My Current Interest

It’s funny how a movie from 1960 set in the 1920s can so resemble today. The fight for the freedom to think and learn remains strong. With it, we are fighting people who believe their own religious beliefs are the right beliefs and should supersede all others. It is a war being waged on so many levels, topics, and rights today. Which leads me to asking, as some feel they should be allowed to ban books, hinder reproductive rights, and stop marriage rights because of their own personal religious beliefs, do we really want to go back to the same thoughts and mentalities from one hundred years ago? Inherit the Wind Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Dick York, Donna Anderson Cates is arrested for his beliefs Bertram T. Cates (Dick York) has been arrested. He was not only arrested, but an entire production was made of it. Led by Reverend Jeremiah Brown (Claude Akins), a group of townsmen arrived in Cates’s classroom with a photojournalist. They interrupted his lesson, planted the camera ...

Sometimes a book is incredibly timely. Just as Roe vs. Wade was being outrageously overturned, I was reading A Perfect Equation , the second book in the Secret Scientists of London series by Elizabeth Everett. As women’s reproductive rights were being sent back decades, if not centuries, I was reading about men protesting in the streets. What were they protesting about? How women were meant to be in the home taking care of their men and children. And doing nothing else. Does this sound like a mindset this country is falling back to? It certainly does to me. Interestingly, this book is set in the year 1843. So, in essence, we are moving back to the mentality of a time when a car would not be seen for the first time until decades later. Is that a time we really want to go back to? A Perfect Equation Secret Scientists of London Book 2 Elizabeth Everett Letty faces a double standard Letitia “Letty” Fenley has been disgraced. She had sex with a man without being married. Now she has been b...

I almost stopped reading I Was Better Last Night part way through. It was getting too heavy for me, which makes me sound like I have watched far too much Back to the Future . Although, I probably have. I watch a lot of Back to the Future . After deciding I was going to stop reading, I looked at the index to see if there was any topic I still wanted to read about before I returned the book to the library . What I found was “AIDS Memorial Quilt.” A quilter myself, I was curious how the author, Harvey Fierstein, was connected to the quilt. As I tried to find the page about the quilt, I came across the stage musical Kinky Boots . I wanted to see this show in its Chicago previews (having loved the movie ) but did not get the chance. Even with this Kinky Boots memory, I kept moving to the page about the quilt. What I discovered when I found the page was the fact Mr. Fierstein himself is a quilter. Between that and Kinky Boots , I decided I had to continue with the book. I Was Better L...

How Women Won the Vote Susan Campbell Bartoletti We are in a terrifying time. A time where governments through the United States are taking away rights, and are being backed by the courts. Rights for women.  Rights for LGBTQ+. Rights for voting, seemingly* directed at hindering the right to vote for anyone whose race is other than white.  (*Note: I write “seemingly” only because I have yet to see one of these new voting laws specifically mention race. However, based on what I have read and observed, I have come to this conclusion as to who these new voting laws are targeted against.)  They are doing this simply because they can. Each one knows the right they are removing will never affect them. And if by chance one day it does, they have the means and the power to get around the laws they themselves have put into place. These events are why everyone needs to read How Women Won the Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It is a remi...

     I wasn’t sure if I was going to write about the fourth season of The Crown or not. It is a hard season to watch. There is a lot of bad behavior on all sides, making it difficult to declare anyone a villain. It definitely keeps me from declaring anyone a saint. Mostly, with each character, there is a lot of pain.        Tugs of the Heart Artwork by Kate Dorsey      The season starts with Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) struggling to deal with the fact the woman he loves is with another man. Married to him, thanks to great-uncle Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance). Mountbatten did not believe Camilla Shand (Emerald Fennell) was suitable for Charles. It was he who made sure Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles ( Andrew Buchan ); keeping Charles from doing so himself.      Eventually Charles has enough. He tells Mountbatten how he feels about the situation. In one of Mountbatten’s last acts before his death, he writes a l...

Grantchester Tom Brittney Photo of DVD cover taken by Kate Dorsey      Talk about a sad, angering season. That is what season six of Grantchester is.      This doesn’t mean the entire season is bad. If it was, I wouldn’t be writing about it!      I also wouldn’t be saying how happy I am Grantchester has moved from six episodes to eight. No matter how sad some of the storylines were this season, I am happy about that.      Curate Leonard Finch (Al Weaver) is the main reason why this season is so sad and angering. His storyline is what makes this season difficult to watch a lot of times. All Leonard wants to do is be a curate and be with the man he loves. And yet, because of one nasty, mean, jealous person, all that is put at risk.      It all starts with a vacation. Reverend William Davenport (Tom Brittney); DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green) and family; vicarage housekeeper Mrs. Chapman (Tessa Peake-Jone...

     It took me quite a while to watch On the Basis of Sex .  First for superstitious reasons.  Then because I thought it was going to be a dreary film, and I was not up for dreary.  Finally, I just sat down and watched it.  Not only was it not dreary, but I found this film to be another important film to watch.      Mrs. Ruth Ginsburg ( Felicity Jones ) is in law school.   Harvard law school, to be exact.   A school where Ruth is one of the very few women who have been allowed to enroll.   The dean, Erwin Griswold ( Sam Waterston ), makes it very clear he thinks little of the women who have enrolled.   He believes their spots in the school should have gone to men.   The professors are not far behind with these beliefs.      Still, Ruth pursues her law degree.   She also purses the degree of her husband, Martin (Armie Hammer), when he is diagnosed with cancer.   During this time, Ruth...