Are you the only person in the office today? Because even if so, you are trying way too hard.

Please read this account of a visit to Nottoway Plantation long before the event was announced. This is not a slave museum; it is a luxury resort rented out for weddings and fancy events. There is no honest reckoning of history there, and it certainly wasn't going to happen at this event when Difranco claims she…

Helena Bonham Carter had a career long before she met Tim Burton. In fact, I would argue working with him has come close to ruining her reputation. A Room with a View, Lady Jane, Fight Club, Hamlet, Howard's End, and her first Oscar nod for The Wings of the Dove all happened pre-Burton, and her second was for The…

I've been loving him since Lair of the White Worm, and he's just gotten hotter. And that brogue. I want to wrap myself in a blanket of him, Tennant and Ken Stott talking to each other with their natural accents.

This is a wondrous list. Donald Sutherland can stay over and share some Simply Orange in the morning with me anytime. Christopher Plummer, Alan Rickman...Also, please see Patrick Stewart on Cat Greenleaf' s new USA show, sitting on her stoop in some very trim, well-tailored jeans. Be still my beating heart.

I despised the whitewashing of Khan, but Ricardo Montalban was hardly a Northern Indian Sikh either. Having Khan played by a person of color was significant, but all brown people are not interchangeable. Regardless, I certainly don't expect any actor to be selfless enough to turn down a role because it should be…

I may possibly be the only black person in the world who is a huge Steeleye Span fan. I am ok with this.

As I stated, people are free to self-identify as they choose. I'm just pushing back against the idea that the term "African American" is an arbitrary and context-free choice that's inaccurate or meant to be divisive. That is ahistorical and disrespectful to those who advocated the term (first Afro American, then…

At least O'Dowd called it out for the crap it was.

I'm sorry, I have to leave work now. I can't see my screen anymore because of tears of laughter. I just kept expanding on 12 Years in Oz in my head, and now I can't stop.

I amended my statement to note I wasn't referring to you; I understand and agree with your point. It just ties in to a larger point about the misuse of that term, because people have no idea what it means. And it's not as if the term were just coined, so to be that ignorant of who it refers to has to contain some…

I am so tired of this. It's not that difficult a concept. People who are the descendants of slaves in what is now the United States are African Americans. It symbolizes our conflicted and nebulous identity as children of Africa with no true ancestral home or tribal ties, because they were lost to enslavement. And…

Since we were so "Godly" during Jim Crow, back before we all got on welfare and starting complaining about doggone whites, let me give you a praise wave for your spot-on analysis.

How did I end up in what is apparently the one section of Bed Stuy without a Dunkin Donuts within walking distance?

2010, my dear. It also noted "relatively little change in the last decade." But you could have seen that for yourself. And I doubt a sea change has occurred in three years, but if you want to think so, knock yourself out.

You have gone back and forth with me for two days over a brief comment I made about not supporting Martin Freeman. You called me a "miserable cunt", a "wanker", an "arrogant prick", a racist, and told me to fuck right off. Because I agreed with the opinion of another poster that Martin Freeman has a problematic…

Lovely; I'm happy for you. If most people accept and treat you as Irish first and black second, that is wonderful and I hope it is the shape of things to come. I remember singer Laura Izibor and actress Samantha Mumba talking about how difficult it was for them growing up black in Ireland, but that Ireland is…

You're the one who seems miserable, my dear. You aren't comfortable with someone challenging you and don't know how to handle it when your dismissive, self-focused snark doesn't penetrate. How old are you? You are really going to assert that you aren't white because you're Irish? In what universe? Where is this…

Britain has always been the jakes of Europe, they are an accepting people.

Actually, I know quite bit about it. I'm very familiar with the "England for the English" sentiment, and I wasn't born yesterday, so when I hear or read statements that reek of a longing for fewer of "them" and more of "us", or casually ascribing terrorist intent or sentiment to anyone Muslim, they resonate. And I…