Irony: Much ado is being made of Barack Obama being black. Am I the only one who sees the irony in a man with one black parent and one white parent being called black? He's not black. He's only half black -- he's also half white. Does no one see the irony of blacks reveling in the blackness of a man whose "blackness" is based on the same criteria historically used to discriminate against and enslave black people? It is a criteria firmly rooted in that most despicable of Human institutions, slavery: a person with any black blood at all -- "even one drop" -- was legally considered black, and could therefore legally be enslaved. It is a criteria that reflected the reality that "mixed race" children were common, most of them fathered by white male owners on their female slaves. Degrees of blackness were carefully labeled: "octoroons" were persons who had a single black great grandparent -- that's 1 out of 16! It didn't actually become scandalous for a white man to father a child by a black woman until he could actually be legally married to the mother of his child. (Being black was more of a stigma than being a bastard!) But to have a black father and white mother was outrageous ("Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"was made in 1967) , even criminal, and potentially fatal for the man who "dared to besmirch white womanhood" especially when you consider that black men have been beaten to death and lynched for accidentally touching, for "not being polite enough" or even for simply "looking at" a white woman -- not just "in the olden days," but within the living, eye-witness memory of people who are watching this event today. Now a man with a black father and a white mother, who were openly married to each other at the time of his birth, is being sworn in as President of the United States. That, to me, is what's historic about this occasion.
Ironic that this event comes after an election in which Democrats were asked to choose between a black man and a white woman, and Republicans were asked to choose between the lesser of two evils.
Ironic how much mention has been made about a black President being sworn in before a building built by slaves -- yet, black members of Congress have been engaged in the business of government in that building since February 25, 1870, when Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected to the US Senate from Mississippi (of all places). And even more ironic, that Obama's black blood comes not from a descendant of those blacks who, against their will, were dragged in chains to these shores and subjected to centuries of dehumanizing servitude, abuse and discrimination. Our newest President is not the descendant of slaves, but of a man who came from Africa to America of his own free will, to continue his education by attending an American college, and who voluntarily returned to his home country once he had accomplished his goals. Still, as the child of a black, Kenyan father, and a white, American mother, he is, literally, an African-American.
Another irony that hits pretty close to home: That a black man would be elected to the highest office in the land, before a woman of any color. There is historical precedent, I'm sorry to say: Black men were enfranchised on February 3, 1870. Women, black or white, were not allowed to vote in national elections until August 26, 1920, nearly 50 years later. Black men had been serving in Congress since 1870, 46 years before Jeannette Rankin became the first woman in Congress, when she was elected to the House of Representatives in November 6, 1916. I hope it won't take 40 more years to finally get a woman elected President. That would mean I'd have to live to be 99 to see it.
However, I think my favorite touch of irony was the comment someone made about the job facing Obama as President as being "a tough row to hoe."
Nice Touches: Our first "black" president will be sworn in using the same Bible that was used to swear in Abraham Lincoln. -- I wonder whose idea that was? Whoever it was, that person had a great sense of history. I just hope this Presidency doesn't end the same way that one did.
A string quartet consisting of a Jewish violinist, a black clarinetist, a Chinese cellist, and a Hispanic pianist playing music for the ceremony. That pretty much covers all the bases.
A woman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is the mistress of ceremonies for the inauguration.
"Re-Re" -- Having The First Lady of Soul, Aretha Franklin, who sang at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, to sing "My Country Tis of Thee" with its stirring chorus "Let Freedom Ring!" - Amen!
Having Rev. Joseph Lowery, an icon of the civil rights movement, deliver the benediction. I cannot imagine how moved that man must have been to find himself in that place at such a time.
Thoughts: A slogan from my youth, born amid the turmoil of the civil rights marches and the tragedy at Kent State, came to mind as one of the innumerable "talking heads" on television commented that possibly as many as 1 billion people world wide were watching live, real-time, as the 44th President of the United States was sworn in: "The whole world's watching." Mind-blowing.
My favorite comment so far regarding the election of Obama has been: "Black people have been cleaning up white people's messes for centuries. We're still doing it." Touché.
CNN has a thing going where they want people who have taken photographs of "The Moment" that President Obama was sworn in to send them to CNN. They are being computer averaged into a 360 panoramic interactive view that can be viewed on the CNN website from the privacy of your home. Cool.
CNN has also been showing a photograph taken by satellite of the Capitol and surrounding areas at "The Moment" that shows the hordes of people out for the inauguration. The pictures we usually see of important events always focus on the "important" people in attendance. I was looking at the satellite picture and thinking of how many pix that I've been in and that I've taken at various family occasions -- and how many times I've heard, "Get a picture of everybody." -- Well, that's just what CNN has done: "Get a picture of everybody" -- Cosmic!
Cisco Systems has used a John Lennon song "Only People" in one of their TV Ads that have been running during the inauguration. His voice is distinctive; it caught my 1964-sensitized ear on first bounce. I first thought "they got (his son) Julian to record it." (Julian does sound eerily like his dad.) But apparently not. Apparently, that's John's original recording they're using. Imagine!
Pepsi's commercials use the song, "My Generation" by "The Who"-- their version of it, too, not a cover, and complete with stutter. It's a clever commercial as it fast forwards through all the generations who have drunk Pepsi. Very nicely done. All the main actors in the commercial are white. Oops!
As I write this very paragraph, I am listening to the U. S. Marine Corps band play "From the Halls of Montezuma" as they march down Pennsylvania Avenue in their dress blues, led by a cadre of Marine Corps officers with drawn swords (held at their sides tips downward in peace, but at the ready to raise in defence), and I think, Semper Fi, dad. Semper Fi.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Brief Dip in the Gene Pool
This blog was kind of instigated by those commercials on TV about finding where certain of your traits comes from by finding out about your ancestry
My mother's mother's people migrated to Texas in the 1800s from Germany, including 3xgreat grandpa J. Adam Neuthard who supposedly was raised Catholic and at some point, either before or after he received his degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, converted to Lutheranism, whereupon his family disinherited him and marked his name out in the family Bible. That probably explains why he immigrated to Texas in 1864. A great many of his fellow Germans were already there. After his arrival, he committed matrimony with Emma Bauer, whose father, Carl Sigismund, had immigrated to Texas from Saxony some years previously. (I have a photograph of Emma in my bedroom.) Adam and Emma's daughter Mary Martha married Mr. Paul Helmecke, who was the foreman of the Schiege Cigar Factory. The house Mr. Schiege provided for his foreman, and where my mother's mother was born, is now a B&B known as The Hideaway. Martha Helmecke married Mr. Jamison -- which implies his people were Irish, Scots, or English (there were many Jamies and their sons were legion). (One of Mr. Jamison's sisters was the first woman to work in a bank in Houston.) The last of their 12 children was a girl, Florence, -- and her first child was yrs trly.
My father's father's people were supposedly from Coffee County in south Georgia, and his paternal grandfather worked as a conductor on the M-K-T ("Katy") Railroad. My father was born in 1922, so that will time-frame it for you. His father's mother was neé Molly Bailey and supposedly she was named after and related to Mollie Bailey, who owned and operated a traveling circus. Mollie Bailey was not the "Bailey" of "Barnum and Bailey"as some folks would have you believe--that was James Bailey. "Our" Baileys were brothers Gus and Alfred. I suspect that Molly was Alfred's daughter, and it was supposedly Molly's mother who was a Dalton and was supposed to be related to the infamous Dalton Gang. (Father says his grandfather used to tell her not to be talking about her family tree since most of her relatives were hanging from it!) Father's mother was neé Mabel Lee (who, along with half the South, was supposedly related to Robert E.) and her mother was a Windom, referred to as "Grandmither." "Grandmither" Windom was cared for as a child by a black "Mammy" and I suspect that "Grandmither's" family had a good deal more money before the Civil War than they did after-- they were not alone in their reduced circumstances. She may have lived in Magnolia Springs, Tx, where I believe her son Theodore ("Uncle Teddy" also lived). My father was the fourth child of five, and the third boy.
I discovered yet another checker in my checkered ancestry only last Friday when my father let slip that one of his uncles was married to a woman of the Scandinavian persuasion named Sieglisa Eric?-something-or-other, AKA "Aunt Shug" (as in "sugar"), who lived in SE Texas and had pomegranate trees planted on either side of her front gate, from which my father would pilfer pomegranates during his boyhood visits. He mentioned this little tidbit during a conversation with a mutual friend about AriZona Pomegranate Green Tea, so it was not entirely off topic. I assume he used the pomegranate seeds for ammo in his pop gun, since he professed not to like eating them, yet never seemed to depart her premises without heisting one. I suspect "Aunt Shug" was married to the paternal side of daddy's family. I will have to see what I can find out.
My mother's mother's people migrated to Texas in the 1800s from Germany, including 3xgreat grandpa J. Adam Neuthard who supposedly was raised Catholic and at some point, either before or after he received his degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, converted to Lutheranism, whereupon his family disinherited him and marked his name out in the family Bible. That probably explains why he immigrated to Texas in 1864. A great many of his fellow Germans were already there. After his arrival, he committed matrimony with Emma Bauer, whose father, Carl Sigismund, had immigrated to Texas from Saxony some years previously. (I have a photograph of Emma in my bedroom.) Adam and Emma's daughter Mary Martha married Mr. Paul Helmecke, who was the foreman of the Schiege Cigar Factory. The house Mr. Schiege provided for his foreman, and where my mother's mother was born, is now a B&B known as The Hideaway. Martha Helmecke married Mr. Jamison -- which implies his people were Irish, Scots, or English (there were many Jamies and their sons were legion). (One of Mr. Jamison's sisters was the first woman to work in a bank in Houston.) The last of their 12 children was a girl, Florence, -- and her first child was yrs trly.
My father's father's people were supposedly from Coffee County in south Georgia, and his paternal grandfather worked as a conductor on the M-K-T ("Katy") Railroad. My father was born in 1922, so that will time-frame it for you. His father's mother was neé Molly Bailey and supposedly she was named after and related to Mollie Bailey, who owned and operated a traveling circus. Mollie Bailey was not the "Bailey" of "Barnum and Bailey"as some folks would have you believe--that was James Bailey. "Our" Baileys were brothers Gus and Alfred. I suspect that Molly was Alfred's daughter, and it was supposedly Molly's mother who was a Dalton and was supposed to be related to the infamous Dalton Gang. (Father says his grandfather used to tell her not to be talking about her family tree since most of her relatives were hanging from it!) Father's mother was neé Mabel Lee (who, along with half the South, was supposedly related to Robert E.) and her mother was a Windom, referred to as "Grandmither." "Grandmither" Windom was cared for as a child by a black "Mammy" and I suspect that "Grandmither's" family had a good deal more money before the Civil War than they did after-- they were not alone in their reduced circumstances. She may have lived in Magnolia Springs, Tx, where I believe her son Theodore ("Uncle Teddy" also lived). My father was the fourth child of five, and the third boy.
I discovered yet another checker in my checkered ancestry only last Friday when my father let slip that one of his uncles was married to a woman of the Scandinavian persuasion named Sieglisa Eric?-something-or-other, AKA "Aunt Shug" (as in "sugar"), who lived in SE Texas and had pomegranate trees planted on either side of her front gate, from which my father would pilfer pomegranates during his boyhood visits. He mentioned this little tidbit during a conversation with a mutual friend about AriZona Pomegranate Green Tea, so it was not entirely off topic. I assume he used the pomegranate seeds for ammo in his pop gun, since he professed not to like eating them, yet never seemed to depart her premises without heisting one. I suspect "Aunt Shug" was married to the paternal side of daddy's family. I will have to see what I can find out.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Of Potsherds and Plastic Frozen Food Trays -- a Rant
Will somebody PLEASE invent a biodegradable microwaveable frozen food tray that does not contain petrochemicals! One made of sugar or starch that you could run down the sink disposal when you're done with it, if you don't mind. . . These stupid plastic frozen food trays we use now are piling up in our landfills. In a thousand years, they will be littering the landscape like potsherds in Babylon!
One wonders what future archaeologists will make of them. I can see it now: The scholarly papers discussing the "Bird's Eye" culture and the "Green Giant" people and how the two co-mingled across the landscape, and the charactaristic "blackware" of the "Stouffer" people that was found over a surprisingly large geographical area. And how wave after wave of these plastic pan people gradually supplanted the earlier metal cylinder culture. And theories will be propounded about what became of the glass vessel people who produced glassware in such a myriad of shapes and colors. . .
You may think this archaeological scenerio is somewhat far-fetched, and I agree with you. At the rate we're going, any archeology that is conducted on this planet a thousand years from now will be very far-fetched. It will be conducted in our absence by archeologists from another star system, and those future archaeologists will return from their dig sites to their camp of flying saucers. And they will sit around their solar powered campfire sipping their postprandial beverage of choice, mulling over the day's trove of artifacts, and wonder about the culture that produced them -- who they were and what they were thinking. I've been wondering the same thing myself for years.
One wonders what future archaeologists will make of them. I can see it now: The scholarly papers discussing the "Bird's Eye" culture and the "Green Giant" people and how the two co-mingled across the landscape, and the charactaristic "blackware" of the "Stouffer" people that was found over a surprisingly large geographical area. And how wave after wave of these plastic pan people gradually supplanted the earlier metal cylinder culture. And theories will be propounded about what became of the glass vessel people who produced glassware in such a myriad of shapes and colors. . .
You may think this archaeological scenerio is somewhat far-fetched, and I agree with you. At the rate we're going, any archeology that is conducted on this planet a thousand years from now will be very far-fetched. It will be conducted in our absence by archeologists from another star system, and those future archaeologists will return from their dig sites to their camp of flying saucers. And they will sit around their solar powered campfire sipping their postprandial beverage of choice, mulling over the day's trove of artifacts, and wonder about the culture that produced them -- who they were and what they were thinking. I've been wondering the same thing myself for years.
Three Things You Can Do With A Baked Potato -- All of Which Involve Snarfing. . .
This past weekend, I fell prey to a hankering for baked potatoes. I was in luck. I had previously ransomed several nice Idaho bakers from my local Wally-World with the intention of sealing their fate. . . . (Bwahahahahah!)
Defining Terms: Baked potatoes, baked in the oven, not the microwave. I massage their little skins with some EV olive oil prior to putting them on a cookie sheet and baking them at 350 degrees for an hour. This makes their skin very soft and delectable. Since I don't pierce the skins before baking, these well-oiled taters have a tendency to "sing" once they get warmed up. In fact, while I was baking the pair that prompted this blog, one of them dog-whistled a very high C# for several minutes. My youngest cat, Jaks, was extremely intrigued by the sound and inspected the oven door and surrounding area quite thoroughly and hopefully. Alas, he failed to locate anything that corresponded to what his genes had primed him to prey upon when he encountered high-pitched noises. He has revisited the oven and vicinity several times since then for another quick inspection, just in case. One never knows. . . .
Thing #1 Baked Tater with Fixin's
Involves Green Giant Frozen Vegetables. They are available in single serving containers and 2-1/2 minutes in the microwave will turn said frozen contents into succulently hot morsels of veggie goodness. The broccoli, in particular, but the broccoli/carrot combo also, are extremely relevant. Now, hold that thought.
Take a freshly baked potato, slice it open and morselize its innards with your weapon of choice: slice it to pieces with a knife or rake it thoroughly with a fork -- right down to the skin. Next one may apply margarine or drizzle with EV olive oil (I like the herbed kind made for dunking bread into). Here is where the GGF broccoli, or broccoli and carrot combo, come in . Add a container of either, freshly nuked, to the baked potato. Other condiments such as chopped black olives, a drizzle of Ranch salad dressing, a large blop of sour cream or plain yogurt may also be included. Top with grated cheese -- for my money, the Kraft Mexican 4 Cheeses blend (Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack and Mozzarella) is the garnish of choice, but if you go with the blop of sour cream, try chopped parsley, scallions and/or cilantro. Try them even if you don't go with the blop of sour cream. If you go for the cheese, give it a brief nuke in the microwave to melt the cheese. I like to prepare my "baked tater with fixin's" in a soup bowl and eat it with a spoon. Skin and all. Ladies and gentlemen, start your snarfers. . . . .
Most people boil their potatoes when they make potato salad. Unless you plan to use the "potato water" to make gravy or soup, this is a waste of good potato, as boiling them boils out the vitamins. It also makes them gummy -- which I suppose is OK if you like gummy potatoes. There is, after all, no accounting for taste. However, baking the potatoes makes them easier to peel, if peel you must, and makes them "lighter" (versus "heavier") in texture, as well as tastier.
Start with :
2-3 baked potatoes (I cut them up skins and all).
1 white onion (tennis ball size) diced.
3 Vlasic Kosher Dill spears, fillet off the seeds then diced (use spears NOT pickle relish).
1 small can of chopped black olives.
Dressing:
3/4 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise (use mayonnaise, NOT that Godawful Miracle Whip crud!).
2 tsp Dijon mustard.
1 tsp chopped horseradish.
1 tsp wasabi.
Mix the dressing ingredients together thoroughly, then pour over the "dry" ingredients, stirring them until everything is nicely mixed and moistened. Serves 4-6.
Comments: Don't use pickle relish. Most pickle relish is (a) sweet, (b) chopped too finely. Those diced dill pickles make a nice crunch. Also use Kosher dills, not some other kind. It's not about being Kosher, it's about the Kosher recipe and how it affects the taste. That's also why not to use Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise. Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise. It's salad dressing. Miracle Whip is also cheaper than mayonnaise for a reason. You get what you pay for. Use mayonnaise, preferably Hellmann's. There used to be a French's Gourmayo "wasabi-horseradish" -- evidently word got out that I love it, so they have now apparently quit making it. Figures. You'll have to resort to the wasabi paste and chopped horseradish, both of which can be bought in small quantities, since it is universally recognized that a little of either goes a long way. Don't use regular old French's mustard instead of a Dijon mustard. Again it has to do with taste. Grey Poupon is what I use. I'm worth it.
Give your 'buds' a break: Followed the recipe faithfully, and snarf when ready.
Thing #3: "Smashed taters"
As stated earlier, unless you plan to use the potato water to make gravy or soup, bake the potatoes rather than boil them for your mashed potatoes. Raw potatoes are jam-packed with nutrients. A good many incredibly hardy Irish were raised on potatoes and buttermilk. Period. It is a nutritionally complete diet. If you oil the skins with EV olive oil before you bake them, you can "mash" them, skins and all, in a food processor, with a little chopped parsley and/or chopped cilantro and/or chopped green onions, and milk for liquid. Or try using chicken or beef broth for liquid. Or the vegans in the crowd can use soy or rice milk for the liquid. The mashed potatoes with the bad rep are boiled -- practically pure starch, with little food value except calories. Prepared this way, they will be light, fluffy and good for you.
Try putting some in a pastry sleeve and "piping" a top crust for a chicken or beef pot pie instead of using a pastry crust, or for garnishing a beef or chicken stew, or the ubiquitous green bean casserole, or using them as a garnish for hors d'oevres made from thinly sliced beef
Try them without the butter and/or gravy. You may decide you prefer them "straight" -- Snarf away.
Defining Terms: Baked potatoes, baked in the oven, not the microwave. I massage their little skins with some EV olive oil prior to putting them on a cookie sheet and baking them at 350 degrees for an hour. This makes their skin very soft and delectable. Since I don't pierce the skins before baking, these well-oiled taters have a tendency to "sing" once they get warmed up. In fact, while I was baking the pair that prompted this blog, one of them dog-whistled a very high C# for several minutes. My youngest cat, Jaks, was extremely intrigued by the sound and inspected the oven door and surrounding area quite thoroughly and hopefully. Alas, he failed to locate anything that corresponded to what his genes had primed him to prey upon when he encountered high-pitched noises. He has revisited the oven and vicinity several times since then for another quick inspection, just in case. One never knows. . . .
Thing #1 Baked Tater with Fixin's
Involves Green Giant Frozen Vegetables. They are available in single serving containers and 2-1/2 minutes in the microwave will turn said frozen contents into succulently hot morsels of veggie goodness. The broccoli, in particular, but the broccoli/carrot combo also, are extremely relevant. Now, hold that thought.
Take a freshly baked potato, slice it open and morselize its innards with your weapon of choice: slice it to pieces with a knife or rake it thoroughly with a fork -- right down to the skin. Next one may apply margarine or drizzle with EV olive oil (I like the herbed kind made for dunking bread into). Here is where the GGF broccoli, or broccoli and carrot combo, come in . Add a container of either, freshly nuked, to the baked potato. Other condiments such as chopped black olives, a drizzle of Ranch salad dressing, a large blop of sour cream or plain yogurt may also be included. Top with grated cheese -- for my money, the Kraft Mexican 4 Cheeses blend (Cheddar, Colby, Monterey Jack and Mozzarella) is the garnish of choice, but if you go with the blop of sour cream, try chopped parsley, scallions and/or cilantro. Try them even if you don't go with the blop of sour cream. If you go for the cheese, give it a brief nuke in the microwave to melt the cheese. I like to prepare my "baked tater with fixin's" in a soup bowl and eat it with a spoon. Skin and all. Ladies and gentlemen, start your snarfers. . . . .
(Tangent: If broccoli is plural, what's the singular? Broccolus? What would a brocculus consist of? And would it be big enough to be worth fooling with?)
Thing #2: "Tater salid"Most people boil their potatoes when they make potato salad. Unless you plan to use the "potato water" to make gravy or soup, this is a waste of good potato, as boiling them boils out the vitamins. It also makes them gummy -- which I suppose is OK if you like gummy potatoes. There is, after all, no accounting for taste. However, baking the potatoes makes them easier to peel, if peel you must, and makes them "lighter" (versus "heavier") in texture, as well as tastier.
Start with :
2-3 baked potatoes (I cut them up skins and all).
1 white onion (tennis ball size) diced.
3 Vlasic Kosher Dill spears, fillet off the seeds then diced (use spears NOT pickle relish).
1 small can of chopped black olives.
Dressing:
3/4 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise (use mayonnaise, NOT that Godawful Miracle Whip crud!).
2 tsp Dijon mustard.
1 tsp chopped horseradish.
1 tsp wasabi.
Mix the dressing ingredients together thoroughly, then pour over the "dry" ingredients, stirring them until everything is nicely mixed and moistened. Serves 4-6.
Comments: Don't use pickle relish. Most pickle relish is (a) sweet, (b) chopped too finely. Those diced dill pickles make a nice crunch. Also use Kosher dills, not some other kind. It's not about being Kosher, it's about the Kosher recipe and how it affects the taste. That's also why not to use Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise. Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise. It's salad dressing. Miracle Whip is also cheaper than mayonnaise for a reason. You get what you pay for. Use mayonnaise, preferably Hellmann's. There used to be a French's Gourmayo "wasabi-horseradish" -- evidently word got out that I love it, so they have now apparently quit making it. Figures. You'll have to resort to the wasabi paste and chopped horseradish, both of which can be bought in small quantities, since it is universally recognized that a little of either goes a long way. Don't use regular old French's mustard instead of a Dijon mustard. Again it has to do with taste. Grey Poupon is what I use. I'm worth it.
Give your 'buds' a break: Followed the recipe faithfully, and snarf when ready.
Thing #3: "Smashed taters"
As stated earlier, unless you plan to use the potato water to make gravy or soup, bake the potatoes rather than boil them for your mashed potatoes. Raw potatoes are jam-packed with nutrients. A good many incredibly hardy Irish were raised on potatoes and buttermilk. Period. It is a nutritionally complete diet. If you oil the skins with EV olive oil before you bake them, you can "mash" them, skins and all, in a food processor, with a little chopped parsley and/or chopped cilantro and/or chopped green onions, and milk for liquid. Or try using chicken or beef broth for liquid. Or the vegans in the crowd can use soy or rice milk for the liquid. The mashed potatoes with the bad rep are boiled -- practically pure starch, with little food value except calories. Prepared this way, they will be light, fluffy and good for you.
Try putting some in a pastry sleeve and "piping" a top crust for a chicken or beef pot pie instead of using a pastry crust, or for garnishing a beef or chicken stew, or the ubiquitous green bean casserole, or using them as a garnish for hors d'oevres made from thinly sliced beef
Try them without the butter and/or gravy. You may decide you prefer them "straight" -- Snarf away.
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