Hi everyone,

What a hot and busy week it's been here. They tell us that the hot nights are a record for us here, well since they've been recording temperatures anyway, and that's from the late 1800's I think. One night didn't get below about 24 or 25 degrees I think, so was very hot, and the days have been up around 37 too...Celsius don't forget. I've just converted for you...high 90's during the day, and mid 70's at night. Very hot anyway, for several days in a row.

Other than the weather, there's really not too much news to report from here. Tim has had another bad dose of tonsillitis and we're heading off to the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist in a couple of week's time, and the rest of us have been extremely busy with school and work. Thankfully for Tim he isn't back at University yet. It doesn't start for another 3 weeks so he is able to just rest and be miserable in peace!

Don't forget to send me your views on The Whirlwind and The Tempest if you'd like to have them included in a "Viewer's views" page on my site. Just let me know whether you like or don't like these two episodes (where Curt returns after Mary Ellen thinking he has been dead for some years), and why you do or don't like them. A few ideas have been included in this digest.

Talk to you all next week. Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

Curt has been sighted as a General in the TV show, The West Wing.

Barbara

KAREN'S COMMENT: I'm becoming a real fan of this show, so I'll watch out for him.

Hi Karen,

I thought you might find this interesting. I was watching "Cool Hand Luke" recently. I had not seen it in awhile. I looked closely, and sure enough, there was the young Ralph Waite as Alibi Gibson. The film came out in 1967, so he would have been in his late thirties. Much thanks for your hard work and dedication to the digest.

Bill

KAREN'S COMMENT: It would have been interesting to see how he looked then, in such an early role.

I spotted Verdi's husband Harley in a movie called "The 60's". I didn't watch the whole thing, but I believe he played a member of the Black Panthers. It airs every once in a while on a music station called VH-1.

Cheryl

KAREN'S COMMENT: Verdi's husband was Harley. I'm not sure what else the actor has been in.

The Waltons is only going to be on once a day now. They are scheduled to be on at least until the end of March. That is as far as the TNN advanced schedule goes.

After that date we are uncertain.

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: I looked at the Waltons schedule on TNN today but nothing came up past February 2nd. I'm assuming though, that you're probably seeing some of the season 2 episodes. I hope someone else picks it up for you all.

Hi.

My name is Luke and I'm 13 years old. I've been watching the Waltons for almost 2 years. I think I have seen all the episodes now but Im not sure.

I think the episodes where Mary Ellen finds out Curt is alive were OK but they would of been a lot better if the first actor who played Curt could have come back.

Last week someone posted that they saw the first Curt in Die Hard 2. I saw that too. I thought it was interesting that when a bunch of explosions were going on in that movie he had a line where he said it was just like Pearl Harbor.

I just saw an episode called The Ghost Story. It was very cool. It's one of my favorite ones.

Luke

KAREN'S COMMENT: That's interesting that he made that comment Luke. I haven't seen Die Hard 2 cos I'm not a fan of those sorts of movies but Tim gets them out sometimes so I'll have to watch out. A bit of humor there from the director perhaps?

These are episodes where we meet Jonsey, but also Curt is found alive in Florida, an entirely different Curt from the one we once knew. One of the ways you can enjoy these two episodes is if you have something in common with what was going on at the time. The Dew Drop Inn reopened the day a friend of mine was born and on the same day it looked like the Chicago Cubs who had been in plenty of World Series but hadn't won one since 1908 were finally going to do it as they opened the first post War World Series with a surprisingly easy win over the Detroit Tigers and Hank Greenberg...however the Cubs ended up losing that World Series and have not been back--the closest they came was two playoffs in 1984 and 1989..

Donald

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thank you for your insights into these episodes Donald. Personally I love the introduction of Jonesy, so would enjoy the storyline just because of that. But on Waltons Mountain romance never is smooth, so a complication just had to come along. What better complication than for Mary Ellen to discover that Curt, the father of her child, was still alive. Yes, it is hard to imagine that Curt would just turn his back on Mary Ellen and his son, but then he also felt that he was really doing them both a favour by not tying them to him...and we all know that Mary Ellen would have felt obliged to stay with him no matter what. It's interesting to suppose what might have happened. John Curtis didn't seem to suffer from not having his father around. There were always plenty of menfolk around the Walton home for him to identify with. Mary Ellen was forced to become both mother and father to John Curtis, and she did this admirably, and although she was sad, Curt knew that she would have had her family's support. Would he have left her if she hadn't had this support? Perhaps not. He was definitely not the same Curt (or actor :-) ) we knew, but I wonder how many men really did return from war without some sort of scarring. Perhaps this was a realistic portrayal of a man returning from war believing that he was so changed by the experience that he needed to get away and start life afresh. I'm sure things like that really did happen. Hope that makes sense, and send your views to me during the week.