I love that during the day I try to post, and every time I start to write something, someone else has written something, usually about the topic I wanted to write about.
At any rate, looks like I have the night shift. Here is the topic- who are the worst actresses in popular shows? The reason I bring this up is a friend asked if I liked Mad Men and I went on a long rant about how they were all hideous ugly people and that January Jones makes me want to scream every time she is on screen.
I’d also add Kristen Stewart and Lena Headey; the former has no facial expressions other than “I’m stupid as shit” while the latter has nothing but a sneer. Which, for the record, puts them both heads and shoulders above January Jones.
I’d ask the same about actors, but as long as Keanu Reeeves, Nicholas Cage, and Hayden Christensen still breathe, there really is no debate.
Did I use that semi-colon correctly? Those bastards vex me.
*** Update ***
I have a confession to make that will alienate a lot of you, and I am sorry, but I have to stop pretending. I am coming out of the closet to state I do not like Dr. Who. I am sorry. I really tried and thought the first ep or two I watched were lackluster and other episodes would make up for it, but it just turns out I don’t like it.
I am sorry to let you all down, and will watch the Highlander and Blade Runner ten times in a row to re-establish my dork cred, but I have to be open and honest with you.
Mark Field
You left out Robert Pattinson.
eastriver
I would say Yes, correct use of semi-colon.
Keith G
And this has what to do about acting?
srv
I will ponder this while I’m walking the gardens of Versailles today and get back to you on your pedestrian matters. Or maybe not.
pinacacci
Don’t know about popular culture but I always thought Winona Ryder was way overrated and eventually it seems Hollywood thought so too.
BigSouthern
Does Kristen Wiig count?
If so, her. If not then Erica Tazel from “Justified.” Every time the writers ask her to carry some weight the scene just cracks and splits.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do, we do!
eastriver
as to shitty actresses, I detest Kyra Sedgwick. Her speech impediment almost drives back to the bottle. Linda Hunt roils my guts: never liked her (full upset colon).
Punchy
BULLS WIN! Suck.on.that, Lebron.
Digital Amish
Julia Roberts has to be in the mix.
Yatsuno
Hell I hardly know any actresses in Hollywood anymore, so no point in asking me. I just know I would pay to listen to Dame Judi read the phone book. It sucks that she’s losing her sight.
lamh35
I’ve always thought that Julia Roberts is not that great an actor and in fact it’s that she’s been blessed with some truly phenomenal co-stars who have been what carried over for her.
In fact, seems to me that the movies she has that are received well usually star ones with great co-stars.
ETA: @Digital Amish: great minds and all that…
Comrade Jake
Ahm, how is this story and the epic interview not a front page post yet?
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/cleveland_metro/Cleveland-police-dispatch-Missing-teens-Amanda-Berry-and-Gina-DeJesus-found-alive
Anoniminous
Semi-colon was used to separate two independent clauses not connected by a conjunction so it was used correctly.
BruceFromOhio
Robin Tunney on ‘Mentalist’ gets a big thumbs-down from MrsFromOhio, though I think she’s okay. Either of the leads from Two Broke Girls gets my rotten tomatoes.
Are you distinguishing between big screen and small screen? None of these guys do television, AFAIK.
the Conster
I hate that bitch Patricia Heaton, and throw in Leah Rimini.
PhoenixRising
@Comrade Jake: Ayup, the interview w/ the neighbor sums up life on the west side of Cleveland: I knew when a white child ran into my [black] arms, something was up!
Oh, my people.
lamh35
@Comrade Jake: yep, I’m surprised it’s not too. I’ve been posting update on the last open thread all night.
The updates are just whoa!
http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/shocking_horrifying_miraculous_story.php
You can listen to the 911 tape. the tape is sooo heartwrenching. she just keeps saying her name and she sounds so scared. and one of the girls has a daughter too!!!
David in NY
Semi-colon looks OK, but I think we should debate the Oxford comma.
MattF
… and here’s another ‘Holy Shit’ story… if you’re wondering about why sexual assault might just possibly be a problem in the Air Force:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/us/air-force-officer-who-led-sexual-assault-prevention-efforts-arrested.html?hp
I read the photo as ‘Lt. Col. Thug might not have this one under control.’
Triumph
Lena has grown on me; she had some really good moments late last season, especially with Sansa in the sept as the battle was going on. Then again, I may or may not have a weakness for mean girls.
Also, you better say something nice about Christina Hendricks RIGHT NOW, Cole.
lamh35
Let’s see who else: Jennifer Aniston was a so-so actress on friends (the haircut was better than her). She’s even worse in the film world too. I’m still surprised that some studio exec gives any project she is in any money.
Um, also Kathryn Heigl. She parlayed a time on Grey’s Anatomy to movies and other than Knocked Up, she shoulda just stayed with the tv show.
PhoenixRising
@David in NY: Please go out in the yard and set fire to your copy of ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’. Then report back, and we shall commence. The Oxford Comma: It’s On!
eastriver
Julia Roberts is okay. There are much, MUCH more untalented women paying SAG-AFTRA p&w.
Uma Thurman, humorless cyborg
Darryl Hannah, battery-less cyborg
Tina Fey, (no, she can’t act. she’s a writer who can under-deliver gags with the averagest of ’em_)
Anoniminous
@David in NY:
There is no debate. The Oxford Comma is right, proper, and correct.
Also Sprach Strunk & White
Yatsuno
@PhoenixRising: You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead, and decaying hands. Neener.
Tone in DC
Diane Neal, Marcia Cross, Emily Post and Penny Jerald are non-thespians most foul, inducing severe intestinal damage, and I want them stopped.
The entire cast of “The Big Bang Theory” should be nuked from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
rikyrah
Never understood the hype of Helen Hunt.
never.
Comrade Jake
@lamh35:
Just listened to her 911 call. Jesus.
David in NY
@PhoenixRising: You know, I actually have no horse in the “Oxford comma” debate, except I noticed that Cole used one,* which seems to be the minority usage these days. I learned to use the comma in high school, it was not according to form in law school, and now I’m so old I don’t give a damn.
*Comma, not horse. If it weren’t late I’d fix that sentence.
Omnes Omnibus
@David in NY: There is no debate unless you want to discuss whether it is a serial comma or an Oxford comma. Use the fucker.
pokeyblow
The fact that Jennifer Aniston is worth untold millions… something is definitely wrong.
Regarding the released girls, what terrific news. I’m morbidly fascinated by missing-person stories (check out charleyproject.org sometime if you’re in the mood for getting creeped out) and the vast majority of those don’t seem to end well.
Digital Amish
Oh, if it’s TV shows we’re talking about then I’d have to say just about the entire roster of the CSI franchise. Mostly their talent doesn’t warrant learning their names let alone watch their shows, so I haven’t. Of course David Caruso has set an unachievable standard.
lamh35
@Comrade Jake: I know. when she tells the 911 operator she’s Amanda Berry and “I’m free now”, it was like whoa.
Damn! Just damn. She seemed soo scared. the 911 operator rubbed me the wrong way though
gopher2b
@Comrade Jake:
Listen to Charles Ramsay’s 911 call because it’s just short of awesome. I really like how he sets the scene: “So, bro, I’m coming from McDonald’s and…..”
David in NY
Geez, I thought that the “Oxford comma” comment might get a rise out of somebody, but I didn’t expect torches and pitchforks. Isn’t there something to the view that you don’t write “I like ham, and eggs,” so why should you write “I like toast, ham, and eggs”?
the Conster
@lamh35:
Holy shit. Charles Ramsey is the best.hero.ever.
Omnes Omnibus
@David in NY: But you don’t say “toast ham and eggs.” Once there are three or more items in the group, there must be at least one comma.
jibeaux
Can it really be that no one has mentioned Andie McDowell yet?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, but I’ll submit that it is properly referred to as an Oxford comma. Ya got enough these days?
Thus there should be no debate;period.
Comrade Jake
@gopher2b:
I have. The cat is something else. Here’s a second interview with him:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=lBu4JDic95U&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DlBu4JDic95U%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
Good times!
cinesimon
I think some of those Fox News actresses do a pretty good job at pretending that they’d be more than happy with the legal regression of all American women, including themselves, to 1950s housewife. I guess many already are the equivalent of Stepford Wives.
Maybe they’d get Freedom Exemptions from The Party, as long as they champion the party talking points at all times. Even whilst fucking outlaws in the sane world.
“I .. ug..am…ug ug ugggghhh… your..U! property… and – ug ug UUGG I ..am … a …good UUGG!! christian AAARRRGGGHHHOOOWWWWLLL — ugg . . wife…
lamh35
I liked Dr Who when David Tennant was the Doctor. I’ve never become acclimated to the new guy and never really watched the show before Tennant became the doctor
The Other Chuck
@Tone in DC:
From your lips to the FSM’s Orecchietti. I. Hate. That. Show. Actually I think the worst part might very well be the studio audience. Granted, the last sitcom I could stand that had a laughtrack was Seinfeld, but this show takes the annoyance of it to 11. The entire thing feels like they’re sight-reading the script and shouting the jokes out to an audience that’s been threatened with electrocution if they don’t howl and hoot hysterically after each one.
Comrade Jake
@the Conster:
Seriously. How is Cole not all over this one?
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Actually, I agree on the terminology. And, yes, I have plenty for now.
lamh35
DAMN!!!
eastriver
ANDIE MCDOWELL, CYBORG-LESS CYBORG.
Wet paper bags around the world MOCK HER AROUND THE CLOCK.
lamh35
David in NY
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m already bored and will concede that when the Comma got beaten out of me in law school, I was truly annoyed. But isn’t the question, “Why must a series of three trigger two commas?,” instead of just one? Unless you just like the look of that second one, which I sort of do, and then it’s just a matter of taste … but the hell with it. Cole used the comma, so that’s good enough for me. Good night everyone.
magurakurin
Maybe a colon? The second sentence seems to answer the first. Not sure, I’m no editor.
from a random site
Cacti
@Mark Field:
He’s a real person?
I thought he was bad CG or an animatron like at Disney.
Tone in DC
@The Other Chuck:
LMFAO. Good analysis, dude.
Karen in GA (who really needs a better name)
Lena Headey’s artificial mouth is just creepy.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
I’m pretty sure he means morally ugly, because I otherwise can’t imagine how any straight man would refer to a cast that includes women like Christina Hendricks as “hideously ugly.”
Yatsuno
@lamh35: My first actual Doctor was Tom Baker when my father would watch the series on PBS. It’s really awesome now to go home and watch it with him. I think you should give Eccleston a try though, he really laid a lot of the groundwork for the flashes of anger Tennant gets to express. And both of them are better actors than Matt.
I will say this: “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” made me REALLY love Jenna Louise-Coleman. Definitely saw the gumption of Sarah Jane in that episode. I’m blaming the writers now.
karl
You’re not alone on Dr. Who.
Your semicolon was justified.
Your oxford comma is just fine, too — don’t give the stuffed pedants an inch, the bastards.
The Other Chuck
@lamh35:
You really should catch up on the Matt Smith series, he really does grow on you. And the 11th Doctor’s new companion is not only the cutest thing in the known universe, her story is potentially really fascinating.
Tennant was great, no doubt about it. He handily beat Tom Baker as my favorite Doctor in only a couple seasons. But now I can’t pick favorites, because Matt Smith really is equally good, just for different reasons. I guess you do have to like his fast vaudevillian style of delivery, and that’s not for everyone, though it does make his straight lines feel even darker — like The Hudsucker Proxy suddenly becoming No Country for Old Men. Like this one:
I just wonder how they’re going to follow up on Matt Smith when he goes, because it’s clear the Doctor is getting more cracked with each incarnation. Supposedly the Time Lords had a limit of 12 regenerations, but it’s not like there’s any left to enforce the rules…
Mike in NC
The only thing worse than any version of Dr Who is anything done by Rowland Atkinson (Mr Fucking Bean).
John Cole
@Triumph:
Umm, she was super hot in Firefly when she wasn’t in Mad Men trussed up in a corset that would make Fred Garvin feel overdressed?
NotMax
Get in line, Mr. Cole.
Have not liked Dr. Who in any form for longer than you’ve been alive.
Joseph Nobles
What’s Wrong With Doctor Who?
A nice little read.
Mnemosyne
I like Matt Smith as Dr. Who, but this season has been teh suxxor so far. Sorry, fellow Whovians.
The Other Chuck
What I like about Doctor Who is that it’s just pure goddam imaginative fairy tale flights of fancy. Suspension of disbelief isn’t just beneficial for watching that show, it’s goddam essential to every aspect of watching that utterly unrealistic wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff the show is made of. It’s a Sci-Fi Peter Pan, and goddammit I will clap louder.
I confess, I do wish he’d stop waving that fucking sonic screwdriver around like it was Harry Potter’s wand. Or at least explain again that it’s a direct extension of the Tardis that’s had hundreds of years of practice tinkering with it, and thus is pretty damn cosmically powerful. Except on wood.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Mike in NC: Rowan Atkinson, not Rowland. Mr. Bean really is godawful. He was funny in “Not the Nine O’Clock News”.
Joshua Norton
Dr. Who has about 3 “meh” episodes for every great one. You can tell the bad ones because he defaults to mumbo jumbo about “fixed points” and carries on about his anger issues which is just filler between multiple scenes of him running back and forth.
“Blink” is still one of my all-time favorites. I also liked the one about Mme DuBarry. The episode with the introduction of Captain Jack as brilliant in every way. The one with Matt Smith and the baby in the dept. store was hysterical. The Christmas episode where he thinks he found his next replacement Dr. in Victorian Enland, along with the a new gang of cybermen was inspired.
But there a lot of episodes that are just tedious as hell.
AnnaN
Rowan Atkinson ROCKED as Blackadder. Especially in his scenes with …well…everyone from the Prince Regent to Lord Flasheart and even Nursie. A wunnerful show.
Mnemosyne
@Joseph Nobles:
I’m not quite sure I agree with the article, but I can’t help but notice that this season’s companion is a semi-professional nanny.
Also, too, is there going to be some kind of ass-kicking of Clara by Dr. River Song — you know, the doctor’s (handfasted) wife? — or is Moffat just going to drop that whole character without ever mentioning her again?
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
I’m not a “Mr. Bean” fan, but “Blackadder” is one of the best fucking TV series of all time. Start with Series II (Elizabethan). It took them all of Series I to figure out where the funny is.
Joel (Macho Man Randy Savage)
While he’s not an especially bad actor, Leonardo Dicaprio has gotten incredible mileage out of relatively limited abilities (at least compared to some of his peers).
Nathalie Portman is another name that comes to mind in the same vein.
NotMax
@The prophet Nostradumbass
And essential in the various Blackadder incarnations, an upfront, inflated, repellant smarminess being crucial.
scav
@The Other Chuck: Haven’t had any stellar out of the ballpark stories yet but I have been enjoying Matt this year — the little sepia jumpy thing he did in the background during the Tardis flashback was pure Laurel and Hardy period and there are those dark flashes too. Have we covered the inevitable full gamut of reactions yet? Anybody voted Colin Baker the best doctor ever yet? that’s usually the trail-sweep.
The Other Chuck
@Joshua Norton: The episode quality really depends on the writer. Just about anything by Steven Moffat is awesome, because he knows how to really tap into primal fears. Not the ooga-booga jumping-out-of-shadows fears, but basic stuff like loss of loved ones (part 2 of Silence in the Library, the only episode where I liked Donna as a companion) and … freakin statues (he wrote Blink, that’s all I need to say). He’s responsible for the character of River Song and, well hell that was a nice story arc, wasn’t it?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@AnnaN: Oh, yes, Blackadder is good.
TooManyJens
@Joseph Nobles: I feel the same way about the Moffat era. I’ve only seen the first episode or two of Season 7, and I have no desire to catch up. I may just be done until they get a new showrunner.
pokeyblow
The newer Doctor Who is very good. I like Eccleston and Tennant very much, Smith less, but still.
What I like better about the older series — Tom Baker’s being best — is the more casual approach to long-term narratives, foreshadowings, and so on. For example, suddenly the Doctor had to find the pieces of the Key of Time… so for five (I think) series, he looked for it. Then all was good, and the idea vanished.
Of course, it’s good and fun to build up a more thorough mythology/backstory/milieu. But further and further stretches to keep things connected, consistent, and so on tend to wear out the bigger enterprise.
YellowJournalism
January Jones hate? Movie and TV talk? People professing their love for the Oxford Comma?
Why do these topics come up when I don’t have the time or energy to contribute??!!
And I know she’s not TV, but: Eva Mendes ruins everything she’s in!
Joshua Norton
@The Other Chuck:
I liked the stories with River Song. But when he tried to resurrect the Weeping Angels and kept changing what they were supposed to be able to do, things started to fall flat. He should have left well enough alone.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
@AnnaN: I was just about to say …
MTiffany71
Zooey Deschanel.
scav
@The Other Chuck: The Vashta Nerada (non-spacesuit phase) beat The Weeping Angels as best Moffet monster by a nose, or maybe a mote of dust for me. That library. But they were near perfect in Blink.
NotMax
@pokeyblow
One reason have always referred to each new attempt as a Retardis.
Also too, in one sentence you have encapsulated the core disease that has long eaten away the super-hero comic book world.
TooManyJens
@The Other Chuck: I loved the episodes Moffat wrote when RTD was in charge, but I think he’s been a hot mess as a showrunner.
pokeyblow
@NotMax: Thanks. Not something I’ve thought about at length, but there’s something easy and unworried about the older stories… while the current series seems anxious to find enough “moments” for the Doctor to flash Ecclestonian anger (or, worse, to wax poetic about the particular wonders of earth-residents).
Mark Field
Just try to imagine a porn film with the two of them.
On second thought, don’t. I’m now scarred for life.
karen
@Yatsuno:
YES! Eccleston has that edge of passion with a hint of sinisterness. I loved him and David Tennant, didn’t watch DW before that. I liked Matt Smith with Amy and Rory but can’t really get into Clara yet.
But you should try Orphan Black!
NotMax
Swear the words bolded here were in there, but they’ve apparently run off with Cole’s mustard.
#81:
each new attempt at retcon
Miss Kitkas's Comrade Wayne
John Cole, you need to take a break from whatever bottle of booze it is that you’ve been sucking from. For the past few months you’ve just been phoning it in. And to take a whole blog post to convey to us all your displeasure at January Jones? What the fuck did she ever do to you, other than fail to tickle you out of your socks, you fat worthless piece of shit.
smintheus
Elisha Cuthbert…is she in anything any more?
Steeplejack
@BruceFromOhio:
The Mentalist is a show I like, but Robin Tunney is weak. I don’t think she’s a bad actor, but she doesn’t come across as the head of a semi-elite investigative team, even by the shaky standards of network TV. Maybe it’s the way the part is written. It’s too bad, because the other “cop” characters–Rigsby, Van Pelt and Cho–largely avoid the cookie-cutter clichés.
Rachel in Portland
I’d like to thank my parents, Mother Teresa and the Pope.
Steeplejack
@eastriver:
I thought Tina Fey was surprisingly good in Admission. She breaks free of the rom-com fetters in a movie that itself breaks free of the rom-com fetters. A pleasant surprise.
lojasmo
Fuck, this blog is active,
EMAIL GERAL STUCK, MOTHERFUCKER
lojasmo
also, too (fuck you all) something.
+6
NotMax
@Rachel in Portland
Heh. Christmas shopping must be a nightmare.
lojasmo
I went there.
Violet
@jibeaux: Yes! I realize I’m very late to this thread, but I detest Andie McDowell. She ruined “Four Weddings and a Funeral” for me. Can not understand why anyone would be interested in her. There’s no there there.
sublime33
Julie Louis Dreyfus was grossly overrated in Seinfeld. Great character that hundreds could have played just as well if not better.
eddie blake
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: “who keeps atlantis off the maps; who keeps the martians under wraps; we do, we do…”
CaseyL
It’s really strange, but I never got into Dr. Who until Matt Smith came on. As a life-long science fiction nut, I always felt odd not liking it. It just seemed draggy and not very well done to me.
I may have lucked out waiting as long as I did, because the story of Amelia Pond sucked me in right away. The Amy-Rory years were just amazing; the stories were completely, delightfully mad; and I want to be River Song when I grow up.
I like Clara so far, though the best thing about her is how the mystery of her multipart existence is driving the Doctor barmy. I wonder what the Big Reveal will be.
The Other Chuck
@sublime33:
Julia. Jerry Seinfeld wrote the series based on his neighbors, but Elaine was a late addition based on the observation that the show was otherwise a sausagefest. Anyway, I thought she was fine as Elaine, but by golly she is hilarious in Veep. That show and Game of Thrones are why I still pay for HBO.
Kris Collins
@David in NY: No, there is nothing to that view whatsoever. The comma in the first sentence is just wrong, it makes the sentence incomprehensible. Whatever the conjunction is (and, or, either) the comma is pointless and stupid, it does not add to or change the meaning of the sentence. As for qhy sentence number 2, with the Oxford comma, is correct I rwfwr
Kris Collins
@Kris Collins: Damn stupid phone fucks up again. Anyway, for the classic defense of the Oxford comma, I refer you to Strunk and White, I cannot add she to that.
However, the whole discussion of “bad” TV actresses is, frankly,
shallow, incredibly subjective, misogynistic, and basically obnoxious and pointless. Some guy somewhere is going to hate some chick on some show, therefore she is a bad actress. Yawn.
KrisWV
@Kris Collins I am with my bro Kris I think. I associate bad acting with shows I don’t like and that’s usually the writing. If you ask me, Law and Order SVU has the worst of “smell the fart acting” but the Emmys disagree. To look from the other side
I am always happy when Sara Rue shows up on a comedy. Always happy when Busy Phillips is there. I like Bones even though I hate all CSI’s. and so on…
Central Planning
@John Cole:
Semi-colons. How do they fucking work?
maurinsky
If I may be pedantic, it’s DOCTOR Who, not Dr. Who. Eccleston is my favorite by a nose.
Jennifer
Bad actress: Kate Hudson.
Use of final comma in a series of three or more: completely at the writer’s discretion. I always use it, because it doesn’t make sense to use a comma and then not use it just because the word “and” appears. Also, too: a comma is supposed to indicate a brief pause in oral speech. Would you say “we had eggs…..ham and toast” or would you say “we had eggs….ham….and toast”? The latter feels more natural, and it should be written as “we had eggs, ham, and toast” to convey that pause.
Don’t even get me started on the retarded-ass American standard spelling of “judgment,” which in oral language would be pronounced “jud-GUH-ment.” The “e” was there for a reason, jackholes.
Cris (without an H)
I want to like Kat Dennings, I really do. I want her to be the saving grace of that rather second-rate sitcom. But I absolutely hate how she pushes out a grin after every punchline she delivers. It’s like a smug rimshot.
MCA1
@Mnemosyne: Right, but Keith G’s point is those are the characters, not the actors. In fact, to portray characters who are so narcissistic and morally repugnant, yet come off as charming, funny and attractive on the surface, to me would speaks of pretty good acting. In fact, I don’t think there’s a bad actor/actress on Mad Men, at least among the prominent characters. January Jones has taken Betty from bland, sympathetic and blissfully ignorant, to knowingly living in denial, to standing up for herself and establishing agency in her life, to falling apart, all the while becoming a less and less sympathetic human, and eventually one that is totally hateable and exposed as just as selfish as anyone else on the show. That’s an arc the writers established, but I think the actress has pulled it off fairly well. She’s not Laura Linney or Meryl Streep, but she’s not Kristen Stewart or Tara Reid either.
MCA1
@The Other Chuck: Amen to this. It’s every second-rate, laughtrack, single camera, knockoff, predictable joke, lowest common denominator, unfunny sitcom ever. They try to disguise this and fool the audience by adding two twists, both deplorable: the characters speak a different dialect, which allows people to laugh at intelligence; and the show features a sociopath as the main character. It’s toxic waste.
I look forward to your takedown of “Three And A Half Men.”
Fair Economist
The Oxford Comma is correct because that’s how we speak. The comma indicates a brief pause normally inserted in spoken language to help the listener figure out what’s being said. When people describe two items together it’s said “ham and eggs” with no pause. Three items is said “toast (very short pause) ham (very short pause) and eggs. Try saying “toast (very short pause) and then “ham and eggs” without the pause and it sounds decidedly weird.
The “and”, although it’s the same word, serves a very different conceptual function in a two-item and a three-item list. In a two item list it both starts and ends the list. In a longer list it ends but does not start the list, which is started by the comma (spoken or written).
Brown and liking it
Stana Katic from Castle? Makes me want to tear my hair out
Grover Gardner
Ralph Fiennes.
I’ve enjoyed some of his film performances, but some years ago my partner and I took a very expensive trip to NYC to see him star in her favorite play, THE FAITH HEALER by Brian Friel. What a disaster! There are three acts, each a monolgue by one of the characters. Ralph was first up and ten seconds in I knew were in for a looooooong night. A horribly overwrought, self-indulgent performance. I had never seen the play and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on. Just unforgiveable.
Talk about wanting your money back! The whole trip cost about $800. My partner was furious and spent the train ride home mentally composing a letter:
“Dear Mr. Feinnes,
“Enclosed please find an itemized bill for our expenses…”
Some time later I was recording an audiobook in NYC and during a break my director was chatting with one of this colleagues and happened to mention that a project he was scheduled to do with Fiennes had been cancelled. The other director remarked, “You lucky, lucky man…”
Arachnae
Sometimes you need an oxford comma –
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200760008111800&set=a.1097716412369.2017016.1510400163&type=1&relevant_count=1
tones
I have love3d Doctor Who since the 70’s, also watching on CBC / PBS with Dad.
i have about had it up to here with this new season though, are they trying to finally kill it?
What is with there being kids in very episode?
Look back in time and you find there have almost NEVER been children of any kind in Doctor Who -never!
This season we get the children’s choir in Ankaten, and next up we have bleedin’ “family outing with the doctor as babysitter”?
Moffat, go have some kids and leave the Doctor to those who know why it has always been so popular -don’t go all George Lucas on us.
Have mercy, it is going to be some form of Jar Jar binks next if no one stops him!
Seriously? Clara’s nanny kids are in the next episode , or for the whole rest of the season?
UGH!
Russel T Davies, Terry Nation, et al , where are you when we need you??
virag
eccleston was freekin’ great as the doctor. too bad rtd couldn’t work with him. that ‘u-boat commander’ doctor was easily the most compelling since tom baker.