<p>Lafalum – what a story! Yikes. </p>
<p>Glad others appreciated Maggie Smith’s magnificent moment… and yes, I also smiled when even as she’s mourning a sister, Mary’s tough enough to admit to the other sister that, no, they probably won’t ever really get along… Great acting, great writing.</p>
<p>Not a reply, but I’m watching my local (Chicago, in this case) PBS programing and they are having Mrs. Patmore (sp?) on shortly to talk about a one woman show she is bringing to Chitown.</p>
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<p>Yes, it’s pretty common, but what rang a bell in my head was when they went to the trouble of mentioning the swelling in the script. That was the clear signal of trouble ahead.</p>
<p>I also had pre-eclampsia/toxemia with both of my kids. With my first, it was discovered during a weekly visit in my 38th week. I felt fine, looked fine, and had no swelling. The doctor monitored my protein level over the weekend and told me to take it easy until Monday. On Monday, the protein level was higher and he sent me directly to the hospital, supposedly to rest until the baby came. After several hours on bed rest, my blood pressure shot up to 180/120. They put me on the mag sulfate (I can still remember how flushed it made me feel). They eventually did a quick c-section later that night. Baby girl was 4 pounds, 15 ounces and healthy as can be. As for me - they kept me in intensive care for 3 days until my symptoms were under control. 2nd child wasn’t as dramatic, since they sent me to the hospital 3 weeks before his due date, knowing that my levels were starting to rise. </p>
<p>Last night’s episode hit very close to him. H, who sort of watches the show from behind his Kindle, poked his head up and said “this is hitting a little too close to home.”</p>
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<p>And don’t forget this classic from Mary to Edith: “Sybil was the only person living who actually thought we were nice people.”</p>
<p>This is my first season of Downton, so sorry if this is a stupid question: Why doesn’t Mary like Edith?? Is there anything specific Edith did? Or just because they’re different “types”?</p>
<p>^You need to watch the last two seasons…especially Season 2.</p>
<p>Lady Cora, Carson, Anna, Daisy and Thomas were on Katie Couric one day. It was so cool seeing them out of their characters. Thomas is gorgeous.</p>
<p>What bothered me about “Love’s Labor Lost” was that the whole thing occurred in the ER, with a resident - a non-OB resident, Dr Greene - in charge. I don’t care HOW full the OB floor was, once that delivery started going bad that woman would have been taken to the OB floor and a qualified OB would have found the pre-eclampsia and treated it, and left some uncomplicated delivery to the ER physicians. I never could believe an ER resident would end up in that situation. Maybe I’m naive though… It was incredibly well acted. I seem to recall there were no commercials during the second half, because it was so intense.</p>
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<p>I do remember saying that simply would NEVER actually happen, no way, no where.</p>
<p>I think Edith and Matthew have an attraction to one another. He really likes her brains and she likes that he supports her. Suspect that some kiss will happen and then she may need to move to London for awhile.</p>
<p>Well i am glad you were all born now so you could have the medical care you needed. it must have made another pregnancy scary.
My H said "oh is she (Violet) going to fall? and I said “no way” that would not be he point they are making. Will be interesting to see how they will carry on.</p>
<p>I also remember watching the ER episode “Love’s Labor Lost” and sobbing myself to sleep (must have been really hormonal that night). As I remember it, Dr. Greene did keep consulting with the OB who was on that night and as things progressed, kept trying to get her to help, but she was tied up on another case and by the time she was free, it was too late for Dr. Greene’s patient. That one really stayed with me and made me a committed ER watcher until years late when the wheels fell off.</p>
<p>I kind of love how unrepentantly hardcore Mary is.<br>
Whatever else she is, she’s certainly no hypocrite!</p>
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<p>The first blood pressure pump that became popularized and reliable was in 1901. </p>
<p>That combined with the fact there weren’t as many continuing education requirements/board reexaminations* as there are nowadays means doctors inclined to rest on their laurels or who are otherwise closed minded were able to get away with it much more easily back until the latter half of the 20th century. </p>
<p>There’s also the timeless factor that some doctors like many professionals in other fields become so overconfident due to the prominent status they’ve achieved that their ego has clouded their judgment. </p>
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<li>Several doctor friends have mentioned that they had to take the exam around every 10 years after passing the medical board exams for the first time to maintain board certification and thus, eligibility to continue practicing medicine. I doubt this level of continuing scrutiny of medical doctors’ current medical knowledge and continuing education was present back in the 1920s or before.</li>
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<p>Edith has the misfortune of being the plain and largely forgotten middle sister. She has suffered in the comparison to her sparkling big sister Mary all her life. Mary was to marry the cousin/heir until he sank on Titanic, and she was then promptly switched over to cousin Matthew, the handsome new heir. </p>
<p>So to Edith, her whole life has been Mary this and Mary that - Mary, Mary, and more Mary. To make matters worse, Edith knows her sister’s supposed virtue is a hypocritical sham due to a one night stand with a Turkish playboy who literally dies in Mary’s arms. Edith finds out about the Turk dying in Mary’s bedroom from Daisy, who saw Cora and Mary moving the body in the dead of night.</p>
<p>Edith can’t stand Mary’s hypocrisy and the favoritism she receives any more and so writes to the Turkish ambassador to tell how the young Turk really died. Gossip of course gets out in London, seriously undermining Mary’s chances of getting a good marriage to a top drawer aristocrat. Mary is suddenly radioactive.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Edith has been finally getting amorous attention from a suitor, an older gentleman. But knowing that Edith blabbed on her, Mary spitefully scuttles the man’s attentions by telling him lies about Edith. Each sister then knows that the other has deliberately ruined her chances in love.</p>
<p>Score at this point in the match: one-all.</p>
<p>c–what were the lies that Mary told about Edith–I can’t remember.
So my theory that Edith and Matthew will have a flirt fits right in as Edith would just for a minute have the trump. Of course, then would suffer.</p>
<p>Mary told Anthony Strallan that Edith was bored with some old guy she had to talk to at a garden party (and that was Anthony himself). So, he broke off with Edith, though she won him back, only to be left at the altar.</p>
<p>The older man Edith almost married was interested her in much earlier. The gist of what Mary did was as follows:Mary told him some story about how Edith had regaled the whole family with a story about some doddering old fool she had lead on but wasn’t interested in. Of course, Edith had done no such thing, but he believed it and that ended his interest in round one.</p>
<p>cross-pointed with post above.</p>
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<p>Shades of Jan Brady. “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”</p>
<p>Nrdsb4- Hahahaha! Perfect! Wonder if Julian Fellowes was a fan of the Bradys</p>
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<p>Don’t forget that although Mary was engaged to the original heir, Patrick, it was Edith who actually loved him. That was the first conflict that we knew about in the first episode. He supposedly died on the Titanic, but then a man showed up in season two in the hospital, badly burned, claiming to be Patrick. Edith believed him, but Robert made some contacts that led him to believe the burned man was an imposter. I still don’t count Patrick out.</p>