We watched Sixteen candles with Casper when she was maybe 14 and the whole thing is a disaster - I recall cringing at Long Duc Dong at the time, but the plot revolves around date rape! So we basically talked about how we were clueless and/or cringed but accepted that nonsense at the time.

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite books but it requires a little discussion for a child about both race and class. Luckily "this is set a long time ago when X people were not treated equally" goes a long way. On the other hand I tried to read Peter Pan aloud and realized it wasn't worth it.

So I'd say, "I loved X for X reason, but warning, period-typical homophobia," if I wanted to rec something, but also a rewatch/reread can make you decide if it's actually still worth recommending.

Yeah, I haven't entirely figured that out, meara. Library is an excellent idea! I have old fines that have made me embarrassed to show my face there, but maybe I can, you know, pay the fines and get over that

Does your library have an amnesty period? I know some will have a time when you can return any book and not have to pay fines. I kind of gave up on the local library because I'd bring books back but the staff never checked them in and I'd get nailed with fines; I resorted to either taking out the card showing the due date and saying that gee, it must have fallen out or, on occasion, pulling the book off the shelf and waving it under their noses.

how do you (or can you even) recommend something that includes things which were unremarkable at the time but which would never fly now?

In my book group, I suggested Georgette Heyer's The Grand Sophy by saying something along the lines of, "This book is a good example of an author whose work was seminal in developing the Regency romance genre. However, she was writing in the first half of the 20th century, and her antisemitism is blatant. Given that, would you be interested in putting it on our reading schedule?"

We ended up reading it. And we had a good conversation about it, including tearing apart the racist, antisemitic tropes.

I will share that sometimes it has been a really long time at the library and they have changed computer systems, and they don’t remember your fines... Not saying that has happened....

I also now only get e-books and online audio books from the library, because then they just disappear and no fines.

Yes I only do ebooks because they disappear, no fines!

Potentially they might also have those shows on Hoopla or Kanopy through the library?

And the movie I wish I could wholeheartedly recommend is Drop Dead Gorgeous. But even the last time I watched it a few years ago, the intellectually challenged brother in overalls bit is egregiously bad, even if it’s a very small part of the movie.

Like Breakfast at Tiffany's. The Mickey Rooney part is so horrible that it's hard to divorce the rest of the movie from it.

(Brain wanted to type Mickey Rourke. Wrong Mickey, brain.)

I'm reminded of the icebreaker I was doing at work recently where they asked what decade you would want to live in, and I was in all all-women groups, and we all said the future, still! All of the past is garbage! (Of the US, at least -- one person did make a decent case for some point in ancient Egypt.)

Exactly, Dana!!

And yes, Jesse—maybe there are great eras of other cultures that I would enjoy but western culture of the past couple Millenium? Heck no. Plus I want indoor plumbing.

and antibiotics! The two things I always demand when jumping to another time. I've tent camped a lot. I can deal with inconveniences. But flush toilets and antibiotics are a must.

A friend moved to England and got married and lived in a big house (bought on sale for the taxes) with a nationally registered rose garden which she and her DH maintained themselves. She bought a horse and took up point-to-point for a while, then got intrigued with bell ringing and became competent at it and eventually signed up to be called for any of about four or five churches when they needed bellringers. And sold the horse. All very intriguing.

Except the bell towers were all affiliated with, you know, *churches*, and before you know it she was doing regular Tuesday evenings as a "Street Pastor," I.E. accosting people on the sidewalk to talk about Jesus, and at that point she and I more or less drifted apart. But, you know, bell-ringer adjacent for a while, that was pretty neat.