Melissa McCarthy Isn’t Funny in ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ — She’s Marvelous
In recent years, we've seen a number of anti-heroes, but it's rare to have an anti-heroine. Lee is an unlikely heroine, to say the very least. And, as Lee, Melissa McCarthy is simply marvelous.
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A Return to Self-Care and My Holiday Glow
It’s been a grueling autumn. And I had no time this year for self-care. The mirror told me that I was overdue for some pre-holiday freshening.
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Poetry Sunday: “Full Military Honors,”
by Elisabeth Corley
Today’s poem for Veterans Day does more than just pay homage to soldiers fallen in battle; it also carries an implicit critique of the wars that give rise to such battles.
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What They Had, A Tender Film
About a Terrible Disease
Elizabeth Chomko and her stellar cast have created a particularly tender film about a terrible disease.
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Pittsburgh and the Psychology of
the Immigrant Experience
Today we are witnessing a kind of unraveling. Words and actions that were unthinkable just a few years ago are now daily occurrences.
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The Gift of Time, Just Before The Midterm Elections 2018
This week, many of us can use an extra hour of sleep since we have not had restorative sleep for months as we have become active participants in the current 2018 political campaigns that end tomorrow.
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Poetry Sunday: “lifeline,” Evie Shockley
The poem is more broadly about the struggle of the speaker to separate from her mother and be born as an individual, and of course, about the same conflict confronted by all mothers and daughters throughout time.
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Self-Appreciation: Smell the Roses
Rather than success or failure, a more useful way to look at life’s problems is the metaphor of a garden. A good one is not easy, and it requires consistent tending.
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Laurie Strode’s Revenge — The New #MeToo Version of ‘Halloween’
The film has already earned exponential returns. Made for about $10 million, it grossed more than $77 million its first weekend, and has earned more than $172 million worldwide.
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Diagnosis and Management of Ovarian and Fallopian Tube Masses
Adnexal masses are located in the ovary, fallopian tube or surrounding tissue in the female pelvis. They can be found in women presenting with pain but are also commonly found in asymptomatic women either during a routine gynecologic exam or on pelvic imaging.
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Poetry Sunday: “All Hallows Eve, Edgewater Inn,”
by Catherine Clark-Sayles
“All Hallows Eve, Edgewater Inn” is both an occasional poem about Halloween and a pastoral poem, one where a speaker’s contemplation of a natural landscape triggers inner reflection.
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Halloween, Scary Movies, and the Fun Side of Fear
Halloween used to be a kids’ thing, a day when they would dress up in homemade costumes and canvass their local neighborhood for candy. More recently, though, it has become a billion-dollar business by expanding into the adult market.
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Netflix Features Four Original Films By Women
Netflix currently has four new movies by female directors. I binged them over the weekend, and am happy to report that they're all worth watching.
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Overcoming Opiod Addiction
After detox and rehab for Opioid addiction, support from recovery groups, health care professionals, friends and family, can make all the difference. These are people who will help navigate the darker times.
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Poetry Sunday: “I Sit and Sew,” by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
The poem’s opening introduces a wonderful pun—the word “seems.” It’s a kind of doubling that characterizes the poem as a whole, and through it we come to see sewing a seam as a metaphor for something larger—the domestic life, the life relegated to women as a whole in the nineteenth century.
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Taming Your Internal Critic
You may have been judging yourself too harshly for so long, that it may require vigilant effort to change your thinking.
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‘All About Nina’ — Stand-Up Comedy
in the Days of #METOO
Eva Vives has made an important and powerful film, against some odds. She's a woman and Hispanic. She refused to take advice when people urged her to make Nina "nicer." It isn't surprising that funding for 'All About Nina' was hard to come by.
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CDC Reports Suicide Is Increasing
for Middle-Aged Women
Suicide rates among U.S. women has climbed steadily over the past decade and has peaked among women age 45 to 64.
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Poetry Sunday: “La Perla,” by Doreen Stock
What is happening to Salvadoran refugees in this country today are the threads that weave the rich, tragic tapestry of today’s poem.
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The Power of Positive Words
We can try to overcome the fact that so many of us are feeling down and divided and work up some good old "sisu" to get us through this.
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‘Love, Gilda’ Remembers SNL’s Original Funny Girl
'Love, Gilda' is finely crafted, interesting, and entertaining. It's well worth seeing, but will leave you wanting more.
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What to Expect for the Influenza Season
An annual seasonal flu vaccine is the best way to reduce the chances that you will get seasonal flu and spread it to others. When more people get vaccinated, less flu can spread through that community.
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“A Day of Peace,” “Freud Before Bed,” and “Distortion Formulas,” by Kathleen Winter
I find today’s poems marvelously lyrical and experiential—phrases like “sweet deviant chant,” “less the nuance,” and “suave hours” give sharp delight in their sound and sense.
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Feeling Lit from Within: The Power of Self-Love
If you don’t have a well-internalized sense of self-worth it is like lacking a steady pilot light—you always need to be lit by something external or someone else.
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