Hook-hand Man is secretly one of the best part of the season.

This opening episode reminded me so much of Pushing Daisies that I'm excited to keep going.

My great aunt had the best meatloaf. She claimed she got it from a church cookbook and then altered it as she saw fit. I asked her for the recipe and she sent me the unaltered, original recipe and wouldn't tell me what she changed. So, everyone once in a while I try to make meatloaf in different ways to recapture the…

Linda: You know, Tina *small pause* something like this happened to me when I was younger.
Tina: really?!
Linda: No, nothing like this has ever happened to anyone.

I like how whenever Tina spends an extended amount of time with Jimmy Jr. it's hinted that the two aren't actually compatible on Tina's side either. She questions what he does and says, but then immediately backs away from her own doubts. It's a nice authentic part of a school crush.

Drew Barrymore is one of the few famous people for whom I wish success and happiness unconditionally. She could rob a bank tomorrow and I'd just be like "I hope she's found a good getaway driver!"

She is frequently my favorite part of Black-ish.

Did:
Music bingo on Friday night. Our team won all the gift cards.

I think of it as a commentary on slavery. Specifically, why slaves didn't run away more when they had the chance. The answer is that it takes so much to question something you're born into even if you know it's wrong. So, they cling to hope and the smallest, faintest chance of escaping their fate.

Definitely read the book! There's more detail. What they didn't mention in the film is that Dorothy Vaughn, who learned FORTRAN, was 50 when she completely learned a new skill to save her job. The ability of all the women involved to assess their situation, survive, thrive, and anticipate the change is astounding.

I liked the film but I think what made it work for me were specifically Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. The songs were decent (with the exception of the audition song which was great), the dancing was fine, but what I really enjoyed was pretty simply Stone and Gosling interacting.

I loved La La Land but even I got a little weirded out by how they were making it seem like Hollywood's never made a musical before.

You can't convince me that any moment in The Night Manager was better than Jared Harris' Christmas caroling scene in The Crown.

That's a good idea! Original Screenplay is where the innovative scripts get recognition. It's always my favorite category.

I've been working through the Oscar Best Picture nominees list for a few years now on and off (took a major break two years ago and just got back to it at the end of last year) and I want to finish watching all the nominees in at least five of the years (i.e. all 5 BP nominees from 1985, all 10 from 1939, etc).

Yeah, two years ago I tried the "movie a day" challenge. I made it to the end of February but then sort of stopped watching movies at all for the rest of the year. It made me hate movies, one of the few things I love in this world.

Kinky Boots or GTFO!

So in the forward to the book Hidden Figures the author, who is the daughter of a black NASA scientist, said she grew up surrounded by so many black scientists and black female scientists she just assumed science was a "black job." That alone made me want everything about this project to succeed.

The book is good and worth a read!

The book is worth a read. Not only do you seen the impact these women made on government work, WWII, and NASA (the book starts in the 1940s, when most of the women who stayed through the Space Race joined up as part of the War Effort), it explores the general history of black women in STEM at the time.