I had cause to explore the descendants of Queen Victoria last year for school. There are all sorts of sordid family details in royalty that are just fantastic. Or sad. Or sad and absurd (see Alastair Windsor, Second Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, who died of hypothermia in Ottawa, Ontario, after drunkenly falling…

It is absolutely possible, nay, ideal, to have empathy for the weak, whilst still recognizing their weakness. Empathy, by definition, requires that we understand the weakness of our fellows.

Oh my God, yes! Stockard Channing for the win.

Anyone else remember when pop stars sold music by making good records rather than soap operas and instagram feuds?

I just spent all morning watching that. WORTH IT. 

Awwww, I miss Movies of the Week. Life before you could watch content on a chip imbedded in your forearm.

So this is where Dave from 2001 ended up? 

Ha, I appreciate you.

Although, you’re right about the Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility. Alan Rickman is so wonderful in it.

The importance of Maggie Smith here can’t be overstated. Cousin Charlotte, in the hands of anyone else, may have been just insufferably dour. But the chemistry of Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham Carter’s eye rolling lifts this film above the rest of the very genre revival it spawned.

DC Doesn’t Know What to Do With Cyborg

I weep for the death of civil discourse. We live in a very toxic time. Unless social media companies do something, the government is going to start regulating social media. It’s been proven that people are too dumb to handle unfiltered social media. Something’s gotta give.

I once told a cashier to wait on a bag of apples until I knew I wasn’t going to go over my budget and without a word, he passed the apples to the bagger without scanning them and said “I doubt you’ll be over. We can work it out if you are.” Cashiers don’t make much money (I was one and probably will be one again) and…

Hahaha this sounds like every dude in Victoria.

I’ve never sprung for an entire grocery order, but I like to buy a grocery store gift card and leave it with the cashier to give to the next person in line. One cashier really gets into it and waits until she spots someone she thinks could use a happy little surprise, or looks like they need the help, or whatever. She…

Macaulay Culkin very successfully uses “Yoinks” in that story. Swoon.

Am man hater, can confirm. It’s never cost me so much as a penny. And almost daily, I get some sort of confirmation that my avoidance of men is the correct choice. Like today at my job, when a man chose to make up an easily disprovable lie about me and my work rather than spend 4 seconds proofreading 2 order lines.…

Just a reminder; Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, felt so bad about the fact that his book (but mainly the movie) played such a large role in the subsequent animus towards sharks and the subsequent hunting/killing of them, that he devoted the rest of his life in philanthropic efforts to save them

Full credit to Pam though, that’s some next-level friendzoning right there:

Not having discrete objective criteria for definitions of “planets” vs. “stars” (or “planets” vs. “dwarf planets”) isn’t helping the scientific community avoid becoming a laughingstock... I mean we look to scientists for an answer, and we get “Well, uh... It’s bigger than a planet, but it’s not a star, so... *SHRUG*”