Last Call: Katharine Hepburn And Contemplating Mortality

Reasons why I have the greatest job in the world: I'm probably the only person who posted not one but two stories about Katharine Hepburn today; as someone who has been steeped in old movies since I was a kid, this makes me extremely happy. Earlier we kicked off a new column here at The Takeout about celebrity recipes, so I went with Hepburn's famous batch of brownies, which was a big hit with everyone who tasted them. But that wasn't even my only recent Hepburn encounter: The A.V. Club decided to bring back the Watch This Feature for Valentine's week, so I got to write about one of Hepburn and Tracy's last screen outings: Desk Set. If you love Mad Men, but would like to see that mid-century style in its actual time period, Desk Set offers a wonderful portrait of 1950s office culture, along with yet another witty Tracy-Hepburn rom-com. For your Valentine's Day this week, you can quickly whip those brownies, then fire up that movie, and presto: perfect at-home date night. You're welcome, and happy (early) Valentine's Day! [Gwen Ihnat]

Because I spend my free time on the internet exploring deep philosophical questions about what it means to be alive—and also slapping dancing hot dog gifs on my photos—I am still pondering the questions raised in this Newsweek article about what happens to our cells after death. New research on both humans and animals suggests that cells in our bodies die via "a 'step-wise shutdown,' by which parts of us die gradually, at different rates, rather than all at once." Even when our bodies have ceased to have a pulse, brain cells might not have degraded far enough to be considered "dead." See? Deep. [Kate Bernot]