Wednesday,
March 19, 2008

A bit late, but good nevertheless

Dinner tonight was corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, originally purchased for St. Patrick's Day but put away for a day when Lyndon would be able to eat without pain.

Thus, on St. Joseph's Day (yeah, yeah, I know it got put back to the weekend so that it wouldn't fall during Holy Week. I don't particularly care), it was pulled out, boiled and served up for dinner. Yummmmmm. And there's lots left for sandwiches tomorrow, which is always a good thing.

Tom Hanks, I love you

I'm currently watching Episode Two of the 7-part John Adams miniseries on HBO (produced by Tom Hanks, bless his forward-looking populist heart), and I dearly wish that this would become required viewing in all high school history classes (it may be a little too graphic for grammar school kids, especially as Episode One shows why "tarring and feathering" wasn't punishment so much as brutal torture). Actually, I dearly wish we could tie Dubya, Mike Huckabee, Alberto Gonzales and Donald Rumsfeld to chairs and make THEM watch it. In one sitting. I'd add Karl Rove in there, but Turd Blossom would probably blow it off as liberal commie propaganda.

It's a realistic and uncompromising look at what prompted intelligent, law-abiding people to rebel against their government and form a new one of/by/for the people, doesn't glorify/demonize anyone (the redcoats weren't all monsters, the rebels weren't all heroes) and is an exquisitely appropos response to the current administration's joyride over our various rights -- namely, "Hey assholes, THIS is what our forefathers had to do to gain independence, and THIS is why the Constitution is so important, so keep your fricking hands OFF it."

The recreation of the Continental Congress is superb; Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson is spot-on perfect as the wily, politically skilled Ben Franklin, and when the Pennsylvania, New York and South Carolina delegates agitate against separating from Great Britain you can understand why they fear that the move towards independence is running too fast. The intellectualism of the congress is counterpointed by George Washington (David Morse in some scarily accurate makeup) struggling to do his duty and relieve British-held Boston with an underequipped and pox-infected army, and by Abigail Adams (a wonderful Laura Linney) trying to keep her farm going and her family alive by subjecting them to a dangerous and uncertain pox inoculation.

And if Paul Giamatti doesn't win an Emmy for his performance as John Adams, I will eat this bloody laptop. Well played, sir.

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