I got a lot of great suggestions here for helping not to bite, but I’m hopeful that acrylic nails may be the nail (haha) in the coffin for my habit. I was nervous about going somewhere to get my nails done, but I’ve felt so much better for having done it. My hands look completely different to me.
My trigger for biting was if I could run my fingers over my nails and feel them growing, but now I can’t feel them at all. My instinct is still to bite the plastic, but now I know I won’t be able to bite through it. I’ve resorted to pressing my teeth against the bottom or licking my nails like a dog, but at least it isn’t biting!
I would seriously recommend seeing a nail tech to those who can. I’m praying that my nails finally get a chance to heal because of this.

Hello, everyone!

It is now Num Day #1233.

Daily Statistics

• As of this post 4244 numbers have been given out.
  • There are 2136 odd numbers and 2108 even numbers assigned.
• The mean of the numbers is 2409.3642789820924, and the median is 2322.5.
• The sum of all numbers assigned is 10225342.

Number of the Day

Number of the Day is currently disabled (as of 15th July 2021).

Points Leaderboard

Place	Nation	Number of Points
1st	800s	69
2nd	100s	64
3rd	Numberless	55
4th	000s	55
5th	400s	51
6th	300s	47
7th	500s	27
8th	900s	17
9th	600s	9
10th	700s	9
11th	200s	6

Newly Assigned Points

No points have been assigned today.
^{Assignment Thread Getting Started Guide The Num Story}

I’m ready to pull the trigger on my first bass. Can anyone recall whether there are any good Father’s Day sales coming up at Fender, Musician’s Friend, Reverb, etc? Do you recommend waiting for 4th of July?
Thanks! Looking forward to joining your ranks soon..

Venting time.
Around 2 years ago my(F) former partner(F) and her now probably still only partner(M) started a poly relationship without there being any prior established romantic relationship for any of us beforehand. When we were in the dating phase before starting the polycule I wasn't sure whether I could be poly. The topic of poly relationships came up during that time since she was interested in both of us. She tried hard to convince me this would work, that he and I would be equals and I believed it since she was enthusiastic about it like someone who tells you everything about her favorite hobby or something similar. just before the polycule started I believed it so much that I wanted to make this work.
The small possibility that her meta and I could also start something romantic with each other down the road was openly discussed and we decided that whether that happens or not, both was okay for everyone.
At the time both of them were just living 10 mins away from each other while I was living around 400km away. You can probably see why this will go to shit but I'll continue. During that time I was also planning to finally get a work degree via a vocational program which companies offered and which takes 3 years usually to finish. I was also starting to look for flats with another girl who was friends with the whole polycule since I wanted to move out from my family's flat already and that was easier with a roommate and that friend initially wanted to move to my city so at first we looked here.
The suggestion was made to move to her's and my meta's city since both my ex was ready to let me live at her house which she would soon have to herself since her mom who she at the time lived with would move to another house that was rented out by her mom at the time. She would let me move in, having to pay a very reeasonable "rent" myself(house still owned by her mom, her rules). My meta also needed a roommate because the rent was very high. So we gave up on the flat search in my city and the friend already had moved not even 2 months later but I couldn't yet. I cannot remember anymore whether I made that suggestion initially or someone else out of our group but I made damn sure (or so I thought) that everyone would be 100% onboard with this.
In the few months before my friend moved I visited my former partner and my meta twice, one time for a whole week even. She told me she loved me between the visits and my formerly lonely heart snorted that shit immediately. She sent me a physical letter at my birthday describing why she loved me and I wanted to give her one of my own once we all met during new year's eve to celebrate it together. Everything was so good, it felt like I might have just found my luck, not only with her but even with someone I'm really okay with in a polycule as my meta.
Well, around the time the friend I mentioned moved in with my meta she started to doubt living together indefinitely. She spoke to me and told me she never had the chance to live in her own place alone and she wanted to experience this but she would still let me live at her place for as long as I needed to find my own place. Today I feel like I should have listened to those warning shots. She also started spending more and more of her time with him and less with me to the point where he'd be at her place sleeping over 3-4 days of the week and I get 2-3 hours of video chat per week. The tension rose steadily since then. My mom had a light heart attack during that time which she surived very well luckily(she is well today too). I was comforted during those days but this tension was still there.
A week later my former partner tells me she is not sure whether she is poly after all. She broke up with me but wanted to stay friends because that worked with another ex before. She offered me 3 months max. at her place before I would need to move into a different flat. Moving like this even at a later time considering the circumstances was no option any longer which devastated me quickly since I had never lived away from my family. This was 2 months before I was supposed to move in, having thrown away the opportunity to get a flat in my city with that friend to at least live somewhere else than my parent's flat.
The last nail in the coffin before I went no contact was the new year's eve meetup...yes I still went because train tickets were still booked and a part of me even still believed she could mean it when she wanted to stay friends. Most of the few days of this trip she spent with her now only partner at her place "because she had to watch her cat" while my friend and me were staying at his flat. I had enough. I returned her love letter (thought about burning it before), said my goodbye and that was it...almost.
Months later I hear that my friend has to move back to her mom's place because my ex and her partner were moving happily together. What a fucking liar she is.
The friend then decided to move to a different city after an immediate flat search in my city didn't turn out well while her mental health was declining rapidly. If only we didn't change our plans initially. I still live at my family's place to this day. I do not know whether she saw this as a poly experiment from the start, but in hindsight it was one and the only one who was thrown away and was more broken than ever was me. The only reason I haven't put myself into the grave is because both my dad's and my mom's heart wouldn't be able to take the shock and because I have numbed that pain of that whole year as much as I could with weed and still do to this day.
I honestly hope for my and her sake that I will never see her again. I do not know whether I am romantically poly or not today. After all this I feel like I won't ever be able to trust a person who is poly with a relationship. The immediate paranoia would set in no matter how well the relationship would go which would just very quickly lead to said relationship turning toxic for everyone involved. I am no longer depressed today gladly but periodically the memories pop into my mind because I still have to live with the consequences of that whole shitshow and I wished it would just stop so I could properly move on.
Vent over, I'm sorry if any sentence might be confusing or whether some terminology could have been chosen better. Had to rephrase sentences a lot and after writing all this I'm tired.

I gave my two weeks notice at the end of April and said my last day of work would be May 8th. I was leaving for a new company. My company had me do an exit interview on May 4th and offered me a new role, with higher pay, where I am. I accepted and signed the paper work for the new job to stay. It is now May 30th and I still have not started that new job. A week after signing to stay the president said they wanted to back fill my role before transitioning me, this was not stated when I signed my for the new one. I asked my boss this morning when I will transition and she said there is a new hire that cannot start until the end of July.. that will be nearly 3 months since accepting a new position, and turning down another company. My workplace has a history of doing this to people and they end up just quitting before they start the new role they were offered. How do I go about this? I do not want to wait any longer. I am still early in my career and it is holding up my development.

I need a model which can consistently remove any references to calendar events like Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc. as well as any reference to day or month like Sunday, Monday or February etc. I tried the 30B Wizard uncensored but it didn’t do a good job compared to GPT3.5. It kept the same message without modifying or didn’t work on messages with large length.
I need it to be uncensored solve some message text might contain stuff that GPT doesn’t allow.
An example I tried: “Happy 4th of july! How’s your day going?” Should be changed to “How’s your day going?”

Does anyone shoot off fireworks (is that allowed) on the 4th or a couple days before? We will be on a family float trip before the 4th and were hoping to shoot off fireworks somewhere around there on the 3rd..

Argonians: 🍅

• Mysterious hivemind lizards who one day decided they were all going to simultaneously zerg rush Morrowind and kill everyone. Badass. Also Argonian tiddies do something to me.

Imperials: 🦠

• Smug cowards who only care about other Imperials. They'd sell out an entire province and sacrifice thousands of lives to save a handful of Imperial soldiers, and they have done this on multiple occasions. Every new Elder Scrolls game completely retcons their lore, so the history of Cyrodiil is an incomprehensible mess that flipflops between schizophrenic Kirkbride bullshit and bland-ass generic fantasy.

Khajiit: 🍅

• A race of cat men who steal everything that isn't nailed down and smoke crack as their religion. Hilarious. Plus Khajiit caravans in Skyrim are aesthetic as hell. "The warm sands of Elsweyr are far away from here." Good line, makes you feel wistful.

Redguards: 🦠

• They live in the desert. That's it. That's their entire lore. Nobody wants to add onto it because nobody wants to be the one to say anything about fantasy black people. Thank god for Kirkbride and his junkie ass saying shit like "They worship a guy named Big Papa and they act like Naruto and they have nukes and they're scared of ghosts," otherwise they'd be the second-most boring race on Tamriel.

Bretons: 🦠

• The most boring race on Tamriel. Just a generic-ass fantasy kingdom with castles and knights and shit. Every other race takes the generic fantasy tropes and twists them around to make them unique. Not Bretons. A renaissance faire has more unique flavor than High Rock does.

Dunmer: 🍅

• Genuinely unique. Gray-skinned elves who live in a bizarre, alien country with giant mushroom towers and ash storms and ziggurats and crabshell houses. Slavery is rampant and everyone's racist. Their god lives in a big house in the middle of town and he wrote his own Bible. Kirkbride says all sorts of crazy, pseudointellectual, cringy, annoying shit, but we accept all of that as fact, because Kirkbride made Morrowind, so he is forever great in my book.

Nords: 🍅

• They came from the Far North, and conquered a third of the continent, exterminating entire races and building a massive empire that they ruled for thousands of years. They worshiped the dragons, then they were enslaved by them, then they exterminated the dragons just like they killed the elves. They wrote great songs and built mighty temples. They learned the Thu'um from Kyne and could destroy armies with one breath. The landscape of Skyrim is so densely populated with Nordic ruins that First-Era Skyrim must have been one massive city reaching from the Druadach to the Velothi. Then something cataclysmic happened, and now they're just shitty Vikings living in crumbling forts.

Altmer: 🍅

• I know they're Nazis, but they're tall and they have big boobs and the generic Altmer female voice turns me on for some reason. The male ones are really hot too. Ryan Gosling would be an Altmer.

Bosmer: 🦠

• Bosmer are lame as shit. The lore has one neat concept (they love the forest so much that they only eat meat), but it doesn't actually come up ingame. Every game just has a handful of Bosmer NPC's, and they're just generic elves, and it wouldn't make a difference if you changed them to Redguards or Dunmer or Nords. Bosmer Bussy is a forced meme that has no basis in reality, because Bosmer males just look like this.

Orsimer: 🦠

• I really want to like Orcs because they live in shtetls, and also the snu snu, but god damn they're boring. Orc NPC's have like two lines of dialogue. They wear heavy ugly armor, and they act like Klingons, just like everyone else's Orcs. Yawn. The only thing different about them is their poop-themed creation story, which actually makes them worse than everyone else's Orcs.

I recently saw the Shimshon footage of Israel to Crete at sunset with a long range IR camera setup. The experiment was interesting, but it wasn't possible to confirm he was actually seeing Crete. In a comment I read, someone suggested it would be better if there was someone in front of that mountain in Crete shooting off a flare. From that I started thinking of other times and places around the United States where this kind of picture might be replicable. Obviously, getting a shot like Shimshon did with the sun setting behind a high mountain is a great idea, and takes good advantage of an IR set up. Also, the fact that there was a platform in the sea was good to show the lack of movement of the silhouettes.
My experiment idea is using a similar camera set up and trying to take long range pictures of firework shows from varying distances. Could someone in Key West point a phone at Cancun (~395mi) and see a firework show (yes they do that in Cancun) or vice versa? Or Could someone on the east side of Lake Superior (Marathon, CA) point a camera at Duluth (~300mi) and see the glow of fireworks? The idea is straight lines over water, where fireworks displays happen. Large mortar fireworks go roughly 250-500 ft up, depending on the show.
Other idea locations: San Diego <-> Santa Barbara (185mi) Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach, OR north (~210mi), or Eureka, CA south (~150mi) North Coast Lake Michigan, Manistique maybe, to Chicago (~290mi) Toledo <-> Buffalo (~250mi) Anything from Cape Hatteras, NC north (from 200-500mi) and South (from 400-700mi) Cancun across the Gulf is going to be in the 400-700 mile range.
I could keep going. The point is this opportunity fairly accessible to a lot of people, and the bother of finding someone to shoot a flare are a specific time while you are filming is not necessary. We do that every 4th of July. The weather at some of these locations will be bad some years, but this is an easily repeatable experiment, year in and year out.
Perhaps it can be done all over the Southern Hemisphere on New Years...
Hoping this puts the bug in some ears who are near by a location where this is able to be carried out.
Shimson's camera setup piqued my interest, but his experiment setup wasn't convincing enough.

I recently saw the Shimshon footage of Israel to Crete at sunset with a long range IR camera setup. The experiment was interesting, but it wasn't possible to confirm he was actually seeing Crete. In a comment I read, someone suggested it would be better if there was someone in front of that mountain in Crete shooting off a flare. From that I started thinking of other times and places around the United States where this kind of picture might be replicable. Obviously, getting a shot like Shimshon did with the sun setting behind a high mountain is a great idea, and takes good advantage of an IR set up. Also, the fact that there was a platform in the sea was good to show the lack of movement of the silhouettes.
My experiment idea is using a similar camera set up and trying to take long range pictures of firework shows from varying distances. Could someone in Key West point a phone at Cancun (~395mi) and see a firework show (yes they do that in Cancun) or vice versa? Or Could someone on the east side of Lake Superior (Marathon, CA) point a camera at Duluth (~300mi) and see the glow of fireworks? The idea is straight lines over water, where fireworks displays happen. Large mortar fireworks go roughly 250-500 ft up, depending on the show.
Other idea locations: San Diego <-> Santa Barbara (185mi) Cape Blanco Lighthouse, Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach, OR north (~210mi), or Eureka, CA south (~150mi) North Coast Lake Michigan, Manistique maybe, to Chicago (~290mi) Toledo <-> Buffalo (~250mi) Anything from Cape Hatteras, NC north (from 200-500mi) and South (from 400-700mi) Cancun across the Gulf is going to be in the 400-700 mile range.
I could keep going. The point is this opportunity fairly accessible to a lot of people, and the bother of finding someone to shoot a flare are a specific time while you are filming is not necessary. We do that every 4th of July. The weather at some of these locations will be bad some years, but this is an easily repeatable experiment, year in and year out.
Perhaps it can be done all over the Southern Hemisphere on New Years...
Hoping this puts the bug in some ears who are near by a location where this is able to be carried out.
Shimson's camera setup piqued my interest, but his experiment setup wasn't convincing enough.

I did and Egg retrieval in March 30, I was able to do my Transfer on May 4th. They retrieved 4 embryos, 3 made it to Day one and all made it to blast. After making it to 6 week and 1 Day my pregnancy came to an end on May 28th. My husband and I decided to take the month of June (which is also my birthday 6/16) to regroup and gather ourselves. We will be going for a second retrieval in July. I’m asking for all the Prayers and good thoughts in the world. This has been one of the most traumatic experiences I’ve ever had, but we regrouping. We are going back into this in July with the same protocol I had. I went in knowing the odds of my HLM embryo but I gained so much hope knowing she stuck and was there. But I’m going to do the retrieval again mainly because my only other is a abnormal and I can’t bring myself to transfer her (I am scared) I’d just like all the happy thought and good vibes,Baby dust you can. Because I’m hoping hard this turns out well. ❤️❤️

I have been thinking a lot about some past relationships from OA and have no one to discuss them with. Hoping I can just emotionally vomit here and “give up the ghost” of affairs gone by.

1. The “Catering Manager”- Lets be honest Justin you are a glorified waiter (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) There is a lot wrong with YOU though. Ya know, as a man. The gaslighting. The constant push and pull. The promises you never intended to keep. You are just a manipulative little prick who doesn’t have the good looks or charm you think you have. The receding hairline, the old man ass with buttcheeks that look like two deflated balloons and the personal hygiene that is sorely lacking. Also who has age spots on their dick? What did I ever see in you? I can’t believe all that I almost gave up to be with you. Crazy the things depression will do to a girl…
   
2. The “Educational content creator”- M, we had such a good thing going! We spoke for hours and I couldn’t get enough. The tattoos. The horror vibe. Oof, I fell hard for you. A technological glitch got us off track but you choosing to “maybe work things out with your wife” was the nail in the coffin. I’m sure you didn’t work out anything. I hope you miss me. You fucked up.
   
3. The “Walmart warehouse worker”- D, I think of you fondly. Things fizzled out but you’re a peach. I saw a post from you on OA. I hope you found a lovely girl.
   
4. The “Military Man”- Where did you go Stephen? You were handsome, smart and so emotionally intelligent. Then poof gone. You were one of the good ones. Wish we could have kept at it- if only for those drool worthy gym photos. DEAR GOD…
   

Xoxo To all those I loved, lost and loathed.

It's been a few weeks since Eurovision and today I rewatched it again a final time for my annual rankings. My thoughts on this year's contest are mixed - Loreen had a good track, but I still had Finland as the winner right up to the end.
Now my opinions on the contest have changed considerably - what did I think for the final time?
This list is based on my own personal observations and listening expierence. This will be for the final only and not counting the countries who failed to qualify
26 - Serbia: Luke Black - Samo Mi Se Spada
I'm just going to go right out and say it - this should not have qualified. This barely makes a coherent song. Luke mumbling into the microphone, whilst unplugging his dancers who did nothing for 90% of the performance was just...it felt like he was not trying.
It's not even that the song was too safe or too risky. The song was barely a song. The performance was a risky one, but the set and production design was memorable. As Graham Norton on commentary for the UK said, it looks like a 'massive soap dish'.
Somehow, Serbia got 30 points. I genuinely thought this would be a Nil Pois performance.
25 - Albania: Albina and the Klemendi Family - Duke
This was one of those performances that was a headscratcher. It was not a sad song, but it was not a fun song either. It had no direction, and having 5 singers with no discernable lead was a massive negative for me. Too many cooks situation, for sure.
It also looked like nobody actually wanted to be there? Maybe the semi finals were too hard for them and they were drained? I don't know. I was not a fan, it was boring, and directionless. But it was still better then Luke Black.
Silver linings and all.
24 - Croatia: Let 3 - Mama SC
I...
I was lost with this song the first time around. Rewatching the performance I have to ask Croatia - did you submit a meme song? It felt like that anyway. Not much more else here.
Incredible outfits.
23 - Italy: Marco Mengoni - Due Vite
People are gonna be mad here.
Live performance? This song would be incredible. But I'm heavily against sad songs for the sake of sad songs. And I get the emotional toil Marco was going for and again, live this would have got a pop out of me for sure.
I was surprised he came 4th. I thought this was for sure one of the weaker songs of the night. Marco, I am sorry. I did see that pride flag you brought out at the beginning and I thank you for representing us, but I was not a fan of that song.
22 - United Kingdom: Mae Muller - I Wrote A Song
You wrote a song Mae that was a load of shit.
I'm sorry. As a Brit, I am truly sorry. But this was another performance I was surprised got points, but if you watched it live in person...I can see myself clapping similar to Marco. But the lyrics were unrecognisable at time, and the production was...
Too bright.
The dancers however (especially the super cute blonde one) had a lot of passion and clearly were into the performance.
21 - Poland: Blanca - Solo
You had a song without a solo.
A very catchy song, but no solo, so points deducted! Blanca can be one of the strongest characters in Street Fighter, and Blanca can also be one of Poland's babes who robbed the show.
Neither happened that night and I am a very dissapointed Street Fighter Fan and European Music fan.
20 - Lithuania: Monika Linkyte - Stay
As a Eurovision regular, I was expecting a top half performance. But this ultimately just sounded like a budget Adele.
Monika has an incredible voice, that's for sure. But at this point I was burnt out and listening to a sad song was not what I wanted. Maybe I am judging this in bias, but the backing singers however, were a big plus.
They seemed like a perfect fit for the ballad that was being played. So thank you Adele - I mean Monika!
19 - Portugal: Mimicat - Ai Coracao
Mimicat's cabernet sequel performance had potential. But ultimately it was a safe song. The samba beats, and the burlesque dance Mimi gave were of high energy, but it was nothing we have not seen before.
A few years ago, this would have been a heavy contender. At least for me.
18 - France: La Zarra -Evidemment
I will preface this by saying her music was not my cup of tea. But I did find it enjoyable! She has emotion, and she did liven up a stale crowd after one of the worst Eurovision acts in history (Luke Black), so she gets bonus points there.
Overall, it was just a tad bit too played down. This is a shame because France has been a HEAVY contender in recent years.
17 - Ukaraine: Tvorchi - Heart of Steel
The co-host of this year's Eurovision, after the war in Ukaraine prevented the winners hosting this year.
Tvorchi, for me, whilst a very visually cool performance, failed to bring what Eurovision is about - I did not feel that this was a song intended to showcase a country.
It just felt like a mass produced hip hop record to be brutally honest. Great dancing however!
Also MASSIVE props to them - minutes before they performed, their home town was invaded...that must have been tough.
16 - Cyprus: Andrew Lambrou - Break A Broken Heart
This is the first song I regret putting so low. If I saw this live...top 10. Easily. But this was another ballad in an ESC with about 26 ballads.
Exaggerating, I know, but roll with it.
Very impressive production however, and bonus points for having no dancers. This song feels like it should have maybe one or two kicking about, so kudos for breaking cliché!
15 - Austria: Teya and Salena - Who The Hell Is Edgar?
This was admittedly an incredible opening song.
But that was all it had going for it. This felt like every 2010s pop song ever combined. Besides that stupidly catchy chorus - the best chorus not named Cha Cha Cha - it had very little else going for it. The dancers seemed muted and the stage production was as simple as it gets.
14 - Armenia: Brunette - Future Lover
I saw rumours System of a Down were offered this year's spot...and I wish they did, because this performance - whilst pretty and attractive - evoked zero feelings within me.
The song itself is ethereal, beautiful, and incredibly well formed. It just did nothing for me to label it as a standout, and just misses a top half finish.
Great rap verse however!
13 - Estonia: Alika - Bridges
Again, not something I would reach for a ticket personally. But this was a beautiful song, and the self playing piano was a nice touch. It reminded me a little of one of my favourite singers - Amy Lee of the legendary Evanescence.
But Amy Lee she is not. She had no stage presence and if I was in the crowd, I would probably fall asleep here.
Incredible dress however.
12 - Slovenia: Jokers Out - Carpe Diem
This song had no right being slept on as much as it did!
I was bopping from beginning to end, and really enjoyed the crowd's energy - they bought into this song. I just wish they played a riskier song, as this was a little safe for my liking. The singer could have done more.
11 - Czechia: Vesna - My Sister's Crown
I was confused as to what song we were going to get here. I was expecting a full folk song, and what we got was a song in the style of Ex-Wives from the musical Six.
The dancing and stage show were a little sloppy, but the individual solos of each woman really helped this song through.
I want to see them next year, I have a feeling this is not the last we shall see of them.
10 - Spain: Blanca Paloma - Eaea
Looking back at this list, I may regret putting this at 10. It was aspheric, dreamy, powerful, and the performance was strong. From the red fabric veils, to the dancers, and the inspired singing.
I wish I knew Spanish because, this song was beautiful. Reminds me of a Spanish Christina Aggulera.
9 - Belgium: Gustaph - Because of You
In recent years, Belgium have been a non factor. But this song...I heard it, and it went straight on my playlist.
It was boogie time, and I did not even care! From my first time through to the final time, I knew this would be up there. Gustaph looks dressed like he is a Las Vegas entertainer, and then you get this boppy beat, and you can't help but jive!
8 - Norway: Alessandra - Queen of Kings
This was the best pop song of the night. Alessandra poured her heart out to an incredible backing track, and some insanely talented dancers.
Yass Queen (of the Kings)!
That being said, despite being a catchy and memorable, it just fell short of a few songs...
7 - Germany: Lord of the Lost - Blood and Glitter
I really did not want to put this here, but Lord of the Lost just...fell short.
I heard Electric Callboy was gonna be this year's contender and I was so excited! Instead, we got this Ramnstein inspired band. And the song was incredible...nothing wrong with it.
But perhaps it was the wrong song. The crowd seemed tired and the applause was not as loud as some of the other heavier acts in recent years like AWS or Blind Channel.
Nonetheless, still better then last year's.
6 -Israel: Noa Kirel - Unicorn
Just narrowly missing out on the top 5 is Noa. Unicorn was a banger. Probably my favourite Israel song in recent years, and Noa is a georgous woman who has a bright future ahead of her.
I was upset there was no Unicron's - points deducted!
The dancing was on point, and Noa herself had some incredible energy. Especially the dance solo. She could have danced that entire performance herself!
5 - Sweeden: Loreen - Tattoo
This song fell off hard in relistens, but I can see why it was so good.
From the visual design to Loreen's impeccable dress sense and nails, and the emotional carriage of the lyrics...she deserved to win, but there were better songs.
I can't help but think Loreen winning was to establish the fact Abba celebrate 50 years since they won Eurovision next year...maybe a Loreen and Abba Collab, as the two most famous Sweedish acts.
4 - Moldova - Pasha Parfeni - Sorele Si Luna
I am a little biased because one of the drummers/dancers was the exact image of what I see in a guy 😍. Horniness aside, this song was EXACTLY what Eurovision is about, which is why it is a top 5 song.
It is a banger, that combines Eastern European heritage and culture with the rich lyrics and sharp sound from Pasha. The drummers energetically bouncing about, and the little Flutist being the cherry on the cake...
Any other year, this would be my winner.
3 - Switzerland: Remo Forrer - Waterguns
It was just not his night. With a voice like his, and as young as he is, he will become like his idol James Arthur for sure.
I was blown away by his performance...I want more of him. I really do. The Swiss Sweetheart really wowed me, and I really wish him the best career because holy shit, I had goosebumps everywhere!
Keep at it Remo!!
2 - Australia: Voyager - Promise
I know Voyager and I was not upset they got elected this year.
Voyager are an incredible metal band, and this poppy, proggy, banger of a hit had EVERYONE talking. I don't think a single person disliked this song. It reminded me of Night Rider in the opening moments, and then goes into this rocky, symphony that is times chaotic, and with that breakdown...
I was just very pleased with this performance. And iirc, this is Australia's best performance since joining! This was a very very kind surprise.
Which means number one is...
1 - Finland - Karrija - Cha Cha Cha
In the absence of Electric Callboy not representing Germany, I was hoping for a rocky, metal like performance with lots of energy and a memorable chorus. We nearly got that with Voyager, but Karrija stole the hearts of everyone...myself included.
Starting off low and slow, leading into a metal like chorus with the harsh vocals coming out, and the Cha Cha Cha being screamed...it was a combination of Finnish metal and pop and it stole the show.
There is no doubt in my mind that he should have won this. None at all. It was perfect for Eurovision! And I am so upset for him, this was the star performance.
And when it goes back into the pop second half of the song...it was ingenious and I have never seen anything or heard anything like that.
Robbed. For sure.
And that is my list! Let me know what you think!

Is it blind optimism that chains you to the refresh button? Perhaps some desperation or boredom in the stew? It’s certainly not for the quality of the writing; my eyes have long since glazed over from hollow platitudes in my own semi-successful quest to leave this subreddit.
If you’re similarly inclined, let’s skip the formalities and drill down to brass tacks. I’ll stick to the more verifiable qualities, and leave the personality guessing game for later. To start, I’m 27 and starting residency in July. Still NYC. It’s left me without a lot of time to myself, yet just enough to spend with the right someone. I’m also a major foodie, replete with my own map of food adventures in waiting. Amateur writer with an outsized ego, probably. I also have a love of board games and video games, especially when it comes to game night. Also a fan of other nerdy vices like Disney, Pixar, Ghibli and the occasional anime. Big traveler, but not worth bragging about. Not very religious, but always down for a philosophical discussion. Open book if you have other questions.
As for my appearance, I am half Jewish half Chinese but most people would just guess white. Normal build, not overweight unless its post AYCE sushi. Happy to swap pics as proof.
Of course, I have my own preferences as well. I’m looking for someone well educated and smart, a good career is a bonus. If you like to describe yourself in astrology or Meyers Briggs terms, it’s probably not gonna work out between us. A little picky in terms of looks as well, I want someone that I'm attracted to. I do prefer conventionally attractive looks, something average in weight and height or so with a hopefully cute face to pair with it. I see kids in my future, so if they aren’t in yours, I’m betting they aren’t the same. Very much looking for someone in the NYC area as well, since I’m not one for LDRs.
If it wasn’t apparent, I’m only looking for something more serious, and certainly nothing strictly platonic. I spent 4 months with an incredible girl I met on here last time, so here's to hoping there's more where that came from.

Is it blind optimism that chains you to the refresh button? Perhaps some desperation or boredom in the stew? It’s certainly not for the quality of the writing; my eyes have long since glazed over from hollow platitudes in my own semi-successful quest to leave this subreddit.
If you’re similarly inclined, let’s skip the formalities and drill down to brass tacks. I’ll stick to the more verifiable qualities, and leave the personality guessing game for later. To start, I’m 27 and starting residency in July. Still NYC. It’s left me without a lot of time to myself, yet just enough to spend with the right someone. I’m also a major foodie, replete with my own map of food adventures in waiting. Amateur writer with an outsized ego, probably. I also have a love of board games and video games, especially when it comes to game night. Also a fan of other nerdy vices like Disney, Pixar, Ghibli and the occasional anime. Big traveler, but not worth bragging about. Not very religious, but always down for a philosophical discussion. Open book if you have other questions.
As for my appearance, I am half Jewish half Chinese but most people would just guess white. Normal build, not overweight unless its post AYCE sushi. Happy to swap pics as proof.
Of course, I have my own preferences as well. I’m looking for someone well educated and smart, a good career is a bonus. If you like to describe yourself in astrology or Meyers Briggs terms, it’s probably not gonna work out between us. A little picky in terms of looks as well, I want someone that I'm attracted to. I do prefer conventionally attractive looks, something average in weight and height or so with a hopefully cute face to pair with it. I see kids in my future, so if they aren’t in yours, I’m betting they aren’t the same. Very much looking for someone in the NYC area as well, since I’m not one for LDRs.
If it wasn’t apparent, I’m only looking for something more serious, and certainly nothing strictly platonic. I spent 4 months with an incredible girl I met on here last time, so here's to hoping there's more where that came from.

This has been reoccurring problem for the past three years. My friend, Ben (22M) has been buying things for me (24F) for and spamming my phone with texts and it gets on my nerves.
We've got to know each other through one of my close friends three years ago. Since he lived in another country, we've only texted, but a year later he moved to my town and started attending the same university as me, but he's different major and on different faculty. Since then we've been hanging out a lot when I can go. I'm in my last year of my Master's degree, so I don't have much time to spare.
Me and Ben are like lost twins according to my friends. We like the same things, movies, music. We have similar hobbies, like same sports, did same sports. Love dogs. We watched the same things as kids. The only thing we don't agree on is food. While he eats everything, I am kind of a picky eater. I hate cheese, any kind of meat other than chicken and some kinds of fish, and then mushrooms. Other than that there are foods I dislike, but it's not that bad and when I have to eat them I'll eat them, but wouldn't prepare them or order them.
Though sometimes he texts me if I want grilled cheese, or Blue cheese pasta or some meat dish to which I reply that I hate those foods. He replies that he's asking if I changed my mind which I didn't and don't think I will change any time soon.
Ever since we started texting, I noticed one big problem about him. He's super big texted, like he messages 20 times in like an hour with spam of 'Hi. How are you? What are you doing? Then random facts...' He does this like 4-5 times a day. I am not fan of texting, nor calling and everyone in my friend group knows. I've told him multiple times that I can't text back when I'm studying as I don't look at my phone 24/7 so he backs off for like two, or three days and then he's back at it. Then when I'm not responding, he starts asking if he's being annoying, then he tells me he'll text later. Or when I'm working on a presentation, he texts me to come hang out with him that he'll prepare something for me, to take a break for an hour, but I honestly can't spare even the hour. I work on 3-4 hours of sleep and I barely eat. While he takes uni life like every other day, for me it's very important to finish my studies. Recently he started asking more personal questions about my family (not like how my siblings or my parents are, he wants to know what exactly is wrong since my best friend asked hows everything back home and I honestly told her it'd not that good, Ben was there too, but I didn't know he overheard us, then he asked me to give him more details, but I said no, I am not that close with him to share that personal info) and my health (which is not like I would want it to be). He asked about it over the year several times, saying one person carrying a burden must be hard, that telling him may lift some weight off my shoulders, but each time I told him no. Not even my best friend knows all the stuff since it's very, very personal. Or when I tell him I can't text him since I have an important lecture, he text me constantly about how the subject goes, if it's hard lesson, random facts about the topic if I text him back.
He also gives me compliments which I've repeatedly told him I hate receiving and am uncomfortable by them. I don't mind those like 'Your hair look nice. You bought a new dress, it's pretty. Or did you get your nails done, I like what you chose.' but he compliments go like this, 'You're beautiful, smart, intelligent, kind, caring, friendly...' I don't know why but I find them uncomfortable and told him repeatedly to stop. He didn't.
Then every time we're hanging out, he buys stuff for me. When I'm hungry, he buys it. I like something, but the price makes me turn around, he buys it for me. I have money. I mention something I think about buying, the next day I have it. It's so uncomfortable. Money are no problem, but I avoid buying expensive stuff now since I'm saving up for an apartment. Or when I'm at work he messages me constantly asking what food I want as he wants to walk with me home and he will spam me until I reply, or he buys me something. Or when I achieve something like when I pass my exams, he's immediately texting me, 'Dinner's on me.' And he doesn't want to take my money for it, since he offered. I started making excuses why I can't go, but I can't say no all the time since many of those times are with our friends.
Ben buying all this stuff for me is making me super uncomfortable and I've told him dozen of times to stop. But he doesn't. He even said that he'd gladly spend his whole salary on me. That I'm the only person who deserves it. Since my hardwork needs to be appreciated. But I hate it.
And he does it only to me. No one else. Because I'm special or whatever's that supposed to mean.
My friends think it's cute and that he likes me and that he cares about me. But I don't know if that's not true, since he thinks I'm attracted to girls apparently. Once I jokingly said that I have to go since I have a date with Batman (to watch the newest movie), and I added that maybe even the whole Justice League (since I wanted to see the latest movie), he jokingly asked 'Even women?' to which I replied, 'Have you seen Wonder Woman? She's hot,' and since then he's been making constant comments like, 'You need to find a woman who will treat you right. You need to find a woman who will prepare a meals for you when you forget to eat while studying. You need to find a woman... yadda yadda yadda. You get it.' Now I really don't know if he's joking and likes me, or he thinks it's really the case.
When I told my friends I'm looking for an apartment, he immediately suggested moving together. That I don't need to worry about anything, that only I make him my 'testing rat' since I like experimenting in the kitchen and trying out new recipes and he loves tasting them.
The only person who is on my side is my cousin who disliked Ben from the first moment she heard about him and her dislike grew as soon as she saw a picture of him. She offered to put him in his place, but I told her I'd like to take care of it myself.
I don't plan on moving with him. While I may have liked him a bit in the beginning, my feelings disappeared. Other than that he's kind guy but enough is enough.
Do you know what I should do? How to make him understand that it's making me uncomfortable? I'm really desperate and no one other than my cousin is not on my side, they say I'm overreacting and should enjoy the attention I'm recieving. Help?

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!
I actually wrote up a post right after the 4th palace. Then I played a bit and they dropped so much more info that I had to toss it. Tomorrow is the trip to Hawaii so I thought this was a good point to stop and make another round of predictions.
The 4th palace is my favorite so far. There was so much symbolism to look into and I really liked the whole cursed gem bit. The end boss was a little annoying.
Things are really picking up pace. I had so many questions that were answered like 20 min later. They're really starting reveal some important details.
This is what I have as of now. In addition to my way off predictions there are also a few bits of info I'm that I'm not sure how they fit yet and some general impressions. I tried to keep it short (I failed).
Please no spoilers for any of the Persona games. This is my first and I plan on picking up 3/4.
After Palace 1 predictions : https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13odesi/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_my_horribly/
After Palace 2 prediction : https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13q3q9j/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_just_beat_the/
After Palace 3 predictions: https://www.reddit.com/Persona5/comments/13sl0vp/first_time_playing_going_in_blind_just_beat_the/
​
Futaba/Alibaba and somehow Morgana

• The squid girl from the movie finally gets a name.
• Futaba's mom is the curry lady (Wakaba)!
• the phone call Sojiro had about a printer not being the right one makes soooo much sense now. I knew he was taking care of someone but I thought it was an old lady. Honestly thought there were going for a cheap laugh were she kept on printing out pictures of snowball or something.
• translated some of the binary on the walls of her palace into ASCII looking for a secret message but they were just the same odd symbols that were on the doors and such.

---tinfoil hat time---

• Futaba picked Alibaba as her hacker alias. before we get to see the whole Egypt / pyramid theme of her palace it seemed like a really odd choice.
• It could be just a cool name that the writers picked but "Chekhov's gun" states that every element introduced in a story should be necessary to the plot. If the gun isn't going to be fired then the audience doesn't need to see it being loaded - or something like that.
• It got me thinking and for sure I remembered the name Alibaba but had forgotten the details of the story. I did a quick search and was able to find the story pretty easily.
• Short version : Alibaba was a dude who stole a bunch of riches from some thieves. Alibaba is living the good life when the thieves track him down and make plans to kill him. The plans are stopped by Alibaba's slave who kills the thieves.
• Alibaba's slave was named .... wait for it .... Morgiana! Mind effing blown! That's way too similar to Morgana not to be important.
• Morgiana was female. Early in the game Ann ask Morgana if it's a boy or a girl. It says of course it's a boy, but it also says that it is human.Morgana might be the Male version of Morgiana but this throws it's gender into question too. It's not like anyone had checked between it's legs as far as I can tell. (also where does it do it's business I haven't seen a litter box).
• Add to this the "birth" flashback that Morgana had
• Morgana is an unwilling servant (aka a slave) to the big bad which is trapped in the deepest part of mementos
• The big bad was able to squeeze through the crack in his prison just enough to deposit a small amount of it's power in the metaverse this power took the form of Morgana.
• The Morgana in the dream had yellow eyes. still going with yellow eyes = metaverse native.
• He was programmed to want to find the deepest part of Mementos at all cost so he could free the big bad.
• His attraction to human desires was not intentional. He got sidetracked from his mission and got caught by Kamoshida.
• Meeting joker was a stroke of luck.
• He keeps telling us that he's using us for his own goals and that he just needs pawns.
• We're made to think that this is just a defensive move to avoid talking about his real feelings but I see a perfect opportunity for a "I told you I was just using you all" scene after the big bad flips some switch later on.
• Most of Morgana's battle functions are getting replaced by other members. Makoto and Futba are both doing the combat calls now. Morgana will leave the party soon.
• Something will happen to Morgana that will flip his switch while the PT are in Hawaii
• Morgiana killed the thieves.... The big bad will take control of Morgana at one point and we will have to fight shadow Morgana or something to get the cat back.
• Was almost thinking Morgana could be the one who betrays us but no one can understand him and even Akechi would have trouble selling the whole "my informant is a cat" thing to Sae.

Kasumi

• A big problem with Kasumi is we know shes going to be a badass by the time the casino heist comes around but right now she's the complete opposite of the person who saves Joker. This isn't like Makoto who is a bad ass and was just holding back. Kasumi is 100% a wet noodle right now.
• Add to that the my weak self relied on you so much line and there is little doubt she has a split personality disorder of some sort.
• They also dropped a major clue for Kasumi after the 3rd palace. She had a sister who died.
• My fist thought was she never had a sister and just had two distinct personalities that were separate but equal to each other. Each would take control at different points and her mind created a fake sister to explain any inconsistencies with her memories. At some point one of her personalities (the sister) was repressed.
• The problem with this is her interactions with joker she doesn't seem like a totally different person just more sure of herself. like her week self is the Kasumi we know now and her complete self is the one we fight with.
• She could have really had a sister and the trauma of the loss sent her into a downward spiral of depression. So *someone* did something to her to repress the negative emotions.
• Her gymnastic slump is important. what ever was done to her was the cause of her slump. Shes missing something of herself which is why she says that her body doesn't move the way she wants it to.
• Current theory is some part of her is locked away. It's not separate, but a piece of the whole person that we fight along side with at the casino. At some point between now and then her two halves will join.
• This brings up the question of what's up with her dad? Unless your some sort bad person wouldn't you notice such a drastic change in your kid?
• Either dad works for the government and was ok experimenting on Kasumi or he somehow thinks whatever was done to her was for the best . Like her current state is better than what was before so this is the cure.
• explains why she transferred schools. He dad claims to work at a TV station (could be a cover). It's not like he would have to move for a new job. If she had a major personality change then her old classmates and teachers would notice. this would cause Kasumi to question her reality which could cause it to fail. moving to a new school removes this issue.
• This would have to go above standard therapy. Either hypnosis or cognitive psience.
• something is going to happen to her dad. we got the glasses shopping scene to show us how close they are. This will be her motivation for going into the metaverse.
• when her persona awakens the mental barrier will be taken down.
• She only has a 5 star confidant rank. It's not like Maruki who still has his card symbol but won't advance till the story does.
• The other 5 starts will be with her "other" personality. After whatever was done to her is undone she's going to be a mess and will turn to Joker.
• something will happen to her while we are in Hawaii. Only reason for her to let us know she was leaving the country of a bit. she might not actually be leaving the country and just be having more mental work done on her.

Maruki

• He want's to legit help people.
• Thinks that traditional therapy is not effective enough. Want to develop a medicine or medical procedure to actually fix people's negative emotions.
• with the introduction of cognative psience we now know the method that he's going to use to attempt this. (could be he already did a test run or two).
• Although his intentions are good things are going to wrong very very wrong.
• After the 2nd exams he talks to joker about not meeting peoples expectations. This comes right after some girls were gossiping about Kasumi in the halls.
• Total misdirection. Since the phantom thieves are making all sorts of waves, the Agency is putting pressure on him to complete his research. This will lead to mistakes being made.
• Eventually his logic will change to "It's better to feel nothing than to feel pain" - this will be his I still think I'm a good guy logic.
• Unless he is also a persona user then were going to visit his palace.
• The first time Joker goes to see Maruki he runs into Kasumi and she tells Joker that she has been seeing Maruki for some time.
• Add to that the line Sae's Boss says on 6/23 "This incident happened at the school you're supposed to be presiding over..." and we have a clear connection from Sae's Boss to the principle at Joker's school.
• He also seemed to be bothered that the Kamoshisa change of heart happened at Shujin like he was aware that something special was going on there.
• This set off all the alarms. The new girl who happens to be a badass persona user transfers to the school and a month later her doctor gets assigned to the very same school. He was hired by the principal who just happens to work for Sae's boss. Sae's boss knows of the metaverse and so does Maruki.
• Maruki was assigned to Kasumi's school to keep tabs on her and make sure whatever he did to her stuck. The Kamoshida incident was just the excuse they needed to bring him in.
• He either developed cognitive psience on his own or was giving Wakaba's research by the Agency.

Akechi

• he has to be the one who betrays the group.
• Keeps putting idea's in Sae's head
• At some point Sae will catch on that Akechi is messing with her.
• working with Shido but not for him. Has his own goals or works for the big bad.
• says he has to catch the PT "for the sake of my justice" combine that with the arcade scene where he ask joker what kind of justice he believes in and Akechi is def bad. He's not after "justice" but "my justice" which sounds a lot like revenge. Has something to do with his father. If the PT crew keep operating they're going to ruin his chance for revenge.
• He will frame the PT by sending a fake calling card and then killing that persons shadow.

Twins / Butterfly Lady

• The number of new confidants that unlock after the 3rd palace was a bit overwhelming but It did give me plenty of chances to watch the new confidant unlock scenes. It got me thinking about what it actually says. Just picked the fortune confidant for this but any would have worked.
• I am thou, thou art I - we are one and the same
• thou hast acquired a new vow. - you just unlocked a new confidant. to quote Jose "Good Job!"
• It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity. - butterflies have wings also still talking about Joker "thy chains of captivity". We are like a caterpillar and when we obtain out true power we will become a butterfly (not literally). the chains could be a the cocoon that the butterfly breaks out of.
• With the birth of the Fortune Persona I have obtained the winds of blessing that - creatures with wings (like a butterfly) ride the wind. Is now referring to herself in this line "I have obtained..."
• shall lead to freedom and new power..." - It's over 9000!
• The butterfly lady is our persona or at the very least out power levels are connected.
• Part of the butterfly lady's power is sealed in joker. Was not intentional but will be the key to rejoining the twins.
• When there is a fusion alarm the twins do this adorable back stretch where one kicks her legs. They then do this weird like side stretch that looks like the fusion dance from Dragon Ball Z.

Igor

• Not working for the thing that made Morgana.
• Morgana had no knowledge of the skill cards and his mind exploded when joker captured the pixie.
• Even though he's not bad he's still not good.
• Has some cosmic role to fill. His job is to prepare for the final battle. He doesn't care who wins just as long as the fight occurs.
• Gave Akechi the metaverse nav but Akechi betrayed him and went rogue which is why he went looking for a new recruit. He took on the twins after so the same mistakes wouldn't be make with joker.
• Says joker will fight someone with powers very similar to his (jokers) own. Akechi has the wildcard too?

Sojiro

• For the record Joker defended him and never once thought he was abusing Futaba.
• Met Wakaba when he worked for the government.
• Feels guilty that he didn't do anything when she said she was going to die. Was he in a position to do so? What did he do for the government?
• After Wakaba was killed he suspected his own government were behind it and left in disgust.
• Sojiro is just awesome. He would take a bullet for any of Joker's friends and die happy knowing he saved someones life.
• He will be the getaway driver after the PT crew breaks joker out. He's the only person we know with a car.

Sae's Boss / Shido

• They refer to it as the metaverse and not the cognitive world. could be the writers just didn't want to add a new term without context or they gained their knowledge of the metaverse from an "other worldly" being.

​
Limo Girl.

• Is in the opening movie both the heist scene and the smash the city part. Will be joining up.
• Ran in to her in the hall at the star of the game she was labeled as a senior
• Riding in a limo. daddy is loaded.
• At the park cleanup she asked Mishima for the bottle cap so they can be used for medicine. She is seen watering flowers at the school also. What we should take away from this is she's a really good person. We need to know see that she's super duper good because her dad is bad like really bad.
• daddy's money is dirty money and she knows it or at least suspects.
• We will change daddy's heart and make him admit his evil ways.
• Her dad is the Shido.
• We don't know when she's going to join up or if the casino heist is her first. Stealing her dad's heart will prob be her first mission so the fact that shes on the comm at the start of the game isn't too much of a problem with her dad being Shido.

Opening Casino Heist

• on 7/29 Morgana says "But it's true that an observant criminal could have a true to reality city in their Palace."
• The opening casino heist wasn't in the real world but was Shido's palace. His palace just included a 1:1 of the city in it. He also says in the scene at the start of the game where joker has a flashback that he owns the cops. Would make sense that the shadows in his cognition would take the form of the police and security guards. The 2nd palace had two types of shadows (male and female) and the 3rd/4th had people/dogs. Multiple types of shadows is not unheard of
• Also looks like we did manage to steal his treasure but not sure if they were able to get it out.
• We don't actually see joker get taken in by the cops. It's possible that the traitor grabbed us after the shadow cops took us down and turned us in to the real world cops. Doesn't mean the world's can't be merging but my reasoning for it is off.
• One thing that bothers me is when they ask if everyone remembers where they have to meet up. Why was joker separate from the rest of the PT? The PT all leave the metaverse together so far. Could just mean where they're going to meet up near the exit (if there is an exit with the palace being the whole city). Hoping for more clues to clarify this.

Mashima

• not going to betray us. he almost fell to the dark side and I haven't seen the conclusion of his story but seems like he's not going to an issue.

​
Best Girl current rankings - Nothing is set yet no decisions have been made just the current rankings.

• Makoto - the scene where the lights go out and she grabs jokers leg just made her more endearing. Her driving skills saved the crew after Palace 4. Could beat Kamoshisa in 1v1 volley ball.
• Futba - who doesn't like a quirky redhead. Her being Boss's adopted daughter could be a good thing as he seems to like Joker at this point in the story so he wouldn't have to give him the whole "let me show you my gun collection" talk. Although I'm thinking shes more like the quirky best friend type then best girl material (so sorry Fatuba Fans plesedonthateme)
• Dr.Death - shes a doctor who really cares about her work. Cares more about helping the little girl then getting the credit for it. She basicly broke down when she thought the girl was dead. Also SP Adhesives are amazing.
• Kasami - 100% little sister vibe while Futaba has potential to move up in rank Kasami is stuck in the sister zone. Who knows maybe her "sister" is more interesting.
• Fortune teller- Still a nice person despite the way she was treated. A but gullible though. I could see her sending all of Joker's savings to a Nigerian prince.
• Chess Girl (I know it's not chess) - mid tier maybe she well get more interesting.
• Ann - Not even in the running really because She's going to end up with Ryuji. If Ryuji wasn't around I would say shes not the bightest bulb in the pack. shes not dumb and seems to at least have passed her exams but we have honor student Makoto and super genius Futaba to compare her to. She is empathetic and has a high emotional intelligence. No way shes going to make it as an Actress with her (lack of) skills I cringe every time she tries. She would make a great councilor though with how she relates to people and to seems to be able to get along with everyone. She could also make it in professional sports with how high she was able to throw Mona after the 4th palace.
• Kawakami - Yes she's ranked lower than someone who is not even in the running. First off she lied about her sister WTF! She just seems like a mess. Her clothes don't fit and her hair is never brushed. She is stuck in "the help" tier. Keep her around for laundry and coffee.

Best Bro current rankings.

• Ryuji - dude is our bro 100% He's the bad influence with a heart of gold and will stick with Joker to the end. He's the Ron Weasley to Joker's Harry Potter. He would be the most fun to go drinking with.
• Yusuke - you will only ever be his 2nd best friend. His true loyalty lies with art. If Joker was hanging off the side of a cliff and Yusuke had to make the decision to save Joker or paint the perfect sunset it would be a real nail biter to see what he decides.
• Mishima- Once he gets over himself he's going to be fine. He's like a more wimpy less fun Ryuji.
• Akechi - he's too full of himself. He always like "ugh I'm just sooooo popular I can't do the little people things like you do" Hanging out with him you would only ever be "Akechi's friend". His sweater vest is dumb.

Best Kitty current rankings.

• Snowball - he didn't deserve to go out like that.
• Morgana - is a spy and slave of the big bad. Also needs stop hitting on Ryuji's girl.

Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 9 of baseball Power Rankings: It may be Tuesday, but still thought about how much we dislike your favorite team 8 Days a Week. Also pool side blackjack is now my favorite part of Las Vegas. John Fisher, please ignore.
Every voter has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:

"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be going forward. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."

TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics!
New Voter Chance: Are you a fan of the Dodgers? Why? We have a new voter oppening. Please check this comment for details.
If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.
Total Votes: 28 of 29. So close.

#		Team	Δ	Comment	Record
1		Rays	0	Everyone's favorite myliobatiformes played another good week of baseball with the return of Tyler Glasnow. The Rays took an exciting series against the Dodgers after recharging during a weird mid-series rest day against the Blue Jays. Wander Franco is making his case to be starting SS in the All-Star Game, just make sure you don't accidentally vote for one of his brothers. It's still super weird to watch the offense carry while the bullpen struggles, but with guys coming back it should be f--, wait, Fairbanks is hurt again.	39-17
2		Rangers	+1	Series wins against both the Pirates and Orioles the last week has the club holding the 3rd best overall record in the majors. Go Stars. We're still having fun.	34-19
3		Braves	-1	3-4 last week and we started this week off with a loss against the Oakland "Triple A's" which is not good Bob. On the VERY brightside, we saw Soroka pitch from an MLB mound for the first time in almost 3 years. He pitched well and we need him to perform as we are absolutely depleted by injuries. Riley is starting to come to life. We hold a 4 game lead on the scond place MARLINS. Our division doesn't want to take advantage of our recent struggles, that's fine by me.	32-22
4		Dodgers	+1		33-22
5		Orioles	-1	A few weeks ago, I said if the Orioles can go at least .500 in May then they are for real. They wrapped up a winning month yesterday and have three games to go. They continue to play well, even though they lost the series against the Rangers, and seem to play better away from Camden Yards. They did, however, send Grayson Rodriguez down this week to AAA. He just has some stuff to figure out. He was getting crushed in his past few starts, and it was the right move to make. This solidifies the fact they need a frontline starter if they are going to make a serious push to get to and make noise in the post-season.	34-20
6		Astros	0	Jose Abreu finally hit a home run. All is right with the world. Unless the world's name is Lance McCullers Jr., who had another discomforting setback and we have no idea when we will see him this year. I still blame his hair. Anyway, our other Jose hit a grand slam at MMP this weekend. Where have we heard that before?	31-22
7		Yankees	0	It certainly would’ve been nice to take 2/3 from Baltimore, but it’s very hard to be mad at the Yankees’ month of May. Since May 1, the Yankees are 18-9, a huge turnaround from a .500 April. As we enter the dog days of summer, the top of the AL East is tightening up, but the Yankees don’t face either of the teams ahead of them again until July. The Yankees have to keep playing at this pace, and a Stanton (and maybe Rodon??) return could seriously help that.	33-23
8		D-Backs	+1	The Diamondbacks had a decent week, barely missing out on a sweep of the Phillies before dropping a series to the Red Sox. The offense gets on base but has been allergic to driving in RISP, and the starting rotation continues to be a merry-go-round, as none of the rookie pitchers on the team seem to be able to string together several good starts in a row without getting blown up once or twice.	31-23
9		Blue Jays	+1	The Jays' first series win since May 14th pulled us out of a bad-vibes tailspin the likes of which this fanbase hasn't seen since, well, the last time everybody freaked out over a losing streak. The usual suspects' continued confounding slow starts (Manoah, Kirk, Varsho, etc) have dropped us 10 games back from TB, last place in the best division in baseball. And YET, hope springs. Berrios (3 or fewer ER in 8 of his last 9 starts) finally appears to be pitching to the level expected of him when he was signed, and is pumping out quality starts along with Gausman and Bassitt. Kikuchi has slipped as Kikuchi does but has been very solid for a #5. We don't have the depth to send Manoah down for some needed alone time, but he's pushing it. Vladdy has been scuffling, Springer is heating up, and Bichette is an MVP candidate. With a little bit of lucky regression to the mean with abysmal RISP numbers, this team is just a few turns away from being very good. As long as we don't have to play too many games vs AL East teams. That should be fine.	28-26
10		Twins	-2		28-26
11		Mariners	+4	Just what the doctor ordered - 6-1 in the homestand so far. Some momentum is just what this team needs before two big series with teams they're chasing for playoff spots. If the M's can handle business over the next week, they'll be right back in the thick of it. Bryce Miller, do your thing. Up next: 3 vs. Damn Yankees, 3 @ Globe Life ParkFieldStadiumGardensArenaDomewhatever they're calling it these days	28-26
12		Red Sox	-1	Scoring four runs total while getting swept by the Angels isn't a great look. This team is in many ways aggresively mediocre, always making sure that every win streak is followed up by an equally painful gut-punch. This is mainly due to the reliance on the offense to carry us to victory (2-17 when scoring <=3 runs), when the bats get cold, you're safe to turn off the game. Whitlock returning from injury and Bello/Sale both stepping up their game in May (2.74/2.42 ERA respectively) are good steps towards this team becoming Actually Good™ though. We'll see what June brings us...	28-25
13		Brewers	-1	Taking two of three from the Astros was nice. Barely avoiding a sweep from the Giants was not so sweet. Milwaukee has some issues with hitting in "close" situations. The Brewers either lose after having multiple opportunities to tie it up, or get absolutely blown out.	28-25
14		Angels	0	Did I travel out of state and all the way to Anaheim just to watch the team get swept by the Marlins? Perhaps. Was that objectively worse than what the Reds voter is going through? It's impossible to say.	29-26
15		Mets	-2	The Mets, who I proclaimed to be "good at baseball" last week, ended up dropping 2 of 3 against the Cubs and doing the same against the Rockies. I just don't know what to believe anymore. The only thing I know for sure is that Francisco Alvarez has got that fucking dawg in him, he's GOATed, he's him, he's on fleek, he's poggers, he's a proper legend, he's got an .885 OPS, he's a top bloke, he's got swag, he's fresh, he's Gen Z Mike Piazza, he's lit, he's making me feel old because he was born after 9/11, he's Francisco Alvarez.	27-27
16		Gigantes	+4	The Giants won yesterday, but strictly talking about last week, they went 5- 2 on an extremely acceptable road trip without any off days. Defeating two competent teams like the Twins and Brewers should feel good. On both losses, they gave up 7 runs, on every win they gave up 3, 1, or 0 runs. So, they threw two games out of 7 – that’s allowed. In the bad news department, Joc, Joey, and Thairo all not expected back until June 6th. I think we’re okay with more Bailey Patrick and this also means another look at unpredictable slugger David Villar. Slater continues covering for Joc. Let’s look a the numbers: 13th in MLB in Run Diff (+6 spots), 12th in RS / G (+6), 15th in RA / G (+2), 23rd in Bullpen ERA (+5). All of that is good and especially the bullpen is promising recently. The Giants continue at home vs the Pirates and wrap the homestand with 3 against our orange and black brothers in Baltimore.	28-26
17		Pirates	-1	Would I have been happy to learn on Opening Day that the Pirates would be around .500 at the end of May? Yes. But if you told me they got there after starting 20-8 I would be pretty disappointed. Here's hoping the pendulum swings the other way in June.	26-27
18		Marlins	+3	Yet another appearance of sweepy, the meme that was promised. After a rough series against the rox, we sweep the angels to settle into the third NL wild card spot. Our starting pitching is coming along after a bumpy start to several of our starters. Eury perez is gonna be a stud, just wanna remind yall. Also, shout out to Jorge Soler, who has been crushing baseballs the last week and change. In other miami sports related news, boston is the first city ever to lose two game 7s at home in both the NHL and NBA playoffs in the same year. Go Heat and go Panthers!	28-26
19		Phillies	-2	After losing 2 to the Diamondbacks and going down 5-0 in the 3rd game, the Phillies season looked as bleak as it could in late May while only being 4 games under .500. However, the team rallied and Trea Turner tied it in the 9th before going onto win it in 10. Then, they went down to Atlanta and split a 4 game series. It could've gone far worse. The Phillies most pressing need is now seemingly a 5th starter who isn't a guaranteed loss, as this week they trotted out Dylan Covey, who hadn't started a game since 2019. He got 2 outs and gave up 7 runs. He took the spot of Bailey Falter who, after a surprisingly productive 2022, started the season 0-7. Falter is the far better option, but Dave Dombrowski will likely be looking to upgrade until Andrew Painter can finally return. This week, the NL East road trip continues with their first 3 games against the Mets and 3 in Washington. Here's hoping June Schwarber shows up again this year.	25-28
20		Padres	-1	My Dad tells me it’s ok that the Dad’s lost 2 / 3 to NY; the Dodgers lost 2 / 3 to the Rays! The Pads aren’t in the same stratosphere as the Dodgers right now, though. 5 games under .500, 10th in the NL standings, 3 games out of the last wildcard slot. Of course there’s quite a bit of time to change it, there’s plenty of time to go on a run, or a slow and steady good month to gain ground. With every day that passes however, that goal becomes a bit harder to reach; I don’t think Pads fans were hoping for a wildcard spot by the end of this season, but that’s the position the team has to get to before even thinking of catching LA. The Padres are 4th in the NL West, and only a half game out of last.	24-29
21		Cardinals	-3	2-2 @ CIN; 1-2 @ CLE; 0-1 v KCR; another struggle week for the Cards. The fandom's been a bit kneejerk because of two good weeks before this. Their mistake. I'll say it a third time, the Cards playing at or beyond their expected level doesn't change the rotten FO. Yeah Marmol's pretty close to being fired, that's not a fix when the problem is John Mozeliak.	24-32
22		Tigers	+2	The most fun part of this past week has been watching the resurgence of Akil Baddoo. His energy is infectious and adds an exciting dimension to the lineup. As we head into the last few days of May, Baddoo has sported a .302/.405/.508 slash and a 155 wRC+ this month. Although he's still been hitting mostly in the 6 hole, if this keeps up he might find himself much higher in the order real soon. This week: 2 more vs. TEX and 3 at CWS.	25-27
23		Guardians	0	The Guardians won a series this week. I would like to see them win some games by more than one run, but it's clear this season, we have to take what we get.	24-29
24		Cubs	-2	Another terrible week for the Cubs, as a promising series win against the Mets was followed up by an embarrassing sweep against the Reds. The starting rotation was terrible, and the bullpen was somehow worse. Fans have had enough of David Ross, and Jed Hoyer is starting to come under pressure. Barring a dramatic turnaround, the Cubs will be sellers for the 3rd trade deadline in a row	23-30
25		Reds	+1	Okay guys, I’m here to be calm this week. I have been told by my wife’s attorney, Tom, that they are “aware” of my online activity regarding our impending divorce, so today let’s have a nice, calm, relaxing, perfectly fine, good old fashioned talk about Reds baseball. The Reds are just sorta middling. They’re not great but they’re not horrible. Unlike my marriage. Our starting pitching has resgressed, just like my marriage, and it’s very unfortunate to see, because our bullpen has been quite reliable unlike my wife. We still can’t hit home runs for some reason, but overall unlike my marriage the Reds on the upturn. There, are you happy Tom? I didn’t mention all the crap that’s been going on lately. I didn’t mention how I had to leave the Motel 6 I was at because I found a used needle in the bathroom, and by the way Tom, I know that you’re trying to use that as evidence that I can’t take care of my kids. I don’t even know who’s needle it was, it was like wedged behind the toilet. Believe me, I only found it because I dropped my phone while using the toilet. It wasn’t even visible, I had to like get on my hands and knees and crawl behind the toilet to grab my phone. So it puts the image in my head of some heroin addict or whatever sitting behind a toilet at a Motel 6 trying to get high, which honestly that just seems like an even worse situation than the one i’m in. Do I think it’s a coincidence that the day after I left the Motel 6 because of this, you’re requesting a drug test from me before I can see my kids? Huh Tom? How did you know about this incident Tom? The only people that know are the Motel 6 staff I notified, I don’t think any police showed up, so either you questioned them like i’m some criminal, or you’re following me. I know you’re reading this Tom, you’ve made several references to my posts on the baseball power rankings insinuating it’s me writing them, and yeah Tom you’re right it is me, can everybody in the comments give praise to Tom for being a regular Sherlock Holmes? Yeah everybody come on, Congratulations Tom! You’re the man! I’m gonna let you go home and fuck my sister, oh wait Tom I forgot, YOU ALREADY ARE. When you get home tonight tell Caitlin her brother says hi. Alright, I think I got that out of my system. Anyway, I think once more of our prospects are called up, probably around June or July, we may get hot and finish more closely to .500 than initially thought, and if this division stays like it is, and those prospects can deliver on their promise, it's entirely possible we could be in contention for the division. But a lot of this is gonna depend on if our Starting Rotation can get things back under control. Also we swept the Cubs so lol.	24-29
26		Nationals	-1	Week after week, I expect this Nats team to take a nose dive. I expect them to crumble and slip into a double-digit losing streak but it just isn't happening. They lead the NL in batting average (.267), are third in OBP (.330) and have the lowest strikeout rate in MLB. They still have their own troubles, but this team is alive (4 games out of a WC spot)	23-31
27		Rockies	+1	I don't have time to write a real blurb this week so you don't have to print this. Actually, you probably don't read these, I'm not sure anyone really reads them anyways besides the Reds guy's life breaking down, and this will probably get printed regardless.	24-31
28		White Sox	-1	Liam is back. I can't overstate how great that is to hear. He is one of the best people in the game and it's nothing short of amazing for him to be pitching in May. If you missed it, it was recently revealed that he had stage 4 lymphoma, not an early stage. He started treatment just over 3 months ago! Nothing on the field matters for this team, but at least there's that silver lining.	22-34
29		Royals	0	As of the time that this blurb is being written (Monday at 11:39 AM), only two teams in the majors have a record below .400. Yup, the Royals are there with the A's. I suppose the positive is that the team figured out that they can get rid of useless players in Hunter Dozier, but they still have a lot more work to do.	17-38
30		Atléticos	0	The A's have given up 10+ runs in a game 7 more times than they've won. It's a mix of bad roster building (the bullpen), under-preforming vets (Ramon Laureano 74 wRC+, Tony Kemp 38 wRC+), injuries (Seth Brown and Paul Blackburn are just now returning), and no fans in the stands since 2019. It's soul crushing to watch and the national media's constant condecention toward this particular poor team and it is even more annoying this year.	11-45

The second edition of ESC took place in Frankfurt, Germany. Does that mean one of the German songs won in 1956 as the usual tradition is? Well no it was Switzerland who also hosted the first edition but apparently didn't want to host another the next year. To this day rumours persist that Germany got second place probably with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" from Walter Andreas Schwarz but since no ranking was released to this day we can't know for sure. Some even believe Germany won. Anyway the good thing about this contest is that this contest can be fully watched with moving images. The director of this was Michael Kehlmann, an Austrian movie director. I sinceryly hope he was better at camerawork for his movies as it was filmed rather static and with a persistence of keeping the artists heads in close-up for lengthy periods which felt rather disturbing to me. Quality wise the songs were in my opinion a lot weaker than the previous edition with most contestants playing it rather safe and with little variety.
1957 saw the introduction of a real jury system where each country had to divide 10 points over the rivaling countries. So here it was made clear you can't vote for your own country, a rule which probably was not in place in 1956 but as of 1957 it was set in stone and never changed. Don't really know if that meant that 1 country could give the full 10 points to just 1 country. I notice however that only France divided their points over 2 countries while all other countries divided their points over 3 to 6 countries. No one ended up with 0 points and every country got points from at least 2 countries. Strange system but at least better than the shady backroom voting from the previous edition, which certainly was put into question and led to protest. To this day there is still a points system and no matter the result there is always people not understanding why song X ended up so low and song Y so high. Some things never change and this adds to the fun. Apparently the points system was borrowed from UK's 'Festival of British Popular Songs' which decided on the entry representing the UK in the ESC. So a scoreboard was introduced which was adapted after each call (by a traditional phone) from one of the juries of the competing countries.
​
With the 3 countries broadcasting but not sending a song for various reasons (UK, Austria, Denmark) last year now joining the competition there was no more need for each country to send 2 songs. So 1 song per country (and this remained so for later editions) but 2 people were allowed on stage (in 1956 only solo artists on stage). So more countries involved (10 vs 7 in 1956) but less songs (10 vs 14 in 1956). Last change was a rule stipulating that songs could not exceed 3 minutes but a few countries really went over that limit by quite a margin. Maybe that rule was introduced quite late and therefore no one was disqualified for exceeding it.
​
We saw a first duet with Denmark. Italy and the Netherlands had a musician accompanying the singer. We also saw a first prop emerging (Germany) and some other costumes than the traditional tuxedo or evening gown (Denmark).
​
For those wanting more info about this edition check the wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1957
​
The full show can be watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOi13j5cO8&t=4s
​

1. Belgium - Straatdeuntje - Bobbejaan Schoepen (32 years) starts at 3:15

Just like previous edition the ESC kicked off with a song sung in Dutch however this time it comes from the Dutch/Flemmish speaking part of Belgium (Flanders). Bobbejaan Schoepen was the first Flemmish singer to try. Even though his success period was far before my time I knew that whistling was a trademark of his. He even had a song dedicated to whistling 'De jodelende fluiter' (The yodling whistler). Bobbejaan had an obsession with the Far West and often dressed with a cow-boy hat and later founded a theme park with a Wild West theme giving it his name 'Bobbejaanland'. Here of course he was as expected in a suit but with his hands in his pockets immediately giving him a pretty laid back attitude. The song is indeed a happy one about a melody he hears everywhere he goes making him happy. Don't think this had a chance winning, enjoyable definitely but in the end a bit too simplistic.
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1. Luxembourg - Amours mortes aka Tant de peine - Danièle Dupré (29-30 years) starts at 7:25

Language: French - Result: 4th (tied) - Points: 8
Just like last year Luxembourg send a female French singer to represent them. As expected she went for a French chanson about a break up. I'm absolutely no fan of these type of songs unless it has some quicker pace. Also I often compare French chansons with Edith Piaff whose famous hits at least had some recognizable melody and chorus. Danièle's birth date varies from the source. The most common is that she was born in 1927 but other sources say her birth year is 1938 which is a huge difference. Looks to me 1927 is correct as she already had quite a bit of songs as a minor star and retired from the music business in 1958. She would during the show become long lasting friends with her compatriot entering for France Paule Desjardins.
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1. United Kingdom - All - Patricia Bredin (22 years) starts at 10:55

Language: English - Result: 7th - Points: 6
Patricia Bredin had the honour to be the UK's first ESC entry. She won as part of the Malcolm Lockyer Quartet the first Festival of British Popular Songs convincingly. Patricia was in the first place an actress (Malcolm Lockyer was a film composer and conductor so makes sense) but also did musicals. Presenter Anaid Iplicjian (from Armenian descent) referred to the UK as England a few times. With a duration of 1'52 this song remained the shortest in ESC history until 2015 when Finland came with a song of only 1'27. So yeah I can be pretty short about this entry too. She has a high soprano voice so even if your English is good it's just hard to understand what she is singing most of the time. It felt more like an opera song and I guess that's why it didn't do too well here. Was the disappointing result the reason UK didn't enter in 1958 and also didn't organise the Festival of British Popular Songs? However from 1959 they wouldn't miss a single ESC. Patricia's song was never recorded or released on a single.
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1. Italy - Corde della mia chitarra - Nunzio Gallo (28 years) starts at 13:35

Language: Italian - Result: 6th - Points: 7
In previous edition two young females were sent, this time a male artist got a try. Nunzio Gallo was accompanied by a guitar player who gets quite a bit of exposure with some solos (a really long one at the start). Nunzio sings a ballad which gave me much more latino/Spanish vibes than Italian. He sings a love song not for a woman but for his guitar. This theme actually reminds me of the Belgian entry of 2010 Tom Dice with "Me and my guitar". The biggest problem is the song's duration with over 5 minutes going well beyond the maximum time limit. Also its very slow pace makes it very hard to sit through. Fortunately Italy would bring a real hit in the next edition.
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1. Austria - Wohin kleines Pony - Bob Martin (34 years) starts at 19:45

Language: German - Result: 10th - Points: 3
Debut for Austria but Bob Martin wasn't the first Austrian performing in ESC. That honour goes to Freddy Quinn entering in 1956 for Germany with "So geht das jede Nacht". The song is accompanied by jazzy music. Of course a 30+ guy singing about riding his pony through the fields is a tad weird but at least he seems to be having a good time smiling a lot during his performance. It's also the only song which is (slightly) more uptempo than the other entries. A last place is rather harsh but I can understand this song perhaps didn't really fit well in the contest. After ESC he remained popular in southern Austria. His real name was Leo Heppe.
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1. Netherlands - Net als toen - Corry Brokken (24 years) starts at 23:20

Language: Dutch - Result: 1st - Points: 31
The winning song and this time even a critical one like me will find it hard to disagree. If they stuck to the rules this entry would be disqualified as it is going approximately 1 and half minute over the 3 minutes time limit. However it doesn't feel like ever lasting like Italy's due to a good pacing, great vocals and some really good music accompanying the song. Dutch conductor Dolf van der Linden was so eager to start making the orchestra start before Corry Brokken reached the microphone. Corry's previous entry was a break up song now it's again about a relationship but one that is already lasting a very long time. So yes the couple especially the man have become old (and grey) and their love has become a bit stale. But since he can still flirt (with other women I suppose) his wife wishes he would be sweet and gallant towards her, give her roses, say she is beautiful and all that jazz just like the time they first fell in love (referring to the song's title). Yes it's kinda weird given the young age of Corry and it's rather schmulzy. Also the style is a bit the same as her 1956 song "Voorgoed voorbij". However her vocals and the accompanying music really make up for that. About halfway a violin joins her on stage who also gets a solo towards the end. I'm not surprised this won quite convincingly and deservedly.
​

1. Germany - Telefon, Telefon - Margot Hielscher (37 years) starts at 28:30

Language: German - Result: 4th (tied) - Points: 8
Host Germany did the opoosite of Italy after sending 2 men in 1956, now a woman was selected. Margot Hielscher already tried her luck at the German National final in 1956 but was unsuccessful. In 1957 she won and became the first woman to represent Germany at ESC. She was the first artist to use a prop on stage. What was more applicable than a telephone since that was the instrument for many years to come for the juries of the participating countries to send their points. Margot used the phone for another purpose though, expecting a call from her lover. Between talking in several languages (mostly saying hello) she sings in a calm and soft voice. The song in itself is not that special but the phone as gimmick is cool. Her song was also too long almost like 4 minutes. Placing 4th wasn't too bad and we would see her return the next year with a more uptempo song (and another prop). For the German audience she was no unknown being active since the 1940s as both singer and actress.
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1. France - La belle amour - Paule Desjardins (34-35 years) starts at 33:40

Language: French - Result: 2nd - Points: 17
A song about love in a French café. I liked this one more than the French song from Luxembourg. It came second and I don't think that is undeserved given she has a lovely voice even though the song in itself quickly fades from my memory. Paule had moderate success with a musical career lasting until 1962. When she married she stopped singing and started working as designer for the lingerie company of her husband. Her full birth date is unknown, Spanish wiki mentioned she was born in 1922.
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1. Denmark - Skibet skal sejle i nat - Birthe Wilke (20 years) and Gustav Winckler (31 years) starts at 38:00

Language: Danish - Result: 3rd - Points: 10
Denmark made its debut bringing the ESC its first duet. They were actually the only contestants in the first Dansk Melodi Grand Prix where 6 songs were entered 2 by them as duet and 2 by each as solo artists. As native Dutch/Flemmish speaker I can clearly hear it's from the same language family (German) as mine even though I hardly understand a word of it. I like the sound of it though and while it's nice that the presenter tells us that the translation of the song is "when the ship is sailing out" looking at the man's uniform it's pretty clear he is a sailor saying goodbye to his beloved girlfriend and future wife who is also wearing a typical dress from the country. There is also some gestures like him kissing a picture of her indicating he will be thinking about her on his trip and putting a ring on her finger meaning they will marry when he comes back. Actually the sailing theme is already clear before we see the couple as the orchestra starts with the sound of a ship's horn. It's all lovey dovey and cute but it works and they sing in harmony, complementary. A top 3 placing was well deserved in my opinion. Oh yes and there was in the end an 11 second kiss which definitely shocked the audience. They were applauded anyway. Did that hamper their chances to win, nah I think the Dutch entry was just too strong.
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1. Switzerland - L'Enfant que j'étais - Lys Assia (33 years) starts at 42: 30

Language: French - Result: 8th (tied) - Points: 5
Lys Assia returned to defend the ESC crown of Switzerland. The new crown however went to the other returning performer from 1956 Corry Brokken. Interesting to note that her birthday was the 3rd of March, the same day as the the contest of 1957 took place. I can't think of any other reason why the ESC took place so early (usually it's in May). She wasn't however gifted a good end result finishing a tied 8th with Belgium. Hard to understand as I found this song about a happy childhood very sweet and more captivating than her entries from 1956. However it was also too long about 4 minutes. But vocally I found her a lot better than the French songs from Luxembourg and France. Was it perhaps too childish or too happy? Notice that the other 2 songs in the bottom 3 were Belgium and Austria both upbeat songs. However Lys would still come back for a third consecutive time in 1958 just like winner Corry Brokken. Lys would do well a year later but Corry suffered even a worse fate as title defender than Lys.
​
My top 10 was a bit harder to compile except the top 2 which stuck with me after 1 hearing. The rest is not too memorable for me.
​

1. Netherlands
2. Denmark
3. Switzerland
4. Germany
5. Austria
6. Belgium
7. France
8. Luxembourg
9. Italy
10. UK

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Deceased artists
Paule Desjardins (1962) 39-40 years (only the Spanish wiki has a year of decease)
Gustav Winckler (1979, cause: car crash) 53 years
Bob Martin (1998) 75 years
Nunzio Gallo (2008) 79 years
Bobbejaan Schoepen (2010) 85 years
Danièle Dupré (2015) 88 years, French wiki has birth year 1938 and decease in 2013 (75 years)
Corry Brokken (2016) 83 years
Margot Hielscher (2017) 97 years
Lys Assia (2018) 94 years
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Alive artists
Patricia Bredin (88 years)
Birthe Wilke (87 years)
You can check reviews also on RelivingEurovision

The second edition of ESC took place in Frankfurt, Germany. Does that mean one of the German songs won in 1956 as the usual tradition is? Well no it was Switzerland who also hosted the first edition but apparently didn't want to host another the next year. To this day rumours persist that Germany got second place probably with "Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück" from Walter Andreas Schwarz but since no ranking was released to this day we can't know for sure. Some even believe Germany won. Anyway the good thing about this contest is that this contest can be fully watched with moving images. The director of this was Michael Kehlmann, an Austrian movie director. I sinceryly hope he was better at camerawork for his movies as it was filmed rather static and with a persistence of keeping the artists heads in close-up for lengthy periods which felt rather disturbing to me. Quality wise the songs were in my opinion a lot weaker than the previous edition with most contestants playing it rather safe and with little variety.
1957 saw the introduction of a real jury system where each country had to divide 10 points over the rivaling countries. So here it was made clear you can't vote for your own country, a rule which probably was not in place in 1956 but as of 1957 it was set in stone and never changed. Don't really know if that meant that 1 country could give the full 10 points to just 1 country. I notice however that only France divided their points over 2 countries while all other countries divided their points over 3 to 6 countries. No one ended up with 0 points and every country got points from at least 2 countries. Strange system but at least better than the shady backroom voting from the previous edition, which certainly was put into question and led to protest. To this day there is still a points system and no matter the result there is always people not understanding why song X ended up so low and song Y so high. Some things never change and this adds to the fun. Apparently the points system was borrowed from UK's 'Festival of British Popular Songs' which decided on the entry representing the UK in the ESC. So a scoreboard was introduced which was adapted after each call (by a traditional phone) from one of the juries of the competing countries.
​
With the 3 countries broadcasting but not sending a song for various reasons (UK, Austria, Denmark) last year now joining the competition there was no more need for each country to send 2 songs. So 1 song per country (and this remained so for later editions) but 2 people were allowed on stage (in 1956 only solo artists on stage). So more countries involved (10 vs 7 in 1956) but less songs (10 vs 14 in 1956). Last change was a rule stipulating that songs could not exceed 3 minutes but a few countries really went over that limit by quite a margin. Maybe that rule was introduced quite late and therefore no one was disqualified for exceeding it.
​
We saw a first duet with Denmark. Italy and the Netherlands had a musician accompanying the singer. We also saw a first prop emerging (Germany) and some other costumes than the traditional tuxedo or evening gown (Denmark).
​
For those wanting more info about this edition check the wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest_1957
​
The full show can be watched here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOi13j5cO8&t=4s
​

1. Belgium - Straatdeuntje - Bobbejaan Schoepen (32 years) starts at 3:15
   Language: Dutch - Result: 8th (tied) - Points: 5
   

Just like previous edition the ESC kicked off with a song sung in Dutch however this time it comes from the Dutch/Flemmish speaking part of Belgium (Flanders). Bobbejaan Schoepen was the first Flemmish singer to try. Even though his success period was far before my time I knew that whistling was a trademark of his. He even had a song dedicated to whistling 'De jodelende fluiter' (The yodling whistler). Bobbejaan had an obsession with the Far West and often dressed with a cow-boy hat and later founded a theme park with a Wild West theme giving it his name 'Bobbejaanland'. Here of course he was as expected in a suit but with his hands in his pockets immediately giving him a pretty laid back attitude. The song is indeed a happy one about a melody he hears everywhere he goes making him happy. Don't think this had a chance winning, enjoyable definitely but in the end a bit too simplistic.
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1. Luxembourg - Amours mortes aka Tant de peine - Danièle Dupré (29-30 years) starts at 7:25
   Language: French - Result: 4th (tied) - Points: 8
   

Just like last year Luxembourg send a female French singer to represent them. As expected she went for a French chanson about a break up. I'm absolutely no fan of these type of songs unless it has some quicker pace. Also I often compare French chansons with Edith Piaff whose famous hits at least had some recognizable melody and chorus. Danièle's birth date varies from the source. The most common is that she was born in 1927 but other sources say her birth year is 1938 which is a huge difference. Looks to me 1927 is correct as she already had quite a bit of songs as a minor star and retired from the music business in 1958. She would during the show become long lasting friends with her compatriot entering for France Paule Desjardins.
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1. United Kingdom - All - Patricia Bredin (22 years) starts at 10:55
   Language: English - Result: 7th - Points: 6
   

Patricia Bredin had the honour to be the UK's first ESC entry. She won as part of the Malcolm Lockyer Quartet the first Festival of British Popular Songs convincingly. Patricia was in the first place an actress (Malcolm Lockyer was a film composer and conductor so makes sense) but also did musicals. Presenter Anaid Iplicjian (from Armenian descent) referred to the UK as England a few times. With a duration of 1'52 this song remained the shortest in ESC history until 2015 when Finland came with a song of only 1'27. So yeah I can be pretty short about this entry too. She has a high soprano voice so even if your English is good it's just hard to understand what she is singing most of the time. It felt more like an opera song and I guess that's why it didn't do too well here. Was the disappointing result the reason UK didn't enter in 1958 and also didn't organise the Festival of British Popular Songs? However from 1959 they wouldn't miss a single ESC. Patricia's song was never recorded or released on a single.
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1. Italy - Corde della mia chitarra - Nunzio Gallo (28 years) starts at 13:35
   Language: Italian - Result: 6th - Points: 7
   

In previous edition two young females were sent, this time a male artist got a try. Nunzio Gallo was accompanied by a guitar player who gets quite a bit of exposure with some solos (a really long one at the start). Nunzio sings a ballad which gave me much more latino/Spanish vibes than Italian. He sings a love song not for a woman but for his guitar. This theme actually reminds me of the Belgian entry of 2010 Tom Dice with "Me and my guitar". The biggest problem is the song's duration with over 5 minutes going well beyond the maximum time limit. Also its very slow pace makes it very hard to sit through. Fortunately Italy would bring a real hit in the next edition.
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1. Austria - Wohin kleines Pony - Bob Martin (34 years) starts at 19:45
   Language: German - Result: 10th - Points: 3
   

Debut for Austria but Bob Martin wasn't the first Austrian performing in ESC. That honour goes to Freddy Quinn entering in 1956 for Germany with "So geht das jede Nacht". The song is accompanied by jazzy music. Of course a 30+ guy singing about riding his pony through the fields is a tad weird but at least he seems to be having a good time smiling a lot during his performance. It's also the only song which is (slightly) more uptempo than the other entries. A last place is rather harsh but I can understand this song perhaps didn't really fit well in the contest. After ESC he remained popular in southern Austria. His real name was Leo Heppe.
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1. Netherlands - Net als toen - Corry Brokken (24 years) starts at 23:20
   Language: Dutch - Result: 1st - Points: 31
   

The winning song and this time even a critical one like me will find it hard to disagree. If they stuck to the rules this entry would be disqualified as it is going approximately 1 and half minute over the 3 minutes time limit. However it doesn't feel like ever lasting like Italy's due to a good pacing, great vocals and some really good music accompanying the song. Dutch conductor Dolf van der Linden was so eager to start making the orchestra start before Corry Brokken reached the microphone. Corry's previous entry was a break up song now it's again about a relationship but one that is already lasting a very long time. So yes the couple especially the man have become old (and grey) and their love has become a bit stale. But since he can still flirt (with other women I suppose) his wife wishes he would be sweet and gallant towards her, give her roses, say she is beautiful and all that jazz just like the time they first fell in love (referring to the song's title). Yes it's kinda weird given the young age of Corry and it's rather schmulzy. Also the style is a bit the same as her 1956 song "Voorgoed voorbij". However her vocals and the accompanying music really make up for that. About halfway a violin joins her on stage who also gets a solo towards the end. I'm not surprised this won quite convincingly and deservedly.
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1. Germany - Telefon, Telefon - Margot Hielscher (37 years) starts at 28:30
   Language: German - Result: 4th (tied) - Points: 8
   

Host Germany did the opoosite of Italy after sending 2 men in 1956, now a woman was selected. Margot Hielscher already tried her luck at the German National final in 1956 but was unsuccessful. In 1957 she won and became the first woman to represent Germany at ESC. She was the first artist to use a prop on stage. What was more applicable than a telephone since that was the instrument for many years to come for the juries of the participating countries to send their points. Margot used the phone for another purpose though, expecting a call from her lover. Between talking in several languages (mostly saying hello) she sings in a calm and soft voice. The song in itself is not that special but the phone as gimmick is cool. Her song was also too long almost like 4 minutes. Placing 4th wasn't too bad and we would see her return the next year with a more uptempo song (and another prop). For the German audience she was no unknown being active since the 1940s as both singer and actress.
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1. France - La belle amour - Paule Desjardins (34-35 years) starts at 33:40
   Language: French - Result: 2nd - Points: 17
   

A song about love in a French café. I liked this one more than the French song from Luxembourg. It came second and I don't think that is undeserved given she has a lovely voice even though the song in itself quickly fades from my memory. Paule had moderate success with a musical career lasting until 1962. When she married she stopped singing and started working as designer for the lingerie company of her husband. Her full birth date is unknown, Spanish wiki mentioned she was born in 1922.
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1. Denmark - Skibet skal sejle i nat - Birthe Wilke (20 years) and Gustav Winckler (31 years) starts at 38:00
   Language: Danish - Result: 3rd - Points: 10
   

Denmark made its debut bringing the ESC its first duet. They were actually the only contestants in the first Dansk Melodi Grand Prix where 6 songs were entered 2 by them as duet and 2 by each as solo artists. As native Dutch/Flemmish speaker I can clearly hear it's from the same language family (German) as mine even though I hardly understand a word of it. I like the sound of it though and while it's nice that the presenter tells us that the translation of the song is "when the ship is sailing out" looking at the man's uniform it's pretty clear he is a sailor saying goodbye to his beloved girlfriend and future wife who is also wearing a typical dress from the country. There is also some gestures like him kissing a picture of her indicating he will be thinking about her on his trip and putting a ring on her finger meaning they will marry when he comes back. Actually the sailing theme is already clear before we see the couple as the orchestra starts with the sound of a ship's horn. It's all lovey dovey and cute but it works and they sing in harmony, complementary. A top 3 placing was well deserved in my opinion. Oh yes and there was in the end an 11 second kiss which definitely shocked the audience. They were applauded anyway. Did that hamper their chances to win, nah I think the Dutch entry was just too strong.
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1. Switzerland - L'Enfant que j'étais - Lys Assia (33 years) starts at 42: 30

Language: French - Result: 8th (tied) - Points: 5
Lys Assia returned to defend the ESC crown of Switzerland. The new crown however went to the other returning performer from 1956 Corry Brokken. Interesting to note that her birthday was the 3rd of March, the same day as the the contest of 1957 took place. I can't think of any other reason why the ESC took place so early (usually it's in May). She wasn't however gifted a good end result finishing a tied 8th with Belgium. Hard to understand as I found this song about a happy childhood very sweet and more captivating than her entries from 1956. However it was also too long about 4 minutes. But vocally I found her a lot better than the French songs from Luxembourg and France. Was it perhaps too childish or too happy? Notice that the other 2 songs in the bottom 3 were Belgium and Austria both upbeat songs. However Lys would still come back for a third consecutive time in 1958 just like winner Corry Brokken. Lys would do well a year later but Corry suffered even a worse fate as title defender than Lys.
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My top 10 was a bit harder to compile except the top 2 which stuck with me after 1 hearing. The rest is not too memorable for me.
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1. Netherlands
   
2. Denmark
   
3. Switzerland
   
4. Germany
   
5. Austria
   
6. Belgium
   
7. France
   
8. Luxembourg
   
9. Italy
   
10. UK
    

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Deceased artists
Paule Desjardins (1962) 39-40 years (only the Spanish wiki has a year of decease)
Gustav Winckler (1979, cause: car crash) 53 years
Bob Martin (1998) 75 years
Nunzio Gallo (2008) 79 years
Bobbejaan Schoepen (2010) 85 years
Danièle Dupré (2015) 88 years, French wiki has birth year 1938 and decease in 2013 (75 years)
Corry Brokken (2016) 83 years
Margot Hielscher (2017) 97 years
Lys Assia (2018) 94 years
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Alive artists
Patricia Bredin (88 years)
Birthe Wilke (87 years)