Bachelor Ben's True Love Begins Rockier Than Any Bachelor Ever; Project Runway All Stars Has a Winner

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Village Built from Snow

Bachelor Ben Picks Courtney But It's Rocky Right From the Start

 First, I believe this bachelor series was almost entirely scripted, that Ben never really took to any of the contenders, that Courtney was more script than substance and I for sure believe that Courtney and Ben will, or already have, broken as soon as the Director yelled "Cut" on the "After the Rose" ceremony. 

Of course ALL of the Bachelor(ette) series are scripted to some extent.  There is also the outside chance that the man or woman offering themselves up for the picking will actually meet the love of their life, get married and parent many children over the years.

It's not likely and statistics indicate this is so.

Sure a bevy of 25 plus contenders all offered up for one person seems like a fine pool of likely mates but not really.  This series, recall, has contenders from all over the country.  So a fellow from California could, for example, meet a beauty love of his life from New York.  After all the episodes he might pick her and from then on the logistics of it all can overwhelm a burgeoning but tender love affair.

You can believe, though you'll never see it aired on  The Bachelor(ette), that some of the contenders, probably a lot of them, don't especially care for the offered person but they play along because they get free trips and such.  The contenders always have to act like they're in a perpetual state of adoration of the then proffered Bachelor(ette) as it would not do to have the contenders get on the televised waves and lambaste the Bachelor(ette) for having an awful temper or bad breath.  Believe if you want that all the contenders adore the subject of the series with no reservations as meanwhile I got a bridge to sell you who so believe.

For the record, I think Ben has another honey back home, that he'll somehow make the disconnect from Courtney very publicly and Ben or Courtney, or even Lindzi, will soon be Dancing With the Stars.

The Courtney drama was a good one.  Well the producers had to have some drama in the show because you can only watch Ben Flajnik kiss so many females before you've had enough already. 

Scripted dramas are the norm for this show and any reality show watcher knows this.  Scripted does not mean, and should not be construed as, fake.  The scripting in these sorts of reality shows usually involves taking some existing fact or condition and playing it up.  Courtney is likely not the nicest female on the planet.  There's usually some really bad dude or dudette hiding with a smile on their face within the ranks.  All the guys or gals in the ranks know who the bad guy is but it's always difficult to get the starry-eyed Bachelor(ette) to see the truth.

It's a love story as hold as the times.  Vienna was a nasty dudette.  Ashley got herself involved with some dude who only wanted to be a country-western singer.  Ben fell for Courtney although she was considered the Cruella Deville of the contenders for Ben's love.

In the "After the Rose" show, host Chris Harrison told Ben that some tabloid pictures had surfaced showing him getting right cozy with some gal who was NOT Courtney.  Ben denied it all, said they were old friends, that he still loved Courtney though they'd broken up right after he gave her the engagement ring but he still loved her.

Turned out those tabloid pictures had Ben kissing this "old friend" quite unlike most of us would kiss and old friend, including a  fond pat on the butt of his old friend.

Ben then gave Courtney BACK the engagement ring, very public, on the show.

Of course this too was scripted or are you still interested in that bridge I got to sell.

Courtney is going to go places and her name and face need to be kept out there.  As for Ben, I don't believe for a second that the lady to whom he gave the friendly butt slap is just an old friend.  I suspect, just a hunch, that she's the lady Ben kept under wraps in case his grand quest to find love everlasting should fail once again.

Give it a few months.  Ben and Courtney shall break up, will officially announce it.

Below some links to previous Bachelor Ben posts in case yon reader missed.

Bachelor Ben Begins His Search Anew After His Rejection by Ashley

Bachelor Ben Begins to Hone In On His Future Wife. The Real Skinny on the Skinny Dipping Scene.

The Bachelor-Could This Series Be the Inspiration for Speed Dating?  Update Leading Up to Home Town Dates

The Bachelor 2012-Ben Soon to Pick His True Love, Predictions, Thoughts, Snark

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Project Runway All Stars Soon to Have Winner-an Overview

As of this writing we were down to three contenders.  The finale was last night, is done and MONDO WON!

It's been a grueling group of episodes.

There were three left: Michael, Mondo and Austin.

I thought Michael would win this thing.

Now that NBC has the new, bright and vibrant Fashion Star  I'm not sure I could stand another drawn out Project Runway series, especially with has-been losers.

I think there's a little too much scripting/drama and angst going on in Project Runway.  I understand that showing some of the competition, the jealousy, the interaction is a big part of the story.  But Project Runway plods along, plodding, plodding, plodding.

Some of Michael's collection below.

Mondo's collection below

 Couple of Austin pieces.  His wedding dress was beautiful.

NBC's Fashion Star has happening music, the Runway fashion show gets right on.  There's angst in that show as are in most of these live reality competition shows. 

The most recent episode of Project Runway All Stars 2012, "Leading up to the Final Runway" or some sort, had that hideously childish Mondo suffering some kind of depression.  I almost, after many long minutes of hearing about Mondo's depression, clicked the channel, the hell with it.

I am sure I will enjoy the next fresh series of Project Runway, with all new competitors.

Now that he won give Mondo some happy pills for God's sake!

Below some links to previous Project Runway All Stars Posts

Project Runway All Stars Colorful Confections and Clothes from Strangers

 Project Runway All Stars-Coming Down the Runway to a Winner, Updates, Photos, Predictions

Project Runway All Stars-Might Be Overkill, Might Be Cool

Project Runway All Stars-Dressing Miss Piggy; She With Dirty Hair Sent Home

Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Bachelor 2012-Ben Soon to Pick His True Love, Predictions, Thoughts, Snark

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Women tell all and the demonization of Courtney

So I watched the "Women Tell All" version for BenF's season with The Bachelor. It was a fine job of the demonizing of contender Courtney, which was an ongoing theme this season, which was all scripted, as I assert.

I also assert, as I always must, that scripting on these reality shows is minimal to invasive and there's nothing wrong with this. Some of these more emotionally based reality shows don't have the thrill of dumping red paint on contenders as they race to win some sort of episodic coveted prize. The Bachelor(ette) is really nothing but a great big trumped up dating show and there's nothing wrong with this.

I'd recently challenged that The Bachelor might be the competitive reality TV show's example of speed dating and I argued there's nothing wrong with this.

I consider this series and its ilk as a kind of wrestling tournament. Wrestling isn't real, at least the outrageous "plots" that the producers come up with that has them angrily throwing chairs and bashing opponents' heads with tables. But real or not, there's a talent to concocting and enacting storylines that amuses/outrageous/fools the viewers while also incorporating the main concept of the talent then being displayed.

The bachelors on The Bachelor don't have any kind of serious talent save being single, actively looking for a life partner, and in most cases, being somewhat handsome. Still and so, THAT is the talent of the show and mostly women tune in across the fruited plains with dreams of a similar man out there awaiting to enter their lives and love them forever.

As an aside, if I hear Ben say of one of the contenders even one more time…"I can see spending the rest of my life with …(insert random contender name here)"...I shall run screaming into the night.

Having a bunch of women vying to win the sole devotion of one guy is the theme of this show. It airs for an hour and a half every week. There's the rose ceremony and some footage of group and solo dates. Beyond that, you got to have some kind of drama to keep the viewers coming back.

Enter Courtney.

Courtney is a contender for Ben's hand and one of the final two with a fifty percent chance to be chosen next Monday as the finale of The Bachelor BenF's season begins. And yes I have some thoughts as to who will get chosen to ostensibly be Ben's wife. She is very pretty, allegedly a model. She also has the personality of a snake.

At least that's how Courtney's personality is scripted on this series because I don't buy this Courtney drama, at least to the extent it is presented, for a minute.

First I have seriously not heard Courtney do anything so awful to the other women sharing the house as they wait for Ben to cull down his female choices. Oh she says some snarky things. Once a contender was eliminated and Courtney said something to the effect…"Good Riddance". Another contender, Emily, one of the shrillest and nastiest of the contenders based on last night's "The Women Speak" episode, apologized to Courtney for being a bit catty to her. Courtney refused the apology.

Well that's not nice but it's also likely a staged scene.

Let us not forget that there is someone with a camera during all those scenes we watch during that show. Going out on a limb here, but I think sharing a home with a bunch of women all wanting the same guy would be a breeding ground of cattiness. Courtney's snarky "Good riddance" was RECORDED. Are we really so stupid to believe that none of the some 25 other females living in that house never said anything so catty, likely cattier.

Just the fact that these sorts of scenes are recorded should cast doubt in the minds of viewers. We all tend to behave better when the camera is on us, come on. Refusing a sincere apology, IN FRONT OF A CAMERA RECORDING SUCH UNGRACIOUSNESS, is just not that likely. Oh it will if you've got a director urging you to turn down the apology, that'll it'll have the viewers tuning in next week to see how it goes.

Same thing for the infamous skinny dipping scene. And yes something about that episode popped up last night that should have had us scratching our heads.

I expressed doubt that the whole skinny dipping episode, that had Courtney sneaking up to Ben's quarters and urging him to join her for a midnight swim to taking off her clothes when he agreed to Ben also removing his clothes at Ben's urging.

First, come on, I'm quite sure they have rules to keep those women in their assigned places. If not, why wouldn't they all be up at Ben's quiet spot, beating down his door and begging him to come here or go there or whatever? Courtney had to have somebody's permission to do this.

Second, again, there was somebody with a camera recording that skinny dipping scene. It really seems unlikely that two people would strip off their clothes and run with wild abandon in their birthday suits into the water for a grand bit of fun. Bearing in mind that the presence of a camera in this instances means likely airing of these antics across the fruited plains and into millions of homes.

Much less, as is hinted, having sex, something no one knows and that's how it's meant to be. Us viewers are to ASS-U-ME Courtney and Ben had sex, it's never said and I argue it likely didn't happen. The skinny dipping scene did happen as I got eyeballs and saw it. But again, some clever producer probably thought it would be a great part of the storyline so they set it up to allow Courtney and Ben to film the scene.

The other women in the house allegedly did not know about the skinny dipping incident, at least as the show was being filmed ongoing. On the women speak show last night, the skinny dipping scene was mentioned. Several of the women expressed contempt for Courtney sneakily engaging in it. Yet not a single one of them chastised Ben, who did make an appearance, for too being a part of it. I mean who could have any respect for a guy who goes screwing one of the contenders even as they wait with great hope that they will be his wife someday?

It just has too many disbeliefs to me to have not been a scripted scene, yet one more bit of drama to make Courtney the bad bitch.

I'm not condemning and like people who think wrestling is real, there are likely large swaths of young women who believe everything on this show is impromptu and natural. Having one disliked witchy female of the group of contenders is part and parcel of this show and it's nothing new.

As for Ben's final choice, I really don't think Ben is going to pick either Courtney or Lindzi. It's happened before but that time it was because the bachelor couldn't make a commitment. This time I think Ben's going to be presented as a really nice guy who couldn't possibly choose one of the final two as both, as us viewers can plainly see, are unacceptable.

We've already got a fine reason to accept Ben's rejection of Courtney as she's been played as the woman with the heart of stone who would kill if someone got in their way.

As for Lindzi, well she's a really nice lady, yes she is. Way I figure, Lindzi might reject Ben. Or else something will come up to make a match-up of Ben and Lindzi impossible. Maybe Lindzi has to move overseas or some such, I dunno.

I could be wrong, of course. It's just that Chris Harrison keeps remarking how it will be a shocking ending (though he does always say that). AND such as love and eternal happiness was not mentioned on the show last night. Usually the Bachelor(ette) will go into a rapturous rant about how he or she has found eternal happiness, that life is wonderful, that the choice has been made and joy is his or hers for a lifetime.

The idea is that after listening to the bitching of the rejected contenders the viewers are relieved to know that happiness has come to he or she who they once cherished and we will definitely tune in to see who it is. This did not happen last night.


Other posts on this Blog about BenF's Bachelor episodes:

-Bachelor Ben Begins His Search Anew After His Rejection by Ashley


Bachelor Ben F Continues Quest to Find Love; The Prettiest Contender of All


Bachelor Ben Begins to Hone In On His Future Wife. The Real Skinny on the Skinny Dipping Scene.


Click here to go to this Blog's main menu and see what other TV series we're covering.

The Bachelor-Could This Series Be the Inspiration for Speed Dating? Update Leading Up to Home Town Dates

Looking coy and cute so Ben will pick me.

Final Four Home Town Date Looms

So Ben's down to four contenders for his heart and I've some thoughts. The four final gals, who will be visited by Ben in their home towns with their families also meeting Ben, are: Courney, Rachel, Lindzi and Kacie B. I think that Kacie will be Ben's chosen love, indeed I am pretty sure about it.

It's very obvious to me that Ben likes Kacie and silly me, I think she's the best choice for him.

Courtney is but a product of scripting, that "bad guy" who shows up on every Bachelor/Bachelorette series to fool the series' star and leave all the contenders flummoxed as to how to alert the Bachelor(ette) without coming off as childish and jealous. The TV viewers are thus watching the drama unfold of the contender who does not love the series' star and see the Bachelor(ette) continually be fooled. Keeps the audience tuned in to see when the series' star gets a clue.

I do not for one second see Rachel going anywhere with Ben. There seems to be no chemistry between the two and I am surprised that she's still around. I suppose Ben had to choose SOMEBODY to fill the final four slot and Rachel was one of his choices.

As for Lindzi, I don't sense any chemistry between her and Ben either. Lindzi, I am guessing, is being groomed to be the next Bachelorette.

So I stuck my neck out with my prediction. I suspect that Ben chose Kacie several episodes ago and since then it's all been scripting/trying to fool the audience. We shall, of course, see.

Now I ponder the concept of the Bachelor(ette) series and its relationship to the new dating method called speed dating. Online dating is almost the norm today, of course, but even with a wider world of opportunities available to those looking to meet someone online, it still requires quite a bit of time invested to cull out the unsuitable from the maybes from the best bets.

Speed dating makes me smile and I wonder if the concept didn't, in some form or fashion, spring from ABC's famed Bachelor(ette) series. Consider the group date.

The way speed dating works, as my limited exposures believes, is that a bunch of would-be suitors are seated at waiting tables. The person seeking a dating possibility but without all the bother of first and second dates, goes from table to table and within a pre-set time period, stopped by a loud buzzer, the person considering the options moves from table to table.

I've been single a time or two in my life and while I imagine this deviation from the dating norm would be met with horror from old-timers used to some romantic notion of a soft knock at the door, a tenderly proffered rose, gently opened car doors, small talk….the stuff that makes meeting grow to an increased interest on to passionate love on to a lifetime commitment. I say phooey.

I could tell within five minutes if I was interested in a fellow or not and didn't need a long and boring first date to so determine. Night clubs kind of offered these quick meet opportunities but the noise and restless crowd really put a damper and filter on things.


The notion of a medium between the hectic pace of a night club and the boring tone of a first date with one very ill-suited would seem to me to be a speed date type of scenario.

One must bring one's greatest helping of self-esteem I must suppose because it's not all that easy to talk to someone for five minutes only to be summarily rejected just as quickly.

Which brings me back to the Bachelor(ette) series because in many ways this is how the series works. Initially there's the first meeting, the intros, the exchanging of names. Then there's a cocktail party and on the very first night a few contenders are sent home. How is this unlike speed dating?

Over the next few weeks the Bachelor(ette) goes on group dates, now there's a concept whose time has yet to come. The Bachelore(ette) also has more intimate one-on-one dates and regularly and steadily unsuitable contenders are sent home.

One needs a self-esteem injection to go through this although all contenders know this going in.

Well so do any contenders agreeing to a speed dating scenario and given that all truth is known in advance, I think it's a hell of an idea.

We'll be watching Ben and his encounters with the final four's family, particularly with Kacie B. The Bachelor can be seen on ABC, Monday nights, at 8 pm/c.

Below some links to previous Bachelor Ben posts in case yon reader missed.

Bachelor Ben Begins His Search Anew After His Rejection by Ashley

Bachelor Ben F Continues Quest to Find Love; The Prettiest Contender of All

Bachelor Ben Begins to Hone In On His Future Wife. The Real Skinny on the Skinny Dipping Scene.

-Bachelor Ben Begins to Hone In On His Future Wife. Or Does He Even Have a Clue?

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The things people do to their pets.

Skinny Dipping and Hurtful Timing

They fly fished, rode horses and played baseball. Some rode in helicopters or jumped on bungees. Many have been sent home. There are nine left.

They are:

Blakeley
Casey S
Courtney
Emily
Jamie
Kacie B (safe from the group date)
Lindzi
Nicki (safe from her date)
Rachel

The ladies all want to be Ben's choice and I can't for the life of me understand why.  NO WAIT!  I'm thinking the contenders are all warned by producers to always act as if the Bachelor(ette) is the greatest thing since microwave popcorn or go home now.

In the most recent episode as of this writing, Ben did two very strange things though one, I'd argue, was very scripted. Ben also showed up on The Chew on 1/31/12 and he is a most boring fellow.

Now about that skinny dipping scene...the one with model Courtney. Courtney is this year's collectively hated female in the ranks; they have one every season, one contender that everybody but the actual Bachelor(ette) sees is a despicable sort. This drums up collective drama so needed to keep the viewers in anguish over the televised scripted scenes that they should believe is real.





Some of it might be real, probably most of it is real on some smaller scale. But I do not believe for one second that Ben and Courtney had sex in their skinny dipping scene for one very obvious reason. THE CAMERA!

Come on, some one was filming that scene. This means there was a human being with a camera getting a video of those two naked people. Who goes skinny dipping in front of a camera to be televised across the fruited plains unless it's part of a script? And who on earth would have sex right after having the guy filming their naked romp, even if the camera was turned off? I'm talking normal people here.

I can hear it now...a producer comes up to Ben "Ben, we want you to do a skinny dipping scene with Courtney. We'll blur out the x rated body parts and all that but we want to accomplish two things here. We want to keep up the characterization of Courtney as the evil woman and we want the audience to be guessing if you two went all the way. It's just a little bit of acting, we have to do this to keep up viewer interest."

So that's one strange thing but it's understandable. The other strange thing makes no sense. For Ben had gone out on a one on one date with Jennifer just the prior week. He gave her a rose on the date, indicating he liked her and wanted to keep her around. On THIS episode, Ben does not give Jennifer a rose during the rose ceremony.

This makes no sense at all. He'd had very little  interaction with her during that episode so it's not like Jennifer did anything that would offend Ben. If he liked her enough not to send her home on the one on one date, why did he wait until the rose ceremony to publicly humiliate her?

On another note, the next season's Bachelorette is Emily from Brad's season. What's intriguing about this choice is that Bachelorette's are normally chosen from the pool of the rejected as opposed as the woman chosen by the Bachelor then rejected HIM. Of course in the history of The Bachelor Brad Womack really was the biggest loser of them all. Emily is a strange choice but I'm thinking she was some kind of audience favorite. She did have really big boobs.

Ben showed up on The Chew recently and was so boring I can barely remember a word he said. He was teased a bit about his skinny dipping scene so there's some more publicity. Some lady who might not have yet tuned into The Bachelor series for whatever reason (and mostly females watch The Chew) might have thought the notion of a skinny dipping scene to be intriguing and will tune in to see more naughty goings-on.

The Bachelors and Bachelorettes do often try to go on to some kind of fame and fortune. Jake tried Dancing With the Stars. Ben could think of himself as a handsome dude with a happening hairstyle soon to be copied by all cool gents across the fruited plains. But you really have to have some sort of personality and as for Ben?….not happening.

I don't see Ben showing much preference for any particular contender except perhaps Courtney. But that might be part of the script as well.

Kacie B is a contender to watch out for but for now Ben's charisma fails to blind.

The Bachelor can be seen on ABC, Monday nights, at 8 pm.

Bachelor Ben F Continues Quest to Find Love; The Prettiest Contender of All

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The Strange Return of the Funeral Director-A Guess as to Why

So Ben F continues on his quest to find his true love on ABC's The Bachelor.


This show is always a hoot, especially at this point in the series. There is still a bunch of contenders and to add to the chaos, on the episode aired on 1/16/12, yet another strange contender returned from out of nowhere. I have a theory about the sudden appearance of Shawna, a funeral parlor director contender for the hand of Brad during Brad Womack's second try to find someone to love him.

On the most recent two episodes of the series we had some sort of silly play dramatized on a group date and, I'm not making this up, skiing in bikinis.

For some reason this season we have Bachelor Ben spending time at his childhood home town as well as his current home town, which would be Sonoma and San Francisco, California, respectively.

The infamous "home town" date doesn't usually come until late in the series, with but about five of the finalists invited to go to the home town.

There's been some interesting, even humorous developments. First, there's Brittney. It was Brittney's grandmother who came to the first meeting . My guess is that that whole thing with grandma who wanted her beloved granddaughter to marry Ben was just a bit of drama used to ramp up interest. At any rate Brittney had been chosen by Ben for a one on one date but she turned him down and said that this whole thing just wasn't for her. Grandma will be very disappointed.

As for the return of Shawna, dear Lord this woman had nothing to do with nothing as fas as Bachelor Ben was concerned. An argument could be made that since Brittney went home that there was room for someone else to jump right in. Only this isn't how this series usually goes, Shawna really had no connection to Ben save allegedly talking to him on the telephone one time, her return in the middle of a series when several others had already been sent packing sure didn't sit well with the other contenders and this is certainly understandable.


Ben didn't give Shawna a rose at the rose ceremony immediately following her weird return.

Such a scripted thing like the return of Shawna isn't done for nothing. Rumor has it that Shawna is writing a book about, of all things, running a funeral parlor. I can't imagine what ABC or the producers of The Bachelor would get out of a book written by Shawna but I dunno, maybe it was a collaborative effort. I can see the book cover hype now.."WRITTEN by A CONTENDER FOR Bachelor BRAD WOMACK'S HEART, HERE's a LOOK INTO THE SECRET WORLD OF FUNERAL PARLORS".

Seems far-fetched to me. I know this, there's a reason why this silly insertion of Shawna was made, maybe she's going to go dancing with the stars. Time will tell.

The episode aired on 1/16/12 featured just the stupidest group date. A street in San Francisco, famed for its hilly streets, was covered with artificial snow. The ladies selected for that episode's group date were given skis and all enjoyed some ski slides down the city street.

Well hey, you had to have some way to get the contenders in bikinis and having them all go swimming is old hat.

I think that Courtney is by far the most stunning looker of all the contenders. Ben, for his part, seems to be smitten with her as well. Courtney has a questionable, querulous personality, however, and she looks to be the really bad one that all the contenders try to warn the Bachelor(ette) about, there's one in every season. The infamous Vienna and Jake duo comes to mind.  The other contenders did so try to warn Jake about Vienna and he should have listened.

It's all part of the scripted drama and it's why I enjoy the show.  So shoot me.

The Bachelor airs on ABC, Monday nights, at 8pm/c.

-Bachelor Ben Begins His Search Anew After His Rejection by Ashley

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Ben Flajnik Begins His Search For a Love

I get a smile every time I think about this reality series for as far as reality shows go, this one is scripted to an art.  It airs on Monday nights, 8pm/c on ABC.

Since I only have a quick, somewhat snarky review of the first show in this series, some background below.

  Ashley did not, keeping up with the refreshment, choose Ben.  Ben was one of the final two choices and is now the star of the show on this season's Bachelor.

Below, I shamelessly quote the ABC web site when the announcement that Ben was the next Bachelor was announced.  It gives as good an over-view of the fellow as most anything.

Millions of viewers shared the heartbreak of Ben Flajnik (pronounced Flannick) when his soulful and heartfelt proposal was rejected by Ashley Hebert in the emotional finale of last season's The Bachelorette. Now Ben is ready to put all the disappointment and hurt behind him in order to move on with his life, his phenomenal success as a businessman and his search for the right woman to be his wife and to start a family with, as he stars in the next edition of ABC's hit romance reality series, The Bachelor, when it returns to ABC in January 2012.


The 28-year-old bachelor has fallen in love three times (Ashley being the third), but has only proposed the one time; that one failed proposal won't stop him from trying again. He is confident that, having found love on The Bachelorette, he will find his soul mate and a lasting, love-filled relationship this time on The Bachelor.

Ben, whose easy going charm and sense of humor made him so popular and relatable to viewers, is part of a very close knit family, including his mother and sister. Unfortunately his father, Joseph, with whom Ben was best friends, died almost four years ago. Always supportive, his father personified the kind of husband and father Ben wanted to be. Ben grew up in Sonoma, California, leaving for Tucson before he started high school because of his dad's work. His mother is a teacher of third grade "gifted students." Ben stayed in Arizona to attend the University of Arizona, majoring in music production with a minor in business. He quickly found success in the business world, working in Internet advertising after he graduated college. After his father died in 2007, Ben moved back to California, and he plans to stay in northern California for the foreseeable future.

A rare, modern Renaissance man, Ben dabbles in a lot of hobbies and crafts, such as crab fishing, sailing, golf, skate boarding, surfing, playing piano and singing in a tribute band. He is also quite handy with a hammer and saw, and loves fixing and building things, as well as landscaping. The woman who will share his life will also have to share one of his other great loves: his Jack Russell Terrier, Scotch.

Finally, still without shame, I give links to two of my posts on The Morton Report.  This is a post about Ashley's final three.  This is a post about that Bachelor mainstay, "The Men Tell All".

So how was the first show?

Heh.

Well it was typical but with a few surprises.  The purpose of the first show on The Bachelor(ette) series is to bring a whole slew of contenders so that a whole bunch of them can get eliminated right from the start.  The pattern is to have some interesting, silly, intriguing presentations bound to pull in the viewers.  Only this time they really went overboard.

I didn't mind the grandmother who came along with her granddaughter.  You have to know the producers gave permission for this else all the others would be bringing in their overbearing mothers, clench-fisted fathers, shrew-eyed brothers.  I didn't mind the big hat thing that had one contender wearing some kind of stupid big hat supposed to make her stand out.  I actually thought the beauty contestant wearing her winning sash to be a bit clever, meant to impart to viewers that this is a self-centered woman that Ben should avoid.

But that ersatz lesbian scene was just over the top.  Not to be a prude, I wouldn't have a problem with this is this show aired at 10pm.  To have this sort of thing going out over the public air waves at the family hours of 8 and 9 pm was almost illegal as I see it.  Oh they didn't have two females kissing or anything but it was chock full of inuendo.  It was only a matter of time, really, before that boundless bevy of females was resourced for every man's fantasy, women in and making love with each other.

Tasteless.  Men aren't watching this show, producers, cut it out.





Below, the original 25 contenders:

Brittney Age: 26Occupation: Medical Sales RepHometown: Colorado Springs, CO

Casey S. Age: 26Occupation: Trading ClerkHometown: Leawood, KS

Courtney Age: 28Occupation: ModelHometown: Scottsdale, AZ

Dianna Age: 30Occupation: Nonprofit DirectorHometown: San Gabriel, CA

Elyse Age: 24Occupation: Personal TrainerHometown: Chicago, IL

Amber B. Age: 23Occupation: Labor and Delivery NurseHometown: Port Coquitlam, Canada

Amber T. Age: 28Occupation: Critical Care NurseHometown: Waverly, NE

Anna Age: 25Occupation: StudentHometown: Ontario, Canada

Blakeley Age: 34Occupation: VIP Cocktail WaitressHometown: Rutherfordton, NC

Jenna Age: 27Occupation: BloggerHometown: Loveland, OH

Jennifer Age: 28Occupation: AccountantHometown: Cache, OK

Kacie Age: 24Occupation: Administrative AssistantHometown: Clarksville, TN

Lindzi C Age: 27Occupation: Business Development ManagerHometown: Ocala, FL

Lyndsie J Age: 29Occupation: Internet EntrepreneurHometown: London, England

Monica Age: 33Occupation: Dental ConsultantHometown: Yuba City, CA

Nicki Age: 26Occupation: Dental HygienistHometown: Hurst, TX

Rachel Age: 27Occupation: Fashion Sales RepHometown: Southhampton, MA

Samantha Age: 26Occupation: Advertising Account ManagerHometown: Pittsburgh, PA

Shawn Age: 28Occupation: Financial AdvisorHometown: Cincinnati, OH

3rd over-Sheryl Age: Age is just a numberOccupation: Grabbing life when and wherever I can

4th over-Shira Age: ??Occupation: ActressHometown: Massapequa Park, NY

The first three are repeats.

Emily Age: 27Occupation: PhD StudentHometown: Chapel Hill, NC

Erika Age: 23Occupation: Law StudentHometown: Charlottesville, VA

Holly Age: 34Occupation: Pharmaceutical Sales RepHometown: Salyersville, KY

Jaclyn Age: 27Occupation: Advertising Account ManagerHometown: Newton, MA

Jamie Age: 25Occupation: Registered NurseHometown: Dryden, NY

I only have a few notes from the first show aired on 1/2/2012.  Lindsay received the first impression rose, which, in the history of the show, indicates nothing.  I smile that contender Jenna says her occupation is "Blogger".  What a hoot.  And how much money does Jenna get from this job I must wonder.

We'll be keeping tabs on this series as the "Journey" continues and as "Connections" are made.  Those are buzz words by the way.