That was my prevailing thought during Fifty Shades of Grey, the two-hour screen adaptation of the E.L. James book that, at one point, was selling two copies a second. I haven’t read the book, so maybe there’s enormous nuance to the Grey character that Jamie Dornan does not accurately depict — if at all.
But having seen the film it’s difficult to reconcile how anyone’s fantasy would involve being stalked and harangued by a billionaire whose goal is to have you sign a sex contract.
Grey and Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson as the mousey English lit student) meet when she goes to interview the 27-year-old billionaire she somehow knows nothing about.
She literally falls into his office. He stares at her. She asks him if he’s gay. He says something about “harnessing people.” She admits to being an English lit student. He declares she must like Jane Austen. She gets up to leave. He steals her paperwork. She is intimidated by him. Boom. Romance.
Before there’s even any idea of a sexual relationship, Grey declares himself “not right for her,” says he is “not yet” a serial killer, tracks her down at a bar, buys her a new computer and eventually has her sign a non- disclosure agreement about their relationship. (How is that not a red flag?)
These events unfold just about as quickly and dryly as listed here, leaving no room for character development or any idea of why this guy is so into this girl — other than that she’s easily manipulated, inexperienced and virginal (in the literal sense of the word, though this is a problem “rectified” in one of the film’s many unfortunate choices of wording).
In other words she’s a woman over whom he can exercise total control. This he hopes to do in the form of an actual contract outlining the type of sex he likes to have. This contract — not the sex itself — and its negotiation comprise 75 per cent of the film’s running time and most of our romantic leads’ conversations.
It is the longest, unsexiest board meeting of all time.
She says she’s not interested. He nevertheless shows up unannounced at her home in the middle of the night, walks into her bedroom, ties her up and has sex with her. This is not the grand romantic gesture of a scorned lover trying to win back the lady of his desire. This is an intrusion, and a crime.
The problem isn’t that Christian likes his sex kinky. The problem is his wooing tactics. He describes himself as “not normal” and “50 shades of (messed) up” in his affinity for bondage and light BDSM. No, he’s “not normal” because he’s a coercive, boundary-less emotional manipulator.
The problem is that this is presented as some sort of darkly sexy Cinderella story, when really it’s some sort of psychological horror story that has little to do with unconventional sex.
And while the film’s focus is almost singularly the notion of sex, director Sam Taylor-Johnson goes light on actual erotica. Unless your appetite for screen depictions of human sexuality is particularly low or puritanical, it’s unlikely Fifty Shades will leave you scandalized. It’s so benign that it barely titillates.
That’s a shame, too: The cinematography is beautiful and artful in a way that would have lent itself quite well to the type of erotica many will be expecting.
And calling the characters two- dimensional gives them credit for an extra dimension: Ana is submissive. Christian is dominant. Christian and Ana’s romantic arc is so telegraphed that by the time it hits the inevitable, “I want more from you!” “You’re changing me!” argument, viewers may find themselves wishing for more contract talk.
Feb. 10, 2017 "Cinderella meets Prince Harming": Today I found this article by Tina Hassannia in the Edmonton Journal:
"On the same page, romantically speaking"/ "Bedside reading"
"A daring endeavor" (Harlequin books)/ "A labour of love" (romance novels)
A North Carolina teacher has made it her mission to ensure her students get free lunches eveJermaine Porter, the interim principal of Lakewood Elementary, says the spin-off effect of Parker's fundraising has everyone coming together.
"It's an effort she does with her network of people, other principals from other schools come and help pack the groceries," he said.
It is a team effort that Parker hopes to continue during spring break and school breaks moving forward.
"There are a lot of hands and hearts and minds that are part of this. I am so grateful for all the people," she said. "The generosity just overflows."n when they're not in school.
Since 2015, Turquoise LeJeune Parker, a teacher at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham, N.C., has taken it upon herself to help raise money to feed students whose families do not have enough food during school breaks.
In December, she raised over $100,000 US ($126,741 Cdn) and sent over 520 bags of groceries home with students from 12 schools. She's now working to repeat that feat before spring break next month.
"I'm a very optimistic person," she told As It Happens host Carol Off. "I would not be surprised if we reach more children than we did in the fall."
While she says she's happy about the community coming together to help kids in need, Parker says the underbelly of this story — hunger — is heartbreaking.
"We're not talking about a brand new phone," she said. "We're not talking about a brand new pair of shoes. We're talking about food, a basic thing."
Started with a student confession
It all started in 2015 when Parker says a family confided to her they did not have enough food to last the winter holiday break.
Parker and her husband began to realize that other families were also probably in need. She says the majority of her students rely on the free or low-cost lunches that the school provides every day.
So she decided to take matters into her own hands, and the annual fundraising for food campaign began.
"I think I sent a text message to everybody in my phone and asked them if they could donate anything to make sure that I could send a bag of groceries to almost every family in my class," she said. "And the rest is history."
Jermaine Porter, the interim principal of Lakewood Elementary, says the spin-off effect of Parker's fundraising has everyone coming together.
"It's an effort she does with her network of people, other principals from other schools come and help pack the groceries," he said.
It is a team effort that Parker hopes to continue during spring break and school breaks moving forward.
"There are a lot of hands and hearts and minds that are part of this. I am so grateful for all the people," she said. "The generosity just overflows."
That's what a few Ottawa residents communicated in their body language seen in a photo circulating online — a snapshot that captures the tension between Ottawans living in the downtown core and a cross-country convoy of visitors who have occupied city streets and Parliament Hill since Friday.
The image shows a large dump truck just metres away from two residents standing in the middle of a narrow Cooper Street in the city's Centretown neighbourhood — and both sides appear to be at a standstill.
"I decided to get out in the streets in front of a big truck … because I felt powerless. By that point it was three days of non-stop honking, yelling," Marika Morris, one of the residents in the photo, told CBC News on Tuesday.
"We can't think, we can't work, we can't study."
Tuesday marks the fifth day downtown Ottawa residents have had to endure blaring honks and the smell of diesel fuel, stemming from an occupation of trucks and thousands of protesters that came to Ottawa in what began as opposition to mandatory vaccination for cross-border truckers — and has since evolved to include a range of opposition to COVID-19 public health measures.
"The only way to communicate with them was to stand in the middle of the road and make a thumbs down sign every time they honked," said Morris.
"That was the only way to communicate that we don't want them to terrorize us and we don't want them to occupy our streets."
Worried for neighbours
Morris said she typically sees people walking dogs all hours of the day — but the street has been barren for days. She knows of at least one child who's afraid to step outside, and says the vehicles are preventing some elderly residents from getting their prescription medications or grocery deliveries.
Morris said she was "choking on the way to the pharmacy" on vehicle exhaust fumes as they idled nearby. Lebeau, who has difficulty breathing, said she had to rely on her puffer more in the past few days.
The story behind this photo of downtown residents blocking a truck's path | CBC News
Feb. 4, 2022 "'Slap in the face of every health worker’: Canadians, top doctors respond to convoy protest threats, suggestion to avoid scrubs in streets": Today I found this article by Elisabetta Bianchini on Yahoo news:
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, stressed that we need to be "grateful" for healthcare workers, after hospital employees in Toronto were advised to not to wear anything to identify them has health workers this weekend, due to a possible "freedom convoy" protest.
"We need to really be grateful and appreciate our health workers and our public health workers because they’ve been working day and night for over two years to try and keep all of us safe, and it’s unacceptable, any kind of hate, any kind of violence should not be tolerated," Dr. Tam said at a press conference on Friday.
"Protests are one thing and should be done peacefully and these are the very people who are trying to help, not only to protect people against COVID-19 but to support the community and all sorts of health issues. If you had an accident, if you need surgical interventions, if you need cancer treatment, so all these workers need to be able to have a safe passage to work and I think that’s critically important."
Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada's health minister, urged all healthcare workers to report any incidents of harassment, intimidation and threats to their local police force.
'Slap in the face of every health worker’: Canadians, top doctors respond to convoy protest
threats, suggestion to avoid scrubs in streets (yahoo.com)
My opinion: There were some negative comments on Twitter. After reading these two articles, I'm leaning to not supporting the Freedom Convoy. You can protest, but do it respectfully.
Feb. 5, 2022 Business news sites: Somewhere around 2021, I started reading from these business news sites:
BNN Bloomberg
CBC news
Financial Post
Some from Yahoo
Current events/ crazy news: Yahoo
Feb. 8, 2022 "Increased sex trafficking during the Super Bowl is a dangerous myth, these L.A. sex workers say": Today I found this article by Abigail Higgins on Yahoo news:
Ahead of Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, the city of Los Angeles has been taking the usual steps to prepare to host the event: painting the field at SoFi Stadium, setting up equipment for the halftime show.
As part of that effort, there have been campaigns to stop human trafficking: Last month, signs started popping up in hundreds of Los Angeles airport bathrooms; and solemn video messages from National Football League stars have been playing on loop in the terminals, warning that offenders will face prosecution.
Almost every year, a swell of media reports and law enforcement news conferences ahead of the Super Bowl sound the alarm about sex trafficking. It's been a long-held idea that major sporting events, including the Super Bowl, the World Cup and the Olympics, trigger a surge in trafficking.
But several academic studies have found no causal relationship between large sporting events and an increase in sex trafficking. (Human trafficking refers to the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex. Reliable statistics about human trafficking are hard to find, especially when it comes to sex trafficking.)
In recent years, sex workers' rights groups have more vocally criticized the idea that there's increased sex trafficking during the Super Bowl. Although some anti-trafficking organizations have distanced themselves from the notion, as well, it persists - and continues to give law enforcement a reason to expand their budgets and make dozens of arrests, sex workers' rights groups argue. These arrests are often a crackdown on sex workers who aren't being trafficked but are trying to do their jobs, advocates say.
Feb. 10, 2022 "Everything you need to know about claiming home office expenses on your tax return": Today I found this article by Jamie Golombek on the Financial Post:
Millions of Canadians are gearing up for the start of the tax filing season, methodically gathering tax slips and receipts in order to begin preparing their 2021 returns, but I’m still stuck on 2020. That’s right, last week, I was formally reassessed by the Canada Revenue Agency, which rejected my claim for employment expenses incurred while working from home due to the pandemic.
You may recall that last summer I received a “review letter” from the CRA asking for more information about various items on my return, including my claim for the new digital news subscription tax credit, proof that I made a small political contribution and, most significantly, support for my employment expenses claim.
I submitted what I thought was sufficient documentation, and I was allowed my $75 digital news credit along with my political donation, but my home office expenses were denied in their entirety as I did not send them sufficient information to justify my claim.
If you worked more than 50 per cent of the time from home for a period of at least four consecutive weeks in the year due to COVID-19, you can claim $2 for each day you worked at home during that period, to a maximum of $500 in 2021 and in 2022, up from the $400 maximum in 2020.
Expenses you can claim include: utilities, home internet, rent, maintenance and minor repair costs, and office supplies such as envelopes, paper, pens and sticky notes.
Everything you need to know about claiming home office expenses on your tax return | Financial Post
Feb. 4, 2022 "Man bought 264 lottery tickets — and they were all winners, Virginia officials say": Today I found this article by Mark Price on Yahoo news:
One very lucky guy just collected a six-figure lottery win in Virginia, after all 264 of his tickets came up winners in two separate drawings, Virginia Lottery officials say.
Yes, 264 tickets.
Jalen Taylor of Charlottesville won $132,000 when each ticket proved to be worth $500, Virginia Lottery officials said in a Feb. 3 news release.
The prize came after Taylor went big and bought two large batches of Pick 3 tickets over a two-month span. The first was 104 tickets with the numbers 960 he got for the Nov. 18 drawing, and the second was 160 tickets with the numbers 542 he purchased for the Jan. 10 drawing.
Tickets are $1 each.
Both of his 3-digit combinations were drawn, netting him $52,000 with the first batch and $80,000 with the second, officials said.
All the tickets came from grocery stores (Food Lion and Harris Teeter) and Taylor didn’t say how he decided on the numbers. (Players can pick any three-digit sequence from 000 to 999.)
“I had a feeling,” Taylor said in the release. “When you get a feeling, just play!”
Taylor said he intends to save the cash and invest.
He beat odds of 1 in 1,000 by picking the three winning numbers.
State officials didn’t give the odds of doing it twice in eight weeks.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
Man bought 264 lottery tickets — and they were all winners, Virginia officials say (yahoo.com)
My opinion: "When you get a feeling, just play!" is like listening to your intuition. It's good to save and invest.
Feb. 7, 2022 Scanning apps: Yesterday I posted this on my Facebook page, the Edmonton Screenwriters Facebook page, Edmonton Filmmakers Group Facebook page, and the Edmonton Film Industry Facebook page, and emailed some friends:
Adobe Scan: I downloaded this onto my tablet. When I take a picture of a small article, the picture wasn't good.
I tried to log into Adobe Scan with my Facebook, and then connect with my Yahoo account.
There seems to be a technical difficulty.
This is what happens: I try to do something on my own. If it doesn't work, I ask for help.
May you please try downloading Adobe Scan and see how that works?
This a project/ hobby of mine. There is no rush or pressure for you to help me.
Feb. 8, 2022: I can cut and paste the article onto 8 1/2 x 11 scrap paper and then put it in the scanner.
Why are you scanning and archiving/ digitizing your physical news articles right now?
Table Topics Daily: I was asked these questions
What is something you always wanted to do, but haven't done yet?
If you only had 5 yrs to live, what would you do?
1. I would go to Las Vegas: There is a pandemic and it's hard to get back into the country, because you have to provide a negative Covid-19 test 3 days before you are to get in. It costs time, effort, and money to do the test.
2. I would digitize all my old physical news articles onto a USB key. I would publish all my emails/ blog posts. This is good information and it's mainly job articles that has helped me (and readers) learn about how to get a job, etc.
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