Quodlibets

You say potato, I say celery

I can't remember a time when I didn't know what a potato was.  What I'm saying is, I think I've always known what a potato looked like.  There were absolutely potatoes in my house--baked, mashed, sliced and baked, etc.  My mom always (ALWAYS) made mashed potatoes with real potatoes.  For that matter, I also ate every manner of meat--chicken, pork and beef, because my mom cooked a nice balanced meal every night.  Night after night, my mom managed a meat, a starch and a vegetable.  I didn't always love everything she made, but she rarely, if ever, made a second meal for us kids.  (Two meals I remember:  split pea soup and turkey tetrazzini--two meals we rarely had, as they required a ham bone and fresh cooked turkey meat respectively.)  Regardless, my sister, brother and I were always expected to eat enough to fill us up from the plates in front of us, and we ate what my parents ate.

Thus, it's incredibly distressing to watch "Jamie's School Lunch Project" on TLC.  In one classroom, Jamie says that half the kids think that celery is a potato.  What?  How can you grow up not knowing what a potato looks like?  One of the young kids in the show won't even eat plain baked chicken breast--a food that I cannot conceive of finding offensive, really--and will only eat plain noodles at one of the lunches.  Pathetic.  Of course, these kids are in England, but I can't imagine that things are substantially different here.  When I was a little older, my parents had some friends whose kids literally only ate chicken nuggets and buttered noodles.  When they came over for meals, they'd bring those two things, so their kids had something to eat.  And this was a family composed of a pediatrician, nurse and kids.  Really.  Not that S is much better, seeing as he refuses to allow any vegetable matter across his lips. 

Still, it baffles that some kids might not know their basic vegetables.  I'm pretty sure that even from a very young age S could pick a potato out of a line-up.  And he knew, I'm quite sure, what a chicken breast tasted like and could pick that out of a line-up.  It's baffling that there are kids that couldn't--and keep in mind, I'm not talking about liking.  I know plenty of people who don't like all kinds of things, but at least KNOW what they are, and probably don't like them because they tried them and hated them.  I have those things myself--still don't like turkey tetrazzini, and only reluctantly eat broccoli.  Oh, and we all know how I feel about squashes.  Again, the point isn't liking a food, it's simply being exposed to it.  And how, how in god's name do you go through 8 years of life not knowing what a potato is? 

Boooooring

Thus, my weekend is described.

I've been sewing feverishly, even though I don't currently have a colorbook.  (I just really, really love what I've decided on for one of my remaining two, so I'm working fast.) 

S and I cleaned the public rooms of the apartment (kitchen and living room), which has calmed me down some, and made me feel better.  The apartment was really kind of getting towards shithole for a few days there.

I watched tons of Sex and the City, while sewing and cleaning.

We've done some laundry.

Yesterday, S took pictures of my brother and his prom date in the late afternoon.  After that I watched the Derby (and I had correctly predicted the winner, oddly enough) and went to dinner with my mom, sister and some of my mom's friends while S ate at the same restaurant with a group of his co-workers.  It was a fairly odd situation.  Then he went to see MI3 (I'm boycotting El Nutto Cruise) and I came home. 

See?  Boring.

A comment on a comment

I feel compelled to write something about the comment M left on the Xenophobia post.  First of all, I'm not trying to offend, and I'm sorry if it did so. 

Secondly, I'm not sure that I qualified my sentence enough.  I meant that with the God of those govermental persons who I'm talking about comes all those things.  I have no doubt that there is a gigantic bunch of Christians who are, above all, decent, good and kind.  I'm not talking about those people here; I'm talking about the fundie talking heads who have hijacked the government.  If those people win the day, their version of America will be the one I predict--and those liberal Christians (what else should I call them--I confess that I don't know how else to, besides that or just plain Christian?) who feel strongly as I do about these issues will be just as unhappy as I am. 

I don't think liberalism and Christianity are mutually exclusive, and I don't think that all churches are bad.  But what I percieve in government--the religion of those people is false, and hypocritical.  That they happen to be Christians, and profess a Christian faith is what it is.  I'd be just as happy to call out Muslims or Hindus or Atheists, for that matter.  But when you're sitting in Congress, calling for abortion to be illegal because it's murder in the same breath that you're calling for capital punishment, we've got a problem.  And when you're doing it invoking the name of God, the problem is even bigger.  Obviously, this doesn't characterize all Christians.  It's ridiculous for me to argue that it does, but also, I feel that as a Christian, you have to own up to the wrongs that are being perpetrated by Christians.  (As a corollary, I feel that all Americans have torture blood on our hands.  We can disavow it, but the fact of the matter is, we elected a government that allowed it to happen.  It is our fault, indirectly.  We need to own up to it.  In the same way, you can disavow those Christians that are hypocrites, but they are still yours, in some ways.  They are a part of a group that you call yourself a member of.  It is what it is.)

It totally stinks for me to say this, but I'm going to anyway, because it's true.  Some of my closest friends are Christians.  My dearest friend from high school, Yalie, is currently studying to become an Epsicopal Priest, at Yale.  I respect her, and her beliefs, immensely.  I've always had the deepest respect and love for the way she conducts herself, and her faith.  Do I lump her in with those assholes in gov't?  Of course not.  My mom is a Christian, and I couldn't love her more.  I have total respect for a woman who believes very much in what Christianity entails, but raised at least two very non-Christian daughters, and has always given us the space to be who we are.  Of course I don't lump my mother in with those raving fundie loonies either. 

When I rage against Christianity, I'm not so much raging about you, you see, but those crazy fundies that seem to have the country in thrall.  And say what you will about taxes, and the economy, but when you elect those men, you give them free rein to do whatever the hell they want socially, including banning abortion, letting torture happen, shrinking social services, etc.  Those things come with the fundie territory.  And it's disheartening to realize that the fundie territory is growing.  Otherwise, McCain might be electable without kowtowing to Jerry Falwell, and the like. 

Like everything else, it is what it is.  And those people are dangerous.

Note:  I am not using "you" in this entry in a specific sense, but in a "you all" sense.

I was sixteen....

When I got my first car.  Presumably, my parents must have trusted me quite a bit, because the first thing I did was call my closest girlfriends, whom I then picked up, one by one.  And all through high school, I drove my friends around.  There were usually two to three people in my car, unless I was on my way to work.  I never got in a crash, I never had an accident, and I never got a ticket.  In fact, once, I backed out of a parking space very slowly, and in the process bumped a bumper of a car (not parked, but waiting for my space, I think), though there was no damage to the car.  I was alone, no one with me, when that incident happened.  I didn't have a cell phone, of course (this was before cell phones were an omnipresent part of life), and my music admittedly WAS loud, but it was loud whenever I was in the car alone.

My point is, not all teen drivers are bad drivers.  Not all teen drivers need myriad restrictions in place, to keep them safe.  There is an article in today's Tribune about a failed law in Iowa, a law that attempts to restrict driving for teens.  One of the parts of the law would make it illegal for teens to drive after 11, because clearly, drinking and driving and irresponsible driving only happen after 11 pm.  But really, the story juxtaposes the fight to get this law passed with the story of a man lobbying for it, a man who lost his son in a drunk driving accident.  This kid had a blood alcohol level of two times the legal limit, and he was going 90 mph on a city street when he lost control of his car.  And the new law would have protected him how?  He was drunk, which means he probably would have ignored any law that told him he couldn't drive after 11 pm.  He ignored a law that told him he couldn't drive drunk, after all.

Frankly, it seems like a bad idea to punish the majority of good teen drivers, who use their cars to run errands for mom, take on jobs to pay for college, and get to school--as well as enjoying dinners and nights out with their friends--because some kids are hellbent on breaking the law.  I'm not saying it's a bad idea to stop cellphone usage--because I think EVERYONE should be stopped from driving and talking on the phone.  But I am saying that I think it's ridiculous to put a curfew on teen driving, or to stop teens from having friends in the car.  Because if you're going to do that, you may as well do that to adults.  Adults can be just as guilty as driving poorly with distractions, and adults clearly drive drunk.  I have always thought that kids pick up what's going on around them--and as teens, they'll become better, more aware drivers if their parents are good, conscientious drivers.  Where do you think kids learn to talk on the phone, change their radio and eat a hamburger while driving?  From their parents. 

It just seems like a clear case of discrimination, where the discrimination isn't really doing anything but making teens and parents lives harder.  And for the sake of what?  That minority of teen drivers that'll be irresponsible no matter what the law is?

Sweet Manna from Sci-Fi Heaven

Didja see CNN this morning?  Didja look at the Entertainment section????

Because if you had, you would have seen THIS story about the original, unaltered, classic Star Wars coming to DVD in time for Xmas season.  I think we already know what the must-have present will be.

Or am I just a big nerd?

Xenophobia

We're certainly a xenophobic bunch, here in America.  Pretty interesting, considering that everyone of us is, in every sense of the word, a foreigner on this soil.  The only true natives are those Americans that were here before those damn Europeans got it into their heads to look for gold and glory across the oceans. 

I'm saying this because I'm just about fed up with seeing polls where the majority of people taking the poll oppose, in one sense or another, the singing of our National Anthem in Spanish.  Maybe I'm dense, but I'm not quite sure why it's a big deal.  Who cares?  I mean, really.  Who cares?  Then again, maybe I'm too flippant of an American, because I don't care if someone wants to burn the flag either.  I don't think loving those things (the flag, a song) would make me a better American.  And I don't think debasing the flag, or singing the Anthem in Spanish means that someone has less of a respect for America.  (Not that the two are entirely congruous examples, but I think you know what I mean.)

I guess I don't think that patriotism has to be worn on your sleeve (sort of the way I feel about religion as well), and that it's, in some ways, an intensely private thing.  I've talked about moving to Italy, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let go of that dream.  If it does happen, I also don't know that I can ever let go of my American citizenship.  I love this country, but I love it quietly, and full of anguish for it when we behave as we're behaving now.  Love is complicated, no matter what/who you're loving, and my feelings for this country mirror that.  It's really hard to love someone when they act like such an asshole.  It's really, really hard to love a country where so many people forget common decency and act like such assholes.  It's hard to associate yourself with something so pernicious as the rabid, fire-breathing patriotism that so many Americans practice these days. 

This country should stand for all the best things in the world--freedom to say what you want about the government, freedom to choose, to read, to know, freedom to become an American (as our ancestors, somewhere down the line, all did)--and instead we seem to stand for hatred and violence, fear and anger.  You're not a patriot anymore if you want to say something less than nice about our government (think those "unpatriotic" smears will be hurled again in the next election?  I do.), and you're not a true American if you want to let those "other" people into our country.  Listen, those people, honest and hardworking, aren't creating the problems.  It's a government that will kowtow to big business no matter what, and a government that refuses to raise the minimum wage and promote the idea that EVERYONE should be payed a living wage that is hurting this country. 

The way I'm looking at it, the least patriotic Americans in the country right now are the ones in government.  Because "those people", the ones making the laws, are trying to make flag-burning illegal, and they're trying to stop certain citizens from exercising the full rights that all of us deserve.  They're standing at pulpits and screaming about God, and they're trying to make this a "Christian" nation, speaking for the forefathers and making pronouncements about how America should be more Godly and more God-fearing.  And with God, comes a whole host of other things--a "culture of life", more death penalty, fewer social-services, women as second-class citizens, and borders that remain closed to everyone but white Europeans.  The rich will get richer and the poor poorer.  The American Dream will really die. 

That's not my America.  And I'm sick of electing officials that want to kill my America, the open and free one that I fell in love with as a little kid.  I may leave this country, but I won't leave off loving it, and crossing my fingers and hoping that somehow we can correct ourselves, and go on being the land of the free and the brave.  We're not being brave right now, and until we stop being afraid of things we don't quite understand, we're not going to be the "true" America.  I really, really hope we can find our way back to those ideals of a free nation. 

In which we defend teen literature

I normally really enjoy reading Malcolm Gladwell; he strikes me as a rational sort of person who looks at things closely before he makes his statements, which, even if I disagree with him, make them pleasurable to read.

His latest post, however, just about made me want to reach in the computer and strangle him.  I personally think it's a very serious matter that Viswanathan (if you're not familiar with the story, 19 year-old Kaavya Viswanathan has reportedly stolen entire passages from one of Megan McCafferty's books, Sloppy Seconds, for her book, How Opal Mehta....) has appropriated entire sentences.  Regardless of whether it's a copyright infringement, or just a case of the author being faimilar with the other book and subconciously remembering entire passages, it's a serious business, and no one should send the message that it's not.

Especially because of what genre the book happens to be a part of.  Which is Mr. Gladwell's argument--the the offense isn't offensive because it's a part of *sneer* teen literature.  I don't think plagerism is less important because it occurs in some of those books that maybe aren't great, just like it's not okay to record a movie in a movie theater and sell it on the street because it's a bad movie.  It just doesn't work that way.  We don't only protect the things that are hypothetically "worth" protecting. 

Furthermore, it's pretty ridiculous for Mr. Gladwell to suggest that teen literature is all crap.  He's obviously never read any, because there are plenty of good teen novels, plenty of excellent teen novels.  It's not the ghetto that Gladwell makes it out to be--and neither is mystery or romance or horror.  I've defended genre more than once, and I'm not going to trot out the same arguments again, but suffice it to say that I ascribe more value to these genres than Gladwell does. 

I don't even know what else to say about this, because I think it's such crap.  I'm so angry about what he's said that I can't think clearly.  Regardless, the idea that Viswanathan should have been patted on the head and told what she did was okay is distasteful.  What she's done is clearly inappropriate, and we should hold her responsible for it.  She should have known better.  And so should Gladwell have.