Warning in America: Andrew J. Bacevich on Bill Moyers Journal
By Mark Czerniec
August 18, 2008 1:55 PM

We modern Americans are marvels of indolence. We'll slap magnetic "Support our troops" ribbons on our minivans and surrender our freedoms to telephone companies if that's what it takes to keep from having to protect our freedoms, but let anyone even suggest keeping our tires properly inflated and suddenly that sacred line between abstract consent and literal effort has been crossed and we are downright indignant.

You would think we would be doomed with an attitude like this, and you would be right.

On Friday, the same day I had been thinking that I wanted more and better TV on my computer, I ran across a posting at Lifehacker about Miro, an iTunesy kind of video player that also downloads fresh video content for you as it becomes available. The first thing I downloaded with it was Friday's installment of Bill Moyers Journal, a favorite PBS interview show.

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Saddleback forum followup
By Mark Czerniec
August 18, 2008 1:05 PM

There were a number of interesting moments in Saturday night's "Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency," but one that I have not seen mentioned came as part of John McCain's response to a question about taxes. Part 5 of Pastor Rick Warren's transcript quotes McCain as saying:

In fact, I want to give working Americans a better shot at having a better life and we all know the challenges, my friends, if I could be serious. Americans tonight in California and all over America are sitting at the kitchen table, recently and suddenly lost a job, can't afford to stay in their home, education for their kids, affordable health care, these are tough problems. These are tough problems. You talk to them every day.

Q: All the time?

Every day. My friends, we have got to give them hope and confidence in the future. That's what we need to give them and I can inspire them. I can lead and I know that our best days are ahead of us.

Hope? People who have lost their jobs and homes lack inspiration and so McCain is going to give them hope? Isn't this exactly the thrust of his attacks on Barack Obama?

Also, according to the New York Times, Rev. Warren's vaunted "cone of silence" appears to have been nothing more than a joking reference to Get Smart — funny methodology from a man putting the ethics of two potential presidents under his own microscope. Maybe this will come up when Warren guests on Larry King Live tonight.

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It's God time in Campaign '08
By Mark Czerniec
August 15, 2008 1:43 PM

Reading Andrew Sullivan's acclaimed piece in last December's Atlantic magazine, I noted the emphasis on Barack Obama's religious conviction and how one Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright introduced Obama to Jesus Christ. Sullivan was wowed:

To deploy the rhetoric of Evangelicalism while eschewing its occasional anti-intellectualism and hubristic certainty is as rare as it is exhilarating. It is both an intellectual achievement, because Obama has clearly attempted to wrestle a modern Christianity from the encumbrances and anachronisms of its past, and an American achievement, because it was forged in the only American institution where conservative theology and the Democratic Party still communicate: the black church.

I remember hoping Obama knew what he was doing, because it's hard to imagine a more divisive topic than religion these days, and he was already going to be dealing with race.

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Recipe: Amy's Mustard and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes
By Mark Czerniec
August 10, 2008 12:01 PM

As the weather here already begins to turn cooler, our oven is getting some use again. Last night we roasted a chicken, accompanied by a simple, rustic roasted potato recipe that Amy threw together a year or two ago, which we have been enjoying ever since:

• nonstick cooking spray (canola or olive oil)
• 1 pound (2 large) Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 pound (2 medium) sweet potatoes
• 2 tablespoons Maille® traditional Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 7-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary, stripped and chopped
• kosher or sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a baking dish or pan (an 11 x 7" Pyrex dish works) with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Scrub and dry the potatoes, but do not peel. Cut each potato into eight chunks.

3. In a bowl, combine the mustard, olive oil, and chopped rosemary. Add the potato chunks and toss to coat thoroughly.

4. Transfer the coated potatoes to the baking dish. Grind black pepper over them lightly and generously sprinkle with kosher or sea salt.

5. Roast at 375°F. for 45 minutes or until tender and nicely browned, turning the potato chunks halfway though.

Serves four.

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C'est les fests
By Mark Czerniec
August 3, 2008 7:24 AM

In the month since I last posted here, nothing truly remarkable has transpired. We have tried to water our browning vegetation when possible. We had our chimney replaced. We have suffered several million mosquito bites.

On weekends, we have sampled a number of area festivals and annual events. Most of these were fairly enjoyable, but we did end up attending one too many, and were ultimately forced to plot a hasty escape and scramble home to the refuge of our backyard, still shuddering from the crude food, the mustaches, and the song that would not end.

More about those momentarily.

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July 3 at Summerfest
By Mark Czerniec
July 6, 2008 12:01 PM

It's been a long time since I attended Summerfest. There are a lot of people close to my advanced age who whine about the crowds and the excessive drinking or the price of beer, but I generally enjoy festivals and music — humanity and all. I guess I've just had other things going on the past ten years or so.

Locally, most people seem to equate Summerfest with just the big headliners playing the Marcus Amphitheater each night. I prefer to see as much music as possible on the smaller stages. Looking at the lineups this year, July 3 stood out as the one day I would really want to go. All in all, it was a great time.

We paid $8 each for admission online plus $15 to park, and we sampled jambalaya, catfish, sweet potato fries, and gator sausage from Crawdaddy's, a mandatory Imperial Egg Roll from Wong's Wok, fish and chips from Major Goolsby's, and a couple of curry dishes from The King and I. Entrees were generally about $6 for smallish portions. Beer was $4.50 or $5, and a bottle of water went for $3. The weather, under blue skies, was about one degree cool of absolute perfection.

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Class reurine
By Mark Czerniec
July 2, 2008 11:51 AM

So I'm sitting here eating my lunch in front of MSNBC when I hear the familiar voice of Andrea Martin during a pharmaceutical commercial. This is slightly troubling in itself, because Andrea Martin is one of the most talented and funny women in TV history. She should have her own comedy show, not voice work in an ad for some bladder control drug. (For those too young to remember, Ms. Martin was one of the stars of SCTV, the funniest television show ever. I have one friend who, to this day, busts up at the mere mention of "Mrs. Falbo.")

Most disturbing, though, is what I'm seeing on the screen as I sip my Diet Mountain Dew. It's a reunion for the Class of '68, and all of the attendees are dancing pseudo-bladders. They are balloons filled with a thankfully unspecified liquid, bouncing and sloshing confidently around under the mirror ball.

I would really love to have seen how the ad agency presented this idea in meetings.

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Movie review: Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
By Mark Czerniec
June 30, 2008 4:42 PM

I had been looking forward to watching Pan's Labyrinth for many months, prepared to love it. I already love The Devil's Backbone, the 2001 ghost story by Guillermo del Toro, and Pan's Labyrinth is a kind of companion piece to that picture. Unfortunately, this movie is not as good as his earlier gem.

Pan's Labyrinth is an R-rated fairy tale (graphic violence and some language). It intertwines the brutal realities of 1944 Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War with a subterranean fantasy world populated by magical creatures including a big, goatish faun (Doug Jones) and a fairylike insect that is part mantis, part Tinker Bell.

The central character is an adorable young girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), whose new stepfather is a cruel fascist captain (Sergi López i Ayats) sniffing out anti-Franco guerrillas in the mountains. Ofelia's mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) is suffering through a difficult pregnancy, carrying Captain Vidal's unborn child. Both the guerrillas and an overgrown old labyrinth -- the portal to the underground realm -- lie in the woods just outside the captain's garrison. Inside it, a local housekeeper (Maribel Verdú) and doctor (Álex Angulo) look after the needs of the captain and his people.

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Out with House Sparrows, in with American Goldfinches
By Mark Czerniec
May 9, 2008 11:57 AM

We have stopped the madness, and the backyard is much better now. We have cut way back on House Sparrows, and we're touting the American Goldfinch as the bird to feed for Racine's elite, birdfeeding smart set.

Amy and I started feeding wild birds years ago, back in our second-floor Kenosha apartment. We bought a couple of basic hanging plastic feeders and filled them with something like Kaytee Wild Bird Food — the standard, all-purpose mix of millet, milo, sunflower, cracked corn, and wheat. This attracted several species, but overall the vast majority of our customers were common House Sparrows. At times, there would be flocks of a hundred or so sparrows flying back and forth between our windows and the trees. They would squawk and fight and empty both feeders each day.

Like the old ladies always say when the authorities come to clear the 300 cats out of their houses, it just gradually got out of hand.

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Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie
By Mark Czerniec
May 6, 2008 5:24 PM

Even on public television's extensive menu of food and cooking shows, Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie is a standout offering. It's a globe-hopping, half-hour magazine of on-location footage and interviews featuring all sorts of fascinating topics from the primitive to the cutting-edge. A typical episode might take you from a Dante-quoting butcher in Panzano, Italy, to a traditional Door County, Wisconsin fish boil, to the inferno beneath a Moroccan bathhouse and the cooks who use its heat. There's often also a brief recipe or technique worth trying at home.

We've thoroughly enjoyed most of the show's two seasons so far on our local PBS stations, but only last week did I visit the Diary of a Foodie Web site and notice that all 20 episodes of the first season are available online for free downloading and viewing in iTunes. That's eight and two-thirds total hours!

Go and get it.

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