Joanne B. Freeman's Yale Free Online American Revolution Course

One of my VERY favorite new listening experiences in the past month has been the discovery of Joanne Freeman. I spend a fair amount of time longing to BE Joanne Freeman at this point, while steadfastly reminding myself of the Oscar Wilde quote that one of the speakers used at my college graduation: "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken," and yes, that includes the estimable Ms. Freeman. Darn it.

Why is she so awesome? I could just tell you that she's funny, smart, enthusiastic and cheerful, and I would not be lying. But instead I'm going to quote my best Joanne Freeman story about herself. Actually, it's the only story I've ever heard her tell about herself, and she does not tell it in the online lecture course-- she told it at another online event. (I have yet to be disappointed with any of these, BTW.) So, when she was fourteen, it was the bicentennial of the United States, and she being the geeky teenager she was, was reading through the biographies of the founding fathers. But when she got to Alexander Hamilton's biography, she found it unsatisfying, so she asked for a recommendation from her public librarian. The public librarian pointed her to the 27-volume set of Alexander Hamilton's collected correspondence, and she proceeded to read it through the way I read scriptures: once you finish one read, you have to go back for another immediately.

You will perhaps see why it was not surprising that she ended up with a PhD in history, teaching at one of the oldest/best institutions in the country. I think that my favorite part of her really is her delight. She always seems to be genuinely happy to be talking to students, or audiences; she loves to answer questions; she chortles when she brings in a great story or especially wonderful primary source document. I'm not quite sure if it's because of a) genetics, b) gratitude that she got to study and now teach something she genuinely loves, c) the fact that her subject area is a time of history when people REALLY thought things might not work out, and then they pretty much did for the next 200 years, or d) upbringing-- but whatever it is, I find her extreme cheer to be one of the most cheering things I have encountered in a long time.

The Girl From The Tar Paper School

Barbara Rose Johns was a Black high school student compelled to attend classes in a truly inadequate physical building: the roof leaked and the rooms were cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and the reason for this is because the walls were, for pity's sake, made of tar paper. (You know, tar paper? The stuff you use on a roof underneath the shingles, or perhaps for a temporary shelter?)

The local school board kept promising that they would build a facility for the Black children that even remotely came close to the brick building which had been serving White children for several years, but nothing ever came of that.

Barbara was a serious student, and this situation bothered her. She was also religious, and so she prayed about what she should do. And that is why, without notifying or in any way involving any adult whatsoever, she organized a walkout of all of the students in her high school. "They can't throw us all in jail," she reasoned.

She wasn't a rabble rouser. She went on, in fact, to become a public librarian. But she had to do something, and she did what it took.

The case that was started on her behalf became part of the class-action lawsuit I grew up knowing as Brown v. Board of Education. She is one of my heroes.

(Also, this book does a fantastic job of telling the story through words and pictures. Highly recommended.)

Netflix's Lost in Space

So, I baaaarely remember a tiny part of exactly one episode of a rerun of the original series. And I didn't see the movie remake from a few years ago, so when I was excitedly telling N about this series, and she said, "You don't watch Lost in Space for the plot," I said, "Ummmm...."

That said-- and with the caveat that the only thing I know about the other two iterations is what I learned from reading about them on Wikipedia-- this one is worth the watch. Tension-filled, heartwarming-- but also incredibly family-centric, with stupid (or foolhardy) decisions actually playing out the way stupid decisions are likely to. And all this is done without the whole thing feeling like a morality play, which is why people sometimes shy away from that kind of realism.

I'm the sort of bear who will fast-forward when there's too much suspense, so I probably missed about half of the first episode. Afterwards, I was talking to a friend who suggested I just mute the sound next time, so, while I didn't go back, I have seen much more of the rest of Season 1 and the first part of Season 2. Since Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger and they have no incentive not to do that for Season 2, I've been waiting to finish Season 2 until 3 was out.

Hmm. I only remembered one curse word in the whole series, then looked it up on Common Sense Media and found out that there is at least one per episode! Maybe I'm not the most reliable source for this. If you're a parent, watch it before you let the kids watch-- but if you like exciting stories, but feel frustrated by the moral vacuum that most exciting-story-characters seem to live in, this will probably suit you fine.

Klaus

If you're the kind of person who is likely to like this sort of thing, you have probably already seen it-- but Netflix's Klaus was quite lovely indeed. You do need the context at the beginning that it's a Santa Claus origin story, because it takes a minute to get off the ground, but it all pays off in the end. It gets all the points for silly, most of the points for heartwarming, and many of the points for funny. I thought it should have won the Oscar (though I haven't seen the one that won, so...)