Blah blah blah.
Early Morning Open Thread: Crafty!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of Seth McFarlane’s shows — we only get four TV channels & my Netflix queue is always full. So I had a vague impression that McFarlane was “controversial”, in the sense that critics use when they mean “a jerk”, but I had not realized that he’s (also) quite the crafty practical joker. Because the NYT just let us know that the controversial Downs Syndrome character on “Family Guy”, the one that had the Palinistas calling for McFarlane’s job all this week, was voiced by an actress with Downs Syndrome:
Mr. MacFarlane said in an e-mail message that “Family Guy” was proud of the way that the Ellen character was portrayed. “She is headstrong, outspoken and, at times, almost domineering,” he wrote. “The fact that she has Down syndrome was deliberately played as a secondary element to her character… ”
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One person who supports the “Family Guy” staff in this latest debate is Andrea Fay Friedman, the 39-year-old actress and public speaker who provided the voice of Ellen in that episode.
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In an e-mail message sent to The New York Times, Ms. Friedman wrote, “I guess former Governor Palin does not have a sense of humor.” She added that in her family, “we think laughing is good,” and that she was raised by her parents “to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.”
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Ms. Friedman continued, “My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”
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In a telephone interview on Thursday, Ms. Friedman, who has also appeared in television shows like “Life Goes On” and “Saving Grace,” said she was perplexed by Ms. Palin’s criticism.
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“I’m like, ‘I’m not Trig. This is my life,’ ” Ms. Friedman said. “I was making fun of Sarah Palin, but not her son.”
Sheer satirical genius, Mr. McFarlane!
Open Thread
Here is an open thread for you all. My surrogate wife, Tammy, took me out for the evening, and we had some food and are now on the bottle.
And the bottle is good.
Logo Contest
Now an official non-profit, Charlie’s Angels Animal Rescue, the current beneficiary of all the Balloon Juice CafePress store profits, needs an official logo. If any of you graphics whizzes would like to participate, please submit your work through the Logo Contest blog. The winner will be selected by Evelyn Bridges, the group’s founder, and will receive a whole bunch of really cool swag from the Balloon Juice store. The contest will probably run for a week or two, or until we find the perfect logo.
Also, don’t forget to get that special someone in your life something from the Balloon Juice store (you can find the store by clicking the icon over there on the right). We have photographic evidence they will enjoy it:
HCR Update
A lot of pieces moving around the board at once. Here is what I can glean:
* House Democrats remain in a holding pattern. The Senate bill will probably never pass on its own. However, votes most likely already exist to pass HCR as long as the Senate can fix the excise tax and those special deals for Nebraska and Louisiana. Nobody seems to know whether Bart Stupak’s secret abortion army can gum up the works or not; you might as well call conservadems to find out where they stand.
* For better or worse, most action is happening in the Senate. Does Harry Reid have enough votes to pass a modest reconciliation fix? Who knows. The public option has clawed its way out of the grave and is presently stumbling around, slowly gathering co-sponsors. Ezra Klein thinks that might be either a good thing or a bad thing.
* Obama will apparently unveil its own plan (strategy?). Nobody else was consulted, so nobody has any idea what’s in it. We can hope that he finally has a bold strategy to overcome Republican roadblocks. History suggests that Obama will yet again pre-compromise his own agenda to earn bipartisan cred by punching hippies. There’s nothing that we can do about that but drink heavily wait and see.
* Republicans got nothing. Surprise.
Democrats seem to be working up the nerve to set some sort of plan in motion, probably right after the health care summit on the 25th. I suggest calling before they announce their plan rather than after.
Tell Senators to get behind reconciliation to fix Medicare reimbursement, the excise tax and whatever else the House demands. Might as well ask for a public option if it pleases you. Tell your Congressperson to Pass. The. Damn. Bill. whether or not the Senate eventually reciprocates.
Switchboard: (202) 224-3121.
Guide for first-timers here.
Two thumbs up for Roger Ebert
I found this profile of Roger Ebert inspiring. Ebert has lost his lower jaw and, with it, his ability to speak or eat normally. But he’s still living his life, still watching movies and reviewing them.
Movie criticism is something that is easy to make fun of (“if movies — or films as you’ve probably started calling them — were really so serious and artistic, would they really show them in a place where you could buy orange crush?” Fran Liebowitz once asked), but I’ve always had a lot of respect for Roger Ebert. He is a real scholar of film who nonetheless presented mainstream American with thoughtful recommendations on whatever dreck Hollywood produced that week. At his best, he displays some of the insight and erudition of Pauline Kael with none of the self-involvement. For a teen-ager like me, living in an isolated place, his bits (presented at the end of the show) on older movies by people like Orson Welles and Truffaut gave a glimpse of another world. In one of his books, there were various lists of “top ten movies of all time” and I tried to rent them all when we got a VCR.
I always loved that when Vincent Gallo called Ebert “a fat pig”, Ebert replied “although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of The Brown Bunny.”
Open Thread: Thursday Evening Menu edition
Take it away, Bad Horse’s Filly:
It’s cold and snowy. Again. Winter is dragging on too long, in my opinion. I decided I needed comfort food, and by comfort food, I mean I needed something only my mom makes. So I called my mom and asked her for her Chicken Cacciatore recipe, one of my favorite childhood dinners (what can I say, I’m half Italian – and don’t tell child services, but it was served with a nice wine for everyone, including the kids). Cacciatore is guaranteed to chase away the deepest winter blues.
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On the board tonight:
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Chicken Cacciatore __
Angel Hair Pasta __
Oregano-Parmesan Zucchini __
Baguette __
Gelato
Recipes and shopping list at the link.
Open Thread: Thursday Evening Menu editionPost + Comments (34)