#Bedford Falls Company

[zegrasdrysdale]

[ let it snow ] t. zegras

day two of malia's christmas fic marathon

paring : Trevor Zegras x fem!reader

summary : (Y/N) braves it through the snow to get some coffee since her machine in her apartment is broken. Then everything shuts down and she's suddenly stuck inside the coffee shop with two employees and one customer that isn't bad company.

warning(s) : none :)

author's note : if this is a stupid plot then pls tell me. be brutally honest bc i'm not even sure if this is an okay plot or not

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She was praying the entire time she walked half a mile to the only open coffee shop. She prayed that it would still be open when she got there.

The snowstorm kept her at her apartment with her broken coffee machine. This is the only shop she could find within a mile that was open since she couldn't drive in the snow. She needed her coffee so she can get some work done while she's stuck at home with a rare day off from work.

The wind and snow whip through her hair that is exposed to the harsh weather. She's sure that her nose might fall off despite being tucked under a scarf because of how cold it is in New York at the moment. Her body is bundled up in multiple hoodies and jackets and she has on a pair of leggings under the sweats she's wearing under all of the layers. Even through the snow boots she has on, her toes are rock solid.

She loves living in Bedford, but she hates the cold and the snow. She wishes she moved to California or something when she graduated in the spring.

When the door opens, she's sighs with relief. There is only one other person in the dining area along with two employees behind the counter. She begins to defrost as she walks to the counter.

"What can I get for you?" the barista asks her as she brushes the snow out of her hair.

"Can I can a mocha latte with almond milk and light sugar in the biggest size you have?" she questions.

The barista nods and as (Y/N) pulls out her debit card, she says, "It's on the house since you walked from who knows where in this storm. Don't worry about it."

She thanks the barista and waits for her drink by the pick up counter.

While she waits, she realizes that the guy sitting at one of the tables is looking at her. (Y/N) tries not to stare back but she can't help but notice how cute he is. His brown hair is wild but she can tell it has some fluff to it. His greenish-blue eyes are looking at her softly and he has a small smile on his lips. He has on a hoodie that has "Ducks Hockey" written on the front of it with an "11" on his chest.

"I hope you didn't actually walk very far to get here," he comments as (Y/N) is handed her drink. "The weather isn't the best. It's supposed to get worse before it gets better too."

She shrugs and sits at a different table so she can sip her warm cup of coffee. "Only about a half a mile," she tells him. "How far did you walk to get here?"

"Took an Uber from the other side of town so I'm stuck here," he says. "I'll be here for a while since Uber isn't sending out drivers in the snow and I have nowhere else to go around here."

(Y/N) is shocked by that. "Why would you take an Uber from the other side of town in this?" she asks. "That's risky. You didn't think that you might get stuck here?"

He shrugs and turns in his seat so he can talk to her. "I'm only in town for a few days to visit my family for Christmas," the nameless guy tells her. "This is my favorite coffee shop and I wanted to grab some since I don't live here most of the year."

A phone rings somewhere in the shop and (Y/N) sips her coffee. She basks in how warm it is while she looks outside at the storm that has seemingly gotten worse since she walked through the door.

As she's worrying about she's going to be getting home, one of the baristas comes out from the back room.

“I hate to tell you both this but the roads have been officially shut down,” the barista says. “It’s been recommended that everyone stays off the road until the storm passes and they can be plowed. That means you’re both stuck here until further notice. Fortunately our boss told us that if you guys want or need anything to eat or drink, it’s on us.”

Suddenly, she’s grateful she doesn’t have to brave the storm back to her apartment. She’s also getting really warm between the air and the drink.

(Y/N) sheds some layers until she’s in her t-shirt and leggings. She ties her hair up into a messy bun on top of her head and sips her lukewarm latte.

“Since we’re going to be here for a while,” the cute stranger begins to say. “I’m Trevor.”

“(Y/N),” she replies. “You play hockey?” Trevor raises his eyebrows in question. She nods at his hoodie. “ The ‘Ducks hockey’ gave it away. What’s Ducks hockey?”

Trevor has a small smile on his face. "It's for the Anaheim Ducks," he replies. "I play in the NHL."

Her eyes widen. She isn't that much of a hockey fan but she knows what the NHL is. That is probably most professional level of hockey there is. She's pretty sure about that.

"Well I'm honored to be in the presence of a professional hockey player," she says. "I've watched a few games but I'm not really a NHL watcher. I'm more of a college hockey watcher. I just graduated from Boston University and I went to a lot of the home games because my friend at the time was dating one of the players."

He almost spits out his coffee. "I played hockey at Boston University for a season," he tells her. "I played one season then went to the NHL. That's crazy that you just graduated from where. Small world."

A realization hits her. She heard all about a Trevor that used to play for BU then he went to NHL. "Zegras," she blurts out. "You're Trevor Zegras. You're like a legend at Boston University. The hockey guys still sometimes talk about you."

"I put up good number but not good enough to be a legend there," he laughs. "Glad to know they still talk about me there."

She smiles. All she heard while in school was how talented Trevor was on the ice and what a player he was off the ice. She figures it's been long enough where he's changed and doesn't sleep around anymore.

Hours pass by and the storm hasn't lightened up. It's gotten worse. A lot worse. It doesn't seem like it's going to get any better.

The baristas, whose names are Lily and Dani, stick to the back unless (Y/N) or Trevor need something. (Y/N) and Trevor sit at the tables and build towers with cups in the main dining area. They talk and get to know each other since they don't have anything better to do.

They find themselves sitting on the floor against the bar and they watch the storm brew outside. It has started to build up against the glass door and the windows. They can't see more than like two feet outside the glass because of how heavy the snow is falling.

"I hate the snow," (Y/N) blurts out. "I always have but Bedford is the only place I've ever lived and I didn't want to leave."

Trevor looks over at her. "Why didn't you want to leave?"

"I've lived here my whole life," she tells him as she looks over at him. "I live in the same apartment that my parents lived in before they died. They left it to me and I can't bear to part with it. This town is my home and I don't think I could ever leave."

He remains silent for a second before asking, "So if your boyfriend said he wanted to move to Florida or something, you wouldn't go?"

An amused smile forms on her face and she looks at the snow. “I’d need a boyfriend for that to happen,” she tells him. She decides to play alone to what he is doing “Does your girlfriend like living in California?”

“Wouldn’t know,” he replies. “Don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Does hockey take up a lot of your time?”

“For most of the year, yeah,” he sighs. “I’ve had casual flings that don’t get past that phase because I’m never around. I’ve been stuck in the talking phase for weeks because I’m constantly on the road or in the rink. I’d like to settle down one day with someone but I need to meet someone that understands that hockey is what I love to do. She’ll just have to know that sometimes I’ll need to be away for a while to do what I love.”

A frown forms on (Y/N)’s face. “I’m sorry that you haven’t been able to find anyone that understands you love playing hockey,” she says to him. “I’ve only known you for a few hours but you seem like a genuinely nice guy. You’re also not too hard on the eyes.”

Trevor laughs and she bumps his knee with hers. He does the same to her. “I’ll find someone some day,” he breaks out when he stops laughing. He pauses for a beat. “Maybe I have. I don’t know.”

She looks over at him and the temperature in the room changes. It gets stuffy with unfamiliar tension that is so thick, it could be cut with a knife.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” a confused (Y/N) questions.

“Why haven’t you settled down with anyone?”

A long sigh passes her lips.

Her last boyfriend was incredibly immature. He would rather go get drunk at a party than spend time with her, and eventually he got kicked out of school since his grades were so low and he was drunk all the time. Then he got arrested for a DUI after he turned 21 and that was the end of that.

“I wanted to focus on my education,” she tells Trevor. “Not to mention my last boyfriend would rather get drunk then spend time with me so I decided to stay single for the moment. Nothing as intense as to why you haven’t settled down.”

Trevor smiles. “Seems like your ex missed out,” he tells her. “You’re really nice and you listen. Not to mention that you’re insanely beautiful and any guy would be lucky to have you.”

She feels her face get hot at the compliment.

Before either of them say say something, Dani comes out of the back room. “Good news!” she exclaims. “The roads are opening back up. The storm has gotten light enough to the point where it’s safe to travel again so you’re both welcome to leave whenever you’d like.”

Trevor stands up then helps (Y/N) up. Her eyes are on the window and she sees that the snow has lightened up and the wind has calmed down after nearly five hours.

“Thank you for letting us ride out the storm here,” Trevor says to Dani, and to Lily who has also emerged from the back. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two fifty dollar bills. “For both of you.”

They thank Trevor and begin to clean up. (Y/N) pulls her layers back on and Trevor puts his coat on.

She stares outside before she sees a car pass by, then a second car.

“Can I walk you home?” Trevor asks behind her. She turns around with raised eyebrows. “I just want to make sure you get home safely. It’s slippery out there.”

A laugh passes her lips at Trevor’s failed attempt to lie to her about why he wants to walk her home. “Yeah,” she replies. “It’s only a half a mile from here in three feet of snow. Sure you can handle that, Mr. I-Live-In-California-Now?”

“I grew up in Bedford,” Trevor replies. “I’m sure I can handle that.”

The two of them push their way outside. The cold air slaps (Y/N) in the face when she follows Trevor out the door. She gives a final wave to Dani and Lily before she leads Trevor down the street.

She doesn’t know how many feet of snow has fallen, but she’s nearly up to her knees in it at different points as she walks home. Trevor is right behind her, and he stops her from tripping over into the snow multiple times during their walk.

A very long half hour later and she’s finally in front of her apartment door. After she unlocks it, she looks up at Trevor.

“Well, thank you for walking me home,” she says. There is a smile on his face. His face is red from how cold it is outside and he looks like Rudolph with his red nose.

She reaches up and brushes some snowflakes from his hair. A smile grows on his lips and suddenly, she wants to get up on her tiptoes and kiss him. “It was nice to meet you and spend time with you, (Y/N),” he says.

“Will I see you again, Trevor?”

“I know where you like to go for coffee,” he replies. “I also know where you live now so I can stop by every time I’m in town while I’m in season or when I’m home for the summer.” She laughs. “You’re never getting rid of me now.”

(Y/N) shakes the snowflakes off Trevor’s jacket and says, “If anyone is going to be a pain in my ass, I think I’d want it to be a very cute professional hockey player from California that I only talked to because we got stuck at a coffee shop.”

Trevor grins and pushes a wet piece of hair behind her ear. His hand is freezing but she leans into his touch.

A moment of silence is followed by Trevor taking a deep breath and a small step toward her. She only is able to glance up at him before he leans down and captures her lips in a cold, deep kiss.

She sharply inhales from the surprise kiss, but she does kiss him back. Trevor grabs her chin between his pointer finger and thumb so she doesn’t go anywhere.

Not that she would.

Her hands slide to Trevor’s waist and she takes a step toward him to get as close to him as she can with all the layers they have between them. Trevor’s hand eventually slides to the back of her neck, and she shivers.

(Y/N) pulls back and asks, “Would you like to come in and get warmed up?”

“Absolutely.”

She thinks she might’ve found her new favorite coffee shop after today.

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[leviathan-supersystem]

Feb 20 (Reuters) - An explosion tore through an Ohio metals plant on Monday, scattering molten metal and debris that rained down on neighboring buildings and injuring at least 14 people, mostly with burns, officials and witnesses said.

The blast sent smoke billowing into the sky that could be seen for miles around the damaged factory about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Cleveland.

The explosion at the I. Schumann & Co. metals plant in Bedford drew fire departments from throughout northeast Ohio.

Oakwood Fire Department Captain Brian DiRocco addressed the media on scene, saying 13 people were taken to hospital, many of them with burn wounds, and one more was being treated on site.

At least one was in critical condition, and one was pulled from the debris. All of those injured were on site, the falling debris having spared those at neighboring businesses, DiRocco said.

[...]

Representatives of the company, which produces copper, brass and bronze allows, could not immediately be reached for comment.

the ruling class, as always, is naked and unashamed in their disregard for the safety and wellbeing of the working class

[shrinkrants]

I was watching my favorite Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Mr. Potter, the film’s cranky, old, uber-rich villain serves as a fine representative of the oligarchs of the US mafia state.  In my favorite scene–one that may have helped shape my politics as a child–our hero George Bailey stands up to Mr. Potter, who is attempting to liquidate the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, which would effectively put an end to affordable housing in Bedford Falls, the fictional small town where the story takes place. In pushing back against Potter’s mockery of the establishment’s policies, which have allowed a number of working class renters to become homeowners, Bailey delivers an iconic speech, saying:

What'd you say just a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even thought of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what?! Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken-down that… You know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you'll ever be.

We could really use some of George Bailey’s energy right about now. Potter is similarly useful, in an emblematic sense. After all, the Grinch and the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge were capable of redemption. To pretend that the oligarchs of the US mafia state can be morally redeemed would avail us nothing. They are our enemies, and they are attacking our very ability to survive. Elon Musk is a neo-Mr. Potter, operating at scale. To Musk, a warped, deluded, ego-obsessed man, we’re cattle. While many people in the United States lack a coherent political analysis, they do understand that they are being screwed. The public’s reaction to Mangione and his alleged crime make that much clear. The public celebration of Mangione is reminiscent of the fandoms that formed around Depression era bank robbers like John Dillinger. Rather than condemning people for “bloodlust” (as though the indifference to bloodletting that typically defines life in the US is somehow morally superior to applauding a single death), it is crucial that we understand Mangione’s folk hero status as a flash of class consciousness. The outrage people are feeling at insurance companies should be encouraged and expanded to include the billionaire and corporate classes as a whole. 

In fact, there is no better target for the public’s ire in this moment than the richest man in the world, who just used his multi-billion dollar social media platform to spread misinformation at scale, thwart pediatric cancer research, deprive workers of their paychecks, and make life less livable for people on reservations.

I am not advocating for violence, of course. I am not a violent person. I am an organizer. I want people to organize. Simply applauding the violence of outlaws, while potentially cathartic, will not save us (though I will admit to sharing Mangione memes with my friends, pretty much daily). What we need is a sharpened sense of who the villains in our stories are, and the will to mobilize in defense of our shared interests. 

-- Kelly Hayes

[stevebattle]

110 FirstLook (2011) by iRobot, Bedford, MA. FirstLook is a small, lightweight and throwable situational robot designed to be thrown through windows or stairways. It has a pair of ‘flippers’ that enable it to climb kerbs and stairs, and flip itself over when it falls upside down. “FirstLook gets its name from the four cameras that dot its sides, allowing soldiers to do reconnaissance from a safe distance – up to a couple hundred meters (though one iRobot employee told us that the company has gotten up to 500 meters unobstructed). You can view all camera angles simultaneously using the large display on the robot's beefy remote control. The remote has a small joystick to the left of the display. It's really like playing a video game – we jokingly mentioned that we'd been training for it all our lives with our console games, and the iRobot rep had to agree. Anyone who's spent any time sat in front of a TV, playing Nintendo can start driving it immediately.“ – iRobot 110 FirstLook hands-on, by Brian Heater, engadget.

[the-paintrist]

William Dobson - Group portrait of Prince Rupert, Colonel William Legge, and Colonel John Russell - ca. 1645

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as “the most excellent painter that England has yet bred”. He died relatively young and his final years were disrupted by the English Civil War.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, KG, PC, FRS (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.) 9 December 1682 (N.S)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War. Rupert was the third son of the German Prince Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England.

Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier as a child, fighting alongside Dutch forces against Habsburg Spain during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal "Cavalier" of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England. He served under King Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean Sea. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second Anglo-Dutch War and Third Anglo-Dutch War, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died in England in 1682, aged 62.

Rupert is considered to have been a quick-thinking and energetic cavalry general, but ultimately undermined by his youthful impatience in dealing with his peers during the Civil War. In the Interregnum, Rupert continued the conflict against Parliament by sea from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, showing considerable persistence in the face of adversity. As the head of the Royal Navy in his later years, he showed greater maturity and made impressive and long-lasting contributions to the Royal Navy's doctrine and development. As a colonial governor, Rupert shaped the political geography of modern Canada: Rupert's Land was named in his honour, and he was a founder of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rupert's varied and numerous scientific and administrative interests, combined with his considerable artistic skills, made him one of the more colourful public figures in England of the Restoration period.

William Legge (1608 – 13 October 1670) was an English royalist army officer, a close associate of Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

John Russell (1620-1687) was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1641 to 1644. He fought in the Royalist army in the English Civil War.

Russell was the third son of Francis Russell, fourth Earl of Bedford, known as the "wise earl", and his wife Catherine Brydges, daughter of Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos. He was a wealthy man with estates at Shingay, Cambridgeshire.

In 1641, Russell was elected Member of Parliament for Tavistock in the Long Parliament after his brother William Lord Russell inherited the peerage. Russell served in the King's army and was a member of the Sealed Knot. The family had divided loyalties in the Civil War. His father had been a champion of the parliamentary cause and his brother changed sides twice. He had many aristocratic equally vacillating connections among his brothers-in-law: the Parliamentarians, Lord Brooke and Lord Grey of Wark, the turncoat Earl of Carlisle and the Royalists Lord Bristol and Lord Newport of High Ercall. Russell commanded Prince Rupert's blue coated regiment of foot, and was disabled from sitting in parliament in 1644. He was prominent at the storming of Leicester in May 1645, was wounded at Naseby and was in the Oxford garrison before its surrender.

After the Restoration Russell was commissioned colonel and captain of John Russell's Regiment of Guards which became incorporated into the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, or later the Grenadier Guards. He commanded the regiment until 1681. He enjoyed dress, dance, and music although his taste belonged to the fashion of an earlier generation.

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Happy Christmas in July!

Transcript below the break.

Hello and welcome back to the Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be celebrating Christmas in July by discussing number 18 on my list: Liberty Films and RKO’s 1946 holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra, written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, and Jo Swerling, based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern, and starring James Stewart and Donna Reed.

George Bailey (James Stewart) has always had big dreams of traveling and building things, but instead he’s stuck in his small hometown of Bedford Falls, New York, managing the family building and loan business. When his absent-minded Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) misplaces $8,000 of company money, George feels that he is worth more dead than alive and plans to end his life on Christmas Eve, when he is stopped by Clarence Oddbody, Angel 2nd Class (Henry Travers) who has been sent from heaven to save him. George tells Clarence he wishes he’d never been born, so Clarence shows George what the town would be like without him.

As I’ve mentioned before, my family didn’t have a VCR in the ’90s, but we did sometimes watch movies together when they came on TV, so we caught It’s a Wonderful Life pretty much every year. I don’t know exactly how old I was when I first watched it, but I do remember being confused that it was in black and white. Once we finally got a VCR, we taped it one year so we could watch it whenever we wanted, and then eventually we got it on DVD. At some point we decided that it made a good Thanksgiving movie in addition to a Christmas one, since it’s about being grateful for what you have, so I tended to watch it once or twice a year for a while. I’d probably seen it about 10 times before I started keeping track, and then I saw it once in 2003, once in 2004, twice in 2005, once in 2006, three times in 2008, twice in each year from 2009 through 2012, and then once each in 2013 and 2014, and then once in each year from 2020 through 2022. I don’t remember exactly why I took such a long break after 2014, and I think it was probably a combination of factors, but I do remember reading an article probably around then arguing that Bedford Falls actually would have been more fun without George and that he should have gone to jail anyway that kind of ruined the movie for me a bit. While I recognize that there are legitimate criticisms to be made of the story and message and other details (such as the nonsensical decision to make AS2 the abbreviation for Angel Second Class), for me, the good definitely outweighs the questionable.

For one thing, the acting is superb. Everybody’s at the top of their game, with character actors such as Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, and Beulah Bondi doing some of their best work, and some very impressive child acting, particularly from Bobbie Anderson and Karolyn Grimes. Thomas Mitchell knows exactly when to play Uncle Billy’s memory issues for comic relief and when to reveal how devastating they can be. Henry Travers similarly gives the audience a perfect balance of chuckles and tears. Frequent femme fatale Gloria Grahame makes the initially shallow Violet Bick surprisingly sympathetic. The character of Mary Hatch Bailey is also deceptively simple on the surface, but Donna Reed brings her to life with so much warmth and depth and complexity that it takes several rewatches to fully appreciate her. Lionel Barrymore perfectly embodies the evils of capitalist corruption as Potter, in one of the most diabolical villain performances of all time. And then there’s James Stewart. My man Jimmy. I’m kind of surprised I haven’t had an opportunity to talk about him on this podcast before now, since he’s definitely one of my faves. His performance as George Bailey is SO. GOOD! Just thinking about it gives me chills. We see George go from a young man full of hopes and dreams to a frustrated, drained, broken middle aged man at the end of his rope, to a man trying to make sense of the reality of his non-existence who ultimately learns that he’s a better and more important person than he thought he was. It’s a major emotional roller coaster, and Jimmy Stewart absolutely nails every moment of the ride. It’s rare for a Hollywood film to let a male protagonist get anywhere near as emotionally raw and vulnerable as George Bailey is at several points throughout this film, but Stewart was clearly not afraid to cry on screen, and it’s beautiful to watch.

The sets and visual effects are also beautiful and noteworthy. Falling snow on film used to be created with cornflakes painted white, but a new snow effect using fire extinguisher foam mixed with soap and water was developed for It’s a Wonderful Life. Using this allowed the sound to be recorded live, which had been impossible with crunchy cornflakes, and I feel like it enhanced the performances to not have to record the dialogue separately. The Bedford Falls set was one of the longest sets that had ever been made for an American movie, and the streets and buildings do an excellent job of bringing the audience into the town. Apparently three different cinematographers worked on this movie (they kept getting fired due to disagreements with the director), but the look and feel of the film is remarkably consistent and unique. Plenty of movies set in small towns were made during this era, but somehow none of them feel quite like this one. That could just be my own nostalgia, since this was the first one I saw, but there’s just something about Bedford Falls that sets it apart from other movie settings, and that’s a big part of what I love about this movie. The sets and the lighting and the performances are so engrossing that no matter how many times I rewatch it, I still feel like I’m part of the town, and like I’m interacting with the characters, in a fresh and unique way.

It's interesting that I’m talking about two 1946 movies in a row because I think that, like Notorious, It’s a Wonderful Life could really only have been made that year. James Stewart had left Hollywood to fight in World War II and was considering giving up acting for good when Frank Capra asked him to star in this film. Capra had spent the war making documentaries and propaganda films, and this was also his first post-war movie. Now, I’ve never fought in a war, and my parents are baby boomers so I definitely wasn’t around for World War II, but it stands to reason that their wartime experiences significantly impacted the people involved in making this film and were still fresh on their minds. Stewart apparently said that his PTSD and depression from the war helped him relate to George Bailey, and that acting out George’s anger and frustrations was cathartic for him. The US was also at its most anti-fascist at this time, as James and I briefly discussed last week, which I assume is what allowed this movie to be so blatantly anti-capitalist. Building and Loan associations don’t really exist anymore, but based on my understanding of the Bailey business from this movie, they seem kind of like mutual aid mortgages. Because George holds onto this institution, the people of Bedford Falls are able to afford to buy decent homes for themselves. The alternative that Potter wants is everyone paying him exorbitant rent. By capitalist standards, George is a failure, and was incredibly foolish for turning down Potter’s lucrative job offer in the middle of the movie. But the film portrays him as a hero precisely because he values people over money. When he’s at the end of his rope, Potter has the power to save him (especially because he’s the one who has the cash that Uncle Billy lost) but he refuses; it’s George’s friends and family who rally around to help him. And that sounds like something that would have been considered dangerously close to socialism in the McCarthy era. The Hollywood blacklist started in 1947, so I feel like It’s a Wonderful Life couldn’t have been made even a year later than it was without significant modifications.

One of the main focuses of the story is the romance between George and Mary, but I feel like even that is used as a demonstration of the shortcomings of our capitalist society. They are clearly drawn to each other, but George initially tries to pretend otherwise, in large part because he doesn’t feel good enough for her. She has a college education; he does not. Their wealthy friend, Sam Wainwright, is interested in Mary, and George feels like she would be better off with Sam, even though all she wants is George. They spend all their honeymoon money on supporting Building and Loan clients during a bank run, at Mary’s suggestion, but George later regrets that he couldn’t afford to provide for both his clients and his wife. Mary is perfectly happy with their life, but George feels like a failure by society’s standards and can’t see anything else, so he needs Clarence’s reality check to show him that he has always been enough for her. If George wasn’t constantly being bombarded with the message that he should be making more money, that he should have been able to leave Bedford Falls and make something more of himself, that he should be able to buy his wife and children extravagant things, maybe he could have been happy without divine intervention.

But also we need to talk about what happens to Mary in the alternate reality when George doesn’t exist because I have some very mixed thoughts about that. Earlier, right after George turned down Potter’s offer, he asked Mary why she married a guy like him and she replied, “To keep from being an old maid.” So when George doesn’t exist, she is an old maid. I remember as a teenager who didn’t know that being aroace was a thing and didn’t want to examine why I only ever had “crushes” on celebrities who were already dead, thinking that Mary’s attitude made perfect sense: if you can’t marry Jimmy Stewart, why get married at all? The part that has always confused me is when George begs Clarence to tell him where Mary is, and Clarence says, “You’re not going to like it, George.” Wouldn’t he like it less if she had married someone else? Isn’t it good that she’s consistent with her assertions that he’s the only man for her? I like to think that Mary is on the aromantic spectrum, and feels romantic attraction so rarely that if she hadn’t met George she would never have felt it at all, but even I have to admit that the movie isn’t really trying to say that. It seems to be implying that Mary ending up a librarian with no husband is the worst possible fate for her, which is an infuriatingly amatonormative attitude for a story that otherwise encourages resistance to societal pressures. But overall, I give George and Mary’s romance a pass, because I do think they have a fascinating dynamic, and also because the movie focuses a lot on community and other non-romantic relationships too.

There’s a lot of emphasis on family relationships, and the brotherly bond between George and Harry that is slightly tinged with envy is particularly well done. Harry gets a lot of opportunities that George wants, but George chooses to be happy for and supportive of him rather than resenting him too much. And Harry’s toast at the end – “To my big brother, George, the richest man in town” – is one of the moments guaranteed to make me cry every time. When George is young, he kind of looks down on his father, but finally starts to appreciate him shortly before his death, although not quite enough to understand that it’s good that he follows in his father’s footsteps. His relationship with his mother is very sweet, and the part when she doesn’t recognize him is perhaps the most devastating moment in the movie. I really wish we got to see George interact with his children a bit more; we mostly see them when he’s taking out his work frustrations on them, which doesn’t seem like a typical interaction. His scene with Zuzu and the flower is adorable though. And then there are all the friendships. I don’t know if the Sesame Street characters were named after them, but Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver have a fun relationship with each other and with George, and I appreciate that we get glimpses of how miserable they both are in the alternate reality. Violet is another interesting character, and at some points it almost seems like she’s being set up as a romantic rival for Mary, but she and George remain a rare good example of male/female friendship. And there are so many other great interactions between the townspeople; it feels like a real community. And it is that community of friends and acquaintances that come together at the end to help George and show him that he’s not alone, and that he has made a positive difference in all their lives. Granted, it’s very clear that Mary is the most important person to him, so the movie does reinforce the relationship hierarchy established by amatonormativity, but at the end, what does Clarence write in the book? “No man is a failure who has friends.”

I want to talk a little bit about representation in this film. There is only one black character, Annie, played by Lillian Randolph, who is, predictably, a maid, and while she is a pretty awesome character, she’s not in very much of the movie, and all the other characters are white. Disappointing, but not surprising for a 1940s Hollywood film. Similarly, while we get a few fabulous female characters, there are a lot more men than women. However, I feel like this movie has better disability representation than the average 2020s movie. It’s a Wonderful Life shows that it’s not that hard to incorporate an actor’s disability into a movie without it being the main focus of the story or the character. They really said, “You use a wheelchair? Awesome, your character uses a wheelchair now.” Of course, they were probably willing to provide more accommodations for the legendary Lionel Barrymore than they would have for an unknown disabled actor, but even he had been replaced in the 1938 film version of A Christmas Carol, in which he’d been slated to play Scrooge, because he couldn’t walk anymore. So I really like that It’s a Wonderful Life showed how effectively he could play a Scrooge-like character without walking.

I also really appreciate that It’s a Wonderful Life is very similar to A Christmas Carol, but kind of flipped. A Christmas Carol motivates the wealthy miser to change his behavior by showing him how happy people would be without him; It’s a Wonderful Life motivates the poor man to change his self-perception by showing him how unhappy people would be without him. A Christmas Carol’s message is that nobody is beyond redemption, which I do believe, but It’s a Wonderful Life responds with, “Let’s be realistic: the extremely rich aren’t going to change their ways; we need to do what we can to limit their power.” Which is a message that, if anything, has only gotten more relevant in the last 77 years. Most of my top 40 movies are fun, silly, entertainment that I use to escape the harshness of reality, but while this movie does have some fun moments, it’s less of an escape and more of a reflection of that harshness. I watch movies like Emperor’s New Groove and Mamma Mia and Bringing Up Baby and Ella Enchanted when I need to laugh; I watch It’s a Wonderful Life when I need to cry. Sometimes I have trouble regulating or understanding my feelings, and a big part of what I love about movies is the way they let us experience deep emotions in a relatively safe and controlled environment. It’s a Wonderful Life has been scorned by some film critics as overly sentimental, and perhaps it is, but I guess I don’t see anything wrong with being overly sentimental every once in a while. Sometimes you just need to feel feelings.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. Next up is the shortest in a 4-way tie of movies I watched 22 times in the last 20 years, which is another one that I had seen many times before I started keeping track. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “This is yet another example of the late neoclassic Baroque period. And, as I always say, ‘If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!’”

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)

It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)

Rated R for bloody violence, drug use and language

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/12/review-its-wonderful-knife-2023.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

It's a Wonderful Knife is the latest in the recent string of horror-comedies whose main gimmick is a retelling of the plot of a classic film in the form of a slasher movie. Happy Death Day was Groundhog Day as a slasher, Totally Killer and Time Cut were both Back to the Future as slashers, Freaky was Freaky Friday as a slasher, and this movie, written by the same guy who did Freaky and Time Cut, goes back a bit further and does the 1946 Frank Capra Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life as a slasher. Beyond just the obvious inspiration, it's also the slasher version of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, between its bucolic mountain town setting, a plot about a villainous land developer who wants to take over the town (only with, y'know, more stabbing), and the general aesthetics and tone of the film, which director Tyler MacIntyre manages to meld with slasher thrills surprisingly well. It's a shallow and often clumsy film that didn't really fully tap into many of the ideas it leaned into, perhaps taking a bit too much influence from Hallmark there, but as a lightweight, empty-calorie holiday horror-comedy, I was nothing if not amused for its brisk 87-minute runtime. If you're a horror fan who wants to have some fun around Christmas, give this one a spin.

Our protagonist Winnie Carruthers is a teenage girl who, last Christmas Eve, became the final girl in a holiday slaying when she stopped a masked murderer who turned out to be Henry Waters, the local businessman who employed her father David. Unfortunately, Henry still managed to kill three people before Winnie stopped him, including her best friend Cara. One year later, while David now runs Henry's company and the family seems to be doing better than ever, Winnie has fallen into a funk. She's still grieving Cara's death, her brother Jimmy is clearly the favorite in the family, and she's just found out that her boyfriend Robbie has been cheating on her with her friend Darla. Winnie finds herself wishing she'd never been born... and under the light of a strange aurora in the sky, her wish is granted. Now, she finds herself in a world where Henry's killing spree was never stopped, the killings having turned out to be part of a plot on his part to buy up various local businesses in order to build a massive development bearing his name and take over the town. Henry is now the mayor, his douchebag brother Buck is now the sheriff covering up the deaths (the last sheriff, you see, needed to go for Henry to carry out his plot), Jimmy and many other people Winnie cares about are dead on top of the initial three victims, and nobody knows who she is, not least of all her family, with David stuck working for the man who he knows killed his son in order to control him, her mother Judy a disheveled drunk carrying on an affair, and her aunt Gale grieving the death of her wife Karen. Together with a lonely outcast girl named Bernie who winds up serving as the Clarence to her George Bailey (and perhaps something more), Winnie must now stop the killer all over again if she wants a chance to go back to a home timeline where she didn't realize how good she had it until it was almost too late.

Beneath all the killing and bloodshed, this is fundamentally a movie that runs on pure, unadulterated Hallmark schmaltz. Angel Falls, at least the Bedford Falls version in the early scenes before Winnie's wish comes true and turns it into Pottersville, is presented in as idealized a manner as one would expect from Hallmark. There is romance in the air, both straight and queer, but it is as chaste as it comes. The protagonist Winnie looks and acts the part of a Hallmark heroine, while the villain Henry is a land developer overseeing a villainous gentrification scheme while hiding behind an aw-shucks demeanor. Make no mistake, this is still a parody of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, a film whose main hook is imagining what one of those would look like if you had a killer in an angel costume running around giving Lacey Chabert flashbacks to the Black Christmas remake she was in. But it's a parody made by people who, at the very least, have a clear affection for those films and understand why people enjoy them. Personally, they've never been my speed, and that extends to some of this film's faults in the storytelling department, which had a poorly-explained supernatural twist in the third act (though I think I figured out what happened there) and seemed to end with a neater, happier ending than it probably should've had. But when it came to pure vibes, director Tyler MacIntyre made a movie that felt really damn Christmasy, a candy-cane sweetness that came through even when it got violent. It was a tone that, beyond the holiday setting, felt like a slightly more comedic version of the Scream movies, a semi-serious pastiche that did have some funny jokes in there but otherwise took itself fairly seriously, and it was a tone that more or less worked for me. It's not particularly scary, but something tells me it really wasn't trying to be.

Rounding it out was a great cast, led by Jane Widdop as a final girl going through life after the trauma of a horror movie killing spree who suddenly has to do it all over again on hard mode. It's increasingly well-trod ground for modern slashers, but Widdop, who I've become a fan of thanks to Yellowjackets, sells it well, whether they're playing the cheerful girl in the prologue, the morose and bitter girl afterwards, or the scared survivor once Winnie's wish comes true. The interactions between Winnie and Bernie in particular turn out to be central to the film's sweeter side, and I bought the burgeoning friendship and eventual romance between the two of them thanks to Widdop and Jess McLeod's performances. Justin Long's villain Henry, meanwhile, also makes for a fun and deliciously hateable slimeball, from his "I'm the best, fuck the rest" ads to his vocal delivery going for a deliberately obnoxious affect that adds a level of smarminess and phony compassion to him. Every time that little bastard showed up on screen in the altered timeline, I wanted to wring his little neck, and I cheered when the final showdown came. The supporting cast, too, was great fun to watch, from Joel McHale as Winnie's traumatized father who knows what a terrible situation Henry has him in but feels powerless to stop him to Katharine Isabelle as Gale demonstrating that she's aged into "cool, boozy aunt" roles remarkably well. The body count was high, but the kills were generally fairly light, and some of them were better than others, with highlights including a slit throat and a giant candy cane through someone's head but lowlights include a mostly offscreen axe slaying and a kill in a movie theater that was lit up only with brief camera flashes where I could barely make out what was happening.

The Bottom Line

It's a Hallmark slasher movie, for better or worse. It has some of the flaws of its inspirations, and it's definitely not made for hardcore horror fans, but for my money, it's a nice movie to throw on around the fire during December, especially if you've already watched Krampus or Gremlins for the hundredth time and wanna pair it up with something similarly lighthearted.

[lboogie1906]

Dr. Lawrence Howland Knox (September 30, 1906 - January 6, 1966) noted chemist, was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts to William Jacob and Estella Knox. He was one of five children, two girls, and three boys, and remarkably for that time, all of the boys earned PhDs; the oldest brother, William Jr. earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, and the younger brother, Clinton, earned a Ph.D. in History.

He attended Bates College for his undergraduate schooling. He majored in Chemistry and played on the school football team. He graduated in 1928 and began teaching chemistry at Morehouse College. He attended Stanford and in 1931 attained his MS. He married Hazel and the two had one son. He began teaching at the NCATSU, he transferred to North Carolina College for Negroes. In 1940 he achieved a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and went back to teaching at North Carolina College.

It was at America’s entrance into WWII that his career path changed from teaching to research. In 1944 he left his job at North Carolina College to contribute to the research of quinine for the Division of War Research. His work on quinine was meant to be used in the Manhattan Project for field research on the effects of atomic bomb explosions. He remained at Columbia University until the end of the war.

He became a research chemist for Nopco Chemists. He was granted at least four patents. He became the Resident Director at the Hickrill Chemical Research Foundation. His marriage to Hazel began to fall apart, resulting in divorce. He married Anne Juren and moved to Mexico.

He took a position with Laboratorios Syntex S.A. and he received almost forty patents in the field of steroid chemistry. He and his wife stayed in Mexico when the company moved to Palo Alto because of Mexico’s comparatively liberal attitude toward their mixed-race marriage. The couple adopted a Mexican baby. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphaphialpha

[medicalmarihuanacard]

[Lists] Local Marijuana Dispensaries Readying Recreational Sales

As of Tuesday, the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control has issued provisional licenses to 80 cannabis dispensaries aiming to sell both medical and adult-use marijuana, including 26 in Northeast Ohio.

However, these dual-use licenses are merely placeholder and actually does not permit immediate sales. Additionally regulatory steps are required before they can officially open for business, and the timeline for when local shops can start selling to non-medical consumers still remains uncertain.

When can you buy recreational marijuana in Ohio? New rules aim to expedite legal sales. Before issuing the certificate of operation that allows dispensaries to begin selling recreational marijuana, Ohio's newly formed Division of Cannabis Control is ensuring inspection requirement are met and that dispensaries point-of-sale system can differentiate between medical as well as non-medical cannabis sales and also apply the state's 10% excise tax.

These certificates will be issues to dispensaries in 'roughly the order' their application were received, according to division spokesperson James Crawford. So far, none have been issued.

"It's important to keep in mind that, based on the criteria above, there will be no one singular day when sales begin. We will state issuing licenses and it will be up to retailer based on staffing, stock, and other considerations as to which day they will begin sales," he said. "Give the foundation already laid through the Medical Marijuana Control Program, current medical permit holders positioned to apply for dual-use status, who have already undergone many of the comprehensive checks, are anticipated to have a much quicker turnaround for issuance of licenses over the summer".

Under the rules outlines in the state's new legal cannabis structure, the state must start issuing certificates to qualified shops by Sep 7.

Voter in November approved Issue 2, making it legal in Ohio for those aged 21 and older to possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of cannabis flower and up to 15 grams of extract. It allows Ohioans to grow up to six cannabis plants household, or up to 12 plants if there are two or more adults in the home.

The law also permits local communities to simply and easily opt out of allowing new adult-use cannabis businesses within their limits. Despite the growing number of new dispensaries in the state, at least 56 Ohio communities have enacted moratorium or permanent bans.

Here’s where the Northeast Ohio dispensaries are located:

Ashtabula County

Italian Herbs, 2712 W. Prospect Road, Ashtabula

Columbiana County

FRX Health, 1865 Dresden Ave., East Liverpool

Cuyahoga County

Amplify, 22803 Rockside Road, Bedford

Green Power OH, 13429 Lakewood Heights Blvd., Cleveland

Rise, 1222 Prospect Ave. E, Cleveland

Amplify, 1782 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights

Rise, 11818 Madison Ave., Lakewood

Erie County

The Forest Dispensary, 5020 Milan Road, Sandusky

Ascend Dispensary Outlet, 6019 Milan Road, Sandusky

Lake County

Good Day Dispensary, 34480 Vine St., Eastlake

Insa, 27751 Chardon Road, Willoughby Hills

Lorain County

Nirvana Ohio, 914 Cleveland St., Elyria

Rise, 1920 Cooper Foster Park Road W, Lorain

The Citizen by Klutch, 5152 Grove Ave., Lorain

Body and Mind Dispensary, 709 Sugar Lane, Elyria

Mahoning County

Leaf Relief, 4323 Market St., Youngstown

Portage County

Bliss Ohio, 331 E. Main St., Kent

Supergood, 554 N. Chestnut St., Ravenna

Stark County

The Citizen by Klutch, 401 Cherry Ave. NE, Canton

ZenLeaf Canton, 3224 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton

Ohio Cannabis Company, 4016 Greentree Ave. SW, Canton

Summit County

The Botanist, 46 S. Summit St., Akron

FRX Health, 1682 State Road, Cuyahoga Falls

Trumbull County

ACA Dispensary, 437 E. Liberty St., Hubbard

gLeaf Medical Cannabis, 2932 Youngstown Road SE, Warren

Tuscarawas County

Ratio, 1145 W. High Ave., New Philadelphia

See the full list of active Ohio dispensaries on the Medical Marijuana Control Program website.

[influencermagazineuk]

FTSE 100 Live: Equity Drops as Unexpected Retail Sales Slump; Century-Old Investment Trusts Combine

FTSE 100 Live: Equity Drops as Unexpected Retail Sales Slump: Century-Old Investment Trusts Combine A significant union between two century-old investment trusts has led to a surprising decline in retail sales which ultimately caused the FTSE 100 to fall 27 points to 8,220. Overview of Commodities and Currencies An overview of today's commodity and currency moves is provided below, as the FTSE 100 continues its downward trend into the close: Bitcoin/USD: -0.1% at $61,720 GBP/USD: -0.3% at $1.264 GBP/EUR: -0.1% at €1.182 EUR/USD: -0.2% at $1.06 Brent Crude: +0.4% at $85.38 WTI Crude: +0.3% at $81.10 Gold: -1% at $2,297 Silver: -0.5% at $28.72 Boeing Union Seek 40% Salary Increase Boeing's largest union is attempting to increase pay by 40% by taking advantage of the company's problems with its 737 Max aircraft. Representing about 32,000 workers in Seattle, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is pushing for the local construction of the next narrow-body aircraft in order to ensure increased pay and job security. Aston Martin Drops Information About Supercar Launch Following the release of the £2 million Valiant model, a limited-edition petrol supercar, Aston Martin shares dropped by more than 3%. There will only be 38 5.2-liter Twin-Turbo V12 Valiants produced, all of which have already been reserved. Inspired by Formula One driver Fernando Alonso, the model was created by Aston Martin's bespoke division to commemorate the V12 performance era. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Stock_market_indexes via Wikimedia Commons Wall Street Commences US markets began the day with a decline as investors reevaluated the AI-driven boom. The Nasdaq remained unchanged, but the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both saw 0.3% declined drastically. Following pre-market turbulence, Nvidia, a significant player in AI stocks, was surprisingly stabilized at the end. FedEx's stock increased 12.5% in the meantime as a result of strong fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results which gave an economic bloom to the company statistics. Theme Park at Universal UK to Strengthen Economy A theme park near Bedford, planned by Universal, is expected to boost the UK economy by £50 billion over the course of 30 years. The project, which is Universal's first in Europe, is anticipated to produce a large amount of employment and tax income, with 20,000 jobs being created during construction and an additional 8,000 during the initial operating phase. June Retail Sales Crash CBI's distributive trades survey indicates that retail sales volumes declined dramatically in June, falling by 24% compared to an 8% gain in May. The unanticipated decrease is blamed for an unusually low temperature and a discernible drop in internet sales. The acting deputy head economist at the CBI, Alpesh Paleja, stressed the necessity of government intervention to help companies in the face of uncertain consumer demand. Investment Trust Merger: An estimated £5 billion will be created by the combination of Wisdom and Alliance Trusts. The FTSE 100 will soon welcome the new Alliance Witan PLC, which will ultimately provide an improved liquidity and a structural and competitive pricing structure which will help the company increase their stats. Analyst Iain Scouller of Stifel commended the merger and said it was a sensible decision for the shareholders, although he cautioned about possible volatility in share prices. Sales of De Beers Drop The largest diamond manufacturer in the world, De Beers, reported lower sales in its most recent cycle, with revenue down from £302 million to £250 million. Anglo American, the parent corporation is thinking of selling De Beers as part of a larger reorganization after BHP's failed purchase attempt. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:De_Beers?uselang=pt via Wikimedia Commons The strategic pivot of AO World Following restructuring efforts centered on profitability, AO World had an 186% increase in annual profits. Now part of the FTSE 250, the company expects double-digit revenue growth in the upcoming year thanks to a streamlined business model that eliminated non-core projects. Deliveroo's Stock Increases Amid Acquisition Interest The report of US delivery company Doordash's possible acquisition interest caused Deliveroo's stock to rise by 3.5%. Despite the initial breakdown of negotiations, analysts believe there is still a strong financial and strategic case for the merger, which might lead to more M&A activity in the sector. Volkswagen and Rivian Establish Collaboration Volkswagen has disclosed a $5 billion investment in US electric vehicle maker Rivian through a strategic joint venture, in order to obtain access to its technologies. Rivian's shares increased 50% in pre-market trading after the news. The deal offers growth opportunities for European and domestic manufacturers at a time when tariffs are being applied by the US and EU to Chinese electric vehicle imports. Morning Market Overview This morning's gains for the FTSE 100 erased Tuesday's losses. Confidence was bolstered by the US tech boom, spearheaded by Nvidia. An announcement was made about the merging of Alliance and Witan Investment Trusts, which produced a £5 billion portfolio and a new FTSE 100 entry. Additionally, AO World revealed a significant rise in profits. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Stock_market_indexes via Wikimedia Commons Notable company actions and economic indicators characterized today's market activity. Unexpected drops in retail sales are putting pressure on the FTSE 100, while significant acquisitions and Strategic reversals in a number of industries indicate continuous changes to the global market environment. Read the full article

[schoolsformedicalbilling]

Medical Billing Companies Massachusetts Our network covers relied on Medical Billing Companies around Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge, Lowell, Brockton, New Bedford, Quincy, Lynn, Fall River, Newton, Somerville, Lawrence, Framingham, Haverhill, Waltham, Malden, Medford, and more, making sure thorough protection throughout Massachusetts. How do I pick the very best medical billing business in Massachusetts? When picking…

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2024/02/body-shop-to-shut-75-stores-and-cut-hundreds-of-jobs

Body Shop to shut 75 stores and cut hundreds of jobs

Getty Images

By Dearbail Jordan

BBC News

The Body Shop will close 75 shops in the UK over the coming weeks and cut 489 jobs, according to the firm overseeing its restructuring.

It means that, combined with cost-cutting at the company’s head office, between 750 and 800 people will be made redundant.

However, The Body Shop will keep 116 UK stores open.

The UK arm of the global beauty chain was put into administration earlier this month.

Shops will be closed over the next four to six weeks. FRP Advisory, which is managing the restructuring, said it would “support all impacted staff with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service”.

“In taking swift action to right-size The Body Shop UK store portfolio, we have stabilised the business,” said FRP Advisory’s Tony Wright.

“We remain fully focused on exploring all options to take the business forward.”

The Body Shop was a trailblazer – what went wrong?

The Body Shop was founded in Brighton in 1976 by the late Dame Anita Roddick who opened a single shop in the seaside town. Known for its natural beauty products and its stance against testing on animals, it expanded rapidly in the following years.

Dame Anita and her husband Gordon sold the business to French beauty giant L’Oreal in 2006, much to the chagrin of some loyal followers who viewed the French beauty giant’s business at odds with The Body Shop’s ethos.

Since then, The Body Shop has changed hands twice, most recently to private equity firm Aurelius in late 2023. Within weeks, it decided to place the UK arm in administration following poor sales over Christmas and January.

Wildly popular in the 1980s and 1990s, The Body Shop appeared to fall out of fashion as competitors arrived in the natural beauty market including Lush and Rituals.

The UK shops closing are:

Aylesbury

Banbury

Barnstaple

Basildon

Battersea

Bedford

Beverley

Bexleyheath

Blackburn

Blackpool

Bournemouth Commercial Rd

Bolton

Brixton

Broughton Park

Bury

Camberley

Carlisle

Carmarthen

Chippenham

Cirencester

Croydon

Didcot

Durham

East Kilbride

Edinburgh Gyle Centre

Edinburgh Princes Mall

Epsom

Fareham

Farnborough

Glasgow Braehead

Glasgow Fort

Glasgow Silverburn

Glasgow Station

Grimsby

Halifax

Harlow

Hastings

Hempstead Valley

High Wycombe

Huddersfield

Hull

Ilford

Ipswich

Isle of Wight

Islington

Kendal

Kings Lynn

Leeds White Rose

Lewisham Centre

Lichfield

Loughborough

Luton

Macclesfield

Middlesbrough

Morpeth

Newton Abbot

Northampton

Oldham

Perth

Peterborough Queensgate

Portsmouth

Regent Street

Salisbury

Stafford

Stanstead Airside

Stratford Upon Avon

Swansea

Telford

Thanet

Trowbridge

Wakefield Trinity Walk

Walthamstow

Wigan

Woking

Wolverhampton

Related Topics

Companies

Retailing

More on this story

The Body Shop to shut up to half of its UK stores

20 February

The Body Shop was a trailblazer – what went wrong?

13 February

[ear-worthy]

"George Bailey Was Never Born" Has A New Take On "It's A Wonderful Life"

It's a Wonderful life is a Christmas classic. However, when it was released in 1946, It’s a Wonderful Life was not an immediate hit with audiences. In fact, it put director Frank Capra $525,000 in the hole, which left him scrambling to finance his production company’s next picture, State of the Union.

In addition,though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, It’s a Wonderful Life found a whole new life on television—particularly when its copyright lapsed in 1974, making it available royalty-free to anyone who wanted to show it for the next 20 years. (Which would explain why it was on television all the time during the holiday season.) The free-for-all ended in 1994.

Now, iHeartPodcasts and Emmy Award-winning producer Kurt Engfehr and 2022 NAACP Image Award Outstanding Podcast nominee Ray Nowosielski have announced the release of “George Bailey Was Never Born,” a one-of-a-kind podcast experience that takes a definitive look at “It’s a Wonderful Life,” one of the most popular holiday movies of all time.

The series is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories, created by Engfehr, editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d’Or-winning documentaries from director Michael Moore, and Nowosielski, producer of “Gumbo Coalition,” which began streaming on Max November 6th, and a story producer on “The Super Models,” streaming on Apple TV since September.

In the story, Joseph returns to narrate the podcast, reprising the character who tells fellow angel Clarence the story of Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey over the 1947 Frank Capra directed classic.

The podcast features conversations with Stewart's daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt, co-star Donna Reed's daughter Mary Owen, Capra's grandchildren Frank Capra III and Monica Capra Hodges, original story writer Philip Van Doren Stern’s grandchildren and others, as well as American influencers, artists and real modern small-town corollaries to the characters from the movie.

“George Bailey Was Never Born” details many never-before-told stories, ranging from the failure by Rashida Jones’ grandfather to renew the film's copyright to how Republic managed to regain control of it in 1993, from how the New York Times helped start a popular phenomenon of upside-downing the meaning of “It’s a Wonderful Life” to the abolitionist and anti-fascist intentions behind the movie’s creation, with implications for the MAGA movement today, and much more.

Three episodes take listeners inside the "real" Bedford Falls, Seneca Falls, New York, one spotlighting community banker Menzo Case's efforts to bring affordable housing there through his own Seneca County Habitat For Humanity Bailey Park. Case passed away suddenly of a heart attack on October 13th, leaving that initiative in doubt. Double Asterisk is donating a portion of proceeds to Bailey Park and encouraging listener donations to that, to their local Habitat for Humanity and to AFSP, in honor of the movie's twin causes of affordable homeownership and suicide prevention.

Check out George Bailey Was Never Born. By doing so, an angel may get its wings.

[limocranston]

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[themalhambird]

Ok, because this post got quite a bit of interest I'm going to lay out what the above thinking led to:

Ok, because this post got quite a bit of interest I'm going to lay out what the above thinking led to, namely that isolation pervades Mansfield Park in more than the obvious ways and in fact, when it comes down to it, Fanny Price is perhaps one of the least isolated inhabitants of the park. 

For all that Sir Thomas mentally labels Yates as one of Tom’s many “intimate friends” , Yates is just Some Guy who Tom met, stayed with them for a month or so and then, later, ran off with Tom’s sister. In order to avoid returning home to her family and what she fears will be a more or less gilded imprisonment, Julia gets married to a man who is pleasant but not, in reality, that well known either to her, or  by the brother who introduced him to her. Maria likewise engages herself to a man she can’t know that well- she accepts Rushworth’s proposal after “the proper number of dances”- and also marries chiefly as a way of separating herself from Mansfield Park. And of course, Julia and Yates’ story ‘ends’ with their reconciliation with Sir Thomas, but Maria’s ends with her shut a long way away with only Mrs Norris- who she doesn’t care for any more than she cared for Mr. Rushworth. Maria and Julia’s relationship with each other is not close either: Henry Crawford easily drives a wedge between them, and we never get the sense that they confide in each other. 

Just as Maria and Julia are anxious to escape the family, Tom doesn’t stay at Mansfield Park more than he can help it either. But for a man with apparently endless acquaintance, we never see him with a genuinely close friend (Yates doesn’t count, see post above), and he and Edmund don’t seem to be close either- he only wants Edmund’s company after a near-fatal illness and equally, Edmund never seems to seek Tom’s company either. We don’t hear of them hunting together, riding together, or even of them being in company with one another when they’re both in London at the same time. Nor is either brother close with either of their sisters: Tom seems entirely oblivious  to anything going on with either girl (he doesn’t comment on Rushworth, he doesn’t notice the falling out over Crawford) . Edmund is equally blind. On the other hand, he does seem to be the only Bertram child to approach being close with Sir Thomas. 

None of the Bertram Children are close to their mother. Sir Thomas obviously doesn’t see Lady Bertram as anything approaching an equal partner. Lady Bertram isn’t aware of even missing her husband until he’s back with her. Mrs Norris couldn’t give less of a shit when Mr Norris dies, except for the reduction that makes in her yearly income. None of the sisters nee Ward are close, even when the original breach between Mrs Price and the others is somewhat closed. Mrs Norris’ spare rooms are never wanted. Lady Bertram never goes into Public, never visits, and never seems to receive visitors of her own rank or similar. We’re told she has an extensive correspondence, but we’re also told that it’s mostly filled with nothing. Sir Thomas has exactly two friends that we hear of- Mr Norris, who dies off page having never once been seen on it, and Mr Harding, who also never appears in person and who smells suspiciously like a plot device thrown in to mix late in the game because Austen needed to have Sir Thomas preparing to go to London somehow. He has a sister or other near relation, presumably, as Julia stays with her cousins in Bedford Square, but Mary Crawford forgets their name and so the reader never learns it. We can safely assume that it’s not, therefore, a close relationship. 

This leaves us with Fanny. And although Fanny is isolated at the Park , particularly with her “not a servant, but not actually being treated as part of the family all that much either” social status, she has more genuine and lasting relationships than anybody else in the novel: her early friendship with Edmund, and her strong fraternal bond with William- with whom she consistently corresponds (in contrast to Tom and Edmund, who never write except on business, and Mary and Henry who, if Henry writes to her, writes a mere note). She has no close bond with her mother, father, aunts, and uncles, but she builds a strong rapport with Susan in a fairly short space of time. Her relationship with Mary Crawford is more complicated, so I’ll put that to the side for now  (the way I read it Mary thinks they’re friends, Fanny can put up with and occasionally even enjoy the acquaintance; Your Reading May Vary) but even with that aside, Fanny has first William, then Edmund, and then Susan. She ends the novel closer to Sir Thomas than either of his daughters, potentially than  either of his sons.  I’m not sure I’ve got a conclusion yet, beyond my usual Bertram-Family-Rot-Beneath-A-Gilt-Veneer schtick (I love how secretly miserable and fucked up deep down the Bertram kids probably are) I think perhaps the point is that family is just a word until actual work goes into the relationship, and Fanny is one of the few people in Mansfield Park willing to actually, well,  work.

Thinking about how Tom Bertram doesn't actually know Yates that well- he's like, some guy Tom met at a party once, casually invited to stay in that generic kind of 'oh, if you're in the area' kind of way, and then Yates actually fucking shows up....and runs off with Tom's sister six months later lol

[whatisonthemoon]

The GOP’s Own Asian Connection: Rev. Moon (1997)

The GOP’s Own Asian Connection: Rev. Moon BY ROBERT PARRY NOV. 16, 1997 12 AM PT

WASHINGTON —  

Republicans have scored points in the long-running political fund-raising scandal. Between videos of President Bill Clinton embracing a fund-raiser with close ties to Asian businesses and saffron-robed Buddhist nuns justifying a money-raising lunch attended by Vice President Al Gore, pressure is building for the appointment of an independent counsel to examine the Democrats’ scramble for campaign donations.

But Republicans are also vulnerable on the foreign-money issue. Indeed, they are especially lucky that one of their most questionable relationships has gone virtually unmentioned amid the controversies about mysterious Asian political money. That is the GOP’s long and lucrative relationship with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Korea-based Unification Church.

Over the past quarter-century, the 77-year-old Moon has given the U.S. conservative movement sums estimated in the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. Most notably, Moon’s deep pockets have financed the Washington Times, a leading conservative voice and one of the capital’s two daily newspapers. But he also has invested heavily in building the right’s political infrastructure, from direct-mail outlets to video-production houses, from think tanks to academic centers.

Much of Moon’s influence-buying is done in secret and often occurs when conservatives are vulnerable to being bought. A recent example is Christian right leader Jerry Falwell, who feared his fundamentalist Liberty University in Virginia was slipping into bankruptcy. Desperate for an infusion of cash, Falwell and two associates made an unannounced trip to South Korea in January 1994, where they solicited help from Unification Church representatives, according to documents on file in a court case in Bedford County, Va. Months later, Moon’s organization funneled $3.5 million to Liberty University through a clandestine channel. The money was delivered through one of Moon’s front groups, the Women’s Federation for World Peace. It then passed through the Christian Heritage Foundation, a Virginia nonprofit corporation that was buying up--and forgiving--Liberty’s debt.

On Jan. 28, 1995, during his nationally televised “Old Time Gospel Hour,” Falwell credited the directors of the foundation, Daniel A. Reber and Jimmy Thomas, with saving Liberty. Falwell made no mention of his more prominent financial angel, Moon, who is objectionable to many fundamentalist Christians because of his unusual biblical interpretations and his recruitment of young people away from their families.

I discovered the $3.5-million contribution while examining the Internal Revenue Service records of Moon-connected organizations. On the 1995 tax report for the Women’s Federation, there was a line item listing $3.5 million going to the Christian Heritage Foundation. Susan Fefferman, the federation’s vice president, admitted the money was targeted for Falwell’s Liberty University.

In many indirect ways, Moon’s companies have generated money for conservative businesses, in effect, tiding them over during slack times so they are still around to do nitty-gritty political work in election years. Moon’s Insight magazine, for example, in 1991 granted a $5-million contract to Direct Mail Communications, a small firm in Forest, Va., run by Falwell’s friends, Reber and Thomas. The Insight contract constituted more than one-third of the firm’s annual revenue. During later campaign seasons, DMC was available to do political mailings for the Republican National Committee, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the National Rifle Assn. and Iran-Contra figure Oliver L. North.

Some of DMC’s political direct-mail work was allegedly performed at a discount. In 1994, when DMC’s owners had a falling out, one faction accused Reber and Thomas of undercharging favored conservative organizations and political figures. Falwell’s televangelist organizations and a GOP candidate for a congressional seat in Florida were given a financial break, according to court records. Other conservative politicians seemed to have gotten extended credit when DMC performed work for them. After North lost his run for the U.S. Senate in 1994, his largest debt, $89,033, was to DMC, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Over the years, Moon’s hidden money has helped many Republicans through hard times. In the 1980s, the American Freedom Council defended North against Iran-Contra charges and distributed 30 million pieces of political literature to help elect George Bush in 1988. It was later revealed that the AFC was backed by $5 million to $6 million from business interests associated with Moon.

Moon’s organization also kept the right’s direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie afloat in the 1980s. At one stage, Viguerie profited from a big contract with the Washington Times for subscription solicitations, then, while facing a financial crisis that threatened his company’s future, Viguerie sold a building to a top Moon aide, Bo Hi Pak, for $10 million.

Yet, even as Moon has gained influence in GOP circles, the sources of his money have always been suspect. In the late 1970s, a congressional investigation tied Moon’s Unification Church to the “Koreagate” influence-buying scheme directed by South Korea’s intelligence service, the KCIA, against U.S. institutions. In 1983, the moderate Republican Ripon Society raised warning flags, too. Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), then Ripon chairman, charged that Moon’s church had “infiltrated the new right and the party it [the new right] wants to control, the Republican Party, and infiltrated the media as well.”

But President Ronald Reagan embraced the Washington Times as his “favorite” newspaper and Moon’s newspaper returned the favor by defending the Reagan-Bush administrations at nearly every turn. In 1991, President Bush invited the paper’s new editor-in-chief, Wesley Pruden, to lunch “just to tell you how valuable the Times has become in Washington, where we read it every day.”

Still, to this day, it is unclear how Moon finances his costly operations. The Washington Times alone is estimated to lose at least $35 million a year and some insiders put the annual losses at more than $100 million. When I asked Moon’s legal representative, Peter Ross, about Moon’s money sources, he responded: “Each year, the church retains an independent accounting firm to do a national audit and produce an annual financial statement. . . . [It] is not my policy to make it [publicly] available.”

Despite the secrecy, former senior figures of the Unification Church have told me that large amounts arrive in cash from overseas, particularly from Japan but also from South America, where Moon recently has increased his activities. Bolstering these claims are recent court records in Massachusetts and New York revealing that $1 million was carried into the United States by visiting church members. That money, for just one project, was then allegedly laundered through Moon-connected businesses in New York. According to the sworn affidavit of Nansook Moon, the estranged wife of Moon’s son, Hyo Jin, some of the money was diverted to buy cocaine and other personal extravagances.

Besides questions of legality, the Moon money could prove embarrassing to the Republicans because of Moon’s growing contempt for the United States and its democratic principles. Moon’s P.R. agents still tout Moon’s praise of the United States when he arrived here in the 1970s. But his recent speeches, carried on the Internet and in church publications, tell a different story.

On March 5, 1995, for instance, Moon announced in one sermon that “you must realize that America has become the kingdom of Satan.” On Aug. 4, 1996, he vowed that after his movement gains power, Americans who insist on maintaining their individuality “will be digested.” American women must learn “to negate yourself 100%,” he added in the same sermon. On May 1, 1997, Moon told his followers that “the country that represents Satan’s harvest is America.”

John Stacey, a former Unification Church youth leader and a recent defector, told me that Moon explained to a church leadership group in Alaska that “America is so satanic that even hamburgers should be considered evil, because they come from America.”

So far, Moon’s anti-Americanism has drawn little notice. But if attention on the current Asian political-influence-buying scandal takes a bipartisan turn, U.S. conservatives who have benefited from Moon’s deep pockets might find the controversy a two-edged sword.