crooked but not twisted

Johnny Depp plays John Dillinger in Michael Mann's new film, "Public Enemies". An article in The Wall Street Journal looks at Dillinger as portrayed on the screen through the years, and our fascination with gangsters.

If you haven't been hooked on this movie genre, here are a few of the old classics I recommend:

- White Heat. James Cagney gives a great performance as a psychotic hoodlum with a too-strong devotion to his mother.

- The Roaring Twenties. Another Cagney classic which also stars Humphrey Bogart.

- Little Ceasar. A great performance by Edward G. Robinson, who plays a flawed but cold-blooded mobster.

- High Sierra. Bogart as a complex thug. The story is timeless -- this film begs a remake.

The U.S. in the World Cup Final?

During the 2002 World Cup, while sitting in a pub in Dublin, I made the prediction that the United States would play in a men's FIFA World Cup final by 2018. Most of my friends who heard the prediction scoffed. But there are several reasons why it could come true:

- even though soccer is not one of the "big" sports in the U.S., the sheer number of kids playing soccer is large, relative to most countries.

- the number of youth playing soccer in the U.S. is growing -- the talent pool is improving.

- there is a growing will to invest in club, university and professional leagues.

- the sport is growing in popularity, and the national team is gaining more publicity and support from the public.

All of these trends are positive. The national team's performance in the last two or three years is also a positive sign. They were the only team to play world champions Italy to a draw in the 2008 World Cup. They are winning big qualifying matches, they are becoming more competitive against the world's best teams. They are prone to the ocassional lapse -- that is something the best teams don't often have, and something they'll need to avoid in order to do well in future international tournaments.

Wednesday's performance was not a fluke -- it is a sign of things to come. In my opinion, the win against the European champions is more impressive than the U.S. women's team World Cup victory. Yes, women's soccer is competitive, but there is not the decades-long legacy of world-class teams among the ladies. Spain did not play badly; they didn't play their best game. But the match result did show that with a few good breaks, a few good saves, the U.S. is capable of beating any team.

Modern Slavery Comes to Kansas

A sad but probably all too common case of modern slavery.

Law and Order in the EU

Good to see the EU Court of Justice hard at work dealing with equal protection issues.

Gigi's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Are these the best cookies in the world? I know several people who claim they are. While my niece Abbie won't say if these are the best cookies in the world, she at least likes them after her indoctrination over the Christmas holiday. She was not sure what was in them, and like most four year-olds resisted eating anything strange and new, after she saw the rest of the family devouring them she quickly joined in.

3 eggs
1 cup of raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup (soft) brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons soda
2 cups oatmeal
¾ cup chopped pecans

Combine eggs, raisins and vanilla and let stand in a bowl for 1 hour wrapped with plastic. Cream the butter and sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and soda to sugar mixture. Blend in egg/raisin mixture, oatmeal and nuts. The mixture will be stiff. Drop on ungreased pan. Bake at 350 F /180 C for 10-12 minutes.

Thanks, Boomers

Thanks, Boomers, for changing the world.

Baked Red Peppers Stuffed with Feta Cheese

I rarely find good red peppers in my local Albert grocery store, but this week there were plenty of them. I bought a few with a particular dish in mind -- roasted peppers with feta cheese.

2 medium-sized red peppers, halved lengthwise, with seeds and ribs removed
1 cup (6 ounces) of cherry tomatoes, diced
1 1/2 ounces crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon coarsely chopped fresh thyme
8 basil leaves, torn into pieces
Freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place pepper halves, cut sides up, in a baking dish. Toss together tomatoes, feta, and herbs in a medium bowl, then season with pepper. Fill each pepper with the tomato mixture. Drizzle each half with oil.

2. Bake stuffed peppers, covered with aluminum foil, untl they begin to soften, about 30 minutes. Remove foil, and continue to bake until the tomatoes begin to burst and the cheese starts to brown, 13 to 15 minutses more. Remove from the oven and serve warm.