Match	Winner	Post Match Brawl?
Top Flight Vs. MJF/Jericho	MJF/Jericho	No
Jurassic Express Vs. Dark Order (5, 10, & Colt Cabana)	Jurassic Express	No
PAC Vs. Butcher	PAC	VERY CLOSE but no
Dustin Vs. Evil Uno	Dustin	Yes
Hikaru Shida Vs. Alex Gracia	Hikaru Shida	Yes
Tag Team Championship Match: The Acclaimed Vs. The Young Bucks	The Young Bucks	No

Future Announced Matches
New Years Smash Night 1 (W/ Jericho)

AEW World Championship Match: Kenny Omega Vs. Rey Fenix
AEW Women's World Championship Match: Hikaru Shida Vs. Abadon
Hager Vs. Wardlow
Jon Moxley returns

New Years Smash Night 2 (2 weeks from now) (W/ Snoop Dog)

TNT Championship Match: Allin v Cage
Cody Vs. Matt Sydal

Outside of Dynamite

On Dark
- On The Waiting Room with Britt Baker, the wall Shawn Spears was thrown through has been repaired. Tony Khan has paid for it, Schiavone must have flaked. Britt gloats about giving Thunder Rosa a complimentary Holiday Facial. Sting is coming to the show, but not this week! Britt does a monologue burying everyone but the Butcher, because he's the best guy.
  - SCU is here this week. Kazarian ignores Britt and just starts cutting a promo on Christopher Daniels talking about SCU's failures. He says it's CD's fault they lost to the Acclaimed, and also his fault every single time they lose. He says CD is his best friend and brother, the best man at his wedding. Inseparable for 20 years. Kazarian says he's let personal feelings get in the way of his professional life. Britt and Reba are just sittin' there chillin'. CD tells Kazarian that he IS a professional, and one of the best wrestlers in the business. He says he needs to apologize to Kazarian because CD doesn't have the passion for wrestling anymore. For ten months he says he's been living in "A wasteland of failure", he says wrestling lately has been causing him nothing but fear and anxiety. Says he's been falling apart for the whole year. He says maybe this is a sign he needs to step away from wrestling before he ruins his own reputation and legacy. Kazarian says CD can't just go that to himself or to SCU or the rest of his friends fans and family. Kazarian says CD is a fighter. Kazarian asks him to fight by his side. He says they're at the bottom of the division right now, but they can become champions again. Kazarian says the next time they lose as a tag team, SCU is done as a tag team, forever. CD agrees. They then challenge TH2. TH2 agrees. SCU leaves without acknowledging Britt, so Britt tells Reba she's never inviting them back again.
- This is the only real story segment this week besides Future AEW Champion Pretty Peter Avalons' Pretty Peter Pageant Provocation match (For those of you who hate these write ups because I won't ever shut the fuck up, that's the literal exact name of the thing, I'm not doing a bit), where he beats Mike Verna in his AEW Debut. He is at this time only accepting opponents who are beautiful and have perfect facial symmetry. He wins, but has snot pouring out of his nose when he does so Taz and Excalibur lose their shit over it.
- Thunder Rosa and some of her Mission Pro Wrestling women are on Dark this week as well.
- 👉🤪
On IMPACT this Tuesday:
- Welcome back to the Impact Zone.
- This week Impact is more or less a clip/review show for the major storylines ongoing and that happened this year, which tbh I wish more places would do. Maybe a friday night special or something.
- The Tony's are here. Tony S. Says Tony K is the only wrestling owner who isn't a carny. Tony K says Merry Christmas to the Impact fans! Tony K says he's a partner in Activist Artist Mgmt who manages a lot of big Nashville stars and a hotel. He says he's heard that Kenny is going to be in a six man tag in their PPV, Hard To Kill. Tony K says he could easily stop this from happening, but he chooses not to. He says there's an open invite for Impact people to show up on AEW. This week even if they can afford the drive. Tony says he was thinking about buying their tag team division. He says $7 billion buys a lot of ammunition.
- Don and Kenny are backstage at a photo shoot. Don is "Feeling Nostalgiac". He's telling a story about how when times were hard for them and they and the Golden Sheik had to fire their butler, having to bring in food from a restaurant for Christmas Dinner. Don asked Kenny, at 11, what he would want for Christmas. Kenny said, "one day, Uncle Don, I want to run the wrestling business". Don said Kenny was always a Machiavellian freak and he's gotten all he wanted. Kenny says "There is a santa claus, and he has delivered". He says the AEW belt is the only one that matters. Don says Christmas is every day now. He's given everyone in the Impact Zone the best gift they could receive. Don says he wishes he had kids, a whole stable of Kenny Omegas. Kenny says fat chance, I'll never be duplicated. Don says Kenny has coined and originated the phrase "Often imitated never duplicated", and wish everyone happy holidays. "SEVEN STARS NO ONE LIKE HIM", Don says.

At Dynamite

Jericho is entering the arena right now so I got time to tell you all that I hope you have a good Christmas, or [Other]. I expect many of you will spend it alone due to the circumstances of this miserable fucking garbage year, so I hope it isn't too much of a total bummer. Grab you some of that good general tso's if you can from the place with the god tier rangoons.
After Inner Circle's victory over Top Flight, Hager gives them a congrats. He says it's been 2 weeks since the ultimatum. They've been winning because everyone has been doing their job... except Wardlow, who is still not here. Hager says THIS is family business, don't mind me, Hager says, I'm just the guy who does my job. He says he's an asset but also an asshole. He says he's talked to TK, who approved the match. Hager vs. Wardlow next week is confirmed.
Part of The Acclaimed's "Buck Hunt" diss track plays. Here's the link.
Tony is going to interview Sting, but they go ahead and give him his whole entrance with snow and everything. Tony asks him how it feels to be back on TNT. Sting says he feels, he KNOWS, he has come full circle. He says he's back in the jungle, and was an integral part of the original jungle. He says he LOVES it. Tony says, why are you here? Darby once again looms in the stadium. Sting says he can't answer it simply, it's a deep answer. He says it takes him back to his early days in wrestling, he thinks about watching matches with Dusty Rhodes. He said Dusty told him, "Stinger baby, we gonna put some color on your face, color on your tights, color on your boots, we gonna make you glow in the dark baby, we gonna put you with Ric Flair". He said it did happen, he got to wrestle Ric Flair in main event matches. He says now when he sees Cody, Dusty's alleged kid, he couldn't stay away. He had to be part of it. Regarding Darby, he says-- then Taz interrupts with his dudes. Taz says what he's saying would bring a tear to a glass eye. He says Sting is only about Sting. He says he's sick of the "IT'S STIIING" shit. Starks says he doesn't care about any of this, he says Sting is gonna get hurt. Taz agrees, he says he's got four hungry tigers who are about to bite Stings head off. The lights go out. Darby has appeared in the ring with his skateboard. Taz says, no problem, baseball bat, sting, skateboard, okay. January 6th, TNT Title match against Brian Cage. Cage says "What if I don't want to wait?" The rest of Team Taz reminds him he isn't allowed to talk and push him out of the arena. Darby and Sting are in the ring alone now. They exchange a lusty glance and the segment ends.
MJF is backstage. He says he's going to do the right thing. Santana and Ortiz are playing cards. MJF says he's sorry about Santana loss, because MJF just lost his grandfather. He says from the bottom of his heart he knows how hard it is, and he's here for him. Santana tells him to keep his head up. They hug it out. "Always keep your head up". He shakes hands with Ortiz as well. Surprisingly, MJF actually does this sincerely. He seems quite sad.
Tony joins Jurassic Express in the ring after their victory. They're the number 3 ranked tag team right now. Marko says "It's so good to be back on Dynamite--" and he's interrupted by noted weenies, FTR. Tully says he's with 2020 tag team of the year. He says, Jurassic Park, I understand you want to take us down, but dudes, Jan. 6th, our match is on. We're chomping at the bit. He says it's not business anymore, it's personal. They're on a quest and dinosaurs aren't taking them down a notch at all. Tully says if Marko sticks his little nose in, he may have a flashback to the 80's.
Kenny and Don are walking into a hotel when Marvez apparates in the lobby, as he can detect power levels, or people with promos to give, anywhere in the world. Don is incredulous as to how Marvez was able to locate them outside of the Dynamite Zone, but agrees to an interview regardless. Don is pissed about PAC being able to just create a match out of thin air. He's not an exec. Kenny, in an AMAZING blazer, says let's review for a minute Fenix. You choked in the tag team championship match, choked in AAA, choked in the eliminator AND hurt your head. He says what's gonna happen when you face someone who can't stand you AND beat your brothers ass. Kenny says he's worried he might put Fenix out for good. He says maybe he could go back to Impact. Callis says maybe not, but Konan is a possibility. Kenny says he answers the call, but Fenix trips and gets hurt.
Archer and Pac have a tense moment in the ring after Pac wins. It doesn't come to blows but their alliance certainly feels tenuous right now. PS Look at fucking Butcher break PAC's face.. Trivia: Butcher is the best guy.
Jade is backstage. She says congrats to Brandi, and says wow, how convenient for this to happen right before our match. She says she's more than happy to take over her duties on the show. She asks for a worthy opponent.
Tony is with Miro Kip and Penelope. Miro tells Tony to smile. Kip says please show some gratitude. Kip says it's the first wrestling wedding EVER on TNT. It won't be a huge deal for AEW, it's a massive deal for all of the fans, because he knows how much we can't wait for his wedding. He says he gets all our tweets telling him how much we all love this angle. He's going now to give us the gift. The exact date of their wedding. It is interrupted by Best Friends' Khan Tron. Miro and Kip and Penelope all die laughing as it is a hilarious bit. It turns out they've injured Trent! He's being loaded into an ambulance as Chuck and Orange jump in for the ride. Kip says it's such a shame they couldn't come. Miro says ITS OUR FAVORITE DAY!!! A BEACH WEDDDIIIIINNNG!!!! Beach Break, February 3rd. "ILL BE THERE THE BEST MAN MIRO IN THE HOUSE LET'S GO!" Kip and Penelope make out and the segment ends.
After Dustin beats Uno, Uno still offers Dustin a place in Dark Order and tries to get him to shake his hand. Dustin jukes him and kicks him in the face. Stooo jumps in and knocks him and Lee Johnson down Stu gives Dustin his finisher, then QT jumps in. Evil Uno and Stu knock him out, then Lee Johnson knocks the both of them out.
Tony is with Shawn Spears. Shawn asks Tony why he left the industry for fifteen years, Tony says he was burnt out. Shawn says that's why he wanted to talk to him. Shawn says he is more talented than 90% than anyone in AEW. He works and talks better than anyone. He throws away the power glove and says he doesn't need it. Shawn says TK and Cody buried him and have done it for 18 months. Tony says, have you ever thought that the problem is you. Shawn says he has thought about that. A lot. He says "Not for a goddamn second" is it true that he's the problem. He tells Tony to tell the executive vice pricks he's gone and won't be back till he feels like it.
Dasha is with Shida who asks her about Abadon. Before Shida can get a word out, Abadon attacks her. Nakazawa gets Shida out of harm's way and pushes her into Gorilla, as her match is starting immediately. Abadon interrupts Shida during the match, but Shida pulls her ass over the barricade and knocks her the fuck out. After that she runs into the ring and knocks Alex Gracia the fuck out also. She then gets her kendo stick and pokes Abadons lifeless body with it. Abadon returns to life and continues brawling. Abadon bites Shida in the throat. Shida is bleeding extensively as Abadon retreats.
AEW has confirmed Shida is still alive but it's hard to imagine the psychological damage the wound has inflicted.

Trivial Bullshit That Doesn't Really Matter

Here's a picture of The Butcher.
At 22-1, Hikaru Shida has the best 2020 singles record in all of AEW, men or women. Better than Cody, Better than Mox, better than Kenny. Her only singles loss came from a four way match on 1/1/20, which Riho won. At 210+ days held, she's also edging up on an AEW record championship reign. She's already surpassed Jericho, who held the AEW Championship for 182 days.
It's been 109 days since Kip & Penelope announced their engagement and Kip's imminent bachelor party. As we've yet to see it, the wait for this has now surpassed Nyla Rose's championship reign of 101 days, Cody's first reign as TNT Champ (and almost both combined now), and is rapidly closing in on Riho's 133 day reign.
Before being put into The Acclaimed by Tony (they were never a tag team, in fact they only ever fought against each other once), Bowens was originally slated to appear in a Dark match following Blood & Guts, then again in June. Both appearances were canceled due to COVID.
Tonight was the first time MJF has ever teamed with anyone other than Wardlow on Dynamite. He was, before Dynamite, in a tag team on MLW called Dynasty. You can see them versus the Von Erichs here
The team name Jurassic Express was Tony Khan's idea. Joey Janela confronted Khan about the name early on. Marko said on Unrestricted: "I got offered my contract at Fight For The Fallen. Joey found out we were going to be called Jurassic Express and he said, ‘What? That’s fucking stupid.’ Tony is standing right there and goes, ‘I came up with that.’ Joey goes, ‘Well, it’s fucking stupid.’ Tony goes, ‘I appreciate your honesty.’”
From Suzukigun4life: "In case anyone's wondering, the last time Evil Uno won a match on Dynamite or PPV was on July 30th. Dustin has won four tv matches and a PPV match since then. Since July 30th, the only time a Dark Order member won a match on tv was when Brodie Lee beat OC in September. It's been three months since the last Dark Order televised victory"

Hacksaw Jim Duggan Buries All Elite Wrestling
With a wrestling career that's lasted more than 40 years, Jim Duggan's power level is beyond comprehension. If he hasn't beaten an AEW wrestler directly, he's beaten them through a few degrees of separation.
Could Hacksaw Jim Duggan defeat Chris Jericho?

Hacksaw Jim Duggan defeated Steve Austin 23 times. Here's him winning the US Heavyweight Title From Austin in about 6 seconds to overwhelming cheers. Listen to Tony Schiavone lose his mind, Rich Evans from Red Letter Media in a Piggin' Out Tshirt, and Steve Austin eat shit running into the ropes after the match. The greatest moment in the history of our sport.
Steve Austin defeated Chris Jericho 10 times.

Yes, Hacksaw Jim Duggan could easily defeat Chris Jericho.
Hacksaw has previously defeated:

Kenny Omega
Colt Cabana
Hikaru Shida
Kris Statlander
Eddie Kingston

Outside Links
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Visit /AEWOfficial - The Most "Official" Unofficial Subreddit for All Elite Wrestling fans.
Visit AllEliteWrestling.com for news, tickets, merch, and other info.
Watch Impact Wrestling On Twitch for some Extra Wrestle.

Zac Clark and his words: Favourite quotes from the season

So, I kind of did a thing. Listening to the man talk, I felt heavily inspired by his words and that (plus, I am off duty for the next few days) made me jot down some of what he said to the guys, family, producers and Tayshia. Here are some of Zac Clark’s quotes/speeches from Season 16 of the Bachelorette (as they appeared during airing):

Zac (to Jason, when he wants to leave the show): “The fact that you can be so honest, and you can think about the other human beings here & Tayshia; you are such a stronger man walking out of here than when you walked in here.”

Zac (to Ed and Chasen, when they keep verbally sparring at the cocktail party): “Here’s the thing. I could care less. Let’s just bury it.”

Zac (to Tayshia, on why he’s single): “Everyone asks me, “Why are you 36 and still single?” I hid behind the whole “Being single is great” but… in the last couple of days I have started saying “I want to be a husband and a partner", "I want to be a dad”...and so, it feels good to be grown a little bit here. I have embraced it because it is the truth and I want to live in the truth.”

Zac (to Tayshia, in the hot tub): "What's most impressive to me about you... is to see the way you treat other people. That's what I'm paying attention to when I am watching you."

Zac (to the producers, before the photoshoot): “When I look at Tayshia, I can see that she’s a little shook. She’s clearly having some thoughts. I am sure she’s nervous to put on a wedding dress on walk out because that’s a powerful thing.”
Z (to Tayshia): Are you ready to put on a wedding dress?
T: It will be interesting, huh!
Z: But are you ready?
T: Yeah.

Zac ( to the producers, watching Tayshia approach him in the wedding dress) : "Seeing her walk up, beautiful... I don't think is an accurate word to describe her in this circumstance. There's another word that will be created to describe her."

Zac (to Franco, when Tayshia asks him if the veil was needed): “She might not want to, right?”
T: “Yeah!”
Z (to Tayshia): “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to, okay?”
T: “Thank you.”
T (once the photography starts): “This is so hard!”
Z: “Are you freaking out right now?”
T: “Yeah, just a little bit.”
Z: “It’s okay, I am here.”
T: “Okay.”
Z: “I got you.”

Zac (to the producers, after his first one-on-one date): “I believe in miracles. I shouldn’t be sitting here. So, if I know that I am a miracle, then who’s to tell me that I can’t come on a TV show in the middle of a national pandemic and find love with someone as amazing as Tayshia? No one. I won’t let them.”

Zac (to the producers, on the Ferris wheel): "Rose down! We got a rose down!"
T: "Oh no!"
Z: "She knocked it off. She broke up with me."
T: "I did not."
Z: "She broke up with me, people."

Zac (to Tayshia, after he gave her the photoframe): "The other day was one of the best days I've had in a long time. But I also want you to know that I am ready... whatever it takes. And I got your back."

Zac (to Tayshia, when she is super-emotional after sending Blake home): "It's alright, Tayshia."

Zac (to Bennett, when he patted his arm after returning to the cocktail party): "What are you putting your hand on me for?"

Zac (to Ben, Ivan, and Brendan, when they got emotional before HTD): “Bring on some hugs around here. Grown men cry!”

Zac (to the producers, when they jump into the fountain at his HTD): "When we end up at the fountain where we made the wish the first night I met her, her reaction could have been...'I don't want to mess my hair up. I have make-up on, a dress'... whatever else she could have thought of. But No... Tayshia's the best."

Zac (to his mother, when they were discussing his experience): “Something happened on the date she was talking about for me…that has not happened to me for a very long time. No one has been able to touch me like she has in these few days. I am happy and I am smiling. I am usually pretty stern. I lied that I wanted to be just the cool uncle. But what I’ve realized, and I think it’s important for you to hear is that I do want a family. Meeting Tayshia and falling for her has allowed me to reflect on everything that we have been through. And I hope you know the impact that you’ve had on my life because I would not be sitting here, I would not be alive…if it wasn’t for your strength. I know nothing means more to you tonight than seeing me happy, smiling and at peace. At the end of the day, this journey is all about true love… and I love you.”

Zac (to the producers, before FSD): “Hearing the other guys talk about where they are at, I think I am in a different spot. There has been nothing to this point that has made me question what we have. And I trust that. This week is not about Ivan and Tayshia or Brendan and Tayshia…it’s about Tayshia. Period.”

Zac (to Brendan, when he specifies how careful they need to be because they were previously married): "Yeah, no one is trying to stack up divorces."

Zac (to Brendan, when Ivan leaves for his FSD): “Ivan’s a great guy. I’d let him date my sister... Not sure about him dating my girlfriend, though ."

Zac (to the producers, after the painting date): “How did I actually get to this moment in my life? I mean…I can only speak for myself and tell you I am in love with the girl. I can’t speak for her. But today is the closest that I have felt to feeling like she could be my wife and I want her to know that. If she plans on being intimate with me later tonight, she should know and she should see that I have that side of me. And maybe she does know but she just wants to hear it. If I can say that in the current state I am in…I’m covered in paint, then I am pretty certain of those feelings.”

Zac (to the producers, before the FSD): "I can confidently say that I have never felt this strongly, this quickly, this easily. It's like there was a wire disconnected inside me, and Tayshia took that wire and turned me on. The only fear in all of this is that she might not know exactly how I am feeling. Tonight is possibly Fantasy Suites, a few days from her parents being here, and a few more days from a potential proposal...so, now might be the time to stop being a jacka$$ and to actually tell the girl how you feel."

Zac (to Tayshia, during their FSD): "When you told me that I was different, I thought I have a shot here."
T: "Really?"
Z: "Yes. Because it takes a certain person to understand that I'm a little different...in the best ways."

Zac (to Tayshia, at the FSD): "I made a promise to myself when I came here - be honest, be authentic. And then meeting you, spending time with you and I've told you several times about this whole idea of this light that you've turned on and taht I'm happy and I'm feeling something very strong. And you know, Tayshia I think...no, I don't think... I know that I love you. I love your smile, your strength, I love you how to treat other people. I love the human being that you are like I just see it. But it's important for you to know that."

Zac (to the producers, before they leave for the suite): "I think it's pretty clear about how Zac Clark feels about Tayshia Adams. Number one; I love the girl. Two; How am I even worthy of it?"

Zac (to the producers, the morning after FSD): “I feel as confident as I always have about our relationship. But I know it’s going to be hard for her. Family coming in, other guys being here, a potential engagement coming…it has got to be scary. But at the end of the day, we have chosen to trust each other, and that trust will allow us to get through anything. I am just going to keep trying to make her feel like the most desired person in the world…for a very, very long time.”

Zac (to the producers, before the F3 rose ceremony): "I don't know if Brendan is still here. I don't know what happened last night. I don't know what happened on Ivan's one-on-one. I know what happened on mine. I fell more in love with Tayshia and we looked each other in the eye and said 'I love you' to each other. If I really look into my future, being with someone...'Will we be able to create our own magic? Will we be able to create our own fun?' And with her, it's a resounding yes! I am all in. There is a rose ceremony tonight and it's exciting and scary at the same time. Because anyrhing can happen."

Zac (to Desmond Adams, when he says he doesn’t want the relationship to be a test): "I hear exactly what you are saying. And what I have had to really look at is when all of this goes away and it’s just me and her… life is not always easy. Supporting each other through these tough times is actually what I look forward to. We were having a beautiful conversation the other day about family, and you came up. She said, “My dad has always been my rock. He has been tough on me at times like dads can be.” But she went on to tell me that you gave her this life, you put her through private school, you gave her these opportunities, you got over your head at times but you did it because you loved her. She made it very clear to me that that’s what she is looking for. The expectations are going to be up here because you have set them really high. And I need you to know that it doesn’t scare me…it actually excites me. But I tell you that because I might have an opportunity to propose to your daughter in the very near future and I take that very seriously. I know what that means. I know what that represents. And I am not going to do that unless I am so sure, which I am sitting here in this situation, that it is the right thing to do. Because I am committed to what that means at the back end."

Zac (to Tayshia, before the LCD when she says the stress is settling in): "Can I do anything for you? Can I help you?"

Zac (to the producers, before the LCD when Tayshia is feeling funky): “I can feel the heaviness. I think there is a feeling of trepidation from her that is concerning. She is allowed to have moments of doubt, but I want her to know that I am not going anywhere."

Zac (to the producers, while they are practicing the dance): "I can tell that she is feeling nervous. I am just hoping that I can be a support and whatever she needs. Now and forever.”

Zac (to Tayshia, on their final dance attempt): "Look at me."

Zac (to the producers, before Tayshia comes to meet him at his room): "I think tonight is so beautifully scary because it means committing to something for the rest of your life. I want her to go to bed tonight feeling 100% certain as to how I feel. That gives her the key to do whatever she has to do. Because right now...I don't think she's there yet."

Zac (to Tayshia, when she doubts that he might run during difficult times): “So, today…it’s an anniversary for me. So, like…nine years sober. So, my sobriety, my recovery, whatever you want to call it… is the most important thing in my life. And the reason for that is because it allows me to not run away. Like…not run, and actually face life as it comes my way. So, to hear you say that your fear is that things will change, or I will run or whatever it is, it breaks my heart. Because if I were given the opportunity to propose to you, I am not doing that unless I am committing to you. And committing to you not just for that day or for the next couple of months, but for life. I mean, that’s what that signifies to me. I understand the word commitment, I understand the word loyalty, I understand what these things mean. I know, Tayshia, why I love you. And that has nothing to do with whether or not in five years, you will be a stay-at-home mom or a waitress…it just doesn’t matter to me, as long as you’re happy. Those are not the reasons why I love you.”

Zac (to the producers, after speaking his 9 year sobriety): "I think she believes in me."

Zac (to Tayshia, when they are lying on the bed at the LCD): “I just really love you. I know that I have given you all I have, and that is what you will continue to get.”

Zac (to the producers, after the ring selection): "I have been through some stuff in life. So, celebrating 9 years sober and being in love with this beautiful woman, is incredible. My love for her transcends any physical beauty. She is everything I have ever wanted in a partner and I feel the luckiest guy in the world. I will be nervous to propose to her because I don't know what's going to happen. I just love Tayshia so much."

Zac (to the producers, before the proposal): “Anything can happen. For her to say ‘No’ or for her to pick another guy is not out of the question. I get that. So, today means everything. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what could go wrong, but I’ve done everything in my power to get to this moment, and I owe it to her to go into this thing without fear. There are just moments in life that you wait your entire existence for, and this is one of those moments. So, if she says “yes” I’m going to be the happiest guy in the world.”

Zac (to Tayshia, at the proposal): “You know, the first conversation we ever had by our fountain, we talked about that everything happens for a reason. And when I came here to the desert, I didn’t know what that reason was, but I do today: I came here because I was supposed to meet you, and I came here because I was supposed to fall in love with you. From our first kiss to riding the Ferris wheel to meeting each other’s families, nothing has ever felt so right in my entire life. You’ve helped me experience a love that I didn’t know existed, and you’ve made me smile more than anyone has ever made me smile. I love you, Tayshia. I love you cause you’re a fighter. I love you cause you’re a strong, independent woman–you make everyone around you better. I love you cause you believe in me. I love you cause you’re a total dork. And I love you cause you drive me absolutely wild. I love everything about you. And I listened when you spoke of the importance of loyalty; I promise to be loyal to you.”
T: “That first night when I got here, I was extremely excited for the possibility of finding love, but also very nervous and scared because I didn’t know if finding true love was possible. When I first met you, I thought to myself, ‘He’s different.’ And that man is kind; he shows gratitude, and has the biggest smile. He has been through a lot but has never given up. But also, has learned how to read me better than anyone really has and knows how to comfort me when I’m down. And there was one point in my life where I thought I would never get married because of all the pain and the heartbreak that I’ve been through, and I hit absolute rock bottom. And I know that I told you that I love you, but… It’s more than that. It’s this wild, wild love that I’ve tried to come up with so many reasons not to believe, and you have truly just made me believe that there doesn’t need to be flaws, and that I deserve a love with a man who won’t run away. You’ve truly woken up my heart, and yes… it is real. I feel it, too. And I want to make more traditions and jump into fountains all over the world with you. I’m ready to hail a taxi and I’m ready to start a life with you. But also, I love you, Zac Clark. And I’ll do absolutely anything to keep that huge smile on your face, because you do everything to keep a huge smile on mine.”
Z: “The night of my hometown… When we walked in and my parents got to see that smile on my face, you gave them the best gift you could ever give them. They haven’t seen me that happy in years. You did that. And that’s when I knew. That’s when they knew. And the other night when we were talking, you spoke about this idea of someone choosing you. And I can’t picture another day, another moment without you in my life. And if you’ll let me, I’m gonna choose you right now. I’m gonna choose you tomorrow morning. I’m gonna choose you next week and next year. I’m gonna choose you forever. Because I love you. Marry me.”

So, which is your favourite? Also, let me know if I missed any.

Clover (IPOC) CEO response to Hindenburg Research piece from yesterday

from the SEC:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1801170/000119312521029637/d66346dex991.htm
click for all the tables/images.

EX-99.1 2 d66346dex991.htm EX-99.1
Exhibit 99.1
In Response to Short Seller Firm’s Questions
📷
Andrew Still-Baxter 18 min read
From:
Vivek Garipalli, CEO and Andrew Toy, President of Clover Health
Clover’s mission is to improve every life. We do that by scaling the Clover Assistant platform across physicians to drive a meaningful positive clinical impact towards as wide a percentage of our membership as possible. We align our incentives for the Clover Assistant by embedding our software platform inside of the business of our Medicare Advantage plan. As we improve outcomes, and lower costs, Clover can pass those savings on to consumers, improving the attractiveness of our plans and spurring rapid growth. We ultimately seek to transform healthcare for each and every one of us.
Clover welcomes questions about our business, as it gives us the opportunity to share our vision and to address any skepticism, whether founded or unfounded. As you will see from our detailed,
point-by-point response to the short seller firm’s questions, the alleged “report” is rife with ad-hominem attacks, sweeping inaccuracies and gross mischaracterizations. Importantly, the short seller firm did not contact Clover, and we had no knowledge of the short seller report prior to it being made publicly available. In our view, it belies a desperate attempt for publicity while sacrificing any regard for the truth.
In addition, we would note that the report’s title specifically calls out the involvement of “The King of SPACs,” Chamath Palihapitiya, and accuses him of a dearth of diligence. This, as we will show, is completely untrue, and we suspect this was done in order to sensationalize what is otherwise a rather underwhelming piece of research. Given the market’s latest views on short sellers, we believe that Hindenburg, which takes pains to call out their altruism in saying that they are not short on CLOV stock, is foolheartedly seeking to redeem itself by posturing as a white knight of the financial markets.
We’ve put together this response as rapidly as possible. We hope you will find it extremely informative.
##

Did Chamath and/or Clover know about the ongoing DOJ investigation? If so, why was it concealed from investors?

Chamath and Clover were fully aware of the DOJ inquiry.
To be clear, Clover does not believe it is, or has been, in violation of any rules or regulations related to the inquiry.
We went through both an IPO and de-SPAC due diligence process, and this subject received extensive focus and attention. Consistent with the views of Clover’s outside counsel, Social Capital’s outside counsel, and independently retained outside counsel of third parties, including IPO underwriters’ counsel, we concluded that the fact of DOJ’s request for information was not material and was not required to be specifically disclosed in our SEC filings.
How could a DOJ inquiry not be considered material information? As heavily regulated organizations participating in Medicare Advantage, Clover and its peers receive frequent requests for information from regulatory bodies. These are typically confidential. We promptly respond to these requests as and when they come in. As the short selling firm points out, the DOJ also often reaches out to ex-employees, including by civil investigative demands, as part of their information-gathering process.
For absolute clarity:
•
Clover Health believes it has made all appropriate disclosures, which were reviewed and vetted by outside counsel to all parties.
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Clover has not received any civil investigative demands or subpoenas from the Department of Justice.
•
Clover has received a request for information from the Justice Department, to which, as we do with all requests from regulatory bodies, we responded. This was on a voluntary basis.
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Clover has conducted a detailed review of matters potentially addressed by the DOJ request for information and has concluded that it is in compliance with all laws and regulations material to its business.
•
Up until the publishing of the short selling report yesterday morning, Clover was unaware of any other ongoing investigations of the Company, its officers, or any companies with which they are affiliated.
•
Following the report yesterday, Clover received notice of an investigation from the SEC. We believe this inquiry is based on the short selling report issued yesterday morning.

Is Clover aware of any other regulatory investigations into the company or Vivek Garipalli and his related companies? If so, what are the details?

Clover is unaware of any other ongoing regulatory investigations, except, as noted above, following the short selling firm’s report yesterday morning, Clover received an inquiry from the SEC. We believe this request is based on the short selling report issued yesterday morning.

Has Clover received any subpoenas or civil investigative demands from regulators? If so, how many and from which regulators?

No. Clover has not received any civil investigative demands or subpoenas from the Department of Justice. Clover has received a request for information from the Justice Department, to which, as we do with all requests from regulatory bodies, we responded on a voluntary basis.

Why does Clover’s subsidiary, “Seek Insurance” operate a website called “SeekMedicare.com” claiming to offer “independent” and “unbiased” advice on selecting Medicare plans without disclosing that it is owned by a Medicare plan provider, representing a blatant conflict of interest?

Seek Medicare is a startup that was incubated and set up as a separate company from Clover — it has its own management team, outside investor (a nationally-recognized public company), board and employees. Clover and the outside investor share in governance of Seek at the board level, including decisions such as the nomination of the CEO. Clover has the right to appoint a Board Member (currently Andrew Toy, Clover’s President & CTO), the outside investor has a right to appoint a Board Member (currently an employee of the outside investor), and the third Board Member, the CEO, must be mutually agreed upon. In addition, this investor has a unilateral contractual option to convert its investment into 50% equity ownership of Seek.
It’s not unusual for payors to create or have stakes in FMOs. What makes Seek different is its fundamental belief that Medicare consumers are simply not well-informed and that hurts their ability to get affordable, great healthcare. Seek is purpose-built to deliver against that problem. In order to make sure it could effectively pursue its goals, Seek was set up as a separate company, and it has raised nearly all of its capital from the outside investor.
At Clover, we obviously want everyone to pick a Clover plan, but we want to earn that business by providing great and affordable healthcare coverage. The most important thing is that Medicare eligibles end up in the right plan for them.
One final note here: Seek is a brand new startup, and its website is still in version 1.0. Please take a look back next week when its planned version 2.0 comes out.

Clover’s subsidiary, Seek Insurance, claims on its website “We don’t work for insurance companies. We work for you” despite literally being owned by Clover, an insurance company. What is your response?

While Seek is an affiliate, as we said, it operates separately from Clover, with its own financing and its own goals, which are to provide neutral, objective advice to Medicare eligibles and to empower, educate and assist them. Seek offers Clover plans but, more importantly, Seek also offers many more coverage options. In fact, in every market in which Seek operates, Seek endeavors to offer at least 80% of available plans in that market.
Even though Seek began very recently, it was able to stand up its agency in the most recent AEP and also launched a pilot in ~100 retail locations in six states, with a focus on markets in Georgia, New Jersey and Texas.
If you want to see the objectivity of Seek, we think the results of Seek’s initial sales period speak for themselves:
Percent of Seek sales, by insurance plan, in the most recent AEP:
1.
Cigna: 20%
2.
Humana: 20%
3.
CVS/Aetna: 17%
4.
Clover: 13.5%
5.
UnitedHealth Group: 11.3%
6.
WellCare: 8.5%
7.
Horizon: 5.7%
8.
Other (unrelated to Clover): 4.0%
In terms of scale, applications from Seek totaled less than 1% of the total applications Clover received in the most recent AEP.

How much has Clover paid B&H Assurance, the undisclosed outside brokerage firm run by Hiram Bermudez (its Head of Sales) since inception?

Clover has paid approximately $160k directly to B&H since 2017.
Hiram has disclosed the following in connection with his B&H relationship:
•
He does not receive any compensation, direct or indirect, from B&H Assurance for any work related to Clover.
•
He maintains a 50% ownership interest in B&H Assurance, which he has owned since before he joined Clover.
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Hiram’s only work on behalf of B&H Assurance is monitoring compliance and negotiating contracts, from time to time, with parties that do not include Clover.
•
He maintains an ownership interest in B&H Assurance so that, in case he separates from Clover, he has the option to go back to the brokerage agency he co-founded and not have to start over.
As a general matter, Clover engages with brokers in each of its markets in order to distribute its plans. This is standard operating procedure in the Medicare Advantage space. Broker payments are statutorily defined by state insurance regulators, broker scripts are actively monitored by both internal compliance and CMS — including via “secret shopper” and other methods — and we take our obligations to CMS, our members and potential members very seriously. We believe our marketing materials and the brokers that represent us accurately reflect and portray our plans to our members and potential members and do so with transparency and integrity.

What portion of Clover’s business has been referred by B&H Assurance since inception? How many members?

Approximately 8,200 of our current members were referred by B&H Assurance to Clover.
While B&H has been a strong producer, we strongly disagree with the statement that B&H alone has “fueled” Clover’s growth. We believe that all Medicare Advantage plans have key producer relationships, and to say those relationships somehow illegitimately fuel growth is a misnomer.
We believe Clover plans are appealing because they are often amongst the lowest cost plans in our established markets, and they offer the same cost-sharing for in-network and out-of-network primary care and specialist visits. As we expand across the country, we intend to establish relationships with additional brokers and key producers.

Former employees told us that the relationship between Clover and B&H Assurance was transferred into the name of Hiram Bermudez’s wife “for compliance purposes”. NAIC filings confirm it was transferred into his wife’s (maiden) name weeks after the go-public announcement. What is the explanation for this?

The statement underlying this question is false and misleading. The reason that B&H Assurance’s appointment list does not include Clover is that B&H has what is referred to as a “downline” relationship with Ritter Insurance Marketing, which contracts directly with Clover (note that it appears B&H does contract directly with a number of other plans based on the cited NAIC record page). Rather than a nefarious circumstance, this is also a standard construct in the Medicare Advantage world.
Further, the statements interpreting Yesenia Rivera (Bermudez)’s NAIC profile are incorrect in their conclusions: (1) there was no transfer of any relationship between Clover and B&H Assurance from Hiram to his wife; (2) the NAIC filing simply shows that on August 14, 2020, Mrs. Bermudez was directly appointed by Clover Health to be able to sell Clover plans as an agent.
For context, Hiram underwent a major organ transplant surgery at the end of last summer due to chronic kidney disease. He, thankfully, is doing very well healthwise after the surgery. Hiram informed us that he and his wife made a decision for her to go through broker certification so that, if his condition deteriorated further, she would be able to take over his 50% ownership in B&H.
No one should ever feel compelled to share this type of personal and private health information publicly, but we deeply respect Hiram’s desire to disclose this to make clear he had no malicious intent. Hiram is highly mission-oriented and an amazing teammate at Clover, and pathetic attempts to slander him are shameful.

Will Clover produce the agreement showing the transfer of the relationship into Hiram Bermudez’s wife’s name? Who signed off on the agreement and which senior members of management knew about the deal?

See previous response.

Is Clover aware that disclosure of significant transactions with key senior employees is something investors like to know about, so they can be made aware of potential material conflicts of interest?

Consistent with applicable laws and regulations, Clover has conflict of interest policies requiring employees to disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest. Clover follows SEC rules and regulations regarding the public disclosure of these relationships.

Was Chamath aware that the DOJ was looking into issues of potential upcoding when he mentioned, unprompted, on CNBC “they don’t motivate doctors to upcode or do all kinds of things in order to get paid”?

We agree (as does Chamath) that upcoding is a significant problem in the Medicare Advantage industry, and Chamath was fully aware that we have built the Clover Assistant to address the problems in the approaches used by other insurers.
To be clear, Chamath’s statement that “we do not motivate doctors to upcode or do all kinds of things to get paid” is accurate:
•
We pay Clover Assistant Primary Care physicians a fixed, flat payment per office visit.
•
Unlike other plans, we never compensate more for agreeing with the Clover Assistant. We never pay less for disagreeing with the Clover Assistant. This payment is fixed and guaranteed, and physicians use their own judgment on what they believe is clinically correct in relation to their direct understanding of the patient.
•
Put another way, a clinician could choose to disagree with every suggestion, which means there are no additional diagnoses and no additional risk adjustment codes, and they still get paid the exact same amount as if they did agree. There is NO financial motivation that we provide to physicians to answer in any particular way.
•
This is why we specifically do not believe in capitation contracts the same way that others do. These contracts often share risk adjustment back to physicians — i.e., an indirect way to reward them for coding more. Clover does not support those types of strategies.
To be clear, the focus of the Clover Assistant is driving clinical value. Because of its important role in early and improved detection of disease burden, accurate risk adjustment is one of the byproducts of clinical engagement with the Clover Assistant. Notably, however, much of the content in the Clover Assistant has absolutely nothing to do with risk adjustment. More than 50% of the clinical data we capture through Clover Assistant visits has no risk score impact whatsoever.
Here are just a few examples of the Clover Assistant driving clinical value:
📷
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Medication Therapy Management:
📷
For Chronic Kidney Disease
📷
For Statins
Addressing risk:
📷
Fall Risk
📷
Mortality Risk
Covid — 19 Response
📷
Mail Order and Home Drug Delivery

Clover reported that “onboarded” physicians used Clover Assistant for 92% of member visits in 2019, but never defined “onboarded”. We found that less than half of Clover’s in-network doctors are considered “Clover Preferred”. What is the definition of an “onboarded” physician? What percentage of Clover’s in-network doctors actually use the Clover Assistant?

This is a good question. Similar to enterprise software, there are two phases of bringing on physicians to Clover Assistant:
Contracting: Where we explain the benefits of Clover Assistant to the physicians and they have agreed to use the software.
Onboarding: Where the physicians have received their initial training and have created their accounts, and we have answered their questions. Basically, they’re ready to use the software. We also refer to the physicians as the “Live” physicians.
We use the Onboarded/Live number (as opposed to Contracted) when discussing engagement because that correlates to the physicians that are trained and ready to use the Clover Assistant. We typically have a pipeline of Contracted physicians waiting to be onboarded at any given time, and our goal is to go from Contracted to Live within 60 days.
Speaking to the second question, currently 22% of all in-network Primary Care Physicians are Live. This correlates to 4% of the total in-network physicians (including PCPs, specialists, etc.), but the Clover Assistant is currently built as a tool for PCPs, so we believe 22% is a more useful number.
That said, we don’t view either of those figures to be particularly relevant to the scalability and impact potential of the Clover Assistant. Instead, we focus on membership coverage. More specifically, as of YE 2020, 56% of our membership were attributed to one of those 22% Live PCPs. An additional 11% are attributed to a PCP who is contracted but in the onboarding pipeline (bringing us to 67% total coverage for Clover Assistant as of YE 2020).
This is because as we bring on physicians, we focus on contracting and onboarding those with more Clover members first, so a disproportionate number of our members are attributed to Clover Assistant-Live PCPs. As we continue to deploy the Clover Assistant, we intend to bring on the remainder of these physicians and we expect to see these numbers converge more. Right now we’re very proud of that 67% coverage number of all Clover members as of year-end 2020.

If Clover’s software is so “delightful” to use, why does Clover have to pay doctors extra ($200 per visit) just to use it?

We think this is a big part of the innovation model of Clover and why it’s so important that we build this tool internally as a payor.
The Clover Assistant is a SaaS-type enterprise clinical decision tool, but rather than charge physicians to use it (like regular software startups), we instead reimburse PCPs to encourage them to use it and to recognize the incredibly important role PCPs play in assessing and taking care of our members and controlling costs. PCPs receive less than 5% of total medical expenses in the US, and we believe that to solve the ballooning health care expenses in our country, we need to shift more of our focus, resources, and compensation to primary care doctors.
To be clear, the “extra $200 per visit” is not incremental or “just to use” the Clover Assistant, but represents the overall payment that covers both the PCP office visit and the use of the Clover Assistant. This translates to roughly twice the traditional Medicare fees paid to PCPs for an office visit, more in line with fees paid to specialists.
Most critically, this is a flat fee. We don’t pay them more to agree with us, or less when they disagree. A lot of programs effectively do this, and that creates moral hazards like upcoding or trying to skimp on care. We pay the flat fee because we want to reward PCPs for great data-driven primary care without creating those moral hazards and bad incentives.
Speaking to the delight point — we measure this in an objective, standard way in the form of Net Promoter Score surveys. We run these surveys within Clover Assistant for all Clover Assistant users on a quarterly basis to see how we’re doing in terms of user satisfaction and delight. We’ve traditionally received a score between 55–63 which we think is excellent — particularly for healthcare.
Here’s a screenshot of our NPS survey:
📷
Clover Assistant NPS Survey
📷
Our most recent NPS results from the end of last year.
As you can see, most of our Clover Assistant survey respondents give us very high ratings. There are a few “middle” scores, and there are, of course, some detractors who give us low scores. When we receive detractor feedback, we strive to send our Product and User Research teams to interview these users to find out how we can do better. We’re not perfect, but our fast iteration rate (releasing a new Clover Assistant version on average every 3–4 weeks) helps us continuously improve our platform.

Multiple doctors explained that it was difficult to remove prior diagnoses from the Clover Assistant. Is Clover aware of this? And can Clover guarantee that in future versions of the software doctors will be able to remove prior diagnoses, so as to ensure accuracy and cost efficiency?

For clarity, every diagnosis that appears in the Clover Assistant is for physician consideration, and they can choose to tell us they don’t think that diagnosis is currently relevant. Here’s a screenshot of how it’s shown.
📷
Every suggestion made is based upon clinical data that we have at Clover and personalized for each specific patient. Then the physician can tell us whether they can confirm the diagnosis. If they cannot confirm, they can easily select that option (shown above), and we ask them to share the reason why so we can update our internal data.
Note that when a physician tells us a diagnosis is not currently relevant, we do not show that diagnosis again that calendar year unless there is a new reason to believe that the diagnosis applies (e.g., new clinical data).
We may also resurface a diagnosis the following calendar year for reconfirmation. There’s a reason for this: many chronic diagnoses may come and go in terms of their diagnosis state. For example, diabetes may resolve (removing the diagnosis) if a patient loses weight, but if the patient puts the weight back on, diabetes will come back. Or, active cancer may go into remission, then unfortunately return. As such, it’s clinically appropriate to track these previous diagnoses.
Bonus Question: Is Clover Assistant actually helpful to physicians in providing better care above and beyond their EHR?”
This wasn’t actually in the list of questions addressed to us but was implicit in the short-selling firm’s commentary, so we wanted to hit this on the head, too.
We are incredibly proud of the ways, in only a few short years, we have been able to build the Clover Assistant platform in order to support PCPs in providing better care for our members. The Clover Assistant is not attempting to be an EHR; rather, we are focused on building a product that is supplemental to the EHR and driven by physician feedback.
We’ve supported the rapid transition to remote visits during the outbreak of COVID-19 this past spring, we’ve supported members getting their medications delivered to them when they couldn’t leave their home, and we’ve gotten clinical information otherwise not available to PCPs into the hands of those most equipped to utilize that information.
We also surface evidence-based protocols specific to a member’s disease profile. To be clear, we do this in order to help our members receive the right medications, access the right testing, and achieve better outcomes. By doing so, we pay more money now in order to decrease costs and patient suffering down the line.
If you take a look at our most recent investor presentation, you can easily see a view of that functionality on page 10. On page 19 of the same deck, you can also see a view of the Clover Assistant’s impact outside of accurate diagnosis capture.
We are just starting this journey, and know that, like with any software, there are plenty of opportunities for fine tuning and further improvement. But we are motivated by those challenges and solicit that feedback from the healthcare community and our in-network physicians regularly.
— The Clover Product, Clinical, and Engineering Leads

A former employee explained that Clover handed out gift cards to doctors and nurses to generate patient leads, a practice prohibited by CMS. These gift cards were justified as being for everything but recruitment, including “morale,” a “thank you,” “motivation,” and “friendship.” How do you respond?

Clover does not provide gift cards to doctors and nurses to generate patient leads.
Clover prides itself on a strong culture of compliance. If we were to discover any violation of CMS regulations or any applicable law or regulation, our compliance department would take decisive and strong corrective action.

Does CEO Vivek Garipalli deny that his CarePoint hospitals at one point charged the highest emergency room prices in the entire nation?

It is important to note that CarePoint is a separate and independent business entity, with different management teams, investor structures, and boards of directors. We do not comment on its operations. We also do not respond to ad hominem attacks against our officers.

Why did CEO Vivek Garipalli make a secret $1 million donation to the Mayor of Jersey City?

The aforementioned contribution to a PAC has been reported in the media. Like any private citizen, Vivek makes contributions. As our first market, New Jersey is near and dear to us, and Vivek believes the Mayor of Jersey City has done a commendable job of attracting businesses and developing affordable housing policies.
Vivek also donates to other causes in New Jersey and elsewhere — such as a $1MM contribution to the Goodwill Rescue Mission homeless shelter in Newark, NJ.

Why has Clover had such extensive executive turnover, with 3 CFOs, 3 COOs, and 2 General Counsels in the last 4 years?

Clover has evolved significantly over the past four years, and we needed different people with different skill sets at each stage of our journey. We are grateful for the contributions of every one of our employees, past and present, and are proud of our current management team. As is evident from our team’s background, they bring extensive experience across their areas of expertise. We believe we should always be looking to bring on more and more talented and mission-oriented individuals as we evolve and grow.
In particular, we are grateful to our co-founder Kris Gale for his work as the original Clover CTO to build the fundamentals of the Clover data platform. When Andrew Toy, our current President and CTO, came on board, one of the first things he did was focus on the creation of a way to turn data into improved care by physicians. The result of that was the Clover Assistant.

UPDATE: Bougie Bride Part II

Hello and welcome to Bougie Bride Part II!!! Like I said, I wasn't expecting nearly as positive of a response to my last post as what I got, but since everyone seemed so interested in my bougie cousin, I'm here to give the good people of Reddit what they want. For those of you just joining us, here's the link to the first post: https://www.reddit.com/weddingshaming/comments/l1d0gj/bougie_bride/
Well you guys asked for it so here it is, don't be surprised if this post is very long, as I like to write and I have a LOT to say lol. Warning: this post is like XXXXXL!
It's still hard to decide where exactly to start when there was SO MUCH wrong with this wedding, but I suppose I'll start from the beginning. Let me set the stage. To begin, we have our infamous Bougie Bride, master of manipulation and terrible tantrums. But let me also introduce our Ghetto Groom, whose miserly might and supreme stinginess is a super power unto itself entirely. Together, they make for one of the most disagreeable dynamic duos out there. Truly, I don't know who I killed in a past life to have gotten stuck in such a shitshow of a wedding. But alas, at least my misery can be your entertainment.
As you all well know, there was some major beef between BB (Bougie Bride) and MOH, but let me expound on the finer points of the sisters' relationship so you can get a more nuanced understanding of the extent of their history, and why everyone was so surprised BB even asked her sister to be MOH in the first place.
Growing up, BB had anger issues, was a pathological liar, compulsive stealer, and an extreme narcissist. She stole MOH's makeup, video games, clothes, and even sketches (MOH was and is a great artist) and passed them off as her own. BB basically tried to usurp MOH's life, including interests, hobbies and likes, and then tried to pass them off as her own. Now, this wasn't your garden variety, typical sibling-copying-sibling kind of stuff, this was some serious, next-level Single White Female, I Want to Wear Your Skin Creepiness. It also completely stripped MOH of any identity because everyone would ascribe MOH's personality traits to BB and act as if MOH never did/liked/was interested in said hobby at all. For example, when BB stole MOH'S drawings, their mother pretended like MOH never drew to begin with and began to only nurture and encourage BB to draw. For Christmas she bought BB a beautiful art set, but not MOH. These things happened regularly, and created a lot of tension between the sisters over the years. Surprisingly, BB was sent to therapy for her behavioral issues, but it should also be noted that even though their mother sent BB to therapy, she still claims to this day there is nothing really wrong with BB. BB inherited most of her psychological problems from mom, and so that's why mom always favored BB growing up (at least, that's my perspective of why a mother would display such garish favoritism over the years.) Their mother also never believed MOH when she told mom BB was stealing (despite having solid evidence from multiple sources and family members), and dad is the type of dad who buries his head in the sand when any kind of problem crops up. So neither BB nor MOH had much guidance in the way of growing up, and unfortunately mom really enabled BB more than she helped her, and gas lighted MOH to the point where there is some serious family dysfunction between everyone.
To further exemplify the kind of human being BB is, growing up she cheated on all of her boyfriends, flirted with all of her friends' boyfriends, claimed she got along better with boys than girls because girls were too much drama, thought all of her female friends were jealous of hecopying her to the point that she accused two of them of stalking her (they weren't), thought all of her guy friends were in love with her, and even went so far as to accuse her sister of stealing her best friend. This is a very long story of lying and manipulation on BB's part probably meant for another sub, but what you do need to know is that the friendship theft in question is still a pretty sore point and actually created a huge rift within the family that spanned several years. I know this is a lot to unpack, but it all plays into the wedding drama and why participating in this wedding was about so much more than your typical bridezilla demands.
So with the necessary context out of the way, let's move onto the wedding. The first sign of what was to come was probably right after the engagement. Again, you already know the drama about BB picking her sister as MOH, but before MOH could even pick a venue or set something up, BB and GG (Ghetto Groom) were already thinking about all the PRESENTS they were going to get! I emphasize presents because this was actually an ENORMOUS focus of their's. So before MOH had that talk with BB from the last post, BB and GG came up with the idea that they were going to keep a master list of who gave them what at the bridal shower, with a note on how much each person spent on them. This wasn't really the issue, as lots of people do this, but it was the way she talked about it that was cringe. I have a lot of memorable quotes from BB because she really just dropped bombs any time she opened her mouth, and I will never forget the vehemence behind her words when she explained her reasoning for the list. It went a little something like this, "Fuck that, cheap bitches ain't getting a penny more from me when it comes time to go to THEIR wedding. They'll get what they give." Again, even though I personally wouldn't do the same thing, I understand people who would, but the wedding was never about having people come together to celebrate BB and GG's happiness, it was always about how much they could get for as little effort as possible, and the whole thing just left a sour taste in my mouth. She talked this way about her wedding gifts, too, and was generally just completely all-consumed with what people were going to get her. It didn't help that these sentiments were echoed and supported tenfold by GG's mom and grandma.
Anyway, lots of you wanted an update on what MOH's response was to BB's petty dig at her best friend. Basically, MOH politely told her she understood, but that considering she was unemployed and trying to save money, she just wanted to let BB know that whatever she was planning to do would most likely be small and intimate, and mostly between close friends and family. The thing you need to know about BB is if you don't talk to her like she is a small child, she tends to get very angry and uncompromising, so MOH really had to yes her to death about her best friend being too poor to be her MOH while simultaneously also be like, "hey, I'm poor, too." BB wasn't thrilled but kind of had to be ok with it for no other reason other than the sheer fact that there was literally nothing else MOH could do (and being that BB previously lost all of her other friends over the years, she literally didn't have anyone else to ask).
Real Talk for a minute-BB was also DEFINITELY expecting something extravagant whether MOH spent a lot of money or a little money, because MOH and myself (the only two people who would be helping with the bridal shower since trying to wrangle the other two bridesmaids was next to inpossible) are known for our parties. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but design and party planning are kind of our thing. We do something special for every occasion, even if we can't spend money (we've built an arsenal of supplies up over the years where we don't really have to), and always try to go the extra mile no matter what kind of budget we're working with. BB told MOH to her face that this was one one of, if not the deciding factor in why she chose her for the role.
Well, MOH, being the nice person I said she was (generous to a fault even to people who have treated her poorly in life), felt bad for BB. She still wanted to do something over the top (she is very Taurian in nature, and she loves to lavish herself and others in luxury, whether its things or trips. This can also be her folly sometimes). Well, in this case it was her folly, because she made the fatal mistake of suggesting something rather unconventional. MOH told BB that if she was ok with it, instead if having a bridal shower, they could skip the shower and go all out for the bachelorette party. She suggested this in part because BB was a very unorthodox bride in the sense that she didn't even want to get married (it was mostly the result of pressure from GG), and explicitly said she didn't care about a bridal shower and didn't really want one. So MOH came up with the idea that for the bachelorette party, all the bridesmaids and BB would instead go on a destination vacation to a tropical, luxury spa, where everything would (of course) be paid for BB. Needless to say, BB loved this idea. When we approached the other two bridesmaids and asked them for dates, they said it really didn't work for them. To illustrate the bride's reaction and selfishness, she told us "bro, I could care less if they can make it. I don't need to spend time with them. If I have to go alone, I will, I just want to go to the spa." So BB was totally on board with the idea of sacrificing the bridal shower for a suped up bachelorette party. It was just going to be the three of us, and BB kept gushing about how excited she was and bragging to GG about where we were taking her.
I wish we made it to the spa. I wish everything worked out the way we intended it to and me, MOH, and BB could all bond over the shared memory of a great bachelorette party. Good readers, you know how it goes around these parts: no good deed goes unpunished.
Let's fast forward about a week or so after we all had the discussion. MOH gets called downstairs by her parents to have a "talk." We exchange nervous glances because the only time her parents want to "talk" to their kids is when they want to chastise them for something they did wrong, but boy, nothing could prepare me for what was to come. Turns out, BB went behind MOH's back and told her parents that MOH sat her down and told her she wasn't getting a bridal shower because she couldn't afford it. BB told parents that she was really upset about this, but that MOH didn't care because she had to do what was in her best interest. Suffice to say MOH was NOT happy, and her parents chewed her out for being a bad sister. MOH told her parents the truth (that BB was basically a stark raving lunatic who made the whole thing up), but parents didn't care. Inevitably it ended with parents threatening MOH to either throw a bridal shower or face serious repercussions. MOH was essentially caught between a rock and a hard spot, and eventually had to go back to the drawing board to figure something out.
And she did. MOH figured out a way to pay for a small and intimate gathering at a nearby resteraunt that had really lovely atmosphere and was somewhere everyone liked. MOH was still just a little over 2k out of pocket, but the venue accommodated about 25 people and, most importantly, everyone was happy, or so we thought. Well, as the story goes, everyone was NOT happy, least of all Bougie Bride! That's right ladies and gents, after it was all said and done, BB had yet ANOTHER gripe.
Turns out 25 people was not nearly enough accommodation for our precious princess! And at the encouragement of GG's meddling mom, who kept insisting they needed at LEAST 100 guests because OMG PRESENTZZZ, BB came a crying her little boy blue song to mom and dad yet again. I guess parents weren't as stupid as I gave them credit for, because even they recognized MOH wouldn't be able to do much about BB's ridiculous demands for a larger venue. They actually tried to negotiate with BB, but BB was equipped with the whispers of meddling mother-in-law who was just as adamant about a larger venue. So after a rather exhausting back and forth and the occasional outburst of bougie bridal tears, what did parents do? They went out and rented a larger venue space, and then they paid for it all (that's right, meddling-mother-in-law, after being the ring leader of the larger venue equals more presents movement, didn't offer to pay a dime). None of this should be too surprising I suppose when you take into account that in high school, BB used to unironically tell her friends she was "daddy's little rich girl," and upon graduating to college would randomly and without context drop to coworkers this gem of a line, "by the way I'm rich." If you felt awkward and confused reading that, it's because every time she said it, it was just as awkward and confusing. I swear to God it always came out of the blue and unprompted, too.
But I digress, after all of the tears and bloodshed, the bridal shower ended up being held at meddling mother in laws house due to personal reasons (mostly being that if parents were paying for the shower they wanted the guest list to be split evenly between BB's family and GG's family. GG and meddling mother in law only really care about his side of the family, so holding it at meddling mother in law's house allowed them to curate the guest list to their specifications, which made for one hell of an awkward shower, but that's for another Bougie Bride update entirely). So in short, BB's theatrics were really for nothing and we all had to be subjected to a terrible bridal shower anyway at meddling mother in laws house. The greatest part was that when all was said and done, neither parents or meddling mother in law paid for any of it, but poor MOH ended up footing the bill for catering expenses, tent rentals, floral bouquets, and the works.
So yes, good readers of Reddit, that is just a little slice of the overpriced cake. I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed this update, and if you're all still interested, there is sadly still much, much more where that came from.

Which Actor had the best run in the 50s?

Best run in terms of anything and only Male Actors
Jack Lemmon: Some Like it Hot, Mister Roberts, Three for the Show, Phffft, It Should Happen to You, Once Too Often, Cowboy, Hollywood Bronc Busters, You Can't Run Away from It, Fire Down Below, My Sister Eileen, It Happened to Jane, Operation Mad Ball, and Bell, Book and Candle.
Max von Sydow: The Seventh Seal, Miss Julie, Ingen mans kvinna, Rätten att älska, Wild Strawberries, Prästen i Uddarbo, Kvinnlig spion 503, The Magician, and Brink of Life.
Frank Sinatra: From Here to Eternity, The Man with the Golden Arm, Pal Joey, Suddenly, Double Dynamite, Meet Danny Wilson, Young at Heart, Not as a Stranger, Guys and Dolls, The Tender Trap, Meet Me in Las Vegas, High Society, Johnny Concho, Around the World in 80 Days, The Pride and the Passion, The Joker Is Wild, Kings Go Forth, Some Came Running, A Hole in the Head, and Never So Few.
Gene Kelly: Singing in the Rain, An American in Paris, Invitation to the Dance, It's Always Fair Weather, Summer Stock, It's a Big Country, Black Hand, Love Is Better Than Ever, The Devil Makes Three, Brigadoon, Seagulls Over Sorrento, Deep in My Heart, The Happy Road, Les Girls, and Marjorie Morningstar.
Ernest Borgnine: Marty, China Corsair, Vera Cruz, From Here to Eternity, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Mob, The Whistle at Eaton Falls, Treasure of the Golden Condor, The Stranger Wore a Gun, Johnny Guitar, The Bounty Hunter, Demetrius and the Gladiators, Violent Saturday, Jubal, The Catered Affair, Run for Cover, The Last Command, The Square Jungle, The Best Things in Life Are Free, The Vikings, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Torpedo Run, and The Rabbit Trap.
James Stewart: Bell, Book and Candle, Vertigo, Winchester '73, The Glenn Miller Story, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Naked Spur, Rear Window, Harvey, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Man from Laramie, Strategic Air Command, Anatomy of a Murder, The Spirit of St. Louis, Bend of the River, Thunder Bay, Broken Arrow, No Highway in the Sky, The Jackpot, Carbine Williams, Night Passage, The FBI Story, and The Far Country.
Ward Bond: The Searchers, Mister Roberts, Johnny Guitar, Hondo, The Quiet Man, Singing Guns, Riding High, Wagon Master, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, Operation Pacific, The Great Missouri Raid, The Halliday Brand, Rio Bravo, On Dangerous Ground, Only the Valiant, Hellgate, Bullfighter and the Lady, Thunderbirds, The Moonlighter, Blowing Wild, Gypsy Colt, The Bob Mathias Story, The Long Gray Line, A Man Alone, Dakota Incident, Pillars of the Sky, The Wings of Eagles, China Doll, and Alias Jesse James.
John Wayne: The Searchers, Hondo, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo, Operation Pacific, The Wings of Eagles, Big Jim McLain, Flying Leathernecks, The Sea Chase, Trouble Along the Way, Island in the Sky, The High and the Mighty, Blood Alley, Jet Pilot, The Conqueror, Legend of the Lost, The Horse Soldiers, and The Barbarian and the Geisha.
Paul Newman: The Rack, The Silver Chalice, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Long, Hot Summer, The Helen Morgan Story, Until They Sail, The Young Philadelphians, Rally Round the Flag, Boys!, The Left Handed Gun, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Marlon Brando: The Men, A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata!, Julius Caesar, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Désirée, Guys and Dolls, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Sayonara, and The Young Lions.
Orson Welles: Othello, Touch of evil, Mr. Arkadin, Royal Affairs in Versailles, The Long, Hot Summer, The Vikings, High Journey, Ferry to Hong Kong, Compulsion, Masters of the Congo Jungle, South Seas Adventure, The Roots of Heaven, Napoléon, Man in the Shadow, Moby Dick, Three Cases of Murder, Trouble in the Glen, Disorder, The Black Rose, Return to Glennascaul, Little World of Don Camillo, Man, Beast and Virtue, and Trent's Last Case.
Montgomery Clift: The Big Lift, A Place in the Sun, I Confess, Indiscretion of an American Wife, From Here to Eternity, Raintree County, Lonelyhearts, The Young Lions, and Suddenly, Last Summer.
Tony Curtis: The Prince Who Was a Thief, Flesh and Fury, No Room for the Groom, Houdini, The Black Shield of Falworth, So This Is Paris, Six Bridges to Cross, The Square Jungle, Trapeze, Mister Cory, The Midnight Story, Sweet Smell of Success, The Vikings, Kings Go Forth, The Defiant Ones, Some Like It Hot, Operation Petticoat, Sierra, Winchester '73, Kansas Raiders, Forbidden, Son of Ali Baba, Meet Danny Wilson, All American, Beachhead, The Midnight Story, The Perfect Furlough, The Rawhide Years, The Purple Mask, Francis, Woman in Hiding, I Was a Shoplifter, and Johnny Dark.
James Dean: East of Eden, Has Anybody Seen My Gal?,Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.
Kirk Douglas: Young Man With a Horn, The Glass Menagerie, Along the Great Divide, Ace in the Hole, Detective Story, The Big Sky, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Story of Three Loves, The Juggler, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Man Without a Star, Lust for Life, Top Secret Affair, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Paths of Glory, The Vikings, Last Train from Gun Hill, and The Devil’s Disciple.
Alec Guinness: Last Holiday, The Mudlark, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit, The Promoter, The Captain’s Paradise, Malta Story, The Detective, To Paris with Love, The Prison, The Ladykillers, The Swan, The Bridge on the River Kwai, All at Sea, The Horse’s Mouth, The Scapegoat, and Our Man in Havana.
Charlton Heston: Julius Caesar, Dark City, The Greatest Show on Earth, Ruby Gentry, The President’s Lady, Arrowhead, The Naked Jungle, The Private war of Major Benson, Lucy Gallant, The Ten Commandments, Touch of Evil, The Big Country, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, Ben-Hur, The Far Horizons, The Buccaneer, Three Violent People, Secret of the Incas, Bad for Each Other, The Savage, The President's Lady, and Pony Express
Rock Hudson: The Fat Man, Bend of the River, Scarlet Angel, Has Anyone Seen My Gal?, Magnificent Obsession, All that Heaven Allows, Never Say Goodbye, Giant, Written on the Wind, Something of Value, The Tarnished Angels, The Earth Is Mine, Pillow Talk, Winchester '73, Tomahawk, Horizons West, Twilight for the Gods, A Farewell to Arms, This Earth Is Mine, Captain Lightfoot, One Desire, Seminole, Bengal Brigade, Sea Devils, Gun Fury, Back to God's Country, The Golden Blade, Taza, Son of Cochise, The Lawless Breed, Peggy, The Desert Hawk, Iron Man, Here Come the Nelsons, Bright Victory, and Air Cadet.
Burt Lancaster: The Flame and the Arrow, Mister 880, Jim Thorpe—All-American, The Crimson Pirate, Come Back Little Sheba, From Here to Eternity, Apache, Vera Cruz, The Rose Tattoo, Trapeze, The Rainmaker, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Sweet Smell of Success, Run Silent Run Deep, The Devil’s Disciple, Ten Tall Men, South Sea Woman, and Three Sailors and a Girl.
Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, and King Creole.
William Holden: The Horse Soldiers, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, Stalag 17, Picnic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Union Station, Father Is a Bachelor, Submarine Command, Born Yesterday, Force of Arms, Boots Malone, Executive Suite, Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach, The Moon Is Blue, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Escape from Fort Bravo, Forever Female, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, The Country Girl, The Key, The Proud and Profane, and Toward the Unknown.
Cary Grant: An Affair to Remember, North by Northwest, The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, To Catch a Thief, Indiscreet, Crisis, People Will Talk, Room for One More, Dream Wife, Monkey Business, Kiss Them for Me, and Operation Petticoat.
Toshiro Mifune: Samurai Trilogy, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, Scandal, The Hidden Fortress, Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka, Engagement Ring, Elegy, Escape from Prison, Beyond Love and Hate, Pirates, Meeting of the Ghost Après-Guerre, Fog Horn, Conclusion of Kojiro Sasaki:Duel at Ganryu Island, The Life of a Horsetrader, Golden Girl, Who Knows a Woman's Heart, Vendetta for a Samurai, The Life of Oharu, Swift Current, Tokyo Sweetheart, Sword for Hire, The Man Who Came to Port, The Last Embrace, My Wonderful Yellow Car, Sunflower Girl, Eagle of the Pacific, The Black Fury, The Sound of Waves, All is Well part 1 & 2, The Merciless Boss: A Man Among Men, No Time for Tears, I Live in Fear, Rainy Night Duel, The Under World, Settlement of Love, Scoundrel, A Wife's Heart, Rebels on the High Seas, A Man in the Storm, Be Happy, These Two Lovers, A Dangerous Hero, Yagyu Secret Scrolls 1 & 2, Downtown, The Lower Depths, Holiday in Tokyo, Rickshaw Man, All About Marriage, Theater of Life, Yaji and Kita on the Road, The Three Treasures, Life of an Expert Swordsman, Boss of the Underworld, Desperado Outpost, and The Saga of the Vagabonds.
Henry Fonda: Mister Roberts, The Wrong Man, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, 12 Angry Men, Stage Struck, The Man Who Understood Women, Warlock, The Tin Star, and War and Peace
Dean Martin: Some Came Running, Rio Bravo, Career, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, The Young Lions, Little New Orleans Girl, Pardners, Hollywood or Bust, Artists and Models, Living It Up, You're Never Too Young, 3 Ring Circus, The Caddy, Road to Bali, Money from Home, Scared Stiff, The Stooge, That's My Boy, Sailor Beware, Jumping Jacks, My Friend Irma Goes West, and At War with the Army.
Anthony Perkins: The Tin Star, Friendly Persuasion, Fear Strikes Out, The Matchmaker, On the Beach, Desire Under the Elms, Green Mansions, The Actress, The Lonely Man, and This Angry Age.
Gregory Peck: Only the Valiant, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, Captain Horatio Hornblower, Pork Chop Hill, Beloved Infidel, David and Bathsheba, The Gunfighter, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, The World in His Arms, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Designing Woman, On the Beach, The Hidden World, The Bravados, The Big Country, Night People, Boum sur Paris, The Million Pound Note, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and The Purple Plain.
Clark Gable: Mogambo, Run Silent, Run Deep, Teacher's Pet, Betrayed, Never Let Me Go, The Tall Men, Key to the City, Across the Wide Missouri, To Please a Lady, Lone Star, But Not for Me, Soldier of Fortune, The King and Four Queens, and Band of Angels.
Gary Cooper: It's a Big Country, Blowing Wild, High Noon, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, They Came to Cordura, Ten North Frederick, Love in the Afternoon, Man of the West, The Hanging Tree, Friendly Persuasion, Vera Cruz, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Garden of Evil, Springfield Rifle, Return to Paradise, Starlift, You're in the Navy Now, Distant Drums, and It's a Big Country.
Robert Mitchum: Not as a Stranger, His Kind of Woman, River of No Return, Fire Down Below, The Night of the Hunter, Macao, The Racket, Where Danger Lives, The Lusty Men, River of No Return, Angel Face, White Witch Doctor, My Forbidden Past, Second Chance, One Minute to Zero, She Couldn't Say No, Bandido, Track of the Cat, The Wonderful Country, The Hunters, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, The Enemy Below, Thunder Road, and The Angry Hills.
Humphrey Bogart: The African Queen, The Caine Mutiny, Road to Bali, Deadline – U.S.A., Sabrina, The Barefoot Contessa, In a Lonely Place, The Left Hand of God, Sirocco, Chain Lightning, The Enforcer, Battle Circus, We're No Angels, The Love Lottery, Beat the Devil, The Desperate Hours, and The Harder They Fall.
Sidney Poitier: Band of Angels, The Defiant Ones, Porgy and Bess, Edge of the City, Virgin Island, The Mark of the Hawk, Something of Value, No Way Out, Cry, the Beloved Country, Go Man Go, Red Ball Express, Good-bye, My Lady, and Blackboard Jungle.
Takashi Shimura: Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Rashomon, Scandal, Elegy, The Idiot, Ikari no machi, Boryōku no Machi, Ore wa yojinbo, Ma no Ogen, Shunsetsu, Tenya wanya, Ginza Sanshiro, Yoru no hibotan, Ginza Sanshiro, Ai to nikushimi no kanata e, Kedamono no yado, Mesu Inu, Aoi shinju, Nusumareta koi, Hopu-san: sarariiman no maki, Muteki, The Life of a Horsetrader, Vendetta for a Samurai, Nangoku no hada, The Life of Oharu, Bijo to touzoku, Sengoku burai, Oka wa hanazakari, Minato e kita otoko, Hoyo, Fuun senryobune, Tobō chitai, Yoru no owari, Godzilla, Taiheiyō no washi, Jirochō sangokushi: kaitō-ichi no abarenbō, Asakusa no yoru, Kimi shinitamo koto nakare, Haha no hatsukoi, Shin kurama tengu daiichi wa: Tengu shutsugen, Shin kurama tengu daini wa: Azuma-dera no ketto, Bazoku geisha, Mekura neko, Mugibue, Godzilla Raids Again, No Time for Tears, Sanjusan go sha otonashi, Shin kurama tengu daisanbu, Muttsuri Umon torimonocho, Sugata naki mokugekisha, Asagiri, Geisha Konatsu: Hitori neru yo no Konatsu, I Live in Fear, Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island, Shin, Heike monogatari: Yoshinaka o meguru sannin no onna, Wakai ki, Kyatsu o nigasuna, The Underworld, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, Arakure, Narazu-mono, Tōkyō hanzai chizu, Bōkyaku no hanabira, Throne of Blood, Sanjūrokunin no jōkyaku, Kono futari ni sachi are, Yama to kawa no aru machi, Bōkyaku no hanabira: Kanketsuhen, Kiken na eiyu, Yuunagi, Dotanba, Aoi sanmyaku Shinko no maki, The Mysterians, Ohtori-jo no hanayome, Edokko matsuri, haha, Forty-seven rōnin, Seven from Edo, Ten to Sen, Uguisu-jō no hanayome, Jinsei gekijō, The Hidden Fortress, Nichiren to Mōko Daishūrai, Ken wa shitte ita, Sora kakeru hanayome, Tetsuwan tōshu Inao monogatari, Kotan no kuchibue, Taiyō ni somuku mono, Sengoku gunto-den, Kagero ezu, The Three Treasures, Beran me-e geisha, Shobushi to sono musume, and Kēdamonō no torū michi.
James Mason: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Star Is Born, The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, North by Northwest, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Bigger Than Life, Julius Caesar, A Touch of Larceny, The Decks Ran Red, Island in the Sun, Cry Terror!, Charade, Forever, Darling, The Desert Rats, Prince Valiant, The Man Between, The Tell-Tale Heart, Botany Bay, The Story of Three Loves, Face to Face, The Prisoner of Zenda, 5 Fingers, Lady Possessed, One Way Street, and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
Sterling Hayden: The Last Command, The Asphalt Jungle, The Killing, Johnny Guitar, Hellgate, The Star, Journey into Light, The Golden Hawk, Denver and Rio Grande, Flaming Feather, So Big, Flat Top, Crime Wave, Fighter Attack, Kansas Pacific, Take Me to Town, Suddenly, Naked Alibi, The Come On, Top Gun, Battle Taxi, Shotgun, Timberjack, The Eternal Sea, Arrow in the Dust, Ten Days to Tulara, 5 Steps to Danger, Crime of Passion, Valerie, Gun Battle at Monterey, Zero Hour!, Terror in a Texas Town, and The Iron Sheriff.
Harry Belafonte: Calypso, Carmen Jones, Island in the Sun, Odds Against Tomorrow, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, and Bright Road.
Laurence Olivier: Richard III, Carrie, Father's Little Dividend, The Magic Box, The Beggar's Opera, The Prince and the Showgirl, and The Devil's Disciple.
Jose Ferrer: Cyrano de Bergerac, Crisis, Anything Can Happen, Producers' Showcase: "Cyrano de Bergerac", Moulin Rouge, Miss Sadie Thompson, The Caine Mutiny, Deep in My Heart, I Accuse!, The High Cost of Loving, The Great Man, The Shrike, and The Cockleshell Heroes.
James Cagney: Mister Roberts, Run for Cover, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, The West Point Story, Come Fill the Cup, A Lion Is in the Streets, What Price Glory, Love Me or Leave Me, The Seven Little Foys, Tribute to a Bad Man, Man of a Thousand Faces, These Wilder Years, Never Steal Anything Small, and Shake Hands with the Devil.
Farley Granger: Strangers on a Train, Our Very Own, Side Street, Behave Yourself!, Edge of Doom, O. Henry's Full House, I Want You, The Story of Three Loves, Hans Christian Andersen, Senso, Small Town Girl, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, and The Naked Street.
Bing Crosby: High Society, Alias Jesse James, Say One for Me, Anything Goes, The Joker Is Wild, Man on Fire, White Christmas, The Country Girl, Road to Bali, Scared Stiff, The Greatest Show on Earth, Little Boy Lost, Just for You, Son of Paleface, Angels in the Outfield, Riding High, Here Comes the Groom, and Mr. Music.
Chishū Ryū: Tokyo Story, The Munekata Sisters, Home Sweet Home, Early Summer, Carmen Comes Home, The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice, Arashi, Twenty-Four Eyes, Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Rickshaw Man, Floating Weeds, and Good Morning.
Ray Milland: Three Brave Men, A Man Alone, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, A Woman of Distinction, A Life of Her Own, Copper Canyon, Dial M for Murder, Lisbon, The Safecracker, The River's Edge, High Flight, Something to Live For, Jamaica Run, The Thief, Close to My Heart, Rhubarb, Bugles in the Afternoon, and Night into Morning.
Alan Ladd: The Badlanders, The Big Land, Branded, Captain Carey, U.S.A, Shane, Botany Bay, Boy on a Dolphin, A Cry in the Night, The Man in the Net, Island of Lost Women, The Deep Six, The Proud Rebel, Saskatchewan, Drum Beat, The McConnell Story, Desert Legion, The Red Beret, The Black Knight, Santiago, Hell on Frisco Bay, Red Mountain, Hell Below Zero, A Sporting Oasis, The Iron Mistress, Thunder in the East, and Appointment with Danger.
Ben Johnson: Wagon Master, Shane, Rio Grande, Fort Bowie, War Drums, Slim Carter, Wild Stallion, Oklahoma!, and Rebel in Town.
Walter Brennan: Rio Bravo, A Ticket to Tomahawk, Singing Guns, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Far Country, Good-bye, My Lady, The Way to the Gold, Tammy and the Bachelor, God Is My Partner, Glory, At Gunpoint, Sea of Lost Ships, Come Next Spring, The Proud Ones, Surrender, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, The Showdown, Return of the Texan, Best of the Badmen, The Wild Blue Yonder, Lure of the Wilderness, Along the Great Divide, Four Guns to the Border, and Drums Across the River.
Ralph Meeker: Kiss Me Deadly, Paths of Glory, Jeopardy, A Woman's Devotion, Glory Alley, Somebody Loves Me, Teresa, 4 Num Jeep, The Naked Spur, Big House, U.S.A., Run of the Arrow, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, Code Two, and Desert Sands.
Edmond O’Brian: The Turning Point, The Hitch-Hiker, 1984, The Girl Can't Help It, Julius Caesar, The Barefoot Contessa, The Greatest Show on Earth, Denver and Rio Grande, Pete Kelly's Blues, The Rack, The Restless and the Damned, The World Was His Jury, Sing, Boy, Sing, A Cry in the Night, The Big Land, Stopover Tokyo, Up Periscope, D-Day the Sixth of June, The Shanghai Story, Shield for Murder, China Venture, The Bigamist, Cow Country, Man in the Dark, Backfire, 711 Ocean Drive, The Admiral Was a Lady, The Redhead and the Cowboy, Between Midnight and Dawn, Silver City, Warpath, and Two of a Kind.
Lee J. Cobb: The Left Hand of God, On the Waterfront, 12 Angry Men, The Brothers Karamazov, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Party Girl, The Trap, Green Mansions, But not for me, Man of the West, The Garment Jungle, Miami Expose, The Three Faces of Eve, The Racers, Day of Triumph, The Road to Denver, The Fighter, The Family Secret, Yankee Pasha, Gorilla at Large, The Man Who Cheated Himself, and The Tall Texan.
Karl Malden: Baby Doll, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, The Hanging Tree, I Confess, The Gunfighter, Halls of Montezuma, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Diplomatic Courier, Time Limit, The Sellout, Bombers B-52, Ruby Gentry, Phantom of the Rue Morgue, Ruby Gentry, Take the High Ground!, and Operation Secret.
Rod Steiger: The Harder They Fall, Cry Terror!, Teresa, On the Waterfront, Oklahoma!, The Big Knife, Jubal, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, Al Capone, Back from Eternity, Run of the Arrow, The Unholy Wife, and Across the Bridge.
Aldo Ray: The Marrying Kind, Pat and Mike, Let's Do It Again, Battle Cry, God's Little Acre, Nightfall, The Naked and the Dead, Men in War, The Siege of Pinchgut, Three Stripes in the Sun, The Barefoot Mailman, My True Story, and Never Trust a Gambler.
Richard Conte: I'll Cry Tomorrow, The Fighter, The Sleeping City, Hollywood Story, The Raging Tide, The Raiders, The Blue Gardenia, Desert Legion, Slaves of Babylon, Highway Dragnet, New York Confidential, The Big Combo, Mask of Dust, Full of Life, The Big Tip Off, Little Red Monkey, Bengazi, Target Zero, The Brothers Rico, This Angry Age, and They Came to Cordura.
Tab Hunter: They Came to Cordura, That Kind of Woman, Gunman's Walk, Damn Yankees, Lafayette Escadrille, The Lawless, Gun Belt, The Island of Desire, Battle Cry, Track of the Cat, While We're Young, The Steel Lady, Return to Treasure Island, The Sea Chase, Fear Strikes Out, The People Against McQuade, The Burning Hills, The Girl He Left Behind, Mask for the Devil, Forbidden Area, Hans Brinker and the and Silver Skates.
Robert Ryan: Born to Be Bad, The Secret Fury, Flying Leathernecks, Hard, Fast and Beautiful, Clash by Night, On Dangerous Ground, The Racket, Horizons West, Beware, My Lovely, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Naked Spur, Best of the Badmen, Inferno, City Beneath the Sea, About Mrs. Leslie, Alaska Seas, Back from Eternity, The Tall Men, House of Bamboo, The Proud Ones, Her Twelve Men, Escape to Burma, Men in War, Odds Against Tomorrow, Lonelyhearts, Day of the Outlaw, and God's Little Acre.
Charles Laughton: Witness for the Prosecution, The Blue Veil, O. Henry's Full House, The Strange Door, Salome, Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd, Young Bess, and Hobson's Choice.
Lee Marvin: Teresa, You're in the Navy Now, The Big Heat, Gorilla at Large, The Caine Mutiny, The Glory Brigade, The Stranger Wore a Gun, Bad Day at Black Rock, Gun Fury, Attack, Seven Men from Now, Raintree County, The Rack, The Missouri Traveler, Violent Saturday, I Died a Thousand Times, Not as a Stranger, A Life in the Balance, Pillars of the Sky, Shack Out on 101, The Wild One, The Raid, Down Among the Sheltering Palms, The Duel at Silver Creek, Hangman's Knot, Eight Iron Men, Seminole, Diplomatic Courier, and We're Not Married!.
Marcello Mastroianni: Lulu, It's Never Too Late, Black Feathers, Sunday Heroes, The Mute of Portici, The Most Wonderful Moment, Fathers and Sons, Sand, Love and Salt, White Nights, Girls for the Summer, The Bigamist, Piece of the Sky, Three Girls from Rome, The Eternal Chain, Il viale della speranza, Schiava del peccato, Tom Toms of Mayumba, The Island Princess, The Miller's Beautiful Wife, Too Bad She's Bad, House of Ricordi, Lucky to Be a Woman, The Law, Ferdinando I, re di Napoli, My Wife's Enemy, Everyone's in Love, Love and Troubles, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Doctor and the Healer, Chronicle of Poor Lovers, A Slice of Life, Days of Love, Sunday in August, A Tale of Five Cities, The Accusation, Tragic Return, Eager to Live, Barefoot Savage, Paris Is Always Paris, La valigia dei sogni, Against the Law, A Dog's Life, and Hearts at Sea.
Glenn Ford: The Big Heat, Blackboard Jungle, 3:10 to Yuma, Appointment in Honduras, The Violent Men, The Man from the Alamo, Plunder of the Sun, The Americano, Cowboy, Don't Go Near the Water, Trial, Jubal, The Fastest Gun Alive, Ransom!, It Started with a Kiss, The Sheepman, The Teahouse of the August Moon, Imitation General, Torpedo Run, The Gazebo, Human Desire, Interrupted Melody, The White Tower, Convicted, The Redhead and the Cowboy, The Secret of Convict Lake, The Flying Missile, Follow the Sun, The Green Glove, Young Man with Ideas, Time Bomb, and Affair in Trinidad.
Walter Matthau: The Kentuckian, Bigger Than Life, The Indian Fighter, King Creole, A Face in the Crowd, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Onionhead, Voice in the Mirror, and Ride a Crooked Trail.
Jeff Chandler: Broken Arrow, Female on the Beach, Deported, Away All Boats, Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Desert Hawk, Double Crossbones, Two Flags West, Sign of the Pagan, Taza, Son of Cochise, Drango, The Tattered Dress, Pillars of the Sky, The Lady Takes a Flyer, Man in the Shadow, Jeanne Eagels, Ten Seconds to Hell, Stranger in My Arms, The Jayhawkers!, Thunder in the Sun, Raw Wind in Eden, Foxfire, The Toy Tiger, The Spoilers, East of Sumatra, Yankee Pasha, Girls in the Night, War Arrow, The Great Sioux Uprising, Iron Man, The Battle at Apache Pass, Smuggler's Island, Meet Danny Wilson, Flame of Araby, Bird of Paradise, Son of Ali Baba, Because of You, Yankee Buccaneer, and Red Ball Express.
Vincent Price: While the City Sleeps, Serenade, The Ten Commandments, Son of Sinbad, The Fly, The Vagabond King, The Baron of Arizona, Adventures of Captain Fabian, Pictura: An Adventure in Art, Champagne for Caesar, His Kind of Woman, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, Born in Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake, Dangerous Mission, House of Wax, The Tingler, House on Haunted Hill, The Big Circus, The Story of Mankind, Return of the Fly, The Bat, Casanova's Big Night, The Mad Magician, and The Las Vegas Story.
Joel Mccrea: Wichita, Stranger on Horseback, Stars in My Crown, The Outriders, Frenchie, Saddle Tramp, The San Francisco Story, Hollywood Story, Cattle Drive, Rough Shoot, The Oklahoman, Black Horse Canyon, The First Texan, The Lone Hand, The Tall Stranger, The Gunfight at Dodge City, Fort Massacre, Trooper Hook, Gunsight Ridge, and Cattle Empire.
Van Heflin: 3:10 to Yuma, Shane, Gunman's Walk, The Prowler, Tomahawk, Week-End with Father, South of Algiers, Tanganyika, Black Widow, Woman's World, Wings of the Hawk, The Raid, They Came to Cordura, Tempest, Patterns, Count Three and Pray, My Son John, and Battle Cry.
Fred Macmurray: Woman's World, Borderline, Pushover, The Rains of Ranchipur, At Gunpoint, There's Always Tomorrow, Quantez, Gun for a Coward, The Oregon Trail, The Shaggy Dog, Good Day for a Hanging, Face of a Fugitive, Day of the Badman, Fair Wind to Java, The Caine Mutiny, Callaway Went Thataway, A Millionaire for Christy, Never a Dull Moment, The Far Horizons, and The Moonlighter.
Zbigniew Cybulski: A Generation, Ashes and Diamonds, Wraki, Kariera, Tajemnica dzikiego szybu, Trzy starty, Krzyż Walecznych, Night Train, and The Eighth Day of the Week.
Sam Jaffe: The Asphalt Jungle, Ben-Hur, The Day the Earth Stood Still, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, The Barbarian and the Geisha, Main Street to Broadway, and Les Espions.
Richard Widmark: Panic in the Streets, Hell and High Water, Warlock, The Tunnel of Love, Pickup on South Street, Don't Bother to Knock, Halls of Montezuma, Time Limit, Night and the City, Take the High Ground!, No Way Out, O. Henry's Full House, Destination Gobi, The Frogmen, Red Skies of Montana, My Pal Gus, Backlash, A Prize of Gold, The Trap, The Law and Jake Wade, The Last Wagon, Saint Joan, Garden of Evil, The Cobweb, Run for the Sun, and Broken Lance.
Yul Brynner: The King and I, The Ten Commandments, Anastasia, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, Solomon and Sheba, The Sound and the Fury, and The Journey.
Jack Warden: The Asphalt Jungle, From Here to Eternity, 12 Angry Men, That Kind of Woman, Darby's Rangers, The Sound and the Fury, The Bachelor Party, The Man with My Face, Red Ball Express, Run Silent, Run Deep, Edge of the City, You're in the Navy Now, and The Frogmen.
Fred Astaire: The Band Wagon, Funny Face, Silk Stockings, On the Beach, Daddy Long Legs, The Belle of New York, and Royal Wedding.
Anthony Quinn: La Strada, Viva Zapata!, Lust for Life, Wild Is the Wind, The Brave Bulls, Mask of the Avenger, The World in His Arms, Funniest Show on Earth, Fatal Desire, East of Sumatra, The Magnificent Matador, Attila, Seven Cities of Gold, The Long Wait, City Beneath the Sea, Seminole, Ride, Vaquero!, Warlock, Last Train from Gun Hill, The Black Orchid, Hot Spell, Van Gogh: Darkness Into Light, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ride Back, Man from Del Rio, The Naked Street, The River's Edge, Angels of Darkness, Ulysses, Ulysses, The Brigand, and The Wild Party.
Donald O'Connor: Francis, Curtain Call at Cactus Creek, Double Crossbones, The Milkman, Francis Covers the Big Town, There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, The Buster Keaton Story, Walking My Baby Back Home, Francis Joins the WACS, Singin' in the Rain, Francis Goes to the Races, I Love Melvin, Francis Goes to West Point, Call Me Madam, and Francis in the Navy.
John Gavin: Imitation of Life, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Quantez, Behind the High Wall, Four Girls in Town, and Raw Edge.
Richard Basehart: Fourteen Hours, Time Limit, Moby Dick, Tension, Outside the Wall, The House on Telegraph Hill, Side Street, Titanic, Avanzi di galera, Le avventure di Cartouche, The Restless and the Damned, The Brothers Karamazov, Jons und Erdme, The Intimate Stranger, Love and Troubles, Golden Vein, The Stranger's Hand, La Strada, Canyon Crossroads, Miracles of Thursday, Il bidone, Decision Before Dawn, Angels of Darkness,Fixed Bayonets!, and The Extra Day.
Arthur Kennedy: Bright Victory, Peyton Place, The Lusty Men, Trial, Impulse, The Man from Laramie, The Ten Commandments, Twilight for the Gods, The Rawhide Years, Some Came Running, Home Is the Hero, The Desperate Hours, A Summer Place, The Glass Menagerie, Bend of the River, The Girl in White, Red Mountain, Crashout, and Rancho Notorious.
Andy Griffith: A Face in the Crowd, No Time for Sergeants, and Onionhead.
George Sanders: All About Eve, King Richard and the Crusaders, Ivanhoe, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Black Jack, Assignment – Paris!, Call Me Madam, Journey to Italy, The King's Thief, That Certain Feeling, While the City Sleeps, Never Say Goodbye, Jupiter's Darling, The Scarlet Coat, Witness to Murder, The Light Touch, Moonfleet, From the Earth to the Moon, Rock-A-Bye Baby, The Seventh Sin, The Whole Truth, That Kind of Woman, and Solomon and Sheba.
Jack Hawkins: Mandy, Angels One Five, Twice Upon a Time, Fortune Is a Woman, The Prisoner, The Intruder, The Seekers, Front Page Story, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Man in the Sky, Ben-Hur, Gideon's Day, The Two-Headed Spy, Touch and Go, The Long Arm, Land of the Pharaohs, The Cruel Sea, The Planter's Wife, Malta Story, The Elusive Pimpernel, The Black Rose, State Secret, No Highway in the Sky, The Adventurers, and Home at Seven.
Spencer Tracy: For Defense for Freedom for Humanity, The Actress, Bad Day at Black Rock, Broken Lance, The Old Man and the Sea, Desk Set, The Mountain, The Last Hurrah, The People Against O'Hara, Plymouth Adventure, Pat and Mike, Father's Little Dividend, and Father of the Bride.
Sonny Tufts: Gift Horse, Cat-Women of the Moon, Run for the Hills, The Seven Year Itch, Serpent Island, No Escape, The Parson and the Outlaw, and Come Next Spring.
David Niven: The Moon Is Blue, Separate Tables, Happy Anniversary, Ask Any Girl, My Man Godfrey, Bonjour Tristesse, Around the World in 80 Days, The Little Hut, Oh, Men! Oh, Women!, The Birds and the Bees, The King's Thief, The Silken Affair, Happy Ever After, Carrington V.C., The Love Lottery, The Toast of New Orleans, The Lady Says No, Appointment with Venus, Soldiers Three, Happy Go Lovely, and The Elusive Pimpernel.
Off of Personal Preference Glenn Ford, Gene Kelly, and William Holden are my top three.

The Cure for Senioritis -- and Other College Admissions Stress (I wish it were this easy 😊)

Hey Second Semester Seniors (and anyone else who feels they need some support right now),
If you’re feeling a little bit of senioritis or just stressed out and anxious about college admissions or the state of the world in general, you are not alone. Please know the struggle is real. And if you’re feeling even more worried about your college applications now than you were before you submitted them, that’s normal. Letting go of control is no easy task. And, I mean what a year 2021 has been already! We’ve been overwhelmed with the inundation of social media, constant rapidly changing news, and so much frustration about the increasing infection and death rate of Covid 19 all while trying to wrap our heads around the attack on the Capitol and all the political rhetoric. But, while I don’t know or understand a lot about what’s happening around me, here’s what I do know:
You are equipped to care for yourselves and our future: Of course, I recognize that we are living in an unprecedented time but we deal with stress and anxiety every day in the college admissions world. And that thought leads me to realize that your generation, you -- the amazing Gen Z, are absolutely equipped for this ordeal. You are resilient. You are experienced with handling your stress and many of you have been proactive in learning the mechanisms for dealing with stress and anxiety on a regular level. Nevertheless, this stress is -- no doubt -- leveling up.
You know that life can feel like it’s falling apart and that you will survive it. You know that we need a little wind in our lives to make us stronger. You know, that just like those baby trees in the biosphere that fell down when they didn’t have anything pushing on them -- we need some stress in our lives. If you aren’t familiar with my take on the trees in the biosphere, you can read more about it in my post from December.
But let’s be real -- there’s stress and then there’s stress. So, I want you to be especially careful with yourselves now. But even if you’re still staying home from school and keeping away from families, you don’t have to remain distant from the world. We can be alone in all this together. We know how to do exactly that here on A2C, and we’ve been doing it for years.
Before I move on to Curing your Senioritis, I want to share a few Second Semester Senior Housekeeping Tips.
KEEP UP WITH YOUR COLLEGE ADMISSIONS STUFF:

PORTALS: Check your portals regularly (not obsessively), to make sure everything is turned in.
DEMONSTRATED INTEREST: If the colleges consider interest, stay engaged -- website, read emails and click links, social media page (you can find our if colleges consider Demonstrated Interest or engagement on the Common Data Set (google “common data set and school name” or check out my website, www.collegevizzy.com where I have the common data sets linked for over 500 colleges.
LOCI: Write your LOCI if you were deferred. Here’s a link to my How to Write a LOCI
INTERVIEWS: Check your email and voice mails for interview arrangements. Here’s a link to my post: Step by Step Guide to Online Interviews
UPDATES: Consider sending an update if you have something important to share that’s changed since you last applied (major awards, accomplishments, test scores, improved grades from mid-semester, etc)
COLLEGE LIST: If you’re not completely comfortable with your college list and feel like you need to flesh it out a little more or add some Sure Bet Schools, here’s my post with some of my favorite colleges with February 1 or later deadlines.

Curing Your Senioritis: You know, I wish I could say “take two aspirin and call me in the morning,” but it’s not quite that simple. It does require you to engage and take some action -- some investing in yourself (more on that later…)
EMBRACE THE NOT-KNOWING: My yoga teacher just talked about this in class this morning and I had to jump up from class and jot down my thoughts because it’s so important for all of us as a life lesson. We NEVER know what’s going to happen in life, and often no matter how we plan, how we think we know where we’re headed, we end up going a different route that we might not have chosen or even known about, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. You have no idea what the decisions colleges will make about your application, and it’s scary, but embrace that feeling of not-knowing. Gather it around you and do brave things, knowing that no matter what decision any college makes, YOU are gonna be just fine.
TAKE A BREAK: First, it’s ok to give yourselves a break. Stop what you’re doing and just be still. Don’t worry about any kind of position or what to focus on. Just set your phone timer for any amount of time that feels right for you, turn off your notifications, and do nothing. Your brain needs a break at times. It’s been going full-on probably since always, so let those brain batteries recharge. I promise it helps.
KEEP UP YOUR GRADES: Being rescinded is a real thing. Don’t let your grades drop below a grade level or two and don’t let it happen in more than one class. I’m going to share a post about being rescinded next week sometime, but just keep plugging away in your classes.
LET COLLEGES KNOW IF YOUR LIFE IS GETTING SUPER MESSY: If circumstances in your life are creating difficulties with your classes and your grades are falling, be open with admissions offices, especially if you are caring for sick family members, you have limited access to technology or the internet, you have had to take on more job or family responsibilities because of the economic crisis, or you’ve been sick yourself. Colleges want to know about these kinds of circumstances and if you didn’t use the additional info section to discuss your situation or your circumstances have changed because of the craziness of the world we live in (or just because life is hard sometimes), send them an update. You can find out more about how to write this update by reading this Post about Supplemental Essays. Scroll to the Additional Info section
DON’T GO CRAZY ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Now is not the time to post obnoxious thoughts and videos, no matter how frustrated you are by life or how edgy you want to be. Being rescinded for social media posts, whether posted by you or someone who recorded you is very real. Put kindness first in your life -- it’s needed now more than ever.
CONNECT WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS: Even if you have to distance socially, now is the prime time for you to start those game nights and family dinner nights. Maybe hang out with siblings that you haven’t had time for before. Create some ZOOM parties with friends.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW: Maybe pick up a new hobby. Have you ever wanted to learn Italian or coding? Or how to play guitar? Now’s your chance. If you haven’t yet delved into yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, understanding your mind-body connection will help you as you move forward into college.
READ BOOKS: Maybe you’ve never had time to read all those books you hear about and want to try. Pick a few that interest you and get going. I love listening to books while I walk. Reading and having fiction be part of your life builds your ability to process, gain empathy for others, and encourages your creativity.
COLLECT MOMENTS OF JOY: It’s easy for us to get wrapped up in all the bad and stressful stuff of our lives, and for sure, there’s some stressful stuff happening right now, but there’s still some good. Collect those small moments of joy in your life and you’ll see that they can add up. Maybe it’s new snow on the ground, or a brilliant blue sky like I can look up and see in Houston right now. Maybe it’s a quick snuggle with your dog or cat or a giggle with a sibling or a friend. Maybe it’s a smile you give someone else. Maybe it’s a funny post you saw here on A2C or a line in a book you just read. Even if you feel like your life just sucks right now because of all the shit that’s happening around you and school and college admissions and… and… and…, there are moments of joy. Collect them.
QUICK TIPS FOR WHEN YOU JUST DON’T WANT TO MOVE:

Take a cold shower
Blast Music and Dance
Sing
Bake Something
Drink a glass of COLD water
Put on scented lotion
Go for a walk around the block

Think of this Semester as a Gift: Look, I know we are in crazy times, so it’s hard to think about anything right now as a gift, but in many ways it is. You will never get back this time in high school (even if it’s virtual) and you’ll never get back this time at home with your family. This is a time for you to sit back, reflect on your life, what you’ve done, and where you want to go, and most importantly, what is happening to you right now.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I spend my time and how I invest my time, and what the difference is. I need to do a little of both, for sure, but I want to invest my time in learning and growing as a person, in building relationships with those around me, and creating space for myself to experience life in ways I might not yet have been able to. That means I’m trying to invest my time in reading, walking, and hopefully learning to do new things and about new ideas. The gift of second-semester senior year allows many of you an opportunity to sit back and think about how you want to invest your time. Still, sometimes the best way I can invest my time is investing in doing nothing, or NetFlix binging, or just hanging out with friends. To me, the biggest difference is spending even that kind-of-relaxed, doing-nothing time intentionally.
If you find yourself overwhelmed in the moment (and we all do sometimes): Here’s a little trick I like to do -- maybe give it a try yourself: Ground yourself in the present moment by listing 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.
Tl;dr: Senioritis is totally normal; you are not alone. Senioritis during a global pandemic and political uprisings and attacks on your Capitol -- definitely nothing normal about that, but your feelings are. The cure? Take time to recharge batteries, keep up your grades, be nice to others, try something new, connect with yourself.
You can do this. You can do hard things.
xoxox AdmissionsMom

Now is a great time to try (or return to) the criminally under-appreciated King's Raid! Ruby + New Hero Event + Soulstone Login Events!

My disclosures: I play King's Raid (America Server Top 300 in 2 of the 3 World Bosses), Epic Seven (Global Arena Champion), Genshin Impact (AR 47), and Honkai Impact (Lvl 57). King's Raid is my favorite game!!! If I had to drop games, King's Raid would without question be last one I hold on to.
And my disclaimers: I do not work for King's Raid, I do not own any stock in Vespa, and I have no commercial or special interests in promoting King's Raid.
Let's start with the negatives because my personal bias should already be pretty obvious to you.

What's NOT great about King's Raid?

PvP is grossly unappealing to most players. It's such a mess that the narrow group of players who do care about PvP seem to exist in a completely different world, even in relation to competitive PvE players.
Mid and late game are a long a gear grind. Personally, I don't mind this one bit and don't even agree think the grind is bad, but I would be dishonest if I didn't include a complaint that other players have. As an Epic Seven player who 3-man Autofarms Wyvern 13 all day, I have to say Epic Seven is MUCH worse (no need to even talk about Genshin...). There are NO guarantees in Epic Seven, but the endgame Technomagic Gear released in King's Raid has recently been improved so that you are guaranteed to perfect gear eventually.
Whales dominate the leaderboards. Top 100 in World Boss might be the highest you can achieve as a F2P player, and Top 100 in PvP might be out of reach for most F2P players. I got pretty close to it once as a nearly F2P, non-PvP main.
The playerbase is extremely toxic. The (optional) in-game world chat is filled with trolling and bullying of new players. The unofficial community discord is constantly active, and there's always someone available to give advice, but it isn't always delivered kindly. Thankfully, several top-ranked players and leaders of top-ranked guilds have banded together to make the King's Raid Encyclopedia discord open to all that gives you comprehensive manuals on everything you need to know. For the record, I don't know these people and have likely even butted heads with them as my post history might show, but they're doing an incredible job educating newbies and providing references for mid and late game players.
Many don't like the state of the metagame's balance. Personally, I think think the game balance is really solid compared to other games, but again I want to be as honest and transparent as possible with how the game is perceived, even if I personally disagree. Yes, a select few DPS Heroes are overwhelmingly strong and versatile right now. To do the highest stages of stuff, you need to understand mechanics and build accordingly. However, none of the content in the entire game is hard-gated behind any specific Hero, strategy, or impossible mechanic (looking at you, Epic Seven Abyss and Genshin Spiral Abyss!). EVERY game mode has multiple difficulty levels, with the some of the easiest ones being so easy you could do them without gear. The rewards are the SAME ITEMS! Just scaled down of course. You're only "behind" if you're comparing yourself to other players. Who cares if you progress 30% slower than someone else? If you were a meta player, you'd have picked a meta Hero. Besides, it's not even that bad. We have video footage of someone clearing the highest stage of Soul Weapon farming with a support as their Main DPS.
Developer communication could be better. I really wish they'd create an official community discord. They do give bi-weekly updates and a monthly Developer Talk but have room for improvement in making sure people see those.
Hero balance patches are scarce. I think 2020 only brought about 4 balance patches for the year (please correct me if I am wrong!), and only for a couple Heroes at a time.
Some progression paths are heavily time-gated. Everything with Soul Weapons (currently the final frontier of maxing out a Hero) and NPC Heroes takes a long time to do. It takes about 4-6 months to max out your Main DPS's Soul Weapon F2P.
App crashes. Apparently the game is poorly optimized, keeping a lot of old data with each update. Most players (including myself until a month ago!) don't know that you can clear the cache and re-install the app and virtually eliminate the problem completely.

What's GREAT about King's Raid?

No Hero gacha. Every Hero, except for a special class of 10 "NPC Heroes", can be bought with Rubies, the premium currency. 14 Heroes are given to you for free (2 you can choose from a limited pool, and 1 you can choose from anyone). The best support in the game is given away for free. The early game rush hands you about 40-50k Rubies, and each Hero at most costs 6k. "NPC Heroes" can be acquired by F2P players about once every month.
No "gacha-only" weapons or gear. NONE. Every Unique Gear in the game can be obtained with tickets, which you get plenty of (I probably got around 20-30 last month). Soul Weapons are farmed. There's a gacha for gear, but it's not necessary. You could never use your daily free pull and hardly notice.
The same 3D Models in story, overworld, and combat. No sprites, no chibis, no still portraits during cutscenes. Your Heroes' presence is always felt during gameplay (and story), including voice lines in Korean, Japanese, or English.
Very F2P friendly. In addition to everything that's been said, the only competitive PvE content is World Boss, and the rewards brackets are pretty large. There is NO hard paywall in the game unless you want to push for the leaderboards! Whales only affect the Top 100, an extremely small portion of the playerbase. No matter how quickly or slowly you progress, you DO progress.
Real-time combat. You can manually cast abilities, or leave it on Auto if you're afk farming :) One of the coolest things for me is watching my team of 8 Heroes fighting together on the battlefield, supporting each other amidst all the on-screen chaos.
Live multiplayer. You can party up for any raid, and the main endgame GvG mode (Guild Conquest). PvP, as much as I hate it, is also completely live.
The most lovable Heroes you've ever met. They come alive right from the start! Everything from design, personality, and gameplay all "fit" together for a sense of identity that hits you immediately. You'll laugh and cry. I've run my guild for over 16 months, and I love asking newbies who their favorite Hero is. They almost always have an answer and have often started the game because they fell in love with a specific Hero! The cast is diverse, and there's someone for everyone.
The music!!! Wow. WOW. Check them out on Youtube or Soundcloud, even if you never end up playing. As you might know, they did a collaboration with Dreamcatcher last year.
Built-in auto-repeat, auto-battle, and dispatch. I understand this isn't for everyone. If you're looking for an AFK game, King's Raid can be that for you. If you want to be active and engaged, you can do that too.
Its heart. Disgruntled players derogatively say "Ve$pa", but as a businessman myself, I have to say their choices are filled with examples of putting love before money. It goes far beyond their marvelous generosity toward F2P players and refusal to implement Limited gacha events. Like a loving parent, partner, or friend, it's in the little things. They make a special story cutscene for every single Hero's birthday and give you a nice little reward for viewing. It's not attached to any treadmill, not forced, and not promotional. Just a generous treat for those who care, and a free reward for those who don't. For Christmas, their CEO personally writes and signs a thank-you note to the players, along with a gift. They paid for a King's Raid anime that they knew wouldn't draw many people in or be profitable but wanted another medium for their beloved Heroes to shine. Before lunchtime rewards were moved from the mail system to a more direct collection method, the server manager would always send a nice, encouraging message to the players every day. Some of them really did make my day better! Their company once famously had an office-wide debate on whether a new Hero should be wearing stockings or not. They even produced a cute April Fools' video. They put time into releasing development notes lately for how a new Hero was designed from beginning to end. It's really touched me how much they love their Heroes like children and hope that we do too.

Why is now a particularly good time to start?

Ruby Spending Event is back!. One of the top questions asked by new players is always, "What do I do with all these free Rubies they're giving me? They're burning a hole in my pocket!" The response is always, "Save them for a Ruby Spending Event." It's a huge advantage for a new player to be able to spend their first 50k (free) Rubies right away instead of waiting!
Ruby Spending Event is even better for newbies now. The 50k reward for this event was changed from a Lua's Weapon Ticket to a 2* Unique Weapon Ticket, which yes is a downgrade. However, a 2* Unique Weapon Ticket is arguably much better for a newbie's early progression curve, since getting your Main DPS's Unique Weapon to 5* is the #1 priority.
Lucikiel is here, with an Event! The long-waited new Hero comes with a New Hero Event that doubles up nicely with the Ruby Spending Event, as it allows you to double-dip and get even more mileage out of your Rubies, especially if you like Lucikiel and want to main him!
A completely free 7-day login event for Soul Weapons is coming next week! Just log in each day to claim your rewards for free.
The drop rate of Soul Weapons has just been increased! Soul Fragments are now more likely to yield Soulstones from Soul Judgement, without any drawback. You're still guaranteed one additional Soulstone every 20 pulls!
Newbie rewards are better than ever and help you catch up SO quickly. They also have special rewards for returning players, which apply to anyone who has not logged in for 14 days. What's considered the "early game" can easily be completed in a week.
It's currently a nice quiet period between story updates. The last two chapters have both ended on big cliffhangers, and we don't expect the next to come out anytime soon. Enjoy the story at your own pace without the worry of the new chapter release being spoiled for you when it comes!
They're seemingly giving out never-ending Stamina Potions following the initial complaints about Technomagic Gear. Before Technomagic Gears were released, I'd always have a solid stash of around 600 Stamina Potions that I'd use all of during Events. Since the release, I've been using Stamina Potions every day for normal farming, as many as I can without overflowing Stamina. And now I have 4,000 Stamina Potions.

Finally...

Message me if you're on the America server and need a guild! As you can see, welcoming new players and assisting with the early game experience is one of my absolute favorite parts of King's Raid. I run a multi-guild community, and we welcome anyone and everyone!
EDIT: Formatting

AITA for "crashing" my friends wedding?

SIL drama...

For the purpose of this LONG story, my name will be Mary (24 y/o), my SIL will be Sofía (27), my husband Stefan (28) and my SIL’s boyfriend will be Matt (28). Some background for reference: I have three SIL’s, Sofía is my husbands sister and the other two are married to his siblings. One of those two lives in a different state and continuously tries to keep her husband from seeing his family so they never come down to our state and if they do, it’s only for 1-2 days TOPS yet they see her family ALL the time. The other SIL is 30 y/o but acts like she’s 21, she is classist and petty.
I have three BIL’s, two are my husbands brothers and one is Matt, Sofia’s fiancé. Matt is nice, he sometimes flirts with one of my best friends and Sofia takes it out on me. They have been together for 10 years I believe, they got engaged before us but she didn’t want to have a smaller wedding so they waited until this year when COVID is not SO bad. We got engaged a year after them and got married last year.
Okay. Now this is how it all started. Stefan and I have been together for almost 5 years. When we started dating, I knew he was extremely attached to his family when on our third date, his mom showed up unannounced to the place we were at. She just wanted to meet me that bad. His sister kept asking for a double date and felt “bad” that I didn’t want to just yet saying that maybe I was “scared” of her. I was not, I was scared that they wanted to meet me so soon (less than a month of dating). A month and a half into the relationship, Stefan and I decide to go on a quick trip (one hour drive) upstate, same day, nothing fancy. We go to his house to pick up a bag for him and his sister feels the need to impose her thoughts. “Why are you traveling with her already?” “You guys aren’t even a couple yet”, so I come out of the room and introduce myself. She tells me that she feels her brother is being taken advantage of and I tell her he’s not. I do not like yelling, I am a very calm person but I won’t back down if I know I’m right. She on the other hand, loves screaming, her family can’t have an argument with her because she will scream so they avoid arguments all together. I tried to calm her down explaining to her that he came up with the idea and I thought it was a good thing to get to know him away from our noisy city. We were still dating, getting to know each other, no sex at this point.
We left. Throughout the first two years, his family never tried to get to know me personally, they always wanted to hang out together 3-4 times a week. I don’t feel like I can connect with a bunch of strangers all at once, I always try to meet each person individually, take them out for lunch or coffee to really get to know them. They don’t like that. They think it’s like trying to pin them against each other. My husband is AN ANGEL, his brother that lives in another state is super sweet too. I have to say that my biggest problem has always been my SIL. My FIL hated me for years, I didn’t know until I (I know I know, I was at my lowest point, these people were driving me insane) read my husband’s emails and found one in which his dad lists the reasons why he shouldn’t be with me:

she can’t cook, she can’t clean (as if that’s all a woman is supposed to do), she doesn’t like fishing, she is not pretty, she is not funny, no one likes her, and then said that Stefan was only with me to have sex. As if his son is so detestable that he has to be with someone LIKE THAT in order to have sex. I do not like fishing, I don’t like cooking, those are the only truths. I have a lot of friends, I moved here less than 6 years ago and I have made many friends and still am friends with my childhood friends. His family on the other hand, his sister has ONE friend but she considers her fiancé’s friends her friends, I think we all know how that goes when you break up with an ex and have to say goodbye to his friends because they will be just as nice to the next girl. My husband, sadly, only has one friend as well. He’s the best person I have ever met, I’m sure we all say that about our loved ones but he really is. My friends love him and they get along with him well, I’m sure they see him as a friend in a way but if we ever were to split, they’d stay with me ofc so I can’t say that my friends are his friends. Only one of his brothers has real friendships, the one that is married to the classist girl, let’s call her Georgina. Yes. Like Mean Girls Georgina. She also has a group of friends. Up to a month before Sofia’s engagement, she and Georgina did not have a good relationship, his family didn’t like her either but she got married so they accepted her after that. When my SIL gets engaged, she chooses Georgina as her MOH, Georgina comes to me and tells me she has no idea why and that she’s going to do this as if it were a job lol. She also chooses her other SIL, the one that constantly tries to separate her brother from their family. A cousin of hers that’s about 19 and her best friend who she constantly complains about because she never shows up to places and rarely sees her. She doesn’t choose me. I was not hurt per se, I was not happy that I was singled out and no one said anything, not even my husband. But okay, it’d be my time one day and I wouldn’t blink to not choose her.

She went shopping for her dress and didn’t invite me either. She was really going out if her way to not make me feel included. So when I got engaged, I didn’t choose her as a bridesmaid and ALL hell broke loose. Same day I did my bridesmaids proposal ( I have about 10 bridesmaids), his entire family starts calling him saying that Sofia is upset that she is not a bridesmaid, that she thought I was going to make her one to which my husband responds that I am not one of hers so why would she. His mom then calls him, his sister merges on the call and starts CRYING. I step in and ask her what’s up. She says that I am trying to separate her from her brother... I mean haha. I tell her I am not, i simply chose my friends and she and I were not friends. I really said that. She says that she is going to be left out of the wedding and I said well I will too from yours, she then accuses me of doing this as revenge. I explain to her that I am not, I simply think that bridesmaids should be friends and people that support me that I know will be there 100% for me when I need them and she and I are not close. She continues crying and yelling, I asked her if she wanted to walk on my husbands side, as a groomsmen, she was so offended. I finally offered her to be my bridesmaid and she said it was never going to be the same as me asking her at the same time as my other friends. Well of course it won’t because I didn’t choose you like I chose them.... sorry for the extra commentary
My friends were there when all of this happened and they were SHOOK. They were surprised that I let her have it but I didn’t want to make it worse so whatever. Throughout the year though, I tried to make her feel a part of it. I’d tell her stories about my friends, I invited her to my wedding dress shopping, I let her try to be part of my group of friends (none of them like her so it didn’t work out). She never once tried to do the same for me. A couple months down the line, Georgina throws her a lingerie shower, every single girl from the family shows up, even the SIL that lives upstate, they didn’t invite me. I didn’t even know about it until the same day. I told my husband that I felt left out and like an idiot for trying so hard. I am SO special to her, always giving her gifts that are special, she was very upset that people forgot about the week that she was supposed to be on her honeymoon but COVID screwed it up so I sent her a basket that I made full of things from Italy, the place that she was going to, so that she could have a “date night in Italy”. I have done this for 5 years.... constantly trying to be nice to her but not too nice that it looks like I’m begging. Just plain SIL nice with a little extra sparkle. To be fair, my love language is gifts. My husband called his mother and she said that it was Georgians fault for not inviting me, she said Sofia didn’t know about it. It’s not that she forgot, we saw each other a night before for dinner and I heard them talking about a meeting that they were going to do, all three sisters talking about meeting in front of me while not inviting me.
I forgot to mention that upstate girl does not like his family, probably the reason why she tries to separate her husband from them. We are now three months away from her wedding, a wedding that my husband helped pay for btw, she also works for my husband and her brother (golden parachute much?), and she has yet to invite me to ANYTHING related the wedding, she didn’t even want to tell me which color the bridesmaids are wearing, as if it’s not bad enough that I won’t be a part of any of the pictures... since she wants me to be left out obviously, I will wear either black or a very bright color.
I stopped inviting her to my bridesmaid meetings, we meet a lot because they’re not just my bridesmaids, they’re my best friends. Last year, they threw me a surprise birthday party, they didn’t invite her. See, her birthday is a day before mine, so we left to celebrate her birthday on another city, we left the day if my birthday and when we got back home, everyone was at our house. She was still back where we celebrated hers so idk why she’d be offended, she couldn’t come anyways. I feel sad that I won’t get to be with my husband the day of her wedding because he is part of the groomsmen, I will have to sit alone because the entire family will be part of the wedding. It’s kind of embarrassing to be the only one that’s not a part of it. Btw, once his dad met me, he stopped hating me. He now comes to the house every week and has dinner with us. I was told by one of the family friends that works with my husband that Sofia was telling him all of these things about me, filling up his head with untrue things. I kind of understand him. I have had talks with Sofia, before anyone says that I should talk to her, we had one in which she brought Georgina as a mediator... it was me against the two of them. I let her think she was right, the entire time she told me she thought I didn’t love her brother because we don’t “hold hands in public”, “we don’t have inside jokes”, I explained to her that that’s her definition of love and not mine. I said we were happy and thats all that should matter. She said I am the only girl that’s met the family and been a problem. That’s absolutely not true. They didn’t like any of the girls before me, they’re always critiquing absolutely every in law. That’s how I know that they talk about me behind my back, they talk about them as well. Georgina doesn’t know that my FIL asked her husband not to marry her, I’ll never tell her of course, if it were me, she would 100% tell me. Georgina and I had a trip in which we tried to connect. I thought we had until she left for the bathroom and got a text from Sofia, they were gossiping about everything that I had said to her. I confronted her and she said that she was just telling her what was happening but that she respected me more for standing up to her.... as if that was what I was going for.
Anyways, long story short... I don’t know how to feel anymore. My friends tell me to just go on with my life as if she’s just someone that I have to stand. They say to not try anymore, my husband tells me that she’s just spoiled and the princess of the family. My MIL tells me that she will see things differently now that I made her my bridesmaid, she said that a year ago when I did and no, she has not seen things differently. Everyone else just avoids her as a subject of conversation because it’s too stressful. This is my in law story, I hope more than one person can relate to me. I don’t want to be the only one going through this but I wish no one had to. All the love, M.

what are good engagement party gifts video

Here are some things that are appropriate for engagement party gifts: Decorative picture frames – with or without a photo of the couple Photo albums – for engagement photos Engagement gifts are not required, but it's a nice gesture for guests to bring a gift to an engagement party or send something sweet to the happy couple when they announce their news. Don’t stress. Commemorating the good news with a gift is the way to go if you’re up to it. However, ... The fact is that bringing gifts to an engagement party isn’t necessary but appreciated. If you aren’t too close to the couple, then you can skip it. 24 fantastic ENGAGEMENT party gift ideas for those who are tighting the knot! 100% guarantee ... a box of luxurious chocolates in a beautiful wrapping paper, flowers are always appropriate and good engagement party gift ... Instead of opting for gifts that lack exactly that personal touch, choose personalized gifts. These presents will ... These whimsical, hand-stamped vintage spoons are the perfect engagement party gift for a lovey-dovey duo. Pair them with a delivery of ice cream for the ultimate sweet gift, making them one of the best engagement party gift ideas for the sweet couple in your life. One Man One Shed personalized wedding spoons, $29, Etsy.com The good news is, engagement gifts are not required, no matter how fancy the celebration. Even if the pair already set up their registry, that doesn’t mean you’ve got to click “buy” before ... You’ve just received engagement invitations to a loved one’s engagement party, and in the flurry of picking the perfect party outfit, you’re completely out of engagement present ideas. Not to worry! Good engagement gifts simply require a little extra thought and preparation. We’re here to help you with some of our top gift ideas for couples, so that yours can be among the best ... An engagement party gift doesn’t need to be flashy to wow the couple. A simple gift that’s personalized with a story or reason behind it will be the most impressive. We’ve collected 46 engagement party gift ideas in every style that will be perfect for the happy couple. A simple photo frame is a great gift for any engagement party. The happy couple can put their favorite photo in the frame, and display it in the living room or bedroom. Not crazy about this ... The crate is a personalized couples gift with the couples’ names. This is perfect for an engagement party gift idea. This is a great example of unisex gift ideas as well. After the wine is gone, the couple can repurpose the wine crate for other things like wall décor or just a simple prop for their living room.

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