You may want to note that this one piece was part of a WEEK devoted to Love Actually at The Hairpin, much of which was positive. Feminists are not the Borg and often have different opinions.

It was also what I spent almost every single episode wishing SOMEONE would do. Poor Will, all alone with his melting brain, without even a gesture of human compassion to ground him. Only the dogs, who are bad at hugs.

There was something about the fact that this was LIVE! that made a whole bunch of people start treating Carrie Underwood like their niece doing a community theater production. I get defending her against cruelty, but I made a comment on Twitter about how her performance made me realize exactly how effortless Julie…

The Sound of Music was the movie I watched every time I had to stay home sick from school. (My little sister was afraid of it, so I couldn't watch when she was around.) I love it for reasons that may not have to do with its actual virtues, but I maintain that it's charming and delightful.

With an execrable American accent.

He's actually done a lot of work since. But not nearly as much - or as high-profile - as he deserves.

Everything in Hannibal is shot so beautifully that it never makes me want to vomit, but I am also very, very, VERY careful to never eat while watching!

I'd disagree: it's much harder to watch videos at work.

I'm doing a work-related reading version instead, and since there's no handy little bar for me to fill up, I've got a calendar with stickers for whatever I achieve. Trying to get a sticker on every date is actually a pretty great incentive, plus it helps me tabulate my achievements for when I start to flag.

It is the CREEPIEST THING when creators respond to you when clearly the only way they found your comment was trawling the depths of Twitter. I know it's a public forum, but we also have the right to respond to art without inviting the creator into the discussion. An author once did that to me - the conversation I was…

Most current high schoolers were 3 or 4 on 9/11. I'm not surprised they don't remember it or that they don't think of it as life-changing: almost every single one of their memories has been in the "post-9/11 world." This is just the way the world is, to them.

I was laughing so hard at that one, I had to pause the show and walk away to calm myself.

"Is there a law?" was the line that sold me on this show. Mison is fantastic: complete sincerity, yet completely hilarious.

Calling it "winning" perfectly encapsulates this. The goal of producing a decent first draft of a novel isn't enough of an achievement; no, we need to frame it as a competition with a completely meaningless prize at the end. "I wrote 50,000 words in a month!" is actually much less notable than "I wrote a novel!"

The only noises I hear are the clomping/dropping/dragging variety, because apparently my upstairs neighbors move furniture* at 2AM.

Addendum: I feel the same way about women, and people of color, and LGBTQ people, and anyone who is not the straight, white, adult man whom 90% of our stories are about. I want them (us) to see themselves, not just have to grasp at the crumbs of other people's stories.

Well, considering nearly every one of Dahl's books has a child as the central character, I am both a huge fan and unclear about why you're asking. Silverstein? Love his poetry and think it taps perfectly into children's absurdist worldview; think THE GIVING TREE is sentimental crap that only makes sense from a…

I'm going to quote myself here: "Plenty of kids will adore movies that weren't made for them."

I disagree that "kids will like anything" is a valid reason for not making media specifically for them. It's certainly a reason to expose them to as much stuff - books, movies, etc - as possible! As you say, plenty of kids will adore movies that weren't made for them. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't also tell…

And here's where *I* get hatemail for saying that it frustrates me how Pixar movies are nominally for children but tell adult stories. The Incredibles is a children's movie about a midlife crisis: how does this make sense? I'm all for making children's and/or family movies accessible to and enjoyable for the adults…