It's Actually Not That Complicated; Tuesday, Second Period, 11/15.

[died8yearsago]

Yeah, Rosa had taken one look at the snot-nosed tiny creature that Tightpants had become that weekend and knew to just nope the fuck out for a while. It worked out pretty well, actually. She just headed up to New York to get some work done on a case or two, and waited to actually get a text back from Blackstone to confirm when everyone was back to being annoying adults instead of annoying children.

She kind of would have preferred if it had happened after she had her class for the week, but whatever, beggers couldn't be choosers, and it wasn't like this class was really that hard anyway.

"So today," said Rosa, once it was time to start class and she could be reassured that all her students were just annoying teenagers and not annoying ankle-biters, "we're reaching the the last full-length feature that Meyers has put out, and it's a bit of a departure from form when considering the last handful of movies that really cemented her style into the hearts and minds of her views. This movie, released in 2015 and another written, directed, and produced by powerhouse, and really flipped the script on a lot of Meyers' usual tropes. Instead of being a focused romance, it's more of a buddy dramedy. Our older protagonist reinventing themselves is a man this time, played by Robert De Niro, and his foil is a professional one, in the form of Anne Hathaway, who still embodies that classic Meyers workaholic boss babe, and the two strike up an unexpected friendship after a few roadblocks to discover all sort of different ways in which they can learn from each other, blah blah blah, so on and so forth.

"Once again, Meyers' ability to find unlikely pairings with incredible chemistry is her strong suit in this movie, with the interplay between De Niro and Hathaway being one of its highlights, probably more so than its convoluted plot and somewhat expectant beats. Still, it was refreshing to see Meyers focus on a different dynamic than some of her previous work. And it was apparently one of Quinten Tarantino's favorite movies that year and he thought it should have gotten an Oscar, but you do see Hathaway's feet and De Niro gets a foot massage, so I think we all know where that might be coming from.

"But, enough intro," she concluded. "Let's watch it, and see what you have to say about what it might be trying to say, as well as how it fits into what we've seen of Meyers' work so far."

Libraries and Books: Highlights and Dangers, Tuesday

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

Jon was at the front of class today looking a bit rumpled, but considerably better than he had the week before. If disgruntled.

"I'm afraid I must apologise, as I have no course for today. I was planning on working on it over the weekend, but I was...ah...a child." He sighed. "And there aren't a lot of movies actually about books that I could find."

He passed out an actual paper printout. "Yes, this is old fashioned, but not everybody reads at the same pace, and this way you can all read the article as quickly or slowly as you need, and then we can discuss it. Even if you've never heard of any of the books mentioned, how do you feel about restricting the publishing or access to books because of the ideas in them? Does it ever have a place, and if so, what is that place and where do you draw the line?"

American Inventors, Tuesday, November 15, 2022

[heroic_jawline]

Well, no one was a cat, a dog, or a tiny child, so Tuesday was definitely looking up.

"Hello again, everyone," Steve said, smiling.

"It's a normal--" Tony definitely knocked on his desk there. "--day for a change, so we're back learning about inventors who changed our world."

"We're going all the way back to the start of the country," Steve said, "which is well before my time. You might have already heard of Ben Franklin from your regular history courses--he helped to found the United States--but he was also a prolific inventor. Despite inventing items we still use today--things like bifocals and lightning rods--he never patented anything. He believed they should be enjoyed by everyone."

"Would you all have made the same choice if you were in his place?" Tony asked the class.

"I might've patented one or two," Steve admitted. "Look through the handouts about Ben Franklin and see if there are one or two you think you might've patented, too. Then we'll talk about."