What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”

What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”

Funny how that works.

Annie Hall is one of the most well-loved films of all time. It made Diane Keaton a star and launched Woody Allen's career into the stratosphere. It's a problematic film, but nobody should miss Keaton's performance - all of which we discuss on the podcast.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9k...

At Snoqualmie Falls, Washington, December 27. It was misty-wet, cold, and crowded.

I wrote this last year and I still think it’s true. Somebody please ask Mackenzie Scott to start buying media outlets. Start with the St Louis Post-Dispatch, and make it into a Midwest journalistic powerhouse (or rather return it to that position). Then start looking at the LA Times and cable news.

Tess and I are back with a new season of Woman Inherits the Earth, after taking a few months off. First up: "Arrival." (Spoiler: We both loved this movie.) You can listen on Spotify, Apple, etc. "Arrival" is available to stream on both Amazon and Paramount+. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM3x...

Jfc, Putin is as incomprehensible as Trump (two of a kind there), who couldn't get through even a three-minute speech without bemoaning his imaginary "Russia Russia Russia hoax." Ok, Jan.

When your drain mat is this full of only coffee paraphernalia, it may be time to take a good hard look at your caffeine habits. #CoffeeFTW

If you haven’t seen Anora, the film that won this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, I’m not sure I can recommend it. I can’t even explain how it won any award, much less half a dozen. It’s a fairly bad film. Tess and I get into that and a few other things (is it a feminist film?) in the podcast today.

"Children of Men" is chilling in its depiction of a future without children. Based on the PD James book, it's a harrowing journey through a dystopian landscape where society has fallen into chaos after 20 years of human infertility. We discuss it on the podcast:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICLp...

If you're like me and fully expected the future to have flying cars, then you may also have, like me, loved the movie "The Fifth Element." My daughter and I are back, after a 2-month break, with a discussion of the movie on our podcast - Woman Inherits the Earth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE5A...

Best ideas I've seen in a while: 1) Baskets full of Etch-a-Sketch tablets and other activity-oriented toys (that aren't phones) for kids at the Original Pancake House in St Louis, and 2) this crazy feel-good scalp massager that you can get for about 3 bucks on Mr. Bezos' shopping network.

This dude went to Congress to “save America.” I guess he thinks he’s Mr. Smith. But not as smart as, because he could literally whittle the debt by raising taxes on billionaires.
Borrowed from Insta where nobody can comment anymore.

www.instagram.com/reel/DDzv1uk...

"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all."

Arthur C. Clarke

I think we should call on the good billionaires of the universe - and I know they’re out there - and get them to start buying up media outlets. We need better media ownership. Anyone got MacKenzie’s cell?

open.substack.com/pub/stlwrite...

Watched “Children of Men” yesterday for our podcast and was gobsmacked by the portrayal of mass deportations. So if you want a glimpse of what that will look like, it’s on Prime right now. Part of our series on sci-fi movies that also includes Alien (live right now).

It was too cold to walk very far - arctic wind on my face and no scarf - but not too cold to stop and take a pic.

Forest Park in fall.

Is it safe and harmless to donate old knives to Goodwill? Or will somebody use them for murder and then the police will find my fingerprints on them? Yeah, I read too many murder mysteries.

My first Bluesky post is.......a link to my Substack page. I'll do better tomorrow, I promise. stlwriterbeth.substack.com