April 13, 2023

Hello readers! Some of you know that I live in Bergen County, New Jersey. Relatedly, I will be giving a talk about this blog for the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County (SFABC). Fortunately for all of you, this talk is happening on Zoom, so you can join from any county in the world!

My presentation is on Saturday, April 15, at 6PM. To RSVP, contact SFABCinfo@gmail.com.

There are a dozen other people giving presentations on art, music, writing, film, animation, and more throughout the weekend. Once you're RSVPd, you can come see both me and my friends.

Here's the schedule:

(Click on the name of the presenter for more information.)

March 13, 2023

Welcome, my friends, to your introduction post for our latest contestant franchise, Stargate. Oh, and what a franchise it is, having the third-longest runtime of any sci-fi series ever (behind Doctor Who and Star Trek, which are both much older).

The premise of Stargate can be summarized as, "The US Air Force discovers an ancient device that allows instantaneous travel between planets. Adventures ensue."

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February 10, 2023

Lately, I've had several English students ask me what dating is like in the USA, and I always struggle to answer, because I haven't been on a first date since (checks notes) 2010. I met my husband in high school.

Wait, you actually married your high school sweetheart? That's just too idyllic.

-former boss of mine

Yes, seriously. In fact, here's a yearbook picture of the DePaul Catholic Music Ministry, with us both in it:

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January 26, 2023

My social media manager/sister and I have decided to start a proper email list for this blog, at which you can be notified about new posts. Sign up below if you're interested:

January 6, 2023

Whenever I explain the DFGRR to a new person, I inevitably get one of two potential reactions:

a) "Sounds cool! Who are your contestants? Which genres do you cover?"

b) "Aren't there female characters whose boyfriends all die? Your blog sounds sexist."

In honor of/to spite everyone in B camp, therefore, I've decided to research the Dead Fictional Boyfriends of American media. My first step was to pull up the Cartwright Curse page on TV Tropes and skim through the TV section for the names of women whose boyfriends tend to bite it. There are a handful, as it turns out, including:

1. Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 (1997-2007), Stargate Atlantis (2004-2009), and Stargate Universe (2009-2011)
2. Maggie O'Connell of Northern Exposure (1990-1995)
3. Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Interestingly, however, each of those curse descriptions comes with a caveat.

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October 25, 2022

Wait, they only hired 1 woman in season 3 and just had her play all the roles? That's something that a parody of a TV show should do!

- My husband, after reading about Elyssa Davalos in my last MacGyver post

Welcome, dear readers, to Part II of my MacGyver analysis, in which we will finally learn how many women MacGyver narrowly saves using hastily improvised contraptions...and of course, how many girlfriends he fails to save. Let us begin with a few words on...

The Character

Carol Varnay: Do something.

MacGyver: What?

Carol: You're the one who picked the embassy lock with a lightbulb filament and ground-up pencil lead. You're also the one who shorted an alarm system with a chewing gum wrapper and a half a lemon. Come ON!

- "For Love Or Money" (1987-05-04)

MacGyver has a heart of gold, a lot of random knowledge, and strong improvisational skills. He is, in fact, a man after my own heart, and I choose to believe that he'd be a DFGRR reader if he were real.

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