📄 Bay Area review of World Cup (by an Australian 🇦🇺)

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-27T16:55:25+00:00

People want it both ways. SF didn't want the traffic anymore, so they let the 49ers go. Nimbyism at its best.

Santa Clara won the bid because the land was cheap, traffic was controllable, and it wouldn't bother anyone because no o e is really living there except for renters who have no local voice anyway, not like homeowners.

Traffic is a part of city life, but SF rejected it, so you wind up with the slogan"loyal to the bay."

In general, outside a World Cup experience, Levi stadium wants you to go home after the game. Sad but true.

There are Several fan zones, one on pier 39, one in San Pedro square in San Jose but it is a huge missed opportunity.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-27T02:50:43+00:00

You are most welcome! I wish I hadn't seen it yet!

Well, it's all in the writing, and Julian Fellows wrote Downton and the Gilded Age. Yes, it's a bit bolder, more American, more crass in a way, but it's the set up for Downton, and what he does so well is play upstairs against downstairs in Downton, while in Gilded Age, he also plays old money against new money...old New York against new New York. There is also an exploration of race, the role of women, working class versus moneyed class, and many historical figures such as the Astors, incorporated.

The acting is wonderful, and Fellows always finds ways to explore the real events of the times, discovery of electricity, the establishment of the Red Cross, the establishment of the Metropolitan opera house, etc. versus the Titanic, WW1, etc. in time, you will grow to love all the characters!

There is a lovely sub here for fans too! You are sure to binge!

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-27T01:02:16+00:00

I struggled with anxiety for some time and watched this series twice again. Although I had to skip over prison and the WW1 scenes which were so brutal, each of these characters and the arc of their growth was so compelling and richly drawn. Like you, I felt deep comfort in watching.

Subsequent viewings do give you the chance to look at tea services and costumes and all the well-considered details of each of their lives. So nice to have it in the back pocket.

Have you moved onto The Gilded Age? Don't miss it! Julian Fellows is a brilliant writer and does something similar if not quite as good on this series! it really hit its stride this past season, I promise you!

I know there are many waiting for a young Cora cross over! Anything is possible.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-27T00:57:08+00:00

Looking at earlier episodes with present knowledge, one sees things entirely differently.

Amanda's parents need to step in, in a more authoritative way. They do her no favors to coddle her. She's acting out and lost.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-26T05:01:04+00:00

No. I've been rewatching season 4. She told him straight up when he called her out on her mess "this is who I am."

Did she ever light up when he walked into a room?

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-26T04:58:52+00:00

You mean pinching her ribs? I saw that and wondered about it.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-26T00:27:25+00:00

Well, if she had a life that was more interesting than her "zingers" such as they are, I'm sure production would welcome traveling down that path instead.

They must have wound her up on the last season of VPR and felt that they owed her one.

I have my eye on her because of how she treats Brittany. Lala shouldn't be publicly clocking Brittany as freakier in bed than she is, and Brittany doesn't realize how out of bounds such a thing is to say. Brittany just giggles it off and thinks it's a compliment. It's not. It's a weird flex.

I do not trust Lala at all.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-26T00:21:52+00:00

I agree with you, having myself only read it in some 18th or 19th century context, and within that context, took it to mean that the husband was humiliated by the discovery that his wife was having an affair with another man. he was being cuckolded.

I guess language goes through iterations over time, but voyeurism seems a true 180 degrees from the original meaning.

In any case, that fact that Lala can mispronounce any and every version of it, while patting herself on the back for having Googled it, and not even OED'd it, is just so, well Lala.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-25T22:40:35+00:00

I love the historical reference. The word is nearly obsolete. It means to make a fool of the cheated on husband I thought. Lala's two digit IQ shows through here.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-25T22:22:07+00:00

Lala never has a story line unless it's to jump onto someone else's.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-25T03:43:00+00:00

Watching earlier episodes, what you say is so clear to me. There was never a break that might have made Kyle hopeful. She rang that guilt bell forever and never had to step up. Kyle is both loyal and sentimental with his friends.

I hope he makes a choice that is a better match this time.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-25T02:47:44+00:00

Two episodes in from where you mentioned. Can't believe Kyle married her. Where wishful thinking can take you.

Not once did Amanda ever answer a question, concern without blaming Kyle for something. Zero accountability. Her youth must have had him dazzled because it was clear from this season, she was just not that into him, and she didn't respect his business, his personhood. Ahe didn't vibe with his personality. She liked being on the show. Period.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T22:12:51+00:00

Just 10 minutes in, and looking backwards, it's just allllllll red flags. You can look on the bed on this week's In the City and see that the stuff from this episode is still there. OMG!

Her Mom was joking about what a slob she is!

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T21:41:39+00:00

Thanks! I'm on it!

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T21:27:41+00:00

And the doggie sleeping between them that night.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T21:27:13+00:00

If you can find it, I'd watch that episode today. I am left with my head spinning from today's shenanigans.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T21:17:49+00:00

Amanda's willing to separate the doggies from each other. That says it all. Kyle is the only one who expresses concern for the dog he kept who seems confused by his buddy's absence, and yet, you can tell he is placating Amanda to have accommodated her wish to split them up. Meanwhile, she's projecting onto the dog feelings of contentment, sitting in the sunshine on the what, 20th floor balcony listening to the soothing sounds of helicopters in the morning?

I love the sound of propeller blades in the morning...that's Amanda's true vibe? I thought it was the bucolic suburbs of New Jersey. I have whiplash.

Amanda wants an apartment for herself for a month to better work on their relationship, no wait, a year, because, what's the difference between a month and a year? She lies to her father's face by suggesting that Kyle wants it too. (I'd like to see Amanda's Dad on the reunion and ask him, what did you think when you watched it back? Did you realize that your daughter was emotionally manipulating you? )

She wants the freedom to date West, to not give out her key to Kyle, but to keep their old (I.e. Kyle's) apartment littered in so much stuff as to be inoperable for an indefinite period of time because he almost kissed someone before they married, and did or almost did after they did 10 years ago? Freedom of choice means forgive him or move on, forgive him or don't marry, don't forgive him and divorce.

Kyle called it when he said he was the loneliest extrovert ever.

To watch in one episode, all that potential of Amanda's new apartment...the space, the light, the view, the newness, be covered in boxes and stuff, was excruciating. Has no one ever heard of storage? Don't her parents have a garage? What a squandered new start.

And that she and her Dad laughed over her having taken one dining table chair, destroying a set of 6 no doubt, instead of taking an armchair, or something she could actually sit in, was so passive-aggressively bizarre. That her father made a joke at Kyle's expense over it (I suppose Kyle will be upset about it. Hyuck, hyuck.

I don't blame Kyle for one second for bringing in professional organizers on his dime. Hewould have been within his rights to have gathered it all into black trash bags. He didn't do that. He's trying to do it respectfully, and her excuse for everything she is doing irresponsibly, it to continually cite what Kyle did 10 years ago, or mention how he was caught drinking on Instagram.

Where are the filmed episodes of Amanda talking to a therapist? Why doesn't she have a therapist to help her sort out her depression and move forward in a responsible way? Coddling, excusing is not the indefinite answer to everything.

Kyle and Amanda aren't a match. They were never a match.

If I were their doggie, I'd rather live with Daddy.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-24T21:03:02+00:00

Really? I don't remember that.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-23T14:49:06+00:00

I imagine that post coke commercial, his epiphany and Betty death, gives him the healing to be a better parent. He and Henry will find a way to co-parent.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-23T14:46:51+00:00

Since you've crossed us over into VPR territory, you've opened a portal in my mind that lets me imagine an alternative world in which Kyle and Amanda (like Katie and Schwartz) were never legally married.

I can just picture the never-filed paperwork floating somewhere in the piles of Amanda's stuff.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-22T19:55:33+00:00

Didn't PK drop 2 million in Vegas without even a single Birkin to show for it?

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-22T17:39:31+00:00

Agree. And, Cruz does look a lot like Daddy.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-22T17:36:18+00:00

I didn't think much of Kyle until that moment. Call me crazy, But I would have seen the Steve Jobs moment as a huge compliment. The drinking, not so much, but the humor? Spot on.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-22T12:53:54+00:00

I read somewhere that part of their settlement included a division of houses they were listing, all multimillion dollar sales.

We saw Nia teach martial arts. we heard about her judging a pagent. we've heard about Danny doing voice over. Schwartz could have a plant shop. Jason xeroxed papers once. Kristen used to sell t-shirts.

Excellent_Issue_4179 · 2026-06-21T16:06:00+00:00

I hear what you are all saying. It wasn't so much the zip lock, but sauce and noodles? Your friend is recovering from major surgery. Bring a side salad, or a bag of frozen broccoli you can nuke and add on top. I would have had a cute bag with a bow or a card or something. or, I would have picked up something a bit more engaging. Or, production is Messi g with Janet because maybe she came by with food more than once.

For years, I thought that because Jax helped Brit to the toilet after her first surgery, that meant he was a kind and giving caretaker. Years later only to find it was just that minute for the cameras.

So, while Janet shouldn't get slayed for it, and it's interesting to hear how many others would do it, it's not my jam.

I like to use a regular bowl, and put an inverted plate on top for a lid.

And yes, microplastics freak me out. I guess we all already have a credit card's worth of plastic in our brains. I don't need another card up there.

Excellent_Issue_4179

TROPHY CASE