Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

The revolution will be supervised.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

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Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Southern Beale

    I forgot Mary was in Minneapolis … for some reason I thought she was in New York? Or was she from Minneapolis and moved to New York?

    Thinking her big “throw my hat in the air” moment was about arriving in Minneapolis seems somehow … anticlimactic.

  6. 6.

    dr. bloor

    Someone with mad photoshop skillz should superimpose Michelle Bachmann’s face over MTM’s.

  10. 10.

    jon

    Dayton’s. The place where I have all my childhood memories that bear the closest resemblance to A Christmas Story. Going downtown around Christmas, seeing the Lego and Playmobil toy displays, and Santa. Taking the skyway. Then back to the suburbs.

  11. 11.

    Southern Beale

    Well, if she was in Minneapolis then where was she moving from in those opening scenes?

    And why in God’s name did Rhoda move from New York City to Minneapolis?

    I guess I’m remembering now that on the “Rhoda” show Rhoda moved back to New York.

    Funny the things one forgets.

    I remember liking “That Girl” but now when I watch reruns on TV Land I’m shocked and appalled at how sexist it is. And that show was supposed to be feminist!

  14. 14.

    gene108

    Theme songs for T.V. shows have really come down a notch or ten.

    No one bothers with a catchy opening tune any more.

  17. 17.

    Ohio Mom

    My vague memory is that Mary, who was from a small town, had bravely broken off an engagement with a fellow who was very appropriate but did not float her boat, and had moved to Minneapolis to start her real life. The thing that made the show different was exactly that this back story was not stressed and it was indeed, “single career woman,” not “small-town girl makes good.” Because that’s how Mary saw herself.

    I remember more clearly her interview with Mr. Grant, who says something like, “You’re perky (Mary smiles). I hate perky.” I don’t know why Rhoda was in the Twin Cities, though. Maybe it was to take that job dressing the department store windows.

    This is the first time I’ve seen the opening credits in color, and yes, she did have a lot of expensive looking coats for someone just starting out. Wasn’t so obvious in black & white.

  18. 18.

    Ohio Mom

    Now I’m also remembering a very old Nora Ephron essay where she writes that the MTM Show made it okay and even respectable to stay in on a Saturday night and not go out to prove you were popular and hip.

  26. 26.

    bobbo

    @Ohio Mom:
    This is right. She fled a fiance and started a new life in Minneapolis. But Mr. Grant said, “You’ve got spunk. I hate spunk.”
    Also, I learned from watching Pop Up Video that in the original script Mary was leaving a failed marriage, but the producers changed it to fleeing a fiance because they thought audiences would think she had divorced Dick Van Dyke, her previous TV husband.

  27. 27.

    Ohio Mom

    Thanks bobbo. I remembered it was spunk Mr. Grant didn’t like after I posted, while I was moving the laundry around, picking up the kitchen, etc., and before I got back to the computer. Didn’t know about the failed marriage bit, though. That’s a fun little factoid.

  28. 28.

    noho

    I just finished watching this with my wife and this show holds up pretty damn well. The later seasons, especially.

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