Morning Coffee (11/2/18)

FRIDAY HAPPY LINKS!

Oh gosh, look at this Get Out the Vote letter from JFK to Madeleine L'Engle.

!!! 'Penny Dreadful' Revived at Showtime

This is great: Tokyo 2020 Medal Project To Turn Scrap Metal Into Precious Olympic, Paralympic Medals

Watching Jenny retweet all these was great: 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before' Costumes Make Jenny Han Cry — In A Good Way

I love them: John Legend and Chrissy Teigen will host 'legendary' Christmas special

! Harrods, Now Available at Williams Sonoma

I did not expect to read about a Thomas & Friends and the United Nations collaboration.

YAY: Lionsgate Boards Helen Hoang Romance ‘The Kiss Quotient’ From Pilgrim Media Group — AFM

Ben & Jerry's Just Released an Anti-Trump Ice Cream Flavor

10 of the Best Bookish Knitting Patterns

Morning Coffee (10/5/18)

Whew, time for Friday happy links.

I accept our new queen: Eight-year-old Swedish-American girl pulls pre-Viking era sword from lake

!!! Canceled Too Soon, Sweet/Vicious Will Now Become the Perfect Comic Book for the Me Too Era

New emojis! Bagel! Cupcake! Yarn!

He is SUCH an Agatha Christie Guy, if you think about it: Armie Hammer To Set Sail In ‘Death On The Nile’ Movie

I have (falling apart) copies of all these books but I want this new Madeleine L'Engle boxed set anyway.

Very into the idea of a John Legend Christmas album.

Sometimes The Onion is perfect: Chris Pine Depressed By Realization He Could Probably Win Governorship Somewhere

I want all the plaid jackets.

Winter Is Coming — and It’s Bringing an Official 'Game of Thrones' Whisky With It

12 Bookish Sweaters to Keep You Cozy All Season Long

Afternoon Tea (3/26/18)

Why India’s modern women say it’s a ‘burden’ to be female

I love this: Ranking Shakespeare's Plays as Crime Fiction

I don't agree with ALL the opinions here, but it's an interesting read: Meg Murry's Glasses

The Beer Twins (One Evil) Take Their Feud to Queens

The Librarian at the Nexus of the Harlem Renaissance

Weekly Rec: A Wrinkle in Time

The novel A Wrinkle in Time is important to me - I wrote my college thesis on Madeleine L'Engle's work - and so I was both excited and worried when I heard that it was going to be a big feature film. LUCKILY, my excitement was justified and my worry was unnecessary. This movie was a complete delight; it did a great job of retaining everything important about the novel while updating things to feel contemporary and relevant to today's kids. Ava DuVernay did a great job executing her vision, and the whole cast was great but ESPECIALLY star Storm Reid as Meg.

It's natural to get upset about changes when a book you love is adapted, though I always find it useful to remember that no one is actually taking the original version away from you and you can ignore the adaptation entirely if you wish. But in this case I don't want to ignore it! It's great! I had a few moments of "That's not MY xyz" at the beginning, but then I made a conscious decision to let go and see the movie on its own terms, and I loved it. I especially like that this version has a young black girl saving the world with a white boy as her sidekick - I think that's a great thing for ALL kids to see. (The change that I liked least was the erasure of Meg's brothers Sandy and Dennys, but ah well, I get it.)

There's also been some talk about the movie being less explicitly Christian than the novel. I understand that disappointment if you're going in looking for something that is specific to your own religion, but I actually loved what they did with it in this area: they very much kept the important points of L'Engle's philosophy and theology while diversifying the great thinkers quoted and making L'Engle's outlook accessible to wider variety of kids from all sorts of backgrounds. Jesus is not mentioned by name as he is in the book, but what L'Engle believed is important about Jesus was very much there.

This was a movie that was fun, occasionally scary, intellectually and philosophically interesting, and inspirational, all at once. Go see it, and bring any kids you have around.

Afternoon Tea (3/7/18)

I am SO EXCITED: Ava DuVernay’s Fiercely Feminine Vision for ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

Blood on the Land in Brazil

Author Maggie Stiefvater put together some interesting numbers and information on how authors really get paid.

Handwalla Bwana’s journey from Kakuma refugee camp to the Seattle Sounders

Trash in the Fjords? Norway Turns to Drones

Afternoon Tea (3/2/18)

Behind The Scenes On The Magical Set Of A Wrinkle In Time

Everybody Is Fine: Talking with Jasmine Guillory

Heh, this is fun: I Wore Adidas Tracksuits for a Week Like Armie Hammer

Whoa: How Knot Analysis Can Reveal the Perpetrator of a Crime

Victorian giants and mountain nymphs: when photography became art

Morning Coffee (7/13/17)

"Beyond the criminal and moral issues at stake, this incident should make us doubt the basic competence of the people the president has chosen to advise him and help run the country."

This piece is so good and important: Hating Trump Doesn't Make A Man A Feminist

All the President's Lawyers

Hee: How to Talk to Your Teen About Colluding with Russia

Not that this will really matter to anything but: Exclusive: House Democrats introduce new plan to fix Obamacare

Aaaaaah! A Wrinkle in Time first look: Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and more ("And more" includes Chris Pine JUST SAYING)

There’s a lot of bias in astronomy — and women of color are hurt the most

In Poland, a Battle for the Fate of Europe’s Last Ancient Forest

Useful! Lots of ‘craft’ beer is brewed by Anheuser-Busch. Here’s how to spot the real stuff.

Found: Three Cases of Madeira Bought for John Adams’ Presidency

Morning Coffee (11/16/16)

Post-election reading:

This is fine: Trump Transition Team Hasn't Reached Out To State, Defense Departments

Totally fine: Firings and Discord Put Trump Transition Team in a State of Disarray (Another article, which I didn't link because it was less comprehensive than this one, had a quote from a source describing things as "Stalinesque". I'm sure that's a good sign.)

Trump further undermines fake blind trust by seeking top secret clearance for his kids

There’s No Such Thing as a Good Trump Voter

Donald Trump Is Already Acting Like an Authoritarian

Other:

Some good news! Ava DuVernay’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Gets Spring 2018 Release Date

This is fascinating: The FBI’s Fake Russian Agent Reveals His Secrets

Why Does Fall/Autumn Have Two Names?

Incredibly useful: The Big Five US Trade Book Publishers

'The perfect dorm game': how the Fifa series helped sell soccer to the US

Morning Coffee (10/22/16)

CHRIS PINE IS PLAYING MR. MURRY. This entire Wrinkle in Time casting endeavor is a gift. A GIFT.

ALSO we have some new Anne of Green Gables show casting!!

What We Know About Friday's Massive East Coast Internet Outage

Interesting: Washington’s foreign policy elite breaks with Obama over Syrian bloodshed

HEAVY SIGH: GOP congressman on Clinton: 'A lady needs to be told when she's being nasty'

Imagine If Donald Trump Controlled the NSA

Attention journalists: An adult can’t ‘have sex’ with a preteen. It’s rape.

A pint-sized pup keeps Hillary Clinton's campaign staff going in a hectic campaign season (And yes, I open the app specifically to feed and pet the dog. Well done, developers.)

Sirius XM released its holiday channel lineup! I'm sad that the Holiday Traditions channel is starting later than usual, and I'm ALWAYS sad that the classical Christmas channel doesn't start until Christmas Eve.

Aaah, we're getting a Juliet, Naked movie! I love that book.

Morning Coffee (10/21/16)

I think we all need some Happy Friday links this week.

SUCH good news: Gugu Mbatha-Raw Joins Ava DuVernay’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’

Ooh: JRR Tolkien's Middle-earth love story to be published next year

This is very cool: Using Math to Repair a 650-Year-Old Masterpiece

This piece about the new Taylor Swift coffee table book (which is on my Christmas list, obviously) gets at a lot of what I like about her.

Aww, look at this baby elephant trying to save her trainer. (Everyone's fine.)

Ha: What This Big-Ass, Twitter-Powered Metronome Is Doing in Downtown Austin

I'm not that into these particular Gilmore Girls posters, but hey, new Gilmore Girls posters!

This Chart Reveals Which ‘Hamilton’ Character You Are At Work

Hygge – a soothing balm for the traumas of 2016

A Brief History of the Haunted House

Morning Coffee (9/14/16)

"A Muslim Marine said he was called a terrorist and ordered into an industrial clothes dryer multiple times by a drill instructor who then turned it on, burning him."

Muslim Woman Set on Fire in New York City

Wow: NY attorney general launches Trump Foundation inquiry

Related: Donald Trump’s surprisingly shady charitable foundation, explained (Even if you don't think it's SURPRISING that it's shady, you'll want to check out the details here.)

Some good reads on the whole "false balance" issue: The New York Times Proves "False Balance" Is Ruining Good Campaign Coverage

And The Crisis at The Times And That Public Editor Piece

And: Why the Media Is Botching the Election

OH NO: Great British Bake Off: Mel and Sue to quit as hosts

Whee, look at our new Meg Murry!!!

Hey, it's the Man Booker shortlist!

Morning Coffee (9/13/16)

My friend and boss Maureen Johnson has a new politics podcast! With the @MayorEmanuel guy!

Big news: "Based on the NCAA's commitment to fairness and inclusion, the Association will relocate all seven previously awarded championship events from North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year. The NCAA Board of Governors made this decision because of the cumulative actions taken by the state concerning civil rights protections."

"Now imagine if Mitt Romney had run exactly Mitt Romney’s campaign but then suddenly in mid-September went on television and called Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas for no reason. It would have been huge."

This from Ta-Nehisi Coates is important, about how accusing anyone of bigotry is seen as unforgivable even when it's factually accurate: How Breitbart Conquered the Media

Fascinating and appalling: Inside the Federal Bureau Of Way Too Many Guns

"Elections are always imperfect, and infused with personality, tribal loyalties, and blind party affiliations as much as substance. But there's usually some substance."

Black Teachers Matter

This survey of women in tech has some interesting stuff even aside from the politics - I would not have guessed that Asian women hold the smallest percentage of leadership roles and Hispanic women the largest.

Awesome: D.C. will hide once-banned books throughout the city this month

I like Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling but I'm dubious of them in these particular roles in A Wrinkle in Time.

Morning Coffee (8/5/16)

It's been a REALLY long week, huh? Time to take a break from current events with some happy Friday links!

The Vice President tweeted about the President's birthday WITH FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS. Never tell me this friendship isn't real; I couldn't take it.

A Wrinkle in Time, which is exciting for any number of reasons, is also a milestone: it makes Ava DuVernay the first woman of color to direct a movie with a budget over $100 million.

Oldman et al. are INDEED continuing their Le Carre adaptations with Smiley's People and EVERYTHING IS AMAZING.

Teaser for Dunkirk!

Trailer for Victoria!!

GOOD QUESTION: Why Don’t I Ever Run Into Shirtless Justin Trudeau While Hiking? (I mean, I don't hike much, and certainly not in Canada, BUT STILL.)

DELIGHTFUL: I Made a Shipwreck Expert Watch The Little Mermaid And Judge Its Nautical Merits

I love real life Last Tango in Halifax stories. He let her go 60 years ago because she was in college and he didn't want to hold her back!

Ooh, pretty libraries.

It's Friday. Let's ogle superheroes.

Morning Coffee (7/29/16)

It's Friday AND the start of my birthday weekend, so it's time for some happy distracting links!

My friend James Moran (you may know him as a writer for Doctor Who and Torchwood) is making a webseries based on Dracula and it looks nifty. Here's a teaser.

Oprah will be in the A Wrinkle in Time movie and I remain cautiously optimistic about this whole endeavor.

Netflix is getting a bunch of stuff from the slow TV movement in August, including knitting and train rides!

The Cambridges are officially headed to Canada. Will they take the kids with them so they can be adorable with Justin Trudeau???

Speaking of: Prince George Has an Extremely Adorable Way of Ordering Cake

Whoa: WW2 silk escape map dress sold in Harrogate

Important investigative journalism: That 'S' Thing Everyone Drew in School, WHAT IS IT?

Ooh: Vatican library digitises 1,600-year-old edition of Virgil

How the Key to the Bastille Ended Up in George Washington’s Possession

When ‘Arrow’ sings ‘Hamilton,’ we all win

Morning Coffee (7/15/16)

As usual, in honor of Friday we're taking a quick break from current events to look at some links on the lighter side, for anyone who needs a distraction.

Good news! Carla Hayden confirmed as Librarian of Congress, the first woman and the first person of color to hold the position.

Caribou Coffee made it SNOW in Minneapolis and I want to go there.

Nifty: “Godspot”: German churches now offer free and secure wifi hotspots for all

Heh: The Queen shocks locals by visiting Scotland pub for dinner Now I would like a jacket potato and a cider, please.

It's Friday. Let's look at shiny things. I love the Swedish processional jewels.

Meanwhile: The nations of Denmark and Sweden had a Twitter fight involving moose and sperm banks

These photographs are beautiful: Art of stone: spiritual sculptures around the world

I always want to read about a nice sea serpent hoax.

Relevant to what I was mentioning in my Childhood's End post yesterday: Rereading A Wrinkle in Time: what’s up with that giant evil brain?

THE FINAL HEY LADIES.

Morning Coffee (5/24/16)

Sorry this is a little late! The site I use to organize my bookmarks is currently down; cross your fingers that it's not gone forever, as that's where I organize all my recipes, too. The following is a selection of links I happened to remember in enough specificity to track down, so... welcome to my brain, I guess.

I generally agree with the notion that we've gone way too far with marketing glimpses of teasers for trailers for... but I AM FREAKING OUT OVER THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST TEASER, YOU GUYS.

Also EXTREMELY EXCITED about this: Ava DuVernay’s “A Wrinkle in Time” Will Feature Diverse Cast

11 reasons why Bernie Sanders lost this thing fair and square

"If this isn't the end for the Republican Party, it'll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word 'American' by insisting they were the only real ones."

Robin Wasserman, being smart as usual: What Does It Mean When We Call Women Girls?

I didn't really know who Blac Chyna was before reading this, but it was still fascinating and you should read it if you're interested in the interplay of celebrity and class and social media: How Blac Chyna Beat The Kardashians At Their Own Game

Awesome: Female WWII Pilots Can Now Be Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

The man who has photographed every train station in Great Britain

Drowned worlds: Egypt's lost cities

The Seven Stages Of Aspirational Produce Shopping

Morning Coffee (2/24/16)

ICYMI, yesterday's Oscar project posts: The Martian (YAY!), Prologue (meh), Bear Story (whoa). (I have a book review for you for February that I'm working on, but because of the avalanche of movie posts, I might hold it until early March, when I will not want to think about another movie for a while. So you'd get February's review in early March and March's review a few weeks later. Would that be okay, Patreon folks?)

So. Nevada happened. Brian Beutler, as usual, is worth reading on this: "Assuming the trend continues after Trump’s overwhelming victory in Nevada’s Republican caucuses, it’s both redundant and stunning to note that what’s happening in American politics right now is completely novel: An unwelcome insurgent is commandeering one of the country’s two major political parties, and its leaders are simply pretending it isn’t happening."

Also: "Republican operatives have told major donors it would require an eight-figure advertising campaign or campaigns to make any kind of dent in Trump’s surprisingly durable popularity. While many of the donors have privately voiced support for the cause, most have begged off writing big checks."

ALSO: "Nearly 20 percent of Mr. Trump’s voters disagreed with the freeing of slaves in Southern states after the Civil War."

And: Donald Trump on Protester: ‘I’d Like to Punch Him in the Face’ (Among many other things, I sincerely worry about Trump inspiring his supporters to lots of random violence against pretty much anyone they don't like.)

This is worrisome: More than half of Americans think Apple should comply with FBI, finds Pew survey

Considering everything else happening in the world, I guess this is ...good ...news? Don't buy the hype: Russia's military is much weaker than Putin wants us to think

This certainly is: The First Day of the New Supreme Court

Shocker: Hollywood Is a ‘Straight, White, Boys’ Club,’ Blistering Study Finds

And for a perspective on that: A Hollywood Agent Explains How Negotiations Work and Why Actresses Get Paid Less

Ava DuVernay is directing the Wrinkle in Time movie and I am SO excited.

Morning Coffee (2/18/16)

ICYMI: Yesterday's Oscar Project posts were on The Revenant and The Hunting Ground.

How Hillary Clinton Won Harlem

This is exciting: ABC has named the first (I'm pretty sure) African-American female network head, Channing Dungey.

I'm on Apple's side.

And an explainer in case you've missed this: Why Apple and the FBI are fighting over access to the San Bernardino shooter’s phone

Speaking of San Bernardino, the New Yorker has the best piece I've read on the shooters.

SB Nation Publishes, Deletes "Complete Failure" Of A Story About Convicted Rapist Cop Daniel Holtzclaw

This kind of process thing is always interesting: How the San Antonio Express-News Got the Scoop on Antonin Scalia’s Death (Confession: I had a thought process while reading this that started with "I'd watch something like..." and ended with me realizing I'd basically just reinvented Spotlight and/or The Newsroom. At least I'm consistent.)

WHOA: Met to Stage Its First Opera by a Woman Since 1903

New evidence: Easter Island civilization was not destroyed by war (JARED DIAMOND WAS WRONG. And yet this made me want to read Collapse, which I own and started on a vacation once but never finished.)

"Murdering people for inefficiency on the planet you control doesn’t really seem intersectional. -7"

Morning Coffee (2/5/16)

Oh, hey, it's Friday. I almost forgot and neglected to give you happy links. THE HORROR. Do I have enough happy links? Let's see! (And Patreon patrons, you should have gotten a notification yesterday about a post for you on the Patreon site. Let me know if you need help finding it.)

Me elsewhere: Let's talk about the Me Before You trailer!

ICYMI: Movie posts on 45 Years and Inside Out.

My delightful doppelganger (and friend) Kaite Welsh is writing a feminist Victorian mystery series and I am VERY EXCITED.

The BBC is making a Brooklyn spinoff TV show and that actually might work quite well!

I can't wait to go to this Temple of Dendur exhibit, I say knowing my father who has a Met membership is reading this.

Ooooh: London’s Big Dig Reveals Amazing Layers of History

LOOK AT THIS MAP OF A WRINKLE IN TIME

This gets at exactly why I like detective fiction: "What [T.S. Eliot] appreciated, in other words, was the genre’s capacity for conveying intensity of sentiment and human experience within taut formal designs—a quality that might just as soon apply to literary fiction or poetry."

Aah, there's a story coming out about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes's wedding!

Aww: ‘The Force Awakens’ Reimagined As Calvin and Hobbes Will Make Your Heart Melt

SETTLERS OF CATAN NACHOS

Ayn Rand's Firefly is . . . not THAT different from actual Firefly at times.

Morning Coffee (5/18/15)

Me elsewhere: The week's TV news and a few thoughts on the Wayward Pines pilot.

Here at long last is the "Bad Blood" music video.

How Hollywood stays white and male

As many of us suspected, that Good Wife scene with Alicia and Kalinda was apparently filmed without them in the same room, and I remain stunned by the lack of professionalism.

Todd VanDerWerff's final TV schedule analysis for the season: The CW.

I love this: Miss Marple vs. the Mansplainers: Agatha Christie’s Feminist Detective Hero

Two new fathers whose writing I like wrote some interesting, powerful things. First, Matt Yglesias: Basic parenting gets fathers a gold star, and other things I learned on paternity leave

And Barry Lyga: Every Day Is (Not) a Disaster

MADELEINE L’ENGLE: hey remember that book about ecumenical Episcopalianism and quantum physics and resisting conformity you loved so much

READERS: yeah

MADELEINE L’ENGLE: how about a sequel featuring your favorite character’s sexy twin brothers going back in time and learning about boners and childbirth before God drowns everybody

READERS: uhhh