GIVING 10 YEAR OLDS BEER

..was the laugh out loud highlight of my soap viewing today! (So far, anyhoo.) ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Brody is an inspired creation. It totally makes sense that he would think being a father is like hanging out with your buddy -- the game, pizza, and beer even if your buddy is actually your son and is ten! I thought Shayne saluting his Dad at the end was a cute touch that spoke volumes. Shayne loves his newly discovered Dad and Brody thinks it's a sweet deal having to be Shayne's Dad. When the truth comes out eventually, Brody might actually be upset. Good lord -- I think we have character development here!

OLTL fought with DOOL for my attention and won again, for the amazing way OLTL keeps so many balls in the air and so many stories and characters intersecting. Yet DOOL still had lots to enjoy. I could watch Ava and Nicole get drunk and cruise bartenders for a whole hour. Again, I have to wonder if Ava is sticking around. Or if the writers are just pairing her with fun characters in order to tempt Tamara Braun to stick around!

I did see the end bit of THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL today before my hour of OLTL vs. DOOL. B&B is working overtime to convince me that Rick and Taylor are a fun, convincing couple by showing their pillow talk. I would like to see a scene where Taylor does indeed take Rick to a psychiatrist's party where drunk therapists argue over who's craziest. Don't tell HBO -- they'll make a series of it ala IN TREATMENT and TELL ME YOU LOVE ME and I don't think my cable provider can handle another HBO show about therapy! To go off on a tangent, I wanted to get into both of those HBO series but IN TREATMENT required too much committment from me (HA! like therapy itself!) and TELL ME YOU LOVE ME was just torture to watch, with completely unlikable people boring me with their heterosexual crap. TMYLM should have had a gay or lesbian couple in it, just to show that not all couples are a) hetero and b) engaged in manipulative man/woman power struggles.

Getting back to the soaps, GENERAL HOSPITAL ruled my world today by largely featuring Spinelli and Maxie! I feel so protective of Spinelli. Hearing how Sonny pushed him and gave him a concussion and seeing Mac be mean to him made me want to wallop Sonny and Mac with my Retired Mom's purse. And having Sam be nice to Spinelli made me like her more! Or maybe I'm just sympathetic to Sam because she, too, is unemployed.

OMG, I'm going to say something nice about GUIDING LIGHT! I love it that Olivia told Natalia "No, I am not giving you money to find your dumbass son who shot my huisband." With no Gus or Rafe, surely Natalia's days are numbered? That must be a relief to the actress who plays her, who is actually very pretty but you'd never know it looking at her through Ellen Wheeler's camera phone. I also enjoyed seeing some Alan. His reaction to Rafe running away was so real, I actually felt sorry for Alan. Ron Raines can do anything!