Friday, September 26, 2008
I'm starting to feel sorry for Sarah Palin.
I'm starting to feel sorry for Sarah Palin. She's out of her league and her answers to interviewers are starting to show that, and I think it's made her very uncomfortable. It must be hard for her to go through, to be in this national spotlight and be so unprepared, even though she's in this position because of greed and is in some sense punishing herself because she wants too much too soon and is grasping at power and prestige. On the one hand she could be a John Waters villainess, but on the other hand, she could be a tragic figure in the hands of the right director. I bet she cries a lot at night.
Casablanca.
So, last night at the department drinking fest, I was just getting there like an hour after it started when this one second-career doctoral student who I'm friends with was just leaving, so we talked outside for like twenty minutes, and then some more people I know were going in, so we ended up dragging her back in along with everyone, and she had like three or four more glasses of wine and got separted socializing from me for like an hour.
An hour later, then, I saw her and another student I know, and then the second-career doctoral student started asking about my having been in Casablanca this summer and if I found it as seedy as she did when she passed through there last year on the way to her Arabic summer program. I told her that I did, and then she was like, "Well, I should really tell you this, but...", and she leaned in towards me and my friends and started saying that Casablanca now was nothing compared to how it was thirty years ago.
"I used to be into their dancing," she was like, "and I had this Moroccan friend I would go to all the clubs with, and we would just watch and watch and watch, you could learn a lot by watching. At this one club, though, the dancer had these finger cymbals and she did the best job with them, and she was a lot more sexual than other dancers the way she danced, which really wasn't normal at all, and I started thinking who could this be and who would let their wife or daugher do this, and then I noticed that she was very slim and she had straight hips just like the Berber males do, they're very slim, and then I looked closer and realized that she was a man! And either everyone in the room knew, or they didn't know at all!"
She also said a lot of older guys would pick them up and take them around to all the clubs and buy them drinks, and one night walking back across the beach the older guy they were with stopped walking and made both her and her friend stop and asked them to be together on the beach while he watched.
"That was something," she was like, and added that she's never known quite what he wanted them to do, and then she stared off to one side a little bit, into the distance, and was like, "I was so naive back then."
An hour later, then, I saw her and another student I know, and then the second-career doctoral student started asking about my having been in Casablanca this summer and if I found it as seedy as she did when she passed through there last year on the way to her Arabic summer program. I told her that I did, and then she was like, "Well, I should really tell you this, but...", and she leaned in towards me and my friends and started saying that Casablanca now was nothing compared to how it was thirty years ago.
"I used to be into their dancing," she was like, "and I had this Moroccan friend I would go to all the clubs with, and we would just watch and watch and watch, you could learn a lot by watching. At this one club, though, the dancer had these finger cymbals and she did the best job with them, and she was a lot more sexual than other dancers the way she danced, which really wasn't normal at all, and I started thinking who could this be and who would let their wife or daugher do this, and then I noticed that she was very slim and she had straight hips just like the Berber males do, they're very slim, and then I looked closer and realized that she was a man! And either everyone in the room knew, or they didn't know at all!"
She also said a lot of older guys would pick them up and take them around to all the clubs and buy them drinks, and one night walking back across the beach the older guy they were with stopped walking and made both her and her friend stop and asked them to be together on the beach while he watched.
"That was something," she was like, and added that she's never known quite what he wanted them to do, and then she stared off to one side a little bit, into the distance, and was like, "I was so naive back then."
More forgotten happenings in Gary...
How could I forget this? -
In the afternoon when I finished up my strip of canvassing, I went looking for my (white) neighbor and the (black) retiree who was doing the same section of town, and as I was walking up the block to them -- I had seen them from afar going house to house as I wandered through the streets -- this middle-aged (black) lady called to me from her porch and was like, "Hey, are you with those people?", and when I said yes, she was like, "Come up here and let me know where you got this registration information."
She then told me that some woman from out of Chicago has been using her address for years so she buys collectible dolls mail-order and has the dolls shipped to Chicago but the bills shipped to Gary, and she's been on the prosecutor for years about this with mail-fraud, but now if it turns out that the woman actually tried to register at her house, that that's a federal crime and maybe a federal prosecutor would pick up the case and throw her in jail.
"Dang," I was like, "you sound like you're out of Law and Order, 'it's time to take this to the feds,'" I was like, and then for good measure I added, "BUM BUM," before being like, "How do you know all this, are a you a lawyer or something?", and then she told me that she works on the riverboat casinos and used to be the union head, so she knows a bit about law and stuff like that.
Like a minute later, my neighbor and the retiree we were canvassing with walked up, and she kind of explained the whole thing to them again, and then as we walked away she started muttering that that other woman had never even lived there, but had just decided to stick her with all the doll bills years ago after her son had broken up with her.
In the afternoon when I finished up my strip of canvassing, I went looking for my (white) neighbor and the (black) retiree who was doing the same section of town, and as I was walking up the block to them -- I had seen them from afar going house to house as I wandered through the streets -- this middle-aged (black) lady called to me from her porch and was like, "Hey, are you with those people?", and when I said yes, she was like, "Come up here and let me know where you got this registration information."
She then told me that some woman from out of Chicago has been using her address for years so she buys collectible dolls mail-order and has the dolls shipped to Chicago but the bills shipped to Gary, and she's been on the prosecutor for years about this with mail-fraud, but now if it turns out that the woman actually tried to register at her house, that that's a federal crime and maybe a federal prosecutor would pick up the case and throw her in jail.
"Dang," I was like, "you sound like you're out of Law and Order, 'it's time to take this to the feds,'" I was like, and then for good measure I added, "BUM BUM," before being like, "How do you know all this, are a you a lawyer or something?", and then she told me that she works on the riverboat casinos and used to be the union head, so she knows a bit about law and stuff like that.
Like a minute later, my neighbor and the retiree we were canvassing with walked up, and she kind of explained the whole thing to them again, and then as we walked away she started muttering that that other woman had never even lived there, but had just decided to stick her with all the doll bills years ago after her son had broken up with her.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Forgotten happenings in Gary...
Somehow I forgot two of the most moving moments in Gary, when I helped one elderly (black) woman and another disabled (black) woman who had trouble writing help fill out absentee ballot forms (both were already registered).
The first was this lady who was born in 1922 and goes to the polls every year, but she doesn't get around so well, so she figured she'd just vote absentee and apply for a ballot using the forms we were carrying around.
(One of the conditions for voting absentee is being over 65 years old.)
After I filled it out for her, she signed and dated it with trouble, and then I had to fill out a mini-affadavit at the bottom of the form swearing that I helped fill out the form in good conscience and that the person was a registered Indiana voter to the best of my knowledge. It doesn't seem so big now, but it made realize how much responsibility it was and how official it was to go around signing my name on forms when I was signing up voters, that this was a federal process I could be held accountable for.
The one lady was very sweet. Her husband had passed (that's the way she said it, "he passed five years ago"), but his glasses were still on the kitchen table, so when she sat down and realized she had left her glasses in the other room, she was like, "But my husband always left his glasses here, thankfully", so she took up these thick glasses with thick black frames that were much too big for her and put them on to sign her name to the form.
She was also saying that 2008 is a year that's seen a lot of changes, with Obama being the Democratic nominee and Palin being the GOP VP nominee, and what with the flooding that happened recently, even though God had promised that it wouldn't.
All her furniture was covered in plastic, too.
The other lady was on oxygen and goes for dialysis, so she requested a ballot since she's disabled. She had just moved back from Georgia like a week ago to live with her daughter and help her and her granddaughter out, and she sat down with me to fill out her registration and absentee ballot forms despite the chaos that was happening with this one-and-a-half year old running around. I kept apologizing for having the forms take so long to fill out, and she was like, "No, thank you for coming here and helping me!"
Also, when I was talking with that one (black) security guard before the day started, he for some reason was telling us about how back when probation used to be on the 8th floor of the bank building (the building his store was in), Thursday used to be pedophile day, so you'd see all these pedophiles drifting through the building entrance or stopping through the party store, and some of them were teenagers who were both underage but had been fucking each other.
The first was this lady who was born in 1922 and goes to the polls every year, but she doesn't get around so well, so she figured she'd just vote absentee and apply for a ballot using the forms we were carrying around.
(One of the conditions for voting absentee is being over 65 years old.)
After I filled it out for her, she signed and dated it with trouble, and then I had to fill out a mini-affadavit at the bottom of the form swearing that I helped fill out the form in good conscience and that the person was a registered Indiana voter to the best of my knowledge. It doesn't seem so big now, but it made realize how much responsibility it was and how official it was to go around signing my name on forms when I was signing up voters, that this was a federal process I could be held accountable for.
The one lady was very sweet. Her husband had passed (that's the way she said it, "he passed five years ago"), but his glasses were still on the kitchen table, so when she sat down and realized she had left her glasses in the other room, she was like, "But my husband always left his glasses here, thankfully", so she took up these thick glasses with thick black frames that were much too big for her and put them on to sign her name to the form.
She was also saying that 2008 is a year that's seen a lot of changes, with Obama being the Democratic nominee and Palin being the GOP VP nominee, and what with the flooding that happened recently, even though God had promised that it wouldn't.
All her furniture was covered in plastic, too.
The other lady was on oxygen and goes for dialysis, so she requested a ballot since she's disabled. She had just moved back from Georgia like a week ago to live with her daughter and help her and her granddaughter out, and she sat down with me to fill out her registration and absentee ballot forms despite the chaos that was happening with this one-and-a-half year old running around. I kept apologizing for having the forms take so long to fill out, and she was like, "No, thank you for coming here and helping me!"
Also, when I was talking with that one (black) security guard before the day started, he for some reason was telling us about how back when probation used to be on the 8th floor of the bank building (the building his store was in), Thursday used to be pedophile day, so you'd see all these pedophiles drifting through the building entrance or stopping through the party store, and some of them were teenagers who were both underage but had been fucking each other.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
N*DIGO Palin editorial: Sarah B.
N*DIGO: The Magapaper for the Urbane does not archive, so look at the whole of this great editorial by publisher Hermene Hartman before the link is (too sadly, too soon) broken:
The Republicans threw a monkey wrench in the presidential campaign.
Her name is Sarah Palin, the youngest and first female Governor of Alaska. She has upset the democrats so much so that she has become the focus of the presidential campaign...
Let’s put her in perspective.
She won the mayoral election with 616 votes. That’s a good Chicago community. She was the mayor of a town smaller than the average Chicago alderman’s ward. She is against abortion and gun control. She just recently got a passport and has traveled only to Canada and Mexico. On foreign affairs, she commented, she can view Russia from some parts of Alaska.
While some wonder about her foreign travel experiences, I wonder about her big city travel to places like Chicago, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. There is no evidence of urban visits...
Sarah Palin is in the race to do one thing, and that is to throw Barack Obama off his game. The campaign has become Palin vs. Obama.
The democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, did not take her on. And the voices of reason suggest Hillary Clinton should come forward. Please. Hillary should not be the pitbull for the simple reason that she is not running. Barack has got to get back to the campaign of McCain.
What will serve Palin well, as we have seen in her solo ABC interview, is her great media presence. It doesn’t matter what you say, it matters how you look and how you say it. She will be wild in a debate. She will unnerve. Her substance seems limited, and her experience is not what you are looking for in a V.P. However, she is not to be dismissed; she is to be taken quite seriously. Why? Real simple. She is a B.
That’s right she is the B word.
That is her job. Most people, particularly men, don’t know what to do with the B factor. She will absolutely take you off you mark, make you miss your point and cause an upset.
Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton or Geraldine Ferraro by a long shot. She can be a disaster, a distraction and create havoc for the campaign by changing its direction, which she has done. The senatorial men, Barack and Biden, will have to take their gentlemen kid gloves off and see Sarah the moose killer rather than the lady. She is an attack dog—a pitbull, if you please. She is a tough cookie.
Society has dummied down so much, where five years ago it would have been impossible for Sarah’s name to be placed in the nomination. But for today’s world, she is a likely candidate. Fast-talking (of little substance), cutie pie, media savvy is a winning formula. Think about it: Who we see on TV shows has become the candidate for vice president. Meet the Desperate Housewives, American Idol game show candidate.
I am hoping that the Democratic Obama forces can rise to the occasion to topple the lady of Alaska. The election is not in the bag. There is a dead heat statistical race. Although Barack is raising more money each month, the real question is, can he raise more votes? The crowds are showing up for Sarah. She is becoming a celebrity. Republican women are even angry that she won’t be invited to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show.
I just hope Sarah B campaigns on Chicago’s South Side and in Harlem and Watts. She would be the perfect debater for Lil’ Kim. And if you have to ask what the B stands for, you should go stand in the corner for the rest of the day, because that’s no lady running for vice president. The Republicans went and got a B, and she could win it for them. And then she would be a darling.
It seems like there's this whole philosophy of the bitch behind the editorial, which runs something like this --
Sarah Palin is a B.
Men can't handle a B.
Only a bigger B can handle a B.
Therefore,
Sarah Palin and Lil' Kim should go debate down in Harlem.
I love it, it's so right on and true once it's said and you hear it -- Lil' Kim would got all-out on Palin and call her on all her shit.
The Republicans threw a monkey wrench in the presidential campaign.
Her name is Sarah Palin, the youngest and first female Governor of Alaska. She has upset the democrats so much so that she has become the focus of the presidential campaign...
Let’s put her in perspective.
She won the mayoral election with 616 votes. That’s a good Chicago community. She was the mayor of a town smaller than the average Chicago alderman’s ward. She is against abortion and gun control. She just recently got a passport and has traveled only to Canada and Mexico. On foreign affairs, she commented, she can view Russia from some parts of Alaska.
While some wonder about her foreign travel experiences, I wonder about her big city travel to places like Chicago, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. There is no evidence of urban visits...
Sarah Palin is in the race to do one thing, and that is to throw Barack Obama off his game. The campaign has become Palin vs. Obama.
The democratic vice presidential nominee, Joe Biden, did not take her on. And the voices of reason suggest Hillary Clinton should come forward. Please. Hillary should not be the pitbull for the simple reason that she is not running. Barack has got to get back to the campaign of McCain.
What will serve Palin well, as we have seen in her solo ABC interview, is her great media presence. It doesn’t matter what you say, it matters how you look and how you say it. She will be wild in a debate. She will unnerve. Her substance seems limited, and her experience is not what you are looking for in a V.P. However, she is not to be dismissed; she is to be taken quite seriously. Why? Real simple. She is a B.
That’s right she is the B word.
That is her job. Most people, particularly men, don’t know what to do with the B factor. She will absolutely take you off you mark, make you miss your point and cause an upset.
Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton or Geraldine Ferraro by a long shot. She can be a disaster, a distraction and create havoc for the campaign by changing its direction, which she has done. The senatorial men, Barack and Biden, will have to take their gentlemen kid gloves off and see Sarah the moose killer rather than the lady. She is an attack dog—a pitbull, if you please. She is a tough cookie.
Society has dummied down so much, where five years ago it would have been impossible for Sarah’s name to be placed in the nomination. But for today’s world, she is a likely candidate. Fast-talking (of little substance), cutie pie, media savvy is a winning formula. Think about it: Who we see on TV shows has become the candidate for vice president. Meet the Desperate Housewives, American Idol game show candidate.
I am hoping that the Democratic Obama forces can rise to the occasion to topple the lady of Alaska. The election is not in the bag. There is a dead heat statistical race. Although Barack is raising more money each month, the real question is, can he raise more votes? The crowds are showing up for Sarah. She is becoming a celebrity. Republican women are even angry that she won’t be invited to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show.
I just hope Sarah B campaigns on Chicago’s South Side and in Harlem and Watts. She would be the perfect debater for Lil’ Kim. And if you have to ask what the B stands for, you should go stand in the corner for the rest of the day, because that’s no lady running for vice president. The Republicans went and got a B, and she could win it for them. And then she would be a darling.
It seems like there's this whole philosophy of the bitch behind the editorial, which runs something like this --
Sarah Palin is a B.
Men can't handle a B.
Only a bigger B can handle a B.
Therefore,
Sarah Palin and Lil' Kim should go debate down in Harlem.
I love it, it's so right on and true once it's said and you hear it -- Lil' Kim would got all-out on Palin and call her on all her shit.
FOOD II: Garbanzo beans.
This summer I was thinking how much I like garbanzo beans, but never make them, so I looked up on the net how you soak them, and so I've been soaking and cooking a huge batch of beans (like 2-2.5lbs dried) every week for recipes.
I've made hummus every weak, and I've discovered the trick is boil the beans longer so they're falling apart, since the water in them makes a smoother, nicer hummus, even better than when you put more tahini or olive oil in (which changes the taste).
I hand-mash my hummus, too, with my hands, to give it a rustic feel.
The first week I made a southwestern-type salad, by frying some hot red pepper in olive oil and then throwing in some red onions and corn kernels I had scraped off of a fresh cob and then chopped up tomatillos, and then putting the mix in vinegar to soak in the fridge till the beans were done boiling, at which point I mixed in the beans. That was very tasty.
The second and third weeks I've made an Italian-type salad with chopped up green beans and red pepper. The first week I fried the beans and red peppers but soaked them in too much vinegar for too long, and together with the beans the salad was too vinegar-y and lacking something. So, the next week I googled some recipes and found out that people put in green onions, so I did that and soaked the green bean-mixture in less vinegar before I added in the beans, and that turned out well. I also fried up some minced garlic in oil before slightly cooking the green beans and the peppers and the green onions, which I hadn't done the first week. It was good, only the red peppers didn't get as burned as the first week, which had been nice.
I am enjoying eating so many garbanzo beans. They are very tasty.
I've made hummus every weak, and I've discovered the trick is boil the beans longer so they're falling apart, since the water in them makes a smoother, nicer hummus, even better than when you put more tahini or olive oil in (which changes the taste).
I hand-mash my hummus, too, with my hands, to give it a rustic feel.
The first week I made a southwestern-type salad, by frying some hot red pepper in olive oil and then throwing in some red onions and corn kernels I had scraped off of a fresh cob and then chopped up tomatillos, and then putting the mix in vinegar to soak in the fridge till the beans were done boiling, at which point I mixed in the beans. That was very tasty.
The second and third weeks I've made an Italian-type salad with chopped up green beans and red pepper. The first week I fried the beans and red peppers but soaked them in too much vinegar for too long, and together with the beans the salad was too vinegar-y and lacking something. So, the next week I googled some recipes and found out that people put in green onions, so I did that and soaked the green bean-mixture in less vinegar before I added in the beans, and that turned out well. I also fried up some minced garlic in oil before slightly cooking the green beans and the peppers and the green onions, which I hadn't done the first week. It was good, only the red peppers didn't get as burned as the first week, which had been nice.
I am enjoying eating so many garbanzo beans. They are very tasty.
FOOD I: Soul food.
So last night me and my one (white) friend from Mississippi went back to that new soul food restaurant that opened up near the bike path like four or five weeks ago, and that I had found out about since the owner was at an intersection handing out flyers and invited me in for a sample of free bread pudding. We had gone down last week only to find the place is closed on Mondays, but last night was Tuesday, so it was indeed open when we came.
As soon as we walked in the door, the manager on staff who I had talked with the time I got the bread pudding was like, "Hey, how are you doing?", which was very nice, and she kind of gestured us over to the dining room and told us to sit down wherever. The place has a blues theme, so there's a lot of paintings of blues stuff on the walls, and blues and jazz playing softly on the stereo system, but since it's bistro-ish too, they have nice table cloths and these big wooden carve-outs "BON JOUR"s sitting on a shelf in the dining room.
My one (white) friend from Mississippi was hoping for corn bread to crumble in milk, but they didn't have any, but he was intrigued by the cubesteak on the menu, so he ordered that, and I ordered the turkey wing special; I know a lot of soul food places stock turkey legs, but this was something new, so I tried it.
(I was talking that very day to the [black] lady who cleans up the gym when I ran into her there, and when she asked me how I was doing, I told her great since I was meeting a friend for soul food, and she started telling me how she cooks macaroni and cheese but doesn't eat it, and the last time she was over at her sister's she made a pan up for her and her sister almost broke the plate because she slid it out of the oven and almost dropped it, she didn't expect the plate to be that heavy, there was so much cheese in it... She adds in soy milk and egg yolks, too, which she says makes it good. She also said that just like my friend she crumbles up her cornbread in milk, since she's done that since she was little, what's the point of stopping now.)
Anyhow, while we were waiting for our food, the owner/cook came out of the kitchen - they had like five or six tables full and take-out orders coming in - and he glanced over, saw me, and gave me a pat on the shoulder and was like, "Hey, you made it back," and then he shook my hand and my friend's and introduced himself to my friend, and then before he left, even though he wasn't our server, he was like, "And when you leave, just make sure you give the tip to me."
Then, like ten minutes later, the busboy kid brought out a slice of watermelon on a plate for us each, but we weren't sure if everyone got that with their meal (it wasn't on the menu), or if it was from the cook. But, it was good, and it tided us over till our meal.
The turkey wing when I got it was huge - it went from one end of the large dinner plate to the other, and it came over corn stuffing drizzled in gravy. The meat was so tender it fell off the bone as soon as I peeled the skin off. I got a side of mac and cheese (okay) and greens (they sucked!, too sweet), and the busboy had brought out some little cornmeal pancakes too, which I ate and were absolutely awesome.
My friend had gotten the cubesteak since he couldn't remember if he had ever had that cut of meat before, and though it was good - I tried some, I'll have it there as part of their breakfast special if I'm ever there for breakfast sometime - but he wasn't a fan since it was too tough, though he loved the rice and gravy, though the 'sugared sweets' (sweet potatoes) were so-so. My friend was actually envious of my turkey wing, and now I'm pissed since I would have swapped him meals if he had told me that, I thought both entrees were equally good.
Towards the end of our meal, too, the cook sent out some slices of sweet potato pie for us, on the house. They were good and smooth, with a nice crust, though a little over-spiced. They would be killer alone with hot coffee, though.
Finally, we left, though there was trouble with the bill. I had had a long day, and my friend had gotten change for his $20 and gave me $10, and for some reason I forgot I had to give my $20 to the register person, so we almost walked out on our bill, though they caught us in time. I hope they don't think it was purposeful, or that we were trying to be dicks. Though, we did leave a three-buck tip, and I had heard the owner be like, "Nothing, again!", when he was clearing a table near us while we were eating, so I take it they get stiffed a lot for some reason, who knows why.
As soon as we walked in the door, the manager on staff who I had talked with the time I got the bread pudding was like, "Hey, how are you doing?", which was very nice, and she kind of gestured us over to the dining room and told us to sit down wherever. The place has a blues theme, so there's a lot of paintings of blues stuff on the walls, and blues and jazz playing softly on the stereo system, but since it's bistro-ish too, they have nice table cloths and these big wooden carve-outs "BON JOUR"s sitting on a shelf in the dining room.
My one (white) friend from Mississippi was hoping for corn bread to crumble in milk, but they didn't have any, but he was intrigued by the cubesteak on the menu, so he ordered that, and I ordered the turkey wing special; I know a lot of soul food places stock turkey legs, but this was something new, so I tried it.
(I was talking that very day to the [black] lady who cleans up the gym when I ran into her there, and when she asked me how I was doing, I told her great since I was meeting a friend for soul food, and she started telling me how she cooks macaroni and cheese but doesn't eat it, and the last time she was over at her sister's she made a pan up for her and her sister almost broke the plate because she slid it out of the oven and almost dropped it, she didn't expect the plate to be that heavy, there was so much cheese in it... She adds in soy milk and egg yolks, too, which she says makes it good. She also said that just like my friend she crumbles up her cornbread in milk, since she's done that since she was little, what's the point of stopping now.)
Anyhow, while we were waiting for our food, the owner/cook came out of the kitchen - they had like five or six tables full and take-out orders coming in - and he glanced over, saw me, and gave me a pat on the shoulder and was like, "Hey, you made it back," and then he shook my hand and my friend's and introduced himself to my friend, and then before he left, even though he wasn't our server, he was like, "And when you leave, just make sure you give the tip to me."
Then, like ten minutes later, the busboy kid brought out a slice of watermelon on a plate for us each, but we weren't sure if everyone got that with their meal (it wasn't on the menu), or if it was from the cook. But, it was good, and it tided us over till our meal.
The turkey wing when I got it was huge - it went from one end of the large dinner plate to the other, and it came over corn stuffing drizzled in gravy. The meat was so tender it fell off the bone as soon as I peeled the skin off. I got a side of mac and cheese (okay) and greens (they sucked!, too sweet), and the busboy had brought out some little cornmeal pancakes too, which I ate and were absolutely awesome.
My friend had gotten the cubesteak since he couldn't remember if he had ever had that cut of meat before, and though it was good - I tried some, I'll have it there as part of their breakfast special if I'm ever there for breakfast sometime - but he wasn't a fan since it was too tough, though he loved the rice and gravy, though the 'sugared sweets' (sweet potatoes) were so-so. My friend was actually envious of my turkey wing, and now I'm pissed since I would have swapped him meals if he had told me that, I thought both entrees were equally good.
Towards the end of our meal, too, the cook sent out some slices of sweet potato pie for us, on the house. They were good and smooth, with a nice crust, though a little over-spiced. They would be killer alone with hot coffee, though.
Finally, we left, though there was trouble with the bill. I had had a long day, and my friend had gotten change for his $20 and gave me $10, and for some reason I forgot I had to give my $20 to the register person, so we almost walked out on our bill, though they caught us in time. I hope they don't think it was purposeful, or that we were trying to be dicks. Though, we did leave a three-buck tip, and I had heard the owner be like, "Nothing, again!", when he was clearing a table near us while we were eating, so I take it they get stiffed a lot for some reason, who knows why.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
So I went to volunteer in Gary again...
So on Saturday I went to Gary again to campaign for Obama with my one (white) neighbor who goes to law school who I had gone down there with during the primary season too. It was great to go with her, she's so very appreciative of how this campaign has let us just go down and walk around Gary and given us an entree into the community, though twice during this last time when she went to a house a kid answering turned around and yelled, "Mom, there's a white lady at the door!"
(That said, my one neighbor said her favorite part was how this one lady frantically answered the door with a phone on her shoulder and was like, "My friend just called and my broccoli's burning, can you hold on, I'll be right back?", and after the lady disappeared back into the kitchen for ten minutes, she came back to talk, and had brought my friend some sweet tea since she made her wait.)
Anyhow, we took the electric train down to Gary -- I thought the (black) train conductor was going to give us a free ride since we were in Obama gear, but he didn't, he just didn't come sell us tickets at first -- and since the office is now downtown and not on the outskirts in a strip mall, we got to get off at the downtown stop and walk over a few blocks to the office. There's really no businesses right downtown, and just empty, well-kept storefronts interspersed with some very nice lots with (black) people hanging around in them. Because of the train schedule, we got in like an hour early -- it was like 8:30am and we didn't really have to be there till 9:30am -- so we checked in at the office and then went over to "Eat Your Heart Out Tacos and Ribs" to get some coffee and maybe breakfast, only it was closed even though according to its schedule it should have been open, so the (black) security guy in the mini-mall pointed out an open liquor/drug store and we headed over there...
The security guard there ("Moses") was this nice and really chatty younger (black) guy with an earring, so we shot the shit with him about his hangover and how the corporate bailout was to protect the guys on the top -- he said it was because congresspeople had investments at stake, and then he added how President Bush was going to address the nation pretty soon, and he was like, "And when was the last time you saw the president up on a Saturday morning?" -- and after saying how people needed jobs since they worked at whatever anyways, the people across the street in the park were selling drugs were out there at 8am everyday just like they were going to work, and after when I had gotten my coffee and my friend her granola bar, he added that next time they would throw on some hotdogs and Polish sausage in the roller for us if we wanted since they usually only have them on weekdays, but then he immediately broke off talking since his friend who was like 300lbs and wearing a drapy khaki pantsuits and sunglasses and a straw hat marched in, and he yelled out "Biggie!" and went over to see his friend, who started doing a 'raise the roof' gesture as soon as his friend had yelled out his name.
Back at headquarters, a bus had just arrived -- busses filled with volunteers go every weekend from the end of one of the Chicago subway lines out to Iowa, Indiana and Michigan -- so the one older black lady from Gary who was wearing a pink baseball hat with a symbol of a hand making a peace sign, a heart, and a stylized version of Obama's head (=PEACE LOVE OBAMA) was in full force being like, "Sign in here, sweetheart" and "Oh no, you go over there, honey." Along with everyone else - like 90some people! - we got herded into a side room where they gave out canvassing instructions, and we got to admire other people's Obama-wear... A big thing now is these buttons that people get made where someone has a button where the bottom half is "FOR OBAMA" and the top half is blank so you can add in people's names in block letters - one lady had an "ERMA FOR OBAMA" button on, and another one a "BARBARA JEAN FOR OBAMA" one.
After I ate like two donuts - people brought donuts in, which was wonderful; I had one glazed, and one chocolate with sprinkles - me and my friend and this one retired guy from the area went out to register people; the focus of the campaign right now is to register people for the Oct. 6th deadline and so grow the voter pool, and then to have people vote absentee ballot to avoid problems at the polls on election day, which happen a lot. For like a morning and afternoon shift, we registered like 17 people and got like 6 or 7 to vote absentee, which was good.
(The guy was telling us that since the Republicans control the county government, they make it difficult for the black people in Gary to vote, too. He said early voting in person is at the county courthouse but it's a long drive, and they fought like heck to have a location in downtown Gary during the primaries and finally got one for the last two weeks before election week, and it was so successful that the county government isn't going to let it happen again. I told my mom this and she was pissed off. "That really happens?" she was like, and then she was like, "I think voting should be as easy as possible for people.")
Like always I was impressed by the level of civic engagement in Gary. This one huge (black) dude who answered the door was a precinct captain, and he told me not to bother with the list, he knows who was registered in the area and who wasn't, and told me to check out the two houses down on the other end of the block since one was a rental and the people might just have moved in, and the other was some weird people who never bother to register, though he's been getting on them to. Impressive too was the couple people I met who had told me that they had taken their kids and nieces and nephews who had just turned or were just turning 18 to go register to vote so they'd be set by the time of the election. In a way, maybe it's the city layout causing closeness, maybe it's the solidarity of the black community surfacing in voting Democratic, but whatever it is, just the sheer number of people who know about polls and polling places and what'd coming up election-wise and have known this and have been voting forever is just incredibly impressive.
Honestly, like my one (white) neighbor was saying, this Sarah Palin bullshit about small towns has these huge racial overtones to it, because small towns do tend to be white, so you're saying that the moral heart of America is white, which is bullshit, people could learn a lot by going to Gary to see the civic culture there, which is impressive.
(My one [white] neighbor was also saying how Sarah Palin's language of "choice" to describe her Down's Syndrome baby is weird, since according to her it shouldn't be a choice... She also said that if one of Obama's daughters got pregnant, that would be used to stigmatize the social breakdown of the black family, whereas with a white family like Sarah Palin's it's just something to be dealt with in-house and doesn't reflect bad on white people's families.)
Other than that, with canvassing, this one middle-aged dredded black dude at a house was already registered, but kept saying "God bless you" to me, for going and trying to register people.
Anyhow, back at the ranch, someone had brought in a huge tray of spaghetti at lunchtime, and I had some of that between shifts along with a breadstick (didn't touch the salad though), and when we got back after our second round of canvassing, someone had left out a box of Church's fried chicken and some mashed potatoes and gravy and some honey biscuits, which I had a bunch of, too, so I didn't even need to go into the lunch I had packed up and brought with me. These northwest Indiana Obama offices really are like a big black family barbecue, which I can be a part of and still have it not be all that weird, since his campaign has opened up space for that.
That was about all that happened at canvassing. I think next week I'll go to the Hammond/East Chicago office... During the primaries there was two offices, but there were some organizational problems and they collapsed them to one for the general elections, and some people in Gary said there were still some problems there, so I might go see what's up with that.
The last tidbit is that Saul Alinsky's ACORN group was registering voters all across Gary but somehow something was getting fucked up and no one was getting registered, so volunteers around the campaign office were wondering what the heck was up with that. My one (white) neighbor I went down to go campaign with said there's been all sorts of internal problems with that organization, but who knows, really.
(That said, my one neighbor said her favorite part was how this one lady frantically answered the door with a phone on her shoulder and was like, "My friend just called and my broccoli's burning, can you hold on, I'll be right back?", and after the lady disappeared back into the kitchen for ten minutes, she came back to talk, and had brought my friend some sweet tea since she made her wait.)
Anyhow, we took the electric train down to Gary -- I thought the (black) train conductor was going to give us a free ride since we were in Obama gear, but he didn't, he just didn't come sell us tickets at first -- and since the office is now downtown and not on the outskirts in a strip mall, we got to get off at the downtown stop and walk over a few blocks to the office. There's really no businesses right downtown, and just empty, well-kept storefronts interspersed with some very nice lots with (black) people hanging around in them. Because of the train schedule, we got in like an hour early -- it was like 8:30am and we didn't really have to be there till 9:30am -- so we checked in at the office and then went over to "Eat Your Heart Out Tacos and Ribs" to get some coffee and maybe breakfast, only it was closed even though according to its schedule it should have been open, so the (black) security guy in the mini-mall pointed out an open liquor/drug store and we headed over there...
The security guard there ("Moses") was this nice and really chatty younger (black) guy with an earring, so we shot the shit with him about his hangover and how the corporate bailout was to protect the guys on the top -- he said it was because congresspeople had investments at stake, and then he added how President Bush was going to address the nation pretty soon, and he was like, "And when was the last time you saw the president up on a Saturday morning?" -- and after saying how people needed jobs since they worked at whatever anyways, the people across the street in the park were selling drugs were out there at 8am everyday just like they were going to work, and after when I had gotten my coffee and my friend her granola bar, he added that next time they would throw on some hotdogs and Polish sausage in the roller for us if we wanted since they usually only have them on weekdays, but then he immediately broke off talking since his friend who was like 300lbs and wearing a drapy khaki pantsuits and sunglasses and a straw hat marched in, and he yelled out "Biggie!" and went over to see his friend, who started doing a 'raise the roof' gesture as soon as his friend had yelled out his name.
Back at headquarters, a bus had just arrived -- busses filled with volunteers go every weekend from the end of one of the Chicago subway lines out to Iowa, Indiana and Michigan -- so the one older black lady from Gary who was wearing a pink baseball hat with a symbol of a hand making a peace sign, a heart, and a stylized version of Obama's head (=PEACE LOVE OBAMA) was in full force being like, "Sign in here, sweetheart" and "Oh no, you go over there, honey." Along with everyone else - like 90some people! - we got herded into a side room where they gave out canvassing instructions, and we got to admire other people's Obama-wear... A big thing now is these buttons that people get made where someone has a button where the bottom half is "FOR OBAMA" and the top half is blank so you can add in people's names in block letters - one lady had an "ERMA FOR OBAMA" button on, and another one a "BARBARA JEAN FOR OBAMA" one.
After I ate like two donuts - people brought donuts in, which was wonderful; I had one glazed, and one chocolate with sprinkles - me and my friend and this one retired guy from the area went out to register people; the focus of the campaign right now is to register people for the Oct. 6th deadline and so grow the voter pool, and then to have people vote absentee ballot to avoid problems at the polls on election day, which happen a lot. For like a morning and afternoon shift, we registered like 17 people and got like 6 or 7 to vote absentee, which was good.
(The guy was telling us that since the Republicans control the county government, they make it difficult for the black people in Gary to vote, too. He said early voting in person is at the county courthouse but it's a long drive, and they fought like heck to have a location in downtown Gary during the primaries and finally got one for the last two weeks before election week, and it was so successful that the county government isn't going to let it happen again. I told my mom this and she was pissed off. "That really happens?" she was like, and then she was like, "I think voting should be as easy as possible for people.")
Like always I was impressed by the level of civic engagement in Gary. This one huge (black) dude who answered the door was a precinct captain, and he told me not to bother with the list, he knows who was registered in the area and who wasn't, and told me to check out the two houses down on the other end of the block since one was a rental and the people might just have moved in, and the other was some weird people who never bother to register, though he's been getting on them to. Impressive too was the couple people I met who had told me that they had taken their kids and nieces and nephews who had just turned or were just turning 18 to go register to vote so they'd be set by the time of the election. In a way, maybe it's the city layout causing closeness, maybe it's the solidarity of the black community surfacing in voting Democratic, but whatever it is, just the sheer number of people who know about polls and polling places and what'd coming up election-wise and have known this and have been voting forever is just incredibly impressive.
Honestly, like my one (white) neighbor was saying, this Sarah Palin bullshit about small towns has these huge racial overtones to it, because small towns do tend to be white, so you're saying that the moral heart of America is white, which is bullshit, people could learn a lot by going to Gary to see the civic culture there, which is impressive.
(My one [white] neighbor was also saying how Sarah Palin's language of "choice" to describe her Down's Syndrome baby is weird, since according to her it shouldn't be a choice... She also said that if one of Obama's daughters got pregnant, that would be used to stigmatize the social breakdown of the black family, whereas with a white family like Sarah Palin's it's just something to be dealt with in-house and doesn't reflect bad on white people's families.)
Other than that, with canvassing, this one middle-aged dredded black dude at a house was already registered, but kept saying "God bless you" to me, for going and trying to register people.
Anyhow, back at the ranch, someone had brought in a huge tray of spaghetti at lunchtime, and I had some of that between shifts along with a breadstick (didn't touch the salad though), and when we got back after our second round of canvassing, someone had left out a box of Church's fried chicken and some mashed potatoes and gravy and some honey biscuits, which I had a bunch of, too, so I didn't even need to go into the lunch I had packed up and brought with me. These northwest Indiana Obama offices really are like a big black family barbecue, which I can be a part of and still have it not be all that weird, since his campaign has opened up space for that.
That was about all that happened at canvassing. I think next week I'll go to the Hammond/East Chicago office... During the primaries there was two offices, but there were some organizational problems and they collapsed them to one for the general elections, and some people in Gary said there were still some problems there, so I might go see what's up with that.
The last tidbit is that Saul Alinsky's ACORN group was registering voters all across Gary but somehow something was getting fucked up and no one was getting registered, so volunteers around the campaign office were wondering what the heck was up with that. My one (white) neighbor I went down to go campaign with said there's been all sorts of internal problems with that organization, but who knows, really.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Testing / Email from my mother.
I proctored freshman math tests yesterday, and freshman language tests today. This morning I had the ancient Greek kids, and I told them to take an intro linguistics class if they wanted to continue on in Classics, since not doing that was a massive failure of most classicists, and it would chain them to dictionaries and grammars forever whereas they could otherwise be independent thinkers.
I also got e-mail from my mom today:
I took [your brother's dog] to a groomer here in [the town just south of us] to get a good shampooing. Have to leave her from 1-4. I almost went back to pick her up and nutz to the whole deal...........it was like leaving a kid at daycare. But the ladies at [the bakery] said the groomers were really good and have been in business for years. Still, I can't wait to pick her up. I bet she doesn't know what's happening. When we get home, maybe I'll stuff her full of treats and that will make up for the trauma. Oh yoy!
I think she and my dad should get a dog themselves, they like my brother's dog so much.
I also got e-mail from my mom today:
I took [your brother's dog] to a groomer here in [the town just south of us] to get a good shampooing. Have to leave her from 1-4. I almost went back to pick her up and nutz to the whole deal...........it was like leaving a kid at daycare. But the ladies at [the bakery] said the groomers were really good and have been in business for years. Still, I can't wait to pick her up. I bet she doesn't know what's happening. When we get home, maybe I'll stuff her full of treats and that will make up for the trauma. Oh yoy!
I think she and my dad should get a dog themselves, they like my brother's dog so much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
