samhexum

I'll bet his father Darth used to tell him "Harrison, I am your father."

Bridget Everett didn’t want to make ‘Somebody Somewhere’ about ‘judgment or politics’ Comedian Bridget Everett said that she wanted to focus on more mature characters who are still finding their feet in her new HBO series “Somebody Somewhere” — since many other shows are all-about younger people. “Speaking for myself, that’s when I woke up and that’s when my life clicked into gear,” Everett, 49, told The Post. “That’s when I became more successful. I stopped waiting tables in my 40s, and I think that’s the story of a lot of people around me. We’re all in our 40s and hustling. We’re not bold-faced names, and we’re all in an HBO show now — together.” Premiering Sun. (Jan 16) at 10: 30 p.m., and executive-produced by the Duplass brothers, the seven-episode comedy series follows Sam (Everett, also an exec producer), a 40something woman who feels stuck in a rut in her hometown of Manhattan, Kansas. By day, she has a boring job at a standardized testing grading center, frequently clashes with her family, mourns her sister Holly who died six months ago, spends lots of time alone and unsure that she is “friend material” and doesn’t do anything about her passion for singing. But, soon enough — when she befriends her co-worker Joel (Jeff Hiller) — she gets involved in a group of misfits and LGBTQ people who gather in a church after-hours for an unsanctioned “choir practice” to socialize, sing and perform onstage. Sam (Bridget Everett) and her new friend Joel (Jeff Hiller) share a laugh in “Somebody Somewhere.” “We’ve never seen real queer folks who live in a small town in the middle of America,” said “Somebody Somewhere” co-star Jeff Hiller. “Parts of it [are based on my life] [and] some of the themes, liked the dead sister and the love of singing and being from [Manhattan] Kansas. There are differences and similarities, but enough to help me stay emotionally connected as an untrained actor,” said Everett, best-known for her appearances on “Inside Amy Schumer” and her bawdy live cabaret shows. “We didn’t want to do a ‘Singer goes to New York’ plot,” she said. “We wanted to do, ‘What happened if somebody like me stayed in a town like the place I grew up?’ I think her relationship to music is an interesting one. It’s sort of letting her dreams and the things that she loved slip by, and sort of waking up in her 40s and being like, ‘Oh, what happened?’” Sam (Bridget Everett) looks through a yearbook with her niece Shannon (Kailey Albus) in “Somebody Somewhere.” Co-star Jeff Hiller (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”) said that he could relate to his character, Joel, as well. “We’ve seen queer characters feel oppressed in a place that isn’t necessarily a city, and we’ve seen queer characters in a city, but we’ve never seen real queer folks who live in a small town in the middle of America,” he said. “That’s what makes this sort of a unique story to tell. My character loves the church, and normally gay characters will hate the church, or are oppressed by the church. There are barely any shows about people in their 40s at all — and if there are, it’s about people who are having a hard time in their marriage, or something.” Sam (Bridget Everett) and Joel (Jeff Hiller) take a stroll through Manhattan, Kansas. Photograph by Chuck Hodes/HBO Everett said that, since this is her first time as an executive producer, she got some advice from her pals in the industry. “I talked to Sarah Jessica Parker about how to sort of stand on your own and take your power, take your space, make your voice at the table heard,” she said. “She really helped inform me and give me confidence to do that. Just because you’re the person on camera, doesn’t mean you don’t have something to contribute behind the camera. “We didn’t want to make [the show] be about judgment or politics — I wanted it to feel like the people that I knew growing up in Kansas,” she said. “Little things, like feeling the military [presence], because I grew up next to Fort Riley. You want to feel the school, you want to feel the limestone buildings. I’m sure I’m still going to get s–t from some of my friends back home about how I didn’t nail this or nail that, but we really tried hard to make it as Kansas-y as we could.” https://nypost.com/2022/01/11/bridget-everett-on-finding-her-feet-on-somebody-somewhere/

I didn't say I fast forwarded, I said I WANTED TO fast forward. I've never really understood why some comedies think it's entertaining for the audience to watch unlikable characters. Bev on ROSEANNE was like that, too. If her own family couldn't stand to spend any time with her, why would the viewing audience want to? There's a difference between a character being difficult and being unenjoyable. Lynch seems to specialize in the latter. As for her Emmy noms for the show, I said I know she's good. My comment had nothing to do with the quality of her work, just the annoying characters she's played. Just like I thought Tony Shalhoub was very good as Abe, another character I wanted to see brutally mugged and beaten to death... over and over again.

Mahomes is disqualified because his dad pitched for the Mets at one point. That's an automatic negative vote for him. What about https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/128598-nick-foles-big-dck-nick/ ?

Another mild criticism: I was thrown out of the era's atmosphere by the occasional use of words and phrases that weren't used back then. For example, I don't think people said 'back in the day' (a phrase I HATE) back in the day, but somebody on the show said it.

I know Jane Lynch is good, but (starting with GLEE) I've despised every character she's played. I wanted to fast forward every scene she was in in Mrs. Maisel, and she almost ruined ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING for me. The last character she played that I didn't hate was Charlie's shrink on 2 1/2 MEN. I think Lois Griffin is the best part of the show. Joel's mother is the worst part, Abe the second worst, and Sophie the third worst (because she had much less screen time than Abe). If Joel really wants to impress Mei, he should buy her a phone from AT&T. Yeah, that Wanda Sykes may have a career ahead of her.

Finished it & was very happy to see Midge finally get some comeuppance for always being so glib and talking shit about every person in her life while onstage. I found it off-putting after awhile.

DEAR ABBY: My niece is getting married this spring, which has created a dilemma for my immediate family. When the save-the-date cards went out, she addressed them only to the women in the family. We thought it was a mistake at first, but now the invitations have arrived, and they are also addressed to the women only. My husband and my son (her first cousin) feel slighted. My son’s wife was invited, but she doesn’t know the bride at all. It seems the bride has a limited number of guests she can invite for the venue. She also has a large number of friends and the groom’s family attending. Out of respect for my son and my husband — and a son-in-law who was also excluded — we all will respond that we will not attend. I feel terrible not being able to see my niece walk down the aisle, but I’m not used to my spouse being ignored. Am I doing the right thing? — PUZZLED IN FLORIDA DEAR PUZZLED: Before you refuse the wedding invitation, call your niece and ask if she is intentionally excluding the men. Because women make most of the social arrangements, she may not have realized that EACH guest’s name must appear on the invitation. Rather than an attempt to exclude family members because their chromosomes are not the same as hers, this may simply have been an etiquette boo-boo. a lesbian. You know how man-hating they usually are. DEAR ABBY: I have been married for 35 years and have a recurring problem with no solution in sight. My wife sets frozen meat on the counter to thaw. She says she can’t count on thawing it in the fridge because it takes too long and interferes with her meal planning. Her mother has always done it this way, and no one has ever gotten sick. I try talking to her but it only ends up in a fight. Any suggestions would be appreciated. — RISKY IN ILLINOIS DEAR RISKY: The Food and Drug Administration has issued guidelines about food preparation because people have gotten VERY sick when it wasn’t done properly. Over the last 10 or 15 years, conditions in some of our slaughterhouses and agricultural operations have deteriorated, and consumers have died because of it. Whether you can convince your wife to change her ways, I can’t predict. But you might be doing her a favor if you visit fda.gov and print out some information for her and your mother-in-law. Better to be safe than sorry. Prepare your own food, and make sure your wife’s will is up to date.

The Yankees have made a groundbreaking hire in their minor league ranks, as The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler (Twitter link) reports that Rachel Balkovec will manage the organization’s lower-A team in Tampa next season. Balkovec will become the first woman to ever manage an affiliated minor league club. This is the latest of several barriers broken over the course of Balkovec’s decade-long career in baseball. Beginning as a strength and conditioning coordinator in the Cardinals’ farm system from 2011-15, she then moved to a similar role with the Astros from 2016-18, working with both Houston’s Latin American prospects and then the Astros’ Double-A affiliate. She has spent the last two seasons working within the Yankees’ minor league system as a hitting coach, following some time spent working with Driveline and in the Netherlands working with the Dutch national teams. Along the way, Balkovec has routinely been noted as the first woman to be hired in these positions, whether in her strength/conditioning jobs or as a hitting coach. The 34-year-old will now take yet another step forward managing some of the Yankees’ top young prospects, and Balkovec is undoubtedly already familiar with many of these players due to her coaching work. As Balkovec told The Associated Press’ Ronald Blum in 2019, “I have aspirations of being in a more leadership role from a broader standpoint,” mentioning the possibility of one day being hired as a “director of baseball operations or farm director or GM.” Such goals aren’t as remote as they once seemed for women in baseball, considering that Kim Ng is the Marlins general manager, Eve Rosenbaum is the Orioles’ director of baseball development, and Sara Goodrum was recently hired as the Astros’ director of player development. As for on-field personnel, Alyssa Nakken is a member of the Giants coaching staff, while Bianca Smith (Red Sox) and Rachel Folden (Cubs) have worked coaching jobs in the minor leagues for their respective teams. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/01/yankees-name-rachel-balkovec-as-manager-of-lower-a-affiliate.html

I binged the first 2 seasons of THE MESHUGANAH MRS. MAISEL in a day and a half over the weekend, so obviously I enjoyed it, but I have a few criticisms: 1. The entire cast kept mispronouncing her name. I knew a family growing up named Maisel, and it's pronounced myZELL. They could've just had her use MAYzle as a stage name, because the audiences & club owners kept calling her that. 2. The end of the 2nd season was supposed to mark a year since Joel left. I know that's a good milestone to use for dramatic effect, but it seemed far too quick for everything that happened in the 2 seasons to happen, given the era & the lack of successful women stand ups at the time, especially considering Midge's complete lack of experience & Susie's lack of experience as a manager. The first season ended with Midge's boffo set at The Gaslight, & using her name onstage for the first time. That should've been the one year mark. Then the telethon appearance & subsequent offer of a 6 month tour that ended season 2 should've been the 2nd anniversary of Joel leaving. 3. Joel's mother seems like one of those characters writers come up with to throw every stereotype and eccentricity at, figuring the audience will find her so ridiculous they'll laugh at her on sight. EPIC FAIL! I found her character extremely annoying any time she was onscreen. 4. Midge's mom seemed like a believable character for me, except for her reliance on psychics. Nothing about her character seemed 'old-world' to me, she didn't seem massively tied to 'the traditional ways' and she was fairly cosmopolitan, so the psychic visits did not ring true to me. 5. I think Tony Shalhoub did a good job bringing the character as written to life, but he seemed more like a caricature than a character to me. I originally thought his scenes in Paris when he stayed with Rose for a while were kind of a saving grace for the character, but when I thought about it, nothing else in the 2 seasons made it seem like he'd have the patience or social graces to have that in him. Did anybody recognize Midge's (& Abe's) lawyer? It was Doogie Howser's best friend, Vinny Delpino.

I binged the first 2 seasons of THE MESHUGANAH MRS. MAISEL in a day and a half over the weekend, so obviously I enjoyed it, but I have a few criticisms: 1. The entire cast kept mispronouncing her name. I knew a family growing up named Maisel, and it's pronounced myZELL. They could've just had her use MAYzle as a stage name, because the audiences & club owners kept calling her that. 2. The end of the 2nd season was supposed to mark a year since Joel left. I know that's a good milestone to use for dramatic effect, but it seemed far too quick for everything that happened in the 2 seasons to happen, given the era & the lack of successful women stand ups at the time, especially considering Midge's complete lack of experience & Susie's lack of experience as a manager. The first season ended with Midge's boffo set at The Gaslight, & using her name onstage for the first time. That should've been the one year mark. Then the telethon appearance & subsequent offer of a 6 month tour that ended season 2 should've been the 2nd anniversary of Joel leaving. 3. Joel's mother seems like one of those characters writers come up with to throw every stereotype and eccentricity at, figuring the audience will find her so ridiculous they'll laugh at her on sight. EPIC FAIL! I found her character extremely annoying any time she was onscreen. 4. Midge's mom seemed like a believable character for me, except for her reliance on psychics. Nothing about her character seemed 'old-world' to me, she didn't seem massively tied to 'the traditional ways' and she was fairly cosmopolitan, so the psychic visits did not ring true to me. 5. I think Tony Shalhoub did a good job bringing the character as written to life, but he seemed more like a caricature than a character to me. I originally thought his scenes in Paris when he stayed with Rose for a while were kind of a saving grace for the character, but when I thought about it, nothing else in the 2 seasons made it seem like he'd have the patience or social graces to have that in him. Did anybody recognize Midge's (& Abe's) lawyer? It was Doogie Howser's best friend, Vinny Delpino.

A true fan would have known it's sweathog, not warthog.

Didn't you watch the Super Bowl for the ads? He was attractive and fun as Santa in those CapitolOne ads with Samuel Jackson. Maybe instead of embracing his daddiness he can embrace his Father Christmasness.

As the clip above shows, it was Clorox Bleachman, not MTM, who slammed the oven door.

Homeless shelter resident stabs man over phone in Chelsea Jeez... I know I'm clueless about technology, but they have tech that allows you to stab somebody you're talking to on the phone now? What about texting? Can you do it that way, too? Is this feature something related to 5G technology? I'm so stuck in last century...

ESPN.COM had 5 of their basketball experts do a roundtable of the most memorable aspects of 2021 and what to expect in 2022. Do you notice a theme in their answers for the following question? What was the most memorable on-court moment of 2021? Collier: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game-saving block on Deandre Ayton in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. This is the play that best encapsulates what a generational talent Antetokounmpo is and what a special performance he delivered throughout the 2021 NBA Finals. His performance overall to clinch Game 6 is legendary, but for a single moment, Antetokounmpo pulled off something few players in league history could, guarding Devin Booker on a pick-and-roll, then recovering for a game-saving block on an alley-oop attempt by Ayton. This play will live on highlight reels for a long time. Shelburne: Antetokounmpo’s 50-piece in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. I don’t often get emotional at games anymore, but when the weight of his journey from selling handbags on the streets of Athens, Greece, to NBA champion and Finals MVP culminated at that moment in Milwaukee, it was beautiful. Bontemps: Antetokounmpo going for 50 points — including a 17-for-19 performance from the foul line — to close out Game 6 of the NBA Finals and deliver a championship to Milwaukee. It was the kind of iconic, all-time performance that we’ve seen so many great players have in those moments over the years, and allowed Antetokounmpo to move another level higher on the list of the elite players in the history of the sport. Friedell: Antetokounmpo winning a title in Milwaukee. He has always said he wanted to win and stay in Milwaukee his entire career, and he made it happen. Through sheer will, he pulled the Bucks out of an 0-2 hole against the Suns and forever cemented his legacy. Regardless of what else he accomplishes in his career, Antetokounmpo’s accomplishment is a reminder that small-market teams can win if they have the right players around their star — and if they catch some breaks along the way. Pelton: Jrue Holiday stealing the ball from Devin Booker in the closing seconds of Game 5 in the NBA Finals and lobbing an alley-oop to Antetokounmpo for the game-sealing and-1. I still can’t believe Holiday didn’t simply run the clock out in such a crucial situation, but I’m glad he didn’t.

Thanks to a handful of big name musicians, vinyl sales skyrocketed this year, with the BBC reporting that the UK topped 5 million record sales for the first time since 1991. Indeed, the past 12 months saw vinyl sales up 8% over 2020, an increase partially due to the release of a few blockbuster albums by the likes of Adele, Ed Sheeran and most markedly, Abba. The Swedish super group’s release of “Voyage,” their first new album in over 40 years, sold 29,891 copies in its first week alone and soon became this century’s fastest vinyl seller, according to the Official Charts Company. CDs, meanwhile, saw sales drop 12% since last year, with only 14 million discs selling in the UK — the least amount since 1988, six years after the format was born in the nation. Abba’s international releases are displayed at the Abba museum in Stockholm Cassettes saw more success than CDs in 2021, with sales increasing for the ninth year in a row. Still, the sale amount is relatively tiny, with just 190,000 tapes sold this year. That trend may also be more attributable not to format popularity but bundle deals, in which artists sell signed cassettes with every CD or vinyl album purchase, the BBC noted. This year’s top-selling cassettes included Queen’s “Greatest Hits,” Lana Del Rey’s “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” and in the No. 1 slot, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour.” https://nypost.com/2021/12/29/vinyl-sales-are-skyrocketing-thanks-to-abba/ This just makes me happy. I wonder what will happen to sales when they release their next album in another 40 years.

Sports Writer/Renaissance Man Keith Law's review: http://meadowparty.com/blog/2021/12/30/the-power-of-the-dog/

Tomassetti attacked the couple during a custody dispute over his 1-year-old child. He has been charged with two counts of attempted murder. He had started arguing with his parents at about 10 a.m. on Christmas morning. As the argument escalated, he allegedly tried to leave the home with the child. “When the parents objected, the defendant produced a .22-caliber pistol,” Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said. Tomassetti then allegedly shot his mom in the head and then fired at his dad, hitting him in the back and wrist. “He struck his father then in the head with the gun numerous times after he ran out of bullets,” Ryder said. The baby and the child’s mother were in the room at the time. Tomassetti wasn’t licensed in Nassau County to own the pistol — and he had no prior arrests. His parents underwent surgery for their injuries, but were both released earlier this week. The 1-year-old is in the care of its mother. I guess he won't be winning any father-of-the-year awards. Now watch the parents hire a hotshot lawyer to get him off. Actually, I'd get him off for just a nominal fee.

Man left naked on public beach after sister gifts dissolvable shorts A Tennessee woman has been slammed for gifting her brother a pair of “dissolvable” swim shorts before filming him frolicking in the waters of a public beach as they disappear. Dara Roberts conducted the “cruel” prank last month, posting the footage to TikTok where it has been viewed a whopping 28 million times. The clip starts with Dara’s brother, Seth, sporting the bright blue bathing shorts, which she tells him she found “new at a Goodwill.” Seth has no idea that the pants will start to dissolve as soon as they get wet, and he is later seen wading into the waters at a busy beach blissfully unaware as to what will soon be revealed. Footage shows Seth throwing around a football in the waist-deep water before he realizes that his swimsuit is melting away. “My swimming trunks ripped… bad,” Seth says in a panic, as he clutches his private parts beneath the waves. Dara continues to record him, and is heard bursting into laughter at her brother’s sudden despair. “Quit videoing me. I’m serious,” Seth says. “I’m naked!” He refuses to get out of the water until family members fetch him a new pair of shorts, insisting that he cannot be seen nude in public. The clip then cuts out, so it’s unclear whether Seth was forced onto the shore while naked as a seahorse. “We still haven’t told him the truth. Seth, if you see this. I’m sorry,” Dara captioned the clip. However, TikTok viewers certainly weren’t laughing, and took to the comments section to slam the sister’s sinister prank. “Funny in a backyard pool, but not in a PUBLIC place with your sibling,” one chided. “This is more embarrassing than funny. He sounded genuinely upset,” another raged. Others described the clip as “humiliating,” “traumatizing,” “sick” and “illegal.” Several TikTok users said that if the gender roles were reversed, and it was a woman being pranked into wearing a dissolvable swimsuit, the authorities could be called. However, Dara brushed off the criticism, subsequently sharing a second video in which she lashed out at her haters. “@ the overly sensitive TikTok users,” she wrote across footage of herself, which was accompanied by the song “I Hate U” by SZA. However, the outraged comments continued. “Your brother could have got a massive fine and been put on a registry because of that. But hahaha… so funny right?” one wrote beneath the second clip. Dara has not responded to the ongoing backlash. Seth has not made public comment. https://nypost.com/2021/12/28/man-left-naked-on-public-beach-in-dissolvable-shorts-prank/ I think the brother should sue the sister for the emotional distress, then get her an outfit for court that dissolves when exposed to air. Thanksgiving and Christmas must've been fun at their home this year.

I remembered I also recently watched Crazy Rich Asians and the Awkwafina movie about the family that travels to China to visit the grandmother who doesn't know she's dying. So that's at least 5 I watched in 2021. And one of them was actually from 2021.

Combine in a bowl: 1 pint sour cream 1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple in its own juice 2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding Plop the concoction into a graham cracker pie crust and refrigerate. ENJOY!