Firebreather

 For nearly three decades, Peter Chung has been a name in 2D animation, with such titles as “C.O.P.S.” and MTV’s “Aeon Flux” series. Now, he’s joining the 3D ranks, directing Cartoon Network’s first CGI movie, “Firebreather,” which premieres Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET/PT. “Firebreather,” based on the comic book series by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn, is the story of a teenager named Duncan whose mother is human and whose father is Belloc, a 120-foot fire-breathing monster king. Hero Complex writer Noelene Clark caught up with Chung for Five Questions.
PC: It’s funny, because it’s where I started. A lot of people know me for my work on “Aeon Flux” and think of my work as being targeted for adults, but I started doing stuff for a younger audience. So for me, it’s not strange for me to be doing something like this at all. In this specific instance, I would say, it’s very satisfying now to sit with an audience and watch the movie and just have them respond very spontaneously and emotionally. And thinking a lot about how to do that, because for a long time, I was really trying to engage the audience on a cerebral level with “Aeon Flux” and with “The Animatrix” and some of the other things like “Tomb Raider,” and be a little more ironic or a little bit more self-referential, whereas this, I think, is just more of a classically told story. … [In "Aeon Flux"] I’d self-imposed all of these restrictions: no family, no personal ties, all the stuff which, to me, makes telling an emotional story a whole lot easier. I didn’t want those easy methods in the case of “Aeon Flux.” In the case of “Firebreather,” I mean the story, [relationships are] so intrinsic to the character, that it was kind of liberating to be able to make use of all of that. … When I was doing “Aeon Flux,” it was like I had this huge handicap that I’d imposed on myself. It’s like you’re training, and you’re running races with a pack of weights on your back, then suddenly you’re able to take them off, and you can run wild, and that’s a little what it felt like working on “Firebreather.”

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cornbread stuffing recipe

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This is not your mother's stuffing. Unless, of course, your mother was from the Southwest and had a taste for spicy chiles and savory chorizo. Those of us who weren't lucky enough to grow up where bland is banned, now get a second chance, with Kitchen Daily contributor Alexis Touchet's Southwest Poblano and Chorizo Cornbread Stuffing. It may turn your head toward the spicy school of stuffing, and have you waving good-bye to the classic bread-and-sage combo.

Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2010/11/24/southwest-poblano-and-chorizo-cornbread-stuffing-recipe-of-th/#ixzz16GMoq9O2

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Thanks Giving Quotes

Here are the funniest Thanksgiving celebrity quotes just in time for the holidays. Enjoy!

I love Thanksgiving turkey… it’s the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts.  ~Arnold Schwarzenegger

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. ~ Jon Stewart

You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.” – Jay Leno

Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often. ~ Johnny Carson


My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow. ~Rita Rudner

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~ Erma Bombeck

Thanksgiving, man! Not a good day to be my pants. ~Kevin James

We’re having something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we’re having a swan. You get more stuffing. ~ George Carlin

Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. ~ Ambrose Bierce

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How Long to Cook A Turkey

The Van Hoof family has been helping people serve tasty Thanksgiving dinners for 56 years now, by breeding and growing broad-breasted white turkeys.

Bob’s Turkey Farm, at 181 Old Common Road, was started in 1954 by Robert Van Hoof, and is definitely a family affair that includes his children: daughter Susan Miner runs the retail operation and does the bookkeeping while son Richard Van Hoof runs the breeding and raising of the turkeys. Another daughter, MaryBeth Blanchflower, runs the kitchen.

While the type of turkeys they offer have remained the same, the business has grown and evolved.

“Families aren’t as big they used to be,” said Susan Miner, who runs the retail portion of the business, and is a daughter of founder Robert Van Hoof. “Families are smaller and more than ever this year we’ve had people sizing down. A lot of people said it’s just going to be the four of us this year.”

While Thanksgiving is their biggest selling period, Christmas and Easter are also high selling times, Miner said.

With a year-round business they’ve have developed a wide variety of products, from their turkey pies to turkey lasagna to turkey sausage.

 “Our soup has a tons of meat in it, it’s not like canned chicken noodle soup where you have to go looking for the meat,” said Robert Van Hoof, who still works at the farm. The soup as well as the breaded cutlets and turkey sausage were also customer requests that were added to the menu.

Over the last 15 years, customers have also shown a lot more interest in pre-made items that they can put in the oven, like the lasagna or the pies.

“I also think over that time that people have wanted a lot more healthy types of food,” Miner said, which leads them to use turkey because it has less fat. “People also have less time to cook.”

The business has grown in other ways as well. In 1954, Van Hoof started with 125 turkeys, and these days there are 15,000 turkeys between the Lancaster farm and the Ashburnham farm. The majority of the turkeys are raised in Lancaster, and about 3,000 breeders are kept in Ashburnham so there will always be healthy stock.

Turkeys can get several types of respiratory diseases, and if that happens it spreads and there is no real cure.

When asked what leads to a good turkey, Van Hoof didn’t hesitate for a second. “A good, clean baby turkey,” he said. “Cleanliness is important to keeping them healthy.”

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Tom Delay

AUSTIN, Texas — The heavy-handed style that made Tom DeLay one of the nation's most powerful and feared members of Congress also proved to be his downfall Wednesday when a jury determined he went too far in trying to influence elections, convicting the former House majority leader on two felonies that could send him to prison for decades.

Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a scheme to illegally funnel corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. He faces up to life in prison on the money laundering charge, although prosecutors haven't yet recommended a sentence.

After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. DeLay whispered into his daughter's ear that he couldn't get a fair trial in Austin. DeLay had unsuccessfully tried to get the trial moved out of Austin, the most liberal city in one of the most Republican states

DeLay's lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said they planned to appeal the verdict.

"This is an abuse of power. It's a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system and I'm very disappointed in the outcome," DeLay told reporters outside the courtroom.

He remains free on bond, and several witnesses were expected to be called during the punishment phase of his trial, tentatively scheduled to begin on Dec. 20.

Prosecutors said DeLay, who once held the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives and whose tough tactics earned him the nickname "the Hammer," used his political action committee to illegally channel $190,000 in corporate donations into 2002 Texas legislative races through a money swap.

DeLay and his attorneys maintained the former Houston-area congressman did nothing wrong as no corporate funds went to Texas candidates and the money swap was legal.

The verdict came after a three-week trial in which prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses and volumes of e-mails and other documents. DeLay's attorneys presented five witnesses.

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Philip Rivers

Philip Rivers, otherwise known as El Capitan, is starting to hit the apex of a very interesting career. While establishing himself as one of the 5 best QBs in the league, he has also managed to stay under the radar (somewhat) and managed to earn duel reputations as a classy/quiet leader (in San Diego) and a cancerous cry-baby (outside of San Diego). How the heck does that happen? He's like a mix of Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Jim McMahon.

Broncos fans, in particular, are hilarious to listen to when discussing El Capitan's reputation. Part of this is because Denver and San Diego's fanbases might be the most intertwined of any other AFC West rivals. It's the matchup of two cities that aren't big hustle/bustle cities, both of vacation spots, and both are made up mostly of upper middle-class populations. It's not like San Diego/Oakland, where people from SD are generally terrified to just stop for gas in Oakland. And it's not like San Diego/Kansas City, where people from SD have never found a reason to visit the midwestern city except for maybe stopping for ribs on their way through.

To know how Bronco fans feel about Philip Rivers, you have to go through their history with him. It can be broken down into three eras:

Jay Cutler Era: Man, did Broncos fans hate Philip during the Jay Cutler era. Why? Well, they loved their "franchise QB" and didn't take too kindly when Rivers made him look bad and then openly mocked him on the field. Here's a blurry reminder:

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Sean Young

Blade Runner star Sean Young and heavy-metal band frontman Vince Neil will strap on a different kind of steel when they hit the ice on ABC's inaugural edition of Skating With the Stars Nov. 22.
"I'm not a great skater, but I'm an athletic person," says Young, 50, who hopes to burnish her star appeal on the six-episode series. "It's been a fun experience (rehearsing). I'm in shape, but the ice wears you out. It's challenging, but I've enjoyed it so far."

Young and Mötley Crüe's Neil will compete against reality star Bethenny Frankel, Olympic gold-medal skier Jonny Moseley and actors Rebecca Budig (ABC soap All My Children ) and Brandon Smith (Disney Channel's Sonny With a Chance).

ABC hopes Skating With the Stars — which pairs celebs with skate professionals — will hold onto the viewers expected to tune into the season performance finale of the network's popular Dancing With the Stars.

"The ice world is a fantastic backdrop for a performance show," says Skating producer Izzie Pick. "It requires a great deal of skill and bravery."

No doubt. But TV's last ice-centric celebrity series, Fox's Skating With Celebrities , was canceled after just one season in 2006. (A popular British version, Dancing on Ice, begins its sixth season in 2011).

Neil, whose hell-raising rock-star rep dates from the 1980s, may seem an odd choice. But Neil skated competitively for two years as a youngster.

"The first day I put on skates, I didn't think I could do it. Within a half an hour, it was all coming back," says Neil, 49. "It's still tough — I'm not as limber or as graceful, but I was doing jumps after three days."

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