Dang Yankee

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
By Mark Twain
c. 1889
pp. 336

I recently finished reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain for my American Lit class, and I was glad when it was over. It's difficult to give even a synopsis of the story as there is not a solid plot, but I'll give it a whirl. The main character is Hank, who, after being struck by one of his employees, finds himself back in medieval times--in Camelot, no less. Hank is to be hanged the next morning, but luck is with him, and he remembers learning about a solar eclipse that happens to occur that very next day. He claims to be a magician and "prophecies" the darkness that was to occur and thus escapes death. He becomes second only to King Arthur, who is too ignorant to figure out anything on his own anyway, so Hank becomes known far and wide as "The Boss."

The remainder of the novel jumps all over the place with random people, random adventures, and random rambling. Hank is constantly referring to the ignorance of the people at that time and introduces nineteenth century technology to help keep up his magician status. The book has its moments and was amusing at times, but as I mentioned before, there isn't a solid plot--fifteen mini plots, maybe. It was a tolerable book, but I will most likely not read it again.

World's Best Chili

I absolutely love this chili! I hope you enjoy it too!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1/2 c chopped onion

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans

1/2 c water

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2 to 3 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp basil

1 tsp salt

Directions:

Brown beef. Add onion and garlic powder. Drain and add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

I like to top it of with cheese and sour cream. And it's great with cornbread! I would recommend Krusteaz honey corn bread.

Some other things I've discovered about this recipe is that you can substitute two small cans of tomato sauce and don't add water if you do not have tomato paste. It'll turn out a little different, but it's still good. Sometimes I had more of the spices than the recipe suggests as well.

The Tale of Desperaux: Movie Edition

I saw this movie on Tuesday, a rather stressful day. Part of me said I shouldn't go see it because of all the things I should be doing. But I gave in, and I have no regrets.

The movie is based of the book by Kate DiCamillo, author of "Because of Winn Dixie", "The Tiger Rising", and "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane". The characters are voiced by Emma Watson (perhaps you know her best as Hermoine Granger), Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, and Christopher Lloyd to name a few.

I have not read the book so if you want any sort of comparison, you won't find it here at this time. The movie itself was entertaining. One of my roommates found it a little hard to follow as it does follow three different characters. However, I felt they did a good job of incorporating all the necessary stories into the whole. The characters were well created and believable, even if half of them were mice/rats. I even felt that the music was engaging and helped add to the story. They use a lot of narration which I am guessing is a lot like what is written in the book. I did begin to wonder if they had a little too much narration, but overall I liked the effect. It made it a little more enjoyable for me to hear some of that language. I guess that's an English major for you :) Overall, well done and I would recommend it.

The only thing you might have a problem with is a character formed of fruits and vegetables. That might be a little too much for some people. But give it a whirl! I hope you like it as much as I did!

Now I just need to read the book!

Curses

Don't you wish that there were times in your life when you could bless that special someone with a curse? For instance, wouldn't you like to force someone to speak in a french accent while simultaneously speaking with an imaginary golf ball in their mouth? I know I would, and now it is possible!! Welcome to the family friendly game of CURSES! I was first introduced to the game during play rehearsal in high school. At the time, I was an observer. I was glad that the first opportunity I had to play the game was with family only. It's easier to make a fool out of yourself in front of people who've known you long enough to know you are a fool already!!

So here's the gist of the game.

A player will first pick up a challenge card, read it outloud, and do whatever it says to do. For example, your card may say "You have just become president of the United States! Tell the other players what you would say in your inaugeration speech." After said player has fulfilled the requirements of the challenge card, they take a curse card and, with out looking at it, give it to the player of their choice. The person who has the curse will read the card to everyone and then they must continue doing whatever is on that card for the rest of the game or until they break the curse (not a good thing is this game!!).

The curse card will say something like "Whenever someone says the name of a food shout 'That sounds delicious'". So for the rest of the game, that person would have to say "that sounds delicious" whenever someone mentioned food. You no longer have to do that curse if it is broken. The way a curse is broken is if someone catches you not doing one of your curse cards. They would ring the bell and inform you of your mistake. You then turn that curse card over. If you turn over three curse cards, you are out of the game. The person who survives is the winner!

It was a fun game although sometimes frustrating when you start to get a whole bunch of curses. It becomes more fun if you intentially try to get the other people out though. Not to mention the joy of seeing everyone else look stupid.

If you get a good sized group and one that is willing to put their sane reputations on the line, this is a great game for all!!