What’s Streaming for Families in January 2020
Happy New Year! Here we are tippy toeing into a brand-new year and decade. That’s right, the 2010s are over—10 years that saw the birth of the iPad and meat dresses; witnessed royal weddings and Gangnam Style dancing; and gave us everything from ice-bucket challenges to the legalization of same-sex marriage to fidget spinners. And […]
The Beauty of Christmas Movies … in Black and White
With family driving in, the hearth glowing and the spirit of the yuletide warming the cockles of your heart, there are probably times when you stop and think, “You know, a fun little Christmas movie might be fun tonight!” That’s exactly what my fellow Plugged In colleagues were doing a day or so ago. And […]
Game Goods 2019: Bob Hoose’s Year-End Picks
Yes, it’s December and time for Plugged In to wheel out its end-of-the-year “Best Of” lists. And in the gaming category, that’s not an easy call—not because there’s too little to choose from, but too much: I reviewed a pretty heavily populated crowd of fun games this year. But fear not, we’ve culled the crowd […]
Fifty Years of Sesame Street and the Internet: Which Hurt My Kids More?
OK, so this blog’s title is a little click-baity, but it’s still worth thinking about for a bit. The Internet and Sesame Street are both celebrating their golden 50th. They popped into being back in the fall of 1969 (on Oct. 29 and Nov. 10 respectively). Each required years of planning and hard work. Their […]
What’s Streaming in November 2019 (a.k.a. Disney+ Streams Your Childhood)
The holidays are blowing in quickly—along with snow days, fall breaks and all those outlier relatives who tend to show up for free meals and presents—so your thoughts may have already turned to: How do we keep the kids and my unibrowed Uncle Harry entertained? Well, I’ve got a good news/bad news scenario for you. […]
When Videogames Go to School
It wasn’t that long ago that everybody from parents to clergymen to U.S. senators were all aflutter about the kid-destroying characteristics of videogames. These days, however, its not so much parents screaming at the kids to turn off the videogames as it is parents urging them to sharpen their button-mashing skills. You know, so they […]
Online “Swatting:” A Prank That’s No Laughing Matter
We don’t often think about gaming and online shenanigans leading to anything truly dangerous. But it turns out that in the right situation, those pursuits can lead to jail time and even someone’s death! Say what? NBC News recently reported on a terrible and deadly event that involved something called “swatting”—the tactic of contacting police […]
What’s Streaming for Families in October (2019)
When October rolls around it’s perfectly reasonable to think that your movie streaming choices might be a little limited. I mean it is monster movie season. (Grrrrowl. Arrrgh!) But while there are scores of terrifying demon nuns, wall-crawling beasties and little boys whispering, “I see dead people” to be seen on your movie streaming site […]
Grandma Loves Gaming
We have a love/hate relationship with video games. There’s no mystery on that front. You can’t go a week without seeing a new report on how video games are corrupting our youth and driving them to some form of angry destruction. But this blog is actually about the opposite side of that equation: the love […]
What’s Streaming for Families in September (2019)
Well, it’s September. Football season is once again sticking its pigskin snout into your life and your local team is once again appearing less than ready to live up to your hopes of gridiron glory. (Unless you live in New England.) Of course, if you would rather sit down with the kids for some family […]