Khan

Actually, I think you HAVE to play it straight, because any suggestion otherwise jeopardizes the audience's emotional investment. But I do feel like that kind of story -- "I'm pregnant, and I don't know how it happened!" -- needs a bigger payoff than an ovarian cyst. Maybe not another virgin birth, lol, but something bigger than a cyst.

Wait a minute -- I'm not advocating for another 9/11-like catastrophe. If I'm coming across that way, I apologize. However, it is my firm conviction that this tribalism existing between the left and right -- something that, IMO, has its roots in post-9/11 uncertainty and outright hatred toward Muslims -- has more than a little bit to do with everything that's unfolding before our very eyes; and that it's gonna take another, similar tragedy -- or so it seems, to me -- before we, as a nation, get to the end of the movie, where we join Billie Jean in burning the merchandise that Hubie Pyatt's dad's been selling. I just don't see any other way.

You know, it took a 9/11 to cause the divides that are engulfing this country...and it just might take another 9/11 to bring us all back together.

Well...maybe you're right. Damn. If we can't count on the President, Congress OR the Supreme Court to save us, who CAN we count on? The local and state governments? Good luck with that. History shows that they rarely behave in the best interests of its' citizens. (If the local and state gov'ts still had their way, African-Americans would still be slaves, with no voting privileges whatsoever.) I'm beginning to think that Wendy is right. Either we accept the death of the "American experiment" and embrace a return to tyrannical rule; or let those more progressively minded states cede from the union, and then stand back as the "Conservative States of America" disintegrates and begs the other side (and everybody else) to bail them out. But, either way, the U.S. as we know it is just so [!@#$%^&*] fucked.

Speaking of books, "Will You Please Go Now, Bernard Sanders?".

Ya know...this is pure speculation...but I would NOT be surprised if, after Trump announces Kennedy's replacement and he/she is quickly voted into SCOTUS, the GOP in Congress all-of-a-sudden ramps up talk of impeaching his ass. Because, after all, according to certain pundits, one major reason why they've stuck by Trump for so long (albeit reluctantly, in some cases), was because they needed him to pack the court with a right-leaning majority. Once that happens, I predict, they'll suddenly find him to be dispensable. Will it make any difference if they were to succeed on that front? No. The damage has been done -- damage, quite frankly, that'll take at least several generations to fix. But, at the very least, Trump could finally be put down like the rabid dog that he is, and we could get on with the business of healing the country's many wounds.

Yeah, I'm reading some articles about this now and...it don't look good. Roe v. Wade will most def be overturned -- or, if not overturned, then chipped away at until it's all but obsolete. Which means more "backroom jobs," more abortion pills being acquired through the black market, more women exposing themselves to potential injury and even death. And all because they see each baby as another, potential Republican vote. When it comes to voting rights and affirmative action, the court(s) of today apparently operate on the notion that it's no longer 1965; and that we, as a nation, have "come around" in our thinking about racial and ethnic inequalities. Of course, the average and truly ENLIGHTENED American knows that not to be the case. So, good luck, my potential grandkids, in getting those measures protecting minorities' voting rights back into law! I wish you well! And as for gay rights...well, you know, all I had ever hoped for was that same-sex couples BE allowed to marry -- because, hell, why should heterosexuals have all the misery? -- and that those marriages be recognized as legal by the government. Anything beyond that, I reasoned, was too pie-in-the-sky. So, the ONLY hope I have now is that SCOTUS will remain true to its history of "stare decisis," or whatever it's called, and not reverse THAT decision w/o "some compelling reason to do so" (per Vox), even as they allow businesses and such to discriminate the hell against gays and transgendered persons. (In other words -- fine, you won't bake cakes for queers, but they're still married in the eyes of the law, so eat it.)

Unfortunately, it WILL happen. She will place so many restrictions on the law that we'll STILL have to cross lines just to get access even to medicinal marijuana. I put nothing past the woman. I must admit I'm not too up on SCOTUS to know what Kennedy's retirement would mean. How bad is his decision to retire for us?

Not much, because I've been busy with a project for Mama Khan's church, but I am surprised to hear Todd Lamb is out of the running. He's the kind of candidate that conservative (read: bigoted, homophobic, uneducated, Bible-thumping) Oklahomans have wet dreams about. And medical marijuana is now legal in Oklahoma, which is good, because there are an awful lot of people w/ glaucoma running around in this state.

She must've swiped it from the "Electra Woman and Dyna Girl" set.

No offense, but you are too damn new to this board to be telling others what they should and should not post, here or anywhere else.

ICAM, DF.

Great, now I'm picturing Portman, squirreled away in some underground bunker, frightened of every noise and even of his own shadow. When he dies, too, it'll be like "Citizen Kane," with everyone trying to unravel the mystery of his last word -- "marceline!" -- and getting nowhere.

AFAIC, they could have named it Roadkill. Not that I'm defending Sheffer, but I think part of that was due to P&G "schooling" him on what they thought made for good soap opera. Then, of course, I think a certain amount of cynicism, borne out of constant network and sponsor interference, began to creep into his work.

That entire espionage story was just a clear example of how off-track ATWT had become by that point. ATWT needed to get back to basics BADLY.

Actually, THIS is how I wanted ATWT to end.

I have a feeling THAT scene would be a lot like the one where the rest of the family gangs up on Bingo-obssessed Rosey at the church.

I just love Eileen Fulton's reaction. It's as if she's more horrified that Whit's hair dye has left a nasty stain in the rug than she is that he's, you know, dead.

I'm wondering if she isn't suffering from some sort of chemical imbalance. This behavior seems especially bizarre coming from her.

It's the moment when you realize a dumb Michael Moore movie ("Canadian Bacon," to be exact) was actually more prescient than you'd ever want to admit.

Did she? Yeah, you're right. Florek played the principal when Becky was suspended for (allegedly) flipping the bird in her class picture. Nevertheless, he did make than one appearance on the show, so the fans would still have a field day if he were to appear again as the doctor. ESPECIALLY if he appeared as Harris' doctor in the final season, which has been dismissed as part of Roseanne's imagination. ("Maybe she's only IMAGINING how the family would cope with her being gone!") Meanwhile, Pam Ewing awakens from a long night's rest to find none other than Rosey in her shower.

Better yet, get Dann Florek, who played the doctor when young Darlene had appendicitis AND when Harris suffered complications from her birth, to play him. That way, fans can speculate endlessly whether Roseanne's death isn't just part of some fictional, parallel universe within the show's reality.

Nevermind

The buddy system, I guess?