Different Strokes for Different Folks

What do you see looking at this picture?

A lot of folks ... alright, alright a lot of folks on huffingtonpost.com expressed outrage at Michelle's general appearance as she left her daughter's school after a parent-teacher meeting last friday. Seeing the First Lady-Elect (is that the right way to address her? Will January 20th come by already?!) in sweats was just wrong I mean she is supposed to be the Jackie O of our times! You could just hear the collective sigh of betrayal. For me I felt Michelle was dressed appropriately considering where she was going. If she showed up at state dinner in sweats ehen even I would be up in arms. We all know though that Michelle cleans up very very nicely. I am guessing these people were reacting to a combination of recent Michelle sightings; her appearance on election day at the polls with her family (nothing wrong with her appearance in my opinion), the dress she chose for the Grant Park rally on election night (wasn't really feeling that outfit) this whole sweats and baseball cap get-up proved to be the final straw that broke the camels back so to say. Rather than looking frumpy, Michelle looks to me like a woman who has a family and a life, kinda like an every woman. She looks like she got up early to ready her young family for the day ahead. She probably made them a hot breakfast, packed lunches, found missing socks and scarves, loaded the washer, looked through homework before running the kids to school. She then probably ran a couple of errands (she has been away from home for some time) before her scheduled parent-teacher conference. I don't see food stains on her clothes, and the SS people around her are not holding their noses (indicative of an unwashed state). My point she looks like a normal woman going about her life as a mother and wife.


I see something totally different though when I look at this picture. I see the President-Elect and his wife sending a very important message here, responsibility. This man is the President-Elect, surely he has more important things to do other than "wasting time" attending a parent teacher conference I mean isn't that "a woman's job"? Apparently not, seeing that Michelle did not climb on top of herself and get herself pregnant. He appears to be sending a strong message to the African American community, the male and female components of that community alike, a continuation of his Fathers Day speech (the one that moved Jesse Jackson to mull the possibility of a change in profession - Nutcracker!) - "You don't have an excuse to shirk your responsibilities", "Look at me" he seems to be saying, "I am the president-elect, and I am attending a parent teacher conference. Are you more important than me? Busier perhaps? If I can do it so can you!"

At this point Barack seems to have it all, dream job, cute-as-a-button kids, an intelligent, accomplished wife (who also understands the importance of dressing for your body type), good will of the entire free world, a fashionable body type (didn't he look fabulous in his custom Hart Schaffner Marx suit as he accepted the democratic presidential nomination?) While understanding the importance of investing in your family (I am the product of a similar investment by my mother), and appreciating Michelle's desire to not be involved in policy decisions in the Obama administration I would like to see her define a new meaning for the female version of having it all. I don't know exactly what it is I would like to see her do, I do know I would like to see her be ... something (!) as well as Mom-in-Chief!

Moin-Moin Recipe

'Equipment' list















Blender
Plastic Bowl
Plastic Colander
Measuring Cup
Wooden Spoon
Cooking Spoon
Cooking Foil
Baking Dish

Ingredient List















1 Cup Black Eyed Beans (not the group!)
1/2 Medium Red Bell Pepper
1/3 Medium Onion
1 Habanero Pepper
3 Hard Boiled Eggs*
1 Medium Mackerel*
1 1/2 Spoons of Oil
Knorr Cubes (or your preferred seasoning cube)
Salt to taste

*You can substitute corned beef, liver, stock fish, etc

Preparation Time - 1 Hr

Cooking Time - 45mins to 1Hr


1. Boil the eggs (it takes 15 mins to hard boil eggs) and cook the fish. The fish should take like 10 - 15 mins to boil. I usually boil with chopped onions and salt. Set aside to cool.

2. Soak the beans in cold water for about 5 mins, put the kettle on to boil.







3. Put half of the soaked beans in the blender cup, cover with water. If your blender has a pulse button blend the beans on pulse 5-10 times for like 10 secs each pulse. If not you are a sharp person, figure it out.

4. Empty contents of blender cup into plastic bowl, use more water if needed to get everything in the cup into the plastic bowl.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other half of the soaked beans.
6. Place your colander in clean sink, fill bowl with beans mixture with water. Pour water through colander. Notice that the skin of the beans ends up in the colander while your 'naked' beans are in the bottom of the bowl in your hand. Repeat till all the skin is in the colander. Notice that you have some 'naked' beans in the colander. Many a house girl has chopped slaps etc for throwing away the skin in the colander without picking out the good beans. Do whatever you like though, this is your show.

7. Notice also that there are some 'clothed' beans in the bowl. Pick them out, you can manually remove the skin by rubbing the seed between you fingers. Again many a house girl ...

8. Once you have picked the beans clean, divide it into two parts, add the habanero, bell pepper and onion. Grind the beans with just enough water to avoid blowing the motor on your grinder. The thicker you grind the beans, the more likely you are to get a nice smooth paste. Set aside the beans paste in the fridge.













9. Chop eggs up into quarters, debone the fish. Turn on the oven, gas mark 350 degrees.

10. Melt your seasoning cubes in a bowl by adding a bit of the boiling water. Mix throughly with a spoon. Add the mixture to the beans paste (which you have of course retrieved from the fridge). Add the oil and mix throughly. Add salt to taste. Your mixture should not be too thick nor to watery. I usually don't need to add water to my mixture apart from what I added during the grinding process. If you think your mixture is too thick you can water or fish stock (from the mackerel you boiled earlier)

You know how when your mum would make moinmoin and none of all the egg/fish/corned beef she added would end up in that particular wrap you where served? Found a solution to that annoying issue.

11. Pour mixture into baking dish. With your fingers crumble the fish onto the mixture, covering the total surface evenly. Use your spoon to fold in the fish. Place the egg quarters in the beans mixture as well.

12. Cover the baking pan with cooking foil and place in the preheated oven.
Moin-Moin is ready when mixture is set and firm to the touch.

13. Remove moin-moin from the oven and leave to 'breath' for like 30 mins. Serve with ice cold garri, enjoy.

The price of rice ...

I just got off the phone with Princess, a 'kongo' of 'aroso' rice is now N500 up 150%.

I like it!

So as usual iTunes prompted me to install its latest version this evening and as usual I made to ignore the prompt (nothing against iTunes, everything against doing anything that will require a reboot of my computer; I HATE rebooting my computer). Then I noticed something, this prompt listed Safari 3.1. A Windows version of the Apple browser? (I am so last year, I know) this I have got to see. The required reboot afterwards aside, I am loving the browser so far.

It turns out ...

... Moses was high on drugs! (according to an Israeli researcher) news.yahoo.com

Subliminal Learning?

I woke up yesterday to the news of this New York Times article. Apparently McCain may or may not have had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist. He may or may not have written letters to the govt on behalf of the lobbyists client as a result of the alleged romantic involvement. The alleged relationship may or may not have occurred some 10 years ago while McCain was 61 and she 30. Apparently the NYT had been investigating this report for awhile and had agonized internally as to whether or not to publish the 'facts'. Eventually the fear of being out-scooped forced their hand. I found it interesting, the whole article I mean especially since the very same NYT endorsed McCain just before the New York Primaries. However, delving into the whole endorsement/expose angle is out of the scope of this post. Watching the McCain press conference from Toledo yesterday was like de ja vu; a red faced McCain denied allegations at a press conference as his stoic wife 'stood' by her man. Of course there was no escaping this 'breaking news' and at some time during they day there was a discussion about it on NPR. I listened with half an ear and heard the phrase 'The Keating Five' more than once. Hmm ... I wonder what that is I should Google that. I had hardly formed the thought when it was quickly filed under 'investigate when I have grown a 3rd arm'. My mind quickly wandered on to other things.

I am currently reading "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" by Hernando de Soto, and decided to update the "Currently Reading" section of my blog (No it didn't take me a year to finish "Half of a Yellow Sun", I have just been lazy, hiss!). Since I am updating why not add a "What I will be reading next" section? (Who cares?) I currently have "God is not Great" in the queue so I went to amazon to check I had the right title, right author, spelling etc. Amazon has a "others who bought this also bought this" section which I glanced at and noted that Chris had also written a book about Mother Theresa titled "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice" which I clicked on with a straight face. I learned from the review that she had received $1.25 M in charitable donations from a certain Charles Keating in the 80's and when Keating faced embezzlement charges in the 90's had written a letter to Judge Lance Ito asking him to temper justice with mercy. (I loved the response of the LA DA, but that is also out of the scope of this post). Hmm ... I wonder if these letters are in the public domain ... let me rephrase that, I wonder if these letters are on the Internet. I quickly googled Mother Theresa and learned a little about Charles Keating. Keating (why is this name familiar?) was the CEO of some real estate firm which then bought some savings and loans company and then went bankrupt with investors losing about $285 million. Hang on, shouldn't these funds have been federally insured? Yes they should have but the depositors held securities backed by the parent company of the savings and loans not the savings and loans itself ergo 21,000 elderly depositors are royally screwed out of their life savings. Keating blamed the federal regulators for the collapse of the bank. The govt in turn looked inward and accused five senators of improperly aiding Keating. How could Mother Theresa (with a steady hand and a clear eye) write a letter asking for leniency on behalf of this man? Sigh. I guess this is why I am me and she is on the fast track to canonization. Who are these five senators anyway? Well what do you know, John McCain is one of them. Wait a minute haven't I heard the name Keating today ... OMG! Keating Five!!! Thankfully I have not grown a third arm and since I am not preparing for a Sports Illustrated photo shoot a la Mrs Clemens and the ongoing Clemens-HGH soap opera, I am not in any immediate danger of growing one.

On campaign theme songs ...

If one more person sends me the link to the Will.I.Am "Yes We Can" song, I am going to go to amazon.com and buy this! The first (and only time) I listened to the song, I felt the idea to set Obama's New Hampshire(?) speech to music was a nice one. Although I found the 'We are the World' thing a bit chaotic, I felt the effort deserved an 'A' for achieving its (perceived) goal; tug at your heart strings ,(for those people equipped with working ones) make you get out and vote for Obama. I wondered if this song would be played at Obama events going forward. I am thinking so, judging from this picture ...

I have never been to an Obama event so I don't know what type of music is played. I do recall reading somewhere that he said he liked rap music. I guess this explains why he walked out to Jay-Z's "99 Problems" after winning the Iowa caucuses. I would like to suggest another song (in case anyone is reading this) That one time I saw/listened to the Will.i.am song, the "Yes We Can" punctuation used by Obama seemed so familiar, where have I heard this phrase before o ... Aha! The Pointer Sisters had a hit with "Yes We Can" on the their self titled debut album in 1973 and the lyrics are much better than those of "99 Problems" ...

Now's the time for all good men
to get together with one another.
We got to iron out our problems
and iron out our quarrels
and try to live as brothers.
And try to find a piece of land
without stepping on one another.
And do respect the women of the world.
Remember you all have mothers.
We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna get together we can work it out.

And we gotta take care of all the children,
the little children of the world.
'cause they're our strongest hope for the future,
the little bitty boys and girls.

We got to make this land a better land
than the world in which we live.
And we got to help each man be a better man
with the kindness that we give.
I know we can make it.
I know darn well we can work it out.
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
yes we can can, why can't we?
If we wanna, yes we can can.

P.S. Harry Connick Jr also covered this song on his 2007 album 'Oh , My Nola' his tribute to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina. I wondered why the song was on the album, after all The Pointer Sisters were not from New Orleans (Oakland California is where they hail from). I assumed it was because of the lyrics, then while researching the post (yes, yes) I found out the song was written by Allen Toussaint. A very influential figure in the New Orleans R&B scene. There you go!

2008 Endorsement

I do not know when it happened, well thats a lie, I recall the exact moment. It was a Time magazine cover (I believe) it had the picture of Dukakis and Bush Snr in '88 both running for the office of the president of the United States. I took one look at Bush Snr and elected to side with the less creased, dark-haired, bushy-browed Dukakis. I will admit that I have employed this method ever since without fail except for 2004 when I rooted for Kerry. Bush Jnr in my opinion was the better looking of the pair but I couldn't stand his accent, and I felt he had made a mess of the whole Iraq situation. Plus I was still smarting from the 2000 elections. I began to worry (when launching presidential exploratory committees became all the rage last year) that my endorsement strategy might not hold up. After the dust settled, I was glad to see that a couple of good looking candidates emerged notable among them are John Edwards and Mitt Romney (who strangly evokes for me memories of Roger Ramjet). Truth be told if Edwards had emerged the Democratic nominee and Romney the Republican nominee I don't know what I would have done (there is a God!) Now that the candidates remaining in the race on the Democratic side are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (listed in order of last names) and on the Republican side Mike Hukabee, Ron Paul and John McCain (listed in descending order of 'fineness') I think it is safe to say that I will be endorsing the democratic candidate in 2008. A tall thin man can either be nerdy or sexy. Obama swings the pendulum in the sexy direction, with his loose limbed gait and his smokers lips which add just the right touch now if only I could determine if he was bow-legged ... For Hillary, the Republicans would have to come up to her level and even in that bumble bee-esque outfit she wore in New Hampshire(?) none of them can hold a candle to her (even if they hired Giuliani's stylist!)

Spanish, Kennedy style

Ted Kennedy 'speaking' Spanish at a rally for Obama in East LA



It is interesting to note that Ted Kennedy was kicked out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating on his Spanish exam. Listening to this ... speech, I can understand why!

Grammy Nominations

Interesting, I just realised that Barack Obama is up for his second grammy in the "Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Story Telling)" category for his book "The Audacity Of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream". In the same category Bill Clinton is up for his third (I think) grammy for his book "Giving: How Each Of Us Can Change The World". I can't wait to read the blogs on Monday!

Grammy Nominees - Category 79 grammy.com