Well, in Ep #212 Barn did tell Josette that whatever power she might have had was gone.

I didn't remember that at all, so I checked the Robservations and sure enough it was there, and I do remember it...but I don't think it meant that Josette no longer had any power.  It strikes me as a speech of a defiance rather than a statement of fact.  Also, I get the impression that during that episode, the story was that Josette was already a ghost when Barnabas became a vampire, and that in fact he had never known her personally - although I think it unlikely that that's what the writers meant.

And seemingly since that point in the series the only time we ever see Josette's ghost is when Barnabas is in some sort of trouble.

If I remember correctly, Josette didn't become a one-trick ghost until after Vicky's jaunt to 1795.

These days I'm arriving at a Zen-like acceptance and embracing of the all the inconsistencies in Dark Shadows.  Nirvana is very, very close.

Look, Barnabas - there, up in the sky - what IS it?! OH, NO - IT'S A VELVEETA BOX!!!!"

The side of Julia's head makes a triangle.  Her chin and the bottom of her hair in back are the angles at the base, and the sides rise to a peak at the top of her head.  Sort of weird-looking.

I had forgotten what fun Julia is in these episodes, lying and smiling for all she's worth.  For all the complaints that Dave Woodard made, he let Julia and Maggie stay overnight at his house on no notice whatsoever.  I suppose Maggie was in no condition to make the hundred-mile car trip back to Windcliff.  Even today she was still suffering the effects of the visit to the cemetery.  When she entered it yesterday, she seemed pretty with-it, but now she is reduced to: "Doll talk?"  Kathryn Leigh Scott did it very naturally: nothing seemed forced.

When Burke and Elizabeth aren't around to challenge her, Vicky's willing to admit that she may be a bit too interested in the Past.  She really needs to find herself a new boyfriend.

Great scene between Dr. Woodard and Dr. Hoffman.  No wonder there were so many scenes later on with them arguing; the writers knew a good pair when they saw one.  But Julia is indeed a daredevil, as lori54 said about yesterday's episode, or she wouldn't have left Windcliff with Maggie so soon after Woodard left.  I imagine Dave as being a slow, careful driver, the sort you'd never want to get behind in a no-passing zone, and I imagine Julia as being well-known to various cops on the road.  And Maggie being in the state she is, it would be hard to get her to duck her head as Julia passed Dave.

If I were Vicky, I'd dump Burke at this point.  He's entitled to his opinion, but he's being unforgivably stupid in his expression of it.  There are other ways to bring someone down to earth than, "You're acting irrationally."

Just what does Maggie remember, at this point, of her life before her kidnapping?  Julia asks her if she's familiar with the name Collins, and she says no.  She's lived all her life in Collinsport, I believe, and she knows all the gossip about the Collins family.  So...that's gone?  And I can't help being surprised that she doesn't recognize Eagle Hill Cemetery.  When I was a kid (and it probably still happens in the town where I grew up), there was an annual Memorial Day parade, and it went to the various old cemeteries in town and....well, I don't know; I didn't pay attention to what was done at the graves of the veterans.  But Maggie has to be familiar with Eagle Hill Cemetery, even if she never played in it after dark.  When she was first found on the the beach, she regressed to childhood, and in that state she would surely remember some things that she can't remember now.  So what's going on?

No character was the glue, because the glue was Collinwood.  The house, not the estate.

At one point during the costume party, Burke simply could not bring himself to face the Collins family after Vicki blurted out that Burke had the cutest little tattoo of Porky Pig on his rear end.

I'd love to get you started, Magnus.  I'm sure it would be interesting and instructive, and I'd try really, really hard not to giggle.

Back to the subject of the party...I still say that, despite the problems, it had huge potential, if only the participants could get into the spirit of role-playing.  Here's what they know - or think they know - about their characters:

Joshua: filthy rich.
Naomi: snagged herself a filthy rich husband.
Millicent: never managed to snag herself a husband, filthy rich or otherwise.
Jeremiah: built a house in the wilds of Maine that was big enough to accommodate practically the entire population of Maine at the time.
Josette: French and suicidal.
Barnabas: Washed his hands of his family and put an ocean between him and them.  Clearly the smartest of the lot.

Throw in a few gallons of claret cup, and they should have had a roaring good time.  But instead, they had a s©ance.  Golly, what a bunch of losers.

It is the first DS event he has attended since 1993 so be gentle with him, lol.

I remember seeing Michelangelo's Pieta at the New York World's Fair in 1965.  We stood on a conveyor belt and were moved past the statue, which seemed quite far away from my 10-year-old self.  Perhaps that's how Mr. Frid should be viewed this August.  I'm sure somebody could dig up a dead doxy for him to hold.

Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out how in the world I'm going to be able to get to the Fest, because if perchance Frid does a reading, I definitely want to be there for it.