DramatistDreamer

Serena has not said one word in all of this so I don't believe that this can be called a row, a feud or a dispute or whatever the press insists on calling this mess.

This is the first I've ever heard of this guy. I've heard of his father, of course but I guess I never thought of John Landis' personal life nor whether he had any children, let alone whether he had a son.

Wasn't there a similar case earlier this year in a Vermont town? 2019, everybody.

Rather symbolic of the state of the U.S.' alliances and...democracy, in general.

I have probably ever only seen one complete episode of NCIS but I'm posting this here for those who may be more familiar with this series/franchise and the events that are alleged to have occurred BTS.

^^ Chua, her daughter and company were clearly just waiting for the dust to settle, when few would be paying attention.

Yeah, that was trying too hard to be snarky and jokey. I don't watch the show very often but, like I said, this came across my timeline and the clip of her interaction with Biden was what caught my eye as I had never seen it before.

This came across my timeline and although I already knew most of the information presented in this clip, I found that exchange between Warren and Biden to be pretty interesting.

Roland Garros hasn't really been all that interesting for me for quite some time (other than a few matches, here and there) and neither final did anything to change my mind but I have to give Rafa his "props" for playing a really smart final match to get the title. Roger and Rafa know their age and the state of their bodies and they schedule their tournament participation for optimal achievement. I can't be mad at either one of them for that.

I would love to know if there was a big reveal of Margo and James' affair. I would love even more if I can see it! Yeah, I even mentioned in an earlier post how much of an "aimless" character Margo seemed to be at this time. From the stables to the hospital and an affair with a married man in between! The same YouTube page that uploaded these episodes had a brief clip of Kim's wedding to Nick Androupolus and there was an amusing clip where a 'blind' John, who sits next to Margo in a church pew, asks Margo to describe, in detail what Barbara (who is seated next to James) is wearing. Margo reluctantly goes on to describe what Barbara is wearing, to which John pointedly replies "Sounds very pretty". I always wondered how Tom and Margo could live (and make love) in that loveshack cottage that James bought. There was a really good scene in 1988 where Tom and Margo have decided to move and Tom's daughter Lian doesn't understand why, so Margo recounts her whole history of how she acquired the cottage to explain why it was a good idea, even necessary to get a fresh start in a new house. Having missed a lot of these episodes and being too young to recall them, I consider Bob and Kim to sort have been "on again, off again" until ultimately got together, got engaged and got married. Calling them 'Star-Crossed Lovers' would be going too far and plain inaccurate but I tend to think of it as a long-simmering romance whose relationship had finally been attained many years later.

Seems as if there was a concerted effort to make the scenes more 'active' in the 1982 episodes. Even in the scenes that were conversation-heavy there seemed to be a quickened pace compared to the previous episodes that I recently saw (from 1980/1981). I guess the fallout from Lyla's courtroom revelation is impacting relationship. There's a noticeable distance between Bob and Lyla and the group of Jeff, Lyla and Bob almost seem to form a web of solidarity to ice John out of the circle, which seems to matter little to John, who seems to be resigned to, almost relish his outsider status. With the way John and Hayley are interacting, I wonder if the writers were considering a potential romantic entanglement, especially given John's predilection toward younger women and Hayley being especially vulnerable. Seeing the obvious enmity between David and John in this episode- it's something of a miracle that they were even able to carry on a civil conversation in the years going forward. I do appreciate that, even years later, there would always an icy aloofness between the Stewarts and John, particularly Ellen and David. So this was the episode where James Stenbeck gifted the cottage to Margo! Looks as if those stained glass windows were switched out at some point, I wonder when? James mentioned the proximity to the stables, was this ever acknowledged when Tom and Margo were married and living in the cottage? Margo as a character seemed pretty aimless-- from a stable girl to an orderly (should she really be the in the position of discussing medication protocol with John when she's more or less a candy striper? I guess it was a chance to show Margo being cool and indifferent to John while struggling to be professional), simultaneously being James Stenbeck's 'side-piece' and still looking down her nose at John. Margo seemed to be all over the place at this time. That was quite an intense conversation between Lyla and Maggie about John. Perhaps this is coming from the vantage point of witnessing the #MeToo movement in action but I am surprised that John is still working at the hospital and hasn't been suspended pending the outcome of his rape trial. COMMERCIAL BREAK NOTE: Completely forgot and hadn't seen a commercial for the Wilfred Academy since I was a kid! I looked them up to see if they were still around. It appears that the beauty school closed two years ago after fraud charges and failure to properly accredit and license students led to lawsuits by their former students. The lady who cajoled Carol to allow her five/six year old daughter to get on the elevator and ride unaccompanied...who does that?! Is she not aware that anyone could enter the elevator between floors and the little girl could get abducted while riding to the ground floor? What happened to that little girl?

It's conditional, depending on who the "story" is about. We're fans on messageboards debating and discussing but do tennis journalists get paid to be this messy?

I'm not, never been, nor will I ever be one of those folks who will dismiss or excuse what happened at the U.S. Open. I am also not someone who will claim that a person is incapable of ever evolving. But to suggest that Serena has "gotten away" with saying or doing anything untoward would simply be untrue. Who else got a $90,000 fine in the history of tennis? Not even McEnroe who has a history of hurling epithets at chair umpires, the crowd and once physically turned over a T.V. camera. What I am saying is that the amount of ink spilled over this conference room scheduling debacle was unnecessary, especially when the stories essentially contradicted each other. Even Thiem himself said he was unsure. Did you see the video of Federer launching that ball and the near miss to that spectator? Journalists who couldn't stop carping over the conference room debacle are already making jokes about some guy who nearly averted a serious injury. All I'm asking is, why are some players called out, while others never are? It's not just Serena, by the way. Heather Watson got the largest fine at Wimbledon for taking a small swipe at some blades of grass with her racquet, in frustration. Her fine was significantly larger than Karolina Pliskova who destroyed a chair umpire's chair with the umpire still in it! Not to mention the players who have physically shoved an umpire on court. Verbal abuse should be punished but why do players who put their hands on officials or physically destroy property not similarly punished? Surely I'm not the only one who notices the disparity? I'm not even going to go down the rabbit hole of the Nolé rain delay debacle because honestly, the story changes every five minutes at this point. Nobody seems to be able to get their stories straight.

The story now is that Djokovic knew that play was going to be suspended or he wouldn't have left the court. There's no mention of whether Thiem was informed or not. If he knew, then why would he just stand there? Now some people are complaining that the rain is gone but play has already been cancelled for the day. Maybe the rain will return. Maybe there's something they know that the rest of us don't? LOL. Oh well, Kanye shrug.

Oh well.

Never said Serena was perfect. The point is none of them are perfect but some can do no wrong while others can scream at ball kids, launch balls out of stadiums, shove chair umpires and beat holes into the umpire's chair and two mumbling words get spoken and everybody moves on like it's nothing. There's a double standard. If you think this is not true, why not bring facts to the argument to prove otherwise? Seriously, I would listen to a serious debate. By the way, I've never threatened to walk when I've read numerous posts about how Frances sucks and Felix is overrated, etc. No, I stay and try to present a case of why I disagree. I enjoy most of your posts, @Soapsuds but this seems like a really childish reaction. It's your choice though and I have to respect that.

She'll never get it. Ordinarily I wouldn't even be mad when player wants to assert him or herself because, often times the ITF or the tournament directors are too meek to take a firm decision and it's usually left to the players to try to force the tournament to make decisions but don't act like when one player asserts herself or if there is even a hint of her trying to assert herself, sh*t hits the fan and these dudes pile up on her, while the rest throw their weight around and nobody says one word about it. If Serena had walked off the court without word from the umpire or the referee, it would've been a sh*tstorm and anybody who denies that is lying their asses off. Sometimes I don't even know why I watch this stupid sport. It never evolves, just trades in the same ridiculous regressive themes. I want to see Thiem use that same energy to talk about how he was left standing on court looking like a huge fool while Djokovic walked off without a word to him faster than LeBron could leave a meandering press conference.

And 10-1 Thiem won't say one god*amned word about it like he did with Serena. Federer hits a ball, almost hits a guy. All these dudes can kiss my as*!

I'm basically indifferent to all things Roland Garros this year but I am glad that Konta didn't make it to the finals. No more need to hear from British blowhards at this point, which is a welcome relief.

Just finished watching the December 1981 episode (A.K.A. The PCP Episode) and whoa! The jump cuts alone were jarring! I know that some of those jump cuts were done to emphasize the disorienting, frenetic quality of a 'drug trip' by trying to put the viewer in Sofia's P.O.V. but it also had the added effect of extending that chaotic quality to other scenes that were probably supposed to be more staid. Also, I couldn't help wondering whether it would have helped if I had seen the previous episode where Eric and Sofia end up taking the PCP-- maybe it would have made the consequences seem more grave and less like an afterschool special. From what I've read, I know that somehow Barbara unknowingly ended up giving Eric PCP but I would've liked to see the actual episode and can't help but feel that I'm missing a critical piece that would have made me feel more invested in this aspect of the episode. One thing I don't understand is, I thought PCP was a drug that was more popular in the 60s and part of the 70s? Maybe I'm wrong but I just looked on Wikipedia and it seems that drug use peaked in the 70s and declined in the 80s. The article also claimed that it was consumed by a relatively very small percentage of the population compared to other recreational drugs. In other words, it's popularity was quite limited. It just seems that ATWT was getting in on talking/lecturing/dramatizing about a drug that had waned considerably already and whose use was marginal to begin with. Now, if the story had revolved around cocaine overdoses...in the 1980s, well that would've been topical! At first, the cameo by Dr. Joyce Brothers made me do a double-take but I actually found myself liking her scene with "Dr. Bob Hughes", although the scene read more like a PSA in some regards. I instantly began to wonder whether Dr. Joyce Brothers had ever made another cameo and if not, why not? I would've been cool to see her return to Oakdale, especially when Frannie Hughes was undertaking serious study in psychology. Dr. Joyce Brothers might have served as a sort of mentor to Frannie. So interesting to see how ambivalent James was in regards to getting involved in the drug trade. We all know that ambivalence would not last. Also, it says a lot about Bob that his first reaction is to conclude that Miranda and James were involved romantically, rather than the fact that they could've been colluding in some nefarious activity. They way TPTB just had John Dixon involved in all aspects of the Stewarts' lives was just...oof! It does look as though there was some chemistry between Linda Dano and Henderson Forsythe but still, it was odd to see them together. Perhaps if I had seen the storyline from the beginning, it would be less of an obstacle to taking it in. COMMERCIAL NOTES: Charles Kimbrough on a deodorant commercial! Ilene Graff (Mr. Belvedere) on a fabric softener commercial. Kim Field's mother Chip, on a dishwashing liquid commerical. Virginia Capers (Lena Younger, Raisin In The Sun) in a commercial for Lawry's Seasoned Salt, or at least I think that's her?

It will be interesting to see whether there is movement in the polls (whatever polls are worth) once the debates begin. The current occupant of the WH continues to mix personal business with his position in the Oval office.

Okay, it's taking longer than I anticipated but I've seen about 3 out of 5 of those episodes uploaded by Patricia Bruder-Debrovner. I hope she will upload more episodes, I like it when actors upload episodes of their shows, I know that Margaret Reed has uploaded some, mainly for reels but at least they looked like complete episodes. I know some soap fans are only interested in clips and character/couple edits but from a writer's perspective, I find it more informative and more immersive to watch full episodes. Mr. Big was quite... over the top. It's unusual to see a six and a half minute opening scene compared today's soaps where it's more common to see a three or four minute scene max before seeing the opening theme song. ATWT really made a conscious decision to indulge in these scenes. Brent Collins, Justin Deas and Margaret Colin did seem to be enjoying themselves, playing it up to the hilt as illustrated by the interplay--Mr. Big asking Tom & Margo "Are you lovers?" (it seems that Mr. Big could see into the future) and Margo's comment about cigars stunting one's growth and Mr. Big's reaction was amusing. Also Mr. Big's analysis of Tom and Margo's individual traits (spot-on) made me wonder whether, in some twisted way, was Mr. Big the conduit for bringing Tom & Margo together? Yet the pacing of the scenes seemed to drag, for some reason. Oh, and I would've loved if somehow some of these episodes could be digitally remastered to see if the colors could be made a bit more vibrant. The lighting is also dull, unfortunately. The incongruity of the BGM with the tone of the Mr. Big was highly noticeable but I guess it was a product of those post-disco times. Ellen looking for an apartment for herself? I'd like to see more. COMMERCIAL BREAK NOTE: Lauren Bacall was too good to be pitching some off-brand coffee. Karen and her genie style culottes is a "Lewk"! That scene of Karen 'on the couch' with the psychiatrist proves that Doug Marland wasn't the only writer who liked to put characters in analysis. That scene is positively minimalist compared to what today's soaps would do-- minimal BGM, no flashbacks, mainly a monologue full of introspection delivered by Karen which escalates into a combative dialogue with the shrink during her session. As amusing as Ellen's low-key hostility toward John was, his appearance in the nearly empty Stewart house seemed a bit contrived. If John wanted to know where David was, surely he could've called his office? Perhaps it was a ruse for John to snoop and taunt but it mostly seemed like a way to get out exposition. (*Gasps*) what was in Mr. Big's room? You know something I've noticed through these very early 1980s episodes? I see moments of tenderness, moments of subtle contention and low-key hostility (Everybody Hates Joyce) but I don't see much in the way of passion onscreen. I guess perhaps network standards and social mores for television might have dictated how expressive characters/actors could be with each other--at least for one or two more years to come. It was nice to see Nancy and Chris as a couple and not just the elderly grandparents that I would see them as right before Don McLoughlin passed in the mid 1980s, which was how I mostly remembered them together. Kim and Bob's scenes seem to flow and have a nice pace to them. I'm not sure whether this is owing mostly to the writing or the chemistry between Hays and Hastings. I'd chalk it up to chemistry and the actors setting a rhythm for each other. Strangely enough, I think Linda Dano would have been a better fit for the show down the road in the late 1980s and early 90s and beyond but by then she'd be well into creating an inimitable character on AW. Just as well, since ATWT seemed to have more than its fair share of standout women characters in Dano's age group. In the 3/31/80 episode, I like how the women are styled. Lisa looks very 'rich lady chic' and they even gave Ellen more of a bombshell look. Ellen looked more youthful when her hair was down or they just let her curls be free. COMMERCIAL BREAK NOTE: Sheryl Lee Ralph for a Pampers commercial. I'd recognize that smile anywhere! It was jarring to see Don so combative with his father Chris Hughes. I'm not sure what transpired between them but at the end of that scene, I felt sorry for Chris. His downtrodden expression said it all. So much of what I grew up seeing involved Lisa getting along famously with her ex-husband, so it's interesting to see them being sort of contentious in this episode. Speaking of Lisa- So many times I've talked about the great (combative) chemistry that Eileen Fulton had with Elizabeth Hubbard but I've neglected to appreciate the great long-lasting chemistry that Eileen and Colleen Zenk have. Lisa and Barbara have gone back and forth, from friendly and warmth to combative and sparring back to warm, loving and protective and the two actresses made it work. Still, it is a bit strange to reconcile these scenes of them talking as prospective mother and daughter-in-law knowing what's to come for Barbara and Tom. Also the fact that, for a while, it was a closely guarded secret that Paul was Barbara's (and James') biological son is turning in my mind--in a few years Paul's name would constantly be on Barbara's lips and James would become obsessed with having his son under his influence. Question: Had David temporarily lost his medical license or something? Why mining? Another Question: Was that gym where Brad, then Dee arrived to exercise a company gym? It looked awfully cramped! I would've preferred working out at home to that! COMMERCIAL BREAK NOTE: Theresa Saldana (does everybody know her story?) in a Kraft Zesty Italian commercial. By the way, the dressing looks like cloudy water, ick. I miss seeing the closing credits (was that Suzanne Davidson playing Betsy? If so, does anybody know what she looks like now?) but again, I'd love it if more ATWT alums would upload episodes to YouTube. As much as people might think there are a lot of episodes already uploaded, there are some fun and key episodes that have yet to be uploaded. We were just talking about this in another thread, how much people enjoy episodes like masquerade balls and big parties and weddings, etc. There are some fun 80s parties that I wish were uploaded to YouTube.

Since the very beginning of the tournament I suspected that neither Sloane nor Simona would get back to the finals this year. Just yesterday I was musing on the possibility of having two brand new finalists and lookie here! Madison doesn't surprise me--she reminds me of Lindsay Davenport at RG, can get to the 2nd week, but don't truly expect her to make it to the finals. I think Davenport mostly made it to the Round of 16 and QFs and to the SFs once or twice at RG.