Smathews

October has arrived! The best month of all the months! It's time to immerse ourselves in mysteries, horror films, and ghost stories! I got a jump on the season a couple of months ago when some friends and I went to see Ari Aster's Midsommar. His work speaks to a lot of people, of which…

My 11 year old daughter, Alice, graduated from elementary school in May and as if that event weren't enough to cause a flood of emotions, her teacher read a quote from a book that caused another flood from my eyes. From Ms. Bixby's Last Day by John David Anderson, he read: "We all have moments…

Have you ever had, I don't know, five years of your life that are pretty challenging and you start to see yourself making some unhealthy choices in an effort to cope and you're like, "Maybe I should do something other than drink and compartmentalize?" You and the Bota family (pretty sure that's their name) have…

Last month, three librarians and their graphic designer bestie took the trip of their lives. They spent ten glorious days in the neighborhood of Paris known as Montmartre drinking wine, eating indescribably delicious food, and gazing at art at every turn. It was a dream of a vacation. A sophisticated, lovely week with not a…

Not loving Jimmy Stewart was not in the cards for me. Growing up, my mother had such an affection for him that he seemed like a distant part of the family. Fearless in her unrequited, faux-familial love, we spent a week in Beverly Hills in the late 1980s, in what can only be described as…

Much like JD and Veronica's love affair in the cult classic, Heathers, the TV reboot of the same name seemed doomed from the start. Paramount initially scrapped the project after the Parkland school shooting but decided to pick it back up after some serious editing (a school bombing was removed, as was a scene in…

Well, it's happened—I've turned into one of those people who talks fondly of their formative years through the rose-colored tint of vintage sunglasses popular in the 90s. I never wanted this to happen. The plan was to change with the times and never grow old. Obviously. I suppose a lot of us approaching, or in…

"THAT'S IT! I'M DOING IT! I CANNOT LIVE LIKE THIS ANYMORE!" I scream at my husband as I shimmy through the narrow path in our garage, old bicycles scraping my legs while board games fall on my head from precariously placed shelves. I've never been to the catacombs in Paris, but when I think of…

Noon, 10 April, 1912: Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England. 23:40, 14 April, 1912: Titanic strikes iceberg on starboard side of ship in Atlantic Ocean. 02:20, 15 April, 1912: Titanic sinks into the Atlantic after splitting in half. 19 December, 1997: Movie-goers flood into theaters to watch James Cameron's epic, Titanic, starring Kate…