Several weeks ago I ran a story letting our readers make their own Oscar predictions. Take a peek at how we did.

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Best Picture –

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The Hurt Locker

Coffee Break prediction – Avatar (oops)

Best Director -

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Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

Coffee Break prediction – Jeff Bridges (We’re on a roll)

Actor in a supporting role –

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Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Coffee Break prediction – Christoph Waltz (Still rolling)

Actress in a leading role -

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Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Coffee Break prediction -Sandra Bullock (Do we know our movies, or what?)

Actress in a supporting role –

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Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Coffee Break prediction -Mo Nique (Right again!)

So readers, it seems we do indeed know our movies. Five out of the tip six categories right! I am impressed!

My pick for the best acceptance speech goes to Sandra Bullock.

Want to watch all the Oscar acceptance speechs?

Did you love the Oscars as much as I did? Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought of the show. (Also leaving a comment will automatically enter you in this week’s giveaway, so what have you got to loose?)

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

This episode focuses on Sayid.

Off the island, Sayid’s brother borrowed money from someone to open a new store and he wants Sayid to bring out his torturing equipment to stop the man from collecting on the loan. Apparently he’s making the brother pay interest for as long as he owns the business. Sayid says “No Way!” The brother is attacked by the debtor and Sayid thinks about going after them but Nadia, who is married to Sayid’s brother, talks him out of it. At the hospital Dr. Jack passes Sayid in the hall. Sayid tells Nadia that he pushed her toward marrying his brother because he doesn’t deserve her after all the horrible things he’s done. I was very surprised that Sayid did not end up marrying Nadia. Awwww! I was so hoping that Sayid would have a happily-ever-after post-island life or flash sideways life. It seems like he sort of redeemed himself for many things and I’ve been rooting for him for a long time.

Some bad guys come to pick up Sayid and take him to a restaurant kitchen. It’s so funny that mobsters always seem to do their dirty work in a kitchen or back of a restaurant. The main bad guy turns out to be Keamey. To me, Keamey looks a lot better with his marine buzz haircut and camouflage than his purple shirt and blazer. But no matter how he’s dressed he’s still a bad dude. Sayid takes out Keany’s two sidekicks and Keamy decides to forgive the debt to save his own life, but Sayid says “No Way!” and shoots him. Sayid hears some banging in the walk-in refrigerator and opens the door to find non-English speaking Jin tied up. Wow! That was a crazy connection.

Sayid tells Dogen that he doesn’t understand why they want him dead. Sayid believes himself to be a good man and he better not dare try to kill him, but Dogen goes all martial artist on him. A huge manly fight breaks out and just when Dogen tries to stab Sayid in the throat, his baseball falls off the desk and lands on the floor. If you just said, “What?”, that’s exactly what I said. Dogen tells Sayid to leave the temple and never come back. Sayid speaks with Miles on his way out and tells him that the Others told him he is better off dead because they think he’s evil. Miles explains that when Sayid was dead, he was dead, and that the Others did not bring him back to life. In fact, they were just as surprised that he sat up alive and well. I sure was hoping that Miles was going to enlighten us to something he sensed from Sayid’s dead body.

Surrounding the temple is a ring of ash. Claire and Locke are outside the temple and Claire agrees to go into the temple if Locke will give her her son back. Locke can’t go in himself of course because the ash keeps him at bay for some reason. She asks why he doesn’t get Sawyer or Jin to do it? Hmmm…are Jin and Sawyer now on Evil-Locke’s side?

Locke tells Claire that he’s only going to hurt the people who won’t listen to him. Claire walks in to the courtyard of the temple and tells Dogen that “He” wants to see him. Dogan tells Claire if Evil-Locke wants to talk to him then he should come inside. No, he needs to go out to meet him. Dogen is too smart for that. Dogen has Claire put down into a pit inside the temple because she is confused and under the influence of an angry man. Dogen approaches Sayid and tells him that he can’t leave the temple now because Locke showed up things have changed. Dogen arms Sayid with a knife and tells Sayid he needs to go out and kill a man whom he will recognize; someone who has died.

He explains to Sayid that the man waiting outside has been trapped on the island but now that Jacob is gone this man is now free and will kill everyone on the island. He is evil incarnate. Sayid’s instructions are to stab Locke before Locke has time to say anything. I thought Locke would be waiting right outside the gate but he wasn’t. On his way out, Sayid passes Kate. Luckily for Kate, Sayid didn’t mistake her as the one he would recognize and was supposed to kill.

Further out in the jungle, Smokey shows up and transforms into Locke who says, “Hello, Sayid” before he can stab him. Oops! He didn’t get to him before he spoke. The knife did no damage except put a hole in his t-shirt. Locke now tries to recruit Sayid. He tells Sayid to deliver a message. Locke didn’t have Claire do it because the message would mean a lot more coming from Sayid. Locke tells him that he could have anything he wants if he does this favor for him. Locke is very persuasive and we all know how much Sayid wants Nadia, who died in his arms after she was hit by the car.

Sayid goes into the temple and tells the Others that the man out in the jungle wants them to know that Jacob is dead and because of that they are all free. Locke is leaving the island forever and he wants them to join him by sundown or die. Most of the Others decide to leave the temple even though the hippie tries to tell them that Locke is bluffing.

Kate goes to Claire in the pit as soon as she finds out from Miles where she is. Claire is singing the lullaby and becomes furious when Kate tells her that she took Aaron off the island and raised him. Even when Kate tells her that she came back to rescue her, she gives Kate a warning that “he’s” coming and no one can stop him.

Dogen tells Sayid part of his back story. He was a business man in Okinowa (in other words, he had a life before the island) and he got drunk one night. He picked his 12 year old son up from baseball and caused a car accident that killed his son. While at the hospital, Jacob went to Dogen and told him that he could save his son’s life if he followed Jacob to the island. He could have a new job on the island but would never be able to see his son again. Dogen asked Sayid if Locke offered him a similar bargain. Yes, Sayid says, right before he kills Dogen in the pool. When Hippie comes in and finds Dogen floating in the pool, he tells Sayid that Dogen was the only thing keeping “him” out. Sayid says that he knows that and then he kills the hippie. Holy crap! Sayid may have just completed his turning evil cycle. Dogen’s new job must have been to protect the temple. Without Dogen the ash doesn’t work?

Smokey makes his screaming and clicking appearance and starts grabbing and slamming the scattering people into the columns and walls of the temple. Love it!!!! Miles and Kate get separated when Kate returns to the pit to rescue Claire. Miles hides in a room of the temple and holds the door shut but Ilana breaks it down, armed with her rifle and asks where the other Losties are. Miles, who has never met Ilana before, tells her that it’s only him and Kate still there.

Miles asks Sun where her husband is; he took off yesterday and didn’t return. Sun realizes she’s getting closer to finding Jin. Now that the two groups (or what’s left of them) have rejoined in the right decade and year together they team up and Ilana guides them through the secret passageway that Jacob directed Hurley to in the last episode. I am soooo glad Ilana seems to know what’s going on. They get through the wall and close the entrance just before Smokey comes rushing past.

Kate tries to get Claire to come out of the pit but Claire tells her that she’s safer down there. Smokey comes furiously racing around the corner and Kate jumps onto the ladder in the pit just in time to see Smokey flying over her head. After things have calmed down a bit, Kate follows Claire and Sayid out of the temple, but not before picking up a rifle belonging to one of the dead Others. That’s what I love about Kate; she always remembers to pick up a weapon. Locke is waiting outside and gives Sayid and Claire a “good job” look. He’s looks curiously at Kate, but says nothing and turns around into the jungle as the Others follow their new leader.

This week’s episode should be good as it focuses on Ben.

Tina Reynolds

We’ll be contacting you with an email from lizandkate@live.com to get your mailing information.

This week’s giveaway…

Digital Camera Starter Kit and Care Kit

Everything you need to take care of your digital camera

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Includes:

• Digital Camera Carrying Case
• Digital Camera Cleaning Kit
• Mini Tripod
• Camera Brush/Blower Combo
• Lens  Tissue and Solution
• Cleaning Cloth
• Digi-Tips

Here’s how to enter…

Just add a comment below, and you’ll be entered to win!

Want to enter again? Go to the home page, take a look around and comment on another story! It’s as simple as that!

Enter as many times as you’d like.

More entry details…

There are several ways to enter.  You may choose to enter one way, or you may choose to do them all.  It’s up to you.  The more times you enter, the more you increase your chances  to win.

• Leave a comment on this post between now and Sun., Mar. 15th 9:00pm MST. and you’ll automatically be entered.

• Leave a comment on any other Coffee Break with Liz and Kate post between now and Sun., Mar. 15th. (9:00pm MST) and you’ll automatically be entered again.  The more comments you leave, the more entries you’ll get.

• Link to this post on your own blog (include the url in your comment) and receive an extra entry.

• Please include email address with comment so we can contact you if you are the winner.

So good luck readers and Enjoy your Coffee Break.

I suppose it’s one thing to exercise for your health (I should probably walk more), but something quite different indeed to exercise for tone and a svelte, fat-free body – especially when you’re closer to 50 than 40-years-old. Especially when you’ve never really needed to worry about it before, but one day you look in the mirror and think: “EEK! What happened here?!?!”

As I looked for ways to fix the flaws, a nightmarish exercise regime filled my mind: Pain, a five-hour-a-day work-out plan, and muscles so sore I can’t get out of bed, all the while existing on a carrot stick and grain of rice. I wonder if maybe I’d luck out on Sundays, and get to add a grape to the menu. Nah. That would be too easy. My bet is I’d be given half a blueberry.

At which point, it sounded much easier, and at least on the surface more appealing, to just give it up, turn into the frumpy middle-aged woman and call it a day with a box of bonbons nearby.

Surely, I thought, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposal. So I turned off the movie reel in my mind and did some thinking (which tends to get me into trouble at times).

As a big believer in the power of positive thinking, et al, I reminded myself that we can’t necessarily get from A to T immediately. But by reaching for a better thought, we make baby steps to the end result. I know most of you know what I’m talking about. When we feel bad about ourselves, the last thing we want to do is commit to a change that seems overwhelming at best. What we need is a kick-start. Something to help us feel just a little bit better. That little bit then becomes another little bit, and before we know it, we’re feeling much better (and, with a little luck, much more svelte).

So I thought I’d take a look into some ways to improve our appearance quickly – or at least painlessly, without having to go under the knife. Truth is, I may talk about face-lifts and tummy tucks, but I’m a big chicken. Here are a few things I found that seemed worthy to share. Let’s start with this little trick for diminishing broken capillaries and spider veins from ehow.com:

Apply homemade remedies to the affected areas. For broken capillaries apply a homemade mask onto the face. Mix 1/4 cup of rose oil or crush chamomile tea in with the facial moisturizer of your choice. Allow the facial masks to set for the night.

Diminish both with apple cider vinegar (apply it to the skin twice daily) or combine rose, palmarosa or parsley oil into a mix with virgin coconut oil. Apply it to affected areas for three to four weeks twice daily.

Sounds easy enough, I suppose. This looks to work on rosacea, too – a fairly common problem for women in the 30-60-year-old age group.

Maybe you’re more worried about a sagging neck or chin. While this one is a little tougher, with researchers claiming products containing collagen don’t work (the molecules are too big to penetrate the skin), apparently products containing cynergy TK with functional keratin work quite well. But you are gonna have to pay for it.

If you’d rather not dish out the dough, Dermaxime has some exercises to try that target various areas on the face and neck. Of course, that takes us right back to exercise, which defeats our purpose.

Next up, and you know you’ve been waiting for this one, is a home remedy for cellulite: coffee grounds. Clearly a two-for-one deal, this one may just be worth a try (no guarantees).

This topical treatment, courtesy of homeremedyweb could prove to be a cellulite buster, too:

Mix 3 parts apple cider vinegar with one part of your favorite massage oil.

Gently knead this solution onto affected skin areas twice daily.

This massage treatment will help to reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Let’s move on to a little make-up trick. While you may be tempted to cake on the foundation to cover up flaws or even out skin tone, keep in mind that less is more – at least in this situation. Heavy foundations tend to make the skin look older (in total contradiction to what we’re looking for). So go for sheer to medium-weight coverage.

In my humble opinion, if you’re looking for an immediate feeling of I-love-me, get a haircut that flatters your face – and don’t forget the color or highlights.

Who knows… It could be catalyst that sends you in search of the nearest treadmill.

-Liz

On March 10, we celebrate Middle Name Pride Day. I’m for nixing this holiday, too – never really liked my middle name (Dawne – don’t forget the ‘e’ on the end, please). Sorry, Mom and Dad. Luckily, I never use my middle name.

Next up, we have Worship of Tools Day on March 11. While I’m sure our male readers (and perhaps some females out there) may be dragging out the drill bits in giddy anticipation, worshiping tools sounds like a one-way trip to Hades if you ask me.

Needless to say, I wasn’t very impressed with the choices this week  – until I stumbled upon our next holiday.

Do you own champion ear protectors – or even know what champion ear protectors are? Patented March 13, 1877, by Chester Greenwood, the protectors later became known as ear mufflers, and eventually just ear muffs. I’d venture we’ve all had a pair of champion ear protectors at one point or another. (Kind of a catchy little name, isn’t it?)

To commemorate the day of patent, March 13 is Earmuff Day. Although the forecast is calling for temps to hover around the 50-degree mark, it seems only fitting that we all wear our champion ear protectors for good measure.

And if you don’t own any champion ear protectors, this may be a good day to think ahead. With spring just around the corner, I’ll remind you again not to panic. You may be able to pick up a pair at a bargain basement close-out price.

Until next week, get your party on!

I’ve made it before in the summer months, adding fresh tomato salsa and some green onions, but never really looked at it for a good winter dish. But I think it works any time of year.

Without further ado, here’s this week’s cheater recipe:

Black Beans and Rice

Ingredients:

• One package microwavable long grain and wild rice
• One can black beans, drained and rinsed
• Salsa
• Sour cream
• Green onions, or any other garnish that tickles your fancy

Heat beans in microwave-safe bowl. Set aside. Heat rice according to directions. Remove from microwave and reheat beans if necessary. Pour rice into 2 bowls, add beans, salsa, sour cream, and other garnishes.

Enjoy!

-Liz

Movie reviews by Kate

Reel reviews for real people

Rating: PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.

Genre: Children

Plot: From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3-D fantasy adventure ‘Alice in Wonderland’, a magical and imaginative twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Nineteen year old Alice returns to Wonderland.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham-Carter, Crispin Glover

Director: Tim Burton

Running time: 1:48

Kate says – 3 stars  “Ok folks, when you check out the reviews, you’ll likely find as many haters as there are lovers, for Burton’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. I am neither a lover, nor a hater, I’m a somewhere in betweener, with more tendencies to the lover side. Visually, wow! A treat for the eye and the imagination. This movie is whimsical, eccentric, and peculiar…all things we’ve come to love and expect from Burton (and Depp). If you go to it looking to have an absurd and bizarre ride, you won’t be disappointed. On the down side, there are moments when the pacing drags, I am not fond of the big climax battle scene, and I found that I really had no emotional connection to the movie or it’s characters. All in all though, an enjoyable adventure. Perhaps the Mad Hatter puts it best: ‘There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter…Which luckily I am.‘ ”

Ebert says – 3 stars “Burton is above all a brilliant visual artist, and his film is a pleasure to regard…This has never been a children’s story. There’s even a little sadism embedded in Carroll’s fantasy. It reminds me of uncles who tickle their nieces until they scream. “Alice” plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails.” (read full review)

Roger Moore (Orlando Sentinel) says – 3 stars “Burton has imagined what at times is a literally eye-popping world of beasties, Scots accents and gloom. “Logic and proportion” go out the window as Alice drinks this and shrinks, eats that and grows, and everyone and everything around her is stretched, bulbously blown up or otherwise deformed in endlessly inventive ways. Whatever the virtues of Avatar, this is the most fanciful use of 3D ever to hit the big screen.” (read full review)

Hollywood.com (Thomas Leupp) says – 2 stars (of 5) “Filled with moments of fleeting exhilaration and empty whimsy, Alice in Wonderland never really grabs the viewer in any meaningful way, its overall experience more akin to that of a theme park ride than a movie. Which I half suspect was Disney’s intention all along.” (read full review)

Michael Phillips (At the Movies) says -   See it! “Tim Burton’s most interesting film in a decade. Thoughtful, rather sinister, and often dazzling spectacle. “ (watch full review)

EW (Owen Gleiberman) says – C “The challenge of adapting Alice in Wonderland is this: How do you create relationships, a story, a purpose out of a tale whose prime purpose is not to have one?…a strange brew indeed: murky, diffuse, and meandering, set not in a Wonderland that pops with demented life but in a world called Underland that’s like a joyless, bombed-out version of Wonderland. It looks like a CGI head trip gone postapocalyptic. In the film’s rather humdrum 3-D, the place doesn’t dazzle — it droops.” (read full review)

Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen) says – “Even the filmmaker’s trademark winsomely outlandish style doesn’t prepare you for the thoroughly enjoyable spectacle that is his “Alice in Wonderland. A fantastical romp that proves every bit as transporting as that movie about the blue people of Pandora, his “Alice” is more than just a gorgeous 3D sight to behold.” (read full review)

Other reviews by Kate

Oscar nominations were announced this past Tuesday. (It was a triple treat of a day for me, first the Oscar nominations, then old Punxsutawney Phil paid a visit, and then of course the LOST premier. So much excitement packed into one little day!)

Can I just tell you that I LOVE the Oscars?! I have watched the Academy Awards Show (the Oscars) faithfully ever since I was a small child.  As a little girl I would picture myself in a glamorous, shimmery dress  giving an emotional acceptance speech, which would bring tears to an adoring  audience. Never mind the fact that I had never done any acting of any sort…ever. A minor detail to me. I was sure I would grow up and somehow, someday receive an Oscar.

Now I am all grown up, mostly, and have still never done any acting (well except for my stint as a church chorister in a movie called Brigham City. Go ahead. Click my IMDb, I dare you.) But my love affair with the Oscars continues. Every year I make my friends and family fill out Oscar ballots in advance of the show, to see who can make the most correct predictions. I even have a prize basket for the grand prize winner, which just happened to be me last year, but I graciously passed the prize on to the runner-up…after my acceptance speech…heehee…

Imagine my excitement when I realized that this year I could take my Oscar ballot routine to a whole new level. YOU!

YOU are my whole new level.

So pretty please take my Oscar poll. Let’s see how skilled my Coffee Break audience is in making Oscar predictions. (I even figured out how to add a poll into a post just for this occasion. If you truly knew how bad I am at computer stuff, you would indeed be impressed. Trust me.) It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen all, or even any, of the pictures. Just make your best guess. (One answer per category please.)

And let the predictions begin…

For a complete list of all the Oscar nominations, go to www.oscar.com.

And don’t forget to tune in to the Oscars Live March 7 on ABC to see how many we got right!

Do you LOVE the Oscars too? Leave me a comment?

So what would you say if I told you it was raining fish? No, seriously. What would you say? I suspect the conversation would go a little something like this.

“You lie.”

“No, I don’t. True story. Swear it.”

“Prove it.”

“OK.”

(This is my part, where I prove to you that it did, indeed, rain fish.)

Dateline: the town of Lagamanu in Australia’s northern territory, February 25 and 26.

Local residents reported “hundreds and hundreds” of small white fish – live fish – falling from the sky. What’s more, it’s not the first time residents have reported this bizarre event. Oh, no. That would be too easy.

Fish first fell from the sky in 1974 and again in 2004.

A senior weather forecaster explained that an updraft could feasibly pull fish – and water – more than 60,000 feet into the air, and while conditions in the area were ripe for a tornado last week, none were reported.

All things considered, the situation could have been worse, as one resident so aptly put it:

“Thank God it didn’t rain crocodiles.”

Indeed.

Ah, and only if fish rain ended there. It does not. In fact, the skies have been known to rain frogs, corn, hermit crabs and alligators. Read all about it at about.com’s paranormal phenomena pages, which also includes this little snippet:

“A Korean fisherman, trolling off the coast of the Falkland Islands, was knocked unconscious by a single frozen squid that fell from the sky and konked him on the head.”

May I suggest that, in the future, we think twice before declaring it’s raining cats and dogs…

-Liz

• Jack noticed his appendectomy scar and asked his mom about it. Mom told him that he had it removed when he was seven. Jack doesn’t seem convinced. Is Momma Shephard in on this crazy island deception? (BTW, the wound on his neck that he noticed on the flight appears to have healed)
• Jack has a son named David. He appears to be about 14 years old. Is Jack’s cute blonde wife the mom? Jack has been an absent father by the looks of it. Why are 14 year olds so annoying? I’m not sure if David is going to have a purpose other than showing us that everyone’s lives are completely different even before the time they would have crashed on the island. Jack and Dogan (is that his name) have a conversation where they actually seem to be honest with each other. What?!

• Hurley and Miles are playing tic-tac-toe. Life in the temple must be completely boring; at least in the courtyard.Jacob shows up at the healing pool and tells Hurley he needs his help. Jacob tells him that someone is coming to the island and Hurley needs to help him find it. I reeeeaaalllly hope it’s going to be Desmond. I miss that hunk!

• Mom Shephard finds Christian’s Last Will and Testament and asks Jack if he knows who Claire Littleton is; her name is in the will.

• Claire has become the new Danielle Rousseau. She lives in the jungle, has wild looking hair, keeps an assorted array of weapons and camping supplies, and hunts the Others to find out what they did with her baby. She gets Jin’s leg out of the trap she set and takes him back to her camp. Inside a store-bought-looking cradle Jin discovers a weird looking animal skull dressed up like a baby. Claire tells Jin that she’s been out in the jungle since the rest of the castaways left back in Season Four, but she didn’t know it had been three years. Jin is beginning to realize that Claire is definitely not herself. Claire finds one of the Others who had gone out looking for Sawyer with Jin and Kate. Claire ties him up and asks the dude what he did with her baby. He denies any involvement and when Jin asks her how she can be so sure the Others took Aaron she tells him it’s because her father and her friend told her. Score! It looks like I may have been right about Claire and Christian since last time we saw them in Jacob’s cabin together. Claire tells Jin that the Others took her to their temple and stuck her with needles and branded her, probably like they did to Sawyer, to see if she had the darkness in her. Somehow she escaped. I wonder if her special friend helped her. Jin understands exactly how whacked out Claire becomes when she goes all Lizzie Borden on the Other she has tied up.

• Hurley is caught by Dogan in the temple; a place Hurley should not be. Hurley tells him he just likes temples and Indiana Jones and stuff. What would we do without Hurley? He’s the character most fans identify with most, I believe. He asks all the obvious questions and is always playing it cool in a very innocent and genuine way. Jacob appears behind Dogan and walks Hurley through the conversation so Dogan will leave him be. Hurley does a pretty sweet job improvising as well. He lied to a samarai! My favorite line this episode followed by Hurley describing Jacob’s sudden appearances – he shows up whenever he wants like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Once they’re alone, Jacob kinda scolds Hurley for not having Jack coming with him. Jacob insists that Jack come along and he tells Hurley to tell Jack that “he has what it takes”. Jack freaks out when he hears that, because his father, Christian, always used to tell him that he doesn’t have what it takes. Yep, that worked. Jack follows Hurley through the jungle, to the caves from Season One, where they stumble across Shannon’s inhaler. In the cave they see the Adam and Eve skeletons (I’m still thinking they belong to the Naylors – Bernard and Rose, but time will tell) and Christian’s coffin. I think the cave and its contents are going to play an important part in the big picture story. Jack and Hurley have some “old school” chatting time in the jungle and Hurley tells Jack that he came back to the island because Jacob got into the back of his cab in L.A. and told him to do so. Follow up questions would have been appropriate, but of course Jack doesn’t bother to think about that. Jack admits that off the island Jack was broken and he was stupid enough to believe that if we returned the island would fix him.

• Next scene with Jack and David is at a piano concerto audition where Jack meets another father and son. It’s Dogan! What the heck? Who do you think the son is? I haven’t decided yet. I had the feeling that Dogan knew exactly who Jack was and seemed to take particular interest in David and his gift for music. Jack tells David that his dad never wanted to see him fail and that he told Jack he didn’t have what it takes. Maybe Jacob is doing things to make relationships better in the alternate reality in some unrealistic way.  I remember Jack playing the piano in one episode, and Charlie and Daniel play the piano too. Yeah. That’s all I can come with about the piano.

• Next scene with Hurley and Jack is at a lighthouse on the island that they have never seen before. Jack asks out loud what we were thinking. Why haven’t they seen this before? It’s still daylight when they arrive so it can’t be that far from the cave. Inside the lighthouse there is a huge gear wheel thingy and Hurley follows the instructions written on his arm from Jacob – to turn the wheel to 108 degrees. As the wheel turns Jack sees buildings flash by in the mirrors as it passes certain names. One building looks like a Korean temple another looks like the steeple of a church. Maybe for the Kwons and Sawyer? A few of the names I could make out were 125 – Owens, 124 – Dawson, 122 – Freed, 121 – Nielson, 120 – Rodriquez, 118 – Chavez, 117 – Linus, 42 – Kwon, 20 – Rousseau, 17 – Barnes, 16 – Jarrah, 15 – Ford, etc. I was sure I saw Austen on there the first time I watched the episode but I couldn’t find the number it corresponded with when I watched it again. Jack sees 23 – Shephard, and tells Hurley to turn the wheel to 23 degrees but Hurley is worried about what Jacob will think so Jack takes over and pulls the chain until it’s set at 23 degrees and Jack sees the house he grew up in when he looks into the mirror. My first thought was that it was a Mirror of Erised, like Harry Potter found at Hogwarts. Jack freaks out again and wants to know how long and why Jacob has been watching him his would life. Hurley can’t answer Jack’s questions so Jack does the sensible thing and takes a piece of metal to the mirrors destroying them. Outside the lighthouse Jack is sitting a way off on the edge of a cliff staring out at the ocean. Hurley is near the lighthouse and finally gets another visit from Jacob. Hurley is a little perturbed and tells him if he would have shown up earlier Jack wouldn’t have broken his mirrors into millions of pieces. (BTW, I like Jacob with his soft demeanor and sad eyes. He’s kinda cute.) Hurley continues his hilarious tirade. “Thanks for the seven years of bad luck by the way!” Jacob’s replies, “You have ink on your forehead.” “I have ink on my forehead?! Is that all you have to say?” By this time I was hoping that Jack would have noticed Hurley was in an argument with an invisible person. Hurley: “Jack broke your lighthouse, Dude! Mission UNaccomplished! Whoever you said needed help getting to the island is totally screwed.” Jacob was unconcerned. They’ll find another way. Is it Desmond? Please let it be Desmond! Jack’s deal is he needs to find out for himself what important thing he needs to do. And Jacob needed to get Jack and Hurley as far away from the temple as possible because “someone” is coming there. Hmmm….Evil-Locke? Who else would it be? So Sawyer, Jin, Kate, Jack, Hurley and so far Sun, are all away from the temple. Jin however is with wacko Claire, who promised to kill Kate if she was indeed raising Aaron, and Claire’s friend, Evil-Locke. I think Claire and Christian have always been manifestations of Smokey.

The next  episode is titled Sundown. It looks like Claire is going to send a warning to the temple inhabitants and Sayid is faced with a difficult decision.

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