I am not sure if she actually is his ex-wife or if he just left her when she was pregnant - she said something about him leaving but divorce has not been mentioned- I can't seem to work that out yet - but it's early days. How he can tell peoples ages is a bit of a stretch - he acts like Sherlock but unlike Sherlock he doesn't always explain what leads him to his deductions. It seems to be the fashion for families to be dysfunctional - in this case a son - but in most cases it is daughters who get the bad rep. When I was young I wouldn't have dared to look sideways at my parents let alone talked back to them. It wasn't really fear - I didn't think that they would beat me - it was respect and the natural result of normal discipline. But children are regarded as "little adults" today - which is a complete nonsense - not to mention an oxymoron. I have very strong views on child discipline or rather the lack of it today. Our neighbourhood is plagued by early teens running riot - drinking - riding unlicensed bikes and off - road vehicles - speeding down one way streets - pounding on peoples doors - breaking windows - trying to put lighted rags into letterboxes - damaging cars - breaking into them and stealing anything there. There is no point in calling the police - IF they answer the phone they have one standard response "There's nothing we can do". What were their parents doing when they were growing up? Putting them on the naughty step and giving them time-outs? I've got news for them - it didn't work and never will.

The funny part is that he can tell you that you drank coffee exactly 30 minutes ago, the patch was on the right arm, the man is 45 years old, all from the smell. Can he smell an envelope and read the letter inside?

You're right, dysfunctional is being touted as the new normal. Histrionic meltdowns are also extremely common on TV shows and in movies. At least 2 or 3 characters are in an almost continual state of hyper emotional trauma in most shows. The kid's mother is almost always at her wits end, at least in the first couple of episodes. Of course her son got arrested now, so she is worse.

It seems like acting schools today must teach exaggerated emotional displays as the way to act. That wouldn't be so bad except that they are also usually very immature, and their hysterical emotional condition overwhelms them to the point that they cannot think rationally. I think it's a terrible and dangerous trend. Young people look up to actors and they mimic their behavior. It imprints on them almost like the way a parent's behavior influences a child. I knew better than to talk back to my dad that way. He never hit me, but he made it clear that he was in charge, and he had the legal authority to direct my behavior. Plus, the culture was such that people generally understood that you pay respect to your elders, especially your parents. And I couldn't stand to hurt my mom. If I argued with her I was careful in how I did it. The kids on these shows sass their parents, sarcastically put them down, and so on. There are definite efforts to undermine the authority of parents over their children. I recall some crazy United Nations position about that. I hate the UN. Sorry, but they don't make the laws in my country, we didn't elect them and they have no authority. But they keep trying to impose their ideas on sovereign nations; they keep trying to act like they are the government over the whole world. [The UN has a position on gun control also, and have sought to push their ideas on the US. There are UN weapon confiscation vehicles that look like the armored vehicles the military uses. If the UN were ever to put troops in the US with approval from some leftist President (an idea which has been floated by gun control freaks) I fear they would be viewed as foreign invaders on an illegal mission. Things could get very messy if that happened. ]

The idea that parents may not discipline their children has taken hold and been in practice for some time now, and the results are not good. Some kids act almost like they were raised by wolves

This goes back to a previous discussion we had when I brought up the subject of have you ever seen a child having a tantrum - and what happens if you ignore it. The child will get crazier and crazier until it loses all control and goes insane with anger and frustration. To quote -it is illegal for a parent or carer to smack their own child, except where it amounts to "reasonable punishment", according to section 58 of the Children Act 2004. But what constitutes reasonable punishment? I am not an advocate of beating a child - but I believe in discipline and the teaching of respect. I think parents today want to be seen as enlightened and praiseworthy - thus the advent of totally ineffectual ways of dealing with an unruly child. They don't have the wit to understand that the world outside will not put up with bad behaviour with a soft response. Not dealing with a childs anger (because that is all it is) and putting it in a place by itself to calm down is the equivalent of ignoring the child having a tantrum. In response to being ignored yet again the anger goes inward and festers and when the child is old enough and powerful enough out it comes in antisocial behaviour. It is so obvious - I don't understand how people can't see it. If you notice - a heck of a lot of shows on Netflix and elsewhere are aimed at teens - and they seem to know their mindset very well - sex - violence - gory horror - heroism - being in control - saving the world. Typical teen fantasies. Of course they are going to milk this market for all it is worth and to hell with what messages they are sending out.

Adults have been conditioned to believe that it is wrong to show disapproval toward or to scold a child. That statement is much more true today than I can ever recall it being. When the child misbehaves or acts up, throws a fit or a tantrum, of course the adult cannot show approval. But if they believe it is wrong or harmful to show disapproval, they ignore the child, thinking they are doing the right thing. But as you pointed out, this doesn't help the child, the child doesn't "get it out of their system", instead the child feels ignored, perhaps abandoned, or perhaps even feels that its pain is being mocked. Failing to get any interaction with their parent, the child may internalize those feelings of rage, ridicule, abandonment, etc.

There was an idiotic idea in popular psychology a few decades ago. People were taught to imagine the person who had done them wrong sitting in a chair, and encouraged to shout and scream at them and get it out of their system. They did this when a person had "issues" with a dead parent. They also encouraged married couples to take baseball bats made out of soft foam, so that it couldn't do any damage, and express their anger by striking their partner until the anger went away. I'm serious, they did that. What does that teach people to do when they get angry? And even though it is a foam bat, how does the partner being struck feel, emotionally?

I don't know what these people are on when they come up with such ideas. I wonder how many unsuspecting couples underwent that form of therapy, believing that this 'counselor' was helping them?

In episode 4 when he sniffs out the fake painting he tells Viktor "I had no idea it would cause such a fuss" when he told everyone it was a fake. Really? He went on international television to declare that the painting being repatriated to Russia is fake, and he didn't realize that would cause a 'fuss'?

I am on ep 4 also - I am halfway through it. I have just gotten to that bit. It was a ridiculous statement to make - the financial and political fall-out would be enormous - anybody with a brain cell would realise that. I don't know if they are making him out to be naïve or stupid. He didn't show much intelligence when he let an obvious thug into his apartment and challenged him about stealing the cup. If he was confident of his own ability to defend himself I could have accepted it - but he is a weakling - he can't fight - he can't shoot - his wife has no respect for him - all he can do is sniff stuff and come up with impossible conclusions. And why the very brief trauma of losing this ability after the thug head butted him? It lasted about ten seconds and was pointless because the audience knows that without that ability there is no show and this goes on for three seasons I think. I will persevere in the hope of improvement. With regard to your comments on psychologists from decades ago - over here (and no doubt over there) prisoners are expected to undergo a psychological evaluation before the parole board makes a decision on releasing them. It makes you wonder how many were released on the word of psychologists who were merely following a fashionable theory. I will put my head on the chopping block and say it is my belief that Sigmund Freud spouted a load of cobblers which some people have taken as gospel. I think his theories were a part of his own twisted imaginings and desires. Nobody can see inside another persons mind - you can only see what they do - not what they feel and everybody is different. When people say they have spent years in therapy - years? What good did it do them then? It seems to me that psychologists have a stock response to every patient statement - "and how did that make you feel?" and the patient goes wittering on never realising that their issue hasn't been addressed. As you might have guessed by now I have no time for psychology - I think it is a bogus profession where theories and treatments change with whatever fashionable wind is blowing at the time. I have had many traumas in my life - both mental and physical - and I have never once sought counselling of any kind. Now - after every tv show featuring a rape or a murder - or anything traumatic we have messages that say "if you have been affected by this program please call " they give a number - I don't know if it's free of charge but I would doubt that. We have become a nanny state - encouraging people to seek counselling for the slightest thing - it is making them weak and indecisive and prone to blaming their troubles on anybody except themselves - once again encouraging lack of responsibility and accountability. We are becoming divided into those who take control of their lives and those who don't or can't. Unfortunately for the rest of us - those two groups consist of the elite and the criminal.

When my back became bad enough that I went on disability the insurance required I see a psychologist because depression is so common for people who go on disability. The guy I used to talk to seemed like just a normal guy "So, what's going on with you?". That sort of thing. He was friendly and just seemed normal, no weird stuff, so I didn't really mind going. He encouraged me to take classes in stuff I had an interest in, or to volunteer at a university so I could get access to a laboratory and work on stuff I wanted to invent. After a bit he figured I didn't need to be there. I would say that, in his case anyway, he just wanted to make people feel better and be engaged in life. Probably there are too many suicides by people who suddenly can no longer do the things they enjoyed doing, and have to take pain meds to function. It would be easy to save up pain meds and try to overdose I suppose. So he serves a good purpose and really tries to help.

But I know exactly what you're talking about. Freud talked to some people who thought about about sex with their mothers, or perhaps he had thought about it. I wonder how valid your theories are if you base them on the thoughts of a few demented, tortured, patients. Once the theories were accepted, they were applied to the general population. Normal people may even have begun to believe them because these smart, learned, men said it was all true. Lay people can be very suggestible. I imagine some people might have begun to think about sex with their mothers AFTER they were told that "everyone subconsciously wants to have sex with their mother" or however the theory was formulated. "Gee, I never realized it before, but maybe I thought about it and didn't even know it, subconsciously and all." After a while it is like an urban legend, it is commonly accepted knowledge with nothing to back it up except the prevalence of belief in it. It is like a persistent rumor. You know how hard it can be for people to admit that they were wrong, especially when talking about a belief one has held for some time and has perhaps even taught and defended. The profession of psychology has no interest in publicizing its failures or false teachings. That could undermine public confidence in the profession, and possibly open members up to legal action. So there is a built in resistance to publicly correcting false psych theories.

Also, in any large group of people, there will be unscrupulous sorts. I think about how fashionable it became for Hollywood stars to be "in therapy" at one point. I remember hearing them mention it on talk shows. It was like the "in thing" to do. And yes, they would go every week for years on end sometimes. Did they really have that much "work" to do on themselves? I think some psychologists out in Hollywood discovered a gold mine. They probably developed new theories of their own which justified charging these rich patients to come and see them for years. Do they hypnotize them? "You will feel better after our sessions, and will know you must return so you can feel even better again. You will not remember this after you awake on the count of 3." I imagine in many cases they become their friends, always encouraging, telling them what they want to hear, etc. If you have a psych degree and like to listen to people, you can make a lot of money if you become a "therapist for the stars". Or so it seems.

But I also agree that it has gotten much worse than that. Milking rich celebrities as their therapist friend is fairly benign. The Nanny State is a malignancy. We are seeing it here also, and it is especially visible on university campuses. Instead of seeking to help students develop into mature, capable, responsible adults it seems the nanny state seeks to do the opposite, encouraging people to focus on their feelings of vulnerability, rejection, and inability to cope. Part of becoming an adult involves learning to deal with frustrations and disappointments in a mature manner, wipe away that tear, keep your chin up, choose to press on, and so on. But the nanny state encourages young people to fall apart, to focus on and nurture their feelings of inability to cope with life, feelings of rejection. It encourages histrionic displays of helplessness, rage, and blame shifting.

Have you heard of "safe spaces"? Universities have created them on campuses in the US. They are described as places "intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations." If a student sees or hears something which "triggers" them emotionally, they may run to a safe space and hang out with other quivering masses of jelly. During the last Presidential election some student put up an election banner for Donald Trump which, when seen, sent students running to safe spaces. The leftist university administrators made sure to provide counseling for them. We are teaching these kids to express an inability to deal with life. Of course, many of these kids have learned to work the system, manipulating others through their passive aggressive emotional trauma. The phrase "I am literally shaking right now" is like a badge of honor for these students. And officials encourage and reward such behavior.

So what skills are these students learning to help them cope with real life?

On the larger scale, I think the elites are driving the Nanny State. Of course it is putatively being done for the benefit of needy people, but the real goal is to produce dependency. You said "it is making them weak and indecisive and prone to blaming their troubles on anybody except themselves - once again encouraging lack of responsibility and accountability." I agree, and it seems to me that this is exactly what is intended.

The elites want a dependent public which turns to the state for everything. And why? Because it is the perfect populace to accept the loss of rights as the Nanny State increasingly dictates every aspect of life. Children must do as they are told by their guardians; they may fuss, but they cannot tell Mom and Dad that they refuse to sell the house and move. They don't own the house, Mom and Dad own it and make the decisions. The elites want the masses to be dependent children to the State because such a populace won't be inclined to object when a dictatorship is incrementally installed. As long as the State can "manage perception" of what is going on, distract attention from what they want hidden, direct their attention to some crisis of racism, or bias, or whatever, then mollify the public with some new program or set of laws protecting everyone from everything, and giving them freebies to boot, they can do just about whatever they damned well please. Our news media is more like theater than news. It is political propaganda mixed with some facts and a lot of lies. WOW. There I go again. hahaha. I start talking about that stuff and before long I have written a page.

There is a show called "Unit 42" made in Belgium but it's in English. I prefer that as sometimes I don't keep up with everything when I have to read the subtext translations of foreign language shows. It might be another one we can watch, if you can get that one also. It is a cop show. From the little I have strained from it, it revolves around a cop whose wife was murdered and has come back to work again, probably because work takes his mind off of his wife being gone. It looks interesting.

The Sniffer seems like a guy who is very gifted, almost like a savant of sorts, but a bit backward in other areas. At least his perceptions are not the same as most people. It is a bit contrived. He did seem very very naive to think his televised statement claiming the panting is fake wouldn't cause an uproar. In general he seems to interact well socially, and to understand the world around him, so it didn't seem credible that he would not know what a fuss he would cause. Do the writers think we are to believe he was genuinely surprised by that? Or are we supposed to think he just has a rebellious streak, and that he doesn't really care if he causes a fuss? I would be inclined to guess the latter. I guess we will have to watch further to see how they intend us to view him.

I am trying to watch The Sniffer - but quite honestly it doesn't seem to have any depth or action enough to keep me awake - I have just woken up from a doze after watching some of the episode in the military base where some guy has killed three soldiers. I know I am being facetious but I have to laugh at the size of the Russian officers military hat - it stretches about 8 inches above his forehead and he has such a little head - it is fascinating - he'd never get wet if it rained !! And that wife - oh God - who does she think she is? The way she speaks to him - she wants taking down a peg or three. His mate - Vitali - is it - he's getting quite creepy with his seduction of new young female interns - are we supposed to view him as a lady-killer? I view it more as taking advantage of a superior position - I don't like that. I am glad your experience with a psychologist was positive - seems like he wasn't one of the frauds - and there are so many of them. I am not sure whether they actually know they are frauds because people today have such an unshakeable belief in their own abilities they wont question themselves - even when so called psychologists release people who go on to kill - sometimes within hours - it's like water off a ducks back - they take no responsibility and feel no remorse. I wonder what they tell themselves. My niece went on an assertiveness course - and the way she spoke to my brother afterwards was atrocious - as if he was a naughty child - he wouldn't take it and told her where to get off - if she had spoken to me like that I'd have slapped her face for her - and I am anything but a violent person. The fact that she thought she could speak like that to someone so much older and her father to boot. "You will stand there and you will listen to me" !! The same course advocated the use of cocaine as a recreational drug of choice - because it wasn't as harmful as cigarettes? This is a government sponsored course. !! Safe spaces !! are they having a laugh - from what I see on the news - shootings on campuses are not a rare event - there is no such place as a safe space - what are they trying to do - turn students back into babies with no courage to face the world? I have had another thought on Freud - I think all the filthy imaginings were in his own mind and he wanted to share his thoughts with others - but of course he would have been vilified if he did - so I think what he did was turn these thoughts into a "scientific theory" which he could discuss openly with others without fear of suspicion of being a paedophile pervert. Neat trick. I think I may have put Unit 42 on my wish list. I shall have a look and see.

They do have humongous hats. It makes me wonder what they are supposed to signify. Does a big hat denote authority or power? Is there a "My hat is bigger than your hat" idea behind it? I don't like to always make fun of stuff, but those hats seem a bit comical. If they were much bigger they would catch the wind and fly away, or the weight of them could be an issue. At some point soldiers would start turning down promotions just so they wouldn't have to wear an even bigger hat.

Yeah, Sniffer's ex is a basket case. Even when she OD's on that Valium like drug she is anxious and neurotic. When she came to his door begging for help (and this was after he had saved their son from a false murder charge) and he let her in, the first thing she did was start complaining about stuff and nagging him. It's the only tune she knows how to sing. She is manipulative and abusive, and now we know she has a drug habit since she stole those prescription pads when the prescriber refused to write another script for her without an appointment. I recall one time she didn't nag him or put him down. After Sniffer got their son exonerated from the murder charge, she said "thank you". That was it. And it didn't last long.

Yeah, Sniffer's police contact would be charged with sexual harassment if he worked in a US police department. He is certainly abusing his position, though so far the women he has slept with seemed to welcome it. But for a superior at work to seek an intimate relationship with a subordinate or a lower ranked employee is really a bad and abusive practice, whether the subordinate is attracted to them or not. It's not a good idea to date anyone who works where you work, no matter their position. There are just too many ways it can go wrong, and if it does, it poisons the workplace and affects the company or department. And of course, eventually you will say something to someone who finds it offensive or who might feel pressured to say nothing about it for fear of negative repercussions to their career. It is just a bad practice, generally speaking, especially for a skirt chaser who is only interested in "hooking up" casually.

I do find it refreshing however to see a culture which isn't ruined by radical, militant, feminism. In America today, if you're a man, at work you should never compliment a woman in any way at all. Anything you say can be construed in a negative manner, even something like "you changed your hair, that looks nice on you", whatever. It is a minefield. So I like seeing men and women interacting as men and women without anyone freaking out about it. I do agree the guy is abusing his position and shouldn't be pursuing women he works with. But I like the absence of sensitivity training classes and militant feminists who look angrily and suspiciously at every man they work with.

Assertiveness training. Most of that is nonsense. I think many of the people teaching those courses don't know what they're doing. They seem to equate abusiveness with assertiveness. Are the courses taught by those angry feminists? There is a right way to help people become self confidant, and to change their views so they believe they shouldn't fear asking for a raise, and they learn to recognize their own positive attributes and how to promote themselves, and so on. When people learn this they attract the results they desire through their infectious confidence. They don't need to demand what they want, they don't put others down or "in their place" to make themselves feel more powerful. They feel happier and act friendlier and more expansive, and free to pursue their desires.

But some of the people teaching those courses seem to think assertiveness equals angrily demanding that others capitulate to their position, and speaking to others in a demeaning and abusive manner. It's as if those instructors had their own feelings hurt because they suffer from a lack of self confidence, and they became angry and determined to get even with this oppressive world. They seek to intimidate others through shocking, abusive, language, and they justify it by calling it "assertiveness". And if their approach is criticized they say "when a man does this he is a leader, but if a woman asserts herself she is a bitch!" They're not wrong, everyone else is hypocritical, according to their defensive view. And this is what they teach. It is another destructive fad, like having married couples hit each other with foam bats while yelling at each other.

Safe spaces and snowflakes, oh boy. I like to read up on the psychos who go on shooting sprees. Well over 95% of them are radical liberals of some persuasion who believe themselves to be unfairly treated victims. This is the result of teaching young people to view themselves as offended, injured, victims instead of molding them into mature, responsible adults who take responsibility for themselves, and who realize that life isn't always fair, and that they must develop the character to succeed in spite of that. When people are trained to posture as victims and blame others for their feelings and failings, they become very frustrated with real life. And some of them snap and decide to get even. One liberal snowflake started shooting people, got caught, and told the police he was upset because no girls would go out with him and he had never been with a woman. This is the kind of person we are creating by nurturing and encouraging the victim Olympics nonsense so prevalent in modern culture. When we encourage young people to blame others for everything, is it really that surprising when they act out like that?

You may be right about Freud. Honestly, I have never met or heard of anyone who indicated in any way they were sexually attracted to their mother. Maybe somebody else's mother, but not their own.

I am still ploughing through "The Sniffer" - this time it's a kidnapped child. How long are these episodes? They are more than an hour surely - they seem more like two. I don't know what it is but the premise is interesting but the execution isn't. It's only saving grace is that there are no same sex sex scenes in it - in fact you may see two people in bed together but that is as far as it goes. I am surprised that every commanding officer is not a black female - or a female of any culture. They don't seem to give women any real power roles - maybe that is in keeping with Russian culture. Freuds theories all hinged on infantile abuse of various kinds which speaks volumes about him in my opinion. I have my suspicions about Lewis Carroll as well - I think he was probably a paedophile. I can't imagine how idiotic it was to encourage married couples to hit each other with foam bats. It might not have hurt much physically but the mental realisation that this is what your partner feels about you - wants to hurt and humiliate you albeit in a safe way. Do you ever get over that realisation? I wonder how many of those marriages survived. I think I will try Unit 42 tonight - maybe watch it and The Sniffer alternately.

I just checked episode 5 and Netflix has it at 47 minutes 39 seconds with no commercials. I guess on television it would be at least one hour. What does it mean that you think it is longer than that? Maybe you're finding some of the scenes really boring. It does seem to drag a bit sometimes.

What was that line? "Methinks thou doust protest too much", was that it? I thought of that when you talked about Freud and his infantile molestation or abuse theories. Who would think so much about that unless he had personal experience with it, one wonders. Somebody should have advised him to take up a sport or a hobby and stop brooding so much. I had to look up Lewis Carroll, the name didn't click. The portraits of him show an almost feminine looking hairstyle, but maybe that was not thought so at that time. I read a bit about him and found that he enjoyed photographing nude female children and claimed it had no erotic appeal to him. Defenders say that during that period of time nude children photos were thought to denote innocence, were sometimes featured on Christmas cards, and it's wrong to apply 20 or 21st century judgments to that time period. That may well all be true, but he was a single man, was he not? I can't imagine that it wasn't thought unseemly for a single man to choose an avocation of getting female children to remove all their clothes and pose for him. Did he assist them in striking the right poses? And I wonder how long it took him to help them achieve just the right pose. Anyway, the person who wrote Alice in Wonderland had a very different way of looking at things. It seems reasonable to wonder how his views on other issues varied from the norms.

I heard a famous hypnotist talk about that foam bat thing. He said he attended one of those sessions and asked the therapist about it. He was told you take the bat and strike until the anger goes away. He said he told him "let me try that", took the bat and hit the therapist with the wooden handle end. The guy said "OW, that Hurts!" He replied, "yes, and how do you think these people feel when their partner beats them and screams at them? That hurts too. " And the worst part is, look what it teaches people about handling their disappointments and disagreements. How can anyone think that practicing violence and anger will help them in real life when issues arise? And these people are supposed to be experts!

I am switching back and forth between the sniffer and unit 42 also.

Sniffer's ex is a royal bitch.

These episodes drag a bit - I fell asleep half way through one episode and when I woke up it was halfway through the next episode !! Oh I was dozy and confused!! I think I must have missed something because the last time I looked he had only had one date with that female doctor - on tonight's episode he says I know you love me" Now his bat crazy ex is visiting the doctor. I am not sure why unless she is jealous - look at how she demanded he allowed no women into his apartment whilst his son was there - he just smiles ruefully and doesn't open his mouth. He comes across as very ineffectual which is a trait I do not admire in a man. When I was young I had a boyfriend for three years when another guy tried to muscle in - when the guy offered to fight for my favours my boyfriend said he would rather talk it over. That was it for me - whereas I didn't want a physical fight - I expected at least a shouting match. The result was that I no longer felt valued or protected and I finished with my boyfriend soon after. He had lost his masculinity in my eyes. I was very young - but I doubt I would feel any differently today. I went out with the other guy for a couple of weeks and then packed him in as well. I resented the fact that he thought he could win me like a prize in a fairground - he didn't ask me if I wanted to be won !! Lewis Carroll is said to have wanted to marry the child who was the model for the Alice illustrations - I think she was the daughter of his friend - and she wasn't a grown woman then. If you ask me I think his books sound as if he was on drugs of some kind. That distortion of reality is far beyond any dream I have experienced. What is the point of showing Vitali forever eating cheeseburgers and pizzas- is he going to end up with a heart attack and blame it on the decadence of the Western world? It is also annoying me how that flirtatious secretary always seems to be around when one of his girlfriends turns up. I have worked in offices of one sort or another throughout my life - and I never wore a low cut top or unbuttoned top in any of them - it is unprofessional. But if we are to believe television shows women dress like they are going on a date. I found it really strange in Ezel that Turkish women would wear such revealing clothes. I don't know why. Probably because something like 97% of the Turkish population are muslim - and muslim women usually dress more modestly.

Yeah, they decided to make Sniffer too much of a wimp. I knew kids who had medical issues and sort of had to choose to avoid fighting. It was an adaptation they made to their condition. Some of them kind of adopted a nerdy and wimpy personality. Some just avoided certain activities. I can see how that can happen; your self image is strongly influenced by how others see you. Usually if a guy doesn't like the way he is perceived he does something to change that perception. For the kids who could not fight because of medical issues, they may sort of get stuck with the wimpy label and start to adopt a passive attitude. Maybe that is how we are meant to view Sniffer. But there is no reason he should have shied away from learning about pistols, something which would help to equalize things for him.

Concerning his ex, I would have spoken up and told her to stop bitching or get the hell out a few times. I definitely would have laid out the facts instead of allowing her to keep blaming me for stuff. I also understand how fruitless it can be to argue with someone who doesn't care what the facts are. But still, I wouldn't stand there and listen to her non stop blaming and bitching.

I read that about Lewis Carroll. Suddenly he and that family stopped being friends, and no official explanation was ever offered, so I read. If he had asked to marry the child, or spoken to the child about it who subsequently asked her parents about it, then I can understand that family wanting nothing more to do with him, and why they would not want to talk about the reasons for the split. What do you make of his hairstyle? Looks feminine to me. I always figured that the author of Alice in Wonderland must have taken hallucinogenic drugs, mushrooms perhaps.

I saw another show which could be interesting. It is called The Spy. It's about Israel and the Golan Heights. They were worried about whatever Syria may have been doing there, but they had no intelligence about it. They wound up recruiting someone to spy for them. It is supposed to be based on the life of an Israeli spy named Eli Cohen. See if you have it.

second comment: I see the ex has gone to see the Dr. once again. And yes, she is jealous. Why? That really gets me. She cannot stand Sniffer, she acts like she despises him and wouldn't touch him for anything. But when she thinks he is seeing another woman, she gets crazy jealous. Oh no, her ex is seeing a young, pretty accomplished woman! What does she care? She doesn't want him, so what does she care? That lady is psycho. Is she gong to be like Esyan?

Yes - I have "The Spy" have you started watching it yet? I have just seen the news about Hurricane Dorian - I hope you are in a safe place. Lewis Carroll - yes his hairstyle was somewhat less than manly - but then look at Oscar Wilde - John Keats - Percy Bysshe Shelley - it seemed to be quite fashionable in that era. I may be tempted to watch "The Spy" over the weekend. It doesn't look to have many episodes. I am not very well versed on Israeli history. I just hope it has some action and suspense to maintain my interest and doesn't concentrate on politics.

I watched the first episode of The Spy. It deals with the recruitment and training of Eli Cohen. I like anything which is historical and has to do with espionage. It looks worth trying.