Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days:

Film: Frankenstein (2025) – I’m not a fan of horror movies but I understood that this new Frankenstein movie, currently on Netflix, was unlike the 1931 film that starred Boris Karloff and more like the 1818 novel by Mary Shelley. The book, which was published just five years before the first textile mill opened in what would become Lowell, was influenced by the turbulent political, scientific, and societal shifts of that time. These included the French Revolution, the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution which raised questions about the role of God as the creator of all things. I thought the new movie was excellent. It’s a period drama that gets at the deep questions raised by the book while being very entertaining. It moves to second place on my list of favorite Frankenstein movies, just behind Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein from 1974.

Podcast: Access with Alex Heath and Ellis Hamburger – Access launched as a podcast last September by Vox Media. The two hosts, Heath and Hamburger, are longtime tech journalists. This show provides an inside view of how today’s tech industry works with special emphasis on AI. This episode was recorded during the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the annual gathering of companies and innovators who unveil the latest consumer electronics. This episode featured an interview with Alex Himel, the head of “wearables” at Meta (Facebook) with a focus on Meta’s smart glasses. In general, smart glasses made their debut about five years ago but felt underwhelming. Technology never stands still, so much has improved with  Meta seen as the leader of the pack by a considerable distance. Two things contributing to this was Meta’s partnership with Ray-Bans to design the glasses along with the integration of the latest AI which makes the glasses far more functional according to reviewers. I have a deep distrust of Meta/Facebook so I won’t be submitting my order for these anytime soon, but I do see many uses for them so hopefully some more palatable competitors will soon offer models with equal functionality and style.

Book: The Restless Republic: Britain Without a Crown by Anna Keay – In January 1649, the English parliament, backed by the army, charged King Charles I with treason, held a trial, and then executed him by chopping off his head. For the next dozen years, England operated as a republic, governed at first by a Parliamentary committee but then by Oliver Cromwell, as the king-like “Lord Protector.” Competition among the various factions remained intense, but Cromwell, through the strength of his personality and good relations with the army which he had commanded, held things together. After his death in 1658, however, the government became so unstable that in 1660, Parliament invited King Charles II, the son of the executed king, to return from exile and re-establish the monarchy. Charles agreed and was restored to the throne. In her 2022 book, Restless Republic, Keay, a noted historian of that period, tells this story through the lives of nine diverse individuals who played important roles in the events depicted in the book. Rather than a traditional top-down political history, this book reads like an adventure novel although the outcome is never in doubt. I am especially interested in this period of English history because of the profound impact events in England had on those living here in Massachusetts at the time. 

Newspaper: “Indiana Rising” in New York Times, January 9, 2026. Living in New England, big time football has always meant the Patriots, at least since the start of this century. The last time college football had any great interest for me was on November 23, 1984, when Doug Flutie led Boston College to an upset victory over Miami in the Orange Bowl. Now, when I turn on the TV on a Saturday afternoon in the fall, I’m struck by in-person crowds of 100K or more filling stadiums in much of the rest of the country for college football. I watch those games the same way I watch soccer or rugby or lacrosse or any of the other sports which display impressive athletic ability but which I lack a solid understanding of the attraction. That said, the story of the Indiana University football team has caught my attention this year. Until now, Indiana was noteworthy for having the most losses in college football history. But this year they were undefeated and have one last game, that being for the National Championship on Monday, January 19, 2026, coincidentally against Doug Flutie’s former foe, the Miami Hurricanes. Although Indiana’s quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, won the Heisman Trophy this year and will likely be the top pick in the NFL draft, I’m more intrigued by the team’s coach, Curt Cignetti. I’ve watched several Indiana games this year and have never once seen Cignetti smile, even after a big victory. He first came to my attention two years ago when, during a press conference about new recruits, a reporter asked how he was able to convince anyone good to come play for the team with the worst record in college football history. His blunt response: “It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me.” The clip went viral, so viral that I, with zero interest in Indiana football, saw it many times. He seemed pretty arrogant, but when your results back up your words, it’s not really arrogance anymore. Anyway, Cignetti has made a fan of me, so I’ll be rooting for Indiana over Miami next Monday night.