Hattie McDaniel, pictured here with Vivien Lee, in a scene from Gone With The Wind (1939) was not allowed to attend the premiere of the film in Atlanta because of her race. In two short months, McDaniel would become the first black actor nominated and the first to win an Academy Award for her supporting …
One day ago The Hollywood Reporter reposted an article that was written a little over a year ago! In the two seconds it took to read the title, “The Tiger and the Tragic Trick: Siegfried & Roy’s Animal Handler Breaks Silence on Mauling, Alleges Cover-Up,” I realized why THR posted such an old story. And …
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a pretty big sissy when it comes to scary movies. Hell, I don’t even like scary events, like Great America’s “Halloween Haunt.” During the one and only time I went to the Haunt, my wife — who walks into each attraction like Buffy the Vampire Slayer …
When I was in sixth grade I got sick one day after returning from Christmas break. I was out for another three weeks with a horrible cough, and a host of other symptoms that, for whatever reason, came during the night. That illness, because of too many missed classes, cost me a full year of …
In some ways this feels like the Crash of 1977! Back to that in a moment. If you were a kid in the ’70s or ’80s, you’ll remember a time when kids would come over to your house to ask if you were available to play. Obviously, if we could text each other, we certainly …
My first memory of watching Lakers basketball was with my dad on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in 1973. I was six. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why anyone would be interested in basketball. I said something like, “Dad, this is boring. All they do is run back and forth.” I watched the …
I think I have gotten angrier with each passing day about the fact that the Astros (and Red Sox) cheated. The last time the Dodgers won the World Series I was 21 years old. If someone had told me then that the next time the Dodgers played for the title I would be 50, I …
Over the last few weeks, I’ve watched a lot of Christmas movies. Some good, some bad, some horrible! I realize it’s a bit sacrilegious to suggest that a Christmas movie isn’t up to snuff; but the acting in some of these films is pretty bad. One of my students asked me to watch Let It …
In order to understand how necessary undocumented immigrants are to the economy, you must read (from a variety of sources). If you get your information from soundbites, tweets, and agree with friends who say stuff like, “What about ‘illegal’ do these people not understand?” then I guess you probably don’t want to know the truth. …
One of the things I notice a lot on social media, as I’m sure you do, is how willing people are to comment on topics of which they know nothing about. Of course, I’m not talking about everyone. There are plenty of people who agree and disagree with each other on a variety of topics …