Offered without comment except the comment we found it with. Said Jessiawesome: “This is what I do to get out of dates.”

Previously in Wonder Woman

Most of us learned the tragic story of young Anne Frank in school. The young Jewish girl whose family was hidden away from Nazi soldiers in a secret apartment in Amsterdam was immortalized thanks to a diary her father gave her shortly before they fled. Frank started that diary on June 12, 1942. The date also marks what would have been her 83rd birthday.

The Hobbit was published in 1937, the first work of fiction from Oxford professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien whose only previous claim to fame was writing one of the (still!) most influential essays on the interpretation of the Old English epic Beowulf. It was an overnight success, and it’s safe to say that the fantasy genre was never quite the same. But at the same time, in 1937, Adolf Hitler was consolidating his power as leader of the Third Reich. By May of the next year Germany had already annexed Austria, and Hitler announced his intention to use the utmost military force to subdue Czechoslovakia.

This was the climate in which publishing house Rütten & Loening, while attempting to secure the rights to publish a translated The Hobbit in German, asked J.R.R. Tolkien if he could provide proof that he was of Aryan descent.

Hedy Lamarr was a mathematically inclined Jewish woman who fled an abusive, Nazi-sympathizing husband, rescuring herself and her mother from who-knows-what fate in Germany to Paris and eventually Hollywood, where she became one of the biggest stars of MGM’s Golden Age. She’s mostly famous for the latter achievements: that of playing glamorous, seductive women in some of the most successful movies of the forties. But, as Gizmodo relates, she’s made other lasting contributions to modern culture: she invented some of the basic principles of which Wifi technology is based on.

And we don’t even mean that in an indirect way.

First filmed in 1968, “Patterns of Force,” an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, has finally been aired in Germany after the country refused to show it on television. Why, you ask, would they have refrained from airing this particular episode of Star Trek? Well, it was the one in which Kirk and Spock dressed up like Nazis and referred to the World’s Most Terrible Genocidal Political Dictatorship as “the most efficient society ever created.” At a mere 20 or so years after the end of World War II, Germany had decided that at the time, airing the episode might be considered in bad taste. And they’re still extremely self-conscious about this Nazi thing — the episode ran at 10:00 PM and anyone under 16 was not advised to watch it. Set phasers to “too soon”!

I think we can unequivocally say we’re against Hitler. I think the worst thing you can do to that awful man is take the mickey out of him on Doctor Who. Don’t worry, we’re not going to save Hitler.

– Steven Moffat, who just wants to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Look, sometimes you just have to lay it out there.

(via io9.)

Okay, Darren Aronofsky. I was really disappointed when you left The Wolverine. You directing that flick seemed like a perfect storm of things that I like: artful directing, Wolverine, samurai, Hugh Jackman, period film, etc.

But if this is what you’re giving me instead? I actually cannot complain. It’s just a completely different set of things that I like.

According to Variety, Aronofsky has signed on to direct the pilot of HBO’s Hobgoblin, a series created by Michael Chabon and his wife.

Hollywood, we have to talk. I’ve spoken to every ticket-buyer in America and we’ve all decided that you need to make more movies about badass women. Like, starting yesterday. Oh sure, every now and then you will throw us a Salt or maybe even a Salt II, but face it, Hollywood, many of your attempts at a woman-driven action movies have been half-assed at best and soul-crushingly awful at worst (see Electra, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, or, dear God, Sucker Punch).

It should not be that hard, Hollywood. All we, the ticket-buying public of America want is a good story about a woman or a bunch of women who fight and shoot and do other badass things badassedly. And guess what?  You don’t even have to make up any stories on your own.  Real life badass women have existed throughout history! Just do a Wikipedia search on “woman warrior.” That article ain’t no stub. You could make a great movie about any of these women.

Don’t know where to start, Hollywood?  You would like it if someone compiled a list for you? Well, I just happen to have one right here that I always carry in case of emergency.

Be still my heart: Michael Chabon, celebrated writer and comic book enthusiast, is creating a series for HBO about con-men and magicians in World War II. The show, titled Hobgoblin, will feature a team of 20th century stage performers using their craft and guile to — wait for it — fight Nazis.

You make think this sounds silly, you may think it even sounds stupid, and you are wrong. I don’t have any insider knowledge, of course, but I do have access to Wikipedia where there is a historical precedent for the new series. Jasper Maskelyne aided the allied forces with his “Magic Gang” of theater professionals that created elaborate illusions to hide military activities. His greatest accomplishment? Making the Suez Canal disappear.