Morning Coffee (8/2/19)

The Ripped Bodice Bookstore Announces New Award for Romance Fiction

Pioneering Investigative Journalist Nellie Bly Gets Her Own Monument

Watch the trailer for the lush adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon

Lizzo: Tiny Desk Concert

Ooh: PBS Orders Rita Moreno Documentary from Norman Lear and Lin-Manuel Miranda

Helen Mirren wields 'absolute power' in HBO's Catherine the Great trailer

Sandhya Menon's New YA Series Kicks Off With A 'Beauty & The Beast' Retelling Titled 'Of Curses And Kisses'

Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth wage war in gripping 1917 trailer

‘They’re coming to you’: A man played his sax for a herd of cows, and they loved it

10 Adorable Bookish T-Shirts for Your Casual Friday Attire

Morning Coffee (4/24/19)

Oh, very normal: In Push for 2020 Election Security, Top Official Was Warned: Don’t Tell Trump

Leader of Right-Wing Border Militia Allegedly Said the Group Was Training to Assassinate Obama, Clinton, and Soros

‘Please god let there be a race war.’ Coast Guard officer’s ‘views on race’ drove his plans to launch terrorist attack, prosecutors allege

Navy SEALs Were Warned Against Reporting Their Chief for War Crimes

Is Obstruction an Impeachable Offense? History Says Yes

Sigh: Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey Attended Closed-Door Meeting With President Trump

The Supreme Court case over adding a citizenship question to the census, explained

More than 12,000 Boy Scout members were victims of sexual abuse, expert says

We Asked the 2020 Democrats About Climate Change (Yes, All of Them). Here Are Their Ideas.

A World War I Soldier’s Cholera Seemed Odd. 100 Years Later, Researchers Have Sequenced His Bacteria’s Genome

Morning Coffee (12/12/18)

Time got person of the year right this time.

The fiery meeting between Trump, Schumer, and Pelosi about the border wall, explained

Trump Can’t Stop Confessing

Paul Ryan's long con

Not to be a buzzkill, but that viral story about gay WWI soldiers buried together is fiction.

Ooh, good finalists for the Morris award!

Investigation of generic ‘cartel’ expands to 300 drugs

British politics has worst record for antisemitism in Europe, poll says

The Arctic Ocean has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice — a startling sign of what’s to come

Putin's East German identity card found in Stasi archives – report

Afternoon Tea (11/13/18)

This is a difficult read, but important: Everyone Believed Larry Nassar

I can't wait to read this book: Michelle Obama Gets Candid With Oprah About Her New Memoir, 'Becoming'

Amazon Was Never Going to Choose Detroit

The growth of yoga and meditation in the US since 2012 is remarkable

18 Key Bomber Aircraft From World War One

Afternoon Tea (8/17/18)

Talk Nerdy To Me: Seven STEM Romances

Chocolate-Making Is Secretive. This Chocolatier Isn’t.

Bernstein on Bach

The Strange Infinities of e-Commerce

Signs of different times: French First World War posters

Afternoon Tea (8/10/18)

I love this piece: How World War One Gave Rise to the Traditional Mystery

Why a Belgian sourdough librarian flew to Canada for yeast

Myths, monsters and the maze: how writers fell in love with the labyrinth

Worshiping the False Idols of Wellness

Viking Women: Weaving History and Progress

Afternoon Tea (7/20/18)

How Climate Change in Bangladesh Impacts Women and Girls

Anne Helen Petersen's celebrity analyses are always fascinating: The New Gwen Stefani Is A Lot Like The Old One

Can Economists and Humanists Ever Be Friends?

Heh: The 10 Horniest Men in Literature

Funding Victory: French posters from the end of the First World War

Oscar Project 2018: Darkest Hour

Movie: Darkest Hour

There's been a bunch of backlash to this movie of the "Churchill was a racist imperialist so we shouldn't have movies about him!" type. This is nonsense and these people are wrong. We should, of course, look at historical figures in as nuanced a manner as possible; this movie does better than many depictions at this, but there's still some work to do. But just saying Churchill was awful and we shouldn't pay attention to his accomplishments doesn't help anyone. It's important to keep in mind that, just as good people can do bad things, people who are problematic can do very good, important things. You don't have to like Churchill but he DID beat Hitler and that's KIND OF IMPORTANT, come on.

Anyway! I liked this! Of course I did! It's probably thoroughly a "you'll like it if you like this kind of thing" movie and I do, in fact, like this kind of thing quite a lot.

Availability: Still hanging out in theaters!

Nominated In:
Best Picture: Not my first choice, but a solidly really good film about an extremely important moment in history. I wouldn't be mad if it won.

Actor in a Leading Role: Yes, Oldman did a really wonderful job here of transforming himself into Churchill without making it feel like a caricature.

Cinematography: Yep. The way it was filmed made me think both "this is gorgeous" and "this is so INTERESTING" several times.

Costume Design: Sure. I'm always a sucker for meticulous period pieces.

Makeup and Hairstyling: YES. I knew I was watching Gary Oldman, and yet I could not keep that fact fixed in my mind because the Churchill makeup (as well as his acting) was so good.

Production Design: Yep. It did a great job of creating this moment in time, from the war rooms to the palace to the streets and underground.

Catch up on all my Oscar Project posts.

Afternoon Tea (1/23/18)

I finally watched this over the weekend, and the Fug Girls' recap is good if you missed it: XXIII Things We Learned (And One We Corrected) From ‘The Coronation’

Why a Radical 1970s Science Group Is More Relevant Than Ever

Fun: ‘The Alienist’ and the Gilded Age: A History in Headlines

The Lost Giant of American Literature

The Painstaking Process Behind Those Wild WWI Naval Paint Jobs

Morning Coffee (12/28/17)

Kidnapped, Abandoned Children Turn Up At Mosul Orphanage As ISIS Battle Ends

Oh: Duterte’s Son Quits Post After Battling Daughter on Social Media

!! Tied Virginia Race That Was Headed for Name-Drawing Gets Another Twist

Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options

What a surprise: Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has been accused of sexual harassment

This sounds normal: Echoing Stalin, House Republican calls for ‘purge’ of the Department of Justice

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 44 percent of Republicans think Trump repealed Obamacare

Heh: New York Removes Old Nuclear Fallout Shelter Signs in Move That Seems Premature

Interesting: Manhattan DA Launches First Antiquities Trafficking Unit

After Mysteriously Disappearing in WWI, Australia’s First Submarine Finally Found

Afternoon Tea (10/24/17)

The quirky San Quentin crossword puzzle features prison slang and Solange

In Easter Island DNA, Evidence of Genetic Loneliness

I was wondering recently whether this was still around! Returning to Second Life

Amazing: Home Is Where the Corpse Is—At Least In These Dollhouse Crime Scenes

Fake News and Fervent Nationalism Got a Senator Tarred as a Traitor During WWI

Morning Coffee (10/11/17)

The Kurds of County Leitrim: Refugees Call an Irish Town Home

The Intrepid Teachers Bringing Internet Access To Women In Rural India

Nearly Half Of All Abortions Unsafe In Developing Countries

He's exactly as terrible as you think he is, but this is still worth a read: Stephen Miller, the Powerful Survivor on the President’s Right Flank

Awww, this story: A survivalist filled his massive basement with food — then decided Puerto Ricans needed it more

An important project: Mapping Hate

Sigh: Guess Whether These Headlines Came From Breitbart or 1920s KKK Newspapers

Of... of course: My Immortal memoir canceled: Author says she's been 'branded a liar'

Belgian ‘Indiana Jones’ Tries to Solve Mystery of a WWI Submarine

A 1775 Map Reveals the Extent of Human Impact on Florida’s Coral Reefs

Afternoon Tea (8/24/17)

This radio documentary about Voyager One and Two is fascinating: Space 1977

Not sure I'd call this SURPRISING, but: The Surprisingly Important Role China Played in WWI

How a board game about bitter legal struggles became a bitter legal struggle

This is cool: Real Madrid, Arsenal, LA Galaxy, Boca Juniors — In One Giant Power Ranking

Useful! Continental Army Major Generals: The Best Biographies

Afternoon Tea (8/1/17)

In Ancient Rome, Citrus Fruits Were Status Symbols

When Girls Studied Planets And The Skies Had No Limits

Solving the 55-Year-Old Mystery of the White Box That Fell From the Sky

Oooh: Infographic: The Most Iconic Book Set in Each Country in the World

The Wool Brigades of World War I, When Knitting Was a Patriotic Duty

Afternoon Tea (7/27/17)

This look at a true crime convention is fascinating: DNA or It Didn’t Happen

Back from the Front: Tracking down WW1 grave markers

The 19th-Century Lithuanians Who Smuggled Books to Save Their Language

The Lady Anatomist Who Brought Dead Bodies to Light

The Fiercely Precise World of Competitive Table-Setting

Afternoon Tea (6/23/17)

Fun: What It's Like to Have Dinner with Prince Harry (I just read a book that took place in Singapore and it was FASCINATING.)

Hear, hear: Zipping Your Own Dress Shouldn't Be a Problem

NPR has your playlist needs covered: Roséwave: 75 Songs To Kick Off A Faux-Luxe Summer

Amazing: The ABCs of WWI, a British Wartime Alphabet Primer

Ooh! An interactive map of Scottish Clan Battlefields, useful for your Outlander or general historical needs.

Afternoon Tea (6/6/17)

The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool

How Cold Brew Changed the Coffee Business

Unsealed 75 years after the Battle of Midway: New details of an alarming WWII press leak

Premier League Proving Grounds

When Nova Scotia Almost Joined the American Revolution

Afternoon Tea (6/1/17)

During Ramadan, Home Cooks Shine

A Deep Dive into Goodreads’ Top 100 Mysteries & Thrillers

Edith Wharton Recruited the World’s Greatest Artists to Raise Money for WWI Refugees

The Feuds of Diana Trilling

The forgotten history of how ancient Zoroastrians helped create the old Silk Route

Afternoon Tea (5/23/17)

Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf are fascinating: The Painter and the Novelist

Superstore, TV’s best workplace comedy, destroys its workplace in the season 2 finale

Heh: An AI invented a bunch of new paint colors that are hilariously wrong

How World War I Changed Weather Forecasting for Good

The Mysterious Death of the Namesake of the Douglas Fir

Morning Coffee (4/30/17)

Turkey’s Wars: Quelling Kurdish Uprisings, and Suffering From Terror Attacks

It’s now illegal in Russia to share an image of Putin as a gay clown

The Far Left Is Still Out Of Touch With Black Voters

Quite a story: First, She Survived a ‘Cult.’ Now She’s Running for Office.

Trump is vowing to fix a problem that hasn’t existed for a decade

The Alt-Right of the Ozarks

A Mysterious Case Involving Turkey, Iran, and Rudy Giuliani

Cellphones in Hand, Saudi Women Challenge Notions of Male Control

No Bones About It: Scientists Recover Ancient DNA From Cave Dirt

Found: World War I Training Tunnels Full of Live Grenades