The First Echo

This holiday season, marketing exec Maggie Whitewoman returns to her hometown to spend Christmas with her family. But first, to keep her loved ones safe, she'll have to spend a week in quarantine, renting out a cozy lodge owned by handsome carpenter (and widower) Ben Blandlyhot. Soon, when Maggie can't take any more Zoom meetings for work, she finds herself helping Ben make festive face masks for the townspeople - just in time for the annual Christmas Eve Festival - and finds that love can blossom even in isolation. But will Maggie give up a career (and a hard-earned Master's degree) to move back to a town where the most ethnic thing about it is an Italian restaurant owned by an Irish ex-pat from the Bronx? Starring That Actress from That 90s Teen Show Who Can't Get Cast in Anything Else and That Former Soap Hunk Who's Really a Closeted Conservative, it's... A Christmas in Quarantine . Then, stay tuned for A Very Covid Christmas : When Susan Goodchristian catche

Your early 20s are for being obnoxiously ambitious enough to get a friend to design your cover letter and resume for television writer-producer-director extraordinaire JJ Abrams. Little did I know that, one year later, I would “accidentally” cut him in line at the sushi bar inside the afterparty for the premiere of Star Wars: Episode III . @TheFirstEcho

Regardless of the official election results and what happens over the next several days, I can legitimately say that I am no longer proud to be an American.  And no, these aren’t the overdramatic words of a “liberal snowflake.” These are the words of a rational, fact-driven, empathetic U.S. citizen who has seen millions and millions vote (again) for a destructive, corrupt "leader." It is more than disappointing. It is soul-crushing. It represents the further erosion of the word that supposedly describes these States - "united." It is the extinction of morals. Many pundits and think pieces will attempt to explain and dissect the results of this election, but for me, it won’t matter anymore. I’ve done the reading. I’ve listened to dissenting sides. Yet I still cannot be proud to live in a country where the actions of countless people continue to support racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, treason, and blatant disrespect for the Constitution. I can no longer be p