Do you think the rapid pace of season 2 is in part because Brit sitcoms are only 6 or 7 episodes per season?  Like it if it was Mad Men they could just drag this shit out forever, like they do on Mad Men.

Did Grantham marry Cora just for money?  It seems like they've dropped hints as to some back story that they haven't revealed yet.  Like the daughters giggling and saying "Why did you marry mama?"  and there was a reference tonight about "Not the first Crawley to make a mistake."  My theory is that Grantham knocked up…

WTF?

Gotta do something when those liberal arts degrees end up putting us all on welfare.

I think I know that dude — he was also at the concert where Phil Collins sang "In the Air Tonight" at that dude he saw kill his friend on a camping trip!

Who?

I know he still exists because every once in a while one of the AVC writers retweets something he said, but I don't follow him on twitter.  He used to have a myspace account back when that was at thing and he mentioned joining the military at one point, I don't know if he actually did because then I started law school…

+1 — Heche, I can always count on you.

It's after 5, what am I, a farmer?

Oxford English Dictionary.  I can access it through my university, but I think you have to pay for it otherwise.

Well so far they've made her character exist for the sole purpose of fucking Bates, so I kept thinking she killed herself and set Bates up just as one final "fuck you" to Bates.

Just looked it up on OED — apparently it was in use by 1860.

One thing I don't get — at this point it's been what, 5 or 6 years since the death of Pamuk, and Mary's 27 now or so?  Would it really still be that big of a scandal?  Isn't everyone tired of that shit considering there's been a horrific war + terrible flu epidemic?

I thought Bates and Mary had a convo at one point where she pretty much acknowledged what he had done and asked him to keep quiet and he was all Bates-ey and "I already done forgot about it".

Seems like at the dinner where Cora got sick, there was some piped in convo during one of the transitions where you can hear Violet saying "Dr. Stupid says he has 10 cases in the village" or something to that effect.  They probably just didn't pay attention because it was only affecting mere villagers.

When he's thinking about seasonings that go well on baked potatoes, he shouts "chives, mind!"

Do these guys know how to party or what!?

Ugh.  I hadn't even heard of megaupload until a couple weeks ago when I started flashing custom ROMs on my new phone, and a lot of developers keep their files on megaupload, so it's a huge pain in the ass to find that stuff.  Seems like the govt didn't need sopa, just enforcement of the current laws to make the…

Hope it's not as embarrassing as my lit crit essay analyzing various prog rock acts from a modern/post-modern perspective.  Yeeesh.

Not an expert on English child support law of the early 20th Century, but I was under the impression that illegitimate children of upper class men were a) very common and b) almost always financially cared for by the fathers.  Might not fit the plot device, but any thoughts?