Pasta, Cookies and Harry Potter

My youngest is spoiled. I admit it. We had spaghetti for supper last night at his request. We have spaghetti at least once a week as it is his favorite food. I have never been overly fond of Italian food, and I can barely stomach spaghetti anymore. Later, I baked some home-made chocolate chip cookies for him. He had been asking the wife to do it for a week. I bought her the stuff at the store yesterday. She was doing laundry so I agreed to make the cookies. Pie dough Tuesday and cookies last night -- I am becoming a regular Betty Crocker.

While I was baking he asked if I would take him to see the new Harry Potter movie. He must have really wanted to see it if he would go with me. Usually we have to drop him off in front of the movieplex, lest his friends discover he actually has parents. We did go to the late showing, to lessen the chance he might be seen with me. I good-humorously asked him if he wanted to sit separate when we got into the theater. He hesitated a second before telling me no. He will be sixteen in a couple of months and he will not have to worry about these embarrassments when he can drive himself. I gave up being hurt in these situations when my first kid did it the third time. I find it kind of amusing now.

Anyway, the movie was pretty good. Not as good as The Prisoner of Azkaban, which I think is the best of the film installments. In all, The Half Blood Prince is well worth spending your increasingly hard to come by wealth to see. I think The Half Blood Prince was the best of the books. I found the film to be very good, but not great. As the book was so massive, it was necessary to leave out some critical events. Many of the memory/pensive scenes were cut, so we do not get the full background on why/how Voldemort adopted his evil ways. The funeral scene from the end of the book is left off completely (look Ma -- I did not type a spoiler for the three people who will see the movie and not read the book).

Like the books, the movie was filled with humor, action, romance and tragedy, all essential elements in great writing. Hey, just because I can't do something does not preclude me from knowing how it is done. I can't throw a major-league curve ball either, but I can hook one enough to strike out a twelve fifteen year old. I may not be a great writer, but I know it when I see it and the Harry Potter books are all great writing and storytelling. And on a side note, I will not entertain discussion on how the books are evil, etc. You are the parent, if you cannot explain real vs. fiction to your kid and the concepts of real-life good and evil, then failure is yours, not some work of fiction. Just as your offspring will not immediately become a Christian fundamentalist after reading a tablet of the Ten Commandments on the court house lawn, your little Johnny and Janie will not become witches and Devil worshipers if they read Harry Potter. Be a parent fer cripes sake.

I give this movie four stars out of five on the Hoosierboy rating system. Take a piss before the movie, it is a long one.