Okay, um, I'm lost. Uh, I'm angry, and I'm armed, so if you two have something that you need to work out --

Mal ,'War Stories'


Natter 55: It's the 55th Natter  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


tommyrot - Dec 31, 2007 9:26:26 am PST #9976 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Mike Brady's angry Shakespearean critique of the Brady Bunch scripts

Robert Reed, who played Mike "Dad" Brady on The Brady Bunch was a frustrated, classically trained Shakespearean actor who sent stroppy memos the show's writers explaining How Drama Works to them in minute, enraged detail. They are a treasure. Here is one of them:

Once again, we are infused with the slapstick. The oldest boy's hair turns bright orange in a twinkling of the writer's eye, having been doused with a non-FDA-approved hair tonic. (Why any boy of Bobby's age, or any age, would be investing in something as outmoded and unidentifiable as "hair tonic" remains to be explained. As any kid on the show could tell the writer, the old hair-tonic routine is right out of "Our Gang." Let's face it, we're long since past the "little dab'll do ya" era.)

Without belaboring the inequities of the script, which are varied and numerous, the major point to all this is: Once an actor has geared himself to play a given style with its prescribed level of belief, he cannot react to or accept within the same confines of the piece, a different style.

When the kid's hair turns red, it is Batman in the operating room.

I can't play it.


Dana - Dec 31, 2007 9:26:42 am PST #9977 of 10001
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."

I'm trying really, really hard to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

Um, except for all of the Christmas candy and cookies in the house that were given to us as gifts.


tommyrot - Dec 31, 2007 9:28:15 am PST #9978 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I'm trying really, really hard to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

I've been trying, but it's pretty much everywhere....

Also, is "Batman in the operating room" sorta' the '60s version of jumping the shark?


Trudy Booth - Dec 31, 2007 9:29:17 am PST #9979 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

I'll eat high quantity when I'm eating the beloved cheap white carbs. With those gone, my appetite becomes much more like a normal persons.


Trudy Booth - Dec 31, 2007 9:33:33 am PST #9980 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

I'm trying really, really hard to avoid high fructose corn syrup.

Um, except for all of the Christmas candy and cookies in the house that were given to us as gifts.

"Only Home Made Goodies" can be a good line to draw that eliminates most hfc.

Of course, the psycho line that I'm drawing is "if it doesn't get eaten by midnight tomorrow it gets tossed". The thing that makes this nuts is that I will spend the next 36 hours mainlining cookies.

Then this weekend the rest of the simple carbs will go bye-bye until Valentine's day. Six weeks of hard-core healthy girl will feel very good right now.


Typo Boy - Dec 31, 2007 9:34:18 am PST #9981 of 10001
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Kat, I wonder how the school district would react to some bad publicity from the local paper. Because the press loves "stupid callous bureaucrat" stories.


Trudy Booth - Dec 31, 2007 9:36:09 am PST #9982 of 10001
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

The school district is sick-making, Kat.

My office effed up and didn't withhold for my health insurance for a year and a half... so they spent the next year and a half doing double. It sucked, but they didn't charge me INTEREST for their freakin mistake.


Typo Boy - Dec 31, 2007 9:39:20 am PST #9983 of 10001
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Seriously, someone ought to talk to a lawyer about this. Most lawyers will do a 15 minute free consult to determine whether it is worth talking further. But the press is cheaper, and it is amazing what bad publicity wills sometimes do.


Cashmere - Dec 31, 2007 9:41:32 am PST #9984 of 10001
Now tagless for your comfort.

Since there is a union involved, there are collective bargaining issues. Single folks may be barred from bringing suit in the case of a union disagreement.

But obviously, your union dues are being pissed away for the lack of representation you've gotten on this, Kat.


Kat - Dec 31, 2007 9:48:36 am PST #9985 of 10001
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

But obviously, your union dues are being pissed away for the lack of representation you've gotten on this, Kat.

Seriously. I'm not sure who pisses me off more: the district or the union.