"The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence…
As unfun as real piracy is, especially for struggling authors, I do enjoy our town's annual pirate festival in the summer and the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies. My family concluded our summer movie nights with one of my favorite movies, Stardust, which features lightning pirates - a…
A creative mind must be balanced by a disciplined body. Splinter Over five years ago, my sons enrolled in kenpo karate. Even though I've wanted to learn a martial art ever since the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, an interest reinforced by Sonya Blade and later Buffy, it never…
“A witch ought never to be frightened in the darkest forest, Granny Weatherwax had once told her, because she should be sure in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.” Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett Girls hear early and often the dangers of leaving home alone.…
If your adolescence was anything like mine, Saturdays were all about the orange couch. I'm talking SNICK - Nickelodeon's primetime line-up geared at then-preteens (now tweens) and teens. It opened with Clarissa Explains It All. She was funny and dressed in crazy outfits like Stacy and Claudia in The Babysitter's…
Last month, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl - as preordained by Soros, according to anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists anyway. And for all the complaints about excessive NFL coverage of Taylor Swift, her critics made sure she remained in headlines by accusing her of Satanism. And here I thought…
This is another one of those ridiculous pop culture controversies (see last year's faux-outrage over Barbie) that I feel almost embarrassed to discuss, but choose to because it still fits into a larger narrative. If you somehow missed it, comedian Jo Koy was asked to host the Golden Globes on…
If you've seen my annual wrap ups before, you know I'm often playing catch up. Case in point, Nope (2022), Jordan Peele's brilliant homage to blockbuster creature features that holds up a mirror to society - it's no coincidence a character dubs aliens 'Viewers'. Nope has more in common with…
When people aren't complaining about kids being 'groomed' by 'woke' teachers, they complain about 'woke' kids critiquing movies that glorified substance abuse and non consensual sex. I guess the latest definition of 'woke' means being less susceptible to actual grooming or rape. A lot of those movies bothered me back then, too, and people got mad despite their own criticisms of Hollywood. Maybe they make exceptions for their own failings. "Different times". Spare me. The pain and consequences are the same throughout history. When adults mock children for respecting boundaries and consent and demanding the same in return...well, it's once again clear the 'war on woke' has nothing to do with protecting children.
A son who enjoyed the movie raised his eyebrows and said "wut?" when I asked if it hurt his feelings. Amazingly the thirteen year old boy who loves rats, Fortnite, and the color pink did not identify with any of the characters, least of all the dolls, but understood the social commentary because he's confident and perceptive. Seems to me people feigning offense on behalf of men should give them more credit because the real offense is pretending this gentle hug of a movie attacks them. Kenough already.