# Desperate Hausfraus 10/23 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661 "2005-10-24T14:43:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/21 "2005-10-24T23:28:20Z")
I laughed several times, though I was a bit disturbed by the way Marcia Cross’s neck and clavicle veins (?) were popping during her blow-up in the graveyard. Paul is back!! I was beginning to wonder if the writers had forgotten him. Can Lynette’s boss’s behavior be considered a form of harassment or intimidation—I mean, the pressure and the implication that L. won’t do too well at work if she doesn’t go out and get boiled every night… ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/22 "2005-10-24T23:36:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Then there was Susan meeting with her agent. He out-and-out admits he embezzled clients’ funds. But she keeps him as an agent. > > Idiot, idiot, idiot, Inconceivable! Yet, this is Susan. She _did_ dump him, and yet it seems that’s not the last we’ll be seeing of him. Plus, he _has_ been the rock in her life. I have a feeling, without him, Susan wouldn’t be making enough off her “writing” to keep a house over her head. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/23 "2005-10-24T23:36:28Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Key word is “supposedly”. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Susan working at anything. Oh, we’ve seen her at the odd moment sitting at an easel or some damn thing splish-splashign away at a watercolor or something. It seemed to me initially that Susan was an illustrator for other people’s books, but they seemed to move away from that into her being a full-on lady authoress. Can you imagine, based on her horrible parenting, how fucked up her children’s books must be? I know nothing about publishing but it seems like it would be very difficult to make a living as a children’s book author. I’m willing to bet that Susan has her snout deep in the alimony/child support trough. > [@ivylass](#): > > Zach blackmailed Paul into not selling the house. I thought the mail was piling up at Paul’s house, but the Applewhite’s are in another family’s house. There was a bit of a montage where they moved out because they were disgusted at the goings-on in the neighborhood, and I think Lynette had a little daydream that some Swedish family with twin girls moved in, and her twins married their girls. OK, right, I remember that now. So does that mean there’s a vacant house where Mrs Blender-to-the-puss and Felicia once lived? Perhaps if the show makes it through season 2 we’ll get another creepy new neighbor. > [@vivalostwages](#): > > Can Lynette’s boss’s behavior be considered a form of harassment or intimidation—I mean, the pressure and the implication that L. won’t do too well at work if she doesn’t go out and get boiled every night… It’s not that Lynette had to get drunk, it was that Lynette had to procure Chesty McBoobs a chunk of man-meat. “Get me laid or get you fired” is sexual harassment of the first water. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/24 "2005-10-25T00:05:49Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > I know nothing about publishing but it seems like it would be very difficult to make a living as a children’s book author. I’m willing to bet that Susan has her snout deep in the alimony/child support trough. I think it’s implied Susan is a successful children’s author, even if we see her more running around in a towel and chasing after violent teenagers while holding cups of ice cream rather than actual _working_, but this is a soap opera. How many people do you see on _The Young and the Restless_ actually working? ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/25 "2005-10-25T00:12:57Z")
Does anyone remember the quote that Wallace Shawn said in this ep, something about it been noon and drinking? I think it was when he first showed up in this ep. I laughed at it but promptly forgot it once I decided I wanted to remember it. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/26 "2005-10-25T00:39:58Z")
Something about it being noon, and it being socially acceptable to start drinking. I liked Edie’s line to Bree about reburying Rex, and it will be her last time to say goodbye…“Not unless they dig him up again.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/27 "2005-10-25T01:06:07Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Yeah, thanks for sharing that amazingly trenchant observation. We’re talking about _Desperate Housewives_, afterall. Not Masterpiece Theater. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/28 "2005-10-25T03:04:36Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think it’s implied Susan is a successful children’s author It’s not implied at all, it’s flat-out stated. That she’s a successful children’s author isn’t my point of semi-contention; it’s that I find it hard to believe that it’s easy for anyone to support oneself and an offspring as a children’s author. If anyone knows anything about children’s publishing, maybe you can fill us in? ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/29 "2005-10-25T10:22:39Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think it’s implied Susan is a successful children’s author… Being that Susan is so childlike/childish, this might be the ideal line of work for her. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/30 "2005-10-25T13:03:52Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Another annoying thing about this show (I hate people who jump into threads just to bitch about things other people enjoy…but I will anyway) is the voice-over at the beginning, that establishes out-of-the-blue backstory. “Susan’s agent, Lonnie, was just the bestest guy and had always been there for her at every point in her life yada yada yada…”. Really? Funny how this indispensable joined-at-the-hip person has never come up before. Actually, that’s pretty realistic: an author rarely has to meet face-to-face with hes agent (maybe once a year, if that); nearly all their interaction is by mail, e-mail, and phone. It would have been perfectly normal for her to go a year without seeing her agent, especially if she didn’t live in the NYC area. [quote=Otto}It’s not implied at all, it’s flat-out stated. That she’s a successful children’s author isn’t my point of semi-contention; it’s that I find it hard to believe that it’s easy for anyone to support oneself and an offspring as a children’s author. If anyone knows anything about children’s publishing, maybe you can fill us in?[/quote] Oh, it’s certainly possible. The great thing about being a children’s book author is that your books can stay in print forever. It might take years to reach that point, but assuming Susan sold her first book before her marriage, she certainly had enough time. For instance, there’s [Aliki](http://tinyurl.com/99w2d) or [Thatcher Hurd](http://www.thacherhurd.com/). So it is possible, though whether the character of Susan is capable of it is a matter of debate. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/31 "2005-10-25T15:05:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Actually, that’s pretty realistic: an author rarely has to meet face-to-face with hes agent (maybe once a year, if that); nearly all their interaction is by mail, e-mail, and phone. It would have been perfectly normal for her to go a year without seeing her agent, especially if she didn’t live in the NYC area. I don’t doubt it. I’m just annoyed by the convention the show employs, of using the voice-over to introduce this week’s plot line. They could’ve brought Wallace Shawn in as her agent with no introduction at all, and I’m sure the audience could’ve figured out their relationship. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661/32 "2005-10-25T17:49:19Z")
I love Wallace Shawn. That is all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperate-hausfraus-10-23/327661.md?page=1)