Patti

 out of the Maddie/Stefano/Kate relationship, since Stefano obviously had quite a fondness for her (Maddie) at one time.  I remember how Kate reminded him while he was watching her on the tape that he was flushed and a little more than interested for Kate’s liking.  It might have been funny watching them for a little while anyway.  Kate needs to be involved in a story with some meaty competition, and this might have been a good one.  Too bad, so bye bye Maddie.  Too bad you had to be a mere prop for Chad’s story, but now it all unfolds.  Question now is … is Chad a DiMera, or is he someone else, perhaps?  I’ve been reading some RUMORS that he may just be an Alamain.  Nothing concrete at this point — just rumors.

 I mean, what did the whole entire dialogue take in time … 15-20 seconds … it’s not like it was a 30-60 second commercial.  I could care less if E.J. ate a whole bag of Chex Mix, dipped some in Utz Sour Cream and Onion Dip, sipping on his Diet Coke, while Sami sopped up the Kraft Oil and Vinegar Marinade from his shirt with Bounty Towels using a Tide Eraser stick to get out the stain, as long as it didn’t interrupt my show with 8 or more 15-20 second commercials, which I walk away from anyway, or channel surf just to get them off my screen.  I’m just saying, the whole thing didn’t even take 15 seconds and my show was not interrupted.

 than ‘filler.’  If TPTB are committed to torturing us by putting a teen story in for the summer, then use ALL of them in a way that gives them a purpose, and not just to ‘fill out’ the scene.   What do T and Kinsey get ….. MAYBE ten words every 2nd or 3rd Wednesday?  Fact is, their presence doesn’t matter to the story; thus their characters on screen, for me at least, don’t matter either.  They are practically invisible when they are on, so why bother?   Much as I can do without Gabbi, at least she has a connection to the Hernandez family to keep her around if for no other reason than to butt her nose into her older siblings lives, but T and Kinsey are useless to the teen story line so far, because they serve no purpose.  They may as well be a set decoration. 

 I put it in the wrong spot; however, the actress coming to DOOL from Y&R is Stacie Haiduk (pronounced Hi-duke, accent on first syllable) and she is a FANTASTIC actress.  Her character on DOOL, however, will have nothing to do with a doppelganger or dual role story line, or anything even close to it.  She will be a hard-nosed prison warden, and being that she is a woman, I’m guessing it will be in a woman’s prison.  This is not definite, though – there may be women wardens in men’s prisons now – I don’t know for sure; however, I suppose the next question is who do we think we’ll be seeing going to prison toward summer’s end.  Perhaps it will be Nicole (my hope), or maybe Maddie or Kate if the tape ever comes out; or perhaps Nicole will succeed and it will be Ariana Hernandez; or perhaps Vivian’s walls will come crashing down on her, or even, tho highly unlikely, Hope Brady.  All in all, Stacie Haiduk is sure to do a great job and I, for one, am looking forward to her joining DOOL.  

 etc., in another topic, I’ll divert my attention to Kim and Shane.  At least she was a lot more tolerable in her departure scene than she was all the while she was home.  I think I read somewhere where there are plans for brief future returns for both of them, but no idea when or why.  

 absolutely hate the way Ariana is being written.  She’s supposed to be this gang leader’s woman in her past, all up into drugs and crime, etc., even went to prison for it; yet all she seems to be able to do now is prove what a great crier she is.   I wanted her to so bad jump up and grab Nicole around the throat and just slap the crap out of her.  I hope when she really does get the proof of what Nicole did to her, that the bad girl in her comes out and Nicole will know what really does come in small packages.  In other words, I despise Nicole Walker with a passion beyond my wildest belief and hope Ari’s revenge is all that it deserves to be.  And why in the hell doesn’t E.J., brilliant lawyer that he is supposedly, have Nicole followed?  Her broad daylight meetings with Baker would have meant E.J. would really have something on her instead of having it turn out to be her trapping him.   E.J. DiMera is the biggest destruction of a character I have seen of late, next to Stefano, of course.  At least he’s more himself in Nicole’s presence.  Hell, Kate is more of a villain than her husband and her stepson put together.  Anyway, I really like Ariana, but not with Brady.  I don’t like her with E.J. either, but it looks to me like the writers might be leaning in that direction.  God, please, no, not a triangle with E.J./Sami/Ariana.  I couldn’t bear to watch Sami’s huffing and puffing in the same scenes with Ariana’s hero worshiping glances.  Ugh!

 Sami and E.J. that could be determined to be worthwhile.  Again they were interrupted by his phone ringing (Ariana).  Now, the kiss between her and Rafe was exceptional.  She literally threw herself around him and the kiss went on and on, with E.J. looking on …. loved every second of it.  Sami and E.J. … no so much for me.  I do have to laugh at Sami’s overly done breathlessness when E.J. and her come close to kissing, which is all they ever seem to do.  She pants and huffs and puffs, then ducks under his arm or scurries away.  She reminds me of a bull moose in heat.

 one more flashback of Philip and Chloe’s afternoon delight … ugh … talk about beating a dead horse.  I would be shocked if they made this Philip’s baby.  The two of them together have a slim to none chance of conceiving a child.  Between Philip’s defective little swimmers and Chloe’s past medical history, I would have to say it is unlikely that they could make me believe that this couple could make a baby.  However, with these writers, the more ridiculous the situation calls for, the faster they put pen to paper trying to convince me, and others who think like me, ……it could happen!  Why do I even bother trying to figure out the methods to their madness.