Hail the hated hero

If Kevin Fisher is your friend, you might as well stop worrying about any existing enemies. Even when he tries to do a good deed, it manages to backfire on the very one he's hoping to help.

If Kevin Fisher is your friend, you might as well stop worrying about any existing enemies. Because even when he tries to do a good deed, it manages to backfire on the very one he's hoping to help. Two cases in point. His attempted defense of Daniel and Gloria. Unbeknownst to Kevin, and obviously against his wife's wishes, Neil seemed on the verge of inking his stamp of approval on Daniel and Lily's budding little love life. Until Kevin, hoping to convince Neil of Daniel's alleged goodness, despite his tenuous tie to himself, raised the prickly hairs of suspicion along Neil's spine. Now, thanks to Kevin's un-asked for aid, there's about as much chance of Daniel being granted parental approval as below zero days occurring in the hot place. Kevin can be quite the greedy glutton for punishment. How many times must a mutt be kicked uncaringly aside before he quits jumping on your leg hoping you'll drop a doggie treat in his panting mouth?

Kevin's second attempt at a good deed, to somehow force John to look right past the outlandish omissions and fanciful fabrications and see only the good in Gloria also met with dismal defeat. Licking and smacking her interfering lips at the taste of total satisfaction it gave her, Ashley summoned hospital security and had Kevin hauled away like a sack of smelly garbage inadvertently left in her father's room. Due to my already ground level opinion of Ashley's annoying backside, I was unsurprised by her actions. As for John, I would normally have something scathing to share about his ungrateful attitude toward Kevin as well, but I'm guessing it will make for a much more touching scene much later once John has met the underlying reason for Kevin's many dysfunctional actions.

Speaking of dysfunctional and devious adults, I continue to find the Abbott squatter siblings tiresome and hypocritical. Ashley sounds like a broken record that was never that good to begin with as she runs round and round in the same warped groove, endlessly repeating herself about Gloria's believed ambition to slice off a sliver of the little that will be left of the Abbott fortune once John's leeching children have run through most of it. I notice Ashley is quite quick to point her tight-fisted finger at Gloria for her lies, yet no matter how close I place my ear to the screen, I still fail to hear Ashley whispering the truth about Abby to her doting Daddy. Oh that's right, in reality, he's not her doting daddy, is he? Just the man who has always paid the bills. When it comes to scheming, stealing and scandalous conduct, Ashley takes the blue ribbon for Deceit and Dishonor with ease, with no one else even a breathing down her neck second.

Though he can't hold a candle to his unlikable sister, I confess I'm not too impressed with Jack either, although I do give him a couple of credits for attempting to deflect his witchy sister's wrath when she spitefully twisted the knife she keeps anchored in Gloria's back. Not that the unhappy harpy will pay him any heed. For Ashley, it apparently wasn't painful enough for Gloria to hear from her horse's mouth that John had no desire to see her, the itch with a B made sure the nurses would do what she might not be around to do should Gloria attempt to ignore her visiting restrictions. Too bad someone didn't ban her from Victor's semen sample. Controlling old cow. But back to why Jack's on my list of unlikables. How hypocritical of him to look down his snout at step-brother, Michael. Not so long ago, Michael was the be-all and end all of everything when Jack sought to use him for his own diabolical ends.

By the way, where was all that superiority and arrogance so clearly in abundance when Ashley wanted Michael to jump on her bandwagon in order to run roughshod over Gloria? Now he's suddenly holding the lowest link of the food chain? What a noxious nag she is, always to be counted on to go the extra ugly mile. She had the gall to tell Brad to tone down his rightful irritation with the man who stabbed him in the back. But like Jack, she had nothing but good things to say when he was dumping thirty five million of his mostly marital-gained dollars in Jabot's leaky coffers. How quickly the Abbott backs are turned toward people they have no further use for.

Okay, enough about Ashcan and Jackrabbit's prolific personality imperfections. Let's talk business. It's a darn good thing CI runs itself on well-oiled executorial wheels. Because Jack is certainly not in danger of breaking any of his manicured nails to steer the luxury liner. He's much too busy micro-managing matters at still-limping tugboat, Jabot. When it came to the CEO position at Jabot, I guess Victoria should have struck while the iron was steaming hot. Jack wanted Victoria so much he jetted to Italy without so much as a by-your-leave to Kay or his family. Now he's acting like a reluctant lover whose maiden is suddenly coming on too strong. Believing his first choice was out of reach, he weighed his remaining options and chose Jill as the one he felt would be the lesser of two evils. And the most malleable. But perhaps he should have paid closer attention when John was choking down the wormy, rotten divorce settlement fruit resulting from entangling himself with Jill. I can tolerate Jill most of the time, though she can be annoyingly insufferable and has a tendency to stick her nose so far in the air she'd be in mortal danger of drowning in a sudden spring sprinkle. So much so that I often take as much pleasure in watching her lose as win. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that this time I may have to settle for trying to find a tiny jot of joy in seeing her win.

And for that, I guess I'll probably have to have my dubious thank-yous delivered to Kay's mailbox. Although Kay wasn't inclined to listen to Victor when it came to convincing her to reconsider her decision to make Jack CI CEO, she just may give in to his heartfelt pleas when it comes to keeping his daughter out of Jabot. Kay makes a grand show of pretending to have little love for her daughter, but perhaps after hearing Victor wax poetic about the perceived perfection of families working, as well as occasionally playing nicely together, she might think she'd like to have love like that in her own fractured family. So, as we've trotted back and forth over the grounds of which company Victoria will wind up working for, it now appears as if it will come full circle and eventually begin as it ended a year or so ago. With Victoria and Nick infighting at Newman. I'll just be glad when there's a decision made once and for all, because I'm getting weary of a weekly rethink of my opinion of what I think will happen. At first I was certain Victoria would be Jabot's CEO, then I wasn't, then I was, and now I'm not all over again.

I agree with Nikki that Victor should have kept his nose out of Newman things. Since he's not prepared to can his always complaining son to free up the top spot for his daughter, he really should have let Victoria make her own employment disasters, I mean, decisions. But then he wouldn't be the controlling Victor so many of us love and/or hate or both. Even though it will sorely irk the whimpering whiner (although somehow I doubt it will anger him to the point of resignation), Victor will probably do whatever he has to, short of firing his selfish son, to force him to make room for his sister. With both Brad and Victoria standing in first and second place in the unemployment line, perhaps father and son can come up with something the two of them can work on that won't trigger Nick's irrational insecurities.

Disdainfully speaking of Nick, I wish someone would stuff a gym sock in his always bitterly twisted mouth. Because in my opinion, the family unconscious cretin has little to complain about. Despite his inexperience and belligerent, disrespectful attitude toward Daddy, Pa still shoved Nick's loyal sister aside to hand the reins to his back-stabbing boy. And he immediately showed his true nature by proving turning on a family member had nothing to do with whether or not they broke any written or unwritten law, and everything to do with there being no room in the Newman building for any ego but his own inflated one. Will I ever receive my most fervent wish and see this imbecile cut down to his rightful ankle-high size?

Dru's idea for a scent for all seasons seems to be a good one, especially if you ignore the fact that it usually takes a substantial amount of time to develop and test new fragrances. Its success should be enough to cement her in position for some time to come.

In the teen world, Mac continues to make obvious plays for J.T.'s affection, barraging him with constant compliments and pinning him with adoring looks that were barely acceptable when telegraphed by young Colleen, but look downright ridiculous coming from Mac, though for all intents and purposes they are both allegedly untouched virgins. The problem is CC played the innocent act well and believably. Whereas with Mac, if we didn't know it to be so, we'd never buy that she was untouched by carnality. Though the scribes seem to be attempting to force uneaten J.T. and Mac chunks down our throats, it's not working for me because I still see no heat nor smell any smoke between them. But tell me fans, is that just me, or do some of you out there see what I don't? I'd love to know what you think of these two.

On the other side of the three headed creature consisting of Mac, J.T., and Kevin, the latter is once again beating his hard, stubborn head against the proverbial brick wall in hot and hopeful pursuit of a woman who isn't interested in letting him borrow the key to her heart. The gleam in Lauren's eyes was only for Paul and then Michael, and Mac can't even see Kevin because of the J.T. stars filling her eyes. By the way, although it clearly came a little too close to the truth for Mac's comfort, I loved Kevin's comment that Mac might be interested only in men who didn't appreciate her. J.T., whose interest in Mac seemed near nonexistent until both Colleen and Brittany had fallen out of the picture frame, certainly fits squarely in that category. Of course, Mac's J.T. worship might be coming to an abrupt end after the latest viewing of J.T.'s continued consorting with Robin-One-Night-Hoping-for-Another-Stand. But that doesn't mean Mac will transfer her interest to Kevin instead. For Kevin's sake, I hope his mental health doesn't hinge on him and Mac becoming a cute and cooing couple.

Cassie made it clear she's only been pretending to be a dutiful, respectful daughter. With Daniel frustrated at being kept from Lily and Cassie chafing at the wanna be a woman bit while stuck in a young girl's still forming body, disaster is surely looming on the horizon. And I'd bet any fan's dollar that it will all have something to do with that big party Cassie is determined to attend. Since Cassie and Daniel live at the same way out of town ranch address, does anyone see drinking and driving in someone's future? Just a wild guess. But only time will tell if I'm warm or so far off the mark, my teeth are chattering in the frigid temperature.

Finally, the moment so many of us have been waiting for is dangerously near at hand. Looks like the coming week will teach us more than we ever could have imagined about the terrors of growing up with Tom Fisher. It could turn out that Kevin won't wind up being the only Fisher/Baldwin with a little heroics in his blood. Rumor has it that old Terrible is going to entangle himself with an Abbott. Raise your hand if you think Ashley will be the target centered in his amorous sights. Though I thoroughly despise the Annoying One, even I wouldn't wish Tom the Terrible on her.

So many different directions our favorite show can branch off into. Just like Spring, things should be heating up. And me and my VCR don't plan to miss one hot moment.

Okay, I've done what I came to do. Fans, the screen is now yours. Have at it!

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SANDI - These days the CEO of Newman Enterprises doesn't even dress up with a dress shirt and necktie. Even Jackie dresses properly, like a CEO! Victor always dressed in business suits and attire. Just my observation. Does anyone on Y&R conduct business in the office? It is either in the Coffee House, someone's home, the Athletic Club or on the telephone. I thought Michael Baldwin was asked by Victor to 'keep an eye on things' for him at Newman and report back to him. Then why did he NOT when he went to the Abbott's house to talk to Jack and saw Victoria there. It sure was a red flag for me. Now Victor finds out on his own and goes directly to Phyllis' big mouth. What will she do?

PHYLLIS - Am I mistaken, or perhaps I missed your daily comments, but when John fell down the stairs, I saw the knife go into his ribs on the right side. Come Monday, no knife in the chest and he's bleeding from his leg. Am I the only one who caught that? Do the writers think we are stupid? Correct me if I'm wrong.

MARY - As for your question about how Gloria found out. I think Jill told her. Jill and Jack were at the Athletic Club when Gloria was there. And Jack got the call about John's accident. Gloria and Jill did talk prior to that and seem to get along. They both talked about the fact that they came from similar backgroundd and str outsiders. They proably are not real closed. But I think Jill told her. I might add that I agree with you about the new actress who is playing MacKenzie. She seems completely different. I liked Ashley Bashioum better. This MacKenzie seems more flirty and has less depth. Y&R scribes made a big deal about bringing Ashley back and now she is gone again. This nuMac is going to take some getting used to. Maybe she will do better with time and put her own spin on the character. But it will be like getting to know this character all over again.