DramatistDreamer

It comes as absolutely no surprise that more women came forward with even more disturbing allegations. After the first article, I expected as much because it was the same thing with Weinstein. Even have anticipating this, reading the article, I found myself vacillating between rage, sadness and searching my own experiences to see how some of the odd interviews and weird work climates that I've experience rate on the predator spectrum. I've experienced having suggestive comments lobbed my way (a suggestion of a massage request, which rendered me totally speechless) and inappropriate behavior, nothing that these women have experienced. Just reading their accounts made me feel attacked (I know people use this phrase jokingly but this is truly the way I felt while reading this, at certain points). Moonves cannot leave soon enough and he certainly should not be compensated for his egregious, disgusting behavior. These women (and no doubt, countless unnamed others) will need help to be made whole. Regardless of their ages, regardless of statutes of limitations, I hope someone will help these women be made whole again.

I remember that match and Hingis dissolved into tears. Her mother Melanie Molitor had to come down from the stands to comfort her in order to get Hingis to stay for the trophy presentation ceremony. Hingis was considered to be in 'breach of protocol' for crossing on the other side of the net to question a line call with the chair umpire. The French crowd was brutal toward Hingis, who breached protocol by crossing the net but the crowd behavior was so much worse than what she did-- and I'm saying this as someone who is not even a Hingis fan! As much as I enjoyed watching Steffi play, that match left me with such a distaste. Even now, it's not a match I would ever want to watch again. The fortunate thing for both Hingis and Graf was that this was not the first or the only time either would contend for Slam titles, so they had other finals with happier endings to reflect on and remember.

No, McEnroe was defaulted from the tournament in Australia after he overturned an on-court TV camera, although he had been warned about another incident previously in the match.

Some of the people who were in the crowd during the final have been posting rebukes to people who are tweeting from home by saying that the booing was not for Serena, it was for the situation. I had assumed that they were booing Carlos Ramos, tbh. I think the president of the USTA, Kat Adams got a smattering of boos as well, which I've never seen happen.

This is so incredibly cute! This artist is very talented.

I can see what you're saying. Still, in my high school English class we had to give a series and speeches and the teacher would literally mark a person for every "filler" word (like, uhm, you know, etc.) they used during the course of the speech. I would see him marking in his grade book everytime someone said one of those words and was determined that he would not be marking my grade down, lol. That was my first year of high school honors English. It has served me well because I avoid using those words when speaking. I try not to write it in monologues unless I'm really trying to point out a sharp character trait. She's not as bad as Capriati, though, who used filler incessantly and would often ramble almost incoherently at times. Didn't the WTA decide to do media training at one point, in the past?

I find Naomi endlessly endearing but the use of filler language with the "ums" drives me a bit batty perhaps that's the English major and writing masters graduate in me.

@ChitHappensI remember that match with Venus vs. Cornet at the French Open. Carlos tried it and it was especially gratifying to see Venus intensify her focus and pummel Cornet for the rest of the match, lol. @Faulkner Osaka told a funny anecdote in her interview about an encounter she had with Djokovic just before the final. Apparently he was working out or something and since Sascha is Croatian, and has been teaching her some Croatian, she decided to try out some on Novak but apparently Novak seemed confused by what she was trying to say. Perhaps because he's Serbian, was what I was thinking.

To be honest, I'd by lying if I didn't admit that my enthusiasm was dampened when I saw that Venus and Serena were going to facing each other so early in the tournament but I did see matches here and there, mostly in the 2nd week. These tennis tournaments can be such a mess and made worse by sometimes questionable decision making and conflicts of interests being injected into the sport. And just think, we now have a strangely revamped Davis Cup format to add to all the chaos. Fun times.

It was an incredible achievement for Osaka and honestly, it didn't really surprise me that she won. That coaching warning controversy though was, just ay ay ay. And Patrick just thinks a bit too highly of himself. Also Carlos Ramos has a bit of a reputation over issuing questionable decisions. Look it up. It was an unforgettable match, that's for sure.

Thanks Khan. Life ain't been no crystal stair, as the poem says but we still hope, we still strive (or least attempt), you know?

Enough about me though.

Also, when your forebears were slaves, you cannot help but think that although times are difficult now, times have been much worse and that you are here because they were able to survive calamity and utter degradation. My mother migrated to employers who made mostly undelivered promises. This was not the vaunted land of opportunity for her that it was supposed to be but she made the most out of an often negative and exploitative circumstance. Only when I got much older, did I realize the sacrifices my mother made and her life in the U.S. was actually a downgrade from where it was in her home country. She went from being considered relatively middle class in her home country to low-income, working her fingers to the bone in the U.S. Somehow, she managed to visit home and my parents managed to take us to see and stay with relatives so we'd always have a good sense of where our people were from and that just happened to be across an ocean. Honestly, I don't know how she managed all of this but my enduring image of her from childhood was her sitting quietly and balancing her checkbook, her making a weekly budget and grocery list (we rarely ever ate out, which as a child could be frustrating). In this day and age, where kids have cellphones by age 10, it's all but impossible to live as simply as we did growing up. Oh and we didn't own a car, we walked everywhere...even more than a mile to the supermarket (lol) and back, while countless cars zoomed by us. Back then you could be working class and actually travel once every couple of years, if you were frugal. Today, it's all but completely impossible. I guess I'm grateful that I did grow up in a dual culture. At the time I was ostracized by American kids for being different but now, even that made me resilient, to deal with the hard times when they come (and they still do unfortunately).

I love Nina Simone's music! The compilation sets of her music have yet to do her justice though. I have two different "Best Of Nina Simone" music sets and neither have all of her most important songs but one has a beautifully indulgent arrangement of "Black Is The Color of My True Love's Hair" on it, so I can't be too disappointed in the selections on that particular CD.

Obama, the man (if not the politician) has always been somewhat globally-minded though. I'll just put it this way-- he's been more open to a global mindset. As someone whose family hails from elsewhere, I definitely understand the mindset, I think it's more akin to where my thought processes are. Before I had turned 5, I had traveled outside of the U.S. By the age of 7, I had my own passport. Like Obama, being raised around cultures that were not centered around an American way of life was part of my upbringing. So I think I always had it in mind that it was possible to live and adapt to live elsewhere. My mother had two children when she moved to the U.S. from the Caribbean. She did it for better opportunity and it was very hard and the challenges of being a 'foreigner' and a black and female foreigner totally alone in a strange country (my father couldn't even join her until two years later) were very real but I think I grew up seeing family in various parts of the world who had moved thousands of miles away from where they had been born and raised and having to adapt to and begin a new life in unfamiliar lands. I think it's in my DNA (lol). I think because of my personal experience the idea of moving to another country (provided they are not overtly hostile to people of color, or more hostile than America, I should say) is an entirely realistic one.

I actually think that when you listen to Simone's version it is in keeping with the sound of a lot of the more mellow sounds of the late 60s, kind of groovy, kind of funky, like the Fifth Dimension, some Sly and the Family Stone, even some early little Stevie Wonder tunes. Nina's music will always stand out but it definitely seems to fit within the pantheon of some of the music of that era.

Have you ever heard the version that Nina Simone did? I would say that both have elements of soul-- Nina's cover came out a few years before this one and it seems like a groovy version infused with elements of spirituals, while Aretha's version is steeped in blues with elements of gospel. Enjoyable versions both.

I avoided that coverage because I know full well how it would be covered regardless of whether the event occurred with or without incident. I watched a good portion of the actual service (again, I missed the eulogy) and the eulogy comprised a brief portion of the comments on my social media, at least. It also depended on which hashtag you followed also, as I understand there were two: One was entitled Aretha Franklin Homegoing which had a very different tone and emphasis than the one entitled Aretha Franklin funeral. Only in America can social media have segregated hashtags that highlighted two completely different aspects of the service. Again, I don't expect U.S. mainstream media to highlight anything but the negative, especially when it comes to black folk.

From what I heard of Sharpton, he seemed to stayfocused in his remarks. I thought he did well (especially compared to the pastor who did the eulogy and the groper pastor). Yes, Sharpton's reputation precedes him, but just as the way he was at Michael Jackson's memorial, he was in full black pastor mode at the funeral. I only heard positive things about his remarks. Yes, the service was too long and some people just didn't fit in (I like Faith Hill but this is the second time I've seen her fizzle while singing at a big occasion) I don't think it's fair to say that Aretha was an afterthought. The Clarke Sisters, The Williams Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, even Fantasia all paid considerable due to Aretha. The Clarke Sisters and Williams Brothers, in particular really brought authentic black church gospel to the fore. I thought Cicely Tyson and her big, bountiful church lady black hat gave a wonderful performance. At 93 years of age! To crystallize the whole 6+ hour celebration to less than a handful of unfortunate incidents seems a tad dismissive. It was big and showy and heartfelt at times and also a bit messy, and unapologetically black...kind of like the life of a huge entertainer of Aretha's status. Honestly, what else did people expect?

The U.S. press has always disliked Black people, especially prominent ones, it goes all the way to before MLK. I'm sure they are hoping to get a Obama vs. Trump narrative but Obama won't play ball. He is speaking because 1.) he was getting an award and 2) he is clearly in campaign mode for midterms, trying to get out the vote. Trump has been trying to bait Obama for years, now more than ever to try to distract from the smoldering garbage fire that is the current White House. Obama didn't take the bait back then and he won't do it now. Obama may be helping Democratic candidates with midterms but in many senses, he's already moved beyond the United States. Watching him speak in South Africa last month, it became apparent that Obama, through his foundation has gone global.

Okay, this is sort of off-track but weirdly sorta on-topic. It belongs in ATWT thread because it concerns a strange piece of trivia about 2 alumnae. I was doing research on IMDB and veered off into reading about A Different World (my persistent obsession with finding a playlist of songs from Season 1 episodes) and got further sidetracked reading the bits of trivia. I'm sure most of you know that Marissa Tomei (Marcy) was featured in Season 1 but did you know that Meg Ryan (Betsy Andropolous) was originally cast to play the role but by then was actively pursuing a movie career and turned down the role of Maggie Lauten? I thought I knew all the BTS factoids but somehow this one missed me! Maggie, Meg and Marissa.

I could see it working well. And the nature of the online versions would have offered a bit more flexibility for Holly's schedule. Darn, too bad the online versions got cut short but at least there was an attempt.

@Darn I know some didn't like the 2.0 version but even back then, I thought it would've been wonderful if they had brought her on as Jeffrey King's (Corbin Bleu) grandmother. It could've deepened his ties to the canvas without being too incestuous.

I was just in the other thread reading @Juliajms's post and speaking of POS who perceive themselves to be "masters of the universe", I clicked on CBSNews' livestream to see the idiot-in-chief railing with the chryon at the bottom of the screen quoting him as saying that he supposedly fell asleep during President Obama's speech. You're the president of the god*damn United States of America and you're asleep in the middle of the f*ckin' day?? We all know he's lying but still, think about what he just said...

The press seems thirsty for a presidential quality speech that is coherent and sincere. I'm sorry I missed this speech, I always look forward to these occasions and they are becoming fewer and far between.