Friends S8-15 - happy Valentine's day

It must be one of the best moments ever.

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815 "TOW the Birthing Video"

It is St.Valentine's Day, and best-wife-ever Monica Bing has bought sexy underwear for her beloved - and although Ross is embarrassed by the thought of his best friend doing his little sister, he gamely advises Monica on which set to wear!

But while Chandler is waiting for his Valentine to get changed, he discovers a birthing video that Phoebe has borrowed from a friend to lend Rachel - so assuming that it's lesbian porn he pops it into the VCR, only to be freaked out by all the dilating action.

Thus when Monica comes out, even though she is blazing hot, Chandler is too scared to touch her, so the game girl hands over the real porn that she did get him for Valentine's Day!

However, Chandler just isn't interested, so puzzling Monica that his only reply is to hit the play button again; and she is so shocked by the birth process, and all the anguished screams, that she realises why her mother hates her, and won't let Chandler touch her.

When Rachel arrives, Chandler & Monica are so haunted by the video that they freak her out too, but the expectant mother knows that she will actually have to do what it shows - so she bravely begs her two friends not to let her watch the hideous thing all on her own.

Rachel is equally appalled, but as the girls hide their eyes, Chandler sees the baby appear. While Monica is delighted by the little fingers & toes, Chandler points out how happy the mother now is, and so Rachel tells the pair of them to get screwed - they won't have to do it!

Once on her own, Rachel tells herself that she's going to have a baby and she needs to be prepared, so she's going to make herself watch the whole thing. And with that, she mistakenly plays Monica's porn video!

                             ---o0o---

Rachel has now been living with Ross for just over one week, and she assures Joey that it has been good, but oh how boring it is. After she leaves, Phoebe tries to comfort the poor guy, even offering to let him look down her top, but all he can think of is his gut-wrenching pain.

Never daunted, Phoebe borrows some friend's dog to cheer Joey up, but although it's the happiest dog in the world, Joey is not best pleased when it licks his crotch - then when Rachel pops by, she is as cute as a button, leaving Joey so miserable that he totally bums out the dog.

When lovely trusting Mona returns from visiting her parents, Ross is truly delighted to have her back, not least because she seems really interested in all those things which bore Rachel - but when he starts to warn her that his ex-wife has moved in with him, she assumes it's just a big joke, and Mental Geller starts lying to her.

But instead of some romantic meal at a restaurant, Mona unexpectedly decides to cook for Ross at his apartment, only to find the mother of his daughter there. His childish lies are so unconvincing, that Mona confronts Rachel, who immediately tells her the whole truth.

After nice sweet agreeable Mona wrathfully breaks up with him, Ross visits Central Perk where he admits it was all his fault to Joey, who is most sympathetic. But when Ross suddenly wonders why his handsome friend does not have a date for Valentine's, he offers his help.

Joey neatly relates his story by letting Ross think he's in love with a woman at work. After carefully listening, Ross advises that he must go for it, since he's rarely been in love, and if he's worried about another guy, then Joey must talk to him and find out how he feels.

As Ross turns away, to walk out of the coffee house, Joey tells him that it's Rachel, so his best friend freezes in the doorway...

                             ---o0o---

I really enjoyed this episode. The title story could be regarded as yet more filler, but it was packed with great laughs, CCA was hotter than hot, and Matthew Perry was nearer to his form than he has been for ages. Although this pair should have more stories apart, here they did work very well together, with JA providing able support.

But despite all that, Matt LeBlanc & David Schwimmer stole the show with a story which was merely an increment in this saga. LK did the best she can as the friend with a supply of other friends to borrow from, but it was the guys who brought to life what happens in solid friendships when shaken by love & duty. And while I was sad to see Mona depart, the story finished with one of the best moments ever.

                             ---o0o---

So, at last Mona comes to an end, after doing her stint of 6 episodes (or possibly 5 episodes preceded by a guest appearance). She & Ross were a dating couple for 16 weeks, and they knew each other for 22 weeks. That's a lot longer than Ross & Emily were together, in fact Ross & Mona had the most lasting relationship outside the main cast.

And for once it turned out that a recurring character did not have a hitherto unsuspected flaw - maybe she did work at Monica's restaurant as she said! Mona was a lovely woman, both on the outside where it shows & on the inside where it counts. She was sweet & kind to Ross, and she did her best to share his interests, right up until her last episode, where his shabby treatment finally pushed her too far.

                             ---o0o---

Which do you think Monica would look hotter in, the red underwear, or the black underwear? Or do you perhaps prefer white or floral?

And just to prove I'm not shallow, the rest of her was also very lovely, and she was being a beautiful person as well...

That dog was lot nicer than the dreadful muppet that Pheebs had in 708 "TOW Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs", don't you think?

Two dogs, a birthing video, & whatever. Phoebe sure has a lot of friends (that we never see) to lend her stuff, doesn't she?

Isn't Monica a terrific gal? Strippers/hookers, porn, sock bunnies, chocolate cake - nothing is too good for her husband!

But oh, poor Monica the daughter, whose mother still hates her...

Did you get the dirty joke about Chandler putting his hand in between the cushions?

How did Rachel get the porn tape instead of the birthing video?

Finally, after a little bit of Chandler & Joey last week, we had a little bit of Monica & Rachel! It's not much, but it's something.

Wow! Phoebe really knows how to cheer a guy up, doesn't she?

Well, usually... Joey turning her down was a blow for the J+P fans.

Why didn't Phoebe tell Joey what the dog's name was?

Do the Gellers have something against recliners? Since Monica didn't want to have Chandler's barcalounger in her apartment, did Ross insist that Rachel left her La-Z-Boy at Joey's? Or is it a case of how people leave a possession behind because they secretly wish to return?

There have been the inevitable accusations of a continuity error, because Phoebe claimed that she'd never had saltwater taffy, despite being given some by Ryan, in 223 "TOW the Chicken Pox". Well, that is not quite what happened. Phoebe said that he threw in some saltwater taffy because he didn't have any change, but she never said that she ate it. Since she already had a song called "Saltwater Taffy Man", it could that it refers to an earlier incident which had put her off.

Also, did you notice that after her initial surprise, Phoebe actually liked Ross's Saltwater taffy, while Rachel was not keen on it at all, and moaned about having to watch the documentary.

Don't you wish you could see what happened when Mona dumped Ross?

Who is the woman that once dumped Ross during sex?

Over the last few episodes I've complained about Ross behaving like an idiot - but when Joey asked him for relationship advice, Ross was far better at listening carefully & saying what to do than Chandler has been lately. In 804 "TOW the Videotape", Ross told Joey that if he ever had a problem with the ladies then he'd help him out, and at the time Joey had to suppress a laugh, but now it's come true.

But how come Ross can't heat up his own milk?

In 806 "TOW the Halloween Party" Ross begged Joey not to take Mona from him - but what will he say now, when Rachel is at stake?

Was Joey able to tell whether Ross was smiling or frowning from the back of his head, the way he claimed he could in 506 "TOW the Yeti"?

Once again, an intriguing cliffhanger, silently fading to black...

No spoilers PLEASE from anyone who has seen any future episodes.

Tennant Stuart

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

Nothing to add here, it was a funny storyline.

Joey's sadness was starting to get a little annoying to watch, so I'm glad they are moving the storyline along and having him tell Ross and Rachel. The way they captured the scene with Ross and Joey in the end was amazing. Ross was being a good friend offering sincere advice, and you could tell in Joey's responses to Ross how much Ross's friendship meant to him, and how hard he has fallen for Rachel.

Courtney was, how do you say....yummmmmmmmy. :)

I'm not sure Mona is completely finished on the show. I think they would have made a bigger deal of Mona leaving in this episode if she was truly saying goodbye. Even Tag got a proper sendoff by talking to Rachel about her needing to move on and find a more adult relationship. I found to be one of the better guest stars ever on the show, in terms of her comic timing and natural chemistry with Ross. If there ever was a person to be a 7th "friend" on the show, she would seem to be it.

I think she would look hotter in nothing. ;)

I think it's kind of a sad sign that they are already relying on porn tapes to get their spouse in the mood. Usually that doesn't need to be the case in the first year of marriage.

I'm surprised they haven't mentioned the chair yet, because it is the only item in the apartment that belongs to both Joey and Rachel. They made a big deal about the foosball table when Joey moved out in the 2nd season for the same reason.

I always thought there had been scenes this season that foreshadowed what would happen down the road, but I would have never thought that joke in TOW The Videotape where Ross said he would help Joey out with the ladies would actually come true.

In article , [email] (Anonymous) wrote:

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Better than filler?

Oh, I really enjoyed seeing Joey suffer, because MLB was so great.

Absolutely. This was writing based upon emotional truth.

Yes, indeed. Thematically, there was a certain similarity with Rachel's advice to Ross at the end of 504 "TOW Phoebe Hates PBS", where she knew nothing of her own loss should he do her bidding, but it's still valid.

That's right, Paul. There are no going to be any easy answers with this one. I just hope that all the Joey-haters will now look at him anew.

Indeedy. She makes it very hard to argue against C+M stories sometimes.

Well, we didn't actually see Rachel breaking up with Tag, nor did we actually see Ross breaking up with Julie, Bonnie, or Elizabeth.

Yes Paul, I quite agree. She was good for the show, as Richard & Janice were, so different from Tag & Janine who brought it down. Still, Richard, Janice & Tag have all made reappearances, so maybe Mona will too.

Hehe, but I'm afraid that's not an option on *this* show...

Well, don't forget that Monica has always been very easy about porn. She was glad to watch both Joey and 'Phoebe' in their porn videos, and also in 413 "TOW Rachel's Crush" she provided porn for both the boys & girls.

Yeah - well, Joey wasn't planning on coming back... ;)

This is it Paul, the foreshadowing is always there, but it's a helluva lot easier to spot it with the aid of hindsight.

Tennant

I'd agree with that. ;) I know *I* freaked out afterwards..

odd, really. Those Gellers, eh?

It really DID sound like porn!

First she was the best mom ever - cookies and porn, and now she's the best wife ever! ;D

I don't really understand why she'd *want* to watch it, anyway.. even if you weren't as put off by it as they were, it's still not too pleasent to see. And honestly, it's not as though watching it would prepare her much.. she could just ask Phoebe, who seems to be right so far in saying that Rachel wouldn't be able to handle it. Heh.

Eh. I consider Mental Geller to be the yelling Ross. Here, he was just bumbling about, making up stupid lies. In fact, now that I think about it, he reminds me of Jeff, in Coupling.. huh. I love Jeff. ;) I love BBCAmerica..

:( I LIKED Mona.

Sadly, I wouldn't be the best to ask about this. ;) But I thought she looked beautiful in whatever it was she chose. Oddly enough, I didn't notice how nice she looked until she was watching the video in horror..

Gah! No! I mean, this one was utterly adorable, but I thought the other doggy was just as cute. I loved his fur, all floppy. ::gushes::

I'm rather proud to say that I did, in fact, get it. ;D

Ross took the wrong one, didn't he? That's how I saw it. I assumed he just forgot it until the tag scene. So yeah. Took the wrong one, simple mistake.

That is a very good question.

Actually, I wanted to see what was in that pretty present for her. ;)

I nearly screamed. As it was, I sat in shock with my mouth hanging open for the whole commercial break until the tag. I don't know, it's not exactly surprising they ended it that way, but at the moment, logic kinda flies out of your head, and you're left with thoughts like 'NOOOOO!!!! I don't want to wait THREE WEEKS to find out what happens!! ::curses the writer's::'

Erm.. heh. ;) Jaime

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I kept wanting to play it again, over & over...

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Yeah - there was an interesting contrast between how uncomfortable Ross obviously was, and the certainty with which he expressed his opinion.

Yep, although since Cookie was named after her father, Chandler Bing should be feeling a little better about himself...

That's right! And if we include her "little drops of heaven", that's porn and candy and cookies... ;)

Oh for sure, but Rachel doesn't know that - all she knows is that this is not just theoretical to her, it's gonna happen. And Rachel is very brave.

This is true, but I don't know of anything better to call him. Certainly we only saw this bumbling childish fool after Mental Geller appeared. We cannot call him Red Ross, since that persona is a cruel thug.

Oh wow, I'm so glad you are able to watch "Coupling". I'm a huge fan, even though there have only been 15 episodes so far (that's the British system for you, one writer working on his own for many months to turn out just a few superbly crafted episodes) and if you check out the entry for the show on epguides.com you'll see that I've been credited. :)

As for being like Jeff Murdoch, there is a certain similarity, but I do not see that particular variety of Ross coming up with such gems as the Giggle Loop, the Sock Gap, or checking the batteries in her remote; but maybe you're right about the Hebrew word for "breasts"... :)

Me too. I did have a little niggling doubt that maybe she wasn't as nice as she made herself out to be, but that fear turned out to be groundless.

Still, as a Ross & Phoebe fan, I must confess that part of me is okay with Mona's departure, for this leaves a clear path in S9 for R+P...

Really? I guess that was because Monica no longer had the motor switched on, and yet she was *still* very beautiful... :)

Well, she was! She is!

Nah, Clunkers looked artificial, Mozzarella was real.

Hehe, good for you! :)

When did Ross take the tape?

It wasn't before Mona dumped him, because while all that was going on, Rachel crossed the road to find Chandler & Monica watching the birthing video, and Monica was still in her sexy underwear from when she showed the "Cookie & Candy" tape to Chandler.

I know. It's not just a matter of interest, you need to know stuff like that to control the dog.

Ooh, I'm afraid I don't recall seeing that.

Mind you, it must be better than someone I know got - her boyfriend gave her a Viagra tablet. She wasn't best pleased about this.

Yeah, don't you just hate it when you have to wait for the show to finish being recorded, before you can wind it back and watch something again?

I knowww! Damn the Olympic! Damn all the Olympics!

Me too, Jaime :)

Tennant

OH! Sheesh, I had to re-read that about three times before I got what you meant! ;)

HA! Indeed!

How about Bumbling Geller? :)

Really?? Cool! :D Yeah, Sadly, I've only seen all of the second season. I don't know if they ever aired the first one here. Bah!

Hee, yeah, I mainly meant it in the way that when Ross is under stress like that, he tends to babble. Rachel's father showing up, for a BIG example. And the whole Holiday Card thing with Mona.

I loved back in TOW the Holiday Card, his little rhyme. 'This is fun. You look young.'

I read Phoebe as Rachel at first.. 'Huh? I don't remember Tennant liking R/R that much!' heh.. I can't read very well tonight.

I believe you! :) And agree, even.

Nooo! Don't make me pout and whine about this. I'll never quit. ;)

Oh, and some people are saying that they think his name was Muttzarella, which made the name all the more cuter.

I'm always proud when I get the dirty jokes. Heh.

Monica told him to take the birthing tape to his place, I just assumed he took the wrong one.

Really? He came out with it, saying that it was a Valentine gift.. or possibly a good bye gift, once he saw Rachel and Mona's Looks they were throwing him.

Oh good grief. Erm.. romantic. ;P

Heh, after it was over, I ran to my computer to gush about it on a Friends mailing list I'm on. ;)

Ha! ;D

Oh, in a different message, something about the taffy.. I don't know if its the same as toffee for you, because here toffee is different than the taffy. Taffy is reeeeally sticky, and kind of hard at first, but then once you chew it a bit, it gets softer. You know, maybe I'll just copy and paste what a friend said to explain it to someone else. It should make slightly more sense. ;)

It's a chewy candy made with salt water (And like Ross said, it's not actual sea water) and flavored... Like peppermint, cherry, etc. Watermelon is the cutest, because they make it look like real watermelon sometimes, by making it green with a pink inside and black dots.

Ok. Gone now. :) Jaime

"PanickedOz" wrote in message news:[email]...

took

Ross didn't take any tape with him. The porn tape was in the Valentine's gift basket Monica had on the side table by the couch. She took it out of its case and then put it down on the coffee table when Chandler told her why he wasn't in a sexy mood. They ended up watching the birthing video together, and after Rachel joined them (for Chandler's third viewing and Monica's second), she (Rachel) must have grabbed the wrong one from the coffee table.

Belphoebe

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

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Grin. Did you work out that I was referring to Muriel, or Chandler Buffay?

Ah, you do get my jokes. :)

That's not bad, Jaime. Do you think it might catch on?

I'm sure they would've done. You must keep out your eyes & ears for a rerun of the first season, it is very good. Also, try to find a sitcom named "Joking Apart", also written by the brilliant Steven Moffat.

Yes, that's right. He would have lost Mona, if it hadn't been for Rachel who was a very good friend. But in the end, would Ross have lost Mona anyway, whether he lied to her or not?

Yeah. It's so sad that Mona was someone who would take an interest in anything he said or did, even if she didn't feel so at first. And she immediately got his Spudnik costume.

Awww... you should have seen me in the early days, quite the R+R fan, though I had reservations about the lobster thing, and hugely enjoyed what the other four did as well, especially Monica. What changed it all for me was the barbershop quartet.

Thanks.

Okay. BTW, Clunkers was female (I shan't say 'bitch').

Oh! That would be a typical Joey joke.

Does it indeed sound as though Matt LeBlanc says "Muttzarella"?

Oh me too. I didn't start watching the show until the second episode, and so near the start of 102 "TOW the Sonogram at the End" I laughed my arse off when Rachel innocently asked if anybody had seen her ring, and Phoebe flatly remarked that it was beautiful.

When? There was a moment earlier on when Phoebe said something like that, but that was well before Monica took the real porn out of her basket.

Oh.

Exactly. And it's not as though she has a penis or he was old enough to need one (they're in their 20s). He spent the night on the sofa.

Oh, what's that?

According to an article in The Guardian (a British newspaper) the Olympics is just 38 forms of sliding.

Oh, "reeeeally sticky, and kind of hard at first, but then once you chew it a bit, it gets softer" sounds just like toffee to me.

What do you call toffee, then?

Oh, is the difference just the colour? We have other chewy sweets as well, but only the brown or black varieties are called toffee here.

Byeee!

Tennant

So what do you call the demented AND thuggish Ross ... you know, the one with the crazy look in his eyes and his hair standing on end, all riled up and attacking people for no apparent reason, as in TOW Unagi? Surely this Ross must have a name, too. (<sigh> I'm quite fond of Ross in any hue and mental status, but at times I do miss the adorable puppy from the early seaons.) Anyway, just trying to learn to lingo around here ... all guidance appreciated.

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

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I don't know, Rollie. The "Red Ross" and "Mental Geller" names came from actual episodes, but anything else we're just making up as we go along.

Well, we called him "Sane Ross", when he started behaving quite normally again in 709 "TOW All the Candy" and some other episodes, but sadly that has been all too rare. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart":

I had a dream last night -- when you start dreaming about a TV show you should consider getting a life of your own -- where 816 starts with Joey saying "Just kiddin', dude!". That would be awful.

Is that weeks taken by airing date or by counting 1 week/episode?

She was just *too* perfect for Ross. I don't think you can be together very long with someone who dislikes so few things about you. It's the (little) differences that spice up a relationship.

Even I got it. Dirty me.

The world's happiest dog needs no name. It's a well known psychological trick, too. And it was Rufus if you'd ask me.

There isn't that much space left in R&R's living room. Also, if you remember the drama getting Ross' couch up there then you possibly get a clue why the seat stays at Joey's.

What exactly is saltwater taffy? I thought it was 'toffee' / 'toffy' as me and my dictionary don't know 'taffy'. And why saltwater?

All the yelling and screaming? No. I liked the Mona, Ross & Dr. Green scene and think it's greatness comes from the director of that episode: David Schwimmer.

Either we don't know her or it's Rachel after he told her he'd fallen asleep reading her letter etc. [401].

Oh, I thought it to be quite normal Americans being that dependent. ;) And Bourbon? Sorry folks, that took Ross 50% of his sympathy points.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

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Hehe. Does that mean that if you have a dream about real life, then you should start watching more TV shows?

Neither.

They met at the wedding near September 15th, began dating on about October 25th, and broke up on Valentine's day.

You may think she was too perfect for Ross, but did Ross think she was too perfect for Ross?

Hehe.

Why Rufus?

Good point.

Ah, very good point. The La-Z-Boy would be easier to get up the stairs than the couch was, but it would be a case of once bitten twice shy.

I believe that taffy is what we call toffee, and I suppose that it's cooked with salt instead of sugar, to make it into a savoury treat.

Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but the director of this episode was none other than Kevin S. Bright, who's the B in BKC.

Well, they were in bed together, and we might suppose that Ross was gathering himself for a repeat performance when Rachel congratulated him on gaining perspective, so that might just count as during sex.

I suppose his dear sweet kind mother always did that for him.

Awww, Christoph. Adding some Bourbon to his milk might lose him some sympathy points, but feeling the need to *pretend* that he would do that ought to add some sympathy points on.

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart":

I think my second sentence above is a basic rule. In real life as well as for fiction authors.

No particular reason

Salt _instead_ of sugar? Americans ain't that silly.

"808 TOW the Stripper" Are you sure? I usually don't care about the director, but in this case I'm pretty sure it was DS. I couldn't find an episode list containing this information adhoc and don't have the file in reach neither.

Yes indeed, but it's still a loss. I expected some educated guy who once was married to a British girl to have at least a bit of taste concerning alcoholic beverages. Guess what, I fear most Americans believe not only Bourbon was Whisk[e]y, but Budweiser etc. was beer. The original Czech Budweiser is drinkable, though.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

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Oh dear. So was that Mona's mistake, then?

If she had been less agreeable, Ross would have respected her more?

Oh.

I was going to say that salt *and* sugar would be even sillier, but then I remembered that ice cream has a huge amount of salt in it.

No, by "this episode", I meant the episode which we are currently discussing, 815 "TOW the Birthing Video".

Click on http://www.friends-tv.org/faq.html for all you need to know.

Oh, I see. Maybe Ross is not a whiskey drinker then, I'm not.

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart":

You're not responsible for your character. In RL your surrounding is, in TV the authors are.

The authors would have found another way to kick her out. But yes, I think one, Ross doesn't always qualify as 'one', is more interested in somebody who disagrees at times, at least in long range.

Well, we misunderstood each other then. I meant "that episode". There's non Dr. Green in 815, who doesn't appear very often, thus I didn't explicitly give the episode number or title.

Actually I had their epshort.html open in my browser, which doesn't contain such information. If I were smart, I'd found it myself there. According to IMDb Jennifer Aniston directed Friends either, but she's not listed in the FAQ.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

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Yes, but in the context of the story, was that Mona's mistake?

Yeah. I think that part of the problem is that if someone agrees with you all of the time, you begin to suspect they're not being sincere.

Okay, we were a bit at cross-purposes. :)

That's because she hasn't directed an episode yet. My contact tells me that she is slated for the first half of the season finale.

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart":

[Ross & Monica's break-up]

It was nobody's mistake. That relationship was just doomed from throughout the beginning.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

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Never mind.

Tennant

Not to play at being an interpreter of American culture (again), but ...

Ross probably said bourbon not because of liking or disliking it -- let alone any opinion on its whiskeyish nature --- but rather because bourbon-drinking has a vaguely macho image. When I saw this scene, I assumed that he was embarrassed at being seen by he-man Joey ordering a wimpy drink like warm milk, so he threw in the line about adding bourbon to make himself seem more manly. In sitcom land, this makes sense. :-) Another interpretation that just occurred to me is that he meant the bourbon line ironically, as in "see what a macho man I am? ha ha." The latter is perhaps more in character for Ross.

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

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Yes, I quite agree - except that a *real* he-man can order milk, and not worry about it. :)

Oh, actually I agree with that too! And maybe that's because the two interpretations are not in conflict, for Ross could be doing both.

Tennant

"Christoph P�per" wrote

You must be using a British dictionary -- not that there's anything wrong with that. Taffy is a very sweet, very chewy confection made of sugar syrup and flavorings, with saltwater taffy being a variation on this theme. It comes in little balls or tubes, wrapped in waxed paper and cellophane, and comes in a variety of flavors -- vanilla, chocolate, lemon, lime, banana, mint, etc. My personal favorite is molasses (that would be "treacle" in your dictionary) mmmm ... yummy! The "saltwater" appellation comes from the fact that salt is added to the water used to make the syrup (but not seawater, as Ross pointed out). It has a consistency roughly like that of very stiff chewing gum, except that, being about 99% sugar, it dissolves in your mouth as you chew.

Saltwater taffy originated in Atlantic City, became popular in similar beach towns, and remains closely associated with East Coast seaside resorts. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen it sold anywhere else. For people who grew up in the Northeast, like me -- or Ross Geller :-) -- it has a very close association with childhood summer vacations spent at the beach.

It is usually sold in one-pound boxes, and the box of taffy in this ep looked like the real thing ... Fralinger's, I think, a classic Atlantic City brand.

No doubt that's way, way more than you wanted to know, isn't it? And I didn't even watch the special on the Discovery Channel with Ross and Rachel. Scary, eh?

Ok, so Tennant? Use this explanation, not the tacky one I gave. ;)

Heh. Jaime

In article , [email] (PanickedOz) wrote:

No worries.

Tennant

"Rollie Essex":

No, it's English - German (and vice versa). ;) It's normally quite complete, except for some technical terms, idiomatic expressions [just looked up that one] and slang.

I think I can imagine it, by combining the starting consistence of caramel and the softiness of sweets I know (but you won't) with artificial flavors.

I'm always glad to understand other cultures better, although most people actually dispute the US to have one.

Christoph - Milchschnitte, Maoam und Gummib�rchen

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

Slices of milk, ???, and little rubber bears?

Tennant (ich spreche nur ein bi�chen)

"Tennant Stuart":

These are the foods my cousin missed the most when she was au pair for a year in Minnesota. "Milchschnitte" is milk cream between two brown slices IIRC made of honey, cocoa, sugar and flour. The word can also be used to describe a hot chick. "Maoam", "Mamba" and Fritt are a bit like chewing gum, but fruit flavored, bigger and eatable. "Gummib�rchen" is vulgo for "Haribo Goldb�ren", it's available abroad: "Haribo Goldbears" in the UK, "Haribo Gold-Bears" in the US, but it seems as if you cannot find them everywhere. What I would miss the most if I'd to stay longer abroad was "Malzbier" (malt beer), the better root beer.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

LOL

Ahhhhhh.......

Oh, so I was quite close, then! :)

Being British, what I miss most is that you can't get a decent cup of tea (though these days we mostly have big mugs of tea).

Ummm... something like...

"I am the Boss. I say when whosoever meets their deaths, and I must go." Angel (Angel - Hunter of the Darkness)

..is that a Buffy thing?

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart":

In the states you'd get free refill at least. If you ever come to Germany again, you should go to Ostfriesland (the western North Sea coast area of Lower Saxony) then. There are Germany's tea lovers.

You forget the "wie".

Yes, yet I don't know if the spin-off with Angel has some subtitle originally. Or is it really "Hunter of the Darkness"?. I considered removing that one from my random .sig, because it's a lot funnier when watching it -- the Buffy/Angel dubbing is actually much better than Friends'.

Christoph

"Christoph P�per" wrote in message news:a4rta4$rsu$[email]...

Trouble with Friends dubbing is: - Out of the roundabout 80 million people living in Germany, they probably chose the six with the dumbest voices - There's a lot of stuff in Friends you just cant translate, no matter how good your voiceover people are. There's one scene that sticks out to me, somewhere in the first season: Chandler: you guys all have plans, you guys all have dreams - i dont have dreams Ross: Oh, its the lesser known "I dont have a dream" speech

you just cannot translate that. Also from the episode where Monica "fires" Joey and she makes all the people bring her the stuff she wants it goes something like: Monica: you get the *whatever*fish, (...), you - get a haircut. The actual german dubbing is: Monica: "Hol den *sonstwas*Fisch, (...), und du - geh zum Friseur.

So though they presumably do their best with this, they are bound to fail....

Andre

"Andr� Knoche":

Especially Ross'. Today's episode (604) was extremely stupid: Ross' British accent when he becomes a professor was just replaced by some weird voice.

[examples snipped]

My 'favourite' is when Joey searches for a new, female room mate and does the final test:

... "Doggy!" - "Kitten!" ...
... "H�ndchen!" - "K�tzchen!" ...

Altavista's Babelfish couldn't do it worse.

Christoph

In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:

Oh, for sure we get free refills too, but by "decent" what I mean is that when abroad, the tea doesn't taste as good. If it's any comfort, the tea in Germany is much better than the tea is in London.

Oops. "I say when & how, whosoever meets their deaths".

Not that I'm aware of, and there's nothing in the IMDb about it.

But when watching TV, I've often noticed that titles acquire an extra bit that wasn't there in the original.

You should listen to the French soundtrack on the DVDs, it's weird.

Tennant

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

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And you're using an American dictionary. :)

Thanks. I have an *English* dictionary, and it defines 'taffy' as either flattery or a Welshman.

So is it sweet or is it savoury or is it both...

PHOEBE: What the mother of crap is up with this stuff? God, is it gum, is it food, what's the deal?!! Oh, it's nice. May I try a pink one?

Oh, now that is *very* interesting. Mona comes from Atlantic City, so did Ross associate her with childhood summer vacations at the beach?

Ooh, do Fralinger's have a web site?

Oh no Rollie, when you've read more of my reviews, you'll know that no detail is too scary to escape my attention. Thankyou very much. :)

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

Essex"

Saltwater taffy is always sweet. Very, very sweet. Never savory, or even savoury. :-) I think the salt concept is throwing you off a bit here, but in fact the stuff does not TASTE particularly salty, it just has salt in it. The "saltwater" in the name has stuck -- just like taffy sticks to dental bridgework -- because the candy is so closely associated with the seashore, not because of its taste.

And, by the way, we call toffee "toffee," as far as I know. In this country, toffee is harder than taffy, has a slightly more pungent -- although still quite sweet -- taste, and always has a butterscotch-y flavor. Taffy is more pliable, slightly granular, and never tastes of butter because there isn't any butter in it. Toffee isn't very common in the US, but it is available. Logically enough, it tends to be thought of as "British," although its consumption is not limited to Anglophiles.

Well, most likely not in a literal sense. Anything is possible in TV land, but in RL, a family like the Gellers would have been very unlikely to take vacations in Atlantic City in the '70s and '80s, or now, for that matter. It hasn't been a "family" resort for a couple of generations.

In a nutshell, AC used to be the premier East Coast middle-class resort town. My parents went there as children, and Ross and Monica's parents might well have done the same. However, the town hit very hard times in the '50s and '60s, with large parts of it becoming virtually a slum. The casinos have revived tourism, but not of the same type as before, and even today, once you're more than a few blocks from the boardwalk, much of AC is rather dodgy. (Did I use "dodgy" right? I mean unsafe and crummy.) A British guy I know once compared it to Brighton. Does this seem to fit?

On the other hand, just to be clear, saltwater taffy is sold in all the resort towns along the Eastern seaboard, although it is most closely associated with the boardwalk culture of the New Jersey shore, where AC is located. There are lots of other resorts along this stretch of coast, many of which would have been quite logical places for the Gellers to take their vacations, so I suppose Mona's AC origins could have a nostalgic association for Ross.

I dunno. Let's go see ... <tick tock> ... why, yes, they do:

http://www.fralingers.com/

Oh oh. This could be a problem because I am quite nerdy and know a lot of silly details, as I have already amply demonstrated. :)

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

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Oh. So how do you account for Phoebe's reaction?

PHOEBE: What the mother of crap is up with this stuff!! God, is it gum, is it food, what's the deal?!! (chews some more) Oh, it's nice.

When she asked "is it food" she made me think SWT was savoury.

Ah, okay. Come to think of it, ice-cream has a lot of salt in it.

That's very interesting. I've always assumed that "taffy" was American for "toffee", but now I know we agree on what "toffee" is. What you guys refer to as "taffy" is just called "chewy sweets" over here; there is no special word for it, as far as I know. Sweets are what you call candy.

Oh dear, bad as that?

Not quite, given the context. "Dodgy" can mean unsafe, but it also has connotations of sleaziness - so when you're talking about a town that's hit hard times, it sounds more like a red light district - sex & drugs.

Erp, I've never been to Brighton, so I don't know. I would have thought it was rather genteel, but maybe that's an assumption that came from my parents, like AC & the Gellers. Maybe Southend or Blackpool... <ducks>

Yep, that makes sense.

Ooh, ta.

Okay, can you track down the hotel where Chandler & Monica were wed? We were hoping it was The Plaza, but we were wrong. There's a good shot of it just after the opening titles in 802 "TOW the Red Sweater".

Tennant

Essex"

Ah, well, then I did use the word wrong, because -- to the best of my knowledge -- Atlantic City has no red light district. Las Vegas is far more "sinful" in that sense, along with being much bigger and much richer. (I'm basing this entirely on hearsay, of course, as I myself would never dream of seeking out such disreputable entertainments. :-) Away from the Boardwalk, casinos, and hotels, AC is mostly just run-down neighborhoods and empty lots.

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

Hmmm... are you a boy or a girl, Rollie?

That doesn't sound very nice...

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

Essex"

A boy, albeit a rather middle-aged one.

By and large, away from the casinos, it isn't. Some of the hotels are quite fun, though, in a gaudy way, and, because it's the only major gambling destination on the East Coast (not counting a few Indian -- that is, Native American -- casinos scattered here and there) it draws an amazing mix of people.

In article , "Rollie Essex" wrote:

Ah. I must confess that out of ignorance I thought that "Rollie" was a girl's name - sorry - but then you suddenly sounded like a man. :)

Ah. We have a resort in England named Blackpool, which has plans to become the Las Vegas of Europe, but I fear it will end up like Atlantic City.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

I think that this statement is misleading. Rachel did want to eat the taffey she said so when Ross asked her what she had planned for Valentines. She just didn't want to hear about how it was made again. Non of the friends want to hear hear his stories! But it does tell you how much Rachel has grown that she is willing to watch what Ross wants to watch. She may not like it but shows her willingness to let others just be.

In article , "Trigger" wrote:

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It seems to me that Rachel was being sarcastic when she said that.

Rachel has grown tremendously throughout the series, and I admire her enormously for that, but she was only willing to watch the documentary because she was living at Ross's. She was still bored by it.

As for none of the friends wanting to hear Ross's stories, four of them never do, but Phoebe will sometimes listen to him - as long as none of the others are around to catch her doing it.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

"Trigger"

I don't think that she was being sarcastic. She is pregnant and wanted to eat the rest of his taffey. Why is this so hard to believe. She was sick of hearing how it was made but seemed very keen on eating it!

In article , "Trigger" wrote:

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Well Sarah, sarcastic is how her words sound to me.

Ross asked her what she was up to that night, and she told him that she had big Valentine's plans. She'd got her Chinese food on the way - and the rest of his saltwater taffy. It's not just her tone of voice, but how she emphasised the quantity that was left, and that it was his.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

"Trigger"

I would be bored by it too!!! At least Rachel was being honest.

This is true

In article , "Trigger" wrote:

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Yes, she was being honest. Rachel has been quite deceitful on occasion in the past, but the life growing inside her makes a big difference.

More than once this season, Rachel saved Ross's relationship with Mona with her openness & honesty - and if only he had brought Mona & Rachel together in the decision-making process about how best to look after the well-being of his daughter, that relationship might be stronger now, instead of over.

Thanks. :)

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

Absolutely. A heart-stopping, jaw-dropping moment where many people wished that Salt Lake City never had got the Olympics..

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You could literally see Ross turning green (no pun intended) in this scene. But he handled it well without any hints of going Mental.

See, this is why I suggested "The Bing Webring" in another thread (812). ;) Even after being married for about five months, Chandler is still interested in porn..

..and while that was perhaps not that surprising given his past in apartment #19, it was rather shocking to see that Monica actually gave him porn for Valentine's day. Is this really the woman who everybody (including me) complained about in season 6 and early season 8? Is this the woman who was angry because she was "just someone's wife"?

On a side note; Monica had certainly decorated their apartment beautifully for their Valentine's dinner. Red pillows and decorations were all over the place.

Chandler's facial expression was priceless, and his tale about his father and his tequila adventures with the houseboy just added to the long list of Bing-nightmares (no wonder Nora thought they had messed him up so much that he would never recover).

And you have to feel sorry for Monica when she talks about her mom, but there's more to their relationship than the birth.. Judy gave birth to Ross as well now, didn't she?

BTW, you'd think that Monica had considered this aspect of birth when she dreamed of having a baby.

Wasn't it nice to see these three together again? Good thing that Monica agreed to watch the video together with Rachel.

Such a funny scene! "Did her ass explode?" Lol!!

Chandler seemed very sincere when he talked about the mom and the baby after the birth, and the same goes for Monica. The Chandler who got freaked out by Carol breastfeeding in 202 TOW The Breast Milk would never have reacted that way, but Chandler has changed, and I think he's ready to have babies soon. :)

Phoebe didn't need porn when she was pregnant in 413 TOW Rachel's Crush, but Rachel obviously didn't think it was hard to watch the video...

Of course it's boring! No wet paper towel fights, no DOOL marathons, no recliners, not nearly as many pizzas and sandwiches.... ;)

I'm not surprised that Phoebe said he could look down her top, though, since we already know she lets him check her underwear (722 TOW Chandler's Dad). But the fact that he declined showed us how much Joey has grown since last spring. (His growing process started earlier than that, but in this case it's easy to point out the difference between 722 and 815.)

Too bad Joey doesn't know about Gunther's crush on Rachel as Gunther would have been able to give him a tip or two about how to cope with it.

It was sad to watch Joey as he talked to both Gunther and the dog about how he loved her, but he knew nothing could ever happen between them.

When Rachel showed up, he had this weird expression on his face, and he seemed a bit uncomfortable around her. I just hope their friendship isn't ruined by this, and that things won't get awkward when Rachel finds out about his feelings.

Rachel must be blind when it comes to men's affections. First she doesn't realise that Ross has had a crush on her for about a decade, then she's oblivious to Joshua's feelings (although that was understandable), and now she has no idea that Joey is in love with her. The way he looked at her when she was patting the dog was so revealing.. Aww..

Ugh, I know. Why does he keep lying like this? He has obviously told Mona about all his ex-wives, so why couldn't he tell her about this right away? If he had talked to Mona before Rachel moved in, they might have been able to figure something out. After all, she was obviously fine with him having a baby since she bought that fossils-t-shirt.

The rule is: You never show up unexpectedly with a picnic basket. It never ends well. Ross should have told Mona about this rule.

Isn't it weird how Mental Geller can disappear in an instant? Ross was such a great friend in this scene. I found it a bit weird that Joey seemed to think it was easier to talk about his problems with Ross than with Chandler, though. He could barely get a word out when he wanted Chandler's help in 813 TOW Chandler Takes A Bath, and here he was with the father of the baby Rachel's carrying, and he agreed to talk about his problems. Joey and Chandler aren't as close as they once were. Joey and Rachel are the new "Joey and Chandler" now.. But how close will they be after all is revealed?

The strange thing is that this is the exact same advice that Ross gave to Chandler when he was falling in love with Kathy in 407 TOW Chandler Crosses The Line, and Joey is following his advice more than four years later. But Joey hasn't hit on Rachel or kissed her, so Ross really has no reason to be angry with him for his feelings.

I wonder how many Friends-fans that yelled "noooooo" when the closing credits showed up? Thank goodness the events in Salt Lake City are exciting. :)

Yes, it was a really good episode, and the Chandler and Monica story was hilarious. I don't mind seeing them together when they have funny scenes like we saw in this eppy. They were actually the funniest people in the entire episode.

MLB is still in stories where he needs to be dramatic and sad, and I don't mind that at all. (BTW, did you hear that he's being called Mopey Joey now?) It's perfectly understandable IMO. Ross was dangerously close to going Mental in the scene with Rachel and Mona, but his last scene with Joey made up for everything he did earlier in the episode. Those last few seconds were just amazing...

And it was good to see Phoebe using her mother's suicide in a rather serious context for once. Phoebe (deadpan): Well, my mother was too busy planning her suicide to provide saltwater treats. The way she used it in 715 TOW Joey's New Brain was just bizarre..

Which proves that if the writers want to give for instance Phoebe a love interest in season 9, they don't have to show the guy in every episode.

Yes, she seemed really nice and caring. In fact, I've always liked her, although it did seem rather weird that she was so incredibly understanding about Rachel and the baby given Ross's dating resume.

Lol. That's a question for the guys here..

RPGOL!! BOC...

Yes, and much cuter than Phoebe's puppy in 411 TOW Phoebe's Uterus.

Perhaps they're her clients?

Yes, she's willing to do everything for him nowadays.

I know. And I thought she liked Monica more now that she's married.

Hehe. I did. Better put that one in the thread over at angel's friends, huh?

She obviously must have returned to Monica and Chandler's after she left and taken the wrong tape then.

Yes. It's not enough, but it's a nice change from all the R/J/R drama. Not that I'm complaining about the R/J/R saga, though. :)

Looks like it. Although I'd rather see her and Joey doing a duet (like she and Chandler did in the tag scene in 308 TOW The Giant Poking Device).

Yes, that seemed to be more about friendship than love. In fact, I don't really see the J&P thing happening at all now that Joey loves Rachel.

Because she has read your reviews where you wish you knew all the characters' names and decided to tease you? ;)

Could be the latter, or it could be that Rachel saw that Joey was disappointed that she left, so she gave him the chair as a "thank you for being such a good roommate."

Could be.

A documentary about saltwater taffy sounds really dull, so I don't blame Rachel for not being too excited about it.

Yes! But then again, if that means more Mental Geller, then I'd rather not.

Well, it can't be Carol, Julie, Rachel or Emily. He was the one who dumped Bonnie, Cheryl and Elizabeth, so it can't be any of them either. I think it must be one of the girls we've only seen in one episode or so.

Yep, and as I said earlier, Joey agreed to tell Ross about his problems faster than he did with Chandler. And all Chandler did in 814 TOW The Secret Closet was basically pointing out how inappropriate his feelings were. Be that as it may, it wasn't exactly helping Joey.

Well, he better learn how to heat up milk before the baby comes!

That depends on whether Sane Geller or Mental Geller will turn around to talk to Joey in Central Perk.

Well, Joey wasn't looking at Ross this time around.

I know! Don't you just love it? :)

And no matter how people feel about Joey & Rachel/Ross & Rachel/ Rachel & someone else, it has certainly generated a new and fantastic interest in the show. Now all we need is a decent storyline for Phoebe (and a new hairdo), and the show will be even better than it is at the moment.

This episode proves that you don't need fancy guest-stars in order to create sweeps-material. NBC aired this episode on the same night as the Matt Damon episode of Will & Grace and a *very* dramatic episode of ER, and Friends was still the show everybody wanted to watch. That says something about how people are feeling about the R/J/R saga. Thankfully, it is not over yet, and it doesn't look like it will end any time soon either.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Damn the Olympic! Damn all the Olympics!! j/k

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Yes, and it was so great that he gave Monica a straight answer.

Lol!

Yes, this could prove me wrong, since I've said that Monica is all the porn he needs. But maybe the point is that they act out the video...

I initially reacted badly to this, since it would be awful for Chandler to give Monica porn for Valentine's day, or indeed some sexy underwear, but a millisecond later I realised that it was the other way round.

Well, she did give Joey & Ross porn in 413 "TOW Rachel's Crush".

Like I keep saying, that didn't come over properly, she was meant to be pouting. Look at how Chandler smoothed her ruffled feathers.

I assumed that those, especially the giant heart, were from Chandler.

BTW, everybody knows that a real heart looks nothing like the heart symbol; but few realise that it's a fertility symbol, representing a very different part of the anatomy...

Exactly. We must compile such a list one day.

Like my sister said after her oldest was born, "never again".

If women considered this aspect of birth we'd be extinct by now.

Absolutely. It was a bit off the way Rachel invaded the Bings' Valentine's night, but it was worth it to see her with Monica.

Yes, and a brilliant line which JA delivered superbly well.

Exactly. Chandler *learned* that breastfeeding was okay in 202.

Bow-chicka-bow-wow...

And no horror movies, to watch while cuddling under a blanket...

Yep, while she & Rachel invented the breasts sandwich in 704.

Absolutely.

Awwwww... can you imagine Joey turning down a proposal of marriage from Rachel, then Gunther screaming out him "YOU IDIOT!!!!!"?

Yeah. When he talked to Gunther, it seemed to me the script defused Joey's outburst with that joke at the end, since he should have been off his food. But by the by, what sort of bagels did Gunther have?

Well maybe, but if you were a guy you'd have noticed how Rachel (unconsciously I'm sure) had left her motor running.

Not according to the pilot...

ROSS: You know you probably didn't know this, but back in high school,
      I had a, um, major crush on you.
RACHEL: I knew.
ROSS: You did! Oh... I always figured you just thought I was Monica's
      geeky older brother.
RACHEL: I did.
ROSS: Oh. Listen, do you think it would be okay if I asked you out?
      Sometime? Maybe?
RACHEL: Yeah, maybe...
ROSS: Okay... okay, maybe I will.

..but Ross didn't, which must have sent her the wrong signals.

And also peculiar, since she had a crush on him. In the cute driver's licence scene at the end of 413, she acted out Joshua coming on to her in the voice of Joey asking "How you doin'?"

Well, yes...

Absolutely.

He started lying because she laughed, but she laughed because he was pushing his answer at her, not asking her a question.

Yeah, but that T-shirt was a bit "you & me" not "you daddy".

Lol, this is so true. And with Phoebe, the rule is no picnics at all, since she'll either catch chicken pox or go into labour...

Indeedy. People put these mood swings down to inconsistent writing, and if he was sane in some episodes and insane in others, they would have a good point. But we see Ross be both in the same five minutes.

It's like Joey being sometimes smart, and sometimes dumb. Dumb people cannot pretend to be smart, so either Joey is smart pretending to be dumb, or it's inconsistent writing. But we see him be both in the one episode, and occasionally we even see him actually drop his act.

Is Monica a neat freak or not? She seems to like things clean, but her apartment is a jumble of styles, garish colours and bric-a-brac. Where are the white walls, clean lines, the one minimalist ornament placed exactly 61.8% of the way along an otherwise empty shelf?

Is Phoebe ditzy or manipulative? Is Rachel a little princess or a big slob? Is Chandler a great lover or an effeminate pervert?

Yeah, a bit. But by this point Joey was a lot more desperate, and Ross cornered him. Plus this was the caring sensitive Ross who pays attention to the other person, and he had his intelligence switched on. Despite maintaining that Joey is smart, it's worth pointing out that Ross is a lot smarter, possibly second only to Phoebe.

This was after Joey have spent Tuesday night thinking things through, and working out that Rachel was just his friend. Then he takes one look at her and realises that he's in enormous trouble. No wonder he struggled to express himself. But Chandler didn't help at all. I so wish we could have seen how Joey tried to talk to Monica.

Exactly, as we discussed at great length last year. :)

Beats me, babe.

Ooh, good point about the similarity to 407, I'd forgotten that. You're right about the difference as well, it's so great to see the writers finding these untrodden paths to follow.

I was stunned, but as you know I'm quite patient, and love to be teased like this as long as it's well-intentioned. It's so much better than all those predictable second-class dramas & third rate sitcoms.

And this moment made being a spoiler virgin *so* worthwhile... :)

Yaaaaawwwwnnnnn, not for me.

As an article in "The Guardian" newspaper put it, 38 forms of sliding.

Indeedy.

This is when they should be together, just not in some other episodes.

Jeg ogs�.

I can see why, but I think that MLB puts plenty of light & shade into his performance. Joey doesn't simply have mopiness all on one level.

Yep. The middle of Season Three is a minefield since the writing simply refused to come right out and say who was in the wrong "at first you're really mad at that pharmaceutical company for making the drug and then you just feel bad for the people because they needed to make their hair grow" but here the writing is very clear - both Ross & Joey, and also Rachel, are in the right. As far as each other are concerned, they are all doing the best thing, but they have just run out of road...

Absolutely, but let's not forget 806 "TOW the Halloween Party"...

ERIC: Oh my God, you're the sister! PHOEBE: Yeah. ERIC: Okay, I just slapped my future sister-in-law's ass. PHOEBE: Yeah. ERIC: I'm an idiot. Uh, is your mother here? Maybe I can give her a little slap on the butt. PHOEBE: (deadpan) My mother killed herself.

Yeah, but Rachel was on-board with that, rationing her to once per day.

Indeed not, but an absence of 146 episodes is a bit lengthy... ;)

Well, she wobbled about Rachel a few times, but it was Rachel who went the extra mile to keep Mona informed. She'd probably still be with Ross if he hadn't been so daft as to cut her out of the loop.

At the moment the majority is agreeing with Ross. :)

Thanks. :)

Ewwww, that wriggly little thing? I'd forgotten about that.

Gosh! I hadn't thought of that. Do you suppose she refers to her clients as friends, or does she befriend her clients?

Now we know why he likes maintaining her...

But does Monica know that?

I can't, because I understand it.

It must be something like that, for the episode doesn't cover it.

Absolutely.

Awww, yes. And maybe Monica could let him beat her at Foosball.

Oh, it was more about friendship than love. But if there had been any possibility of a flicker of anything more, he'd have looked.

Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!! I'm doomed!

I'm still sulking that we never heard what Mona's surname was - and that we have now heard "Rachel Karen Green" in *four* episodes, yet we still do not know what Monica's "E" stands for! :(

Ohhhh... she is *so* kind to him... <sniff>

Okay.

Maybe, but it seems to me that Ross manages to make quite interesting subjects sound boring. He's lucky to have Phoebe, who will sometimes listen to him; especially now he's lost Mona, who just pretended.

JO, but I'm thinking that was more about Mona living up to her name.

Why not Rachel in 401? It depends on what "during sex" means.

Agreed, (assuming you mean Elizabeth Stevens).

Okay, here's an unjudged assortment...

114 Kristin Riggs 115 Celia 315 Chloe 322 Cailin 405 Amanda 406 Cheryl 410 Miss Nova Scotia 410 Miss Poughkeepsie 410 Miss Uptown NY 511 Elizabeth Hornswoggle 512 Janice 517 Jen 519 Caitlin 608 Hillary 614 Jill Green 705 Whitney 707 Diaz lookalike 717 Kristen Lang 804 Kristen #3

Exactly. To look at this from a writing point of view, maybe Chandler was made to be a bit dumb, to set Joey & Ross up for this scene.

Ooh! Good point!

Eep.

Ah... hadn't thought of that.

Yessss!!!

Absolutely, with a dash of RPGOL for the hairdo bit.

Indeedy.

I saw the Matt Damon one, and it wasn't anywhere near as okay as the Rosie O'Donnell episode was, even if Maggie Wheeler had only 2 lines.

Oh, for sure, since I am so loving this. S8 rocks! And gosho thanko Marita, you take my breath away with the breadth of your replies.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

No, no!! I love the Olympics! Norway so rules in the winter olympics! Funny how patriotic you get when you're on the other side of the globe..

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this

And most people seem to think it was the correct answer as well.

It fits! :) And the best thing is that Monica wouldn't be bothered by it at all.

the

Lol! It probably works that way.

Chandler

underwear,

Yes, thankfully, he hasn't given her what Joey suggested (crotchless panties) yet.

about

Yes, but she was so subdued in season 4 that she would do practically anything to please her friends. Even her voice was weak and hoarse in that season.

wife"?

Hm. Still not agreeing, sorry. :)

decorations

Well, he brought her flowers, so I thought Monica had decorated the apartment. Perhaps she had the decorations in her (not so) secret closet?

I know what you're referring to, don't worry. :)

the

messed

Something to do while the show is on hiatus.

My mother used to tell me that if she could have given birth to more children, she would have done so in an instant. She has been through worse things, so I believe her. :)

when

Lol.

Valentine's

Yes, and they seemed happy to get interrupted!

Absolutely. Mind you, a website about the show has this written down as, "Did her eyes explode?" Don't know how they decided that she said that, though.

baby

But he didn't seem really comfortable with it, not even after Joey asked Carol about the wonders that are breastfeeding.

Yep, and she thought Joshua didn't like it!

marathons,

I know.. Ross might want to watch some movies together with her though, and as long as he stays away from the Discovery channel, they might have a good time. They seemed to enjoy themselves in 611 until Phoebe knocked over the wineglass.

Grin. That cheered him up.

Gunther

with

We need more from Gunther!

Red bagels. My guess is that they're strawberry bagels. These bagels are pink, so it looks like you've soaked a plain bagel in a strawberry milkshake. Needless to say, I do not like them.

and

friendship

But I'm not a guy, so I didn't. :)

decade,

school,

Okay, let me rephrase that. She didn't realise that he still had feelings for her, and like she said in 207, they hung out every night for a year, and he never dared to tell her. Stupid Italian guys and exes kept getting in the way.

Yep, and her performance in 416 was just priceless.

told

If Mona had been important to him, he should have talked to her first. It's as easy as that.

Pardon?

It

Or she'll lose all of her boyfriends.. (323)

was

Yes, he was truly wonderful in this scene. :) It's always nice to see him as a great friend who wants to help out the others in the gang, and that's exatly what happened here. We need more of this, and I just hope the writers realise that this is the Ross that can be funny and sympathetic at the same time.

True.

her

Where

I think it depends on the season. She seems more relaxed these days, so I wouldn't say she's that obsessive now.

Phoebe showed some great signs of both of those features in some of the season 7 episodes, e.g. 706. Rachel was the spoiled princess who only cared about her stupid little crush in the Tag-episodes, while Chandler has been the former for a long time now. He may have occasional set-backs, but since Monica doesn't seem to mind, I don't think they have problems over his porn-issues.

talk

He's smart when it comes to academic stuff, but when it comes to relationships, he has done some pretty bad mistakes over the years. However, he was great in this scene, and acted like a true friend. :) I was half expecting him to buy Joey a bike...

813 TOW

If he had managed to talk to her about his problems, she might have made him something, hoping that that would help him out.

Rachel are

Yep. And our predictions came true. :)

gave

Chandler

You're

Yes. I don't think Ross can be angry with him for falling for her. He hasn't acted on his feelings, and I don't think Joey could have controlled his feelings. He may have wanted to, but he had no idea it was coming, so he didn't realise he was falling for her until it was too late.

closing

teased

I know! I knew Joey was going to tell Ross, though (thanks to the numerous NBC promos), but everything up to that point was a surprise.

sliding.

Well, you might have had a great time if your country had won 10 gold medals so far, meaning that your country has beaten the Americans, the Russians... <very big smug grin>

story

funny

episodes.

Yes, they had something to work with here. In a way it resembled their season 5 stories (although it wasn't as good) in that it was "sexy" and funny.

Yes, and if he's depressed in one single episode, that still means that he has been different in 184 episodes.

did

simply

you're

then

hair

are

I'm sure the writers can come up with something that will keep them busy for the next 33 episodes.

rather

to

Oh, that's right.

day.

Yes, but it was still tasteless.

He doesn't have to fly to Belarus every other week, though. :)

Exactly.

I think Chandler agreed with him as well. :)

Yep. It would be fun to watch little Chandler play with Tumour Jr.

The latter. If they see her regularly, and they're willing to pay that much for a massage, I'm sure they're on friendly terms.

bunnies,

Cakes, candies and sex. She's the best wife ever.

Obviously not. And who knows where Jack and Judy moved? Perhaps they live in another state?

Yep. Perhaps Monica gave Rachel the tape on purpose to cheer her up after the birthing video fiasco?

I'm inclined to believe that she would have done that for Joey's sake.

Exactly.

If I meet someone, I'll ask, okay? :)

Yep, and vice versa.

You're not willing to believe her, are you? :)

not.

IC.

Exactly. I guess Rachel is the best bet, but when he said "during sex" I thought he meant it very literally indeed.

be

Yes. I think Elizabeth Hornswoggle dumped him after seeing him in the leather pants.

Not possible.

Could be. After all the dirty talk, she might have got tired of him.

Was there anything to end at all here?

Ended at the theatre.

Ended when he got tips.

Ended just as they were about to have sex.

Who knows?

Ended after she saw him?

Ended in Central Perk.

Could be.

Well, we never found out if they went out in the first place.

Ended when he smiled.

Ended when she broke his projector.

Ended in Central Perk.

Could be.

Ended in the restaurant.

Ended after she corrected his grammar.. ;)

814

his

was

That's very possible. So now we wonder about how Ross and Rachel will react, but what about the others? Have they expected Joey to come clean?

Good thing Phoebe and Joey are around, though, since Ross won't be able to check if the milk is too hot.

the

Yeti"?

He was looking at the 4th wall in Central Perk. ;)

I saw parts of the Matt Damon episode, and I thought he was quite good.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Oh yay, I am so happy for you. Meanwhile, Britain is not exactly dancing in the streets over our one bronze medal...

Awww... what happened to the girl who wanted to blend in? j/k

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That is the result of the poll so far.

She'd be making sure that people got the porn they'd paid for.

MONICA: I came to the big city to become a star.

CHANDLER: What will you do to make that happen?

MONICA: Anything!

Indeed not, but they would have been preferable to that tape.

Yes, she was being readied for 424...

Just watch how her face & mood changes in about 10 seconds.

Lol, there's no room. But we must assume that Chandler made a real effort, with more than just flowers, since Monica was very happy.

Okay. :)

Yep. Remind me.

People vary.

:)

Of course, but Rachel wasn't to know that.

A lot of people watching this show seem to be younger than the 18-49 demographic. They like to think they're worldly wise, but they're just too innocent to get certain jokes. Although we didn't see the birthing video, we certainly did visualise which part of Candy's body the camera was focused on - while anyone who thinks that Rachel said "eyes" must have imagined that the video showed only a close-up of Candy's face.

We can assume that Carol breastfed Ben more than once at Monica's, but only the first occasion made an interesting story to tell.

Hehe.

That's the whole point though. She probably does get to see other stuff - but as far as she's concerned, without Joey it's boring.

I knowwwww!!!! :)

Absolutely!

Red bagels? Ewww...

Still, thanks for that. And in another thread, we at last know that in 803, Monica's chicken dish was Parmigiana, (thanks to Chase Corrigan).

Quite so.

Fair enough.

Yeah, if only Ross had been engaged to Elizabeth Hornswoggle.

It's as easy as that.

It says "You are a palaeontologist and I'm totally on-board with that, unlike some other people round here I could mention".

Lol! Exactly!

Yep.

Well, *hopefully* they've got Monica worked out now...

Ta.

JO - but to me she's never been a neat freak like some women I know.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Awww... maybe, but not Sting tickets.

Made him something??? Such as what? A meatloaf Rachel?

Absolutely.

Exactly.

That promo was disgustingly spoilerish...

*�(Caption - the NBC logo, in black outline on a white background. The
*� logo explodes as "THURSDAY" bursts forth to zoom out of the screen.)
*�
*�   VOICEOVER: Thursday.
*�
*�(Cut to Ross confronting Joey in Central Perk, while a flock of pale
*� grey hexagons pulsates behind the subtitle "ALL NEW FRIENDS", and a
*� sprinkling of stardust prances across to a fully coloured NBC logo.)
*�
*�   ROSS: What're you doing here?
*�
*�(Joey prepares himself to make a confession.)
*�
*�   VOICEOVER: Joey tells Ross...
*�
*�(Cut to Ross in the doorway.)
*�
*�   VOICEOVER: ..his feelings for Rachel.

One of the best moments ever, totally blown. :(

But does the domestic TV service there show anyone but Americans?

Yep.

Indeedy.

Oh absolutely, but it will be about the next step, and those after that.

Ta.

It's an ever-present fact of Phoebe's life, that she won't let go.

Hmmmm...

He didn't get the option, though. :)

Ewwwwwwww....... I'd forgotten that bit as well!

I suppose Tumour Jr is a wriggly big thing now.

Yeah.

Yay!

Florida?

Belphoebe says that we didn't actually see Rachel leave, so she might have been called back by Monica, who ejected the tape, then put it in the wrong box. Oh wait, the wrong box wasn't empty...

Whatta gal! Whatta pal!

Yeah.

That's it then. Finito.

Yes please!

If they don't know, tell them "E for Emily" would make a good story.

Monica's paternal grandmother Emily Geller, after whom she's named, and after whom Ross was going to call his daughter, arrives to take back her apartment leaving C+M with nowhere to live. Meanwhile, she makes Ross phone the other Emily, to put his anxieties to rest, but what he hears completely changes everything.

Indeedy.

I do believe her now. She was genuinely who she appeared to be, she did like Ross, and she does work at Allesandro's; yet she did her best to take his interests on board, instead of rejecting them.

Hey, Mona has not really gone, not if she's still working with Monica.

That's a bit unlikely, don't you think?

Yep.

Yep, I agree with all of the above.

Yes, maybe it was the mention of villagers at the wrong moment.

Indeed, especially Miss Uptown NY, who sounded dodgy.

Yes, that all went quiet, didn't it?

Ah, now that all depends on whether you accept only the innocent meaning of "Ross's projector", or instead go for the scatological meaning.

They looked like they were broken up by the guards during sex, didn't they?

Does that count? Or did she snarl he was dumped as he was pulled off her?

On the contrary, I think they're all expecting him to bury his feelings.

Lol!

Staring at the bricks?

Which parts?

Tennant

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

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I'm not having a go at you or anything, but I've now recorded this episode off E4 with the subtitles, which say "wrapped bagels".

What do you think, sweetie?

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

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bagels are

I've believed Gunther said "red bagels" ever since I saw it for the first time, but I don't mind checking it again to make sure. <checks> Not only does he say "red bagels," but the closed captions also say that. Besides, bagels come in bags, and they're not wrapped. :)

I think E4 is wrong and needs to come to the USA to see some red bagels. So I'm afraid E4 isn't "Americanized" enough... ;)

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

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Okay, I'm om your side. TSM. :)

Yeah, and they didn't have someone like you to ask... :)

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

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TSM? <checks acronym-list> Tought shit, mate??

Lol. Yeah, give them my e-mail address, and I'll teach them all about bagels. ;) j/k

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

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Awww... as if I'd say that. TSM is Thankyou So Much.

Deal!

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

Okay, that made more sense. NW. :)

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

I was going to say "ta muchly", but Priya tells me that's an Indian fish.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

No, no, it's not an Indian fish. Muchly in Hindi simply means fish.

Priya

In article , [email] (p r i y a) wrote:

Oh well, that's even better then. :)

Tennant

Tennant Stuart :

This made me wonder. Do you Brits need subtitles to [fully] understand American English or are they just for hearing impaired people and you recorded them only for easier transcribing? I ask because in school I only learned British English except about 3 months American and 1 month Australian English -- in 9 years, but I can understand spoken AE a *lot* better than BE, i.e. Chris Tucker better than Hugh Grant. Maybe this is because most English music I listen to is American. Scottish and Indian English sound the best nevertheless. Both orthographies suck, though.

Christoph

In article , Christoph wrote:

I'm recording a version with subtitles for a friend who needs them, but sometimes the dialogue is not very clear, irrespective of who is listening. In fact, the American transcripts are full of errors.

Well, the person I was asking is Norwegian, so maybe you have a point.

That is partly the fault of American 'reforms', which have made the situation worse; but I do accept that German is far superior in this regard, making it much easier to learn & pronounce than French.

Tennant

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 11:41:15 +0200, Christoph P�per wrote:

I think that's the case with most people who aren't native English speakers.

Indian English?

Priya

p r i y a :

"Indian" as in "India" of course, not as in "Native American" (which I've never heard). Why couldn't they invent "Indic", "Indiac" or "Indianic" together with "Indian" like in German "indianisch/Indianer" and "indisch/Inder"? How does Arabian (Arabic? Arab?) English sound, Priya?

Christoph, whose namesake Kolumbus is the one to blame

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

(Marita

I turn absolutely ash white. OK, I sent 25 valentines to my kid's Montessori class last week, and you are telling me those innocent little hearts are actually.....

THUD!

And what's scary... I understand that many women manage to forget... I did the first time. But oh, baby, NOT THE SECOND!

Nope, pretty much typical Rachel. This is how she behaves.

Once again, Mental Geller was not in this episode. There was no inconceivable stretch here; Ross saw a delicate situation and decided he should plan the way he explains himself carefully. Mona caught him unawares and the jig was up. It was silly sitcom behavior, and not wise, but not particularly worse than the other dumb things they make all six do all the time. Now, if he starts hollering about sandwiches, or attacking women to show off Unagi, I'm with you...

Sorry, luv, it's inconsistent writing. While Matt doesn't call him dumb - (He calls him "wrong", which suggests that it is not an act) he does admit there are times when Joey looks like he should not be able to tie his shoes. Why would a smart man pretend to be so dumb he pretends to accidentally bid 20,000 he doesn't have on a boat?

Both. She's flaky and sly as hell. Streetsmart and eccentric. But those aren't true opposites.

Spoiled princess? Uh, you know what I think about that. Big slob? Hadn't noticed, honestly. Doesn't mean it isn't true, just hadn't noticed.

Is Chandler a great lover or an effeminate pervert?

ROTFL!!!!!!!

:-) Does that mean he dropped his act? :-)

Despite maintaining that Joey is smart, it's worth pointing out

Ross is the strongest academically; he's the one that would win the Trivial Pursuit game. Hiss "EQ" fluctuates wildly, and seems to function best when he doesn't feel threatened; he's much, much better at dealing with other people's problems than his own.

That will be the source of some interesting stories for awhile no matter what direction they go.

Yeah, but I think some folks are getting more upset about it than they need to. Now, if he's still moping six weeks later...

    >  >

Or it's a detail so small the writers don't care. This is not the kind of continuity error which bothers me.

Well, remember... Chandler actually knows what's going on. Ross doesn't. Or didn't. >

In article , "abrahammy" wrote:

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Yep.

Aw, you knew anyway. :)

Are you saying that the first birth was so terrible that you wanted to forget it, while the second was so easy that you wish to repeat it?

Oh, sorry Claire, you misunderstood me, I did not write clearly.

When I said "It was a bit off the way Rachel", I didn't mean "It was atypical for Rachel", but "It was not very good how Rachel".

Thanks.

I've already conceded a few times now that "Mental Geller" is not an accurate description of how Ross misbehaved in this episode, but it was worse than silly sitcom behaviour. Instead of simply being open & honest with Mona, he lied to her in a babyish manner, and thus he lost her.

I've asked for a well-grounded appellation, but I'm still waiting.

I might agree to that, if Joey was dumb in some episodes and quite smart in others, but it sometimes happens that he is both in the one episode.

To give two concrete examples from the recent text, in 802 "TOW the Red Sweater" Joey was fast on the uptake when Rachel alerted him about a girl at Sunglass Hut; then he deduced the girls' secret, which made them most uncomfortable (don't forget that Chandler & Ross never suspected a thing); then it was Joey who worked out the significance of the red sweater which Phoebe then misinterpreted; and finally Joey did the 'dumb look' when Ross picked up the sweater they'd been talking about and said that it was his.

Secondly, in 804 "TOW the Videotape" Joey knows all about fake names and sometimes uses them to exploit people's gullibility, and yet Chandler & Monica were completely fooled by this; Joey invented a story that was so clever that anyone who heard it would then want to have sex with you; he smugly corrected Ross's grammar when the professor said "who" instead of "whom"; and then suddenly Joey was dumb, his face slack-jawed, unable to comprehend what Ross was saying when he wanted to be backed up; but then we saw Joey drop the act, and instantly become quite smart again.

He thought it was just a game, people make silly mistakes all the time.

Yesterday, in the thread "MLB on Leno", Andr� asked me for a transcript from the show, so I spent some while preparing the transcript of "Access All Areas", then neatly dividing it into three since it was so big, and only after posting the first part did I realise it was the wrong one.

They're not diametrically opposed, but they're nothing like each other.

She learnt to slob about when she came to live with Joey, dropping food on the floor, throwing wet paper towel bombs, stuff like that.

Just a rhetorical question, you know... ;)

Ross still has mental problems that affect his performance.

I quite agree. But don't forget that he lies about his SATs.

Yep.

Quite so, that's how the debate on Angel's Friends is going. People are complaining that Joey is always moping, and when others point out that Ross has been like that on & off for three years, not just a couple of episodes, the first lot get all hot under the collar. I've stayed out of it except when it was wrongly claimed that S3 Janice was divorced.

Yes, this is a trivial matter.

Well yes, but when a guilt-ridden Joey hesitantly asked him about London & Monica, Chandler didn't know what he was talking about. When Chandler thinks of his time in London, what does he recall, visiting the museums?

Tennant

"Marita Bakken" wrote in message news:[email]...

Another example of how the writers don't really consider the actions they make their characters perform carefully; they make them do any old thing and expect us to just sympathize anyway and accept it blindly when the behavior improves with no explanation.

I thought this was really quite dumb. Childbirth isn't that bad and grownups should behave better when witnessing it than this - unless the tape featured a c-section without anesthetic.

What's even worse; they've been through a much more difficult childbirth (triplets) with Phoebe, who is evidently made of far less childish stuff.

Just a little bit.

This is why I am willing to lay odds that Rachel is too wimpy to breastfeed. Anybody who goes into hysterics over *normal* Braxton-Hicks contractions either has made absolutely no effort to research her own condition or really needs to toughen up a bit. Ross' reaction was the reasonable one. And I have a uterus, so I can have an opinion!

Yep, apparently, she didn't realize Mark had a crush on her, either. She is also oblivious to Gunther.

Because the writers have a particular result they are trying to accomplish. For technical reasons to which we are not privy, they needed to let this actress go. They make a lot of very unpleasant Ross decisions, not based on character, but on convenience. This was another one. On the other hand, he certainly behaved afterwards like it didn't bother him much. Maybe Ross simply couldn't love Mona.

Yes, because, you see, if you surprise your partner with a picnic basket, you are guilty of stalking and deserve to be stoned.

Mental Geller was not in this episode at all. Ross was trying to choose when and how he explained to Mona about Rachel. We may all understand why this was foolish, but all six of them behave like this at one time or another. The only reason why people hiss about Mental Geller in particular, and attribute EVERY questionable decision Ross makes to him, is because Ross is ruined as a character by years of vicious writing. Then the writers expect us to evaluate his less radical moves in a sympathetic or at least reasonable light.

Once again, they made character decisions based on convenience and technical goals, not interpersonal logic.

But Joey hasn't hit on Rachel or kissed her, so Ross

Sure he does. You guys really don't have any compassion for this character at all, do you? If the situation were reversed you'd be ready to rip Ross' head off. When you have an inappropriate attraction there are things you can do to get your mind off of them, and sitting around the house moping to a dog is not one of them. Ross is going to be taken aback at first, and after such a tumultuous, painful history, with so many scars, nobody with any sense is going to blame him for that. Now, whether or not he allows this to affect his friendship with Joey after a few hours is another matter entirely; to swear off Joey entirely would be wrong because Joey has not acted on his feelings.

Crossing eyes. Yeah, you might say that. I think they turned into quite a heartbreaking mess, myself.

Once again, you are now grading Ross on a completely different scale than anybody else. They went to pains to make him NOT be mental this episode in places where he would normally be a complete freak.

The most disturbing thing about this; Mona was the best fit for Ross since Julie. What we are seeing is that Ross' messy history makes happiness with any woman now impossible. He no longer has any chance with anybody.

error,

Or, it could have been a continuity error, because actual writers from the show have come HERE to tell us they don't keep track of stuff like that and think it's insane that we do.

Well, Rachel dumped him while they were in bed together right after sex. It's close.

Ah, but he does know how; we saw him do it back in season two.

You got that right!

In article , "abrahammy" wrote:

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There was an awful lot of agonised screaming - did you scream that much?

Not that I doubt you for a single second, Claire - but the script does not agree with you. May I assume that Braxton-Hicks contractions only occur during pregnancy? If so, how do they differ from the other type? Because they come much earlier?

Well, he had to be backed into the corner of a corner before he would tell Mona that he loved her - and then she failed to reciprocate.

Mental Geller as established in Season 5 was not in this episode at all, but we don't have a better term for the weird Ross who reacted in a baby fashion after Mona thought he was joking. Then whatever we should call him, he disappeared in an instant to become the splendid Ross that you, Marita & I all like, when he counselled Joey.

We do! We both greatly admired Ross in several episodes of Season 7, quite a few of Season 8, and the final scene of this episode.

Maybe so, but if it was Ross then I don't believe we'd rip his head off for moping. We have been sympathetic (retroactively) to Monica in early Season 3, and Chandler in mid-Season 4, when they moped as much or more after losing Richard & Kathy; and we heard that Phoebe was just as bad after she lost Duncan. Meanwhile, our concerns for Ross are valid as it is over three years since he lost Emily.

What about Rachel? She just seems to shrug off relationships.

Okay, so he wasn't Mental Geller as defined in Season 5, but he wasn't normal either. Give me a well-grounded appellation and I'll use it.

I reckon that Mona was the best fit for Ross ever. My only doubt was that she would turn out to be not what she seemed - but I was wrong.

I'm still hoping for Ross & Phoebe... :)

You yourself have said that we shouldn't let things like this worry us. :)

That's what I'm thinking Claire. And if when we saw them in bed together was between one coitus & another, then her suddenly dumping him could count as being during sex, yes?

Good point, Claire. :)

Absolutely.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

I agree with Claire. Childbirth is one of our most primal instincts. I've read articles where doctors have said that, women approach them asking for c-sections because they're afraid of labor!!! I don't why women have become such sissies. Don't pre-natal classes teach us how to deal with the whole process? Why isn't Rachel going for lamaze classes? At what point in a pregnancy does a women start going to lamaze class?

Gotta agree with Claire on this one too. Rachel is being too wimpy about the pregnancy itself; I don't think she'll breastfeed either. We saw that Rachel was reading the pregnancy bible 'What to expect when you expecting'. What was she doing? Looking at the pictures. Its not to much for us to 'expect' for her to know it, if she read the book. Tennant, Braxton-Hicks are common during pregnancy. A woman's uterus contracts in preparation for labor. It can start anytime from the fourth month. Ross was right when he said that, they are no big deal and most women don't feel them at all. I never felt a thing. :) I'm pretty sure that Rachel's pain would have been mild or moderate but she made a big deal out of it. I'd really like to know how she'll handle birth. Like Phoebe said, 'you can't take it' lol

Yeah, I didn't like that either. After rushing into many relationships, Ross might have wanted to take it slow with this one. Especially after 'I love you' blunder.

Yes, even his tone of voice was so sweet. How long has it been since he spoke like that?

We love Ross, the old Ross but its hard to like him when he's a rambling idiot.

Rachel doesn't have a problem with getting over guys because she always goes back and sleeps with them on odd occassions. She did that with Barry, Paulo & Ross (am I missing anyone?).

How about 'Sir Lies-a-lot' or 'Lies-a-lot Gellar' ? :)

Yeah, she was too perfect! :)

hehe

Wonder if Rachel knows to warm up milk?

Priya

In article , [email] (p r i y a) wrote:

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So Priya, would you say, judging by the amount & the loudness of the woman's screams, that she had a normal childbirth and Rachel & Monica are wimps, or she had a bad time and the girls reacted appropriately?

I would guess that she is, and Ross assumed that she would be, but Lamaze classes were covered with Carol's pregnancy, so I guess they don't want to repeat themselves - it was bad enough having two instant sonograms. We did not see Pheebs go to Lamaze class either, but we later heard that she had done so, in 509 "TOW Ross's Sandwich".

I don't think she did. Dumb-ass-Joey-who-only-looks-at-comics certainly did read all the books, and had fun teasing Rachel for not doing so, as in when he told her that during pregnancy her fingers would swell up to twice their size and never go back, and after she freaked he burst out laughing since she fell for such a trick every time.

Well, the thing is that from Rachel's point of view, Joey was the caring sympathetic one who was on her side, and Ross was the uncaring know-all who sided with the doctor whom she disliked.

Exactly.

I dunno, Marita can tell you.

Yep, if we disliked Ross, we would enjoy the idiot, not protest about him.

I think you got the lot. :)

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

I've been through this childbirth business even though it's been many years but as I remember it, Lamaze classes didn't start until the middle of the 8th month. I think the classes went on for about 6 weeks, if I'm remembering correctly.

In article , "Laurie" wrote:

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In other words, for the last six weeks of the pregnancy?

Isn't that a bit late though, since the baby could be 6 weeks premature, and then the mother would not know what to do?

Carol went to Lamaze class with about 3 months to go, if not more.

Tennant

"Tennant Stuart" wrote in message news:[email]...

Now as I said, it's been a lot of years but when I took the class I was very far along. I think I had about 6 weeks left in the pregnancy. I remember several couples in my group had missed the last class or 2 because they had their babies a little sooner than expected.

In article , "Laurie" wrote:

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Well, there you go then.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

My opinion came from my own experience which was far from that woman's in the video. So, I might have come across a little harsh. However, I recently saw a snippet of a delivery in some documentry and it wasn't pretty. So, I guess, if I had seen it before I had a baby, I would have pretty much reacted like Rachel and Monica. And judging by her screams, maybe the woman was having a bad time.

Thats true.

Oh right, it was Joey who was reading the book. My bad. But, it must have been her book. Perhaps, she found a Vogue nearby and finished reading that.

I don't think Ross was uncaring, he did rush to the hospital. His reaction was a normal one from anyone who knows about Braxton Hicks. I said she was a wimp, because I think braxton hicks doesn't really hurt (somebody correct me if I'm wrong here) and she just made a big deal for a mild cramp. But this just goes to prove the point that these two don't belong together. Even if Ross is correct, he has to take the heat from her while Joey who accomodates her, looks good in the process.

Grin. Okay, I'll ask her. :)

Exactly.

Thanks.

Wel, the exact term isn't used in the show but Ross claimed to have called Chandler 'sir limps-a-lot' in college. I was just modified it to suit Ross. :)

He lied about his SAT score. He lied to Mona many times. He lied to Rachel about their marriage/divorce He lied to Joey about him being Ben's Godfather He lied to his parents about Chandler smoking pot

Before anyone flames, let it be known that, I'm not trying to label his as a liar. I'm sure all the others have lied their ass off.

Since there's going to be another season of Friends, thats very likely.

Yeah, but she was a terrible waitress. Remember the first cup of coffee she made.

Priya

In article , [email] (p r i y a) wrote:

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So Rachel & Monica were not wimps, after all?

Okay.

For sure - she bought them, and Joey devoured them.

Very probably! :)

Okay, but I said Ross was uncaring from Rachel's point of view.

Okay.

Hmmm... ISTM that you have just gainsaid your own suggestion. :)

Good.

That was her *first* cup of coffee. She worked there for three years, and while she never understood the tray spot or folded a napkin swan, in all that time she must have managed to warm some milk.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

Grin. I've answered this on another post.

lol yes, how about 'he pulled a Ross' :)

We are discussing this in another post too. So I won't repeat myself here.

Priya

In article , [email] (p r i y a) wrote:

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Okay.

Eep - we already know what a Ross is, and it's not pretty...

Okay.

Tennant

"abrahammy" wrote:

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they

thing and

behavior

Monica has improved greatly, though. She was lovely last year and in the season premiere, and then in 802-804 she acted like a total bitch who couldn't appreciate the great man with whom she had just tied the knot. Now however, she's like a totally different person.

Hopefully this means that the character Ross will also reach a point where the writers realise that he doesn't have to behave like a moron in order to be funny.

She is

Very true.

accomplish.

this

based on

hand, he

Ross

Ross could have loved Mona and settled down with her, but since the actress wasn't about to get a permanent job on the show, she had to leave. Mona was a nice woman who seemed to share some of his interests.

It

basket,

This was very tongue-in-cheek, and I hope you understand that. :)

character

I do have compassion for Ross, Claire. The problem is that Ross was such a great guy in most of the episodes in season 7, that we actually thought that Nice Ross/Sane Geller, whatever you want to call him, was here to stay. Then he started acting all weird again in this season, so I have to admit that I'm disappointed in him.

you

moping to

and

with

allows

matter

not

Which is my point. Joey has merely fallen for Rachel, and Ross, out of all people, knows how hard it is to love Rachel and not have those feelings returned. If Joey had had a choice, he would never have fallen for Rachel in the first place, but when he realised that he was attracted to her, it was already too late.

quite a

Well, iceskating-controversies aside, seeing that my home country, Norway, is doing its best winter games ever, I think the games are pretty exciting myself. The fact that NBC refuses to show anything but iceskating (it certainly feels like it) annoys me. When one of our athletes won gold, they showed one minute of his entire race, and they didn't even show a clip of when he got the medal.

I

did

than

episode in

Ross was *close* to going over the edge when Mona showed up in his apartment, but Rachel's revelation prevented him from freaking out.

But Phoebe (and Joey) had to help him, though. :)

Tennant Stuart wrote:

Aww... You guys won the women's curling, though!

As long as you're patriotic and appreciate your red, white and blue flag, you're as American as you can get...

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I bet you and Paul will have a blast discussing that poll in a couple of months. ;)

And afterwards she'd be giving them cookie-recipes, so that they could eat cookies while they were watching porn..

How about, "I came to London to become a star."

Lol!

Monica took it pretty well, though.

Absolutely.

No, I just didn't like her in that episode. First she complains about her current marital status, and then she opens all the presents...

I don't think he made anything himself, though. Once was more than enough!

And they always forget to lock the door! :)

Yeah, I LOL when I read the "eyes" part. Although I guess Rachel would freak out if she saw that as well, since she has that weird thing with her eyes.

You have no idea how many times I've laughed at a certain thread about jokes...

Yep.

Perhaps she wouldn't have thought the birthing video was so scary if Joey had been there to hold her hand? ;)

I know. They're disgusting.

Oh, what's that then?

RPGOL!! Poor Rachel! All those letters..

Ah.. And no matter how disliked Mona was among some fans, that has to be better than "My Mommies Love Me."

Yes, I think they do.

Yes, I've seen worse as well.

BOC, those are for the really special people in his life.. ;)

I was thinking of a Joey special, but your suggestion was much better. Lol.

I saw another promo:

Voiceover: Thursday, the Friends-story continues..

Shot of Rachel entering Joey's apartment and patting the dog.

Voiceover: ..as Joey admits his feelings

Shot of Joey looking at Rachel and the dog.

Joey: That's Rachel. We love her.

Voiceover: He'll tell the friend..

Ross: What is it?

Joey: It's nothing.

Voiceover: ..it could hurt the most.

Ross: Hey, it's me, why can't you tell me?

Shot of Ross walking out of Central Perk, and Joey looking down..

I got the feeling that Ross became so furious with Joey that he ran out of Central Perk to get away from his friend.

Of course not, but thank goodness for Canadian TV and Norwegian newspapers on the web. :)

If only the writers would see it that way, but they keep bumping them together, and there's never any closure. Therefore, I'm starting to take it for granted that they will end up together again in the end. But in the meantime, who knows what might happen..

Yeah, and her mom is still coming to see her, right?

No, but he got the girl..

Yep. And the Buffay kids probably love him to death.

I dunno, aren't they a little young to do that?

No, it wasn't. Hm, a bit of a mystery..

Yep, she's quite a woman.

I have a feeling they won't know what "E" I'm talking about, but it's worth a shot.

Lol! I assume there's a kid in the background?

Yep, I always thought it was this way.

She can pop up again at any time..

I don't know; he seemed to focus on the "during" part of the sentence.

He has an impressive (?) dating resume..

Exactly.

Yes, she did, didn't she?

Yes, we didn't hear much about her afterwards.

Hehe, I know. ;)

Yes, they did.

Perhaps she said it loudly for the guards to hear in order to save the small part of dignity she had left?

Yes, I don't think they take it seriously.

Yep.

When he was "outed" and got to go to Europe anyway.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Yes, it was our first winter gold since 1984, and together with an earlier medal they make our best haul since 1936. Since then we have been awarded yet another medal, but I don't know how that stacks up.

You just want to be a cheerleader, don't you? :)

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Oh yes, and I'm already looking forward to the pictures he'll send me. :)

Perhaps she could make eroticookies.

Oh yes!

Stort smil.

Chandler is lucky that she trusts him so much, and loves him deeply.

Oh well, let's not go round the mulberry bush again.

BOC, that would have been the first stipulation Monica made.

Hehe, except at the start of this episode.

Yes indeed!

Me too. And it's amazing how innocent most of the people are. I guess that the board tends to have a younger readership. Oh, and by the by, has Escayna noticed how all those little faces keep changing? ;)

Oh, good point!

But muffins are wonderful...

Chicken Parmigiana is the Italian food that Monica left in her fridge, and which Joey lusted after. Here's a recipe for you...

3 whole chicken breasts (or 6 halves) 1 egg 1 tsp. salt � tsp. ground black pepper 1 cup dry bread crumbs � cup butter or margarine 1 eggplant, sliced 1 (10� oz) can pizza sauce 6 slices mozzarella cheese parmesan cheese

Cut whole chicken breasts into halves. In a bowl, beat egg, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken into egg then coat with crumbs. In a large skillet, saut� chicken in butter or margarine. Arrange chicken and eggplant in a crockpot, with eggplant on bottom. Pour pizza sauce over chicken. Cover and cook on low, 6 to 8 hours. Add mozzarella cheese 15 minutes before serving. Top with parmesan cheese.

I know!

RACHEL: Gimme an 'E'! Gimme an 'L'! Gimme an 'I'! Gimme a 'Z'! Gimme
        an 'A'! Gimme a 'B'! Gimme an 'E'! Gimme a 'T'! Gimme an 'H'!
        Gimme another 'H'! Gimme an 'O'! Gimme an 'R'! Gimme an 'N'!
        Gimme an 'S'! Gimme a 'W'! Gimme an 'O'! Gimme a 'G'! Gimme
        another 'G'! Gimme an 'L'! Gimme an 'E'! What do you get?
        Eliz- whoa!! (falls over, jumps back up) Ta-dum!

Absolutely, that was "you were just the sperm guy".

Phew...

White walls, white chairs, white cupboards with one white ornament on them, white carpets that are covered with thousands of invisible filthy black objects which she keeps pausing to pick up?

Yep. :)

Thanks. Well, it was, until I saw what the Sardinian pigs were eating in "Hannibal", or Ray Liotta's character at the end... :(

Oh dear. I suppose you're deluged with promos for 816.

I've no idea, I can't call this one at all. That's why it's so exciting.

Of course, NBC provides both domestic & overseas coverage, so what we get here, and presumably Norway too, is very well done, and not biased at all. The only problem is that because America is such a backward country, the TV pictures are square, so the BBC adds some delicately shifting baby blue side-panels to NBC's camera work.

Never underestimate the power of secret option number three.

How exactly do you mean?

Maybe he even got the underwear!

Frank III and Lesley do...

If Judy is the same age as her actress, she turned 67 a week ago.

Rachel would have to return much later, giving the Bings time to eject the birthing video, drop it messily on the coffee table (maybe Monica was hot to trot so she didn't care), put the porn tape in their VCR, watch it *all* the way through, take the tape out, drop it messily on the coffee table, run to their bedroom, and start acting out all the best scenes on the tape. Then suddenly Rachel comes a-banging on their front door, and a bow-legged Chandler weaves his way across the lounge, sees who it is, and groggily puts the wrong tape in the right case.

Incidentally, if the porn video got 4 stars, but they weren't stars, what were they? You don't have to admit that you watch porn, you can just say what you've seen on the top shelf at the store.

Yep.

Yep, his three year-old daughter, Susan Waltham.

But who knows what the writers originally planned?

Absolutely.

Well, I still think that he means while gathering his breath.

Yeah, this is someone who's supposed to be totally in love with Rachel.

Grin.

She might have cooed racist comments at third base, and when he objected, she dumped him.

At the height of passion, she screamed so much she slipped through a parallel dimension to find herself in old Mrs.Verhoeven's bed.

Good - in which case she literally dumped him during sex.

Could be.

Mind you, Chandler has been improving...

CHANDLER: So, how's the hideously inappropriate crush on Rachel going?

JOEY: Good. Really good. I should be ready to kill myself any day now.

Hypnotised, or counting them?

Oh, you saw the part which I missed. There was a neat line when Grace asked Jack to confirm that he wanted her to "in" Matt Damon for him.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

You guys need more snow... And our last, and 11th gold medal came in the men's curling. (Unless Johann M�hlegg has to hand over all of his gold medals in cross-country skiing, that is.) :)

No, I'm not *that* American. ;)

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Lol.

Chandler would love them.

Absolutely.

No, I think it's best we leave it since none of us are willing to give up on our opinions. :)

Yeah, he loved his homemade gift, even though she didn't make it.

Don't you mean 814?

I know! I was rather shocked when I found out how young most of them are.

Yeah, she moved out in 814, and I already miss their roommate-stories. Gosh, I hope we get more of those before the series ends.

Grin. Chandler didn't appreciate his muffin in 223, though.. ;)

<snip>

That sounds really delicious!

Lol. I wonder how Joshua would have reacted to that?

Yep.

No, not like that, but I've seen people completely obsessed with dust and cleaning that are much worse than Monica.

Lol. I haven't seen that yet. Did Hannibal enjoy it with a good Chianti?

Yep, I'm afraid so.

Yep.

I've "ordered" a special Olympic highlights tape from my friends in Europe, so I'll get to see what really happened in Salt Lake City when I return to Europe. That's pretty much the only way I'll get to see any of it.

I think I've been spending too much time together with die-hard RnR fans in order to believe in anything but a RnR reunion. ;)

Lily probably stops by from time to time; she's not always looking down on her from Heaven, wondering where her lily is.

Lol. He probably did.

Not all Chandlers are the same..

Gosh, I didn't think she was that old.

Lol. That's a good theory, and probably true.

Well, I don't watch porn, so I don't think I'm the best person to ask in this case.

Perhaps the middle name is Felicity?

Indeed, especially now that Crane and Kauffman have revealed that they didn't plan on Joey having a crush on Rachel in the beginning of this season. This season could have been very different if that hadn't happened.

I don't believe that, but I guess some people do.

Well, that would mean that Ross is a hero.

Lol. She would scare Mrs Verhoeven to death, and Rachel wouldn't have had a chance to move to the apartment across the street in 807.

Well, yes, but he still defines it as a crush. I think it has developed into something more than that now.

Counting them or merely staring into space.

I guess NBC will show it again rather soon. We'll be in for a long period of reruns in a couple of weeks.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

No we don't, we had a whole quarter-inch only last Saturday, and it stayed on the ground for the entire afternoon! It was dreadful...

Drugs?

Good!

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Awww...

Lol, there's one for the J&P fans - they're both good at making stuff.

Oops!

Yeah, it explains why they're so quick to find fault with the show, and accuse the writers of being blundering idiots, mostly without cause.

Has Escayna noticed how all those little faces keep changing? ;)

I knowwww!!!

There'd better be a lot more of that!

Tee-hee, and that wasn't his last lesson about licking Monica's muffin!

Yes, no wonder Joey lusted after it.

He'd run a mile, and never come back.

Absolutely.

It's quite something. Directed by Ridley Scott no less, Julianne Moore *is* Clarice, Anthony Hopkins is suave, and the music is beautiful.

Don't watch it alone. n/k

Oh no, he drank a fine white wine, but then you see my dear Marita, the main course was a dish far more exotic than mere liver... ;)

Gosh, that's understandable, but such a weird thing to have to do.

Maybe it's time to start wearing your 1996 Friends T-shirt.

You're not calling Phoebe a wuss, are you? Rachel did.

Interestingly, Chandler & Joey have never called anyone a wuss. Though Ross once said it about Joey in 422, he said it quietly, and he really meant it about himself. But the girls are quite fond of the insult.

Monica told Chandler & Joey they were wussies in 112, and she shouted "Wuss!!" at Ross in 309; but she's never dared accuse a girl of being a wuss, in fact the nearest she got was admitting to being a wuss in 406.

Phoebe is much the same, agreeing with Monica she was a wuss, but in a nice way; or telling Chandler for his own good not to be a wuss in 414.

But Rachel has used the W-word to directly insult both Monica in 117, and Phoebe in 216; so she is definitely the Queen Over All Wussies...

Indeed not, but it's still a secret bond between them.

Well, I have never seen her in her early movies, or on the main cast of "The Guiding Light" over thirty years ago; but she was probably a handsome young woman in her day, for she has good bone structure.

Thanks, but it's an awful lot to make the viewer presume.

Did you not see what I just said? You don't have to admit that you watch porn, you can just say what you've seen on the top shelf at the store.

Perhaps not, since that might give Ross cause for doubt.

Yes, it's gone much the same way as Season 6, where the plan was to keep Ross & Rachel in matrimony, then the creators thought better of it.

Yet they don't believe that Ross loved Emily, which he clearly did.

Yep!!

Unless time runs far faster between the dimensions, and her full name was actually Jenuvka Verhoeven...

Indeedy. Chandler's improving, he's not fully there yet.

I was thinking it could have been a Zen pain control thingie.

Yes, it looks like 8th March to 24th April will span only two episodes.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:...

Lol. No wonder there are few tourists travelling to my country during the winter.

Yep, he's been taking a drug called NESP. He won every race he participated in in the Olympics, and the only gold medal they took away from him was the last one for the 50km. However, he must have been using drugs for a long time, so there's no doubt that he needs to give back all of them. The Norwegian Olympic Committee is apparently considering handing in a protest to the IOC.

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Yeah, and Joey would impress Phoebe Sr with his pottery.

DFY.

I don't think age is the main factor in all of those cases, but it is definitely an issue when it comes to understanding jokes.

Well, yeah, but why do you insist on calling me that?

Yep. It's the best thing the show had to offer for a long time, and it still is.

My point exactly.

Regardless of farm birds.

I watched both The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs and The Shining all by myself, so I think I can handle it. I found myself laughing out loud at The Exorcist, though.

Lol. So Chianti doesn't go with everything?

Yeah, it really is. You'd think you'd get all the Olympic coverage you need when you live in the same country, but that wasn't the case.

Hehe. Wear that over at Angel's and be prepared for the consequences.

No, I'm not, that's why I left it out. After all, Phoebe is the Hard Ass.

Yeah, the guys don't use it, because they know it can backfire.

She was a wuss in that episode, though.

Well, Hard Ass can do pretty much whatever she wants.

I think Hard Ass can take her any day, though.

Does that go for Chandler the Goldfish as well?

Not to mention her hair.

And I'll repeat what I said: I don't think I'm the best person to ask in this case. Ask Chandler. :)

As long as the girl looks more like Joey than Ross, Ross should know that Emily's daughter is his.

Also, the fact that Chandler and Monica were supposed to break up after a couple of episodes. They've been a couple for almost four years now..

I still think she's the best girlfriend he's ever had until he said the wrong name at the altar.

Well, she does live in a parallel universe.

Well, perhaps he'll realise how serious this is now that Joey has told Ross.

Pardon? Zen?

There will be a rerun on March 14th (810) and a new episode on March 28th, that's all I know.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Well, considering it's *impossible* to drive down to the supermarket...

They should be handing in M�hlegg's medals.

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Lol, such as it is...

Ta.

Yes, I agree.

I was referring to the Miaower on Angel's Friends.

Absolutely.

You haven't seen it yet.

I haven't seen it yet.

Of course not! Although my sister & once shared a bottle of Chianti on the beach, while her kids were at school. She felt very naughty.

Well, don't forget that most of the events that NBC shot were broadcast overseas, and not intended for domestic consumption.

Well, I reckon that there are going to be tears before bedtime...

Absolutely.

They're not so daft!

Yes, she needed her '1950s husband'.

lol

For sure. :)

Well, you can bet that CtG did not like dogs!

Her hair?

She can't reach the top shelf!

Why should Emily's daughter be Joey's?

That's right - by the end of the upcoming season finale, they will have been a couple for over half of the series.

I would say Carol, but you're only counting during the series, in which case Julie & Mona are also strong contenders.

Exactly. Incidentally, "Jenuvka" came from my personal IMDb, programmed to display actresses with names beginning with J-E-N who were born in non-English-speaking countries. Unfortunately she didn't come from the Netherlands as I hoped, for they've produced only Jennys & Jennifers.

Hmmmmm.....

Yeah, you know, like fire-walking.

Well, in that case, 29th March to 24th April will span only one episode.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

I took my driving test in January when we had about three feet of snow, so I had to be used to the snow. Anyway, it's all about the tyres.

Yes, absolutely. This would mean that Norway would get more medals, but it's the principle that counts. Cross-country skiing has suffered enough from bad press, and some believe this was the last nail in the coffin for the sport.

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Erottery too, perhaps.

Tennant, please. I'd really appreciate it if you could stop doing this, okay? :)

No, but it can't be worse than The Silence of the Lambs, regardless of Hannibal's eating habits in the sequel (which I have read about, so I know the gist).

Max von Sydow is really good.

Lol. As long as you didn't get locked up and tried to freak out British agents.. *pffft*

BOC, all they seemed to care about was Sarah Hughes (who did a great job BTW).

Oh, definitely.

Exactly.

Yep. What decade can apply to Chandler?

Lol. Okay, I give up.

It still looks blonde.

Okay, fine. Breasts. Happy now? :)

I assumed you thought it was Joey's daughter if her middle name was Felicity.

Yep, in a way it seems like they haven't been together for that long, but perhaps the reason is that I watched the entire season 5 in one week.

Yes, but I cannot forget the way he acted during the Emily-pre-wedding period. He was happy and dared to do so many things he had never even considered earlier.

Jenuvka sounds very Russian.

Oh, grin.

Yep. As of today, the schedule looks like this (titles in rot13):

March 7th - 817 GBJ Gur Grn Yrnirf March 14th - 810 TOW Monica's Boots March 21st - 811 TOW Ross's step Forward March 28th - 818 GBJ Gur Mrfgl Thl April 4th - To be confirmed April 11th - 806 TOW The Halloween Party & 807 TOW The Stain April ?? - 819 GBJ Gur Pbbxvat Pynff

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Ah, but you're a hardened Viking woman... ;)

Yep. Unfortunately, our one skiing medal is now in jeopardy due to a positive drugs test. The guys concerned protests his innocence, and he has many supporters, but still...

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Yes, all Joey has to do is find some erotic pottery in the garbage, and then make some erotic pottery out of it.

SY

Ah, I remember him from "Hannah and her Sisters".

Hehe. Have you seen the first Hannibal Lecter movie?

Who?

Well, as long as we get an artistically satisfying story...

Smil.

Funnily enough, he's the 1950s husband she wanted, he likes maintaining her.

Ooh, I won one! j/k

Does that mean anything?

Lol! Is that really so?

Not yet. Would that be 4 breasts, or 4 pairs of breasts?

Well, I never thought she was Joey's daughter, especially since she's

a) Extremely hypothetical in the first place, and

b) Needed to complete Ross's hat trick of ex-wife's babies.

Eek. If C+M are still married in tomorrow's episode, they will have been happily together for 4� times as long as R+R were.

I don't dispute that, but I agree with Claire that Julie was a good 'fit', plus Mona tried her hardest to make Ross happy; while Carol was his first true love, they were happily together for many years, the fact that she was actually a lesbian yet did not realise it speaks volumes for how well they must have got on, plus his only *marriage* was to her, and even after she'd left him & broken Ross's ability to trust others & Rachel had come back into his life he still loved Carol and wanted her back.

Indeed it does, but she's Czech.

As opposed to navigation, or maintenance of motor cycles.

That's what I was assuming. There exists the possibility that 819 will be on April 4th, and that GBJ Gur Pbbxvat Pynff will be 820, but unless there are more than 24 episodes then I don't think so.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

Hehe. You bet. ;) The combination of a solid, Scandinavian car (Volvo.. lol) and good tyres will do the trick. :)

Oh, that's right, I heard about that guy. Didn't he win a bronze medal?

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Yep. Very abstract and easy. :)

I remember seeing him in "Hamsun" and "Emigrants."

Nope, not yet. Aren't they going to do a remake of that one?

A 16 year old American figure skater who surprised the entire country by winning the women's figure skating competition. Michelle Kwan, the favourite, only got bronze.

ITA. RnR gazing into each other's eyes in the S8 finale will not do anything for me.

Aww... That's a good suggestion, but I should point out that he isn't as focused on gender roles as a 1950s husband would be. Thank goodness.

Oh, c'mon, you've won *a lot*.. :)

It makes her look young.

*Shakes head*

The former. Very Total Recall. (I watch too many movies.)

Oh, definitely, but that's the fun of it. :) What if Felicity did show up again, telling Joey that their "London style" had resulted in a kid?

Ah, the always important hat-trick. ;)

Yep, that's true.

I'm not sure I agree with that. Julie was so similar to Ross that she didn't really put anything interesting in their relationship. Sure, it's nice when your partner share many of your interests, but Julie was too perfect IMO. Emily gave him small challenges, that made him improve as a person, so that's why I liked her. Mona was also a good partner for him, and she was better for him than Julie IMO. Carol was also a great choice. Too bad she's a lesbian.

IC.

Okay, you lost me..

Yep, I'm pretty much taking a clip-show for granted at this point, and that will probably show up some time in April.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

SS

And headlights that shine for six months of the year...

Yes, but in SKIING - that's amazing for us.

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Ah. Was his first wife Christina Olin related to Lena Olin, who was in "Friends", "The Ninth Gate", and "Chocolat"?

I don't know, TBPH. It's quite good, and makes an interesting contrast.

Oh. I'm not even sure if I've heard of Miss Kwan before.

It's more likely to be Ross staring into a different part of Rachel...

Good point. So which decade would you say?

Smil.

Really?

Are you shaking your head in exasperation or negation?

To be boring for a moment, I hasten to add that I'm planning to add the explanation to my review, and I don't wish to quote a joke as fact.

Me too. That would be a three star movie, yes?

Absolutely!

It would make an interesting story, but tend to rule out a much better story - Joey discovering a 21yo woman is his daughter.

You just don't get cricket, do you sweetie? :)

And if there are 24 episodes in S8, they hit 5 times in the S9 opener.

Okay then, Emily beats Julie. (See, you win too.)

Indeed, but as far the couple were concerned at the time, Carol wasn't a lesbian while she was his girlfriend.

There is some famous book, which I've never read, with a title that is something like "Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance".

Zen Navigation is a technique mostly used when you switch to side roads to avoid a traffic jam on motorway. All you do is select a car that looks like it knows where it's going, then follow it.

Well, these are the dates of the last six episodes since they started showing double-episode finales, with asterisks marking the clip shows.

S4 S5 S6 S7 S8

      Apr 09      Apr 22      Apr 13 *    Apr 19      Apr 18
      Apr 16      Apr 29      Apr 27      Apr 26      Apr 25
      Apr 23 *    May 06      May 04      May 03 *    May 02
      Apr 30      May 13      May 11      May 10      May 09
      May 07      May 20      May 18      May 17      May 16
      May 07      May 20      May 18      May 17      May 16

Apart from S4, the finale has aired on the third Thursday in May, and only S6 skipped a week, so I've extrapolated all that to Season 8.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

Actually, we must have the headlights on the entire year. It's illegal to drive around without the headlights turned on.

I hope he's innocent; you guys should get at least one medal in skiing.

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I'm afraid I don't know. There are many people in Sweden with that name, so it might be a mere coincidence.

I see.

Believe me, if you had lived in the USA, you would have been sick of the both of them by now. Sarah Hughes even showed up as a presenter at the Grammys.

LOL!!! You're right.. Will Phoebe be in the vent this time around as well? ;)

This one. They seem to have a fairly equal relationship, so it would have to be a 1990s marriage or a "present" marriage.

I think so.

The former. :)

*shakes head again.* ;)

Lol, yeah.

Maybe. I'm not too sure about this story arc.

No, and "hat-trick" only reminds me of soccer.

Yep, that's true.

TT. ;)

True, but "she was playing for both teams." (That line always cracks me up.) ;)

Oh. Motor cycles? Sounds a bit strange.

Well, that might come in handy.

Yeah, that could be true. May sweeps starts in the last week of April, so the finale could be on May 16th.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Sorry, I must have meant your daylight! ;)

Exactly.

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Oh. No worries.

Yep.

Sarah Hughes?

Grin.

Only if Ross & Joey are fighting about baby names.

Well, good then. :)

Okies. :)

How you get any work done is beyond me.

At least I don't do mean things, and then not even care.

Right. Thanks. It's in the review. Subject closed. :)

It would make a valid comment on his former lifestyle.

Everybody pinches the best ideas.

VSG

That was the lacrosse team & the golf team... oh, I just got it!

There aren't actually any motor cycles in the book, of course...

It's so much better than stopping to ask the way.

Indeedy.

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

Lol! You probably did! In fact, the headlights are switched on immediately when you start driving.

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The figure skater I talked about earlier in this thread.

Well, if they will be doing that, I'm sure Phoebe can take care of it. Come to think of it, I'd love to see that, as it would give Phoebe something to do for a change.

Smil. Good for you!

Nah.. I'm a little worried about critics yelling "jump the shark" if this happened. A similar thing happened on Ally McBeal a couple of weeks ago, and the critics hated it.

So it was used in cricket in the beginning?

Grin. Ross was so proud of his girlfriend back then, wasn't he?

Oh. I think I'll pass on that book.

Lol. That whole "men never stop to ask for directions"-issue?

BTW, I noticed a something funny in Ross's apartment the other day. In a couple of episodes this season (803 and 815) we have heard about Ross doing yoga. Well, it turns out that he has a painting of a man doing yoga on his wall! Check the scene where Ross and Joey wake up on top of each other in 706, and they walk over to the door. Right behind them (next to the kitchen) is the yoga-painting. And the painting is still there.

In article , [email] (Marita Bakken) wrote:

Yes, dear.

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Oh, we went round in a circle.