Deborah’s Comments (group member since Nov 09, 2021)

Deborah’s comments from the Turn of a Page group.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Current Prompt: Christopher Lloyd
Book/Author: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Date Read: 09-13-2025
Task: 2.Read a book where the MC is a writer
How it fits: Both Helen and Grant are writers.

Awe-Inspiring! You have earned the Sven Lindstrom button




Alma Lindstrom



Alma Lindstrom was played by Actress Jeanette Nolan


Alma was born n St. Olaf, Minnesota around 1906, as she mentions that she hasn't been a girl since 1912. She was born to the Gorkleknabygenshöffstädlerfeil family, though her family name was shortened to "Gorklenabygens" as most of the family was in show business. She later married Gunter Lindstrom, and they had eight biological children; daughters Lily and Holly, and six sons, one of which was named Michael.

Between 1930 and 1938, Gunter and Alma adopted a little girl from the St. Olaf orphanage. They named the baby Rose, and took the spicy beefsticks that she was left with as part of the deal for adopting her. Rose remarked that neither of her parents made her and her siblings feel like they were less important than the others, and that they would have the best Christmases complete with her father playing Christmas carols at the piano, her mother making homemade eggnog, and the family decorating the tree.

In 1937, Rose met Charlie Nylund, the boy who would become her husband, while he was selling insurance on the street corner. Charlie asked Rose to marry him soon after they met, and though it was love at first sight, Alma told Rose to wait until she was fifteen to get married, like her sisters did. Considering that they adopted the little girl between 1930 and 1938 and she met Charlie in 1937. Rose must have been a child when she met Charlie and fell in love. This is a major plothole for sure.

Alma's husband Gunter passed away somewhere around 1981. After he died, Alma was left alone in their marital home as all of their children had moved out. She later hired an ex-convict named Ben to help out on the farm, and the two of them began a romantic relationship which lasted three years. Ben taught Alma how to count cards and how to carve a pistol out of soap.
Some time before "Blanche and the Younger Man", Alma broke her hip ice skating and was in the hospital for an undisclosed amount of time. Rose became overprotective of her, and when Alma came for a visit, hovered over her to an extreme extent. Alma quickly became angry and embarrassed at how much Rose was mothering her, and chose to leave Miami early.

Later in the series, Rose would mention her mother as if she had died, however she could have been referring to her birth mother, Ingrid Karklavoner.

In The Golden Palace episode "One Old Lady to Go”, Rose mentinoed that she put Alma in a nursing home six years prior to the show and Alma was there for six months, implying that Alma died somewhere around Season 3 of The Golden Girls.



Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book where the MC is part of a Large Family (at least 6 to 8 members, please mention the number of family members)
2. Read a book where the first letter of the book title and the last letter of the book title can be found in the word “Gorkleknabygenshöffstädlerfeil”
3. Read a book that has a picture of a deck of cards or the playing card itself on the cover of the book.

Amazing! You have earned the Rosalind Cash button






Favorite Episode

Some of these episodes are extremely funny or some of them are meaningful dealing with social issues of the time but all of them are GOLDEN

It’s a Miserable Life



It's a Miserable Life is the fourth episode of the second season The Golden Girls and the twenty-ninth episode overall. Directed by Terry Hughes and written by Barry Fanaro, it premiered on NBC-TV on November 1st, 1986.


The girls are attempt to block a road extension that will destroy a two-hundred year-old oak tree. However, the tree is on the property of Frieda Claxton, an extremely mean and hateful neighbor who is refusing to save the tree. Despite her friends advising her against it, Rose decides to try and convince Mrs. Claxton to try and sign the petition, believing that all she needs is "a little bit of kindness." The day of the meeting at City Hall, Sophia suggests stapling twenty dollars to the petition, which Dorothy admonishes her for. Blanche, meanwhile, is extremely confident that their motion will pass, revealing that she slept with two of the chairmen the night earlier to gain an advantage. Rose is also confident, and reveals that Mrs. Claxton promised to help save the tree after she gave her some pastries.

Mrs. Claxton arrives at the courthouse and is hostile towards the ladies when they try to greet her, revealing that she's been watching Blanche and Dorothy through their bedroom windows and is looking into getting Blanche arrested for her sexual escapades. As Dorothy and Blanche react with fury, Rose tries to remain kind and positive. Mrs. Claxton then reveals she has no intention of helping to save the tree and she lied about doing so to get the pastries Rose had brought. Mrs. Claxton snidely explains that she has no need for trees nor people, especially ones that think that everyone needs "a little bit of kindness."

During the meeting, Mrs. Claxton gives full permission to "yank out that tree and start pouring cement", insulting her neighbors in the process. Rose asks Mrs. Claxton how she could hate a living thing, and she answers that she hates Rose. This causes Rose to snap and she screams at Mrs. Claxton about how much of a rude woman she is, ordering her to let them say their piece and to drop dead if she doesn't like it. Immediately afterward, however, Mrs. Claxton drops onto the floor of the courtroom, having suffered a heart attack from the shock of Rose's anger.

Rose doesn't sleep for the next two nights feeling guilty of yelling at Claxton, and Dorothy explains to her that the woman was eighty-three and she had a heart attack, but Blanche and Sophia comment that Rose killed her. At Rose's insistence, the ladies decide to have a funeral for Mrs. Claxton since she had no friends or relatives. The funeral home's director, Mr. Pfeiffer, at first assumes that Sophia is their mother, and they're planning ahead for her. They tell him the funeral is for Frieda Claxton, and he helps the girls with their plans for a cheap funeral by selling them a $200 pine box and a flower wreath. During the funeral, the girls are the only ones there, despite a notice in the newspaper. Much to their surprise, an elderly woman arrives to the funeral claiming to be a friend of the deceased. She gives an extremely-touching eulogy about the deceased, claiming to have been her friend for over sixty years, and that she was a generous saint who supported anonymously supported many charities. However, the woman turns out to be talking about Celia Rubenstein, whose funeral was down the hall. Blanche mentions that the funeral is for Frieda Claxton, and Mr. Pfeiffer tells the woman that the Rubenstein funeral is down the hall. The woman asks if she lived in the old house on Richmond Street. After the girls said yes, she turned around, kicked the pine box and walks out.

Rose is devastated after seeing that even in death that Frieda Claxton didn't matter to anyone, and leaves. Mr. Pfeiffer then walks in, holding an urn with Frieda Claxton's ashes, announcing that the high-schooler they hired had cremated Mrs. Claxton by mistake. The next day, Rose saves the tree by spreading Mrs. Claxton's ashes around the tree, saying a prayer, and telling City Hall that it wouldn't be a good idea to disturb a person's final resting place. At the end of the episode, a Great Dane comes along to "pay its respects" by peeing on her ashes.


Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book that has a picture of a tree on the cover of the book
2. Read a book that has a character you would consider “extremely mean and hateful” (Your interpretation but I would like details
3. Read a book that has a courtroom scene or a funeral scene (Please give details)

Terrific! You have earned the Betty White as Blanche! button





Sophia Younger than Dorothy?




On the show, Estelle Getty played Sophia, the little old lady whose sharp tongue was always getting her in trouble with her daughter, Dorothy, who frequently threatened to ship her off to the Shady Pines nursing home. Off-screen, though, Getty was a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy.

Getty spent a lot of her time on set in the make-up department transforming into the little old Sophia, who was in her 80s. Getty supposedly got a facelift between filming seasons one and two, forcing the makeup department to spend more time aging her. In some of the flashback episodes, Getty appeared without her famous wig and all the makeup.

Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book that has a character who has gone through plastic surgery.
2. Read a book that has the numbers “8” and “0” in the publication date
3. Read a book that has a SERIES title that begins with a letter in the word “MAKE UP”

Marvelous! You have earned the Viola Watkins button




Charmaine Hollingsworth



Charmaine Gertrude Hollingsworth is the sister of Blanche, Virginia, Clayton, and Tad Hollingsworth.

Charmaine was mentioned numerous times throughout the series, and made her only on-screen appearance in the Season 5 episode "Sisters and Other Strangers". She was portrayed by veteran television and film actress Barbara Babcock.

When she was a child, Charmaine would feign fictious ailments to get out of doing chores and helping people, including heart flutters, a tipped uterus, and a spastic colon. Charmaine apparently never grew out of this habit, as she insisted that she had attached kidneys and thus couldn't be a donor for her sister Virginia, who was dying of renal failure. Later in the same episode, after Rose asks Blanche about Charmaine, Blanche comments that Charmaine made her and Virginia miserable their entire lives.

In "Nice and Easy", Blanche mentions Charmaine while recalling the wild stunts she pulled during her teenage years. This included dropping out of school for a month to be a Magician's assistant, nearly eloping with a much older gas station attendant, as well as hitchhiking to New York and joining the Rockettes using a fake name; and that she was grateful Charmaine always found her and was able to talk sense into her.

When they were in high school, a jealous Charmaine challenged Blanche to a cheer contest to determine which one of them would be the new cheer captain. The two performed in front of the entire school, and by Blanche's own admission, she didn't perform very well. Though Charmaine had blown the contest out of the water, Blanche was picked as the new cheer captain -- not for her ability to cheer, but because she wore black lace panties with a French word written on the backside.

In another episode, Blanche discusses how a man made a pass at her, and she told her sister, the only person she could trust, about what happened. Charmaine, upon hearing about this man, went over to his house with a gun and threatened to shoot him in the head if he ever tried it again. When Dorothy asks "just because he made a pass at you?", Blanche realizes she forgot to add that the man was Charmaine's husband. This could be either of her two sisters, but due to the animosity between Blanche and Virginia earlier, is more likely to be Charmaine.



Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book that has a MC who is a writer
2. Read a book where the MC has a sister
3. Read a book that has the number “5” in the average star rating on Goodreads

Exceptional! You have earned the Lucas Hollingsworth button





Michael Zbornak



Michael Zbornak is a recurring character in the 1985 NBC sitcom The Golden Girls. He is the son of Dorothy and Stanley Zbornak, the younger brother of Kate Griffiths, and the grandson of Sophia and Salvadore Petrillo, as well as Yolanda Zbornak.

Michael appeared in three episodes of The Golden Girls. He was portrayed by Scott Jacoby.

Michael was born to Dorothy and Stanley Zbornak in Brooklyn, New York, sometime after their daughter Kate was born. Michael had always been musically inclined, as Sophia said that some people picked on him because he was not only the most talented, but he was the only white boy in Brooklyn who could scat.

In "Family Affair", Michael drops by unannounced at the same time Rose's daughter Bridget is visiting. Michael has left his job, and his lackadaisical attitude worries Dorothy. Michael and Bridget seem to clash, initially, as Michael's laid-back demeanor conflicts with Bridget's focus on her studies and desire for travel; however, Blanche sends the two out on a date, and they are discovered in bed together by Dorothy, Rose and Sophia.

In the episode My Brother, My Father, Dorothy mentions that Michael has joined the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the time between "Family Affair" and "Mixed Blessings", a woman named Lorraine Wagner began to sing with Michael's band. Michael met a
In the episode Mixed Blessings, Michael visits announces that he is engaged to Lorraine Wagner, who is black. Dorothy is accepting about Lorraine's race, but when she meets Lorraine and discovers her to be 21 years older than her son, Dorothy is upset. Ironically, Lorraine's family is upset that Lorraine is marrying a white man, but not that he is younger. The episode ends with Lorraine announcing she is pregnant, and Michael and Lorraine marrying.

In the episode All That Jazz, Michael announces that Lorraine has thrown him out of the house, and the relationship is over. Michael stays with the Girls, and Dorothy caters to him, taking care of his laundry, cooking and cleaning up after him, while he seems disinterested in finding work. Blanche tells Dorothy that he needs to take care of himself, and Dorothy suggests to Michael that he should find his own place. He gets upset and moves in with Stan. However, this doesn't last long, and the episode ends with Michael having found a new job, leaving town to take advantage of the opportunity.


Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book that has an MC who is a musician
2. Read a book that has a couple that is a May/December Romance or a Racially Mixed Couple
3. Read a book that the letter “Z” in the title of the book

Miami Miami You got style! You have earned the Big Daddy’s Little Lady button





Blanche and the Younger Man



Blanche and the Younger Man is the ninth episode of the first season of The Golden Girls and the ninth episode overall. Directed by Jim Drake and written by James Berg and Stan Zimmerman, it premiered on NBC-TV on November 16th, 1985.

Blanche is shocked when her Jazzercise instructor, Dirk, asks her out on a date. She is concerned because he is half her age and she does all she can to make herself look younger in order to keep up with him, including vitamin regimens and exercises that she is too old to safely perform. However, when Blanche goes on her date, she realizes that the age gap is too wide for the relationship to work; she and Dirk have nothing in common and Dirk admits that Blanche reminds him of his mother, who lives far away.

The reason this episode made this list is because of one of the best lines from Dorothy. Blanche says she is 5 years older than Dirk, Dorothy asks her “In what Dog Years?’

Please note that this is the same episode that Rose’s mother visited which is the main story but I went over that on the Alma Lindstrom prompt so I didn’t want to repeat



Please complete ONE of the following tasks:

1. Read a book that has a series title that begins with a letter in the word “Jazzercise”
2. Read a book with a character that works in a gym or is an exercise instructor
3. Read a book that has been published in the month of November

Threads updated to here

Ernie Says!


3. Sonia and Rosita make history

In 1971, Sesame Street cast Sonia Manzano in television’s first-ever Latina leading role, and she played the part until her 2015 retirement. And in 1983, the show introduced Rosita, its first Latina muppet, at another time when immigration from Mexico was a hot-button topic.


To watch this episode, please complete ONE of the tasks below:
a. Read a book that is set in Mexico or by a Mexican author.
b. Read the first book of any series on your TBR. (please add the date you added that book on your TBR)
c. Read a book with ONE number from 1971 on the page count .

A friendly mentor!






11. Chris





Chris Robinson, nephew of Gordon and Susan, is a key human resident on Sesame Street, debuting in Season 38. He moved to the street in Episode 4136, looking for work to fund his studies. After unsuccessful attempts at jobs offered by Count von Count, Cookie Monster, and Horatio the Elephant, he found employment as Alan's assistant at Hooper's Store.

Despite his role at Hooper's, Chris often gets caught up in the Muppets' antics. He's faced chaos from a chicken volleyball team, been magically turned into a bee, a horse, and even transported to a frozen wasteland by Abby Cadabby's magic.

Since Season 45, Chris is known for wearing polo shirts with embroidered designs. This fashion choice is central to "When You Wish Upon a Pickle," where his giraffe shirt and Elmo's Dorothy sweater are swapped due to a body switch.
Chris's birthday, February 25th, is shared with his actor, as mentioned in an "Ask Elmo" interview. He also has a twin sister named Christy. In Episode 5203, Chris is seen living in a second-floor apartment above Hooper's Store.


To meet Chris, please complete ONE of the tasks below:
a. Read a book with a student MC.
b. Read a book published in February of any year. (edition you read)
c. Read a book with twins in the story.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Book & Author: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Date Read: 09-13-2025
Task: 45. Read a book written by an author who’s first or last name starts with a letter in EYESIGHT.
How it Fits: Authors first initial is "Y"

Threads updated to here

25. Caribbean Reef Shark


Abundant in the Caribbean and often confused with other requiem sharks, this species is the apex predator of their food web. They have been found ‘sleeping’ in caves and on the ocean floor, behavior that is still unexplained. There is concern over eating these sharks because of the build-up of toxins in their flesh, but now they are valued for tourism more than food, which brings its own safety issues. Many dive-boat operations have come to include shark-feeding dives as a part of their agenda, with some of the most popular sites being main habitats of Caribbean reef sharks. New regulations prohibit such feedings off the coast of Florida, but no such restrictions have been placed on operations in Bahamian or other Caribbean waters.

29. Horn Shark


A member of the bullhead family, this is a slow moving and nocturnal species that savages close to shore and returns to the same resting place each day. Both dorsal fins sport sharp spines, and should be handled with care. It is not a graceful swimmer and doesn’t move around like its streamlined kin – in fact, sometimes the Horn Shark uses its strong pectoral fins to crawl along the rocks.

Current Location: Candy Hearts
Current Location Steps: 6/10
Total Of All Steps: 17

Current Location: Peppermint Stick Forest
Book/Author: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Date Read: 09-13-2025
Task: 7)Read a book that has the word “Candy” in the text (Please state page/location number and a short passage)
How it fits: Location 2:14:30 He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a brightly colored bag of gummy candies
Current Location Steps: 9/15
Total Of All Steps: 30