PicoBlog

Small signs of respect between people go a long way in establishing a positive and mutually influential relationship. This is especially true in new relationships where the values and character of the other party are largely unknown.  Giving respect through small gestures says more about who we are to others than just about any other act or disclosure. The respect we offer others is always a lens into how we see ourselves.

Click here for the WTC recipe index and scroll to the very bottom of this post for a printable PDF of today’s recipes! Sending this week’s email one day early because not only is this a fantastic Valentine’s meal — it would, of course, make a perfect Super Bowl Sunday meal (if you’re not already too full of buff chick dip). I love Valentine’s Day. In recent years especially, I’ve chosen to really lean into the occasion.

Smashelito's ES/SPX Newsletter By Smashelito Daily and Weekly trading plans for E-mini S&P 500 Futures (ES) that include accurate levels and market context. The plans are presented in a clear and concise format with visually appealing charts using my concepts of Smashlevels & Smashmodel Extremes. ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbS5wKyfnqSZqbw%3D

I was texting with a friend recently about dwarves. Look it’s not that weird, okay, the whole internet was doing it. Disney has been releasing live-action retreads of its old animated classics and, since it’s been working out so well for them, they are pressing on. (Sidebar: it is not actually working out all that well for them.) Nevertheless, they persisted. Last week we were treated to some publicity photos for the new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Picture this: it’s June 23rd of 2013. If you’re American, it’s summer. If you’re me, it’s a crisp winter. You’re scrolling Twitter, a different kind of cesspool than it currently is, when you come across a Soundcloud link. “So Legittt” it says. “Lana Del Rey appears to criticise Lady Gaga in leaked song” reads a blog. And in the world of 2013 pop music, this is unheard of. Lana Del Rey is alternative, but with the success of the ‘Summertime Sadness’ remix, she’s at least a name.

nearly, at least. we’re staring down the last few days of 2023, a year that—to me, at least—felt at once slow as molasses and fast as the speed of light. the truth? this was a tough one for me. there was brightness, and joy, and laughter, sure. but some days, i wasn’t sure i would make it. and yet, somehow i did. somehow, i woke up, put one foot in front of the other, and just like that, time passed.

Let’s not mince words: “So Proudly We Hail!” is wartime propaganda filmmaking, made in partnership with the U.S. War Department, intended to bolster morale of Americans back home and make them understand “why we fight.” It might as well have included a pitch to buy war bonds. But it’s well-acted and impressively produced fare, and even a little daring for its day in terms of sex and violence. It stars Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake as some of the “Angels of Bataan,” members of the United States Army Nurse Corps who served in the Philippines, specifically in the losing actions in Bataan and Corregidor, humiliating defeats that led to widespread capture of American personnel.

My dad’s 40th birthday is emblazoned into my brain: the black decorations, the cake napkins that read “over the hill,” the tombstone cake topper, the constant jokes that he was officially old. To an 8-year-old Amelia, I interpreted all of this as “life is over at 40.” I turn 40 today so….well, I’m fucked I guess. It’s an odd disconnect: my brain doesn’t feel a day over 30, some days my body feels 80, and my emotional health runs the gamut between those two.

Martin Sheen as General Lee cheered by the brigades under his direct command, the Army of Northern Virginia, played by unpaid Civil War reenactors, I'm unable to determine at which point in the story (but probably near the beginning, when these troops arrive in Pennsylvania), in Ronald F. Maxwell's 1993 film Gettysburg. It's part of the lore of the movie that the whole sequence is entirely spontaneous, not part of the script but improvised unbidden by the extras, filmed only because the camera operators realized something exceptional was happening and Sheen was responding in character, which he does, as you can see, really gorgeously.