Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Jessica Lynch

Goodness, that little girl (and she still looks like a little girl) has turned out to have stage presence and is comfortable in front of the camera. I predict a series for her; TV’s first ingenue with a cane. We’ll need to do something about that VA-model aluminum cane, though. It may be good enough for an old man but not for TV’s newest star.

Does she still have that leg? I know there were concerns they’d be able to save it.

BTW, save the political comments for GD or the Pit, 'kay? The kid didn’t ask for the furor over her capture.

I missed it. They built a house for Jessica Lynch? Cool. All through the stuff about her capture she struck me as being an absolute straight arrow.

No, she asked that they build a house for the parents and children of her roommate, who was killed in the ambush. They had sworn that, if anything happened, they’d take care of each other’s families. Plus the team made a Native American Veteran’s Center (THREE codetalkers were at the dedication!) and put a plaque on the top of the mountain the city of Flagstaff had renamed in honor of the woman (“Daughter, Mother, Warrior”). A massive tearjerker episode in the guy-tearjerker vein.

Lori Piestewa

No kidding. Three of the Makeover show people making the sign and climbing Piestewa Peak to put it up there (helluva view). The beautiful horse, Arapaho Star, that was given to Lori’s children by the Arapaho tribe (horses are the traditional gift given to great warriors of the Arapaho), which was unbroken but allowed Lori’s 5-year-old daughter (and no one else) to ride him (the show built him a barn, stable and corral). Lori’s parents, who are the grandparents every orphaned child should have. The Native American Veteran’s Hall they built, and the hundreds of former and present soldiers that showed up to the opening. Having “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung in Navaho at the blessing of the land for the house.

Very emotional. An excellent season finale. If anyone missed it, you should be able to catch some of it in the “How’d They Do That?” rehash tonight.

Much better, IMHO, than most of the shows lately. Plenty of emotion, but not as blubbery as the show has become. The respect they showed for the obvious Native American sensibilities of the grandparents was much better done than the usual “we had someone do a (bad) pastel portrait of your dead wife which we will hang in the living room” thang.

C’MON. The “bad pastel painting” was done by a neighborhood family friend and hung up in the widower’s bedroom wall. The family boo-hooed over it and were obviously touched. That’s just mean, yo.

No offense intended. IMHO they have recently been doing dorky stuff–I’m sure others do not find it dorky–to make things extra boo-hooey. I won’t be watching next season unless they go back to being silly about things, which was why I loved the show in the first place.

Personally, I think keeping pictures of someone dead on the wall is kinda creepy, and I tend to wonder how a person is supposed to get a date with pictures of the dead husband/wife all over the house. But YMMV.

My guess is that they (the network) have polls and user groups that tell them that people like the (IMO) dorky stuff and it will continue. Cest le vie.