All in Pop Culture

Top Gun Maverick Offers Up More Than Just Great Action

Top Gun Maverick Offers Up More Than Just Great Action

Jody Yarborough
Pop Culture

It was the summer of 2019, and Drew and I were sitting in a movie theater watching the previews for Ford vs. Ferrari when I saw the trailer for Top Gun Maverick for the first time. Even though it was just a few scenes set to the iconic Top Gun anthem, I immediately got goosebumps. To say I am a fan girl of Top Gun would be a huge understatement.

When Top Gun was released I was only 10 years old. My parents never took me to see movies as a kid, so as a result I never saw it in the theater. When I did finally watch it on VHS later that year, it had a significant impact on me. Even though I know at that age, my ability to appreciate all the movie had to offer was limited, I still loved everything about it. I mostly connected to the movie’s military setting and the aerial combat scenes because my dad was a fighter pilot— Air Force, though, not Navy, as he’d like to correct me.

Have You Played Your Wordle Yet Today?

Have You Played Your Wordle Yet Today?

Jody Yarborough
Pop Culture

Have you done your Wordle yet today?

Man, yesterday’s was tough! It took me four tries, but I finally got there.

If you aren’t familiar with Wordle, it is the online word game that has taken the internet by storm. I am not on social media that much, so my husband Andrew introduced it to me. We are pretty competitive, so we are always looking for new games to play.

Keep in mind that I am not a trend-seeker or band-wagon person. I never got into Pokemon, Animal Crossing, or any of those other types of online phenomenons that captured the cultural zeitgeist of the time. I do things because I enjoy them. Not because everyone says I should.

And I do enjoy Wordle. It makes sense because I’ve always loved word games, whether Hangman when I was a kid or the New York Times Crossword puzzle when I got older.

A Sade Concert is an Experience of a Lifetime

A Sade Concert is an Experience of a Lifetime

Jody Yarborough
Pop Culture

I love music concerts. There is nothing that compares to seeing your favorite singer performing live. One of the best performers I've ever seen is Sade.

If you have never heard the music of Sade, well, you should. The band's lead vocalist is Sade Adu, born Helen Folasade Adu. She is a Nigerian-born British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer of the British, Grammy Award-winning English group Sade.

Growing Up With The Oprah Winfrey Show: My "To Oprah With Love"

Growing Up With The Oprah Winfrey Show: My "To Oprah With Love"

Jody Yarborough
Pop Culture

The Oprah Winfrey Show is in its final days of airing. And yes, I am watching. This fact is only noteworthy because I have not made "The Oprah Winfrey Show" part of my daily must-see TV schedule for the better part of the last five years. I was opting instead to re-watch highlights online and subscribe to her "O" magazine. In fact, if it were not for an injured shoulder that has me working from home, I probably would have missed her farewell shows altogether. And wouldn't that have been a shame. Because there is no other person, or perhaps better said, personality, that has so significantly impacted who I am today.

Foodtainment: The Myth of the 30-Minute-Meal

Foodtainment: The Myth of the 30-Minute-Meal

Jody Yarborough
Pop Culture

I'm sitting here watching a "behind the scenes" of the Food Network celebrity cooking shows and getting progressively more upset. I'm trying to get my husband to get as upset as I am, but instead, he says, "Dear, maybe we should just change the channel." Arg. So, of course, I turn to my sisterhood of Skirtsetters for some "hell yeah" support. We have all watched at least one of these shows at one time or another. We've seen Rachel whip up a meal in 30 minutes, watched Giada handle pasta like it is playdoh, and become mesmerized as Bobby Flay masters his grill. Everything in Food Network Land is so "simple," "easy," "takes no time at all!" Yet, somehow, in my kitchen, those same "easy" recipes are never as "simple" as they claim!