In case you missed it, here’s what was on the blog this week.
- Monday, November 27, and Tuesday, November 28: My post-Thanksgiving promotion of 0% discount and a 50% charitable donation generated some good business — a special welcome to my new engagement ring customers! Alas, none of the purchases triggered donations to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, or International Relief Teams’ work in Puerto Rico. I made some donations myself, and I hope you consider some personal ones as well.
- Wednesday, November 29: This week’s YouTube video starred my right-hand woman Eryn’s left hand, which showed off a number of my ring designs.
- Thursday, November 30: For Throwback Thursday, I went back a couple of weeks to the International Press Freedom Awards dinner, which was hosted by the Committee to Protect Journalists, another good cause if you’re looking to make some end-of-year donations.
- Friday, December 1: “Why don’t women report it?” ask people about sexual harassment/assault, apparently oblivious to the fact that plenty of women report and are ignored. Playwright Israel Horovitz, for example, is finally facing the consequences of actions that were thoroughly covered by the Boston Phoenix weekly in 1993. This made me speculate that singer R. Kelly — whose abuse of underage girls and young women has been reported by music critic Jim DeRogatis since 2000 — may finally face a different kind of music himself.
Speaking of music,Saturday Night Live aired a pointed song about sexual harassment called “Welcome to Hell” with a Katy Perry-style candy-themed set.
I especially appreciated these lyrics:
“Now House of Cards is ruined and that really sucks.
Well here’s a list of stuff that’s ruined for us:
parking, and walking, and Uber,
and ponytails, and bathrobes, and night time,
and drinking, and hotels, and vans.”
It was perfect that those lines came right after Leslie Jones stepped into the skit to remind us that everything is worse for women of color. Jones suffered exceptionally relentless online abuse last year as one of the stars of the all-woman remake of Ghostbusters. Trolls generally went berserk over the concept long before the movie came out, supposedly because the remake “ruined their childhood.” But none of the white stars got it as bad as Jones did.
It’s good that SNL now voluntarily shares clips on YouTube because I couldn’t watch Saturday Night Live live this weekend. I was out seeing Lady Bird, the movie starring SNL guest host Saoirse Ronan. The movie is Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut and the many rave reviews are justified. I’ll be shocked if Lady Bird doesn’t get Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (the incredible Laurie Metcalf). Other small-budget but stellar movies that I expect to see at the Oscars include Get Out, The Florida Project (which I can’t stop thinking about), and Call Me By Your Name. What makes that extra-gratifying is that it proves no one is irreplaceable, including Harvey Weinstein, who fancied himself the king of the smart, award-winning film. Now that he’s been exposed as a sexual predator and dethroned, it turns out that we have no reason to miss him. Maybe he always needed the talent more than the talent ever needed him.