Faulkner

They’re making this dude look mad stupid after not playing him much at all for years.

Spencer and Trina are money in the bank. Wild chemistry. Hope they capitalize on it.

I don’t like how Ridge and weasely Wyatt are talking to Justin. “Your boss asked you a question.” Plus, we have Liam wistfully remembering these pastoral scenes with Hope and Beth. This story bugs me. The optics are borderline Birth of a Nation. And, again, no follow-up to the aborted “commitment ceremony.”

Indeed. She throws a tantrum and loses the plot. Gotta say, Pliskova is definitely playing (and especially serving) well. Hoping that Barty outsmarts her.

Sabalenka/Pliskova is actually reasonably entertaining. Karolina double-faulted on the first BP on her serve, and it was Sabalenka’s set point. Aryna’s clutch serving is insane.

That would be decent casting, although he’d seem mature for Lucas Adams.

Kerber effed that up big time trying to serve out that second set.

I’m definitely hearing people in neighborhoods like mine—Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, outer reaches of Brooklyn—feeling unsettled by unusual spikes in violent crime over the past several months, and Adams was pretty much the only candidate in the Dem primary who gave voice to our fears. People don’t want a return to the bad old days, which preceded my time here in the city.

From NYC 🇺🇸

The FAA/Berrettini match is… not good. What a disappointment of a return for Wimbledon.

Oh thanks!! Denis Shapovalov is looking soooo much better. He cleans up well, even with the sun-burnt face lol. Not quite as effortlessly stylish and elegant as his compatriot FAA…

Getting old sucks in a lot of ways. Hard to watch. Still, he made the QF off two knee surgeries (which is both an indictment of his competition and a testimony to his skill). ESPN is lame, of course. We’re missing the tight Berrettini/FAA match while they chatter on and on about Roger’s defeat.

I think Eboni kinda wants to be that as well. She feels a bit entitled to the crown. I felt like the show was borderline rudderless last season as well. There’s nothing that really galvanizes the show anymore. Dorinda would have been a great “alpha” last season, but she couldn’t get out of her own way (similar to Bethenny’s final days IMO—but she seemed over the show).

Completely agree, and co-sign @Cat’s comment that the COVID bubble magnifies the problem, since they keep having the same conversation over and over and over and over, when, in the past, the fast-paced NYC backdrop would have naturally given us different dynamics. The drinking last year was too much, but this is also too much. This franchise feels a bit rudderless.

From India 🇮🇳

Far too young. R.I.P. This is a nice scene.

From Hawaii 🇺🇸

Other than Zoe slinking out of town, there was no real follow-up to yesterday’s events, which is insane. Basically the same thing happened with Quinn after the Shauna/Ridge fake wedding revelation: Eric ripped her a new one, and she disappeared for what seemed like weeks. There are so many loose threads that could have been addressed today: Quinn’s vengeful anger at Paris and Brooke; Ridge wrestling with the betrayal of his best friend; Carter’s status at Forrester; the list goes on. Instead we got Ridge giving a play-by-play of the aborted “commitment ceremony” 🙄 to Steffy and Finn, and a pivot back to the Spencers/Justin/Thomas stuff. And that pathetic farewell from Zoe… They treat Rena only slightly better than Heather Tom: they throw her a frontburner story every blue moon to act her ass off and then treat her like a glorified extra. You’d think, with Zoe gone, Brad might play out the Quarter romance, but like most of his stuff, the affair feels like a stunt and a momentary diversion from Liam.

Wow. Really great scene that I don’t remember watching. These veteran actors add so much richness and wisdom to these stories. Such a shame these shows began to see older actors are expendable. (Even today, they could play Jackie Zeman with Eden McCoy more to tighten the Bobbie/Joss bond. It would add a lot of depth to Joss’s character.)

Bershan is a breath of fresh air who deserves a midseason apple, and the vibe is closer to vintage NYC than other episodes this season. I do like the tension between Bershan and Eboni. These shows don’t often highlight different approaches that black women employ to navigating mostly white environments (sometimes in competition with one another), so that feels somewhat fresh. And Eboni’s talking-head interview in which she said Bershan was encroaching on her territory was interesting. Glad that Eboni’s connection to Fox News and past statements were addressed. Her mother voted for Trump. This season is basically a write-off, though. Maybe a necessary transition? I dunno.

Sharp elbows in the Queens Borough President race:

LOL Luann mentioned that hats on the bed were bad luck. I learned that watching Drugstore Cowboy.

Very sad but freak accident? That’s…. hmmm…

Funny… FAA is dating Alja Tomjanovic’s cousin, and Alja is dating Berrettini, who’s playing FAA in the quarterfinals: