Derailed

Avocado Chicken and Artichokes

We had a (very) ripe avocado so I used garlic and onion and spices and turned it into a savory sauce to spoon over these grilled chicken breasts. The artichokes were overcooked, but the first for us this year and very good and the Medoc (Chateau Gresysac 2001) was nice, but a little overwhelmed by this dinner.

Coriander Chicken and Spring Roll

We didn't get out of the movie until 8:30 so I stopped at Rom Mai Thai and picked up some quick stir-fry and rice. Nothing glamorous, but indeed delicious. Does Rosé go with everything?

Tri-tip and Mint Pine Nut Couscous

This is what we ate last night:
Onions, garlic and carrots in chicken stock to cook the couscous. Fresh mint, lemon zest and tomatoes stirred in once it was done.The steak was rubbed with spices and cooked rare. Cumin cream on top. Corn on the cob (not pictured). A (great!) bottle of Barnard Griffin 2006 Rosé of Sangiovese.

What's for dinner?

I'm sort of participating in the Every Day in May project (for the real deal of this kind of project, check out my friend Gibson's 30 Days in Red Pants.) Instead of painting a picture or making art, I decided to take a picture of our dinner each night. Usually I cook. Sometimes we go out. Either way, I think it's a fun undertaking.

Poe/lar Bear

I saw this on French Toast Girl. It struck me as awesome.

Setbacks

Ladies, if you thought your uterus and ova were yours to make decisions about, think again. The Supreme Court decision today has reiterated several stances taken by this administration:

1) Women are not citizens in the way that men are. Our bodies are not our own, but belong to some greater "good" that may or may not have our best interest in mind. Should we get pregnant, we are no longer in charge of what happens to us.

2) The court system is now a mouthpiece for the president. It terrifies me to watch the gradual retreat of the (well-thought out, meticulously planned, long-recognized as an integral part of our democracy) checks and balances that help to regulate our country. They were put in place to assure us that when the majority of the people hold an opinion contrary to the opinion of an administration, the majority will eventually have its way. It's not that other administrations haven't been at odds with the people, it's that now we don't have separate branches of government to make sure that the country, the justice system and, apparently, women's bodies don't end up belonging to George Bush.

3) It is the government, not OB/GYNs, who should recommend reproductive health care choices for women. The term "partial birth abortion" refers to a practice that doesn't even exist. There is a medical term for the kind of abortion that is performed in the 2nd or 3rd trimester, but "partial birth abortion" is a made up name and not a medical procedure. The Supreme Court of the United States has decided to politicize for the very first time the choices that doctors and women make about women's health. I also am appalled that Kennedy in his statement calls OB/GYNs "abortion doctors." Another fake term.

This isn't just about the access to affordable, safe abortions. This is about the fabric of our democracy and the rights of women as equal citizens.

Words overused by food review writers

1. Cloying

What it's Not

Last month, we discussed that "vagina" is not bad word. Here is a disturbing poster that illustrates another thing a vagina is not:

(stolen from i don't care much for this)

Part of the Problem

Hubby pointed out this War Room post from Salon. The main story is that a Bush administration employee leaked classified documents to a "friend" -- never mind that she works for the Department of Parks and Fish and Wildlife (or whatever) and the documents included information about endangered species and the friend's email address ended in "chevrontexaco.com" -- Bad? Yes. But you know what's worse? This employee met this friend while "playing online role playing games." What? Like D&D? Are you kidding me? First, is she 15?? Second, la-la land prevails in the minds of the whole Bush world. Lets roll a 20-sided die and pretend to be half-elf mage warriors. It all makes horrible, greasy, pimply sense. They don't face reality when they are NOT at work either.

This pretty much sums it up....

This great drawing was done by one of our volunteer teachers during a workshop over the weekend. Rules to live by...

New shit has come to light...

From Peek -- Horrific and sad....and completely related to my post from this morning. The fact that a principal of a high school in New York thinks that the word vagina is offensive is of the exact same stuff as the fact that men in Iraq in the army think it's not important to protect or defend women from rape. Get it?

Shin, Armpit, Little Toe, Vagina, Forehead...

Let's get one thing fucking straight: My girly body parts are not dirty, shameful or inappropriate for children. I'm not talking about pictures of vaginas (which aren't necessarily any of the above), any sort of sexual context or making anyone discuss vaginas against their will. I am talking about the WORD vagina, which names a part of the human body.

I am not surprised by this story at all. Sadly, I'm not even disappointed because I would absolutely expect nothing less. Three high school students in NY are possibly facing suspension for saying the word "vagina" in the context of a reading of "The Vagina Monologues." Their principal is a man. Big surprise. His name is Dick. I am not kidding.

The three students are on the Today Show this morning with Eve Ensler. Meredith handled herself with the usual airheaded idiocy. "But children were going to be present." I love that the president of the school board (also on the show) said that he has no problem with the word vagina and has heard it more in the last few days than ever before.

The point here is not if they get suspended or not, although, it would be an injustice. The point here is that there was even a question that the word in the context of an empowering phrase in a monologue that includes the word vagina may be offensive to hear. Ridiculous.

I think this point is well explained in the words, of Maude Lebowski. Let's consult the text:

MAUDE
My art has been commended as being
strongly vaginal. Which bothers
some men. The word itself makes
some men uncomfortable. Vagina.




DUDE
Oh yeah?


MAUDE
Yes, they don't like hearing it and
find it difficult to say. Whereas
without batting an eye a man will
refer to his "dick" or his "rod" or
his "Johnson".

As an aside, my godson Elijah, who was about five at the time and who says his r's with a little difficulty, overheard me quoting the above passage. He responded matter-of-factly: "I don't have any twouble saying vagina, but I do have a little twouble with my r's."

Amen, Elijah. You're the product of feminist parents. Should all children be so lucky. Obviously Principal Dick's parents weren't.

Bánh mì

I had the Best Freeking Sandwich on Sunday.

The BFS came from a little shop in Wallingford called Boulangerie. Read about it here or here or here. The sweet smiling man who owns it is ALWAYS behind the counter. His croissants and fruit tarts are, in my opinion, simply the best in Seattle. He is Vietnamese - I mention his nationality because the other day I went in to his shop to get one of the above-referenced fruit tarts and saw a small hand written sign announcing something called "Everyday BBQ Sandwich. Fresh! Hot! Tasty!" I ordered one not really knowing what I was ordering, but then when it arrived and it was the most beautiful Bánh mì I had ever seen I was struck with a big "duh" -- of course! The French baguette, the roasted pork, the Vietnamese hot sauce and cilantro and daikon radish. I should have known! Holy crap -- for $5.99 I was blown away. I unwrapped it on my way home and I couldn't even drive. I was so busy scarfing it down, I literally pulled over to finish.

Schadenfreude

I just saw a preview for "To Catch a Predator" the sensational crap show on NBC where men caught on camera trying to meet under-aged women for sex. This show is horrifically tragic - like watching a car wreck, but where we're supposed to cheer because a bad-guy gets caught. Never mind that these guys (even though they are caught in the act) should be assumed innocent until proven guilty. I picture the crew of these shows gathering around the make-shift bars where they guys usually sit and cry when they get caught with fiery torches in hand a la Frankenstein.

I've never seen the show, but they show segments on the Today Show every once in a while and I've seen enough to know I don't want to see more.

As if it could get any worse....I just saw an ad for this show where they hint that the guy they catch takes his own life -- or attempts to -- when confronted by the host. They have gone ahead and made a show out of it. Fucking disgusting. This is an atrocity. I don't care if he was going to meet a 14 year old girl for sex -- that he brought beer -- yes, there should be police catching these guys, but who is watching this crap? He doesn't deserve to be humiliated on camera, pushed to the brink (or over the edge) of suicide. This man has a family. This man is a human.

There are all sorts of complaints about this show. Entrapment (sometimes the "victims" bring up sex first), a public punishment without a trial that the media has no right to inflict on a person, and now a suicide used for ratings. I know I sound like Andy Rooney, but this has gone too far.

It's a new day....

I haven't even watched Meredith on the Today Show yet. I am somewhat loyal to hating Katie, but I feel the familiar tingle of resentment and ire bubbling inside. And I have to face facts: Katie is gone. She's now on the evening news and for some reason, I have no interest in hating her there. So! Onward: I hate Meredith! She's a game show host for god's sake.

The good ship fucking idiot

Is she fucking drunk? See Katie in her nautical themed outfit. See Katie push the button to "honk the horn" of the ship. She her giggle and say, "Hello Coast Guard?" into a radio that the idiot fucking captain of the ship handed her. I hate you, Katie Couric.

Today's (Fucked Up) Woman

OK, so I am still watching the fucking Today Show...and today's target: Katie Fucking Couric.

A NEW SERIES called "Sun, Sand & Surgery!" HOly shit, I am not shitting you....this is a new series they are doing on getting plastic surgery while you are on vacation...Fuck me -- they have more to say about it than they can cover in one show? While introducing the series, Katie says, "Isn't that a little scary, though? To trust someone from another country? They must have different regulations, right?" Fuck you, Katie you xenophobic twit.

Right before the vacation boob camp segment, Katie did a "Today's Woman" segment. She interviewed a woman who wrote a book called To Hell with All That about the 'struggle' women today have today with living in modern times and trying not to feel guilty about not being good housewives like our moms were in the 50s. The author had some gal pals over to her house to dish about being wives and have careers and homes and still try to get your family all sitting down to dinner that doesn't come in a Styrofoam container. One of the women said that she and her husband have very different ideas about what "tidy" is and it's a struggle in their house and the author asked how she deals with that and she says, "Oh I have a really good therapist" They all giggle...Heeehee oh! How cute!

Holy crap, did he underestimate you!

Dear white, Christian, wives of soldiers, dwellers of America’s heartland, dear patriotic stock brokers who worked in Tower 2, dear wealthy, dear working poor who believe him despite their lack of healthcare that things are getting better, dear born-agains, dear soldiers and soon-to-be soldiers, and ditto-heads, dear women who don’t need control of their reproductive systems, dear Republicans and firemen and everyone else who thought he was a “straight shooter”; a President who “means what he says.”

I am writing to tell you that you have been had. This president thought that he could look you in the eye over and over and over and over and tell you lies. Blatant, huge misrepresentations of the truth to your faces, on TV, in public, in writing, in speeches he didn’t even write. About the war, about WMDs, about security leaks and about Saddam, about bin Laden, about the axis of Evil, about the United Nations and the Downing Street memo, about Swift Boats, about “Kenny-boy who?” about wire-tapping, about the anthrax, about Katrina and the levies, and about Brownie, about the election and the about privatized retirement accounts, about Medicare and leaving no child behind.

This guy automatically lies when his mouth is open. His default setting is Lie. And Smirk. Because he knows as long as you are forced with the choice of believing him or being unpatriotic, you will choose to believe him.

Every. Single. Time.

No matter how obvious and easy to disprove his lies are. He knows you would rather wave a flag and smile and cheer him on than rock the boat. The loveable idiot. (You or him?) Even if he’s wrong, he didn’t mean to be, so that means he wasn’t. He knows you will happily swallow it and chide those who don’t.

This was their plan all along. They knew this choice was too hard for you. They accounted for your sheep mentality and made decisions accordingly. Decisions to make you believe that we are in more danger now than we ever have been, to make you buy duct tape for your windows, to make you watch your friends and neighbors for any signs of being Arab (pronounced a-RAB with a long ‘A’).

And you fell for it. You stuck yellow magnets on your cars and attached cheap flags to your car’s windows and drove with PRIDE. These Colors Don’t Run. And you booed Cindy Sheehan and you watched Fox News and believed. Every. Single. Word.

All the while…
· The war is a mess
· There were no weapons of mass destruction
· The levies were predicted to break and all he saw was dollar signs for the companies of his friends and another chance to bankrupt our economy (which sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it’s coming fucking true!!!)
· He is friends with the a-holes who ran Enron
· Brownie wasn’t doing a heck of a job
· Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11
· etc.

Everything he touches turns to shit. Every company he’s run, every project he’s taken on, every disaster he’s ‘managed,’ every soldier who believed in the reasons for being over there…it all comes up shit and it will continue to come up shit until you prove him wrong about you.

How many times will he break the law, tell lies to promote his friends, make bad decisions with bad timing with disastrous consequences and you all look the other way. He’s a War President. He was just working on the information he had. He’s just stubborn…forgive him!

Stop it! Prove him wrong! Show him that there are consequences for breaking the law, for violating your trust. Look around you! Are you richer, safer, smarter, healthier and freer than you were in 2000? Fuck no! Dear American people, you’ve been had. You are now faced with the task of standing up and demanding respect. Don’t let him treat you like you are dumb. Don’t let them continue to ruin things for future generations and smile and smirk and “heh-heh-heh so I’m not your favorite person – go on.” You have failed so far, and you’ve lived up to their meager expectations, but now is your chance.

The President broke the law, not once or twice or even three times, but more times than we can count and he LIED to you about it. He wire tapped you illegally; he leaked classified information before it was declassified and stood up in front of America and told us all that we are too dumb, too docile and too scared to do anything about it.

To everyone who trusted him and thought he was right but now wonders, to everyone who is just now getting that they are the butt of Karl Rove’s cosmic joke, to everyone who wouldn’t vote that son of a bitch back into office a third time even if they could (he did talk about changing the law to make that possible, you know), please, I ask you if it is all you do today for your country, stand up and ask for the truth. Stand up and call your representatives. Stand up and refuse to be part of his master plan for making rich, white people even richer. Stand up and say we won’t let you get away with this anymore.

Please make the title of this entry correct. Please show me that it is true that you were UNDERESTIMATED and have hit your breaking point and will no longer sit back and be disrespected, devalued, deprived or disillusioned.

Dear fathers of soldiers, dear soccer moms, nurses and factory workers, dear lawyers and family farmers and bus drivers, dear compassionate conservatives and ranchers and and POLITICIANS. The time is now.

Matt Lauer is a fucking asshole

Jeesus fucking christ I HATE him! Why do I watch the Today show in the morning? I don't fucking know! He and Katie "I Heart My Colon" Couric can both go to fucking hell. Gawd!

Here's the thing: every fucking day there is something on that stupid fucking show that pisses me off. I have it on every morning and every morning I get mad, without fail! It's like I have to keep watching it to see if they will ever not piss me the fuck off!

Here's what happened today.

Matt has an interview with 5 members of the Compact which is a group dedicated to spending a year without buying anything new. Matt has them on the couch and he is treating them like they are from fucking Mars or something. He can't fuck believe that they are all wearing "second hand" clothing? "Can I assume that everything you are wearing is not NEW???" He asks, incredulous. He doesn't tell them that his suits are hand-made by baby monkeys in Indonesia and only worn for a matter of three hours before they are incinerated and the ashes dumped in a fresh-water stream.

"And what is the hardest part?" As if they have all been struggling with this mind-boggling decision, every minute. "Some of you must have kids who want a....Nintendo?" They tell him they aren't buying their kids a Nintendo for one year. He can't believe it. He hasn't gone a year without a new Nintendo since the early 90s.

His big fucking joke is right after one of the Compact members says that part of the agreement is trying to resist the media's pressure to buy things to make you feel better. "Hold on, while we go to a commercial break," laughs Matt. No one on the couch realizes he is joking. He has to say, "I'm just kidding." They they all laugh falsely.

His last hard-hitting question goes like this: "So when this is all over, are you guys going to, like, go on a major binge?" I wish I was kidding. Completely missing the fuck point that this is about learning to do without consumerism and buying is a drug that we need to wean ourselves from and these people are HAPPY about not buying things, you fucking idiot! Jeesus... Fuck! You fucking asshole. I hate you Matt Lauer.