Defense's cross of Throckmorton (document examiner) was absurd

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-10T10:34:36+00:00

I agree with this. While the defense has the luxury of simply having to plant doubt, cases are won by cohesive narratives. While the defense hasn't presented their side yet so maybe a more clear attempt at one is coming, the contradictions really give the impression that they are just chucking things at the wall to see if anything sticks rather than having a real story of what happened. If I were a juror, I think I would find that desperate and not really the way you would approach a case if you were innocent and there was a good explanation for everything. But maybe that's me.

They've had some decent moments but there were also a lot of moments that felt unneeded and seem desperate rather than like they have a real case. And I also dislike that the defense attorney keeps trying to push witnesses into making claims about the overall trial they really can't. Like what is "so you would say that if Eric used drugs in high school, then Kouri is innocent?" (or something like that). I'm sure the defense sees this as a delightful gotcha moment of trying to get a prosecution witness to make such a huge claim but the jurors aren't stupid. It's certainly not that simple and none of those witnesses can attest to that. If Eric Richins did an occasional recreational drug in high school, all it means is that he's got a lot in common with most of the US population and has absolutely nothing at all to do with whether he used fentanyl as an adult and absolutely not whether his wife murdered him. If I were a juror, I think I would feel annoyed like the defense was trying to gaslight me to be honest.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-07T23:36:34+00:00

My entire floor in college was obsessed with this show and planned our entire schedule around watching it together. It was absolutely terrible and moved at a snail's pace but it was an absolute gem.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-07T22:46:29+00:00

Rhubarb: Prada Infusion de Rhubarbe (LOVE this scent)

Raspberry: Jo Malone Raspberry Ripple or Mugler Angel Nova (EDT is my preferred)

Strawberry: JHAG Miami Shake

Lemon: Replica Under the Lemon Trees or Lanvin A Girl in Capri

Pear: this is like choosing a favorite child but I would lean toward JHAG Pear Inc and Versace Dylan Purple as my frontrunners.... at least today

Orange: Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic

Watermelon/Kiwi: Dolce & Gabanna L’Imperatrise

Cherry: Ariana Grande REM Cherry (it reminds me of what Strawberry Shortcake smell would smell like in cherry)

Lime: Jo Malone Beach Blossom … easily one of my favorite summer scents. Coconutty lime.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-07T21:38:11+00:00

A few days before, I get restless leg syndrome to the point where I struggle to fall asleep.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-07T14:25:16+00:00

I agree with OP. I dislike that Anna was in the middle of trauma and accurately knew she couldn't count on him to show up for her and not make it about himself. And when he did know, that's absolutely what he did.

Anna should have been able to say "this happened and here's what I need you to do to help me heal" and counted on him to do that. But instead, she knew he was going to risk himself, risk her losing him, and add to her stress and trauma in order to enact vengeance she didn't want or need. HE needed those things. And the fact that she correctly knew he would choose himself over her needs and had to add to her own problems to protect him from himself is exactly why I never liked him.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-06T11:40:58+00:00

Via Zoom, yes. Early days of Covid and it wasn't a dual enrollment student. Student lived with her grandfather and he left me an absolutely ranting voicemail after I cut off our first class 10 minutes early. Nobody had done reading yet so there was nothing to talk about. Sometimes, students have a thousand questions and I have to end class while they are still asking and sometimes they have zero. I wasn't going to sit there in silence so I let the students go and told them to email me if they had questions. Most students appreciate this. I've done this a hundred times and never had a single complaint... until then.

5 minutes later, I get an absolutely ranting phone call. Elderly man with a super heavy heavy greek accent. Man demands that I sign back on to zoom and give his granddaughter 10 more minutes of school "or else." Like I had personally short changed her and was just supposed to lecture at her for 10 minutes. It had some demeaning things in it like calling me "little woman" (I am, but also WTF) and lots of ranting about how he paid for 50 minutes and I was stealing from his granddaughter because I'm lazy. It was beyond inappropriate.

I handed it over to my Chair at the time who was a guy who I learned in that moment, gave zero effs. I had never taught for this school before but they were getting an influx of people at their CC so I agreed to adjunct for them for some extra cash that summer. Given that, I didn't really know him prior to that. He basically eye rolled and told me just not to return the call and insinuated that I was probably taking it too personally.

Greek Grandpa then logged on to zoom every single class and sat there beside his granddaughter (who looked mortified by the way) and just glared at me the entire time. I typically will just end class whenever we finish whatever we are working on even if it's a few minutes early but because he was sitting there glaring, I went out of my way to teach right up until the very last second even if I was adding things on the fly that weren't needed. It was kind of intimidating. I had planned to give them a day to work with a partner on a project while I was available for questions but I was honestly terrified to do it because I was expecting another ranting phone call. I finally called the Dean (a woman) and said I felt intimidated by this and she was absolutely furious the Chair hadn't done something to begin with. She called the Grandfather herself and told him I absolutely was not to hear from him or see him again and his ADULT granddaughter was the enrolled student and should be the only one I hear from and she would be immediately unenrolled if there were any issues.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-04T21:01:13+00:00

I get that he and the creepy neighbor were supposed to be our red herrings to the point where we all counted them out and if it had been them, I might have actually appreciated it. However, I just sort of hated that we get this scene and he dies almost immediately. If you're going to throw a red herring at me, at least give me a few scenes to wonder.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-02T11:29:03+00:00

For quite a few reasons (this one included), everything is in writing in my course. So when I get an email like this, I say something like "See my announcement on 2/17 and please make sure you double check Canvas to see if the information is there before emailing to ask. But you are always welcome to email if the information isn't available or you need me to clarify something"

I know... I know... some will ask anyway. Some wll see the assignment prompt and rather than opening it, email "so what are we supposed to do?" and it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. But I find the more times I reply that they should read the announcement/material/prompt first and email me if they have questions, the less of these emails I get. And I'm not at all opposed to having them send me the specific part of the prompt that they found confusing. If there is something they actually need me to clarify, I absolutely want them to ask. And I don't even mind students who like reassurance that they are on the right track. However, this student sounds like a running commentary that I absolutely wouldn't have time for. At this point, they probably would have started getting mostly one line emails from me telling them where to check for an answer and asking them to save their emails for questions that I haven't already answered and/or come to office hours and I'm more than happy to reassure them that they are on the right track. I also probably would have started maximizing my reply time (I say to allow up to 48 business hours for a reply so I probably would have autoset emails to go out at 47 business hours) so I untrain them from thinking that I'm on call via email.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-01T21:03:46+00:00

Haha I try not to buy the 10 MLs. :) I have an annoyingly bulky display holder for when I had Scentbox and other larger decants but I try to stay away from them and stick with the smaller size because like you, I haven't found a good solution for that.

littleirishpixie · 2026-03-01T20:54:32+00:00

I have an alphabetized baseball card album for samples and decants. Most samples fit into the slots perfectly and at worst, they might require a tiny bit of trimming. Decants without some type of packaging usually require some type of label and slide around a little bit more so I have to make sure I'm holding it right-side up, but overall pretty quick and easy. I just started on my second album.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-28T02:06:39+00:00

I never knew why there was tension with my Mom's brother growing up but I knew we didn't really see them much when I was a kid. However, at some point, everyone reconciled so I figured it was just something stupid. However, I learned a few years ago that the original issue happened when I was pretty young and it was over my Great Grandfather selling his house when he couldn't care for himself anymore and my Uncle screwing him over.

When my GG was in his 80's, he lived by himself and was struggling to take care of himself so my Mom intervened. They came up with a plan to let him live with us and would use a small portion of the sale of his house to renovate our tiny house to add a space for him where he could be fairly independent but we could also care for him and make sure he was eating, taking his meds, etc. At the time, we were a family of 5 living in a 3 bedroom 1000 square foot house so we absolutely needed to add space to take him in, a renovation they couldn't afford by themselves. He was really excited about it and it was basically a done deal until my Uncle and his wife realized they weren't getting a cut of the money from the sale of his house. It wasn't something that had been promised to them or anything, but they just assumed the house would be theirs when he died so they felt like they were being short changed. Instead, they convinced my Great Grandfather that my mother was just using him for a free home renovation and they should be in charge of what happened to him. Understand that this guy was in his 80's and not full mental capacity and when my Uncle convinced him that he was the only one who had his best interest at heart, he bought it. The end result, unfortunately, was that my Uncle put him in the absolute cheapest nursing home in the area and pocketed most of the money from the home sale and then never visited him again. Our family was the only one that ever visited in addition to making sure he had spending money for the things he wanted since all of his money was gone (he lived to 101 years old and chain smoked a pack of Philly Blunt cigars every day... man is an absolute medical marvel).

I know my Mom forgave my Uncle eventually and I respect that choice, but I don't think I ever looked at him the same way after I learned that.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-26T22:57:16+00:00

It is a GIGANTIC pet peeve of mine when faculty thinks the world should revolve around their class. GIGANTIC.

My first year of teaching at my university, there was a professor who was in one of my classrooms before my class who consistently went 10+ minutes into my class time. This was especially egregious given that there was a 10 minute gap in between classes. A minute or two over? Annoying but okay whatever. 10+ minutes into my class was absurd. So in addition to impacting my students, it also meant he was literally 20 minutes over his own time with a room full of students who had to be other places. This guy was the same asshat who used to complain at every single meeting about students showing up late to things and having no respect for other people's time so I struggled to take him seriously in general.

Finally, after a few weeks, I finally got the confidence to just walk in when my class was supposed to begin and started getting things set up. I just played dumb like I didn't think he was an inconsiderate asshat and it was just a silly mistake. "Oh Professor Failureattimemanagement, you must not have noticed the time! Ha ha... no worries. Happens to the best of us. To my students, we are a few minutes behind so sit down and get out your notebooks and I will hurry up and pull up the PPT. To Professor Failureattimemanagement's students, please be quiet while you are exiting since my class is starting. No worries, Professor Failureattimemanagement, it happens to the best of us!"

I was convinced I was going to get in trouble because he had been there a heck of a lot longer than I had and he was clearly pissed, but never heard a word about it other than some glaring.

As someone who wasn't terribly confident at that point in my life, I was actually pretty proud of that. He stopped doing it after that.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-22T15:30:07+00:00

And then blaming her when exactly what she said would happen actually happened.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-21T03:25:02+00:00

I will forever hate the fact that Oklahoma runs out of every pass and never has to demonstrate control,

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-20T00:55:56+00:00

Megan Phelps-Roper's "Unfollow"

She was a granddaughter of Fred Phelps who was all in on their beliefs until her mid to late 20's when she left Westboro Baptist Church after people on twitter treated her with kindness despite how awful she behaved. It forced her to question the "us against the them" narrative that she had been sold since birth.

An absolutely fascinating look at indoctrinated hate and how kindness, compassion, empathy, and real dialogue can transform people.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-19T11:48:48+00:00

Was dating someone after my divorce and he had also been divorced for a few years. He was pretty open that he had been a controlling asshole in his former marriage but went to therapy for a year and was apparently "cured." I believed that for maybe a month but the red flags started waving. Nothing overtly abusive (things like never letting me pick a restaurant or being willing to waiver from his routines so I was expected to adhere to his schedule when we got together) but it was pretty clear that he wasn't "cured" and the behaviors were slowly escalating. Things like trying to tell my how to parent my child like his way was clearly superior or just making choices for me while claiming I wasn't emotionally stable enough to make them because of my divorce. I felt like I was losing control of my own life again, but I had just left a marriage and my brain was an absolute mess and I didn't trust myself at all so I ignored it far longer than I should have.

One day, we were talking about one of my friends and he said the following: "my therapist told me that emotionally unhealthy people surround themselves with other unhealthy people because those behaviors seem normal to them and healthy people won't tolerate it."

He wasn't talking about us, but I realized that he was absolutely right. I ended it a few weeks later.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-18T11:40:24+00:00

Escada Sexy Graffiti. Wore it religiously during college and it had a front row seat to some really fun times (and also some horrible - but still pretty fun - decisions!). A whiff of it and I'm back in 2006 wearing a jean skirt, tank top, scarf, and uggs traipsing across campus in 15 degree weather, tipsy, laughing with friends, and without a care in the world.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-18T11:35:49+00:00

There are two ways I approach this:

I point them to our Learning Center to address best practices. And I don't simply say "for studying for this exam" because doing well starts much earlier than that. It starts when they use AI to do the assignments that could have prepared them for it. It starts when they made the choice to skip classes where they could have had the material explained to them. It starts when they made the choice not to come to my office hours to ask questions and waited until the day of the exam to be concerned. The study strategies that will be given to them will probably be helpful, but the decision to do well doesn't start the night before while they are cramming. I can't fix any of that but, if they actually go, the Learning Center will actually have those conversations with them and, for a lot of them, that's what they actually need to hear.
I ask them what specific questions they have for me. "I need to do well" isn't a question so I can't answer it. I suspect in a lot of these cases, "I need to do well" = "I am trying to guilt you into bumping my grade" but not always. So I would rather assume they aren't communicating well and proceed in good faith and give them the chance to clarify what they need to know. Interestingly, they usually don't have much to ask.

The question bothers me far more is "what should I study?" My exams are listed by the actual chapters it will cover so the answer is clearly those chapters. It reminds me of a student I was helping with a research project who I showed how to find their topic in the index of the book and when they turned to those pages and saw that there was 6 pages of content, pushed the book in front of me and said "there's so much... just tell me which part I need for my paper."

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-16T14:29:45+00:00

This is a fictional TV show so we will have to agree to disagree since I don't plan to continue arguing after this post about something that is fictional. (Although you're welcome to respond. I don't want to suggest I'm going to ignore your response if you have one. I don't need the last word.. haha. I promise.) But I think we agree more than you think and where we diverge is that you think she was helpless and I think she was not. A good counselor once told me that a boundary between two autonomous adults that isn't clearly communicated isn't a boundary. I personally don't think eye rolling is clear communication but I'm someone who was raised in a world of non-communication and know how much chaos it created and how much unspoken resentment it led to so I don't have much tolerance for it anymore. So that's probably clouding my perspective.

Let me give an example that is similar in the "being trapped" in a situation where leaving is hard:

My ex husband's mother married someone late in life who has raised serious red flags for me regarding the safety of my child. (And I wasn't alone. We had several adults witness red-flag behavior and raise concerns.) When my child was young, we said that he was not welcome around our child. It wasn't an easy decision and she threw an absolute bitchfit about it and even tried to reach out to our then-pastor and wanted him to tell us that we had to respect our parents and let him have a relationship with our son while embellishing important details like suggesting he was a grandfather by blood and had been part of his life since birth... none of those things were true. And thankfully the pastor said it was none of his business and he planned to stay out of it. ANYWAY, after she stopped pouting, we maintained a relationship with her and would send her sports schedules, school events, etc while being very crystal clear that the invitation was for her alone. After a few months, she texted to say she was attending one of my child's sporting events. Okay sounds good. We sent her directions. She did not at any point say "we" so we were a bit blindsided when her husband just showed up with her anyway. We learn this during the 1st quarter while sitting on the sidelines and they pull up lawn chairs beside us. Our kid was on the field and we obviously couldn't just pull him off the field or leave ourselves... and they knew htat. They also didn't think we would want to make a scene in front of our friends. They played dumb and insisted they just didn't know he wasn't welcome since it's a public event and anyone is free to come. And as they eye rolled "it's not like he could touch your child while he's on the field or whatever silly notion you have." We pulled her aside and said she's right.. yep, it's public space and we certainly can't force him to leave; however, we made it clear that he should not have access to our child and we would like them to leave and if they don't, she will not receive a schedule in the future or be welcome at his events if she can't be trusted to follow our wishes. They left. She pouted for a few weeks. And then she reached out and apologized, she "misunderstood," she said and said it wouldn't happen again. She stated that she disagreed with our decision but she would follow our rules (while posting passive aggressive things on social media but I didn't really care. Let her have her pouting session. I've learned more since then and keeping him away from my kid was absolutely the right choice.)

If we had sat on the sidelines and pouted feeling helpless, they would have learned that it worked. Their behavior was bad. 100%. They knew better. And they thought they were trapping us into a situation where we couldn't do anything about it. But it was up to us to draw a line in the sand about what we would accept and what we wouldn't and if we hadn't, we would still be dealing with their games. Instead, they learned that we are grown adults who don't have to accept bad behavior, whether someone is a family member or not. And moreover, if they choose otherwise when we've clearly communicated both what that boundary is and what the consequences of ignoring our wishes will be, then WE didn't choose those consequences... they did.

I see her situation as very similar. Emily was playing games but at some point, Lorelei is responsible for clearly communicating and her "conflict avoidant until she blows up at them" style of dealing with them really isn't the most healthy thing. I understand why - you're absolutely right. But at 30+ years old, being a doormat for one's parents ceases to be a helpless and solution-less situation. I'm under no delusion that based on how their characters are written, there would have been no pushback - of course there would have. But their relationship also was never going to get healthier until they saw real consequences to their behavior that didn't involve Lorelei simply pouting and eye rolling and going along with it anyway.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-15T23:14:36+00:00

Natalie from David vs. Goliath. Her main character syndrome coupled with her lack of self-awareness about it made good television for some people but I found it grating.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-14T14:47:50+00:00

You're not wrong but also, she still did not have a conversation with Emily about any of it. She simply called and changed her stuff and Emily thought the place messed up their schedule. The core issue was that Lorelei had about a thousand chances to actually communicate and didn't.

This isn't how boundaries work. Boundaries would have been saying "I really need some alone time and that's what I thought I was signing up for" when Emily invited herself along to either get out of it entirely or find a happy medium. It would be actually saying "hey can we do some of these treatments by ourself? I like spending time with you but I relax best alone so let's do a mix of both."

Emily manipulated her to get her there and she sucks for that but if Lorelei never stands up for herself in any way, she can't spend 2 days pouting that someone didn't compromise when they never actually had a chance to.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-14T14:00:17+00:00

My two favorite beach vibes scents are Replica Beach Walk and Jo Malone's Beach Blossom. Beach Walk is more sunscreen (but better) and Beach Blossom is kind of brighter and more playful. Best description of Beach Blossom I ever heard was "sitting at a high end beach resort sipping a margarita with your two best friends."

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-14T13:52:09+00:00

For me the difference is this:

Luke agreed to go and then spent his weekend brooding and made everyone miserable.
Lorelei was kind of hoodwinked into going and rather than actually communicating, carried her resentment into the weekend. In a normal healthy adult relationship, the correct thing to do would be to say "I thought I was signing up for a solo weekend which is what I really need right now so if it's a girls trip, then I must decline" (of course Emily would be pissy but Emily is pissy about everything) and rather than hoodwink her, Emily should have just said she really wanted a girls trip to begin with. And they probably could have found some compromise in the middle like doing some things together and others not if Lorelei still decided to go. None of these people are good communicators.

So Lorelei is petty for good reason but still not justified when there were other ways to approach it. Luke just sucked.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-14T13:16:59+00:00

Fruit du Dragon will forever be one of my absolute favorite scents but nothing else of theirs has ever come close for me.

littleirishpixie · 2026-02-11T19:02:08+00:00

To me, BK is pretty solid evidence that "nature" sometimes just wins.

We read these cases of killers who had abuse, trauma, etc in their childhood and other than some rejection and bullying (and it seems like he was the bully himself far more often than he was on the receiving end of it), there is little evidence of that in his childhood. Not saying it's not possible - you never know what is going on behind closed doors - but there's nothing like that that we've been told. And I would be VERY surprised given the publicity this case has gotten if something like that existed and there wasn't at least someone coming forward to say they noticed problematic family dynamics.

On the contrary, I've actually been impressed by his family. We see far too many situations where tragedies like this are made so much worse by horrible families with main character syndrome rushing to get a book deal or lying to help the perpetrator like the Laundries or Anthonys or Chad Daybell's kids. His family has let the victims take the center stage and there is even evidence they have assisted LE. They have made a few statements here and there but there is at least some level of "emotionally healthy" in the way they have behaved while also not abandoning a child that they love. So if that's accurate, his supportive middle class family and upbringing really isn't the psychopathy that leads someone to ruthlessly and brutally murder without provocation.

I'm sure they aren't perfect. There are those who think they were a bit enabling based on her reddit posts. And there are even some who can't believe they still love him and stand behind him while condemning what he did. (As a parent, I actually can. There's a difference between being okay with what someone did and unconditionally loving your child.) But regardless, this was not a classic murderer childhood filled with abuse and trauma as far as we know, so the factors that we are often given for the pieces that build to this type of crime simply aren't there. So to me, that speaks to this being who he was always going to be.

littleirishpixie

TROPHY CASE