It's Actually Not That Complicated; Tuesday, Second Period, 09/06.

[died8yearsago]

"When it comes looking at and evaluating someone's whole spectrum of work," Rosa said, getting class started with absolutely no preamble, because they had a lot to get through that day, "it makes sense to start at the beginning, and Nancy Meyers kicked her career off with a real banger, meta forPrivate Benjamin. This 1980 vehicle was not the start of Meyers as a director, but her first major film as a writer, though she shares the writing credit with then husband Charles Shyer and Harvey Miller; the trio also produced the film, along with the films star, comedic darling at the time Goldie Hawn. It was a massive success, topping the box office on its opening night, getting nominated for several awards, including a win from the Writers Guild of America, and really opened the door for comedic movies with a female lead. It's a fish-out-of-water story of a well-to-do woman on the brink of tragedy gets duped into joining the army, and, in the process, learns about self-worth, standing up for herself, and finding strength through her own agency.

"It's great," Rosa offered, "and you'll see for yourself, because we'll watch some of it, and you can already start to see some Meyers trademarks, even this early, and even with a shared writing team. Our main character comes from a place of privilege. She doesn't have a certain confidence in herself at first, but she does develop it in the course of the film, and she does it in her own charming way that bucks certain expectations being placed on her, handled with deft comedic precision and timing.

"But don't take my word for it," she concluded. "Let's get to watching some of the movie, and then we'll discuss."

History of American Inventions, Tuesday - Third Period

[imafuturist]

This time around, the teachers were actually in the classroom rather than leaving a robot with a note and a movie. How novel!

"Apologies for last week," Tony said with a polite little smile. "Some things came up, so we had to start out with a movie. Which means we skipped over the introductions. So, we'll be quick about that. My name is Tony Stark..."

"...and I'm Steve Rogers," Steve said, adding a slightly dorky little wave. "This is American Inventions, so hopefully you're all in the correct place."

"We're starting out with something that is the basis for the computers that we use today, the ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, Which was basically a number crunching machine that could calculate sums at a rate beyond the human mind. It was, of course, developed like many inventions that we'll cover, during a war. You'll find that a lot of these came as necessities of wartime or as creature comforts," Tony said, clearly very enthused by the subject matter.

Tony was such a nerd. "It wasn't so very long ago that 'computer' meant someone who did calculations like this for a living," Steve added. "It was a person, not a machine. Why do you think doing math faster would be helpful during a war?"

Tony paused for a moment to allow the class to consider it before providing the answer. "In this instance, the ENIAC was used to calculate artillery for the US Army, be it for basic combat or to determine the effectiveness of new weaponry or the most effective location or weather conditions for it to be used in. These calculations could take a person almost 20 hours of work to complete with all the variables available. The computer, on the other hand, could do it in seconds."

"And in war, every second counts," Steve said, nodding.

Tony nodded at that as well. "But, the most interesting thing, or maybe not as it was a lot more common than you think, is that the programmers who built this machine were all women. And that was not made public knowledge for a long time following their achievements. In fact, the women were excluded from any awards ceremonies for the accomplishments they made with this computer. It took nearly four decades for any acknowledgement for them to come."

"Write these names down," Steve said, "because it will be on a test: Jean Jennings, Marilyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Snyder, Frances Bilas, and Kay McNulty."

Libraries and Books: Highlights and Dangers, Tuesday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Class today met at Portalocity, and Jon nodded to them and counted heads before they headed off, coming out in a corner of the main room.

"For those of you not familiar with customs here, we whisper in libraries," he began. "Today we're starting out close to home, in case you'd like to visit later. This is the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore. It's one of the oldest free library systems in this country. Young for the world, but still worth noting. It opened its first branch in 1886. US libraries generally organize fiction alphabetically by author's last name, and nonfiction by the Dewey Decimal system, which we'll go into on another date." Because Jon hated it.

"My understanding is that this particular world has no supernatural connections, so the only danger here should be from a papercut." He paused. "Please don't take that as a challenge. Since you all technically live in Maryland - sort of - you should be able to get a library card. This is a plastic card that the library uses to allow you to remove books from the building. Not all books can be checked out, but the ones that can are usually lent out for a month at a time."

He waved toward the front desk. "Librarians are the other main resource here. They can help you get that card, help you find books, and answer any number of questions about...well, just about anything. Please be polite; their job is dealing with the public, so don't make it any more difficult than it already is."

He thought back over his speech and nodded, satisfied. "Meet me back here at the end of class, or if you have any questions you'd prefer not to ask the librarians."