The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
4B - Thursday, September 6, 2007
LEADING MEN
From page 3B
almost-unanimous return to the
aggressive, dominant male charac-
ter, a role of commercial and cultural
empowerment that defined some of
the greatest movie stars of all time.
True, the notion of a Hollywood
machine fueled primarily by name
male actors in roles that tout them
as much as their egos is hardly new.
But these are major movies led by the
most visible movie stars in the mod-
ern industry, and if not quite a bona
fide cultural moment, they are cer-
tainly a minor cause for celebration.
Witness Clive Owen having sex
during a gunfight in "Shoot 'Em Up,"
which opens tomorrow (seriously,
YouTube it). A few weeks later he'll
even infiltrate the new Queen Eliza-
beth movie, "Elizabeth: The Golden
Age," as a dashing Sir Walter Raleigh
in a role said to give an explosive
Cate Blanchett (who reprises her role
from "Elizabeth") a scene-swiping
challenge. For a guy who starred last
year as a disenfranchised alcoholic
in "Children of Men" and held a sup-
porting part in "Inside Man," that's
not bad.
There's no single face of the
American action hero, and in many
ways you could argue Owen's role in
"Children of Men" is exactly the type
of hero that befits this generation.
We're inclined to agree, but this fall
it's nevertheless an amusement and
somewhat of a comfort to see Hol-
lywood's top actors do the old-Hol-
lywood playboy act. Crowe and Pitt
have established that they can stomp
their way into the art house whenev-
er they want, but we hope they retain
the same power to make the movies
that made them famous. In a season
rightfully marked by films that dig
into Iraq and the ballooning anxiety
that envelopes it, escapist cinema in
the name of our biggest stars sounds
to us like the most agreeable prospect
we've heard in a while.
Adiner
1 M^C f¢
w ith
class
State's newest spoon
isn't so greasy
By KIMBERLY CHOU,
ABIGAIL B. COLODNER and
ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN
Daily Arts Editors
For those familiar with the area, 211
State St. is a bit of a black hole when it
comes to restaurant turnover. (We all
know what happened to Pita Pit.) But
after a pretty good $4 cheeseburger, sev- S v s
eral pierogies and a heart-stopping fried
ice cream at the new Sava's Caf6, it looks Cafe/Restaurant
as if that the shop-front's destiny may be
changing.
Sava, the namesake and proprietor of
the cafe, is the diner owner of our sitcom something of an identity crisis going on
dreams. The restaurant itself boasts a here.
great first impression as well. The food matches the price, but the
Kimberly Chou: It's like Isaac Miz- atmosphere and the presentation are
rahi for Target decorated a diner - in working on a different impression.
a good way. You know those menacing ASK: Tell me more.
cartoon vegetables from Pita Pit? Gone. ABC: I'm feeling a post-apocalyptic,
Instead the walls are painted a warm nuclear-singed age ... And somehow, the
yellow, with cool substitutions like an only things that survived were paninis.
Ypsilanti Building & Loan safe in place of ASK: And cream cheese. There's
a regular cabinet for napkins and condi- cream cheese on my Buffalo chicken
ments. sandwich and on the cheeseburger - but
Andrew Sargus Klein: It's cozy in a $4 cheeseburger is a great deal no mat-
here. The prices seem just right for both ter how you slice it. These portions aren't
medium and large meals. A $4 cheese-, so bad.
burger? So baIler. ABC: The pierogies are terrific. Per-
Abigail B. Colodner: It has this feet with sour cream. So good, in fact,
industrial cafe vibe, but I think there's I'm going to eat straight sour cream.
4
I
Cheap Modfrate Pri:
Specialties:
Cafe/diner/grub fare
Located at:
211 S. State St.
KC: I think she slipped us an extra.
The pickles, however, were subpar. They
tasted like cinnamon, though I'm not
sure why.
ABC: Maybe it was the brine. It's
always a brine thing. PHOTOS BY BENJI DELL/Daily
ASK: The place also does breakfast in TOP: Our lovely hostess - and the cafe's name-
the morning. And they have corned beef sake - shows off some cheap eats. ABOVE: The
fabled $4 cheeseburger, plus a side of fries.
hash! Again, baller. Can't go wrong with
that/ There's only one dessert on the
menu so far - Here's what we ordered:
ABC: The ice cream fried with corn- Pierogies: $4
flakes and egg whites. Classy presenta- Cheeseburger: $4
tion for a deliciously crunchy ice cream Buffalo Chicken Sandwich : $6.50
ball, very classy. Onion Rings: $2.50
KC: It's a complete mystery to me how Veggie Panini: $5.50
they make it. Grilled Veggie Wrap: $5.50
ASK: But it's a nice end to the meal. Sweet Potato Fries: $2
I
MILLER
From page 1B
did not know whether or not he
survived his father. Danielbecame
a person unacknowledged for so
long - nearly four decades - that
there was no longer reason even to
suspect or question his existence.
Andrews's story caught the
majority of the reading public off-
guard. But rumors about Miller's
fourth child have circulated for
years. Published accounts have
been in the public domain since
at least 2003, in books penned
by Martin Gottfried and English
Prof. Enoch Brater. Six weeks
before his death in 2005, Miller
altered his will to make Daniel a
true heir to his father's fortune,
equal with his three siblings.
But people do not cause uproars
over, or even notice, quietly pub-
lished biographies. They do when
something becomes a Vanity Fair-
worthy scandal.
Both commentators on the left
and right have reacted strongly.
Bitter conservatives and those
who have seen too many com-
munity-theater productions of
"Death of a Salesman" crow that
they "never really did like Miller,"
that the man who refused to name
names in front of the House Com-
mittee of Un-American Activities
is being rightfully shown as ahyp-
ocrite, albeit after his death.
"Perhaps we should not be sur-
prised that a man who never failed
to express his concerns for suffer-
ing humanity had so little human-
ity to spare for his own family,"
suggested the U.K.'s Daily Mail.
The central accusation is sim-
ple. How could someone do this?
The man Kenneth Tynan called
"Lincoln in horn rims" tried to cut
his son out of his life, and now we
are the ones doing the moralizing.
"You want somebody else to act
moral for you," said Brater, the
English department's acknowl-
edged Miller expert. "What peo-
ple are really asking with this
question is 'What would Jesus
do?' And he didn't do what Jesus
would have done."
The discovery of Miller's choice
- calling it a "mistake" simplifies
the actual events - hurts because
we expected more from him. But
until actually faced with the same
circumstances, it's easy to say
what you should or could not do.
In 1966, when Daniel was
born, more parents were raising
babies with conditions like Down
Syndrome at home. The Miller-
Morath family caught the tail end
of the institutionalizing trend, but
such action then was not entirely
uncommon. The Independent
noted that 1966 was only seven
years after the cause of Down
Syndrome was discovered; at that
time, the term "mongoloid," if not
completely politically correct, was
still acceptable.
Today, science and social stan-
dards are different. Advanced pro-
cedures like amniocentesis and
chorionic villus sampling make it
possible to test for fetal complica-
tions and conditions during preg-
nancy. Parents have the option to
terminate the pregnancy if results
show something that might com-
plicate the baby's life - and their
own lives - in ways that would
make having a child not worth the
overwhelming heartbreak. The
choice maybe no less painful. But
it's certainly easier to hide. Abor-
tion, after all, comes without the
physical evidence of giving up
your baby to an institution.
But the science that would have
detected an extra 21st chromo-
some wasn't available when Dan-
iel was born. It's unfair to impose
contemporary cultural standards
on a decision made during an era
when doctors often recommended
institutionalization.
"We don't live in a world of
saints," Brater said. "People don't
have their pluses and minuses in
neat order - they have them any-
way."
Still, it's disappointing to find
out that those we put on pedestals
are, in fact, real people. Especially
when the subject is the Universi-
ty's most famous alum. Whether
admitted or not, many students
and alumni have a subconscious
chip on their collective shoulder.
The University is one of the top in
the nation in academics, sports
. and post-college networking
- but it's still not an Ivy.
It doesn't matter thatthe quality
of education rivals the East Coast
schools. We're not one of them,
and it bothers us. To make up for
it, we need to be extra proud. We
lay claim and hold on dearly to our
most notable alumni - the 20th
century's most famous Ameri-
can playwright, the state's only
American president - though, to
be honest, Gerald Ford was fairly
average. But Arthur Miller was an
icon, and unlike Ford (who was
perhaps best loved by Michigan),
he was idolized across the board.
Peer Edward Albee famously said
that Miller was the writer who
held up a mirror and told society,
"Here is how you behave." The
importance, the credibility and
the fame we all wanted? Miller
brought that.
But in the case of one his chil-
dren, Miller showed he was just as
human as the rest of us.
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