SRPS Movie Night - Mirror Mirror

I saw Mirror Mirror this weekend. Here's where I admit that I didn't do my usual research before agreeing to see it. Sadly, because I haven't really been paying much attention to new movies coming out, I think I mixed this up with Snow White and the Huntsman. (Why is it that there are so often two very similar movies out at the same time?) Of course, within 30 seconds, upon the first few notes of this movie, I was aware of the mistake. My expectations dropped precipitously with the opening credits, but decided to stay and see it through. And, frankly, the idea of seeing Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen (does she even have a real name in the story?) was intriguing.

While I can't honestly say I like the movie, there are entertaining scenes, and the re-telling is interesting. The cute jokes here and there, and the stunningly beautiful costumes, go a fair way to making the film watchable. And, as expected, Julia Roberts is great. I can tell she really relished her role as the evil step-mother. And she plays it perfectly.

Nathan Lane is the consummate sycophant. He's charming and obsequious, and yet a little devious. I'm sad that they couldn't find more opportunities for him to adlib and show off his awesomeness. He gets some funny lines, and has plenty of screen time. But it also feels like they have a leash on him.

Lily Collins is adorable as Snow White. And Armie Hammer (Is that a real name? Really?) is super cute as Prince What's-his-name. Honestly, I didn't have a problem with any of the actors. They were all well-cast and did their best considering what they were given to work with.

I didn't have terribly high hopes for the story. I knew the caliber of this movie in the first few minutes, or at least what it as aiming for, and I revised my expectations accordingly. The art style of the introduction was interesting. It certainly set the artistic tone for the movie, which I kinda enjoyed. Very colorful and stylized, with puppets (or, more accurately, marionettes) telling the story leading up to where we enter. A nice touch, and appropriate since similar puppets make an appearance later in the story.

I was instantly enthralled by the mirror imagery -- how she is not just looking into the mirror, but transported to the place where her magic resides. Brilliant! What is this place? Is it her subconscious? The place where her true power lies? Or some other being to whom she is somehow connected?

But they left the parts of the story I truly dislike -- the worst parts of the story in the first place, in my opinion. Why is the Evil Queen so intent on remaining in power? Why is it important for her to remain the "fairest of them all?"Why go through all the trouble of creating a new telling and not modernizing the motives? How is this any different from Tangled? Or pretty much any other fairy tale, for that matter? Why can't we move past this trope of the evil witch/woman/queen who feeds on youth and beauty? Are we still so hung up on being beautiful as our only source of female power? What a terrible missed opportunity for bringing new life to an old tale.

I mean, the dwarfs (dwarves?) get a total and complete make-over. No longer are they Happy-go-Lucky (see what I did there?) miners who sing on their way to work. No, now they're rough and tough bandits, with new names. And a back story that explains how they came to be who they are, doing what they do. Why couldn't they come up with a decent back story for the queen? Or is she just evil? Is it all about beauty vs. ugly? The dwarfs' backstory indicated that they were ostracized because they were "uglies."

Plus, there were a whole litany of highly problematic jokes in the script, so many I can't even remember them all. The jokes that stand out in my memory include a rape joke by Nathan Lane's character, who had been turned into a cockroach and then "taken advantage of" by a grasshopper. Yuck. It wasn't even a funny joke. Just a one-liner stuck in to illustrate his further humiliation after having been turned into a roach as a form of punishment. And a dwarf crawling under a lady's skirts and snickering at her butt. Sigh.

While I have to admit I appreciate the self-rescuing princess line in the film, and the scenes of the princess training to join the dwarfs as a bandit, by that point it wasn't enough to redeem the film in my mind. While she's fighting with the prince, he spanks her with his sword. Several times. That just doesn't even... I don't... what? Is that supposed to be cute? It feels creepy.

It feels like they tried to take the original Snow White tale and turn it into a story about a princess who finds her own power, which would have been grat. But they never sold me on the fact that she actually found it. Sure, she fights some, and stages a rescue of the prince. And even rescues her father and beats the queen. But it never really feels like she is truly powerful. She's just no longer the caged up weakling she was before.

And, of course, in the end she marries the prince and they live happily ever after. Which, I guess, is what she wanted all along -- to be married to the prince. And to have her father back. I'm not saying it's a terrible movie, just that it left me feeling more disappointed than entertained. If they were trying for a movie about a princess who escapes the clutches of the evil witch and helps the prince to save the kingdom, they should have done that, although I think Tangled did it better. If they wanted a movie that showed the evil witch in all her glory... well, I suspect that might be what we see a bit more of later this summer.

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SRPS Blog-Around

Happy Friday the 13th! So many great links this week, so let's get started!

If you haven't seen Tavi Gevinson of Rookie in her TEDxTeen presentation, you really need to take 8 minutes to check it out. I expect to see more great stuff from her and her generation!

And speaking of Stevie Nicks, did you see her on Up All Night last week?

Also last week there was this Big Deal Gaming Conference in Boston. I didn't get to go, sadly. But I got to see some great photos from my friends on G+ and Facebook and Tumblr.

Pokket, over at MMORPG has a good wrap-up video:

It looks like it was a great time for everyone involved, which is to be expected. PAX Prime is our major vacation destination, and maybe some day we'll be able to swing a trip to PAX East. In the meantime, I'll console myself by watching videos and reading blogs, like this great write-up by Geeks Playing Games -- including a photo of a woman in a Dr. Who Tardis skirt:

Awesome Tardis skirt; photo: geeksplayinggames.com

Actually, so much great cosplay at PAX East.

Mass Effect 3 Cosplayers; photo: Kotaku

Assassin's Creed cosplayers; photo: dynamiclunch

Little Sisters; photo: amandarenz

Uh... so many things; photo: urdnoteve

Link, Link, and Link... laughing with a salad; photo: summerhop

I really *should* know, but I don't; photo: visiblespectre

Speaking of awesome gaming stuff, there's a great Kickstarter project for a new tabletop RPG, Witch Girls Book of Shadows.

Witch Girls: BOS isn't just about us printing a book, it's about bringing table top RPGs to a new and overlooked demographic. Part of your future funding will go towards printing Quick-Character Creation guides to give away for free organizations for girls and schools to help introduce kids to Role playing games and the world of witch girls adventures as well as a larger print run.

Seems like a worthy cause. I'm all about bringing empowering games to girls!

And, lest you think I ran out of cool videos, have you seen the Lizzie Bennet Diaries?

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SRPS Movie Night - Ramona and Beezus; and Happy Birthday Beverly Cleary

I don't know you. I don't want to assume that you, like me, grew up reading all the Beverly Cleary books about Beezus, Ramona, or Henry Huggins, or the many other wonderful characters she created over the years.

I can only speak for myself when I say that her books were probably the most important books in my childhood. Sure, I talk about Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables, but Ramona and Beezus came long before Laura or Anne.

So, when I saw the previews for Ramona and Beezus, the movie, I was skeptical. I mean, Hollywood doesn't have a great record when it comes to translating cherished childhood memories to the big screen. Or even the little screen.

It came out, and I missed it at the theater, and then completely forgot about it. But, luckily, I came across it on my cable line-up last week, and made a point to record it. I mean, it's been rainy here, and I need something to to do with myself, right?

I watched it last week, on a gray, rainy, depressing day, and was very pleasantly surprised. In fact, here's where I admit I re-watched it earlier this week, just because it was so sweet.

I was planning on reviewing it for you all later this month, but when I did my research for important birthdays coming up this week, and saw that today is Beverly Cleary's birthday, I had to move it up the list a bit.

If you've read any of the Ramona books, you'll immediately recognize the Ramona in the movie. She's exactly like you'd expect her to be. She's full of life and energy and all the wonderful imagination you'd expect from her. The movie itself is as sweet as you'd hope too. It's not a perfect film, but it's a heart-warming happy movie, and perfect for a rainy day or a pick-me-up when you need one.

What I love about Ramona the most is that although she is always finding herself in situations that are just plain bizarre, she is always herself. She starts off wishing she was more like her older sister, Beezus, who, if you remember the books, is perfect. But Ramona isn't perfect -- at least in that she doesn't get straight As or get great reviews from her teachers. She can't be like Beezus, because she's Ramona. We go through the movie seeing her with the infamous scene with the egg and the school picture day, and all kinds of other mishaps -- everything you'd hope to see included in the film. In the end, she is reassured by her parents, her teacher, and even Beezus, that she is exactly how she should be -- she should be the best Ramona she can be.

The only complaint I have about the movie is a very small one. I think in an effort to make the movie appeal to the adults in the audience, there is a love story between Ramona's Aunt Beatrice and Hobart, the neighbor, and a smaller, parallel romance between Beezus and Henry Huggins. Although they're sweet, and at least the women involved are somewhat independent beings outside of their romance stories, it seems a bit cliché for a kids movie. That said, I can live with that since Aunt Beatrice goes off with Hobart to live in Alaska, it still feels like adventure is more important than just getting married. Or at least like getting married is just another form of adventure.

And I'm OK with that. Because even adventurous princesses fall in love, right?

Happy Birthday Beverly Cleary. Thank you so so so much for the many hours of adventure when I was a girl.

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Happy Birthday - Flora Tristán

She only lived a short while, but managed to fit several lifetimes of activism in her 41 years.

Flora Tristán is one of the most interesting women of the nineteenth century, unusual for her origins, her international experiences, her extraordinary frankness, and her unique combination of feminism, socialism, and activism. Among the writers of her time she emerged with the Utopians but went out on her own, displaying a kind of naïve fearlessness both in her activism and her sorting out of the issues.
(source: Preface from Flora Tristán, Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade, edited by Doris and Paul Beik)

Flora Tristán (Flore-Celestine-Therèse-Henriette Tristán-Moscoso) was born on April 7, 1803, in Paris. Her father was a colonel in the Spanish Navy, born in Ariquipa, Peru. In fact, her father's family was well-connected in Peru, as her uncle was the Peruvian viceroy. Her mother was French. Her parent met in Bilboa, Spain, when her father was stationed there.

Her early life was marked by sadness when her father died before her fifth birthday.

I was four years old when I lost my father in Paris. He died suddenly, without having put his marital arrangements in order, and without having thought to compensate for that by arrangements in his will. My mother had only limited resources to survive on and to raise my young brother and I; she retired to the countryside, where I lived until the age of fifteen.
(source: Flora Tristan: Life Stories, by Susan Grogan)

Tragically, her father's death occurred at the same time Napoleon was at war with Spain, and so Flora and her mother were barred from claiming his inheritance, since he had been considered an enemy of the French. The lack of a will ensured their poverty. To protect her children from the hardships of growing up in the slums of Paris, her mother moved the small family to the French countryside, where they were at least able to live a simple life. Sadly, her younger brother died while still a child.

When Flora was 15, she and her mother moved back to Paris. It was here that she learned that since her parents' marriage had never been officially recorded in France, she considered legally illegitimate, which severely limited her ability to move into any higher social realms by way of marriage.

Having grown up with stories of her father's aristocratic background, Flora at this time learned of her own legal illegitimacy and entered the labor market, becoming an employee of the painter and lithographer André Chazal, whom she married in 1821. The marriage was a failure, blame for which can scarcely be assessed. Flora, with her regular features, dark hair, and compelling eyes of a Spanish beauty, as acquaintances described her throughout her lifetime, was impulsive and strong-willed and had vague dreams of a better condition. Chazal thought she looked down on him and complained that she neglected the household. Irritations and mutual accusations multiplied. After four years she left their small apartment near Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Of her children one son was still with a wet nurse; the other was unwell, and Flora, pregnant with the baby who was to be her daughter Aline, use the pretext that the sick child needed fresher air, took him to her mother's apartment, and never returned to Chazal. There began a long contest with her husband, thirteen years full of charges and countercharges and appearance in court, and finally, on September 10, 1838,... he shot her... Flora, out of danger in a few weeks despite a bullet that remained in her chest, received increased notoriety at Chazal's trial, which led to his sentencing to twenty years of forced labor, later commuted to imprisonment...

In those thirteen years between abandonment of her husband in 1825 and his attempt on her life in 1838, Flora Tristan struggled, first, to make her own way, and then to become someone. Finally, she began to succeed.
(source: Preface from Flora Tristan, Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade, edited by Doris and Paul Beik) 

After her daughter Aline (who would become Paul Gauguin's mother) was born, she left her three children to be cared for by her own mother, while she took a position as a servant to an English family. In 1826, she traveled to England, and began to take notes of her surroundings and society, but she claimed to have destroyed them later because she was embarrassed as they revealed her low status. Her position took her on trips to Switzerland and italy, and likely many other places. Her husband attempted to use her position against her, and filed claims in court accusing her of being a "kept woman." This only fueled her desire to be independent.

What is certain is that Flora was strongly motivated by what she called her pariah condition -- that of a woman trying to be independent in spite of legal and social barriers to divorce and other handicaps women faced if they tried to earn a living and think intelligently about public affairs.
(source: Preface from Flora Tristan, Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade, edited by Doris and Paul Beik)  

In 1833, at the age of 30, she and her mother traveled to Ariquipa to claim his inheritance, which was under the care of her uncle. She was unable to win her petition, but her time in Peru was not wasted. During her stay, she wrote a travel diary about her experiences during the post-independence period of Peru, The Peregrinations of a Pariah, published in 1838.

She witnessed from within privileged circles, yet with the eyes of a European outsider, the behavior of rich and poor, of women, of priests, soldiers, politicians, and slaves in a still underdeveloped society. Indeed, she watched all of these during a period of civil war and, as her principal biographer Jules Puech notes, must have been stirred by and awakening consciousness of her own perspectives and capabilities. She recorded all of this with much talent and little restraint, and her notebooks, partly confessional and partly reportage of a high order, were to open her way to a career, first in literature and then in social action.
(source: Preface from Flora Tristan, Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade, edited by Doris and Paul Beik)

Upon returning to France, she became increasingly bold in the expression of her beliefs and actions. She began a new career as a travel writer, by publishing a brief pamphlet in 1835 discussing why women traveling alone should be treated better, based on her personal experiences and convictions. She continued to travel, and to write about her experiences in the Revue de Paris.

It was also during this time that she began to recognize the changes in French society, as well as to become more politically active on behalf of workers and women. She wrote a letter to the French Chamber of Deputies in 1837 urging the legalization of divorce. In 1838, after her recovery from being shot by her husband, she wrote her first attempt at fiction, Méphis. Framed as a narration of the lives of two lovers, the protagonist represents the working classes, while the woman he is in love with, the Spanish stranger, represents womankind in its desire for a meaningful life.

Now her travel writings were not only about her experiences as a tourist, but also as a social commentator. In 1839, she again traveled to England, this time critiquing the whole of English society, from the way it treated its prisoners (male and female), the industrial revolution, several different slums, and even the after-hours clubs where wealthy young men mingled with lower-class women. She even wore a Turkish man's clothing to sneak into the House of Parliament, where women were not allowed.

It was during this time she began to promote the concept of forming a Utopia (a rather popular idea at that time). She hosted a salon in her apartment, continued to attend social events, and continued to work on several different manuscripts and novels. She also spent much of her time addressing the needs and concerns of workers, even signing a letter of solidarity between French and English socialists.

In 1843, her book Workers' Union was published, which was to be her most remarkable contribution to the movement.

The workers' union she envisaged should be capable of looking after its elderly and its sick and disabled while educating its children and its women so that they might be free and mature individuals. 
(source: Preface from Flora Tristan, Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade, edited by Doris and Paul Beik)

Sadly, she contracted Yellow Fever in 1844, and died in November of that year. Several of her works were published posthumously, and she was celebrated for a few years during the socialist movement in Europe. Her popularity faded though, and she was nearly forgotten in the later part of the 19th century. It wasn't until the 1920s, and again in the late-1940s that her work began to receive more attention. She is now recognized as one of the first feminists and a renown socialists in France, and around the world.

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SRPS - Highlights

First off, I want to wish a super happy birthday to Marilu Henner, who I grew up watching on Taxi! Here she is with the rest of the cast, singing Lullaby of Broadway:

And her bad hair day (haven't we all been there before?):

Aside from this being Easter weekend (happy face: I can have booze again!), it's also PAX East (sadface: I'm not there with my friends). So, to honor all the awesome geekiness going on in Boston this weekend, here's a fantastic illustration of a gamer girl posted by tiltawhirls on tumblr.

A while back, Two Nerdy History Girls had a great post about what women blacksmiths wore in the 18th century:

Women's Adventure Magazine had an interview with Emily Ross, a 14 year old girl who is already an expert on adventure:

When I was little, I would attach our old dog, Buck, to a plastic sled and have him carry me around outside. I’m 14 now, and dogs still pull me around, only now there are eight of them and we tend to charge through 110 miles of bitter cold rather than roam the woods near my house.

And speaking of women and sports, have you seen the latest Gatorade G Series commercial?

Georgian Gentleman had a wonderful post about early American wax artist and spy, Patience Lovell Wright:

Raganwald's Posterous had a great post, A Woman's Story, about a young black woman in Canada during the 1950s, who fought the odds to become a successful computer programmer, who is, as it turns out, his mother.

There's been lots of great fan-art about The Hunger Games, but this one made me laugh out loud:

Oh, and did you see An Imagined Girls Night With Katniss Everdeen, Hermione Granger, Bella Swan And Buffy Summers? It's also LOL-worthy!

Bella: You guys! It’s not like that!! Plus, he’s totally convenient to have around when I need some attention and I’m not getting it from vampire man.
Katniss: What’s the deal with you people and dating vampires? You guys should try humans sometime.
Hermione: Preach.
Buffy: There’s nothing wrong with vampires. Minus their emotional unavailability, lack of reflection, and penchant for really rough sex.
Bella: The rough sex is great, although it’s super awkward that we have to keep buying new pillows every time.
Katniss: This conversation is getting weird. Can I have some of those Doritos?

So, on that note... I'm going to go feel sorry for myself for not being able to attend PAX East, and the cruise photos on G+. If I see any good costumes, I'll let you know!

Feel free to post your links in the comments!

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She's Crafty!

So many geeky crafters were busy this last week or so, gearing up for Sunday's premier of season 2 of Game of Thrones.

The folks over at Inn at the Crossroads had great recipes and craft ideas for a kick-off party. I love these DIY house banner placemats:

And black-lupin over on DeviantArt has lots of seriously awesomely geeky cross-stitch patterns (like these Star Trek:TNG mini cross stitch figures:). I think these Game of Thrones bookmarks are going into several Christmas stockings this year!

Speaking of Star Trek cross stitch, I adore this hand towel from starrley on the sprite stitch forums:

My blog-friend over at Sincerely Emily shared some beautiful beaded eggs she made:

I found these super cute peg math wizards on Julie Blanchette's esty page:

Another fabulous find from etsy (I love robots!) comes from calliecalliejumpjump:

And, to celebrate the beginning of baseball season, Oops! I craft my pants made this fantastic baseball wreath:

What are you crafting these days?

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Mad Men - all about Betty

So, I've watched this last weekend's newest Mad Men episode twice already, and I'll probably watch it a couple more times, but I wanted to at least start to get my thoughts put into words.

First of all, I love Dawn. I love that she seems to perform her job very well, but that people (like Harry) keep making it awkward. She just wants to be a good secretary, but other people want to keep reminding her about her difference.

But the issue most people have been talking about is Betty's appearance. Which surprises me, really. Every blog I've read has either been blatantly offensive with phrases like "the elephant in the room, literally!" Or otherwise making fat jokes with her as the punch line. Each one feels like a punch in my own gut.

Other posts are mad at the writers for using Betty's weight as a way of making her more sympathetic or "redeeming" her, which I think is kinda weird. I've always thought Betty was sympathetic.

Also, why can't Betty grow and change in her new relationship? Don can become a better father and boss because of his relationship with Megan. I think we're finally going to see who Betty is without the voltile Don-Betty dynamic, and the truly loving adoration with Henry. She can still be a bitch, and I'm sure once her fear of death disappears, she'll return to her old self.

But the other issue I think is interesting, and I haven't read anything about, is the whole issue around being fat in the late-60s, when diet pills were considered so normal your mother-in-law would recommend them. Yes, the scene of Sally and Bobby trying to zip up her dress was juxtaposed with Don neatly zipping up Megan's dress, but I think it's more complex that just a "hey, look, Betty's fat now" thing. Remember last week, when Don was making breakfast for the kids? He asked Megan if she wanted anything, and her response was, "just black coffee for me." And Sally looked at her with admiration. Already, even then, I suspected that Sally was picking up on the notion that women need to be thin to be considered worthy. And, that was reinforced by the ending scene where Betty and Sally were having ice cream, and Sally stopped halfway through.

Several bloggers accused Betty of "stealing" Sally's ice cream. I totally didn't see it that way. Instead, I see Sally's walking away from the table as a kind of rebellion against her mother. Not only is she still angry at her for being a bitch, which I think Betty is actually trying to overcome, but she's adding some fat-shaming in there too. "I'm full." Really? What kid is ever too full to eat ice cream? No, this is more complicated that just Betty being fat. This is about Betty, Megan, Sally and women in general in the late-60s.

Interestingly, the doctor insisted on an exam for the diet pills and even gave Betty some pushback. Of course, as someone who wasn't alive (ex-utero, at least) in the 60s, I don't really know how easy it was to get diet pills at the time. But Pauline, Henry's mother seems to think they're easy to come by. Even the Rolling Stones, who were also an off-camera feature of this episode, had a song about "Mother's Little Helper," that came out in 1966. While the drug in the song is a barbiturate, it seems like getting prescriptions should have been easier than it was for Betty.

But, then again, it's good that the doctor did the exam. And, who knows, maybe after finding nothing physically wrong with her, he would have given in and given her a prescription to give her "a little jump start."

I don't think the show was written to humiliate Betty, although she was certainly well and truly humiliated throughout the show. First, she had to beg off from yet another function. And I'm sure it was because she felt ugly and fat, and not easily fitting into her dress just made it worse. Even Pauline commented on it, saying, "you've missed a bunch of these, Betty."

Heck, just having Pauline come by to talk with her was humiliating. "I know how it happens. You get comfortable and you give up a little bit, and then it just gets out of control." As though her fatness is a moral failure, like she's just being lazy. For a split second, we even got to see the old Betty, when she snapped back, "Why haven't you taken them?" But Pauline takes it in stride, and brings it back around to how Betty isn't pleasing her husband.

When Betty shows up at the doctor's office, she's not her old self, demanding what she's there for. She's contrite. "Well... it's just that I'm wondering... I've put on a few pounds, and I haven't had much luck reducing on my own for some reason." She's hedging. She's trying to be brave, but you can tell she's worried he's going to judge her too. And he does. "Mrs. Francis, when a housewife has rapid weight gain, the cause is usually psychological -- unhappiness, anxiety, boredom, things that cause us to lose our self-control." See, even he is bringing it back around to something she's likely doing wrong.

Of course, it's not her fault. It's a tumor on her thyroid. Which explains the tiredness and lack of regular-Betty behavior. As someone with a thyroid condition, I can totally relate to both the weigh gain and the weird behavior. If I miss taking my replacement thyroid pills for two days in a row, I can totally feel it. That Betty is sitting on the couch in her housecoat eating Bugles is no surprise. And she's not doing it because she's lazy. And I guarantee when her tumor is removed and her thyroid is acting normally again, we'll see more of the old Betty we know and love to hate.

But, even so, it's kinda interesting to me how this show set in the past is trying to tell a story about being fat in the 60s, and people are jumping all over it in the present, totally missing the point. Or, more likely, proving that very little has changed in the last 46 years. Women can't get fat without it being some kind of humiliation or moral failure. Whether it's about how disgusting Betty is now, or how sad it is that they made Betty fat, or how the writers made Betty fat to mock fat women, I think most people have missed the point. She's fat, and she's tired. But, at the end, she's also relieved to still be alive, and adored by a loving husband who doesn't care if she's fat, so maybe she's eating the rest of Sally's ice cream because she wants it and she can. Sally didn't want it. It's not like she pushed Sally down and took it from her. She really wanted Sally to enjoy the ice cream as much as she was so they could share a nice mother-daughter moment (which was a nice juxtaposition with the scene of the new guy Michael and his father), but she is rebuffed.

I'm curious why Betty turned to Don during her moment of fear when she returned home from the doctor's office and Henry wasn't home. I think this really says more about how she feels about Henry. Like maybe she's confused by how he reacts to her. Don was firm, authoritarian with her when they were married. Henry is kind and understanding. But even during the phone call, we can see how Don has changed. She has to tell him, "say what you always say." Meaning she called him for a brisk talking-to to help her calm down. She needed someone to be in charge.

There's a whole lot more going on in this episode, but I don't really have time to give it an in-depth treatment. I love the image of Roger Sterling juxtaposed with all the young kids in the office. Heck, seeing Don and Harry backstage at the Rolling Stones concert with those kids. Or even Don compared to Megan. "You're so square you have corners!" Lots of scenes showing the whirlwind of change everyone is facing. Don's 40, but he may as well be 60.

What about Pete and his power play? He's the new face of advertising and he's rubbing Roger's nose in it. And likely justifiably, considering how Roger was acting in the previous episode.

And Peggy hiring the new guy, Michael. Some claim that Michael is the "new Peggy" but I don't see it that way. He's brash and creative, and I expect there will be fireworks, but I trust Peggy to remain in control of the situation. She's not fooled by him for one second.

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SPRS Shout Out - Major Tammy Duckworth

April is Asian American History Month. There are so many stories of amazing Asian American women I'd like to share this month, and the first is the very brave, inspirational, and amazing soldier and public servant.

She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1968. Her father's job working for the United Nations took the family around the world while she was growing up. They finally settled in Hawaii, and she attended the University of Hawaii, where she received a BA in political science. Honoring her father's long military career from World War II to the Vietnam War, she proudly joined the ROTC in graduate school at George Washington University, where she was studying international affairs. In 1992, she became a commissioned officer in the US Army Reserve and chose one of the few combat jobs open to women -- flying helicopters. She attended flight school, and joined the Illinois National Guard in 1996.

In 2004, while studying for a Ph.D. in political science with a focus on political economy and public health in southeast Asian at Northern Illinois University, she was deployed to Iraq. On November 12, 2004, the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket propelled grenade. She fought to land the helicopter as safely as possible, which she did. But the explosion changed her life forever. Her injuries were substantial. She lost the lower part of bother her legs, and her right arm was nearly destroyed, having been broken in three places and losing most of the tissue from the back. She was awarded the Purple Heart, and was presented with t an Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal.

She credits her pilot, Dan Milberg for saving her life, and she strives to live every day to the fullness of its possibilities. “I get up every day and say thank you to my crew for saving my life... I was missing two limbs, and my arm was essentially severed. I was a bloody, pulpy person with one limb to hang onto… He knew I was dead but he wasn’t going to leave me behind. I have to be worthy of that effort.”

Duckworth narrates the Salute to Fallen Asian Pacific
Islander Heroes in Arlington, Virginia, June 2, 2005.

On returning home, she did not waste any time becoming active in politics and veterans affairs. She is one of the founders of the Intrepid Foundation, which works to helps rehabilitate injured soldiers.

Inspired by Former Senator Bob Dole during her stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, she began to pursue a career in public service. In fact, he dedicated his biography One Soldier's Story in part to her for her continued bravery.

My experience in Iraq made me realize, and during the recovery, that I could have died. And I just had to do more with my life.

In 2006, she was appointed Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, where she worked to develop programs to encourage employers to hire veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other programs to assist veterans returning to civilian life. Also in 2006, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois' 6th Congressional District, but lost to her opponent, Peter Roskam.

Taking the oath-of-office as Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental
Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs,
with her husband Bryan Bowlsbey standing beside her.

In 2009, she was nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, and was confirmed her for the position by the US Senate.

"It's about change on so many levels. If being a woman underscores that, makes it clear that I'm going to be an effective agent of change, that's great."

Preparing for the Wounded Warrior Soldier Ride at the White House.

She remains quite active in the political sphere and in her efforts of activism. In 2011, she resigned her position of Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in order to launch her campaign for the newly-reorganized Illinois' 8th Congressional District.

Whether you agree with her politics or not, she is an amazing woman and deserves to be recognized as  the Self-Rescuing Princess she so clearly is!

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