People typically think of soap as gentle and soothing, but from the perspective of microorganisms, it is often extremely destructive. A drop of ordinary soap diluted in water is sufficient to rupture and kill many types of bacteria and viruses, including the new coronavirus that is currently circling the globe. The secret to soap’s impressive…
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“It’s due to a slew of rich, physically and emotionally raw performances from this steadfast ensemble that Hinton’s timeless characters are realized as the heroes, albeit tragic ones, that they’re meant to be…. As the youngest of the Greasers, Ponyboy has a unique dynamic with the rest of the gang. He’s doted on to varying…
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Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Data must convince stubborn humans to evacuate an unauthorized colony in Sheliak territory. Meanwhile, Picard must bargain with the legalistic Sheliaks for more time. After a teaser shows Data second-guessing his creative abilities, the main plot follows him as he first tries reason, then rhetoric, then a phaser to…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. The life’s work of an eminent astrophysicist is threatened when Wesley accidentally creates a civilization of microscopic beings. For a school project. The rumpled Dr. Stubbs is friendly enough to Wesley, but he lacks the devoted female companion that Star Trek often gives its male scientific geniuses, so his…
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Cherry, the upper-class go-between spanning the worlds of the greasers and the Socs, is played by Carolyn Jerz, last seen at the New Hazlett as the leading lady/gentleman of Prime Stage’s Twelfth Night. Jerz radiates the kind of intense, poised charisma we associate with old Hollywood, and she imbues the sensitive, ambivalent Cherry with so much…
Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. After routine establishing shots we open with grumpy Riker slouching in a puddle, reporting that something unseen jabbed him in the leg. That’s the most creative bit of storytelling in the episode, other than some decent camerawork as we linger on various not-all-that-impressive props. The script is budget-friendly tribble…
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Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. As part of Starfleet’s response to the Borg threat, Riker refits an 8o-year-old derelict to face the Enterprise in a wargame. Overseeing the simulation is Kolrami, a waddling oddity who takes a disliking to Riker and crushes him in a social game. Pulaski goads Data into challenging Kolrami to…
Traditional journalism aims for neutrality. My social media feed includes voices attacking journalists for for unfairly criticizing a president they support, and voices attacking journalists for uncritically repeating what the president says. But part of journalism does include sharing opinions (in editorials, roundtables, etc.). And part of journalism does call for neutrally reporting what newsmakers…
O tea, O moistened herb! Mug-harbored, Spouse-delivered Steaming under the canopy of a spare shirt. O essence, Inhaled (so that’s what breathing is… now I remember) Consumed (so that’s what swallowing is… now I remember), Now you are gone, But your goodness endures. Similar:Explorers (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 3, Episode 22) Sisko builds an ancient…
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Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break. Susie Paxton, who appeared as the Vulcan Dr. Selar in a Season One episode, shows off her comic timing as the half-human, half-Klingon K’Ehleyr, who turns out to have a history with Worf. K’Ehleyr was sent aboard the Enterprise to intercept the T’Ong, a Klingon sleeper ship. Everyone expects…
(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break.) Troi’s eccentric mother Lwaxana returns for another comedy of manners, this time with full ambassadorial status and also on the prowl for a new human partner. Data and Picard mildly scold Wesley for saying a pair of alien ambassadors are “rather strange-looking.” and a bit later Picard tsk-tsks his…
(Rewatching Star Trek: TNG after a 20-year break.) A distress beacon leads the Enterprise to a colony of red-headed bumpkins who bring their farm animals, spinning wheels, and a still aboard. A few plot twists later, the smooth-talking, flask-swigging colony leader named O’Dell has occasion to say, “Send in the clones.” (I am not kidding.)…
The arts are vital to our lives as humans. And if one entered the cavernous arena suspecting that 18,000 teenagers might view this as class-trip goof-around time, those suspicions evaporated with the extinguishing of the house lights. The students from Queens and Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island laughed with the actors playing the…
Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who held elected offices in Baltimore for two decades and was elevated by voters to lead the city following the upheaval of 2015, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for a fraud scheme involving a children’s book series. | Pugh’s political fall began in March when The Baltimore…