With a lifelong interest in cinema including a defunct vocation as a screenwriter I had a requirement to watch the film Gone with the Wind. It was a stunning achievement of cinema and one can see why it was a blockbuster for its time. But, I also lived in the American South and I know how that region will romanticize its past. I had mixed feelings. In 2012, I finally read Gone with the Wind and I was shocked. I had to force myself to work through the book. I would pause and l

There were certain points in my education when my natural interest in science fiction veered into interest in actual science. There were even times when I toyed with the idea of a job in genetics or virology. But at all those same points I was dissuaded from pursuing my interest by fear. A fear of math, in fact. I was surprised in a conversation with a friend who makes their living as a scientist that she struggled with the physics requirement class. That’s a topic heavy in c

My partner was a little bit unintentionally dismissive when I told him how much my girlfriends and I have enjoyed watching The Crown. It was something like “Oh, you enjoy the pretty settings and costumes?” And I hadn’t considered why I enjoy watching it, but my gut apparently knew, and I snapped at him “Do you have any idea how fantastic it is to watch a twenty-year-old girl face down a room of her nation’s most powerful men and they have to listen to her?” No, I don’t think

My eldest has some atypical brain things that make her hilarious and challenging. She’s probably going to be like a friend of mine who failed most classes in high school but then got a perfect score on the SATs. One of her less charming issues is sensory processing. Stuff that most kids can shrug off will make her freak out. Like, instead of removing the tag from the shirt that is bugging her she will become enraged and throw a tantrum about her discomfort. With time and trai

The Force Awakens is a touchstone cultural moment that’s sparked plenty of discussion and it’s no surprise that one of the topics would be the way the public is criticizing Carrie Fischer’s appearance. It’s thirty years after the forced slavery of the gold bikini and apparently we’re supposed to be upset that the public is upset that Princess Leia looks old in the new Star Wars. My feminists friends have defended her and say she looks great and Carrie Fischer herself has said

I grew up in a talented family that holds the idea that talent runs in a family as a form of destiny. My grandfather, Roger, was a cold person. He didn’t like children and as a mechanical engineer he wasn’t expected to be good with people. Here is a pretty typical photo of us. You can see he barely tolerates children. Edited on October 2015 to add this photo because tell us how you really feel about children, Roger. My grandmother, his wife, adored me. And as a result Roger a

Preface: I had a great time. I’m a movie fiend and Trekkie of long standing and this reboot is joyous good fun. I’m sharing these random thoughts because I imagine a lot of you enjoy these movies, too. Let’s coffee klatsch together. [As an aside, I need someone to make an app that is simply an accurate hum of USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). That is my jam. That would be the white noise generator I use in heaven. It’s like an auditory Xanax. Someone please get that for me, okay?