Minnie desperately wants to be loved. But like 15-year-old girls the world over, she feels unlovable.

   This leads her into the desperate acts that are the subject of The Diary of a Teenage Girl, a provocative first film from writer/director Marielle Heller. Based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel, it forces us to watch as Minnie embarks on a creepy journey of self-discovery.

   How creepy? Read on.

   Living in San Francisco in the 1970s, Minnie (Bel Powley) confesses to the tape recorder that serves as her diary that she was an “ugly child” and hasn’t improved since then. Adding more baggage to her inferiority complex, she lives in the shadow of Charlotte (Kristen Wiig), a beautiful but distant single mom who has no trouble winning men’s admiration.

   So when Charlotte’s boyfriend, Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard), shows an interest in Minnie, the girl eagerly coaxes him into a full-blown affair. Who knows, she asks herself, whether she’ll ever have another opportunity.

Whenever there is significant social progress, there is a backlash, and recent movements like Gamergate (covered by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an actual hate group) have proven that geek culture is by no means immune. Indeed, while women, PoCs and LGBT+ people have always been part of geek communities, there’s been a myopic tendency for the straight white male members to see these communities as somehow inherently theirs.
  I wrote before about one of these movements, which calls itself Sad Puppies, with a more virulent, openly racist/sexist/queerphobic offshoot called Rabid Puppies. What are these puppies so sad about? They’re sad about losing the Hugo Awards — the sci-fi/fantasy literature equivalent of the Oscars — to people who, instead of using speculative fiction to write about Generic White Male Action Heroes doing action things, used it to explore social issues. They claimed to be opposed to the awards being given to “unreadable” cerebral books rather than “fun” ones, but by their actions they showed themselves to be simply another group of reactionary, entitled conservatives.

The Duke of Fork, Chef Mark Zedella and The Duchess, Loretta Yoga Tune Up®are probably one of the most exciting and dynamic food & yoga innovations to add to Columbus’ Intelligent City (intelligentcity.org) status ratings typically characterized by technology innovations. The connection is that they are capable of empowering Columbus’ residents with one of the most critical health promoting, social justice serving and environmental sustainability yet largely untapped initiatives with the simple utensil; the fork. They work their health promoting culinary and physical fitness combo wonders at community gems such as Worthington Libraries and the Franklin Park Conservatory. They cover nutritionally robust, exciting and delicious topics such as Superfoods, Oil–free cooking, Healthy Holidays and more with their Move Well, Eat Well, Be Well program. Check out their website for more details on how to connect with them. Their next event is Sept 16 at Franklin Park Conservatory.

Amos Lynch
(1925­2015)

Everyone refers to Amos Lynch as the “godfather” of black journalism. But he was more than that.
He helped set the black political agenda in Columbus as well as covering stories of Jim Crow
practices that inspired progressives to action. For 33 years he edited the Call and Post and launched
the career of perhaps Ohio’s most famous black writer, Wil Haygood. I remember reading the front
page of the Call and Post in the 80s and 90s and contrasting it with the Dispatch and the difference
was literally black and white. All the great moral issues of the day were covered first and more
complete in the Call and Post. Whether it was freeing Nelson Mandela or police brutality – the
actual existing conditions for the poor and minorities and advocacy on their behalf was to be found
in the papers edited by Amos Lynch. The Free Press hopes that we can, in a small way, carry on
his legacy. Lynch died at age 90 on July 24, 2015. ~ Bob Fitrakis