A Tale of Two Rebeccas
Mar. 18th, 2011 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogJust came in from listening to a Fresh Air rerun from last year, where Terry visited with Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
I'd posted about the book shortly after first hearing about it and reading it, but today's rerun was a timely updating of the story and meta-story, for several reasons. One, it's now out in paperback. Two, Dave updated the author's discussion, at the end of the original interview, about the foundation she'd set up in Henrietta's honor to provide scholarships and medical assistance to this unintentional pioneer's descendants: eight of her grandchildren received scholarship monies in its first year of existence, others were helped with medical costs, and it's now a fully up-and-running 501c3 charity which you can donate to.
The link, despite my recent FAIL with trying such things
Best of all, though, was this mention at the end of the update: the book has been optioned for a movie version, which will be backed by the gagilliony dollars of Oprah Winfrey and, even better, the evil genius of Six Feet Under's Alan Ball. And that's why Claire is smiling:)
----
It certainly wouldn't be about the OTHER Rebecca of the header. That would be about this one, which I have only known of for about two hours, but about which I only have one thing to say:
FridayGAGGGGGGGGG ETA New link because YouTube took down the parody of it.
If I hear that song one more time today, I will commit homicide. Possibly of the multiple kind.
ETA#2 Okay. THIS explains it:
I'd posted about the book shortly after first hearing about it and reading it, but today's rerun was a timely updating of the story and meta-story, for several reasons. One, it's now out in paperback. Two, Dave updated the author's discussion, at the end of the original interview, about the foundation she'd set up in Henrietta's honor to provide scholarships and medical assistance to this unintentional pioneer's descendants: eight of her grandchildren received scholarship monies in its first year of existence, others were helped with medical costs, and it's now a fully up-and-running 501c3 charity which you can donate to.
The link, despite my recent FAIL with trying such things
Best of all, though, was this mention at the end of the update: the book has been optioned for a movie version, which will be backed by the gagilliony dollars of Oprah Winfrey and, even better, the evil genius of Six Feet Under's Alan Ball. And that's why Claire is smiling:)
----
It certainly wouldn't be about the OTHER Rebecca of the header. That would be about this one, which I have only known of for about two hours, but about which I only have one thing to say:
FridayGAGGGGGGGGG ETA New link because YouTube took down the parody of it.
If I hear that song one more time today, I will commit homicide. Possibly of the multiple kind.
ETA#2 Okay. THIS explains it:
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-18 09:20 pm (UTC)And whilst I've got you, happy birthday, man!