Why the Green Hornet Beats the Green Lantern, in My Book (and what they both have on today's Batman)

I'm just watching the five million previews before the beginning of the movie Salt, and I wondered, dear blog reader - who is your favorite superhero lately? I wondered this because they had a preview for The Green Hornet, reminding me why I like him so much, especially compared to The Dark Knight's Batman, or any number of Superman retreads. Here's why:

1. The Green Hornet is a guy. More than that, a believable guy. He's not a person-shaped alien who can fly through space, his skin doesn't turn green or silver at will, and he doesn't spend his time trying to track down weird baddies with skulls for heads, or eight mechanical arms. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I think a touch of reality makes any display of superheroism more super. Like the tv show Heroes, when it first started.

2. Awesome gadgets. Especially the car. In fact - human origins and cool gadgets remind me of another standout superhero of late - Iron Man. And that reminds me of a third thing that the Green Hornet and Iron Man (as played by Robert Downey Jr.) have in common.

3. They're funny. Not like brooding Batman, who nowadays has Heath Ledger's psycopathic Joker to keep him company, rather than Jack Nicholson's, who treated the role like a kid with a flair for showmanship. Heath Ledger's Joker wasn't having any fun when he made that last Batman. And neither was I, watching it.

4. This leads me to the only flaw I see in the glut of superhero movies these days. They take themselves so seriously. I'm not sure I'm watching for The Origin Story to End All Origin Stories. Or superhero as social commentary. Scratch that - I'm all for social commentary. But I'd rather watch The Daily Show than read an academic treatise on the inner workings of Congress. Similarly - if I'm going to have a seemingly escapist work of art present some new truths about life, I'd rather discover that for myself rather than have said artwork metaphorically jump up and down in front of me saying, "Look! Look! Now do I deserve an Oscar?"

Superheroes still come from comic books. And I know that comic books are Graphic Novels now, and adults read them, and they buy them in bound volumes, and they keep them carefully arranged in their plastic sleeves, and they never, ever, ever let anyone touch them with dirty hands, or dog ear the pages, because they are important (and besides that, they are books, and we are adults, and we don't do that to books!) But before all of that, they were supposed to be fun. Escapist even. And just because we are adults doesn't mean we stopped having fun. So, while I may take care with my friends' comics when I read them, when I go to the movies I still want to have fun.

A bell(e) of a dessert

Bella made this dessert for her school group today, and it was so delicious I had to share it. It's called a pavlova, and it's an Australian dessert - named for the dancer Anna Pavlova, I think because it's 'light and airy, like a ballerina on her toes', not after Pavlov - although if I think it would work very well for operant condition - one slice of this, and I might do anything you ask.

Pavlova

4 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. white vinegar
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 kiwi or other fruit of your choice

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with salt until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 cup of sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is very thick. Add remaining sugar one or two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. When sugar is dissolved and mixture is very stiff, beat in vanilla and vinegar. The mixture should be thick and glossy.

Spoon into a smallish pie dish, ideally about 7" across. Smooth the top.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours on 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Meringue should be firm to the touch. Turn off the oven and allow to cool in the oven. I did this overnight.

In a chilled bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff. Spread the whipped cream over the top of the pavlova. Slice the kiwi and arrange on top.

Ours was eaten too fast to photograph, since we were previously unaware of its awesomeness, but here is another picture for you that looks a lot like ours did - with yet another topping idea.

Different, not less

Yesterday I watched a movie about a woman I'd never heard of, who I now consider one of the most inspiring people I've ever not yet met. Diagnosed at age 4 with autism - not Asperger's, but full-on, spinning in circles, extremely worried about change, afraid of sliding glass doors, autism - nevertheless, Temple Grandin went on to become one of the world's experts in her chosen field, as well as showing people that they had seriously underestimated and failed to understand children with her condition. She is a living hero who also happens to be a professor at Colorado State University (in my very town, no less!).

Apparently, her different perspective allowed her to see with fresh eyes how animals reacted to the practices slaughterhouses and cattle stockyards employed, and to completely redesign them to allow animals the most possible dignity through the process from field to um, freezer. She has been quoted as saying, "Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be," - a profound and true statement if I ever heard one. I can't find the quote now, but I believe that the movie said that 60% of slaughterhouses now use her methods. I wonder what she thinks of the practices employed by big meat processing operations these days, like Tyson, and others - like the sort of factory farming that leaves cattle pumped full of antiobiotics and penned in narrowly side by side, never seeing the sun - the kind of thing that the movie Food Inc. brought to the public consciousness. I do know though, that to find out what Ms. Grandin thinks on many other issues, including some very sensible autism/parenting advice, you have only to look at her website.

If you haven't seen it yet, I invite you all to watch Temple Grandin. It's an excellent film, and a real eye-opener.

Time to switch

Since this is a currently active meme, I've decided to switch to the Friday 5, rather than the Thursday ? meme. This week's is called A Stitch in Time. I'd love it if you, readers, answered questions in the comments too!

1.What was your first wristwatch like?
2.What lately seems to have been a thief of time?
3.What were yesterday’s quietest five minutes like?
4.In what way have you lately been saving time?
5.We are often charged hourly rates for labor, but we never get to reciprocate in kind when promised completion times don’t match actual completion. If you could bill people for the time you spend waiting, what would be a reasonable amount?

1. I have no idea. I want to say that is was digital, and probably from a Happy Meal or something similar. And I think that it had a cartoon character on it. Rainbow Brite, maybe?

2. Playing video games. And watching tv. And all those fun things where you consume rather than produce, your fun.

3. Sleeping? And the first few minutes when I just wake up, and check the internet on my iPhone - Facebook, email, Salon.com, maybe play a little Words With Friends. Try to convince myself that I'm awake.

4. I haven't really, because I just got a new job - working in the reading program at a local high school. And now I'm busier than ever! But having more fun and feeling more productive than I have in ages. It's the end of the week, and I'm actually looking forward to next work week already! You know you have the right job when that happens.

5. How about if you pay more to never wait? That might be better. Though bad for the finances. How about if I agree to wait for an extra day or week, in exchange for a drastically reduced fee? I could deal with that.

How about you guys? I am watching Portlandia right now. It's not bad, but all of my favorite shows this season (other than The Big Bang Theory) are suspense, rather than comedy. Alcatraz is very good so far. Welcome back to tv, Hugo! What's your favorite spring season tv so far?

The Suburban Yoga experience

This amazing video was created by my brother, Jack Workman, who is an outstanding yoga teacher and yogi, despite being only 17 years old.



I invite everyone to check out The Suburban Yoga Experience, a very crafty video that Jack and a friend and fellow yoga student, Amanda Cruz, have created, or, if you are in the Fort Collins/Loveland area, drop by one of Jack's classes at Old Town Yoga or Monk Yoga.

Your Treat of the Week

Here's another recipe for you this week. My grandmother made this one just last weekend for a family party, before heading back to Ohio. It was a big hit with our crew, and your family might like it too!

Sweet Potato Casserole

For Casserole:
5 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tb. pumpkin pie spice
1 can evaporated milk
enough milk to fill up the same can again
2 eggs, beaten

For Topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Whipped cream or Cool Whip (optional)

Bake the sweet potatoes in the oven or cook in the microwave until soft. Mash them. Mix with other filling ingredients. Pour into a 9x13" pan. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle over filling. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Serve with whipped cream.

Why The Sims 2 is still awesome

I haven't blogged in days, and since this is partially due to the arrival of a certain game, I thought maybe this game deserves a post of its own. So...today's post is dedicated to 'Why the Sims 2 is Still Awesome'. After I got a laptop for Christmas, I found that I had an unredeemed Amazon gift certificate languishing in my e-mail! We can't have that, so the gift certificate is spent, and I am once again in possession of one of my favorite old games from my other computer.

If you have played this game before, or know a little about video games, at this point you may say, "But hasn't Sims 3 been out for a long time? Why play an old game?" Here's why:

1. If you play a slightly older game on your snazzy new laptop, it will run really, really well, and do things it didn't do the first time through, when you were running it with your so-so older computer. It plays videos that weren't there before. The objects inside the house look almost realistic, and can be viewed up close or from very far away with the smooth touch of a button. It's so much more fun to play things that are working propertly. (Unfortunately, this perk doesn't apply to really old games, like Princess Maker 2, for instance, which won't run because it's DOS-based.)

2. If you've already collected all of the expansions for a game, it's so much more fun to only have to install them, or buy one lost disk and install them, than to buy seven more new games! And less costly too!

3. Ok, so that's why version 2 is better than version 3 - Why play the Sims at all? Because it's like running your own tv show. Or like an exercise in group psychology - if you get a bunch of little people together and give them just what they want, what will they do with that? I'm not sure how realistic it is, but it's fun food for thought.

4. Ok, this is a scatter-brained post - but I'd like to mention, too, why I like the actual game mechanic of 2 better than 3. In 3, the creators became too smart for their own good. They said, "Wait a minute! We'd like to create a game that is true to life, but this game isn't so realistic. When people are satisfied, or unhappy, that's usually temporary!" So they came up with what they call a 'moodlet' - a temporary state of mind that affects your character's mood. They also, rather than having four clear goals all the time for your character, keep sending you goal options that you can choose to accept or not. I find that this simultaneously gives me too much power over my characters and not enough. Too much, because who am I to tell them what their goals are? It's much more fun to maintain the illusion of independently thinking computer creatures who have their own goals, thanks, no matter what I'd like them to do. And not enough, because - what if I don't like those goals and decide to hold out for better ones? Then my character is just walking around aimlessly.

As for moodlets - version 2 has what they call a lifetime achievement bar. When you fulfill their goals, either long-term or their one short-term goal, it fills up the bar so that it goes from almost empty and red, to full and shiny silver. I like to see that - tangible proof of their little microchip satisfaction. If their good mood is going to go away tomorrow, that's kind of sad for them. It doesn't work for me. I can temporarily satisfy people in real life. If I'm going to satisfy fake people, by golly it ought to last!

And that's my 2 cents, for what it's worth. Anyway, it's a great game, and you should check it out. Even in the new version, if that's more your cup of tea. I'll stick with my old one.

Let it snow!

It is almost too late, but I think it's never really too late for cookies, so I am posting one of our family's favorite Christmas cookie recipes today - one that happens to be my favorite recipe anywhere, hands down. It's a bit rich, but quick and easy, and everyone I've ever fed it to has loved it. So here goes:

Snowballs
1 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
coconut

Combine chocolate and milk in a saucepan over medium heat until chocolate has melted and mixture has combined. Remove from stove and stir in powdered sugar and walnuts. Let cool in the refrigerator for half an hour or so. Spooning out teaspoon-sized clumps, form them into ping pong ball-sized balls, and roll in coconut. Put back in the fridge for a few hours until you can pick them up without getting chocolaty. Enjoy!

It's basically the world's easiest homemade nut fudge, with bonus coconut. These are long gone from our house. Maybe it's time to make more?