So, many political blogs posted this weekend about how the execution of Saddam was a desperate bid by the Americans to show that they could finish at least one job. Sure, the trial was a complete sham (it should have been held in the Hague… but then they wouldn’t have gotten the death penalty, now would they?), but the verdict was fair, right? At least the American could show they can execute a guy right.

Not so much. Juan Cole, in Salon:

The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam’s hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites celebrate it Sunday. Sunnis celebrate it Saturday –- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday. Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.

The timing also allowed Saddam, in his farewell address to Iraq, to pose as a “sacrifice” for his nation, an explicit reference to Eid al-Adha. The tribunal had given the old secular nationalist the chance to use religious language to play on the sympathies of the whole Iraqi public.

We managed a two-fer! Not only did we piss off one gigantic part of the Iraqi populace by defiling their holy day, but we allowed Saddam to position himself as a martyr! Good going folks!

I am so disgusted by the incompetence and willful and accidental disregard for others by this administration. They want to make things worse. That’s the only way I can understand it.

I am completely wiped. The kids are playing nicely together in the other room with their new dolls — Simon got Batman and Robin, Sophia got Batgirl and Princess Genevieve, and somehow they’ve come up with a shared universe. My father-in-law is finishing up some of the dishes from yesterday. I’d stop him, but that would take effort and, well, let him do it if he wants. Darin is upstairs in bed, not sleeping as I had supposed, but reading his birthday/Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice gift from his brother Mitch: Absolute Sandman. Mitch also gave me a book that I was up reading into the wee hours (well, well past my bedtime): Essence of Chocolate, by the founders of Scharffen Berger Chocolate. As I lay in bed last night reading this book, I kept thinking, “I’ve got to get some sleep. I’ll read just one more recipe. Okay, I’m going to make that. No, I’m not going to make that, because I have not one but two refrigerators stuffed full of food. But as soon as we have run out of food, I am so making that.”

(I actually bought a small refrigerator this year specifically for Christmas. It fits into a utility closet. Darin says he’s going to take it to work when he goes back in January. I said we’re going to see about that.)

The reason I had to get to sleep (and not bake anything when I woke up) was that yesterday was Christmas and we hosted 15 people for dinner: my family, Darin’s family, and a family of friends of ours. I asked my guests to bring hors d’oeuvres and Mitch to make salad while I concentrated on dinner and the local French pastry master did dessert. I need to make a few notes of things to remember for next year:

• I’m not cooking for 15 people, I’m cooking for 9 adults and 6 children. Thus, I should make food for 10, not 15..
• And not 10 hungry people either, but 10 people who’ve just gorged on delicious appetizers.
• Take the roast out when the internal temperature is about 120. We took it out at 130 and while it was pink inside, it wasn’t rare and we were all kinda hoping for rare.

On Christmas Eve I made the batter for the Yorkshire Pudding, so it would be nice and cold when the time came. And so I didn’t have to worry about it come the morning. I also made about 3 dozen gingerbread cookies “for the kids to decorate.” Uh huh. If you say so, Diane.

First thing Christmas morning at about 7 am I took the 12-pound, 5-rib prime rib out of the fridge and put it on the counter to get to room temperature by noon. As it turned out, it did not get to room temperature by noon — we put it in the microwave for a few minutes at 20% power, and that seemed to work without cooking it.

I trimmed and washed three pounds of spinach. I washed each clump of spinach twice, and there was still sand in it when I was all done. That was for the creamed spinach, which was wonderful, although three pounds of spinach steams down to about a handful.

I scrubbed, peeled, and sliced (using a mandoline) four pounds of russet potatoes into 1/8-inch slices. This went into potato au gratin. I actually topped the potato au gratin with a bunch of gruyere cheese, so it was a bit of a gratin dauphinois too. Every recipe I read said, “Supposedly one batch serves 8 but everyone had two helpings so make more!” Of course, you should only make more if you have 10 hungry people and not 10 people stuffed with hors d’oeuvres. I’m going to learn. Seriously. But the potato au gratin was wonderful: creamy and just enough tang from the cheese.

I made actual egg nog, with raw eggs and rum and everything. It was not nearly as thick as the store-bought stuff. I don’t know what I did wrong (if anything). Probably didn’t fluff the egg whites enough.

As hors d’oeuvres we had a variety of hard cheeses, sour cream coffeecake (from Zingerman’s), leek pie, spanokopita, spicy chicken drummettes, goat cheese, and some other tasty things that I don’t think I got around to.

When the beef came out we deglazed the pan, poured a 1/4 cup of drippings back in, poured the Yorkshire pudding batter on top of it, and put it back in. I watched it for a while and started moaning, “It’s not puffing.” “A watched pudding never puffs,” I was told. Repeatedly. By everyone in the kitchen. It did, in fact, eventually puff up and quite nicely too. Yorkshire pudding? Rocks.

We all ate like kings for dinner, if I don’t mind saying so myself (and I don’t), and after resting for a bit we had the chocolate buche de Noel and tarte Normande with creme Anglaise. Oh, they were good. I could only eat small slices of both, but you didn’t need more than a small slice because they are so flavorful. That Pascal Janvier, he is a genius.

The kids played on the Wii for a while (which was tricky, given that we had 4 controllers and 5 kids, but apparently they shared pretty well). After my sister’s family and our friends left, Mitch played Zelda for a while. We had to keep telling the kids, “No hints! Let Mitch figure it out!” But they wanted to share everything they knew about the game, despite being told not to.

After Mitch left and I did as much cleaning as I could stand, I headed upstairs and started reading the chocolate book. I forced myself to stop around 11, when my eyes were closing of their own accord.

It was a pretty good Christmas day.

ETA: Darin started reading The Essence of Chocolate and said, “This is the greatest book EVER.” He agreed I should wait to make a few of the recipes until we have a space to store them, however.

I followed a link from Jay Lake to this page about a possible skyway over the Grand Canyon. The artist’s conception on the page gave me a fit of vertigo. Of course, I’m not the ideal tourist for the Grand Canyon to begin with, but walking over a 4000 foot drop? I think not.

Via Shakespeare’s Sister, we have a link to “The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny,” which is… wonderful and crazy and has a bitchin’ tune. Words cannot do the experience justice.

Gosh, teacher-student pederasty is so cute, isn’t it? It doesn’t harm anyone and it’s even kind of fun!

(Bennett actually has the gall to give the student the line: “Where’s the harm in it?” Um… I guess ethics are a little fungible across the pond.)