The House of Tudor

Arguably, the period with the most flourishing dramatic stories ever written was the Elizabethan era, marked by the reign of the "Virgin Queen" or Elizabeth I. With Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare as well as the stories of adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake, some of the best films ever made draw from this period in British history.

I've recently learned more about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn from the series "The Tudors" and really enjoyed the struggle between the Catholic and the Protestant religions. I think about playing that conversation out with my friends and as much as I enjoy a good argument, I tend to avoid religious ones. To ensure stability in the realm for 44 years given the setting laid out by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, their daughter had to be an amazing personality. Hence, fodder for great dramatic film making.

What are your favorite dramatic movies or mini-series for the Elizabethan period? Different points of view regarding Queen Elizabeth's disposition have emerged. How would you have handled living in that era?

Confessional Technology

As a tech nut myself, I LOVED the pilot of "Ballykissangel" and the high tech confessional. Fully equipped with air conditioning as well as a leather recliner (for the priest), this confessional was the pride of the town's wealthiest business man, who donated it to the church. Sounds so like me... loving the toys and willing to share. (If only I had the money!) In the end, though, the technology malfunctions and no one wants THAT to happen during services. So "goodbye tech!"

Have you ever shared some technology that you liked, only to have it FAIL miserably? How did your friends respond?

Heat Index

When its hot outside, I like to fall into a good BBC America series. The heat index here is over 100 degrees again, so where am I? Enjoying some great British television. What are your favorites? Doctor Who? Torchwood? Hotel Babylon... or the oldies, perhaps? Keeping Up Appearances? All Creatures Great and Small?

I live in farm country in the U.S. and recently started watching "All Creatures Great and Small" on my Roku video streaming through Netflix. In one episode, Siegfried and James desperately require a medicine for white scour and they pitted each drug company rep against the other. What I realized, Cargill was the name of the company that they received the experimental drug from... Cargill is a big agriculture company in my area. Now given that the setting of this series was around 1940, and they mentioned that Cargill had been around since the 1850's, I immediately set out to check the facts. Whadda ya know? Cargill started in 1865! So in 2015, the company will be celebrating 150 years of business. Not many companies make it that long.

So an early "Happy Birthday" to Cargill! I hope I'm invited to the party!