass is certainly slow enough now, lol.

Another L for Trump to swallow. Indictment Fridays have temporarily switched over to Resignation Friday. TGIF, everybody!

He took no questions afterward which, for a loud-mouthed blowhard who likes to hear the sound of his own voice, really says a lot.

P&G and CBS clearly were only as engaged as they could get accolades and ratings but that doesn't take away from the individual performances. The actors were no less sincere and committed. I felt those scenes.

Sorry but the census goes to the printer in a few weeks. He ought to just accept it. So now he's going to try another way to count non-citizens. Another way to waste tax payer money for nothing.

Y&R did this in abundance over the past decade, which is why I cannot give any credit to any of the writing regimes over the past 10 years. They all made some big errors that turned out to fatally wound this show over the long run. Killing Colleen off was unforgivable, imo. Nia Peeples was largely wasted, IMO. I think the biggest thing going against Karen was that she wasn't Dru but the actress could hardly be blamed for this, it was always going to be hard but the bland writing for Karen certainly didn't help matters. Despite that, I thought Peeples and St. John had some really good chemistry. No, it wasn't fire and ice (a la Dru and Neil) but it was solid and buildable chemistry. The sad thing was that viewers didn't truly see how spirited Karen could be until she found out about Tyra and Neil and you got the impression that the writers had just managed to scratch the surface of this character at the very moment of her exit. You're right though, the entire Tyra storyline really wasn't worth it. It made both Neil and Devon looks so grimy, not to mention how unviable a character it made "Aunt Tyra" afterwards.

Yikes, the U.K. is even more of a mess than I thought. They've been kicking out children of the Windrush generation so it looks as if they are finding a new scapegoat for their ills. I talked to a relative who lives in London recently and although it may not come across in (social) media but there is real panic within some of England/U.K.'s institutions--agricultural, NHS and financial, etc. This particular relative works within one of those institutions and the panic is real.

Well, I know that Debbie Allen, per her remarks might have tested an interracial relationship between Maggie and Dwayne and that was where the racism element would have arisen, on her own Maggie would have likely faced an element of prejudice, not racism. I don't believe that Freddie was created to fill a void left by Maggie since Freddie was bi-racial (not white) and self-identified as black. Being white on a historically black campus is a vastly different dynamic than someone who has some Black/African heritage. Also, Freddie was one of the most pro-black, militant students on campus (remember her stance on Orangle Glo pharmaceuticals and divesting from South Africa?). That wouldn't at all have been the case with Maggie. The only time that Freddie really proclaimed her white side was when her mother visited campus or her cousin Matthew was on for a part of one season. I remember how Whitley talked in hush tones about Freddie being mixed, as if if were some big secret, LOL.

I agree, that's why I mentioned in an earlier post that I thought some but not all of Allen's suggestions could've been followed. Had it been me, I would've written a story arc where Denise started overeating to cope (then the weight gain would've been easy to explain) with her academic struggles (which had already been written into the story) which leads Jaleesa and Maggie to draw the conclusion that Denise may be pregnant but Denise will tell them that this is not the case but she is worried that something could be really wrong with her, so Maggie and Jaleesa convince her to get a full physical. After some stressful days, Denise discovers that she is suffering from acute stress which is causing hormonal disruption, which convinces Denise that she should just drop out, alarming Dwayne, who for his own personal reasons, wants her to stay. Dwayne tries to convince Denise to just take an academic leave of absence but to promise to return and finish her education. Denise promises to consider it but wants to see the 'Real World', maybe travel to see how other people live and cope, then maybe college won't be so overwhelming. Dwayne feels encouraged until Whitley bluntly tells him that Denise won't return because most students who leave don't return. Dwayne insists that those students leave because of financial struggle and money is not Denise's problem but Whitley gets in his head to not get his hopes up. If Denise would've returned, that would've thrown Dwayne and Whitley's blossoming romance into question, which would've been interesting. Bill Cosby was very spiteful and controlling and obviously didn't want Denise back on ADW. Denise didn't have to be pregnant. Denise could've simply taken a leave of absence and returned. Dwayne and Whitley could have still been endgame and Denise would have been a much more interesting antagonist than Kinu, Dwayne's Afro-Japanese girlfriend. Even Martin, Denise's future husband, could've been brought on. Since both were military, Col. Taylor could've have been a mentor and brought Martin onto campus in some capacity (I don't remember what Martin did for a living). In terms Debbie's suggestion, I was more interested in the Maggie angle since that has never been done before. It would've been interesting to see Freddie Brookes and Maggie Lawson interact, especially when Freddie's 'New Age' mother appeared on the show.

NBC fired Tomei, they overrode Debbie Allen's proposal. In both cases, Debbie wanted both Bonet and Tomei to remain on the show. Cosby (on Bonet) and NBC (on Tomei) disagreed with her and ultimately made the final decision. When Kadeem Hardison found out that Tomei was being terminated, he told Marisa that better things were in store for her-- turns out he was right. People, not having full knowledge of the situation blamed Allen but she's made it very clear that she wanted both to stay. She thought it would have been intriguing to have Denise Huxtable be pregnant and in college and wanted to show how Maggie Lawson, as a white student at a predominantly black college would make her way through campus life.

Am I the only one who didn't know that Nell Carter left the cast of the musical Dreamgirls to appear in Ryan's Hope?

Fun fact: Marisa Tomei is the godmother of Lisa Bonet's eldest daughter, Zoë Kravitz. Although I already knew all of this stuff (Previously, I had posted the connection between Meg Ryan and Marisa Tomei in the As The World Turns thread), it's interesting to see that archival footage with entertainment pundits talking about Lisa Bonet as if she were the main problem. I wonder what those pundits would say today in light of all that has been revealed about Cosby. And that entire thing about firing her from ADW because she was pregnant, probably would be an enormous lawsuit had it happened today. Just an aside but the audio quality of that video was really poor, especially toward the end. Also, I think some measure of Debbie Allen's suggestions should've been followed, if they didn't want a single and preggers version of Denise, she could have taken a year off and returned and it would've thrown intrigue into the DeWayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert situation, complicating things. It just seemed that toward the end, the show was running out of steam and having a few additional storylines to draw from might have extended the show for a bit. Then again, Tomei leaving when she did left her open to do other things down the road , like co-star in a movie that would win her an Academy Award.

Whew, I thought I was the only one, LOL. I have to start S2 and avoid all spoilers. Yesterday morning, I had the computer streaming on a morning news show and had to click out quickly when they mentioned Stranger Things. I'm not even reading this thread right now, LOL.

I'm not a Konta fan by any measure, but I think it's kind of rude that people are calling her an Aussie. First of all, calling someone Australian shouldn't be considered a pejorative but these folks are saying it to completely negate her British citizenship. Yes, Konta was born in Australia but she clearly represents Great Britain, as evidenced by that little Union Jack flag by her name and ranking. Great Britain has a dearth of players even making the QFs, they need to make the best of the situation with what they have.

Amanda Bynes did a pretty memorable impersonation of Ross Perot. Given the fact that it was a kid's show and the sketches lacked sophistication (to put it mildly) but to me, at such a young age, Bynes somewhat floored me in what she was able to do then. So Twitter is saying that that wasn't Amanda Bynes but someone named Katrina Johnson?? Oops!

Oof, and people wanted to make Fergie out to the bad guy in that relationship.