HCH March 2, 2007 Issue - Chattanooga Bar Association

20 Friday, March 2, 2007 HAMILTON COUNTY HERALD
SPRING ON A PLATE!
If you are like me, you are
getting quite a nice “high” on
the spring-like weather and the
anticipation of farmer’s market
veggies and grilling out is almost
unbearable! I can’t wait until
Don is off this diet! (Oops! I
hope no one at the diet center
reads that!)
Regardless of when Spring
officially arrives and when all of
those wonderful fresh veggies
start appearing at road-side
booths, thanks to California
farmers and the trucking business,
you can make this now. Try
grilling out some pork chops to
son, “One moment please,” and I
go back to the other person to get
them off the line. Gee, I did it
KK aa yy ’’ ss
CC oo oo kk ii nn gg
CC oo rr nn ee rr
By Kay Bona
go along with it. (And don’t forget
the garlic bread!)
Risotto is not difficult at all
to make, although it is time-consuming.
The recipe below, after
you have sliced, diced and
drained or whatever, takes about
20-30 minutes. So, if you start
your risotto cooking, by the time
the grill is ready and the chops
are done, the risotto will be done
too. You can also speed it up for
dinner after work by preparing
all the veggies the night before.
If you don’t want to use
risotto you can use regular rice.
It has a different taste and texture
(it won’t be as creamy), but
when our son phoned from Iraq.
My friend went on to say that
people should be smart enough to
Scenic City Snapshots
the rice doesn’t take as long to
cook.
Let the rice cook while you
prepare the veggies. Use some of
the chicken broth instead of
water for the liquid in the rice,
but reserve a little of it to use in
cooking the veggies. Remember,
only use the amount of liquid
the rice calls for – you certainly
won’t need 6 cups!
After the rice is started,
sauté the onion, leek and garlic
in the oil and butter. Add the
carrots, asparagus, wine and a
small amount of the chicken
broth.
Allow to simmer about 5-6
minutes, add the other ingredients,
simmer about five more
minutes or until just about all
the liquid is absorbed, then set
aside. Once the rice has finished
cooking, mix in the veggies and
eat um’ up! It’s my version of
Spring on a plate!
Risotto Primavera
6 cups chicken broth
4 tablespoons butter
hang up, and with that she said,
“I’m hanging up on you now,” and
she did so.
Jerry Cole, Jr. operations coordinator for Grass & More poses in front of his company's
display with Mark Slater, Sr., president of Sunbelt Insurance Group, at the Tri-State
Home Show. Organized and profuced by the Home Builders ASsociation of
Southern Tennessee, the show benefits St. Judes Children's Research Hospital. Home
Show proceeds totaling over $120,000 have been donated to St. Jude over the
past 11 years. (Bill Ellis)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 medium leek (white part
only), sliced into thin rings
3 garlic cloves, diced
2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry, white wine
1 carrot, sliced into thin
rounds
1/2 lb. asparagus, cut in 1inch
pieces
1 medium zucchini, sliced
in rounds
1 yellow squash, sliced in
rounds
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup chopped fresh
parsley
1/4 cup chopped, fresh Basil
1 cup grated Parmesan
cheese plus more for serving
In a medium saucepan over
moderate heat, bring the broth
to a simmer. Cover; keep warm
over low heat.
In large skillet over medium-low
heat, melt 2 tablespoons
of the butter with the oil. Add
the onion, leek, and garlic. Sauté
A tedious portrait of obsession in “The Number 23”
by Amber Davis-Tanner
Movies involving time travel
or premonitions almost always
seem interesting to me, no matter
how cheesy the
previews look.
Unfortunately,
they almost always
disappoint. “The
Number 23” is no
exception, and has
officially squelched
my desire to see anything
else in the
genre for a very, very
long time.
“The Number
23” follows Walter
Sparrow, a smalltown
dog-catcher who becomes
completely obsessed with a book
that’s all about, you guessed it,
the number 23.
The book is about
Fingerling, a detective who
hooks up with a hot lady and
then goes on to kill her because
of the cursed number. Sparrow
finds some similarities between
himself and Fingerling and
decides the book is actually
Davis-Tanner
about him, and that it’s predicting
his future. As I’m sure you’ve
already figured out, there’s a
twist, but I won’t give that away.
Don’t worry, you’ll probably
see it coming from a
mile away if you
decide to see this mess
of a movie.
The most obvious
thing wrong with this
movie is the acting.
It’s just bad; not even
one actor does a good
job. Walter is played
by Jim Carrey. No one
has ever claimed that
Carrey is the best actor
in Hollywood, but
after seeing “Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,”
I thought he might have a shot
at being an okay dramatic actor.
Now I know that there’s no
hope for him. He is completely
wooden during the entire movie,
and I’m pretty sure a high school
drama student could have done a
better job. There are voiceovers
during several parts of the
movie, when Walter is reading
the book. These are terrible,
thanks to Carrey’s monotone
voice. I think he was supposed to
sound sinister or cool, but he just
ends up sounding like he’s reading
from a mathematics text
book – it’s seriously boring stuff.
Virginia Madsen is Agatha,
Walter’s wife. Madsen is completely
uninteresting as well, and
brings no real life to the
character.
Granted, the actors don’t
have much to work with because
the script is horrid. First of all,
big parts of the story really don’t
make sense.
Why does Sparrow get
obsessed with a character that
bears only a passing resemblance
to him? He doesn’t seem to be a
particularly literary, sensitive, or
obsessive person, so it’s hard to
believe that he would ever
fixate so readily on a character in
a book.
Sparrow eventually decides
that a notorious murder that
happened almost a decade before
is somehow connected to the
book, but the movie never really
lets the audience know how he
arrived at that conclusion. There
is also a man named Isaac French
who appears to be a college professor
and who is presented as a
main character, though it is
never made clear where he came
from, how he knows the family
or what his function in the
story is.
Although I know the following
paragraph will expose my
nerdiness, another annoying element
in “The Number 23” is the
math. I’ve been rolling my eyes
at the previews for months when
Isaac tells Walter that 2/3 is
0.666. It’s not, it’s really 0.667.
While little errors like that
don’t normally bother me, the
filmmakers present that shady
math as evidence that 23 is the
devil’s number. I found myself
searching for numbers on screen
so I could figure out how they
equaled 23 rather than paying
attention to the movie.
While some people might
think that’s a sign that the film
sucks the audience in, I disagree.
I think the filmmakers wanted
viewers to play those little math
games throughout the whole
thing so they wouldn’t see how
What is the proper etiquette
in this world of new technology? I
don’t feel that I was out of line. —
Perplexed and Dismayed
DEAR PERPLEXED: It was
rude of your friend not to come
back to you, but you shouldn’t
hold for 10 minutes, getting more
and more steamed while you wait.
I’d say that after 30 seconds you
should assume that your friend
isn’t able to get back to you and
hang up.
I agree that it is polite to
switch back to an original caller,
rather than have her dangle
(caller ID permits people to see
who is call-waiting, enabling
them to screen incoming calls,
perhaps letting them go right to
voice mail). However, circumstances
such as a physician calling
back with test results, Ed
McMahon calling to say that
you’ve won the Publishers
Clearing House Sweepstakes, or
— yes — your son calling from
Iraq should exempt a person from
this courtesy — as long as a heartfelt
apology follows. (Weren’t you
nervous that you would lose your
son’s phone connection when you
put him on hold?)
about 5 minutes. Add rice and
stir until it is translucent at
edges but still opaque in center,
about 3 minutes. Add wine and
simmer, stirring often, until
almost all liquid is absorbed,
about 1 minute. Continue in
this way, adding broth 1 cup at a
time, and stirring often, until the
rice is half cooked, about 8 minutes.
Be sure to allow each cup of
liquid to be absorbed before
adding the next.
Stir in carrots and asparagus.
Continue adding broth by
cupfuls and stirring until rice is
almost tender, about 5 minutes
longer. Stir in peas, squash, zucchini,
parsley and basil. Cook
until rice is tender but still firm
to bite and the mixture is
creamy, about 2 minutes longer.
Remove from heat. Add the
cheese and the remaining 2
tablespoons butter. Stir until
cheese and butter melt. Season
with salt/ pepper. Garnish with
more cheese. ❖
bad the rest of the movie is.
“The Number 23” is also
nauseatingly red. The color red
saturates the set in almost every
scene. I understand that the
filmmakers are using it as a symbol
of blood and death, but the
fact that they incessantly barrage
the audience with their “symbolism”
is highly insulting.
Most people could have gotten
that from the fire-engine
book cover and maybe one other
red item. We don’t need to see it
constantly to understand.
The movie tries so hard to
be creepy that it just ends up
being comical. For example,
Agatha walks into an abandoned
mental institution, alone, at
night. Who would do that?
It’s so absurd that it’s difficult not
to laugh.
And unfortunately, the
filmmakers are obviously taking
the movie so seriously that it
isn’t even campy. It’s not scary,
it’s not suspenseful, it’s not
funny. It’s just bad.
“The Number 23” is rated R
for some violence and some
pretty icky sexual situations. ❖
Ask Amy Continued from page 13
Without exception, your
friend hanging up on you while
discussing this was very rude.
DEAR AMY: Like your reader
“Lisa,” I had a very overweight
houseguest (my mother-in-law)
who was destroying my antique
furniture. She had arthritic knees,
which let her down with a loud
thump, when she sat. My dining
room chairs were groaning and
cracking.
One early morning I changed
out ALL the dining room chairs
for more substantial ones, saying
nothing about it.
It would be cheaper to invest
in a few strong chairs and hide the
fragile ones while the hefty houseguest
is visiting. This is better
than losing a good friend. —
Patricia
DEAR PATRICIA: I agree.
(Send questions via e-mail to
askamy@tribune.com or by mail
to Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune,
TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave.,
Chicago, IL 60611.)
© 2007 BY THE CHICAGO
T R I B U N E
DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE
MEDIA SERVICES, INC. ❖