General chat – Oct 15

It’s Sunday night and boo hoo – no more Australian Survivor. I really hope Ten can scratch up the money for another series.
I guess it’s Block O’Clock tonight, as the other channels aren’t putting up much of a fight. Ten has Bull, 9Life has House Hunters (my pick), ABC Doc Martin, Seven Little Big Shots and Highway Patrol and SBS a series on the ancient Greeks.
Mr Juz and I will be watching the last-ever episode of Halt and Catch fire, a drama centred around a group of people involved in the emerging tech industry in the ’80s and ’90s. Its stars the always brilliant Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies).
ABC has a new half-hour show starting 8pm Tuesday devoted to TV, Screen Time, hosted by one of The Chaser guys.
The blurb says: If you want to know what to watch, join Chris Taylor and a rotating panel of special guests for the latest from the world of TV, streaming and film. This program goes beyond the binge to bring you the best screen recommendations.



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208 Comments

  1. Oh and I’m still watching GBBO. I’m up to pudding week – the technical challenge is chocolate fondants with peanut butter centres.

  2. Please allow me one more swipe at Tara. It looks like she is in need of a supportive bra in the family feud promo picture for tonight’s survivor episode.

    • What? She is going onto The Project. Another bad choice. Just a kick in you know where for C9. I am sure she will not be paid as much as what she is earning on Today.

      • I hope her departure shows in the ratings (but not an increase in Sunrise because I find Kochie even more odious than Karl).

      • I was wrong. She will be paid MORE on Ch10, like $2millon for just hosting The Project!

        Now I am waiting for the demands from Carrie and Waleed. They will sure want a pay rise!

    • Getting annoyed at people whinging that Karl was getting paid more than her (not here but on other social media). Totally agree in gender pay parity, however Karl does do 60 mins, This Time Next Year, A Current Affair on occasion and is seemingly expected to drop everything and be on a plane every time there is a major event or disaster around the world… so people can hardly say they were performing exactly the same role at the network.
      To be announced as joining Ch10, less than an hour later suggests it must have been about more than the pay issue.
      Two big questions now – who loses out on The Project to make way for Lisa and who replaces Lisa on Today?!

      • I think the point is that he was offered these additional roles and she wasn’t. It is not as simple as he gets paid more. And this is what happens in real life. Some men get offered he opportunities and then the women are to,d they don’t have the experience.
        And Channel 9 were/are not listening to the feedback that Karl is a turnoff, and Lisa is a respected journalist.
        I would suggest Channel 10 is going to offer her variety (and I have heard that Carrie has wanted to move on for a while).
        It looks to me like Channel 10 is less of a boys club and treats women (and minority groups better).

        • That’s pretty much as I’ve understood it too Bobi. That Karl was given time off from today and given prime time opportunities that she was not. I think it was also about not respecting the audience share that actually watched because of her and in spite of him. But I say good on her for grabbing an opportunity that arose and for managing the PR so she looks good and Ch 9 look like chumps.

      • I’ve just read that she’s only doing the Sunday Project, so there must be something else there. And I don’t watch Today (because of Karl) or Sunrise (because of Kochie) so nothing changes for me.
        I did hear Lisa give a presentation once and she was a very good, and clever, speaker so hopefully she will be given something that is not vanilla and fluffy. Lowest common denominator is always the danger.

  3. I sat through Family Feud was good to see Tarzan and Aimee. I found Tara slightly (ever so slightly) more bearable and Michelle even more insufferable. One of my pet peeves is snobs and when she said before Survivor she had roughed it by “staying in a 3 star hotel.” I swear I threw up in my mouth.If I was a wife/mother I’d be keeping my eye on the fathers of the kids she nannies for, because she’s not going to be able to afford a five star lifestyle on a nanny salary. Not that all people that have nannies are super wealthy either, often just parents who work hard.

    • We watched as well, and I agree. Most of them seemed like normal people, but Michelle was awful. Just shows that the mani/pedi comments on Survivor were just the tip of the iceberg. And she made several comments that show that a career as a professional reality contestant is her greatest ambition.

      • You’re right Fijane but she needs to realise that professional reality stars have to have some appeal (even if it is negative) and she is just unpleasant to watch. The funny thing is I’ve been watching shows I recorded last year and seeing the ads for Survivor and MC, it is amazing how many of the contestants you a) forgot had ever existed or b) had forgotten but remember you didn’t like them (even if you can’t remember why). I think characters like Tarzan or Aimee you don’t forget as easily but if you did would have positive associations if you saw them again and therefore are far more likely to get advertising or further reality gigs.

  4. I was having dinner tonight and I realised I haven’t watched the Block in years. I switched it over.

    And immediately remembered why I haven’t watched the Block in years.

    Scott Cam’s voice-over narration made me want to put my fist through someone’s head.

      • Us too. Totally forgotten how repetitive and non-renovative it is. Hard to watch after a steady diet of reno shows on 9Life where there is no drama, just reno. Latest favourite is Restoring Charleston.

      • I have never been tempted by the Block. Doesn’t it have the Host with an annoyong voice?
        I have never watched more than 5 minutes of House Rules. Saw some decor that I might have had as a uni student in the 70s.

  5. Still not finished. I will get my apprentice, Woolif, to add the blue crystals, and I am going to make a veil. Good luck with that. 😁

  6. Thanks Jaybee. And Bobi, if that is is Alice, Prince Phillip’s mum, yes, I am a big fan pf her. Her life story is amazing.

  7. Growl!!! 3 separate messages from Aust Post telling me my parcel will be arriving today – I’m home all day and NO PARCEL!!!! I wouldn’t be even a little bit cross that it didn’t arrive today …. except they chose to tell me 3, that’s THREE separate times (2 emails and 1 text) that it was coming today.
    Thanks for letting me get that off my chest before I fill out the “How was your experience?” survey.

    • The email telling you of delivery today should not go out until driver has scanned your parcel just before it goes into the van. Three separate notices is a major screwup. Contact AP and ask them to refund your freight costs. Maybe ten minutes on hold, but worth it for refund and satisfaction.

    • Wow, you have tapped into a current gripe of mine – way too many messages about the “progress of my order”. An email for: you ordered xyz, you paid for xyz, your order has been placed, your order has been packed, your order has been dispatched, your order is in transit, your order will be delivered tomorrow, your order will be delivered today (x3), your order has been delivered!

      Aahhhhhhh….

      …then, please give us feedback. Sorry, I am overloaded with emails, I don’t have time for feedback!

      • I bought bathers from Seafolly and they seemed to arrive the next day. Wah??
        But the guy bringing my dryer last week said be home Friday, and came at 7.00pm. Luckily I wasn’t going anywhere.

    • Jay blossom – permit me to evangelicalise here! Australia post parcel lockers are your answe! I never ever have parcels delivered to home as it is too darned hard to extricate the parcel when you don’t live and work in the same suburb.
      Please do yourself a favour and get one- free, convenient (find one near your work or home – or both), open 24×7, text on arrival … oh the perfection!
      It changed my life! There’s lockers across the road from my husbands work and he drives so I have heavy stuff sent there and light things that I want ASAP sent to a set near where I work in the city.
      There are even lockers at 7/11s! Drive up, enter code, collect parcel, drive away!
      Did I say they were free?
      Told you it was going to be a sermon!

    • Usually I have no problem with Aust Post.

      Once I got an email to say my parcel will be delivered the next day. Then later in the following day, they apologised that they couldn’t deliver it that day. No problem with me.

      Then the next day, they sent me an email to say my parcel could be picked up from our local Post Office! We were home all the time. I was fuming and it took a genius to negotiate the website to make a complaint. And I did. I gave them a piece of my mind. Took them 2 weeks to respond.

  8. I woke up at 10.30 this morning. Woh. 10.30!
    But I wasted a bit of a gorgeous day. It’s beautiful.
    Job list: pick some mulberries. Have a swim. Lay on sun lounge. Think about Alice’s veil. I have started on it but want it to be perfect.

    I got my sewing machine out yesterday for the first time in about a year. Now that it’s out, I might sew something beside Alice’s veil.
    That’s my random general chat. Now I need another coffee.

  9. We were watching the Living Room as Barry du Bois announced he had a return of cancer.
    Super emotional. Chris brown holding his hand was genuinely moving, and I’m not the greatest dr brown fan usually.
    They seem a very tight team- wishing him well.

    • I like Barry. It was very hard to watch and my heart goes out to him and his family. Please god be kind to Barry

  10. Today we took our fortnightly trip to the markets. Now because my new tablets are making me fel a tiny bit wobbly, I thought it a good idea to hold ontl Woolif, so I locked my arm in to his and snuggled close and walked along….but you guessed it. I was snuggling the wrong man. He was OK though. A fair bit younger.

    • Did you give him a “man-bun” in the back?

      Hi daisy! Long time no talk.

      My job is so boring, I think I went brain dead for a year. Or longer. Time seems to go by in a haze these days. And, NO, I did not partake of the MMJ in my legalized state of Colorado. 😛

      What have I been missing these days? I feel so behind on the tv shows these days, that I just found out NOW that The X factor has been given the axe.

      Where has the time gone?

      • Well waddaya know. MEEP. Good to hear from you again. To bad about the boring job but I hope everything else is going well.
        No, they didn’t have the man bun in the 70s. He looks like my hubby, but that was an accident. He should have had longish curls if it was Woolif. Next he gets fired, after that, glazed.
        Gee wilakers a lot has happened since our last chat.
        Are you on fb? If you are, you can pass your fb name 2 Jus, that way we won’t lose track.

        • Well, I *have* an fb account. Do I use it? *crickets*

          I think I’ve visited it once in the last 2 years, and it doesn’t even have my real name on it. I’m not big on the social media stuff.

          I believe both of you still have my email, though. I still have yours, and can shoot you out an email if you need it again.

  11. Does anyone watch Project Runway? I enjoyed the goggleboxers talking about it and wondered if it was worth a look.
    Pretty slim pickings these days.

    • Yes, I’ve been back watching this season for the first time in a few years. I quite like it, although sometimes i fast forward I skip though the middle of the ep workroom stuff and just watch the runway show.
      I like to think of what I would create in the challenge (if i only i knew how to make a pattern and use a sewing machine!)

    • I watch Project Runway. You should take a look at it. You might enjoy it. Most of the time I think the judges have already predetermined who the winner will be. Some of the show seems scripted just like most other reality shows but it still is fun seeing the clothing that the designers create.

      • I am up to episode 6 of the current season. The usual casting for drama and type (some super annoying types) but also some talented designers. Some of the top looks always confound me and they need to shake up the judges, but I do enjoy critiquing the looks

    • Alrighty, I LOVE Project Runway. I watch it since season 1. Heidi Klum can grate on your nerves though, she has a high pitched voice and she is even worse in German… BUT! Tim Gunn is everything. He’s a great mentor and I could listen to him talking for hours.^^
      Older seasons are better as Michael Kors was a judge and left, got then replaced by Zac Posen and I am not too fond of him. Especially when he touches the models all the time. I know, he’s gay, but still creepy. No on else on the show does that.
      There’s a bit drama sometimes, this season is a bit grating thanks to those twins, but usually it’s nice to watch. Seeing talent exposed is always a good thing.
      Make it work!
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azBp51uxOL0 – Tim Gunn

  12. Oh year, I loved the Easybeats. I have clear and long standing memories of inappropriately shaking my 13 year old bum to Friday on my My Mind at Legacy camp. I won. 😂😂😂😂😂 That and the limbo comp.

  13. Just picked three buckets of mulberries. Woolif came home and said I looked like a mad , old lady with my hair sticking out and mulberry juice all around my mouth. But he’s wrong. I’ve been looking like a mad old lady all day. That’s why I won’t send a selfie.

    • And the incarnation after this version will be a black transgender woman with a vomit-green up-do, a hair-lip, and a clubbed foot. Their weapon of choice? A sonic dildo.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if the next 007 is a woman, or at least an androgynous man.

      Sorry for the snark, but I’m already far past the fed-up stage for the PC crap that’s getting more stupid.

    • I think this is a non event. I don’t think this is pc, or non pc.
      So the Doctor is a woman. So what? And the companion is a man – that’s certainly not new.
      And just a reminder: Dr Who is a 900 year old alien living in a small blue box. I think reincarnating as a woman is the least strange thing here.
      It’s like going to the dentist and being surprised when a woman of Chinese heritage walks into the room. Seriously. Didn’t we pass this stage around 30 years ago?

      • I just want it to hurry up and come back on already! Rory was one of my fave companions – he was far more interesting than Amy!

  14. Sorry, but after the “all female cast” remakes or rumors thereof (Ghostbusters, Ocean’s 8, Lord of the Flies), and complaints of “not enough women” (Dunkirk, Star Wars) it’s left a bad taste in my mouth when I see things like that article.

    I’m female, but I just feel like, if the studios want an all female cast or a female lead, they should create something new for them. But, apparently, creativity seems to be dead these days. Guess that’s why there’s so many bad remakes and sequels. Same goes for a lot of tv shows. Makes me miss shows like Buffy and Xena, where the lead characters were specifically written as strong female leads.

    It could be that I just like to watch shows or movies where the character was created specifically with a woman in mind, as it feels more put-together. Or, maybe I’ve just crossed that “old, grumpy, and set in my ways” line without knowing it. Given my age, probably the latter. lol

    • I think your overthinking it.
      Did you know that the part of Ripley (Alien) was originally intended for a male actor? Male/female, it’s irrelevant. It just required a good actor.
      And thank god that means that we don’t have to sit through the uninteresting love interest sub-plot.

    • They went out on another date and it fell through after that. I guess he talked too much and went from topic to topic too quickly. “Word vomit” , his date called it. I thought they bonded over chicken nuggets.

      Most of tonight’s couples didn’t proceed past a second date, if that.

      Enjoyable show, though.

      • Ta, BDD. He seemed lovely but the mo was offputting. I was surprised blonde “I’m not high msintence” lady said yes to another date. In the snippets I saw she seemed alarmed every time he spoke

        • The guy with blonde/ not high maintenance said he was “good at reading people” and then proceeded to ask any number of tactless,overbearing questions. No wonder she’s alarmed. They went on two more dates and now she’s seeing someone else she met through friends.

  15. Anybody watching/watched Home Fires? I just watched Sat night’s episode, only to find the season ends on a massive cliffhanger, and then was apparently axed while still rating very well.

    I went googling – apparently no success finding a new production company, but the screenwriter is considering doing sequels in novel form.

    I feel disrespected (as representative of my demographic) that every time there is a show that is more to my taste it gets short shrift, while the TV is filled with endless monotonous crime/police shows.

    • Sorry Fijane, not watching Homefires. Woolif and I, mostly Woolif have been caught up in marathon viewing of series from STAN or netflix. Even when something is on free to air tv we often watch it later on those because, I hate waiting week by week on cliffhangers. (Have I mentioned that I am impatient). But if you say Home Fires is good, we will add it to the list of must tries. For period tv, I am thinking about giving the Durrels a go. Woolif prefers more espionage and political thriller series.

      • I like The Durrells too, although as a family they are very bohemian for the era. I have a friend who read the books since childhood and apparently that is exactly how they were. Googling their story as a real family is interesting.

        I imagine that if we had pay tv, DH would be in seventh heaven watching old westerns and adventures.

      • I just get beaten down by the unrelenting buffet of death, crime and evil. There’s enough on the news to satisify me! And tv producers seem to be mostly unable to build stories without them.

        • I used to watch them a lot when I was younger. I think they left a bit of lasting trauma in my mind, to be honest. It’s why I can’t stand them now at all.

  16. I’m having a cry over the death of Fats Domino. I think I kind of thought he would live forever. There’ll be some good music played loudly in my house today. So long, Mr. Domino.

  17. Interesting how indecent exposure is no hindrance to some people’s careers. Case in point, The Wall host (former Video Hits host) Axle Whitehead

  18. I just came in from my swim and put Woolif’s esprit undies on. When he comes home (he doesn’t like me stealing his undies) I will tell him I’m a cross dresser. The funny part is, he won’t laugh. He’ll just say(in his Blackboard hurry up, hurry up voice), “Get my undies off”.
    Ooo Woolif. Cheeky. 😁 😂😂😂😂
    You’re terrible Muriel.

  19. Beautiful baby.
    Bobi, I was having that problem but solved it by reducing the size of photos on my tab, and better still if you don’t want to do that, crop your pics before sending.
    And your baby would love mine. Or maybe not because mine a still too frisky. They get excited and want to jump on other dogs. And not in a sexual way but in a puppy way. They haven’t learnt that some dogs get frightened and some dogs will just bite their face off.

  20. I went to a funeral this morning of a very lovely lady; one of my best friends’ mum. She was always so welcoming, and ratbags that we were in our teens, she truly liked us and fed us, without encroaching by trying to be our “friend”.
    We used to come up from the beach and eat at each others’ houses. Jaquie had the best sangers. She loved roses, so this is for Jaquie.

    • There’s lots of roses blooming for Jaquie at the moment – I will think of her when I see them. She sounds like the type of Mum I wanted to be but never quite managed to achieve. Some people are just a blessing to others.

  21. Very sad accident on the M1 freeway yesterday afternoon with two pedestrians killed ( a woman and child). It is on the top of my mind today as we were away with two hundred people from church, and we all travelled over that road on our way home a couple of hours before it happened. Feels more real when you are geographically near.

  22. Keira is still milking her 15 secs of fame. Confirmed she, Tara, Laurina and Apollo will be on Bachelor in Paradise.
    They cant resist thev15 secs of fame. After the Bachelor, Tara said no more reality show.

  23. So, I am currently watching season 3 of both Outlander and Poldark on Netflix. Outlander gets better from episode to episode. Caitriona Balfe’s acting is absolutely perfect and she is so perfect for the part. I hope she will get a Golden Globe this year, but I guess they give it to Elisabeth Moss for Handmaiden’s Tale (she is really good in her role, but not as good as Cait).
    Poldark, I am on episode 7 now and wow, I disliked Elizabeth in the first 2 seasons but now I simply want her to die as soon as possible. Warleggan is such a ridiculous villain, too ott. And Morwenna’s husband must be the creepiest shitbag on earth. Perfect casting!

    • Have to comment here on my favourite two book series. I haven’t seen any of S3 Outlander yet except Youtube snippets, but I have been reading the booklover’s comments and I like what I have seen and everyone seems happy.

      Unfortunately, Poldark is another story. One of my gripes from the start was that they were portraying Elizabeth too nicely (as well as the actress being wrong) – it is funny now that everyone thinks she is turning nasty, but this is the way she was from the start. Ross never loved her in the books, only the ideal of her, she was a very cold fish. The side stories in S3 are pretty much following the books, that is Drake/Morwenna, George/Agatha, Dwight/Caroline. But they have destroyed Ross and Demelza in this third series. Demelza is one of my very favourite book heroines, but at the end of this series I was wishing that Ross would leave her. It was like they took a Jessica Marais character and dressed her up in 18C clothes. So shrewish and spouting modern feminist claptrap everywhere. Pretty much unforgivable.

    • Big difference between Osborne and the actor who plays him. The actor gained weight for the role.
      Osborne and Warleggan are cardboard villains but they are perfect when it comes to that.

  24. I am not a fan of Malcolm Turnbull, far from it, I think he is weak and ineffective as PM. But Stefanovic’s snotty comment this morning that Malcolm was “waffling” was rude and ignorant. I’m sure Stefanovic likes to think of himself as a hard-hitting journalist, but he is just a plain old jerk. Any time someone prefaces a remark with “with all respect”, what follows is usually a put-down. He may have got a more considered response, which is what a journalist would want, if he’d said “PM, you haven’t answered the question.”

    • I saw it , several times via ABC 24 this morning. More appalling television from that with all respect, talentless turd Karl.

      Waffling to dickheads is permissible , in my opinion. No one was killed.

      • Yes. Why waste intelligent conversation on Karl. It’s like when I teach Harry and Maggie (dogs) about electricity …on, off, on, off. They only pretend to get it.

    • I am showing my age here but I think that a level of respect should be shown just because of the Office held. Dare I say it but like Americans show to their Presidents. I think it’s called, play the ball, not the man. Lordy, Trump makes it hard to sustain what used to be a good point. Hopefully he’s just an aberration.
      Whether you agree with someone’s politics or not is irrelevant. Thinking you can say whatever you want to the Prime Minister, head butting the ex-Prime Minister, racially abusing a Senator, and even the level of abuse Pauline Hanson has to tolerate is all part of an ‘entitlement’ culture that is being taught.
      I now have to say to my grandkids that even though they are special in my eyes, that doesn’t mean they are more special than anyone else.

      • I agree Bobi. There is the era of entitlement, but also we Aussies have always been a nation of jokers, teasers and mockers. We even have people who draw mocking, satyrical cartoons. Could you imagine getting away with that in China? I hope we always have freedom of speech, but I think we have stopped listening to the “other side”, or anyone with whom we disagree, and just throw tomatoes.

        • I don’t think any of what I wrote makes sense because I love good political satirical cartoons. And I would speak evil of Hitler. But there is a n hypocricy I see happening in politics; “I slag off your guy because I am right”, “shock horror, you slagged off mine”. Soooo much tomato throwing, I think I should sell rotten tomatoes.

          But when you aren’t allowed to throw tomatoes, you have communist China. What to do. 🤔

          Love to chat with you at length about this stuff, Bobi. You interest me. (But that would be another forum)

        • If I understood what you said, any view can be put forward and has its place as long as there is no personal abuse.
          In which case, I agree with you. lol.
          And can I add, as long as there is no gaslighting.

        • Oh, the male hosts act too stuck up, especially scarf guy, who uses words like “preponderance”, but then says “Somethink”. Out of the guys, I prefer the short blond guy, who is on less often. Out of the females, I prefer the main blond one. They all use horrible, pushy sales techniques. Someone says, “It’s too small”, and they say, “So you like the cosiness”. Last night one of them looked at a tiny kitchen, and exclaimed “wipeable kitchen benches”. Hey dickhead, they are kitchen benches.But he didn’t have anything else to say. I love the houses and seeing the buyers.

          Oh and I wish the black girl wouldn’t stand with one foot in Glostershire and the other in Worsestershire.

    • Dr Phil always defends his audience for laughing at people’s problems and mental issues. Afterall, that’s why he has them. But that’s Phillip at his worst. I wonder if her talks to his wife like that….or just his patients.

  25. Time to get Miss 10 onto the sewing machine. We went to Spotlight this morning and she chose the material. I cut out a pattern on newspaper and dug tbrough the cobwebs of my memory, et voila. She (we) made these. She is rapt.

    • I’d like to try that for my 16 year old daughter – she ADORES christmas! She is even working in a Christmas light shop this year – that might fix her as 9-6 on the register with Christmas music on repeat.

  26. Zhee, that’s a fantastic cake.
    Well done. I made an 8 layer dark chocolate and chocolate sponge with a White chocolate butter cream for my mother ‘s 80th birthday party yesterday. Took me 5 hours !

    • I so want to steal all the berries. We have nearly winter now, it’s already freezing cold and berries cost a fortune now. 🙁 And 8 layers, wow. My highest was 5, too afraid of stacking higher, even though you can use dowels. It looks scrumptious and chocolate is always fantastic. 😀
      Just a small tipp though: Do a crumb coat first. That entraps all the cake crumbs. Then do the proper layer of frosting. Looks neater that way. 🙂

        • NP. 🙂 Something I learned while watching tutorials. 😉

          I bake over 3 days usually, when I do a cake like that. Maybe 4. I start with the cake itself, wrap the cake in cling film and store it. It is easier to cut. Usually on day 2 I do the frosting and the filling. I finish the cake with the filling then and the crumb coating. Put it in the fridge for an hour, finish the proper frosting. Then the cake goes into the fridge again over the night. I then (depending on the time I have), I prepare most of the decoration. On the the of the delivery, I do the drip effect, cool it again for 30 minutes, then decorate. 🙂

  27. These are some of the best cakes I’ve ever seen. Restaurant quality.

    You know, in either case I’d be happy to served a cake like that anywhere in the world.

  28. Saw “Justice League”. I enjoyed it. Much better than “Batman vs Superman”. Don’t think, though, that Ben Afleck should be playing Batman. Just doesn’t work for me. Best character was The Flash. If you go to see it be sure to sit through the credits because there are 2 additional scenes.

    • We just saw Thor Ragnorak and I must say I loved it! And not just because Chris Hemsworth’s clothes fell off. . .

      • I thought Jason Momoa was OK as Aquaman. There were a few funny lines. I read that several of Aquaman’s scenes were cut. He was frequently shirtless.

  29. Much as I love the pics on this thread, is it possible to have a new general thread? This one has over 200 comments and is loading slowly.
    Maybe we can have a pic of the groom with his shoelaces to start off the next thread?

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