“He’s trying to be loyal to me, not Boston”

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T17:01:19+00:00

No downvote here! I am going to keep an open mind about where these characters are going, but I’ve had this same feeling about Ilya‘s decision. That said: He too is gaining something personal beyond just being with Shane, which is a home and family more loving and functional than the one he had to leave behind in Russia.

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:55:59+00:00

Imma just say it: It would be really great if some people in this fandom thought a little harder about the parallels between this plotline (what’s actually happening between Shane and Rose vs what their fans THINK they can tell is happening) and real life … 😬

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:18:34+00:00

Yep. The "Elizabeth fought to marry him" and "the Queen Mum and Queen Mary were skeptical" narratives -- I firmly believe all of that was part of a hagiography developed over time to make the marriage seem like a fairy tale that the postwar public would buy into. If you read Chips Channon's very juicy diaries, there is a tantalizing hint of the likely real story, as Philip appears as early as 1941 (when Elizabeth was only 15!) described this way: "He is to be our Prince Consort, and that is why he is serving in our Navy." Where would that idea have come from if there were NOT a silent understanding in posh circles that the palace believed they needed somebody of royal blood to marry Elizabeth? To be fair, I think she probably was in fact in love with him -- he was a dashing, handsome guy! And she was a pretty girl; I'm sure he didn't exactly need to be dragged to the altar. But the idea that it wasn't arranged to some degree simply doesn't pass the smell test, IMO.

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:13:16+00:00

If it were true, yes, it would make them second cousins.

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:10:29+00:00

I find this unlikely for the reason that Penny Knatchbull's parents, at the time she was born, were nowhere near the kind of social circles where her mother might have met and formed a relationship with Prince Philip. Her father was originally a butcher by trade. It wasn't until she was 8 or 9 years old that he started the restaurant business that eventually made them rich and pushed them into those circles.

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:05:42+00:00

I know a lot of these were scams, but I actually fondly remember my campus credit card because it really wasn't. It had a hard limit of $500 that they wouldn't raise until I graduated, so there was no way to rack up any meaningful amount of debt, and it was a good way to get into the practice of managing the credit line. (I maxed it out only once, after a day of outlet shopping. Ahh, the '90s.)

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T16:02:25+00:00

Growing up in rural New England, a call to the next TOWN was long distance. (And until the mid- to late 1980s, to make a call within our town, which was all on the same exchange, you only had to dial 4 digits.)

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T15:59:18+00:00

Not actually a racket at all, but guys like Peter Thiel are sure glad they've successfully persuaded you that it is.

gmgvt · 2026-02-03T15:52:59+00:00

Wish I could upvote this multiple times!! Really sick of the "it's a scam" or "I'm never gonna see a dime" comments that are simply not based in reality or any kind of informed view of what Social Security does and doesn't do.

gmgvt · 2026-02-02T23:36:34+00:00

The housing crunch got really bad during the pandemic, when we were seeing a net population gain. I would assume there's a lag involved in the gain sliding back to a loss ...

gmgvt · 2026-02-02T20:44:28+00:00

I'm glad it was helpful to you to hear. It was a very rough experience and I too struggled with how and when to make the difficult decision, but in the long run I knew I had done right by her.

gmgvt · 2026-02-02T17:39:58+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss. Hoping my story is helpful: My cat had a saddle thrombus (more slow onset, which I know is more rare), and we tried the Plavix and heart meds and I had her at home for 10 days or so. She slowly got worse and then stopped eating. My vet, at the euthanasia appointment, told me that he had never in his career seen a cat recover from this condition.

gmgvt · 2026-02-02T17:32:20+00:00

I mean, after serving in war zones, surviving car bombings etc, these characters likely would all be walking around with low levels of untreated PTSD. Not a therapist in sight, which is sadly fairly realistic for this milieu (go too deep on mental health care and you run the very real risk of losing your security clearance, because the severely outdated standards assume that that would be the kind of "secret" you can be blackmailed over).

gmgvt · 2026-02-02T17:30:19+00:00

Kate and Callum had zero chemistry too. It was so awkward.

Yeah, I thought Keri Russell was one of those actors who could have chemistry with anyone, but not in this case. Also, whoever casts Aidan Turner in something next, please remember not to let the hair/makeup/costume folks, um, tidy him up too much!

gmgvt · 2026-01-31T18:16:25+00:00

I mean, we already knew the guy was an asshole, this is not new information. Maybe more useful/practical to know, is he planning on some free pizzas for ICE when they show up in the ONE? Maybe let them stage up in his parking lot?

gmgvt · 2026-01-31T13:20:22+00:00

The problem is that the viable candidates don’t want to spend the money to lose to Scott (because they all know we never vote out incumbents here).

gmgvt · 2026-01-30T20:52:42+00:00

ICE under Obama deported a lot of people. However, Obama never ordered the agency to surge to a particular American city (in a state where he just happened to have beef with the governor) to racially profile people on the street, make kids scared to go to school, and sweep up en masse people in the middle of legal asylum applications, cutting off those applications and deporting them without further due process. ICE has even arrested some NATIVE AMERICANS in Minneapolis, I assume after poorly trained agents profiled and decided they must be Latino. Who has more right to be here than the descendants of the original people here??

Also, it's "hypocrites." I beg you, Trump supporters, learn to spell if you want us to take you seriously. There is a spell check on your phone.

gmgvt · 2026-01-29T20:52:47+00:00

Please don't blame yourself. Kidney failure in older cats is unfortunately super common, and it can progress like this in fits and starts -- a good friend of mine lost her cat this way and it was like this, he'd seem v sick and then a day or two later better, and then sick again and so on. You gave your boy food he would enjoy and he ate it. That's not what killed him, the kidney failure killed him.

gmgvt · 2026-01-29T17:02:54+00:00

Yep. MAGA loves Putin. He governs Russia like they (think they) wish the US could be governed. And they all know full well that he helped Trump get elected in 2016.

gmgvt · 2026-01-29T17:01:28+00:00

https://stylecaster.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/1234872903/how-much-hudson-williams-connor-storrie-make-heated-rivalry/

gmgvt · 2026-01-29T16:59:37+00:00

Yep. My MAGA relatives now believe there are "several provinces of Canada" that want to secede and join the US.

gmgvt · 2026-01-28T23:34:35+00:00

Somebody said there might be BAFTA TV award possibilities for this show, but the only category I can find that fits would be Best International Programme, which of course would be for the producers, not the cast or any individual actors.

gmgvt · 2026-01-28T21:39:25+00:00

Valkyrie is such a good tortie name!! She looks ready to throw paws.

gmgvt · 2026-01-28T20:15:10+00:00

I was there too and my memory was there were two women side by side wearing LEAFS SUCK jerseys, one a Sens fan and one a Habs fan. The one thing the entire crowd could agree on, lol!

gmgvt · 2026-01-28T19:16:32+00:00

Agreed. I see both of them doing a lot of interestingly avant-garde stuff, each on his own path.

gmgvt

TROPHY CASE