One Year

Today is Joseph K.'s and my one-year anniversary.  To celebrate, in the morning we went to the park by the airport to read the paper and watch the planes land:

Then we headed to Whole Foods to get food for a BBQ for two. Joseph K. made lamb burgers topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms, provolone, and sriracha mayo on grilled ciabatta:  

I made three-bean salad and sweet potato fries:

We topped it off with some beer:

And reminisced about one year ago today.  A great end to a great day.

Gossip Girls

I have something embarrassing to admit. I read the Politico. It is like reading Perez Hilton every day, except the people being gossiped about are significantly uglier. Thought Politico was a politics and policy paper. Hmmm, some of the current headlines.

Obama vs. McCain: Stimulus Rematch -- Catfight! Except most people can't remember who McCain is. They remember him as the old dude who went around sweating an unlicensed plumber who was behind on his child support payments. I might as well ask "Penny Dude" what he thinks. Who is Penny Dude? He is the guy who asks me for my spare pennies on the way to the metro every night. He believes in handouts.

Could Stimulus Make Your Kids Fat? -- Go look on the website, I am not making this title up. The thesis is that language in the stimulus bill could discourage schools from building gyms. The thesis is retarded.

NAACP Wants To Hold Obama Accountable on Race -- This is a common meme, where Politico writers try and pit Democratic interest groups against each other. To support the "split" they usually cite some looney contrarian.  Here is how Obama met the race test: He got a black dude elected president. If that is not enough for someone at the NAACP, they can go eat sand. 

Did the White House Encourage Defiance of Pelosi? -- More cat fight! Some Obama folks said it was ok for Rep. Jim Cooper (TN) to oppose the House Stimulus bill. Encouraging Cooper to exercise his conscience. Bitch slap times 10 to Pelosi. The, um, slow people who write for the Politico assume that the Dems have to be like the former Republican House majority, where the Congressmen did as they were told by leadership. There is no explanation for free thinking Democratic congressman save for defiance of the Democratic leadership. 

In the next few days -- if you are a masochist -- try to count how many times the following words are used in headlines featuring democrats -- clash, defy, reject, struggle, stumble, or nervous. Don't make it a drinking game. Shitfaced is no way to go through a weekday.

 

2008: Year In Review

After reading this year in review on several blogs, I thought I would give it a shot:

I got in a car accident and had surgery, the latter for the first time.

I let another person bathe and feed me without feeling beholden or self-conscious.

I amazed myself and found I had it in me.

I ate the best meal of my life with the love of my life.

I remained wondrous at the depth of my friends' love for me.

"Apple Bottom Jeans (Boots With The Furrr)" propelled me toward my future.

I saw my parents watch their daughter grow up.

I realized that my siblings' love for me has no limit.

I spent valuable quality time with my ATL sisters.

I got four job offers and one promotion!

I started learning to take it in stride.

For two weeks, Joseph K. and I lived inside a history book.

I continued my search for the line between compromise and giving in.

I watched the son of African immigrant become President with my son of African immigrants.

The highlight of hosting Thanksgiving was spending time in the kitchen with my brother and sister.

I grew closer to my father.

Learning to adjust has been hard to adjust to.

I fell deeper in love.

I realized you could love and hate someone at the very same time.

I reconnected with old friends (thanks Facebook!).

I celebrated my own bachelorette weekend!

I learned to take people for who they are.

I found a new favorite book.

I became an Auntie, attended two weddings, and marveled at how time flies.

I stopped taking it personally.

I helped plan a wedding.

I started decorating my home, and found that I am extremely indecisive.

I cooked more and became Iron Chef!

I struggled with my fear of change while watching everything change, and soldiered on.

I cried.

My tumultuous relationship with food continued.

I puffed up with the pride of a mother, watching my sister cross the grad school graduation stage.

I rediscovered the joys of rose wine.

I had the mirror thrust in front of my face.

I traveled to West Virginia, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Antonio, NYC, Philadelphia, the Dominican Republic, London, and Turkey (Istanbul, the Turquoise Coast, Bodrum, Izmir, Ephesus, and Cappadocia).

I started saying, "my parents' house" instead of "home."

I exhaled.

Unclench It, Howie

Howie Kurtz has started an "Obama Adulation Watch," his snarky attempt to point out how the press is somehow in the bag for Obama.  I am starting my own "Howard Kurtz Fox Cocksucking Watch" to point out just how deep down his throat Fox has got its cock.

A little context. Kurtz purports to be an objective reporter on the media. Because the press needs to cover itself for the good of the republic. And, he's supposedly an unbiased navel gazer. Yet, he's married to a Republican activist/consultant. But, come on JK, you say, you are assessing guilt by association.

Shut up, fool. I have the facts.  It seems like every week, Kurtz does a profile in the Post extolling the virtue of some element of the Fox empire.  For example, last week, he did a puff piece on Brett Baier, the well-coifed cipher who is replacing Brit Hume on the 6PM Special report.  Basically, it was how Brett shits awesome, so Fox will be fine after the changeover.  The day before -- literally the day before -- he did a puff piece on Liz Claman, a Fox Business Channel host. The gist of that piece is that she works hard and is not as dumb as she might seem.  This week he had a pice about how non-diverse the White House press corps is; his main example of a progressive network on race: Fox with their WH correspondent, Wendall Goler. 

So, do the math: Kurtz thinks Obama got a pass and wants to hold truth to power. And, he has Fox News cock breath. That adds up to a big nothing according to my math. The Post needs to eliminate. Unclench your jaw, Howie. And someone at the Post needs to offer him a buyout.

Lassie Kicks Moses' Ass

I thought Sidney Poitier was dead. Turns out I was wrong. I was wondering about it, which led to my latest mode of distraction -- the Wikepedia chain. Which ended with me having to get on a conference call, right after I learned Lassie is considered more heroic than Moses. Well, maybe, but first how I got there.

I looked up Sidney Poitier on Wikipedia, and thing that hits you first is how much Poitier's career bottomed out in the 1970s.  He went from an Academy Award in Lillies in the Field (1963) to goofing around with Bill Cosby in a trio of blaxploitation, slapstick films (Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It again, A Piece of the Action).  Thankfully, he hung up his acting chops after Sneakers.

But, some of his more underrated films are the Tibbs trilogoy. The most famous of them being In The Heat of the Night.  But, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs and The Organization are fresh in their own rights (if more blaxploitationy). I clicked on the summary for In the Heat of the Night, and there was a link to Virgil Tibbs' page. As I read up on the main character, Virgil Tibbs, I saw a reference and a link to the AFI list of 100 top Heros and Villains.  I clicked on that link. Tibbs was listed the number 19 hero of all time. 

Which is where I saw that the people at AFI were more impressed Lassie's heroics than Moses'. On the one hand, you have an affable Collie who keeps saving the same kid who keeps falling down the same well. On the other hand, you have a conflicted, tormented prophet leading tens of thousands of enslaved Jews to the promised land. Who knew the selectors at AFI were all about the personality. If you are wondering, Tibbs ranked above both of them.  Poitier. Click. Click. Click. Lassie beats Moses. I can spend hours on Wikipedia just following the links.

As I mentioned earlier, the same list has the top 50 villains of all time. Number 1, Hannibal Lecter. Jaws? Number 18! What?!? Think about it this way, if Jaws was Hannibal Lecter he'd eat everyone in sight. Jaws fucked everything up. He wasn't selective. If Hannibal Lecter was a shark, he'd be all selective and shit. Spewing shark philosophy and trying to make a gourmet meal out some snorkler who fit into his weird, psychotic eschatology.  I am sorry, Jaws was more ruthless. He had no soul. He's savage; he ate a boat to get at Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfus. I think only Glenn Close can claim to have done something comparable in a movie.

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

It is on right now on Flix. This is the kind of film they don't make any more. Compared to Breakin', it features more kids and white women. And more mimes. And the plot is more aggressive (heck Ice T is in the movie). Ozone, Turbo, Kelly and the gang use their dance skills to stop a local developer from tearing down their community center to build a shopping center. The developer gets an assist from a gang of dancing thugs who harrass Ozone and the gang throughout. This movie takes place in an era when gangs fought with dance, before they realized the efficiency of guns.

The scene of the movie, when the gang visits Turbo in the hospital after he fell down some stairs while...its too ridiculous to summarize why he ended up breaking his leg. But, the scene after is a classic:

"What Have I Done?"

I have nothing to say about the vapid, mean-spirited speech from the lightweight #@ on the GOP ticket. The speech was devoid of ideas and solutions for the country. What struck me the most the look on that kid's -- Levi -- face. You know that a year ago he was sitting around with his meathead friends saying, "I am totally going to nail the governor's daughter, dude."And the look on his face was definitely one of "what have I fucking done."