I use Wikipedia, but I don’t take it as gospel, and neither should you. Robert McHenry, former editor of Encyclopedia Britannica, explains why.

I’ve already stated my predisposition (or lack thereof) toward seeing King Kong (even if Jackson didn’t do the gay version), but Randy Barnett says that it’s one of the best movies he’s ever seen.

This story about the Narnia movie seems to have a strange headline to me. If it pleases them, how can they be said to be critics?

…on Mars.

…on Mars.

…on Mars.

I don’t know if there’s a Carnival of the Recipes for Thanksgiving, but in response to popular demand [cue sounds of crickets chirping], here’s my unique recipe for corn-bread and wild-rice stuffing. It’s higher protein than most.

A couple pounds of sausage (I prefer some kind of fancy chicken or turkey sausage–this year I found some chicken/brocolli)
wild rice (maybe half a cup)
pine nuts (maybe half a cup)
a pound or so of exotic mushrooms (oyster, chanterelle, shiitake, etc.)
one onion, chopped
a few cloves of garlic, diced
a few cups of corn bread crumbs, either home made or store-bought stuffing
a few stalks of celery (if desired–I don’t like it that much, but some people think it’s not stuffing without it), chopped
pomegranate seeds (this is the secret ingredient)
A couple cups of chicken broth (from bouillion is fine, unless you want to be fancy)
salt, pepper, sage, thyme to taste
olive oil

Soak the rice overnight in about twice as much water as it needs to cover. Another good thing to do ahead, while watching teevee, is to divest the pomegranate from its seeds (persnickety work).

In the morning, cut up the sausage into bite-size chunks, and saute in the olive oil (amount depending on the stickiness of your saute pan). Chop the rest of the ingredients and boil the rice for fifteen minutes or so (if you overdo it, it won’t have the crunchiness). Set the meat aside and saute the onions, celery and garlic in the same pan.

Put all the non-liquid ingredients in a big bowl and stir well. Add in the broth and mix thoroughly. If it seems too dry, feel free to add as much water…or booze…as you want. It should be moist throughout, but not soaked. You can also add melted butter to taste and texture if you like that sort of thing, and your arteries can take it. Another option, to be more heart healthy, is to fatten it up with olive or canola oil.

Use it like any other stuffing–either inside the bird, or under the skin, or just bake it in its own dish, or all of the above.

Eat, and enjoy.

Oh, and on this Thanksgiving Eve, let us all bow our heads and give remembrance to the woman who invented Stove Top Stuffing™, who has stuffed her last stove top.

Charles Johnson inadvertently follows up on my post, with a shot from (I think) Palos Verdes. Though he doesn’t comment about it, note the brown haze on the otherwise blue horizon. That means that the Santa Anas continue.

OK, I got the computer fixed (at least for now), but now I have a question for all the DirecTV Tivo mavens out there. This is something that has been driving me nuts ever since I got the farging thing.

Why does it fill up my hard drive with programs that I’ve zero interest in, have never watched, have never evinced any interest in watching? More to the immediate point, why, when I’m watching Fox News, and have a half-hour of it in the can, and am waiting for Brit Hume to come on, and can zap commercials, does it randomly decide that I’d rather watch Seinfeld, and switch to that channel, thus losing everything on the hard drive from Fox News, so that when I switch back in frustration, I’ve lost the first half hour?

I’m flying back to Florida tomorrow, and it will be good to be home with Patricia, but I thought I’d take a little walk in my old neighborhood this afternoon. If you’re interested, click for more, but a warning that there are several pictures, for those limited in bandwidth…

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