The New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2025 was a time of celebration of great movies and performances from the previous year that also included a great ribbing. As part of the awards presentation, actor Ethan Hawke had the honor of introducing the winner of Best Actress, Rose Byrne, to the stage at the Film Critics Dinner, but not without a rebuttal that was 16 years in the making.

Hawke revealed at the podium that he discovered that Byrne had left a Goodreads review of his 1996 book The Hottest State back in 2010. In her review, given under her first name only, Byrne gave the book two out of five stars, saying that she read it because the book was “lazing around on set.” She ended her review with, “It's kind of like a Ryan Adams song but not as good.”

The audience laughed as the gobsmacked Byrne took the stage and approached the microphone. Hawke laughed as well, greeting Byrne with a smile, a peck on the cheek, and a hug as she accepted her award for her performance in the film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

“I never thought you would read that review. Ever! Ever! Goodreads is so daggy, like, no one reads it,” Byrne declared with the crowd, and Hawke, laughing.

While she didn’t care for his book at the time, Byrne was certainly a fan of Hawke’s overall, saying, “You are the most magical person and artist whose career I put on a pedestal. I had a poster of Dead Poet’s Society on my wall.”

Byrne was referring to Hawke’s breakthrough film role in Dead Poets Society back in 1989 which led to him becoming a movie star and household name.

Byrne then proceeded to continue her acceptance speech. In If Had Legs I’d Kick You, Byrne portrays a woman trying to hold it together as she deals with her child’s illness, a missing person, her absent husband, and a contentious relationship with her therapist while being a therapist herself.

Film buffs quickly pointed out that this book review call-out reflected a past film the two had starred in together. In 2018, eight years after Byrne posted that Goodreads review, she co-starred with Hawke in the rom-com Juliet, Naked. In the film, Byrne’s character meets Hawke’s rock star character after leaving an anonymous negative review of his latest album.

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Everything was all in good nature, fun, with a sweet ending with Byrne saying this to Hawke before accepting her award:

“Whether I see you on the street corner in Brooklyn or at a black tie event, your spirit is infectious, insightful, inspiring. I walk away having a better day.”

American kids have fewer school days than most other major countries as it is, which poses a big challenge for families with two working parents. In a system designed for the "classic" stay-at-home mom model, it's difficult for many modern families to cover childcare and fulfill their work obligations during the many, many holidays and extra days off American children receive in school.

Some school districts, in fact, are ready to take things one step further with even fewer instructional days: for better or for worse.

Whitney Independent School District in Texas recently made news when it decided to enact a four-day week heading into the 2025 school year. That makes it one of dozens of school districts in Texas to make the change and over 900 nationally.

The thought of having the kids home from school EVERY Friday or Monday makes many parents break out in stress hives, but this four-day school week movement isn't designed to give parents a headache. It's meant to lure teachers back to work.

Yes, teachers are leaving the profession in droves and young graduates don't seem eager to replace them. Why? For starters, the pay is bad—but that's just the beginning. Teachers are burnt out, undermined and criticized relentlessly, held hostage by standardized testing, and more. It can be a grueling, demoralizing, and thankless job. The love and passion they have for shaping the youth of tomorrow can only take you so far when you feel like you're constantly getting the short end of the stick.

School districts want to pay their teachers more, in theory, but their hands are often tied. So, they're getting creative to recruit the next generation of teachers into their schools—starting with an extra day off for planning, catch-up, or family time every week.

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So far, the data shows that the truncated schedule perk is working. In these districts, job applications for teachers are up, retirements are down, and teachers are reporting better mental well-being. That's great news!

But these positive developments may be coming at the price of the working parents in the communities. Most early adopters of the four-day week have been rural communities with a high prevalence of stay-at-home parents. As the idea starts to take hold in other parts of the country, it's getting more pushback. Discussions on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media platforms are overrun with debate on how this is all going to shake up. Some parents, to be fair, like the idea! If they stay-at-home or have a lot of flexibility, they see it as an opportunity for more family time. But many are feeling anxious. Here's what's got those parents worried:

The effect on students' achievement........

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