The Brotherhood of Fame & Polanski

Lately, I've been too tired & busy to post about politics, media, celebrity or even Palin. But I have been reading about all of those things on various web sites.  Tonight, I read a number of op-ed pieces regarding the Polanski extradition.  I haven't been able to make sense of the arguments by his supporters to let him off the hook. Yesterday Michael Seitzman posted an article in response to an article defending Polanski.  It was a good response, but I think that the articles by Judge H. Less Sarokin and Eve Ensler better articulate the reasons for extraditing Polanski. 

Like Keli Goff, I generally ignored claims that Hollywood is run by the liberal elite in part because I didn't understand these claims and in part because I don't care who runs Hollywood. I care about who runs Lansing and who run D.C.  Actors, directors, producers can all support who they want, make crazy statements all they want.  For the most part, they live in a bubble and I don't take what they have to say too seriously.  Some of them remember what it is like out here for the rest of us outside of their bubble and are able to articulate coherent, logical opinions.  Sometimes, even logical, coherent opinions that I disagree with. 

But now, we have these "Hollywood Elites" running around saying, well, it was a long time ago and it wasn't that bad.  It is as if they have forgotten they are talking about the drugging and rape of a 13 year old girl. Keli is right, this is why people don't like the "Hollywood Elite".  Frankly, this Polanski business isn't about liberals. It is a group of people who think that the law doesn't apply to them.  They don't have to follow the usual rules.  This belief is not limited to liberals.  Roman Polanski may have had a crappy hand dealt to him.  Lots of people have and most of them don't drug and rape 13 year old girls in response. Eve Ensler says is better than I just did when she says:

No one is arguing the genius of Roman Polanski, or even the pain and tragedy of his difficult life. But in the end, that has nothing to do with the crime he committed. Being an artist does not make any of us exempt from the laws of humanity -- in fact, it actually makes us more responsible to them.

Quoting Keli Goff's article:

Hollywood hypocrisy is one thing when it takes the form of a celebrity touting their environmental consciousness while globetrotting in a fuel-guzzling private jet (ahem, Madonna.) But when people like Mr. Weinstein, who supports a plethora of liberal candidates, and was the producing arm behind Michael Moore's iconic, cinematic Bush takedown "Fahrenheit 9/11," seem content to paint the former president as harmful to Americans but Roman Polanski as merely misunderstood, they are proving Sarah Palin and every other anti-Hollywood conservative's point for them.

So read the articles I link to, they are better written than this rant.  I probably could have just said, folks, remove heads from asses, Polanski pled guilty to "engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" - he drugged and raped a 13 year old child. It is time for him to face the consequences.

The Joy of Waffles!

One of my fabulous Christmas presents was The Joy of Cooking! So this morning I made Belgian Waffles (page 647). I was worried they wouldn't turn out right because it didn't rise much at all during the hour and 15 minutes I let it rest. I think next time I will make it the night before and let it rise in the fridge.  They turned out quite delicious!  We topped the waffles with strawberries and real whip cream!  What a great way to start the day!

The Daring Baker December Challenge - COMPLETED!!!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Another requirement was that the house had to be edible. I don't know who in our house came up with the idea of making it for all the birds Mom feeds in the front yard, but that is what we decided to do early on. I didn't feel any pressure to make it pretty because it was for the birds. I am happy with how it came out. It isn't beautiful, but I know the birds will love it! I can't wait to check out all of the other gingerbread houses!  I used a stencil I made based on one I found online.  I used the recipe from Good Housekeeping.  The instructions said to roll the dough out to about 3/8 of an inch thick.  It suggested you use wooden dowels to ensure uniform thickness and the right thickness.  I was going to go to the store to buy the dowels when my Mom suggested I use hangers.  She measured them and sure enough, 3/8".  The hangers really helped keep the dough even and the right thickness.  I'm sure my house would have never stayed together if we hadn't used a guide. We had left over dough and used it to make gingerbread treats! They were quite tasty!

Final assembly did turn out to be a bit trickier for us because I did not check or trim my pieces when they came out of the oven.  Then after melting the sugar,  I burned my finger when I dropped the brush with the hot, hot sugar on it.  (It even blistered! :( ) Mom helped out by finishing up the assembly - okay, I didn't have any of it together when I managed to burn myself!  In the end, it was all worth it. 

 

 

UPDATE: Today (12/28) I saw two birds on the house, but couldn't get to the camera in time!

Merry Christmas!

We have been having such a fun and busy December that I haven't been blogging!  What have we been so busy doing? 

We attended the Michigan State University vs. Notre Dame Hockey game. It was Kate's first hockey game and as you can see we right at the glass! It was great! More than one player was slammed up against the glass in front of us! We had a great row of older women behind us. They seem to follow MSU hockey on a regular basis as they knew quite a bit about our team. Sadly, we did not win.

We also attended Irving Berlin's White Christmas at the Wharton Center here on campus. My pictures of that are at home. It was a great show and Kate had a great time!

I attempted to make cream biscuits as featured on the Smitten Kitchen, but they did not rise and cooked too fast. I will have to finish this post tonight at home. Time to get back to work.

It has been a while. . .

I am trying to get back on the 101 Goals bandwagon this month. Tonight, we are rearranging some of the furniture to help us get the house more organized. It is a very, very busy night here tonight. Earlier we went to the City Christmas parade. Kate's Girl Scout troop was in the parade. After the parade, there was a tree lighting event down by the water.

I missed last month's Daring Bakers' Challenge. I am really looking forward to this months!

On an unrelated note, I am considering applying for a vacancy on our school board. The member who resigned was just elected mayor. Like most districts in Michigan, ours is facing a financial crisis.

In the next week, I need to find a cherry cake recipe to make a cherry cake with cream cheese frosting for the birthday of one of my closest friends. So if any of you have any recipes, you would like to share, I would really appreciate it!

I guess this post is just going to go up without photos because the computer I keep the photos on is down as part of the rearranging project. My title block is also just going to have to stay not quite right for the night too.

Tomorrow night, I am going to try to make some cream biscuits as found at the Smitten Kitchen. I will try to catch you up on photos and let you know how the biscuits go! We are having turkey chili to go with our biscuits. Biscuits get top billing around here!