tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45173139755616774392024-03-12T18:42:09.078-05:00Still Stirring It UpEllen Sweets' random thoughts on food, politics and saving the world.Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-6635942339122480262014-05-23T09:11:00.001-05:002014-05-23T09:11:21.309-05:00Still Stirring It Up: Facing Facebook Addiction<a href="http://ellensweets.blogspot.com/2014/05/facing-facebook-addiction.html?spref=bl">Still Stirring It Up: Facing Facebook Addiction</a>: It is not classified information that I have become a Facebook junkie. I love seeing what others post, I like being able to share p...Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-47279031304162850632014-05-23T09:08:00.000-05:002014-05-23T09:08:04.362-05:00Facing Facebook Addiction<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is not
classified information that I have become a Facebook junkie. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I love
seeing what others post, I like being able to share political support online. I
love petitions. If a petition is for a socially conscience cause, I'll sign it.
I've therefore been neglectful of my little blog. But today is going to change
that. The prime motivator was news about yet another incredibly inane law out
of the Peach State, where we find the thriving metropolis of Sandy Springs, population
</span>93,853<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sandy Springs that while giving out
prescriptions for vibrators seems more like a doctor's bad pickup line than
good public policy, in Sandy Springs one actually needs a medical reason – and
a doctor's prescription – to buy a sex toy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you following me? Let me say this again:
in the state where you can buy and carry a handgun, a woman must have a
prescription to purchase a sex toy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(Even
worse than this very strange news item,, the article sharing this information
was gleaned not from an American newspaper, but from The Guardian in Great
Britain. Which also means once again we get to look super-stupid<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>beyond our 50 states.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After
recovering from my initial incredulity, it finally registered on a deep
internal level that tired-assed, narrow-minded, old white men (with too few exceptions) are
reading the handwriting on the wall -- and it pretty much says, "Dudes,
your bigoted ways and your bigoted days are dwindling down to a precious few. You're not the big men on the national campus anymore."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some are
having more difficulty reading it than others because it is written in cursive,
but they'll<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have someone read it to
them. These are the men who tried to tell us blacks weren't smart enough to fly
airplanes, and the Tuskegee Airmen came along and kicked their butts; They
tried to keep us off tennis courts, then Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe and the Williams
sisters kicked their butts again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> We're skipping past quarterbacks and gymnasts and ballerinas and politicians and race-car drivers and TV personalities and coaches and musicians for now.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so it
has been for decades: blacks are not smart enough to hold down corporate jobs
-- or become fortune 500 CEOs? You mean, like John Thompson (Microsoft), Ken Frazier
(Merck); Ken Chennault (Amex); Don Thompson (McDonald's); Ursula Burns (Xerox);
Clarence Otis (Darden restaurants)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not enough smarts to become
physicians, scientists Pulitzer Prize winners, presidents at Ivy League
colleges? How's about Benjamin Banneker, astronomer, mathematician and author
who built America’s first functional clock, or Percy Julian, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">researcher known
for being a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants or
Astronaut Ma Jemison. Oh wait -- did I forget Neal deGrasse Tyson, who drives
bigots nuts because he's an astrophysicist and fearless when it comes to doing a
science/creationist smackdown? The list goes on -- no doubt to the distress of
deniers.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
main point here is there's only so much percentage in getting overly exercised
over redneck mean spiritedness -- and I don't mean to insult rednecks. The likes
of Cliven Bundy and his merry band of Neanderthals are spitting against the
wind and deep down they know it. Can't admit it out loud, but they know it. So
instead of hitting the "reset" button they throw temper tantrums in
the form of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> threatening federal agents and </span>bringing assault rifles into
restaurants and hurling slurs at the -- OMG, he's still here, thanks to a tripled Secret Service detail -- president who
happens to be, well, you know...</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
only have one weapon at our disposal to alter the environment relegating such
obscene behavior to the nether regions from whence it came, and it is one of
the most powerful weapons in the world: If every one of us who says
one vote doesn't matter would vote, we'd witness a sea change in how local school
boards and city councils and state legislatures and even Congress would
respond. I wish Godspeed to those holding out for Utopia. Meanwhile I hope I
see lots of people at the polls for the midterm elections coming up and the big one in
2016.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I'll
continue my addiction to stirring it up in Facebook posts. Which reminds me, if Mark Zuckerberg
makes good on his promise to donate almost a billion dollars to non-profits,
including Planned Parenthood, I'll forgive him for all his alleged weirdness.
And I'm sure he'll be relieved to hear that.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">See
you on FB.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-38842680775584181112014-01-28T22:48:00.001-06:002014-01-28T22:48:27.217-06:00Still Stirring It Up: Scare Me Once, Shame on You; Scare Me Twice, Shame...<a href="http://ellensweets.blogspot.com/2014/01/scare-me-once-shame-on-you-scare-me.html?spref=bl">Still Stirring It Up: Scare Me Once, Shame on You; Scare Me Twice, Shame...</a>: I've decided to stop being even the slightest bit scared of boogeymen conjured up by a government determined to keep me in a state o...Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-71406734592919991852014-01-23T16:10:00.001-06:002014-01-27T09:38:22.967-06:00Scare Me Once, Shame on You; Scare Me Twice, Shame on Me<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I've decided to stop being even the
slightest bit scared of boogeymen conjured up by a government determined
to keep me in a state of anxiety and fear. I'm perfectly capable of
scaring myself without government intervention. I'm even scared to complete
this post, but I'm soldiering on anyway.<br />
<br />
Every time I start to teeter off my Edward Snowden center line, my government
-- the one that is supremely pissed with this upstart young man and would eradicate
him from planet Earth if it could get its hands on his purloined info. First it
was his lack of education -- then it was possible mental instability,
then treason, then he's endangering covert operations around the world, then
he's putting lives at risk in the intelligence community then holy cow, this
guy's action is gaining traction around the world and how can we get that horse
back in the barn?! Now right-wing goofballs have decided that Snowden's a
Russian spy. Vladimir Putin, the demonic homophobe who is Russia's
president is not a bad guy, but Snowden.<br />
<br />
Ever since that horrid September day in 2001when the world watched
unprecedented mayhem wreaked on our Atlantic coast, and so-called leaders first
labored around the clock to calm us, then for the next decade worked 'round the
clock to scare us. Some nitwit tried to blow up his foot and as a result we
have to remove our shoes in order to get on a plane. Every time there is a
freak accident somewhere, the first comment some talking head tends to mouth is
"terrorism is suspected, but hasn't been ruled out."<br />
<br />
Really, you nitwits? The ammonium nitrate explosion at the West Fertilizer
company's storage facility in West, Texas -- the one that killed 15 people,
scared seniors in a nearby facility half out of their skulls and reduced dozens
of homes to rubble -- might not have been due to unregulated storage of
explosive material. I mean, what terrorist in his or her right mind is coming
to West for anything other than kolaches?<br />
<br />
Well, guess what? According to a story that appeared in the Dallas Morning News
following the deadly blast, terrorists wouldn't have to look too hard. In their
investigation reporters James Drew and Matt Jacob found that "a state law
designed to keep ammonium nitrate secured from would-be terrorists sets a lax
standard for keeping Texans safe," it said, continuing, "according to
the state agency charged with enforcing the 2007 law, it has acted only once to
temporarily bar a facility from selling ammonium nitrate that had recurring
problems." The story further notes that the Office of the Texas State
Chemist and six years of its inspection reports revealed that 62 out of 115
facilities registered to handle ammonium nitrate in fiscal 2013 lacked either
secure fencing or locked storage areas; and that 40 facilities that should have
had fenced, locked storage areas as required by law were deficient during a
2008-2013 fiscal period.<br />
<br />
And you know what else? No laws restricting explosive, toxic material to
non-residential areas have been enacted since them. How is it that we can
go batshit over removing shoes at airports (which no other country requires)
but not squash states that refuse to protect hazardous sites already violating
federal law?<br />
<br />
I once heard that Israel offered to help the U.S. develop and implement a
national security plan and we declined. I hope that isn't true, because
Israelis know a thing or three about dealing with terrorism; they've
experienced it time and time again. We know a lot about talking about dealing
with terrorism because we experienced a three-in-one horror show more than a
decade ago. In the wake of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the initial
World Trade Center bombing some bureaucrat decided gay translators were a security
risk, so we got rid of people who could translate Middle Eastern dialects. Of
course, we'll never know just how much information flow was disrupted -- or
will we, if such info is in Snowden's illicit cache and is revealed? I still
don't know in absolute terms how I feel about the former analyst's purloined
info. I do know that, because of leaks up to now, I have less faith than ever
in what my government tells me. That's really frightening, because if you don't
trust and respect your government, who, what, do you trust?<br />
<br />
Oh. <br />
<br />
OK, That scares me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then there are institutions I ought
to trust but are proving themselves unworthy. Incorporating tanks into police
department fleets is scary. Randomly profiling people because of their ethnic
appearance under the guise of "keeping me safe" is unnerving;
pathological cops who play fast and loose with their tasers just because they
can, frighten me a lot, come to think of it, 'cause they're the same as
domestic terrorists; ditto state troopers who run speed traps in small towns
and extralegally confiscate cash on trumped-up grounds.<br />
<br />
Any prison that holds humans in solitary confinement for months, years, <i>decades</i>,
ought to frighten us all -- especially when the reasons are capricious. I
remember a time when Amnesty International advocated on behalf of men and women
in gulags and other shameful institutions, now American prisons are in the mix,
cited for inhumane treatment.<br />
<br />
In this respect the terrorists are winning. All they have to do is sit back,
relax and watch us scare one another at mall shootings, in church, at the
movies, in offices. Scariest of all is the fact that this crap isn't going to
get better unless we elect better people to protect us from all terrorists,
foreign and domestic. Across the country north to south, east to west,
elections are coming up. We can either turn out in great numbers vote to scary
people out of office, or let them skate and watch the democratic principles on
which this vast nation was based circle the drain, or take the country back
from crazy people.<br />
<br />
What? you say; crazy?<br />
<br />
Well what else is there to call it when the nation's lawmakers say things like
(with thanks to "The Cloakroom" by Taegan Goddard):<br />
<br />
"I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games
affect people." — Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)<i>.</i><br />
<br />
"They are used to defend our property and our families and our faith and
our freedom, and they are absolutely essential to living the way God intended
for us to live." — California Rep. Tim Donnelly (R),<br />
<br />
"I refuse to play the game of 'assault weapon.' That's any weapon. It's a
hammer. It's the machetes in Rwanda that killed 800,000 people, an article that
came out this week, the massive number that are killed with hammers." —
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas).<br />
<br />
Crazy isn't limited to politicians either. Following the bizarre Florida
shooting in which one movie theater patron shot and killed another because the victim
was texting, a Fox News(?) commentator attributed the homicide to "data
rage." In other words, machines cause to people become violent after
interacting with technology.<br />
<br />
Strangely enough, a quote from a person I usually relegate to a seat in the
first-class section of the crazy train, actually said something I agree with.
He said, "This is a frightening statistic. More people vote in 'American
Idol' than vote in American elections."<br />
<br />
The speaker? Rush Limbaugh, and that frightens me on three levels -- it's a sad
commentary on American voting practices; it is indeed a scary statistic; and if
indeed true, I agree.<br />
<br />
And that's scary enough for me </span></div>
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This is a frightening statistic. More people vote in 'American Idol' than in any US election.<br />
<div class="bq_fq_a">
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/rush_limbaugh.html">
Rush Limbaugh
</a></div>
<br />
Read more at <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rushlimbau454803.html#frjVRQCorUP0aYLo.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rushlimbau454803.html#frjVRQCorUP0aYLo.99</a></div>
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-33509475364032493152014-01-23T16:01:00.001-06:002014-01-28T23:06:46.067-06:00It's Time to Stir Things Up. Again.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<br />
One day , just one day between now and Easter, I'd like to wake up and not
hear of another crazy shooting. Hey, I'll even take a day when I wake up and
instead of hearing about someone who got killed, maybe hear about someone who
didn't get killed -- especially after the news out of Ohio a week or so ago.<br />
<br />
Ohio's attorney general, Thomas Madden, is quoted as saying (of a
botched execution) that while the Constitution bars cruel and unusual
punishment, it doesn't guarantee a pain-free one. This was in response to
a scheduled execution in which the condemned prisoner took 25 minutes to die
after two previously untested drugs were administered.<br />
<br />
Reading the article gave me chills, not just because I am personally opposed
to capital punishment, but because the cavalier tone emanating from the state's
top law enforcement official was so callous. It was also another painful
reminder of Texas stunning record of executions -- the nation's highest. Hell,
we even executed a man in 2004 who was posthumously pardoned, which did nothing
to restore him, but, given it happened in Texas, the pardon was a step. It
happened in spite of the governor's efforts to sabotage the
investigation that led to proof of the executed man's innocence
(http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Cameron_Todd_Willingham_Wrongfully_Convicted_and_Executed_in_Texas.php)<br />
<br />
Of course, there's always the happy news that while Texas ranks number one
in executions nationwide, the United States is keeping company with Iran ,
(where public stoning is still on the books), North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Oh, I almost forgot: Afghanistan and China.<br />
According to Amnesty International, 140 <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">countries<b> </b>have</span> abolished the <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">death penalty</span>. In 2012, Latvia abolished the <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">death penalty</span> for all crimes (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html).
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Latvia, folks, Latvia. <br />
I can hear Molly musing to herself, rhetorically asking how much meaner, how
much more indifferent to human suffering we're going to be as a nation before
we implode. I mean, don't we want to be compared for something other than
school shootings, wars and poverty? Oh, and how about health care -- especially
woman's health? Remember Texas governor Perry's irrational refusal to
accept billions from the federal government that could fund care for those
least able to afford it?. By the way, we're talking a $79 billion -- with a 'b'
-- all because it would also have covered birth control and abortions.
This, by the way, is the same Perry is who wangled an invite to the prestigious
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland ostensibly to participate in a discussion
of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>health care.<br />
<br />
Who says there's not an abundance of irony left in the world.<br />
<br />
Increasingly, the foxes are in charge of the hen house and we are revealing
ourselves to be the chickens.<br />
<br />
I look at an Austin City Council that won't challenge developers
to include affordable housing units in construction plans, all the while
shedding crocodile tears over the continual displacement of Afro-Americans and
Hispanics from Austin's remaining integrated east side. East Austin now has a
cachet sorely missing a mere decade ago. This part of town, where I choose to
live, was at one time home to neighborhoods populated by working-class
blacks, browns and a few whites with shared economic circumstances. They
weren't rich, but they were abjectly poor. There were even trailers for
homeless men and women trying once to get on their feet. The city is
still dithering over where to put the trailers. <br />
<br />
Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out how a state that puts such a high
premium on religion can't see its way clear to address this issue. I mean, if
Pope Francis can confiscate a greedy German bishop's property and convert it to
a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, surely, <i>surely, </i>more of Austin's
church community can tap into parishioner conscience to openly advocate for
change.<br />
<br />
I had lunch recently with a friend who suggested that Austin has
outgrown itself, that the zaniness that gave rise to a "Keep Austin Weird"
characterization is drying up bit by bit. This is not to say David can't
still kick Goliath's ass. A year or so ago the Broken Spoke, and iconic
honky-tonk Austin institution faced down the usual greedy-Gus developers who
threatened to shut it down in order to build a parking lot for yet
another megalith multi-unit something or other. Long story short, the megalith
is up but the honky tonk still stands. Locals came to the Spoke's aid, loud and
clear.<br />
<br />
So there is still spirit left in Austin, but there are too many who
feel so disenfranchised that they've just adjourned to their easy chairs
and called it quits. So hear this: if all who say "my vote doesn't
count" or "my letter doesn't count" were to write a note or storm
the polls the way the French stormed the Bastille, we'd have one helluva
revolution.<br />
<br />
With the seventh anniversary of Molly's death just a few days away the
corner, I know she'd be thrilled to see grass roots stirring it up.<br />
<br />
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Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-76480871554830356962013-12-20T18:42:00.001-06:002013-12-21T10:30:22.348-06:00What Would Madiba Do In 2014?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The 24-hour news cycle has
swallowed screaming headlines about the presidential selfie, Cuban handshake,
pouting FLOTUS and crazy interpreter, only to be supplanted by lower-grade
craziness: an inane debate about the ethnicity of a mythical North Pole figure,
and GQ quotes from a semi-literate, backwoods philosopher unsophisticated in
the ramifications of speaking candidly in the 21st-century.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Now comes a reasonable
question: If we subscribe to the notion that Mandela's spirit is lingering long
enough to see what we've absorbed from his remarkable commitment to
reconciliation, what is he seeing?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Are we any more polite?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Are we trying any harder to
understand viewpoints different from our own?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Do we hold the door open for
someone - or thank them for holding it for us?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Will we speak up when someone
tells a racist joke or incorporates a racial slur into casual
conversation?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What will we change about
ourselves as a result of having shared life in the same century as the man who
survived 27 years of solitary confinement because he believed people must do
better to be better?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Will any major news
organization take a closer look at the draconian anti-gay laws recently passed
in Uganda to see if they can identify any right-wing members of Congress
involved in shaping that legislation in any way, shape or form? What will we do
to make them responsive to us?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">How will we try to remedy
some small piece of the craziness? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Can we? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Will we call to account
a knock-kneed, do-nothing Congress that boasts a "compromise" that reduces
funding for poor people, decreases health-care allotments for military personal
(dragged into a super-stupid war by a do-next-to-nothing president), and <i>increased</i>
allocations to an already overstuffed defense budget? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Cops can now get search warrants
based on what they think a subject <i>might</i> do. How do we feel about that?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">And let's take a momentary
breather from beating up on Southern rednecks. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Executives who ought to know
better still pay that woman from Alaska to run around loose, spewing word
salad when she ought to be in a Wasilla remedial reading class -- or at best in
her local Toastmasters chapter.(By the way, where is Mrs Family Values' family
these days?)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Although the ruckus has
settled down, we shouldn't forget that sordid glimpse we got into Cheney family
dysfunction and make sure we aren't of that ilk.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The Republicans' great white
hope is starting to feel hot water creeping up his ankles over an alleged, but
nonetheless stunningly juvenile, retaliatory strike against a politician who
didn't support his recent re-election campaign. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gov. Chris Christie is said
to have shut down two lanes of the George Washington Bridge, a major
thoroughfare into Manhattan from the Garden State -- and to have shut down said
lanes at precisely the point at which the recalcitrant mayor's town is
situated. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then we have the arrogance of
Michael Bloomberg in full flower, this time in a dismissive response to a
heart-wrenching five-part New York Times story about the resilience of
"Dasani," a beautiful 11-year-old homeless black girl in
Harlem. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Obviously unable to hear
himself as others heard him during a press conference, Bloomberg reportedly
quipped -- when a reporter implied an indifference to the plight of New
York's poor, “Your smirk shows you haven’t been outside the country and
don’t know what poverty means elsewhere...."This kid (Dasani) was dealt a
bad hand. I don't know quite why. That's just the way God works. Sometimes some
of us are lucky and some of us are not."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All righty then, Mr. Mayor.
You are absolutely correct. Some of us are not as lucky as you are. <i>Sir.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Oh, and let's not ignore
another north-of-the-Mason-Dixon-Line incident: Renisha McBride, the severely
intoxicated, unarmed 19-year-old who was fatally shot in the face at close
range by a Michigan homeowner who decided she was an intruder. She was seeking
help following an accident. (The good news is her shooter has been indicted and
will go to trial; none of that "stand-your-ground" nonsense in Michigan.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So, WWMD? What would Madiba
do? Here on the eve of 2014, with Mandela barely a few weeks gone, is a
question: How will we pay his memory forward? What one thing will we see
through 2014, or will commitment dissipate like the 24-hour news cycle?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-39506245657835843782013-12-05T18:46:00.001-06:002013-12-10T21:34:08.447-06:00Share the WealthStanding outside of me, looking on, I appreciate more and more my father's admonition to never measure wealth in terms of money, but memories instead. By that standard I've come to realize what a wealthy woman I am after all.
Dipping back into that treasure trove is a scene from the last big nuclear disarmament march from the American military base in Aldermaston, England, to London.<br />
<br />
It was 1963 and I had only been married a few months. We lived in the Midlands where my husband was on the faculty at the University of Leicester.
Hundreds of protesters became thousands as we neared London. Along the way we stopped and joined a group that had surrounded a young man in saffron robes. We had seen several Buddhists along the way, so we joined in and became a part of a conversation about why peace was important but probably not attainable, due to man's relentless folly in pursuing war in the name of peace. I later learned we had been in the company of the new Dali Lama. Yes, the same one who travels the world today preaching nonviolence. Somewhere is a photograph, if my daughter hasn't lost it. It meant, she once said, more to her than money.<br />
<br />
Later that same year, several union organizing friends would receive hefty jail, then prison sentences for going to South Africa to demand release of Nelson Mandela who had been imprisoned the year before. A few month's later, I would duck out of a play rehearsal and nip across to a pub for a pint, only to be met with stony silence and the announcement that John Kennedy had been assassinated.<br />
<br />
The following summer my mother announced, as was her wont, that she was coming to visit, and that she had already made arrangements for both of us to meet one of her friends in Paris. Biting the bullet, as was my wont, I agreed -- and would have more enthusiastic had she bothered to tell me that we were meeting a family friend of many years, poet Langston Hughes. He occasionally sent books inscribed to me on our shared February birthday. Seeing Paris with him was an adventure beyond measure.
Our outings never began before 10 p.m. and usually ended 'round about sunup, having made the rounds on the left bank, Place Pigalle, the Marais and ending at place much loved by ex-pats, Chez Bricktop. Owned by one Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith, the nickname commemorated her flaming red hair in a color found nowhere in nature. Chez Bricktop was the rage in Paris for decades.<br />
<br />
We had ribs and potato salad at Gabby & Haynes, where anyone who was anyone in the jazz/blues world ate sooner or later. It was the oldest American restaurant in Paris, owner by a black American ex-GI who married a Frenchwomen and decided he'd had enough of second-class citizenship in the U.S.
The night -- rather, the morning -- we went, bluesman Memphis Slim was sitting at the bar, waiting for a table. Uncle Langston, a perennial fixed cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, introduced us. Mother, without any sense of how out of place she looked in spectator pumps and white gloves, extended her hand and said, somewhat haughtily, "How do you do, Mr. Slim." She had no idea who he was. He looked at her through a smoky haze and said, "Hey baby; nice gloves." The look of complete befuddlement on her face was priceless.<br />
<br />
A few years later, at my mother's insistence, I bundled up and dragged myself to London to meet yet another of her friends who was stopping there en route to Russia, where he would abandon the United States for life in Russia -- returning once he found life there not as he had envisioned.
When I arrived at the flat Paul Robeson shared with his wife, they had tea and cookies waiting for me. We exchanged pleasantries, talked about music and how I liked living in England and whether I planned to stay there. He said I should, since black people would never have the respect they deserved in America.<br />
<br />
Long acknowledged as an authentic renaissance man, he was still smarting from the treatment he received after being cited as a subversive. Life in the '50s was much worse then for those leaning left. Of course, NSA didn't have unfettered access to our conversations then either.
When I returned to the U.S. in the late '60s and became a reporter I got to meet all manner of interesting people, including the soft-spoken Miriam Makeba, who was our houseguest for two nights when she came to St. Louis for two concerts with Hugh Masekela. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee belting belter out blues in our living room. Cab Callaway beat sounds out or Acrosonic upright that I never would have if I practiced day and night for a year, which, of course, I wouldn't. I remember Duke Ellington asking for seconds at one of the all-night chitlin' parties my parents had.<br />
<br />
A favorite photograph of mine features my father and me with Martin Luther King, Jr. It hangs on my office wall, and the story of how I met Malcolm X still amuses (he was Malcolm Little then, and his nickname, Red," came from his genuinely red hair). A restaurant operated by Black Muslims was a few doors down from my father's newspaper office, and "Red" was in the neighborhood to see how the business was going.<br />
<br />
If I hadn't been a reporter I might never had known what a nice guy Sen. Robert Dole is; that both David Brinkley and G. Gordon Liddy, while very different in character, had a wonderfully droll sense of humor; that Nina Simone really was a very strange bird; and that Lena Horne was a kind and gentle person when she wanted to be, which was more often than a lot of people knew; that Whoopi Goldberg once asked my daughter to babysit.<br />
<br />
My heart has broken several times since that Aldermaston march. No one like to see a marriage dissolve. Langston Hughes died three years after our fun in the City of Lights; Bricktop died on my birthday in 1984. Duke Ellington and my father are long gone, and each death has etched a notch of sorrow in my heart. But if it's true that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger I'm in good shape: Memories remain, but none will last as long or be as treasured as the knowledge that for all my life I shared space on planet earth with a truly extraordinary man I never met.<br />
<br />
The closest I came was knowing men and women to went to a troubled country in 1963 on an unsuccessful mission to have him released from the equivalent of America's Alcatraz. He then spent 27 years in unspeakable incarceration.
If I could spend the wealth of spirit I've accrued through knowing, and knowing of, wonderful people, I could probably underwrite a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis.<br />
<br />
Instead all I can do is donate when and where I can and hope that others, in memory of someone who has touched their lives in a meaningful way, will also give in Nelson Mandela's memory.
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-14517755522687778502013-10-11T10:22:00.000-05:002013-10-26T06:14:13.033-05:00Notes From ParadiseSt. John, USVI -- If you think it's been a while since you've seen anything from this neck of the woods, you're right. For the past six weeks I've been laying low in this little island tucked between St. Croix and St. Thomas , the other two islands that make up the trust territories know as the United States Virgin Islands.
St. John is nestled in the tropical loveliness of a land time would forget were it not for the tourists who swarm here when cruise ships make port on St. Thomas. Many come, I suspect because it's part of the tour package; some own vacation property and visit periodically just for respite; some came for vacation and have stayed ever since. It has become the only place they want to be.
I am typing this as fast as I can because Connections, the Internet cafe where people come to check mail, access Western Union, pick up packages, buy post cards, check bulletin boards for apartment rentals and get stuff notarized, is a serious meet'n'greet kind of place; it is also the only place I could find to use a computer. Oh, and they charge. sid, who owns this little communications center, is one of those who decided more than 30 years ago it was where she wants to be. She sees all, knows all, but probably only ever tells a fraction of what she knows. She has able assistance from Mary Pat, who has been here 34 years. They are good people to know.
Diagonally across the street is 1st Bank, the only bank I ever heard of that charges customers for deposits. Down the street toward Rhumb Lines, a popular watering hole, is the post office where, when the line is unusually long, you might hear "Good Morning" a dozen times before you get to the counter. That's because here it's considered bad manners to not speak before embarking on a business transaction. Across the from the post office is Capp's, another hangout bar, but what's significant about Capp's is its proximity to Thomas' smoothie stand, which isn't the exact name, but there doesn't seem to be a general consensus about what its official name is. First names tend to be the rule, and people who have been around for a while might be stumped when you ask for a last name. Some street names are uncertain, and where they exist, numbers might not make much sense. There is not one stop light on the island, only a handful of stop signs, and the island speed limit is 20 mph. One you've negotiated the hairpin switchbacks that lead to wonderful beach at Maho Bay (a federally protected sea turtle nesting site), you understand why.
Some roads are paved, others not (sorta like Texas), and there are points where if you're not careful you could do serious harm to a chicken, peacock, goat, burro, egret or iguana. I know this because I'm winding down six-week house-sitting duty here. The story of how it all came about is a tale for another time. But suffice it say that several years ago when I said I wanted to live out my crazy life here, several locals suggested that I spend time here in the off-season, when restaurants shutter for much needed rest from high-season activity and mosquitoes celebrate by chowing down on whoever is left. The pace returns to normal, which is r-e-a-l slow. I wanted a bigger slice of island life and I got it. I managed to totally avoid the Cowboy Bar except to wander in briefly to meet friends. I didn't come here to encounter Texans, although I did overhear a wonderful conversation a few nights ago while having dinner at Morgan's Mango, another local favorite.
A table of eight were having a merry time, regaling one another with tidbits from local newscasts -- local people are not particularly preoccupied with mainland news, especially politics since the USVI, while a protectorate, shares with Puerto Rico the inability to vote in American elections. But here were some folks from the aforementioned mainland, have a good laugh about a man who had been arrested for trying to cut the lawn at the Lincoln Memorial, citing the incredible stupidity of bureaucrats. Then came the biggest laugh of all: Texas Republican Randy nitwit attempting to blame a lone park ranger for shutting down Washington's Veteran's Memorial. And of course it was a female ranger. Certain male Texans really get off on upbraiding women.
Anyway, here I am, 2,000 miles from Austin and stifling a smile as the group cracks up. Someone then said "Who would we laugh at if it weren't for Texas?" Well, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas -- the list could go on. And while Minnesota can legitimately lay came to the weirdest of the End Times weirdoes (thank you, Michele Bachmann), we've got Louie Rohmer and Ted Cruz.
Who could ask for anything more in the "REALLY?!?" department.
But all I'm asking for at the moment is a successful Wendy Davis campaign. I'm returning to the mainland for three reason: My daughter, my friends and electing Wendy Davis for governor. After 2014 all bets are off; i'll probably be out of Texas.
I am hopelessly in love with turquoise and cobalt blue water that surrounds an island that is a roughly 65 per cent national park, thanks to one of those Rockefellers. The west end of the island -- the entire island is only slightly larger than Manhattan -- is the most densely populated, and home to Cruz Bay, which is home to shops, the ferry landing, the high-end Westin Hotel and villas and a few lovely B&Bs, one of which is Garden-by-the Sea. But more about that later too. At the east end is the less populated and undeniably quirky Coral Bay. At some point before I leave I plan to spend more time investigating that side as a possible, as they say in airplane parlance, final destination.
In time I suspect the best place to find me is either enjoying a smoothie at the ferry landing or at Connections.
Next time: food, shelter, booze and new friends.<strike></strike>
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-44434969926958164622013-08-27T18:37:00.002-05:002013-08-27T18:38:22.362-05:00Good Music, Bad Backstories<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we ease up on what would have
been Molly's 69th birthday I find myself continually hearing music in my head. Sometimes I hear Marcia Ball's rousing rendition of "Great Balls of Fire," played
at Molly's memorial service. Sometimes it's Marcia, sometimes it's Jerry Lee
Lewis. I should have known "Great Balls" wasn't about politics, which is probably why Molly asked that it be played at her memorial service: an end run around sadness. I was only mildly surprised to realize
what it was really about. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You shake my nerves and you rattle
my brain<br />
Too much love drives a man insane<br />
You broke my will<br />
But what a thrill<br />
Goodness gracious great balls of fire!</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yeah. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moving on six years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The whole time we shouted and stomped, chanted and cheered for Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte and
Mary Gonzales and Judith Zaffirini in the Texas Senate -- part of a small but strong pod of female Democrats who had the courage to stand up to bullying
religious zealots -- another song took up residence in my brain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Do you hear the people sing?<br />
Singing a song of angry men?<br />
It is the music of a people<br />
Who will not be slaves again!<br />
When the beating of your heart<br />
Echoes the beating of the drums<br />
There is a life about to start<br />
When tomorrow comes! </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No matter what I
did for the rest of the second special session whenever I saw an orange "I Stand With Texas Women," t-shirt I heard that fabulous
anthem midway the first act of <i>Les Miserables</i>. I got so
crazy at one point I was passing the lyrics out to anyone who would accept the
paper they were printed on. This, I insisted, should be our anthem, only instead of storming staged barricades, women, men and children from all across the state stormed that bully pulp. Both the real and the theatrical revolutionaries made an impression. Demonstrations at the Capitol went viral and made international news.Texas was finally on the map for something other than executions and football. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even more recently, as I read about yet
another </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">school scare, another </span>homicide/suicide, another hate crime, that extraordinary piece of work by Rodgers and Hammerstein penned for "<i>South Pacific</i>" surfaced. It was excruciating
to recognize its 21st-century relevance: </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be taught to hate and fear</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be taught from year to year</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be carefully taught.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be taught to be afraid </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of people whose eyes are oddly made</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of people whose skin is a different shade</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be carefully taught</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be taught before it's too late </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Before you are six, or seven or eight</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To hate all the people your relatives hate</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You've got to be carefully taught.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I thought about Molly and how she
would have had a way to turn those lines and all the others into a battle cry
for political change in a state that often seems to have lost its grip on reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I mean, where to start -- with a
governor who can't keep straight which border city is in Texas and which one is
in Mexico?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A lieutenant governor who
(allegedly) drunk-dialed a suburban cop in a failed attempt to intercede on behalf
of a relative who (allegedly) failed to pay for $57 worth of groceries?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A candidate for state comptroller
who can't pronounce the office he seeks but wants to abolish the IRS, which he can pronounce?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A smirking junior U.S. senator who
bogarts media attention with the kind of lunatic enthusiasm usually associated
with Donald Trump?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A state representative who sponsors
one of the nation's most draconian anti-abortion bills, but then, in public hearings
and on the House floor, can't answer a single question about the bill's contents?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Or last, but by no means least,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a U.S. representative who famously
argued<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that "kids don't need to learn about (sex), because
"mankind has existed for a pretty long time without anyone ever having to
give a sex-ed lesson to anybody." He clearly missed the memo about Texas having t</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">he
nation's fourth highest teen pregnancy rate AND <i>the</i> highest repeat teen
pregnancy rate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Worse yet, this same right-wing twerp -- through his well-honed facility for mismanaging accurate information -- has thrust the United States into a diplomatic boondoggle. In a domestic news clip picked up and broadcast in strife-torn Egypt, the one and (thank God) only Rep. Louis Gohmert did something precious few of us have been able to achieve in Texas: Egyptians took one of his anti-Obama diatribes seriously. As a result a dissident faction now believes that Obama is in cahoots with the Muslim Brotherhood.Who ever in the world could envision Gohmert influencing political action halfway around the world. Who? How?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I guess this is just a long-winded
way of saying "You're six years gone, Mol, and those of us who knew your voice
still miss your special gift for stirring it up." </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mary Tyler "Molly" Ivins:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<![endif]-->Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-48075929881695143682013-08-12T07:25:00.000-05:002013-08-12T07:38:53.270-05:00Something's Happening Here; What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Almost 50 years ago a prescient
Buffalo Springfield recording captured a mood that's creeping across the
country today. That spirit is alive in Texas, Missouri, California, Oklahoma --
well, almost anywhere reactionary forces are doing their best to stifle
dissent, silence women's voices and demonize those who follow the beat of the
different drummer. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And once again, as we ease up on Molly's Aug. 30 birthdate I pine for her voice,
knowing she would have a better way of dealing with oday's swirl of events.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I managed to stave off apoplexy
while reading a David Brooks column a while back, excoriating Edward Snowden, who spilled the
beans on wholesale government-sanctioned information gathering. As was the case
with Bradley Manning, his biggest crime seems to have been embarrassing the government, not
divulging state secrets -- at least as far as we know. Reading Brooks column moved
me to trot out a t-shirt I received a couple of years ago as a bonus for
subscribing to <i>The Nation</i>. It said, simply, "Secrecy Breeds Tyranny."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By now there can't be anyone
unfamiliar with the tragic Sanford, Florida death of Trayvon Martin -- or other
black men who have been fatally wounded by law enforcement officers since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But lest we forget, abuse at the hands of
those ostensibly designed to serve and protect is not reserved exclusively for
black men -- even though it often seems that way. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What we have done to our own
boggles the mind -- and we didn't need Bradley Manning or Anthony Snowden to tell
us about some of the cases that have surfaced. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Take the case of Daniel
Chong, a California university student who almost
died in police custody last year. He recently won a multimillion-dollar
lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency, but how will he recover psychologically
from being handcuffed in a federal holding cell for nearly five days without
food or water -- and spending time in intensive care as a result? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Will Trayvon Martin's parents get anything close to that?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chong was detained in the spring of
last year in conjunction with a San Diego drug raid. After it was determined
that he was not involved in illicit activity, a member of the task force that
conducted the raid put him in a cell and apparently forgot about him. For days. By the
time he was found he was suffering from severe dehydration, muscle
deterioration, hallucinations, liver and kidney failure, and extremely high
levels of sodium. One of his attorneys was quoted as saying, “What happened to
Daniel Chong should never happen to any human being on the face of the planet.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He might never be the same, but at least he's alive to tell the tale.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
Marissa Alexander is also alive, but, one might ask, so what? Until her recent Florida (again!) Marissa Alexander had no criminal record, no history of violence and
no brushes with the law before she fired a warning shot into a wall in response
to an advancing abusive husband.<br />
<br />
Oh, did I omit the part about him being at her
house despite the fact that she had a restraining order?<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She</i> received a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>20-year sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. . He's still walking around
loose. A judge dismissed her "stand your ground" claim, noting that
she could have run back into the house to escape her husband. Instead she got a gun.
Alexander, obviously erroneously anticipating a rational outcome, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rejected a plea deal that would have resulted
in a three-year prison sentence and chose a jury trial. It deliberated 12
minutes before convicting her. After, all the judge said, she could have run.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We have a war of terror right here. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>We can talk big game about protecting other countries
from tyranny, but we destroy civilian lives in a tyrannical war against women, the poor and ethnic minorities. We lie about the number of innocents we kill in the name
of an invisible enemy called "terror," but we ignore the terror
blacks, browns, gays and poor whites experience daily.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We continue to trot out tired iconic
has-beens like Rudy Giuliani, whose post 9/11 rhetoric has long since lost its
potency, to persuade us that the war on you-know-what forces us to be ever
vigilant. We conjure up scary color-coded "threat levels" that keep otherwise
sensible citizens just where a manipulative government wants us: frightened.So we lose focus on what's happening under our local noses.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So allow me to trot out a notion I fully
support: eternal vigilance is still the price of freedom, but not at the expense of
constitutional guarantees; not at the expense of having conversations, emails
and personal correspondence of every Tom, Dick and Henrietta exposed to
government scrutiny in the name of protecting us from terrorism; not with the
passage of inflexible draconian laws that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>turn around and bite civil rights on the butt; not at the expense of keeping state
governments out of women's vaginas. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So now I'm back to the closing
stanza of "For What It's Worth," the Buffalo Springfield song that
became an antiwar anthem in the 1960s:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<i> Paranoia strikes deep </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Into your life it will creep </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
It starts when you're always afraid </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
You step out of line, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The man come and take you away </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They took Manning away and rigged
his courts martial so only dribs and drabs of the bizarre proceedings against
him could reach us. The Justice Department might or might not take a second
look at George Zimmerman's pathetic gun love. A benevolent justice system might eventually show Marissa Alexander justice. Daniel Chong might be OK, and yes, the $4 million might help, but it's gonna take a while..</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lots of maybes, lots of mights. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It remains to be seen what will happen them all, just as it
remains to be seen what's really happening here, 'cause what it is ain't
exactly clear. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
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<![endif]-->Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-87095985759374332162013-07-10T05:40:00.000-05:002013-08-12T05:55:54.079-05:00Texas Politics: Best Theater In Town<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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After listening to almost 10 hours of debate centered on the highly dubious
merits of the Texas legislature's superstupid so-called 'abortion' bill (HB2),
all exchanges, pro and con, boiled down to a vote passing the bill.
Opponents, all Democrats, just didn't have the numbers, and moderate
Republicans, cowed by the Tea Party right-wing crazies among them, chickened
out.<br />
<br />
But that was just the beginning. What happened in the 30 minutes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after </i>the votes were tallied and was more uplifting than most of the performances on the House floor. Mind you, here were
several magical moments throughout the day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the legislature's no-nonsense grand dame, delivered
a graphic description of what will happen to Texas women as a result of this
draconian bill (that will severely limit access to a range of medical services
in addition to abortion). With a coat hanger in one hand and a scary-long
knitting needle in the other, she made clear what happens in back-alley
abortions -- and insisted that these would be the likely implements used for
terminating an unwanted pregnancy due to rape or incest (the bill makes
no provision for allowing termination of a pregnancy after 20 weeks). She asked
that an amendment to the bill be considered. It would make an exception for rape and/or incest. <br />
<br />
It was voted down.<br />
<br />
In a powerful proposal delivered in old-school oratorical style, Rep.
Sylvester Turner <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>promised in to vote for
the bill if a provision were added to fund post-natal and medical care for mother and child.<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His amendment was voted down.<br />
<br />
Rep. Dawnna Dukes gently and somberly proposed an amendment that would fund
education for children born of unwanted pregnancies. Her amendment was also
voted down-- but not before some neophyte whippersnapper had the temerity to challenge
Dukes' motivation for advancing the amendment in the first place. What followed
was a scene straight from a TV drama series. Dukes fixed a steely gaze on the
offending legislator and issued a smackdown worthy <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The West Wing." Her voice dropped half
of an octave. When she finished dusting the floor with a scathing indictment of
his character for his seeming to challenge hers, she stepped back from the microphone
and over to his desk where she completed her reprimand. A brace of empty suits
surrounded the two, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but none -- I
suspect wisely -- interfered.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, House Speaker Joe Strauss fluctuated between looking frustrated,
dismayed and bewildered, bless his heart.<br />
<br />
Interspersed with this day-long drama were occasional rejoinders from the
bill's ostensible sponsor: Rep. Jodie Laubenberg. She called to mind one of
Molly Ivins' more notorious quotes. In characterizing a Texas politico, Molly
once wrote, "If <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his IQ slipped any
lower, you'd have to water him twice a day." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enter Rep. Laubenberg, bless her heart too. I
can't begin to imagine how or why she became the bill's front-and-center spokestwit.
Barely able to articulate a compound sentence, she couldn't defend
"her" bill with anything vaguely resembling informed authority.
(This is the person who famously believed a rape kit was the appropriate
methodology for eliminating the probability of pregnancy; she had no idea its
sole purpose was to acquire a perp's <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DNA.)<br />
<br />
Bet whoever put her up to it won't make that mistake again.<br />
<br />
OK. So now you have a snapshot of the activity before the miserable vote
took place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What happened <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after </i>the session ended is the wonderful
part of the day and what made the end result tolerable. Hundreds of men and women of all shapes, ages, sizes,
ethnicities and manner of dress descended on the second floor outside the House
chamber, shouts of "Shame On You!" erupted among Texans who lined stairwells and crowded the gallery just outside the House doors. Stone-faced state troopers
promptly cordoned off access. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>mass of people forced some of
the bill's supporters to skitter down side stairs like so many fleeing rodents.
<br />
<br />
And then...and then...AND THEN: some of the true heroes of the day began to
emerge. Angry jeers became cheers: "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"
we yelled. Somewhere a drum and a tambourine appeared, its players keeping
rhythm. There they were: representatives Sephronia Thompson, Rodney Allen, Jessica
Ferrar, Mary Gonzales, Elliott Naishtat, Helen Giddings, Garnet Coleman,
Jose Menendez. Despite the best efforts of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>remarkably calm fire marshals, supporters crowded
them, reaching past a line of troopers who tried to cordon off a pathway from
the house floor to the rotunda. The sea of phone cameras at the end of upstretched
arms was almost sculptural. Others, including Dukes, were sequestered in a
press conference.<br />
<br />
And all of a sudden, it was over. The second session of the 83rd convocation
of the Texas State Legislature had run its course. The crowd dispersed. The troopers scattered. The fire marshall accepted a Gerber daisy.<br />
<br />
Now we wait to see if this enthusiasm can translate into getting out the vote. <br />
<br />
In all, it was a bad news/good news day.<br />
<br />
HB2, which will be challenged six
ways from Sunday, was, for the time being, en route to becoming law. As for the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>good news, the monomaniacal governor who
insisted that the million-dollar special session be convened for the sole
purpose of passing this chickenshit bill, announced that he will not run for
governor again.<br />
<br />
My fervent hope is that he takes his limited abilities onto the presidential
campaign trail in <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
2016, since Michele Bachmann isn't likely to run. Every
campaign needs a court jester along the way.<br />
<br />
<br />
Tickets to this theater production, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>like the one just ended, are free.<br />
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<![endif]-->Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-59572306483892633252013-06-07T20:56:00.001-05:002013-06-10T22:24:25.403-05:00<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Off We Go, Into the Wild Blue Yonder...</span></span></span><br />
<br />
I'm. notorious for not being able to recognize famous people -- oh I could recognize the current or any of the recent past presidents, or maybe a celebrity or two should they be Bono in those dark blue glasses, Whoopi in her dreads or Charles Osgood in his signature bow tie. But for the most part, nada.<br />
<br />
Apropos of that deficiency, I can't remember when I've wished so much that Molly was around to hear a story of mine (instead of it usually being the other way 'round) as I did that day in April when I boarded my flight from Austin to Newark. Because I always get an aisle seat, I usually wait until the last minute to board, giving time for seatmates to settle in and avoiding all that nonsense of waiting while type A types toggle and shove their beleaguered suitcases into overheard compartments. This time my delayed boarding paid off. Big time. Here's what happened:<br />
<br />
As I snail-walked behind the still lined-up passengers, I met the eyes of a familiar oval-round face with snow white hair and a receding hair line. But from familiar how, from where? It made me crazier and crazier as I got nearer and nearer, unable to assign name to visage.<br />
<br />
And then it hit me. "Excuse me," I said with a smile, "but who was the first person to tell you you look exactly like John Cornyn?" He smiled back and said, "My mother."<br />
<br />
Paygodammdirt.<br />
<br />
"Good seeing, you senator," I said as I moved on. Once in my 26D seat, seat belt fastened, electronic devices off, seat in upright and tray in stowed and locked in position, I whipped out my trusty little notebook. Even though long retired from the newsroom, I still carry one with me. Never know when you're gonna encounter a senator with whom you have absolutely nothing in common on a three-hour flight. Gotta make the best possible use of the time without risking mid-air arrest which requires having the patience to wait until you're at a cruising altitude of 32,000 feet. Notes. Must have notes.<br />
<br />
With notes scribbled and committed to memory, down the aisle I went. It was a reasonable safe gambit: Cornyn had an aisle bulkhead seat, immediately behind first class, and had had the whole row to himself. Immediately across from the good senator was an Amazonian type dressed way too conspicuously inconspicuously not to have been either an air marshal ("marshallette"?) or a badly disguised member of the security team. She too had the entire row. Immediately behind her sat a very muscular young man with almost no neck who was surely there on the senator's protective behalf. He watched me suspiciously, and with fairly good reason.<br />
<br />
No matter. I was not there to do harm or make a fuss -- only to tell my senator three things. As I approached, Senator Cornyn apparently sensed my presence because he looked up.<br />
<br />
Mission accomplished: eye contact. <br />
<br />
Pardon me senator," I said. "I apologize for disturbing you, but this is as close as I'll ever get to you in real life, and since we wouldn't agree on anything other than the fact that we're on the same plane headed for the same destination, I just wanted to say three things to you."<br />
<br />
A thinly veiled look if displeasure came over him as he replied, "Well, I'm trying to take a nap here." <br />
I answered with the hang-dog look familiar to any beagle owner: "I know, and I do apologize,," I said, "but since I'm a constituent and I help pay your salary I only need two minutes of your time to say one, I think Guantanamo should be closed immediately; two, torture is wrong now, always has been, always will be; and three, automatic weapons belong only in the hands of police officers and military personnel. -- Oh and one more thing: I think Ted Cruz is an asshole, and you shouldn't lower yourself to his level."<br />
Let me pause here long enough to say that even when he is distorting facts to the breaking point, John Cornyn has always comported himself in a very Southern Gentlemanly kind of way. So I give him props for being soft-spoken and polite even as he tap dances on what passes for reality in most quarters. Plus, he didn't summon his bodyguard to march me back to my seat.<br />
<br />
The senator looked momentarily startled, doubtless taken aback by my genteel. ladylike language, and asked, "What did you say?" As I began to repeat my three-points, " he said, "No, the last part." And I repeated it, leaning in a little closer to his left ear. "I think Ted Cruz is an asshole, and you shouldn't lower yourself to his level."<br />
<br />
I swear I thought he smiled as he said "I have no comment." To which I replied,"Nor should you, sir and thank you for your time," and hightailed it back to 26D.<br />
<br />
I'd like to think Molly would have been pleased.<br />
<br />
I for sure know I was pleased not to have uniformed personnel waiting when I emerged from the walkway into Newark International. In heading toward baggage claim I only looked back once. No one was tailing me. The senator, the bodyguard and the Amazon were long gone.<br />
<br />
<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-27356997646082713382013-02-23T17:13:00.003-06:002013-02-23T17:17:08.291-06:00Behold the Worldwide Feeding Frenzy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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In an extraordinary convergence of awful international events a lot of us
are looking on somewhere between horror and bewilderment as the Catholic church
cannibalizes itself; old Republicans chew on their younger, hipper conservative
cohort even as it tries to save the geezers from themselves; and our good Governor
Goodhair dines out on obfuscation and half-truths in an effort to lure
Californians from one state in budgetary distress to another -- all the while
turning his back on the hundreds of thousands of poor women and children who
will be without health care due to his proud rejection of billions in federal
aid designed to help them.<br />
<br />
It's enough to cause indigestion in anyone with a conscience.<br />
<br />
Yet here we are once again, in front row seats at the theater of nutty
national governance as it threatens to throw the country into financial chaos
unless the petulant adolescents who pass for a congressional delegation can
somehow get their act together and elevate country above petty squabbles.<br />
<br />
We haven't seen much of the bipartisanship our poor, delusional president
still seems to think is possible, so we must commend the Neanderthals who took
office with the sole goal of stymieing President Obama at every turn for making
good on their sick promise. I have never wished so fervently for Molly's voice as I
have in recent weeks. I can see her now, hunkered down at her computer, reassembling
carefully researched data and committing to paper -- well, computer screen --
an evisceration of the men and women who profess such grand love of country,
even as they invest inordinate energy in dismantling it.<br />
<br />
I can see sweat running down the side of her face as she calls to account
the likes of Michelle Bachmann, the stunningly vapid Minnesota <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tea (Party) brain who has denied global
warming; denounced non-existent "death panels" as part of the
president's health care program; accused a White House staffer of being a Muslim
Brotherhood sympathizer; and impugned the character of Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Oh wait -- Bachmann also famously suggested in a
campaign event that the 2011 earthquake and hurricane that struck the Eastern
seaboard were messages from God -- adding, for good measure, one of the year's
weirdest nonsequiturs: "Listen to the American people because...(t)hey know
government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the
spending."<br />
<br />
As an ardent feminist, it would not elude Mol's sense of irony that Bachman
sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.<br />
<br />
Intelligence?<br />
<br />
Really?<br />
<br />
Sweet Jesus.<br />
<br />
Yes, here we are, on the eve of an ill-conceived congressional plan that
would cut funding for pre-school education programs and eliminate thousands of jobs in the public and private sector, all because a
die-hard, intellectually impotent bunch of flag-pin-wearing pinheads who
love their country so very much that they're prepared to drive it into the
ground.<br />
<br />
Talk about stirring it up...<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The thing about the 24-hour news cycle, the thing I like least
about it, anyway -- is the fact that a momentous event -- like, oh, say, the
re-election of a president is here for a moment, then gone the next. Then it's
on to the next big thing like a certain political consultant who is probably
still licking his wounds after being unable to produce one single successful
candidate for all the millions he garnered from<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>donors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, and made for himself.
Really wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And no, we're not going anywhere near that 4-star general's
triangular tribulations. No one could do that better than Jon Stewart did on a recent
"Daily Show." But see what I mean? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carl Rove was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stale news 24 hours after his stupendously
unsuccessful promotion of right wing-nut hopefuls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> By the time I finish this something will probably have supplanted Israel's bombing in Gaza. Um, or not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was still unpacking from my two months<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>away from home when I learned of two deaths
that shook me mightily: One, a dear and wonderful friend in New Orleans -- she
was going for her first chemo treatment when I talked to her husband shortly
before I left for one trip, and died before I returned 30 days later. The other
was the death of Isaiah Sheffer, for many years the host of "Selected
Shorts" at New York's Symphony Space. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died just as I returned from the second
trip. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I never met <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheffer
in person, but I felt like I had. Sunday after Sunday I sat in my comfy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>living room chair and waited for the tinkly
music that presaged the start of "Selected Shorts," and wait for his
gentle voice to welcome me and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>introduce
the evening's works. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actors read short
stories penned by <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>well- and lesser-known
writers, and the program was always engaging.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did, however, know <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Diana Pinckley. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She and her husband John Pope graciously read
and critiqued the Molly book manuscript before I submitted it. Diana came up
with a title for the book I loved, but the publisher didn't, so you can pretty
much guess who won that argument. (Fortunately another dear and wonderful <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>friend produced a title <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>everybody liked and that was that). Anyway,
Diana took the rejection much more graciously that I did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She arranged for me to have a book reading and
signing at the Farmers Market and at Octavia Books, a charming neighborhood
independent store.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While Diana's death left me deeply saddened, Sheffer's death
affected me too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was only 60, two
years younger than Molly was when she died. Sheffer, who died of complications
from a stroke, was 76. When you are in you 70s, as I am, these confrontations
with immortality<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>recall Longfellow's<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reminder that art is long and time is
fleeting. The time we have on this beleaguered planet is so short that it is increasingly
a waste of time to fret over what we can't do or change; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to get angry with the moron who cuts us off in
traffic; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the dunderhead who can't bother
to stop for the driver trying to exit a parking lot at rush hour; the arrogant
shopper who directs his/her filled-to-the-brim<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>grocery cart to the 'express'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>checkout lane; the loud-mouthed idiot whose cell phone is grafted to
his/her ear everywhere , all the time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These and other social transgressions call for a deep breath
or two or three because there are other things to do. Other mountains to climb.
Other places to see. Other friends to visit. Art is long and time is fleeting, so stir things up when and where possible, then move on.</div>
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-60280821012810555102012-10-27T16:54:00.001-05:002012-10-28T20:08:16.826-05:00Heading Home. Hurricane Be Damned!With a Delta flight due to get me out of Boston in 24 hours I'm refusing to acknowledge the possibility that something stupid like a hurricane named "Sandy" is going to interfere with my polling place presence on Nov. 6.<br />
<br />
"Sandy," for cryin' out loud.<br />
<br />
That's a name for a big-eyed dog from a comic book or a play or a movie called "Annie," not some force of nature that, as I understand it (as of this posting on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 1:44 EDT) has already wreaked havoc with poor ole Cuba and can't make up its mind whether it's going to muscle its way up the Eastern seaboard, go inland a bit or slap the snot out of New England, including Boston. Meanwhile I'm trying to divine a voodoo ritual for sending the sucker out to sea without bothering any fishing, leisure or cruise boats.<br />
<br />
So, barring the unforeseeable, this will be my last post until Austin is once again <i>terra firma</i>.<br />
<br />
It has been a wild ride: got sick in Odessa, sicker in St. Louis, almost well in Wisconsin and healthy by Beantown.<br />
<br />
Wisconsin was receptive and more than a few people had met and known Molly and were surprised to know her food-loving side. Minneapolis, of course, remembered her from her days at the Tribune -- which is still in print, thank goodness, but looking slim like too many dailies.<br />
<br />
The Boston sojourn was organized by a friend and former neighbor from our days in Summit, N.J. Susan Chase is part of a remarkable group of women who have founded a non-profit that provides potable water by digging wells in a village in Ghana, and is now installing latrines to augment the one already in existence. And yes, that's one latrine for the entire village.<br />
<br />
(This might not sound like much, but the World Health Organization says roughly 2.2 million people -- mostly children -- die annually from cholera, dysentery and other waterborne diseases carried in polluted water. So while masters of the universe are manning oil fields and planning pipelines to bring black gold to freighters for distribution around the globe, the Skidmore class of '71 is bringing water to children who can now live long enough to work those oil fields. If you want to know more about the program, go to <a href="http://worldclass-ghana.org/">worldclass-ghana.org</a>.)<br />
<br />
In all, it was a wonderful evening with alumnae coming from as nearby as New Hampshire and as far away as St. Croix. This is a bunch of no-nonsense, Elizabeth Warren-supporting, vote-or-die women who would take great umbrage at being labeled do-gooders. They are committed to doing good because that's what decent people who can afford to help others <i>should</i> do.<br />
<br />
While others might take advantage of a visit to an historic city like Boston, I went in search of good food guided by advice from another friend and former colleague -- this time dating to my time as a reporter for the Denver Post. Kelli, her husband Andy and their baby Biscuit (whose real name is Parker) now live here and are as devoted to good food as your above-average food freak. Kelli proffered two recommendations, one of which was worth the week's salary it cost to park in the nearest garage.<br />
<br />
The Boston clam chowder at City Landing on Boston Harbor was outstanding, but the lobster mac'n'cheese at Max & Dylan's Kitchen and Bar was a proper way to celebrate the end of the lobster season. Situated in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, M&D's clam chowder wasn't as artery-clogging as City Landing's, but their blackened scallops -- a half dozen good-sized day-boat bivalves atop a drizzle of orange-horseradish marmalade -- were worth the forever it took to find a parking space.<br />
<br />
So yeah, as the 2012 book tour winds to a close and funds threaten to dry up completely, it has been a worthwhile ride, notwithstanding Sandy's threats to keep stirring things up.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-51106394201490999622012-10-18T21:51:00.000-05:002012-10-18T21:51:10.560-05:00England. Wales. Houston. UmckaIf you only recognize three out of the four, not to worry: but if you ever feel a cold coming on whether you're in the UK, or Texas or St. Louis (where I am as i write this), get thee to a natural foods store and stock up on Umcka (pronounced "oomka") and Wellness Formula, scary looking oval pill things reminiscent of the monster Miracle Max concocted for Westley in "The Princess Bride."<br />
<br />
Thanks to Umcka and Wellness monster pills I am now comfortably off to the Chippewa Valley Book Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin then on to Boston where I hope I have enough clothes to keep me warm. Unfortunately, I was unable to spend more than four hours at the conference I originally came to St. Louis to attend -- thanks to coughs and wheezes and sneezes -- but that's history now, as is the second presidential debate, which I watched with great glee. It called to mind the phrase I heard throughout my month-long visit in England. Invariably dinners washed down with good wines and nice brandy loosened otherwise circumspect tongues, prompting such queries as "what's going on these days with your president and Mitt the Twit?"<br />
<br />
It seems Brits take serious umbrage at presidential candidates returning to the mother ship and challenging queen and country's ability to host the world's biggest athletic event -- which was the usual stunning display of running, jumping, swimming, shooting, riding and diving. Unfortunately what wasn't seen on this side of the pond was the Paralympics, a 12-day display of a different sort, manifested in wheelchair events; swimmers with one arm or no legs; blind runners and amputees performing everything but gymnastics -- including wheelchair fencing, rugby, tennis, riding and volleyball. I guess we weren't privy to this extraordinary event because, who knows, maybe we're too delicate to deal with events featuring less-than-perfect bodies? Maybe greedy sponsors or scaredy-cat networks didn't think they could make enough $$$?<br />
<br />
Well guess what: stadiums and gyms and poolside crowds were as great for the Paralympics as they were for the big games. The most moving finale included disabled athletes joined by Olympians celebrating together. In this instance Americans were the biggest losers. Over there we watched in disbelief as these remarkable people did their running, jumping, fencing, riding thing.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, in England we also watched Clinton speak at the Democratic convention (which now seems like ages ago) and interpreted it as a prelude of what was to come in the first presidential debate -- and we all know how that turned out. <br />
<br />
But in talking with my friend Ed Finkelstein, publisher of the St. Louis Labor Tribune and much-respected political consultant, President Obama fumbled the first debate deliberately to throw governor Romney's camp off balance. Maybe the president did, maybe he didn't. What Romney <i>did</i> do was let punditry pump him up to the point that he forgot he was going <i>mano a mano</i> a guy who is full of surprises -- not the least of them becoming president. I think that is, has been, and will continue to be a bone that sticks in any number of throats.<br />
<br />
Well, brother Romney clearly said to himself, if that first go-round was any indication, I'll just tap dance over this guy in round two. I'll toss out enough jumbled up compound sentences that this group of undecided voters will easily see how superior I am. I'll tell them about the binders full of women I found worthy of working for me when I was governor; I'll explain how my immigrant plan provides for "illegals" (yes, he used the term in front of a group that included at least four or five Hispanics); I'll manage to conflate the issues of automatic weapons with two-parent marriage and hope nobody notices; and I'll keep repeating the same "values" verbiage over and over and hope none of these, these, these Long Island peasants will notice I'm speaking fluent argle bargle. And please, God, don't let Obama bring up that hijacked recording of me saying 47 per cent of Americans are freeloading tax and/or welfare cheats.<br />
<br />
We know how well that worked out for him.<br />
<br />
So now we're down to the wire. From here I go forth and spread my non-political message of cooking with Molly and dream my dream of an America where, on Nov. 6, all the people who say "my one vote isn't going to make a difference" will see the error of their ways and stir things up by checking every box that has the name of the candidate most likely to work for a still struggling middle class, and not for those who inherited or cultivated great wealth on the backs of workers who watched their jobs go to that big Asian country Romney wishes he didn't have to talk about.<br />
<br />
That ought to stir things up a bit.Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-19964269671179769162012-09-27T20:09:00.001-05:002012-09-28T02:41:27.135-05:00...And The Days Dwindle Donwn To A Precious Few......and the English visit draws to a close.<br />
<br />
That's the bad news.<br />
<br />
The good news is I return just in time for the first presidential debate. While there's no lamenting missing the onslaught of political messages and relentless coverage that has no doubt plagued the news cycle, it has been interesting to experience the Obama/Romney kerfluffle from here -- in addition to getting a big kick out of all news coverage, especially the little bits. We used to call them "filler" in the old days. They were the tiny stories needed to fill space on a page, like the one about the woman in Aberdeen, Scotland who reached into her cutlery drawer and found a black and brown striped snake believed to be an escaped pet. Was it?<br />
No idea. Or the guy in Runnymede who, when cited for drunken driving, cited Magna Carta as grounds for not acceeding to a breathalizer test. The judge disagreed, citing Magna Carta as grounds for finding him guilty and assessing a fine.<br />
<br />
Town names here are good for a smile and a giggle, like Cold Ash and Ozleworth, until one considers Texas towns like Cut'n'Shoot, Tow and Dime Box. Better yet are the television shows. Numerous American series have made it across the pond, from oldies like "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "Frasier," "Judge Judy","Everybody Loves Raymond," and "Rules of Engagement." There is not much likelihood of reciprocal episodes of "Psychic Sally on the Road," "Hunky Dory Blockbuster (the equivalent of QVC)," or BBC's "Ripoff Britain" in the morning and "Watchdog," in the evening -- both of which cite by name companies caught in the act of defrauding consumers. In one disquieting episode, an enterprising but ethically challenged entrepreneur was videotape leaving court (after being fined for fraudulent television repairs) and became so angered with the waiting TV crew that he tosses the contents of a bottle over the interviewer's head. The liquid turns out to be urine. I'm sure that encouraged the viewing public to do business with him.<br />
<br />
And speaking of the public, language on television here would probably come as a big shock --or at least a revelation -- to those unaccustomed to hearing salty dialogue on channels not relegated to cable. I mean, George Carlin would be proud.<br />
<br />
Traveling the English countryside has also been a revelation, especially local grocery stores. The two most notable are Waitrose and Tesco -- both comparable in one way or another to Central Market or Whole Foods. Especially impressive are the frozen food offerings which include traditional shepherd's pie, fish & chips, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and -- drum roll, please -- an American Tex-Mex selection of fajitas, chili (spelled 'chilli' here) and barbecued ribs. Particularly impressive are the labels that the food industry is fighting stateside: nutritional information that includes fat content, caloric value, sugar, salt and saturated fat percentages -- on <i>all </i>labels. Equally conspicuous is the absence of additives. Canned goods do not include salt. High-fructose corn syrup is nowhere to be seen. No MSG, no food coloring, no artificial flavoring (unless clearly stated on the label) and fruit juice from real fruit.<br />
<br />
Fish displays are also a pleasant surprise. I encountered a Tesco employee who gave me more time than I deserved upon being interrogated about where plaice, hake, haddock and mackerel originated. In between serving actual customers he confided that he had only been on the job for three weeks, having walked away from his job as a registered psychiatric nurse -- too few beds, not enough staff to do the job properly. Dover sole, it should be noted, is as pricey here as it is in our neck of the woods.<br />
<br />
And speaking of food, as is often the case, English food in 2012 is a far cry from what it once was. There are wonderful meals to be had in towns large and small. I thought about the fox family that used to live at the bottom of the backyard space at Molly's house and was lured to The Snooty Fox in Tetbury, a town in the heart of Gloucestershire's hunt country. The shrimp and haddock fishcake, topped by a perfectly poached egg and finished with a chive butter sauce was outstanding -- as were the steamed mussels in cider cream served with house-made white bread sliced thick.<br />
<br />
By the by, brace for sticker shock. Food, like everything else, is expensive, whether dining out or shopping to eat in.<br />
<br />
But some things are worth paying for, like dining out. First, there was the perfect meal at Number Seven Fish Bistro in Torquay. This exquisite family-owned restaurant features fish caught daily, and the flavors --and a packed house on a mid-September Wednesday evening stand in testimony to a sturdy reputation for quality. It worth a trip to Torquay just to eat there. Which is not to say that the menu at Jesse's in the town of Cirencester is anything to be sneezed at. Situated down an otherwise unremarkable alleyway, just behind the butcher shop that share's its name,Jesse's is reason enough to go to Cirencester. The seared sea scallops, the chicken liver pate (with red onion marmalade and toasted granary bread also justifies the trip to Gloucestershire. Other than my friend Cath's cooking (this evening she made and outstanding Beef Stroganoff), these were among the best meals consumed, or, more accurately, devoured, here.<br />
<br />
If you can get to Bath, and this World Historical Site is just too wonderful for words, have lunch at The Pump Room. On the day we visited the lunch specials featured roasted fennel and butternut squash with a blue cheese dressing; lamb and rosemary cassoulet with roasted garlic and baby green beans; and for dessert,orange marmalade bread and butter pudding.<br />
<br />
Yes, we had good food in London, but here in the hinterlands is a happening food scene too.<br />
<br />
So as I wind down my escape from 24-hour political stuff (hate that I missed P.M. Cameron on Letterman, but apparently his inability to identify the author of "God Save the Queen" was disquieting for the local newspapers). Yes, plural. Newspapers. Five, I think. Even the rail system has free newspapers with synopses of local, national and international info. Anyway, I will be home in time for the first debate.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, permit me to lord over you that fact that by the time I return I will have seen three episodes of "Downton Abbey" and you, my friends, will have to wait until January for Season Three.<br />
<br />
Shall I tell you what happens?<br />
<br />
Nah. I was just stirring stuff up.Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-27398533236343207292012-09-18T11:34:00.000-05:002012-09-20T14:29:00.438-05:00Greetings from the CotswoldsI am in such a beautiful place I can't believe it. I'm visiting a friend who was my neighbor when I lived in England 40 years ago. She lives in the village of Malmesbury in the County of Wiltshire in a stone house built in in the 1820s -- one of the newer houses in this town, where parts of it date to the 13th and 14th centuries. The Avon river courses through her property and today we watched a heron hang out near the water's edge for more than an hour.<br />
<br />
The roads are barely wide enough for two tiny cars to pass one another by, and we had a near miss when an oversized lorry -- sorry -- when a big-assed truck came toward us at a rate of speed sufficiently intimidating to force us to drive off it into a patch of green to let it pass. There are no overhead lights so roads are eerily dark at night, and the fines for driving under the influence are wicked enough to persuade everyone to either have a designated driver or not drink at all.<br />
<br />
As in: at all.<br />
<br />
All said, since I'm terrified to drive on the wrong side of the road I'm letting Cath drive, so I'm having the time of my life, and I will share more detail than you probably want to read when I return.<br />
<br />
What I really want you to know is that no matter where I go, no matter what the conversation has started out to cover, it invariably turns to the 2012 campaign -- the one i fled the country to avoid hearing or reading about. Yet here I am, sometime among conservatives, sometime among socialists, sometime among independents, who have all, at one time or another, characterized the Republican side of the campaign as "Mitt the Twit and that other guy."<br />
<br />
That's how things are playing out on this side of the pond. I now have way too many clippings from various papers that allow as how well, Obama might not be all we had hoped for, but he is a damned sight better than the alternative.<br />
<br />
And, as it should come as a surprise to no one, folks over here know a lot about various candidates. They've read about Akin's ridiculous "legitimate rape" comments; they hold Elizabeth Warren in high regard; they find it hard to believe anyone would opposed creating health care for all Americans -- just as they are appalled at Rick Perry's efforts to withhold funding for women's health programs. They know about this stuff.<br />
<br />
Honest to God, I am not making this up, the Brits are tracking us. They want to know if Jan Brewer is going to be re-elected because they think she is dangerous. The think Eric Cantor is not unlike a nematode and they find unfathonamable the notion that a significant portion of a congressional body can hold a country hostage to its resolve to defeat a sitting president, primarily because they oppose abortion.<br />
<br />
And each time someone says to me either by way of a rhetorical question or a direct comment that the brouhaha is directly linked to Obama's skin color, I smile and say "What do YOU think?" The response is invariably "yes."<br />
<br />
Having said that, everyone is also stunned by the murder of the envoy and members of his staff (although here they are asking why there were no marine guards to fortify access, given the tenuous relationships throughout the Middle East Here folks can't believe the US didn't carry the Paralympics, which attracted as many people as the Olympics did. And of course they're all a twitter over photographs of the Cambridges in the buff.<br />
<br />
Me, I don't care one way or another. This is England, which is consistently full of surprises. For instance, next Sunday (Sept 23) the gardens at Malmesbury Abbey --which are stunning beyond description -- will have a "clothing optional" day when naked gardeners will be at work trimming trees, pulling weeds, pruning plants and such like. Visitors can come clothed or stark naked.<br />
<br />
I plan to be there.<br />
<br />
Until I return, cheerio.Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-61743973716987328912012-08-20T10:32:00.002-05:002012-08-24T08:04:07.280-05:00OK. I give up......at least for now.<br />
<br />
I'm taking a time out on the heels of the latest loony political
pronouncement in a generally lackluster campaign year. This gem<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>comes from whackjob Todd Akin of Missouri, the hands-down winner of the monthly Republican
Dumb Comment sweepstakes. It is so dumb it could have come from Texas.<br />
<br />
As the whole world knows by now, when asked whether women can become
pregnant when they're raped, Missouri's Republican Senate candidate
reportedly said that pregnancy from rape is really rare. "If it's a
legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,"
he explained.<br />
<br />
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the icing on the cake for me.<br />
<br />
I have always wanted to leave town when election time rolled around, then
get home just in time to vote and be done with it. Maybe I'll tune in here and
there while I'm away, but for the most part, electioneering has become so
vapid, so devoid of integrity and so intrusive that I'm doing what I've long
wanted to do: I'm spending a month abroad to see how we're viewed from
someplace far, far away.<br />
<br />
To get into the spirit of my trip I booked British Airways to fly me
across the Atlantic to England, where I'm reuniting with a former neighbor. Ron
and Cathy Young and her husband lived across the street from me when I lived in
Leicester, a decent-sized town in the Midlands. We cooked together, argued
politics and on more than one occasion she had to step in and mediate when her
husband and I got a little to wound up. It took almost a year for me to
realize his greatest pleasure in our discussions was baiting me.<br />
<br />
For years I promised to visit. Year after year there was always something:
my mother was dying; Molly was dying; I was broke from traveling back and forth
to visit the both when I lived in Denver. There was always something. When I
retired and move to Austin I got involved in writing the book. Then there was
touring with the book. Still, they said, please come to England.<br />
<br />
Once again I promised. I'm coming I said. When they said they'd bought
a house in a little town in France, I absolutely promised to visit. We'd hang
out a bit in Wiltshire, in the beautiful, historically wonderful Cotswolds,
then we'd take the Chunnel to France or fly from Bristol to La Rochelle, then drive
to Antezant. This went on for a while and suddenly I heard nothing. Figuring
they had tired of me and my empty promises and given up, I wrote a pleading
email asking for one more chance. <br />
<br />
No answer.<br />
<br />
One day I learned why I hadn't heard: Ron had died suddenly and Cathy was
alone in their Wiltshire dream house. I bought the ticket I should have bought
months before. I called Susan Concordet, Molly's former roommate in Paris and
said I would visit her too. Then I called the reporter to had lived with me
when she had a fellowship to work a summer at the Dallas Morning News. We'd
stayed in touch, but not seen one another in 20 years. I'm taking the Chunnel
to visit her, her husband and two sons.<br />
<br />
They will all poke fun at our political process and the pathetic performance
of Congress over the last four years; they'll laugh and cringe at the
presidential race, what with the Romney-Ryan ticket sounding increasingly like
a bad parody of a real campaign. They'll ask me why no one is addressing
economic issues and I won't even try to make sense of the forthcoming debates.<br />
<br />
Just as we wished for a presidential White House like the one portrayed in
Alan Sorkin's wonderful "West Wing," I'll tell them how much I wish
we could have a political debate like the mock one in HBO's wonderful series
"The Newsroom." I'll listen to them excoriate the idiocy of political
candidates like Todd Akin and hope that, if nothing else, Akin's comments will
stir women up enough to storm the polls to vote against him and his ilk.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A bientot.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-25211963054338373362012-08-12T19:52:00.000-05:002012-08-18T10:00:50.813-05:00How Much Crazier Can We Get?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Let me count the ways in which recent events have turned my brain to mush..<br />
<br />
First we have a congressman who thinks it would have helped in that
Aurora
shooting if more patrons had had guns. Louie Gohmert, the Phi Beta Kappa
candidate who thought more guns would be a good idea -- reminds me of a
lost
gopher, no insult to rodents intended). Then, in a runoff election we
Texans got a nobody named Ted Cruz, a Tea Party candidate who will
possibly become the
other clueless senator from the Loon Star State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> He reminds me of a snake -- no insult to reptiles intended. </span>Moreover, if you can believe it,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he's worse than the guy he ran against who
was, trust me, bad enough.<br />
<br />
I'm drowning in a tidal wave of not-good news. Stop scratching your head
over the Romney-Ryan ticket long enough to consider what's going to happen to
our food if we are unfortunate enough to get saddled with these two come
November. Both are superbig on deregulation.<br />
<br />
So consider this, especially if you love corn: you're about meet genetically
modified corn in a can. Or frozen. Or on the cob. If it isn't here already, it's
en route to a grocery shelf of the nearest Wal-Mart. Sure, some stores have
refused to carry this GMO stuff, but if you can't afford to shop at Whole Foods,
or there's no Trader Joe's in your neighborhood (although if it helps, General
Mills has promised not to incorporate the genetically engineered corn in its
products) what do you do? And why should you care? <br />
<br />
Well, as reported in a clear and concise article by freelance writer Diane Petryk
Bloom, here's why: the corn is from Monsanto seeds, which produce a plant a
pesticide that will kill insects that feed on the plant. It's coming to
Wal-Mart from farms in the Midwest, Northwest, Southeast and Texas. Bloom is
among the most recent writers to cry 'foul' over this fact.<br />
<br />
Bloom goes on to say that in addition to the toxin consumed by those who eat
this, there are serious farming issues as well. Just ask some of the small
farmers who have complained in court when pollen from Monsanto's corn crops
have cross-pollinated their heirloom corn. Monsanto has sued for theft, and
they such deep corporate profits the little guy doesn't stand a chance. And
those <br />
<br />
Now that we are released from the 2012 Olympics, let's get to stuff that the
right-wing nuts hoped we'd forgotten about in the two weeks since the torch was
lit in London: and we fail to notice at our peril. Let's look first a California's
Proposition 37 -- which would require all products containing GMOs be labeled
as such. We'll know in November if the Golden State will set an important
precedent in this country.And guess who doesn't want that to happen?<br />
<br />
So you eat crap that has poison designed into its DNA. Sure it kills bugs.
How can we know what it will do to humans down the line? A link between
sterility in rodents has already been linked to GMOs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you really want to find out what it might
do to your children, especially if you want grandchildren? And hey, where is
our great protector the FDA in all this? Anybody seen the FDA?<br />
<br />
If we can't wait for the weather to cool down before we take to the streets,
we can at least write or email our members in Congress. Even if we know the
probable response; we can still worry the daylights out of them. We can write
letters to editors and company executives. We know they don't read their own mail,
but by God, unless their minions are complete cowards, they'll pass it on. They'll
know we're out here mad as hell and not willing to take this nonsense anymore.<br />
<br />
Oh, and for your information, we watchdogs stateside aren't the only ones
who fear genetically engineered stuff -- Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia.
China and the European Union require the labeling California seeks. It's a sad,
sad day when China is more concerned about food toxicity than the good old U.S
of A. And one more thing: Monsanto isn't the only booger in this. The <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>creatively titled Council for Biotechnology
Information <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lists among its members BASF;
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DuPont, Switzerland-based Syngenta and Dow
AgroSciences (remember Dow, the wonderful people who brought us Agent Orange?).<br />
<br />
And yes, as I read each new article and post each new clip on my
overburdened Facebook page, I wish anew for the feisty Molly Ivins voice,
although I'm inclined to believe that by now she, like so many of us, would be
shaking her head in something midway between horror and despair. In one of her
last columns she wondered how we became so mean, so senselessly violent, so
apathetic,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so unwilling to care about
one another, so resistant to hearing any opinion other than our own.<br />
<br />
By now she would have to asked how many deaths will be enough for Congress
to stand up and face down the insanity that allows automatic weapons into the
hands of anyone -- let alone those eligible for white coats and
institutionalization; how many travesties will we permit companies like Monsanto,
Dow et al to perpetrate upon us?<br />
<br />
Finally, because this is too much of a downer to continue much longer, one
last thing: Remember when a symbol represented the person formerly known as
Prince? Well, according to news out of Ottawa, Canada, via the Huffington Post,
Canadian troops and police were trained for two years by the international
security contractor formerly known as Blackwater. And in the best Blackwater
tradition, it was done without the permission of the U.S. State Department.
This revelation appears in U.S. federal court records, unsealed in North
Carolina as part of a $7.5 million settlement of criminal charges against the
company now called Academi LLC.<br />
<br />
Yeah. So lest anyone of us still wonder who's really running the country
look no further than Yertle the Turtle; Gohmert the gopher; the NRA; Monsanto, Blackwater/Academi
LLC and all those fanatics lacking a sense of irony who call themselves
pro-life but support capital punishment.<br />
<br />
I'm taking off for a month, but I'll be back in time to vote. And I just
might find something cheerier to write about while I'm away.<br />
<br />
In my absence I'm counting on you to keep stirring it up. <br />
<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-46159542298676140412012-06-30T19:41:00.004-05:002012-06-30T19:41:36.694-05:00SRO on The Crazy TrainSo far this year, was there even a one-day hiatus from mean-spirited
attacks
on our president? I mean, we're almost three-quarters through a year
marked
by one of the most vitriol-filled campaigns leveled against an American
head of
state in memory. The poor guy doesn't seem to be able to do anything
right -- at least according to those paragons of rational thinking whose
initials are Boehner, Issa, Cantor, and McConnell. <br />
<br />
The
subject of presidential trials and tribulations surfaced at a small
dinner gathering I had for out-of-town friends a while back. One couple
was here from New Orleans,
the other from Columbia, Mo. They were in Austin for the annual
fancy-schmancy Texas Observer fundraiser that has come to be known as
the Molly
Dinner. Named for Miz Ivins, the event usually features a bit of
entertainment,
a decent meal, a prominent speaker (this year it was Pulitzer
Prize-winning
economist Paul Krugman), an honoree or two, and journalism awards for
writers who most reflect Molly's spirit and sense of social justice.<br />
<br />
I
mention all this because my little cornbread-and-chili supper on the
evening preceding "The Molly," as it has come to be called, was almost a
repeat of a dinner gathering my living room a few months earlier. As
usual, we ended
up talking politics during a momentary hiatus from our feeding frenzy.
One of my guests was from Scotland, that Anglo-Saxon country we rarely
think about unless there's a golfer in the family. Greg the Scotsman
said his
relatives across the pond couldn't make heads or tails of any reason to
vote for
any of the goofballs chasing the Republican nomination at the time.<br />
<br />
(Remember
now, Scotland is also home to a bunch of people named MacDonald. Greg
regaled us with his recounting of a Scottish nobleman who
rented rooms in his castle and had an in-house restaurant called
MacDonald's. Our
McDonald's threatened to sue. Their MacDonald threatened to sue our
McDonald's -- despite the fact that their MacDonald had been around some
400 years. Check and mate. Our McDonald's
backed down. But I digress)<br />
<br />
The free-flowing conversation that evening made me wonder anew how Molly
might have responded to our Texas governor who thought Congress
should only meet every other year, like the Texas legislature; or to Newt, the
semi-aquatic amphibian who characterized President Obama as "the best
food-stamp president ever," who probably <i>never</i> in a million years
intending any racial innuendo.<br />
<br />
And let's not forget Time magazine's Mark Halperin calling the president
"a dick" on MSNBC -- not to mention that bizarre episode of Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer wagging her bony finger in the president's face as though
scolding a recalcitrant child. At least Newt is finally political toast,
Halperin got suspended and Perry only emerges periodically from beneath his
rock to make some goofy speech or other, as he did on a recent goofball
appearance on "Face the Nation." As for Brewer, if there is karmic
justice, hers will be ugly.<br />
<br />
We lamented the loss of
Molly's singular voice, recalling some of her more acerbic observations
as aapplicable today as in years past. "If his IQ dropped any lower
we'd have to water him twice a week"; <span class="huge">or "</span>It's like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of
difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're
wrong"; <span class="sqq"> One of my personal favorites, and one perfect for our times is, "</span><span class="sqq">Any nation that can survive what we have lately in the way of government, is on the high road to permanent glory."</span>
<br />
<br />
So, in a way, she is still with us. Anyway, halfway
through the more recent 5th anniversary of Molly's death, we are
once again reminded how few voices like hers remain. I wonder how she
would react to the level of meanness to which congressional activity has
risen. I suspect she would despair of how few voices fearlessly speak
truth to power anymore -- although she owuld be delighted that Bill
Moyers is still in fine form on PBS -- which continues to give
congressional boos the heebie jeebies.. For the most part, though,
reporters who once spoke for the voiceless now parrot a corporate line
mandated by media moguls. We're left instead with the stunning new HBO
series, "The Newsroom."<br />
<br />
Just as the slightly
overwrought opening episode addressed newsroom ego clashes, I'm hoping
that at some point a story line will deal with the extraordinary bigotry
reflected in the behavior of so-called law enforcement officers,
especially in the wake of President Obama's executive order allowing
children born in the U.S. to remain here with all the rights of other
American-born citizens. Specifically in mind is that guy out in Arizona.<br />
<br />
Somewhere
in that treasure trove of wouldn't-it-be-nice-if-we-still-had-an-Edward
R. Murrow-among-us scriptwriting there must be a character based on Joe
Arpaio, Arizona's dreadful Maricopa County sheriff. He has got to be
the sorriest excuse for a law enforcement officer since Bull Connor. The
only satisfaction to be derived from his miserable presence on planet
Earth is the knowledge that somewhere down the line karmic justice will
bite him on the butt so thoroughly that he'll wish it was a pit bull
instead.<br />
<br />
Alas, reporters who covered every minute of the Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers
trial decades ago are long gone -- mainly because the spirited editors who put
themselves out there are also all but gone. Important publications like<i> The Texas
Observer, The Nation, The Progressive, The Washington Spectator</i> and<i>
Mother Jones </i>struggle to survive. A handful of truly brave web sites track,
collate and disseminate accurate information about a crazy Congress, loopy
candidates and avaricious corporations, but they too operate on a shoestring.
If anybody believes we still have mainstream media that consistently speak
truth to power, also believes, like the song says, eggs ain't poultry,
grits ain't grocery, and Mona Lisa was a man.<br />
<br />
So here we are, rocketing toward a national election with standing room only
on the crazy train.<br />
<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-37325317113230823252012-06-11T18:39:00.000-05:002012-06-27T21:55:53.453-05:00Rage, Race and White Trash CookingMy friend Bonnie and I are so much on the same wavelength much of the time it gets scary. Our biggest point of departure is the fact that she is not only a voracious reader who retains roughly 95 per cent of what she reads, but she formulates ways in which she can translate her information into action rather than rage.<br />
<br />
When she does get exercised, it's because of this country's continued use of torture, the lies that are spread in defense of it, the people who perpetuate it and those who practice it. I'm angry about just about everything, from official abuse of authority, to pollution, to political lies to Texas heat, so I sign petitions, send certified letters and emails couched in the most temperate language I can summon to corporate bullies who are unworthy of temperate criticism.<br />
<br />
When we get together over lunch or dinner, Bonnie and I come to earth long enough to talk about Molly and/or food. And so it came to pass that in a conversation more than a year ago we decided to have a party that would celebrate the culinary traditions of a group of people who have been long lost to our social consciousness.<br />
<br />
The idea came about, as near as I can recall, because we were sitting in some fabulous Mexican dive of a restaurant that served the most exquisite ceviche and tacos, tamales and empanadas. Hardly anyone spoke English, and you waited while your food was prepared because everything was made to order. Nothing fancy, just good solid food as good for the soul as it was for the body.<br />
<br />
Somehow, we detoured into favorite foods growing up and I told her about the onion sandwiches my father and I used to make -- a slice of Bermuda onion and a slice of Beefsteak tomato between two slices of Wonder bread slathered with Miracle Whip and finished with a generous sprinkling of black pepper. No, not mayonnaise. I mentioned that I had been surprised the find a recipe for the same sandwich in a 1986, spiral-bound volume of "White Trash Cooking." Turns out Bonnie had the same Ernest Matthew Mickler book (Ten Speed Press has since published a 25th anniversary edition). The Mickler family had the good sense to know their foodways were to be treasured, not ridiculed.<br />
<br />
We then got into a conversation about how white trash cooking is not much different from what has come to be known as "soul food." Which then made us wonder why one iteration of the same foods should have one name and the other a different name. But before we could get too existential about it, our Mexican food came and we had decided to do what we often do when we eat: have a party.<br />
<br />
An homage to white trash cooking.<br />
<br />
It took a year to convert conversation to action. We scoured recipes from <i>White Trash </i>volumes I and II. We came up with far too many components, winnowed them down and sent invitations. As expected, some recipients were, at best, ambivalent; at worst, horrified. We decided that those who didn't get it, oh well. Others began to reminisce about their own roots in Texas, or Kentucky or West Virginia or Maryland or Missouri. They told of Jell-o molds with bananas and canned fruit cocktail and lime Jell-o with cottage cheese. Greens cooked with fatback. Okra and tomatoes. Black-eyed peas, pickled okra, peas and smoked ham hocks. Buttermilk cornbread. Red soda. RC Cola and Moon Pies. Macaroni and cheese made with Velveeta. Fried chicken. Biscuits. Potato salad. Cole slaw. Corn Pudding. Hamburger Gravy.<br />
<br />
OK, so even though we found a place to buy dressed possum, squirrel, alligator and raccoon, we bypassed the opportunity in deference to our budget and the fact that nobody would eat raccoon stew even if we did make it with locally sourced, organically grown herbs and vegetables. Willie's Swamp Cabbage Stew didn't make the cut, nor did Jail-House Chili, Esther's Five-Can Casserole, Lady Divine's Chicken-Asparagus Pie, or Mama Leila's Hand-Me-Down Oven-Baked Possum.. It might be The People's Republic of Austin, but, well...<br />
<br />
Anyway, this dinner party would be a tribute to the resilience of a group of people who had to make do all their lives with foods that generate upturned noses among the well-heeled, especially those lacking the empathy gene. Again, we figured folks would either get it or they wouldn't. As it turned out, about 60 people <u>did</u> get it. They realized you didn't have to be from Hot Coffee, Mississippi or Dime Box Texas to relate. They came, they ate, they talked politics they talked food. They were young, old, Democrats, Republicans, black, white and Asian. Some allowed as how they also came with Tums and Alla-Selzter. Eri Weinstein made peach cobbler in a cast-iron skillet with peaches picked from the tree where he is co-owner of a massage therapy school and spa.<br />
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Yes, there were Moon Pies and fruit pie and red velvet cake.<br />
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A year or so ago, when Bonnie and Gary, my brother Fred, his wife Denise
and I were in New Orleans with a group of friends, we sprung our white-trash dinner plan. Bonnie asked Fred and Denise, "Will you come?" To which they replied, "Sure; we'll come as friends of white trash." They too grasped the concept.<br />
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In the best white trash/soul food tradition, we had too much food. We still have leftover Orange and Grape Crush. Some guests entered so thoroughly into the spirit of the occasion that they brought not Cotes du Rhone and Pinot Grigio, but cheap beer and Boone's Farm Strawberry wine. The first guests arrived right at 6, and the last left at about 11. By then we had already decided to do it again next year. We haven't exactly decided on a theme, but two of the guests, a couple displaced by Katrina, brought shrimp and white beans. It set us to thinking...other than Native Americans and Afro-Americans, what group's culinary traditions survived to become among the trendiest of recent food trends? <br />
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Stay tuned. We'll be stirring it up.<br />
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<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-60812959886384572602012-05-22T12:40:00.001-05:002012-06-27T21:56:35.880-05:00You CAN Go Home Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I should know. I never miss a chance to go back to my home city, the place I couldn't wait to leave, to see people I've missed ever since departing. This time I came to St. Louis to the home of my almost-sister, Rose. She and I go back so far in food years it isn't even funny. And here we were again, stirring it up. Only this time it revolved around what we've come to call "The Book."<br />
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She actually flew me into town to prepare a meal based exclusively on recipes in The Book: carrot soup, Caesar salad, Cajun meal loaf, green beans and, of course, butter-laden garlic mashed potatoes with sour cream (which should have been in The Book but wasn't) and Ina Garten's sinfully splendid brownies. The occasion was her turn to host the book club she joined four years ago. They've been going strong -- with the occasional dropout and replacement. Appropriately called "The Laughing Ladies," we gathered around Rose's eight-seater of a mahogany dining table, amply fortified by red and white wine.<br />
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As guests arrived they immediately gravitated toward the kitchen --- as seems to be the case at any get-together.<br />
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Sara, whom I hadn't seen in years, promptly assigned herself to adding butter and sour cream to the mashed potatoes as I mash-squish-mash-squished the addition of heavy cream and more butter.<br />
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Robin set about mixing the salad and topping it off with freshly grated Parmesan.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nl_ba8fj9ok/T7vNshb-PtI/AAAAAAAAADo/eI9zdNW2CmM/s1600/DSCF8813.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nl_ba8fj9ok/T7vNshb-PtI/AAAAAAAAADo/eI9zdNW2CmM/s1600/DSCF8813.jpeg" /></a>Rose assumed her natural role as gracious hostess while I tried not to sweat over the meatloaf as I removed it from the oven and transferred pan juices into the skillet that would soon be filled with the Cajun sauce (we call it gravy in Texas) loaded with the trinity of chopped onions, celery and bell pepper. Garlic is a given.<br />
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Soup was actually served in soup bowls, part of a set Rose brought from her visit to the Czech Republic. We decided to dispense with salad bowls and assign lettuce to plate, alongside the meal's main components. Our sole concession to calorie counters, bless their hearts, was an absence of bread. That was more than compensated for by brownies and French vanilla ice cream. Of course there was fresh fruit -- raspberries, strawberries and grapes -- which I interpreted as being part of the brownie-ice-cream configuration, not an alternative.<br />
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Oops. When you're a charter member of the Too Much Is Never Enough Society, well, too much really is never enough.<br />
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Now it should be noted here that this was a celebratory meal. Few of us would recommend so much butter, cream, butter, sour cream, butter, and more butter in one sitting, but there are times when, in preparing a meal from a book, caution gets thumped sideways: a little fruit of the vine and a lot of fruit of the cow makes for delicious merriment.<br />
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It was the kind of evening I enjoy most; friends sitting around talking asking questions, discussing ideas, reminiscing about favorite meals and talking about Molly. "Wonder what Molly would have to say about (fill in the blank; the options are endless)"; "What did you leave out?" (personal stuff from conversations she never meant to be public and that had nothing to do with cooking together); and the most frequently asked -- "What was she really like?" (Private, surprisingly shy and very funny even when she wasn't 'on'.<br />
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<span id="goog_1693520328"></span><span id="goog_1693520329"></span>Finally, as the evening wound down conversation inevitably veered toward politics. How could it be a dinner devoted to Molly and not head in that direction, for cryin' out loud. This much I know for sure: she would have loved the idea of some knucklehead arranging to have Rush Limbaugh enshrined in the rotunda of the Missouri state capitol, if for no reason other than the fact that it would have given her ample material for one of her eviscerating columns dedicated the addlepated troll of the airwaves.<br />
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From there we zig-zagged to more politics, international travel, fun vacation spots, and finally wound down to who would host the next book club gathering -- a sure sign that the two and -one-half hour meal was coming to a close.<br />
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So see, Tom Wolfe, you can go home again.<br />
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<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4517313975561677439.post-79734026723196047542012-05-05T07:55:00.000-05:002012-06-27T21:56:45.801-05:00Road Food, Not Road Kill One of the saving graces of being on the road in pursuit of book sales is the occasional soul-soothing food encounter. It doesn't come along all that often, but when it does, boy, does it ever. And since I've gone and lost April altogether, I've got some catching up to do in the road-food department.<br />
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When last I mentioned food finds I was in Seattle, where I felt slightly out of place because I am not rail-thin, sinewy, an exercise enthusiast or a coffee drinker. But never mind. Shortly after Seattle came San Francisco, and if you can't find good food there you don't know good food when it's looking you square in the taste buds.<br />
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But where to start?<br />
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That question was easily answered because I was berthed in Mill Valley, a pastoral enclave across the glorious Golden Gate Bridge and close by some pretty swank Marin County real estate, including Tiburon, Larkspur and Sausalito. Since my reading was at Book Passage in the picturesque town of Corte Madera, I had the good fortune to stay with a Sandy, a friend cultivated in Austin who now lives in her home state of California. I also learned a thing or two about where residents eat when they eat out in t-shirts and flip flops-- as opposed to fancy-pants places otherwise populated by the well-heeled.<br />
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Now, if your hostess happens to have at one time lived on a Sausalito houseboat, you find yourself ordering a late lunch at Fish, a nondescript place on Richardson Bay and just a few dozen kayak strokes across from the aforementioned water homes. Fish is seriously devoted to sustainability and serves nothing that is at risk in the oceans. As you might imagine, the bill of fare is dedicated to whatever was caught that day. Protocol requires you to stand in line, peruse the chalkboard and order when your turn comes.<br />
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We lucked out.The daily special was a whole grilled salmon trout (yes, there is such a thing) grilled to perfection, stuffed with sprigs of cilantro, wafer-thin slices of cucumber and lemon and served on an over-sized platter and accompanied by little heads of grilled baby Romaine dipped in a tarragon vinaigrette; big fat bulbs of roasted garlic; and honkin' great slices of sourdough. Washed down with a pint of Anchor steam on tap (served in pint Mason jars), it was one of the most wonderful restaurant meals I'd had up to that point. <br />
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Tucked into a corner of the limited seating indoors, we lit into that lovely lake trout specimen with a vigor that might have proved embarrassing if our table had had a tablecloth on it. We launched lunch with Hog Island oysters on the half shell, so fresh you could taste the gentle brininess of its California origins.<br />
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In between San Francisco and Denver came a Saturday in Galveston, the fun and funky island community on Texas' Gulf Coast. It has a rich history of pirates and hurricanes and remarkable resilience -- as evidenced by the return of the Galveston Book Shop after the one-two punch of hurricanes Katrina and Ike. I not only met the head of the bird-watching society there, I met tourists from New Mexico who had met Molly..<br />
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After the signing we could have gone to Benno's on the Beach, or Boudreaux's on the Bayou, but we opted for Gaido's -- Galveston's iconic seafood stopping place. Only we went to the low-rent version. Same kitchen, different staff, different vibe, same food. For less. A semi-snack of a dozen oysters on the half-shell held us until we made the 50-minute drive back to Houston where my friend Connie had reservations at a culinary treasure called Just Dinner.<br />
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At home in a renovated house built in the 1920s, the menu, ambiance and service are worthy of anything found in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, or -- dare I say it -- New York. Dining rooms are segmented, so that Just Dinner seats more than it would seem at first glance. There were only four four-tops and two two-tops in the room where we ate.<br />
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The lights and the music are soft and low. The menu is tantalizing but compact. Seven inventive appetizers included a special -- shrimp, goat cheese and quinoa croquette -- but my heart belonged to the Gulf crabcake served with a basil pesto aioli. Three salads and two soups rounded out the starters. The tomato was nicely basil-tinged, light and lovely; Connie opted for the white asparagus, which, it should be noted, was rich and flavorful and not at all possessed of the blandness I usually associate with that sun-deprived vegetable.<br />
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Then we were on to entrees, bypassing consideration of pasta choices, speeding by braised boneless short ribs; Moroccan-spiced lamb shanks; pan-roasted duck breast; crispy chicken breast with blue cheese polenta and straight to the evening's special: pan-seared salmon with asparagus risotto and asparagus-pea-fennel salad. I detoured. coming to a screeching halt at the rainbow trout fillet in brown butter sauce accompanied by Parmesan risotto served with a melange of julienned carrots, red bell peppers, shallots, and celery.<br />
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We brought along a Temperanillo and happily popped for the $8 corkage fee.<br />
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We probably had dessert. I'm sure we did, and I don't want to offend the pastry chef by not remembering, but I also didn't want to do anything to interfere with the residual loveliness of my recently devoured brown butter-laced trout.<br />
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Two trouts, two road trips. Two divine dining experiences: good food on the road, and nothing even reminiscent of road kill.<br />
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Next time: Denver dining and outstanding Salvadorean food where you'd never expect to find it.<br />
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Until then, whenever the opportunity presents itself, stir it up.<br />
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<br />Still Stirring It Uphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430806060247306727noreply@blogger.com0