2010: The Year that Was

I'll start with the biggest news of the past year. After 10 years of marriage, Mecca and I split up. We are still good friends and socialize with each other, so just in case you're debating whether or not to invite us both to the same party - don't worry about it.

(smile)

Of course, it is a big change for me. I am slowly re-learning bachelorhood. I'm sharing my new apartment with two furry roommates - Baci and Moshi.

The year was full of travel. I probably logged more than 5,000 miles by air and by land.

2010 brought some other significant milestones.

My baby niece Chela turned 1.

My nephew Jett turned 6; my first niece Allie turned 20. Wow. My dad turned 70. And my only grandparent - my grandma Alice - turned 90. I flew down to Florida in order to wish her Happy Birthday in person. It was one of the highlights of my year.

I spent Christmas with my folks in Denver. They are doing great. Under doctors orders, my dad has adopted a near-vegan diet. So we had to-furkey for Xmas dinner. It didn't taste too bad. It was about 95% brown rice and veggie stuffing and 5% tofu. For the first time in my life I beat both parents at Scrabble. Here's a tip, 'qi' - another spelling for 'chi' is a great word. So is 'qat' - another spelling for the leafy opiate 'khat.' Unfortunately, the mountains clogged with snow, preventing my big bro and his family from driving in from California.

2011 promises to be an exciting year. I will be doing a lot of traveling for work and play. And, Zeus-willing, I look forward to turning 44 this fall.

I wish everybody peace, prosperity and good health in 2011.

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Birthday Grandma

The woman my Aunt Gerry (pictured in the middle) affectionately described as "too ornery to die" turned 90 last week. In fact, this is a rare photo because grandma is actually smiling. Usually, grandma sports kind of a scowl or deadpan.

My grandmother has outlived her husband by 15 years, and her youngest daughter. She's lost a leg to diabetes and has developed a cancer on one of her eyelids. She recently had a bout with a bladder infection that almost killed her. Grandma didn't think she'd make it, so she wrote a letter to her children to tell them that she loves them, even though she doesn't always show it.

Grandma loves to gamble - whether it's bingo, scratch-off cards, lotto, slot machines. But she has a special soft spot for her grandchildren and great-grand children.

It was great to be able to hang out with her in Florida for a few days. We surprised her with our visit. One day we took her to the casino. I helped her feed $10 and $20 bills into the slot machines. And I cashed nearly $300 worth of tickets for her. It was great to listen to her cuss in her Cruzan accent and reminisce with my mom and my aunt and uncle about life back on St. Croix, U.S.V.I. Of course, the conversations inevitably turned to talk about neighbors, friends and family members who'd died.

Happy B-Day grandma, may you have many more.

Actions speak louder than verbs

In Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" he wrote a simple, 7-word, phrase:

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

I've tried to follow that as best as possible and have found it to be life-changing. It has helped me improve my physical health.

But, of course, there is more to life. And lately, I've become aware that I'm missing so much more. After some soul-searching I came up with a list/mantra to help guide me in the future. The list is in no order of importance:

dream

plan

travel

create

play

do

Uh, now that's just plain stupid

People who know me, know that I try to be diplomatic and non-judgemental about perspectives and points of view that differ from my own. I also have an aversion to snarky bloggers who heap loads of hate on people by saying things they'd never say to someone's face.

But I'm 42 now and I've come to a few conclusions that some things are just plain stupid and I'm not afraid to tell people who disagree with me that these things are stupid:

First, the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment, which too many people believe is God's justification to stockpile every gun ever made, was written at a time when the Government was still unstable and vulnerable, kind of like a baby turtle whose shell is still soft. It's stupid in the same way the book of Leviticus - and much of the Bible is stupid. For Christ's sake, we don't stone children to death who talk back to their parents and we don't need muskets at the ready to join up with the local militia and defend ourselves against a tyrannical local or foreign government. These ideas are out of date and now they're dangerous because paranoid idiots have adopted them as God's truth.

Church

Church is stupid. If you believe in the big 'g' God and feel like you have to be somewhere, at a specific time and perform a specific set of instructions (rituals), I think what you're doing is just plain stupid. And if your god requires you to do these things in order to get some reward at the end of your life, then your god is just plain stupid too.

Here's a list of some other really, really, stupid things I can think of off the top of my head: diet soda, fat free cheese, greeting cards for Halloween, situational comedies, ideological bumper stickers, buying and wearing expensive sports jerseys, equating President Obama with Hitler, equating the far left with the far right (the right is much worse, cuz they're armed to the teeth), denying man-made climate change, raw food-ism, etc.

No racists here.

OK, Mr. tea party protester, you say you're not a racist. And since I can't read what's really in your heart, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe your angry opposition to the president's health care plan is based on your fiscal conservatism.

So you must have seethed with rage when the Bush Administration and the majority Republican Congress passed the Medicare part D drug program and essentially wrote a blank check to fund the war in Iraq? One of your fellow fiscal conservatives, Judd Gregg (R-NH), said this about the Medicare part D drug program, "Things like the [Medicare] Part D drug program were truly a big mistake from the standpoint of fiscal policies. The Part D drug program alone added an $8 trillion unfunded liability to the federal books. If we were going to put that program on the books, we should have paid for it." And about that war in Iraq? Economist Joseph Stiglitz called the Iraq war a, "$3 trillion war."

That was probably when you first printed up that "Congress is enslaving our children with debt" sign. Yes?

Or maybe you're a civil liberties conservative who is concerned that Obama's Recovery Act and health care reforms border on totalitarianism -- that they endanger the freedoms guaranteed us under the Constitution? So, as a staunch advocate of personal liberty, you must have become positively apoplectic with anger when the Bush Administration/Republicans crafted and Congress passed the Patriot Act. You had to be 'mad as hell/not going to take it anymore' when the Bush Adminstration admitted to illegal wire taps and when the NSA admitted to monitoring private phone calls of American citizens. I have to imagine you were angry enough to punch a nun when you found out the U.S. detained and tortured terrorism suspects (including Jose Padilla - an American citizen) for years without being charged. And holy buckets, your ears had to be shooting steam when you discovered that Bush Administration officials instructed interrogators to use torture tactics that totalitarian regimes like the Soviets and the Nazis once used to elicit false confessions from prisoners.

Nope, you're not a racist. You're a true patriot.

I need to say this. But I don't know if it helps.

(Note: if you want to read this, but are confused, follow the link in the first sentence before reading further)

I went to the office the morning after it became apparent we were losing our potential baby. I didn’t know what else to do. I told my boss what had had happened, and she sent me home. She told me that it was necessary for me to be at home for my wife.

But when I got home my wife told me there was nothing I could do and that I might as well go back to work.

She was right.

I was not the one who was undergoing a miscarriage. I was not physically losing a part of my body down the toilet. What in the glorious fuck was I going to say or do to make her feel better?

So I did what any decent husband would do. I hung around the house, waiting to be needed, for anything – to be cried upon; to take her to the hospital; or run errands for her. I was utterly heartbroken for many reasons but mostly because I had to watch the woman I love suffer physically and emotionally, and be helpless to do a goddamned thing to help.

It turns out she did need me to run to the store for her. And I was happy to do so. I also installed a temporary screen in the front window and shoveled a bunch of wood chips onto a path next to the garage. I was trying to do anything to be useful. I needed to feel like I was good for something.

But I felt like that was not the time to share that particular sentiment with her. She didn’t need to hear about my biological/sociological male needs to feel useful. That was not going to take away her pain, her cramps, her blood and tears. Times like these make me think that a man can never really get any sympathy from a woman. And we don't deserve it.

That’s certainly the protocol for expectant fathers. I was preparing myself to undergo the ups and downs of pregnancy; to be the understanding partner who might feel the occasional verbal swipe from a hormonal wife. I was preparing myself for late night runs to the store for the foods she would crave. I was prepared to go perhaps months without sex or intimacy of any kind. And I was preparing not to complain about it – after all my inconveniences would be nothing compared to carrying and giving birth to a baby.

And I was more than willing to endure it. For one magical week, I was an expectant father. I felt like a king-stud and I walked with an extra swagger. Like my wife, I felt like we were going to have a boy. And that made me glow. I looked at my friends’ Facebook pics and videos of their sons with an entirely new outlook. I was going to be a fuckin’ daddy. I was going to have the opportunity to raise a boy and teach him stuff I knew about like girls, guitars, grilling steaks and a whole lot more.

We are experiencing a tragedy together, but honestly I don’t know if telling my wife about my disappointment and heartbreak right now will help her work it out. That’s why I decided to write this down. Maybe I’m wrong. I’m just trying to figure out what’s best for her, but I’m in unchartered waters. I don’t know any other men who’ve been where I am. Someone close to me and his wife had a miscarriage some years back, but they already had two kids at the time. And frankly I don’t know how much good it would do if I did know someone in a similar situation.

Heavy Metal Kittens

I did the guitars and sampled/cut/paste the drums.

scary!

Equating Bill Maher with Glenn Beck? Really?

Bill Maher says America is a stupid country. Glenn Beck calls President Obama a racist. A CNN segment calls them both 'Wingnuts of the Week.'

Really?

Maher's statement is blunt and broad. And because he doesn't say certain people in America are stupid, one could accuse him of being hyperbolic or too general. But is that equal to someone like Beck saying stupid shit like "Obama has a deep-seated hatred for white people?"

Nope.

The only fair comparison you can make between the two is that both Beck and Maher are entertainers who say things in a certain way in order to get a response.

But I see this little CNN segment as part of a larger problem with my colleagues in the media today. They seem to bend over backward to draw parallels to the current antics of right-wingers to those of the left. And they do so at the expense of the 'truth.'

The truth is there's a history of angry white mob violence in this country that is fueled by fear of non-white people taking over. And that is what is spurring the 'Tea-baggers,' and the 'birthers' and the yokels at these town hall meetings to wrap themselves in an American flag and scream, "I want my country back!"

Unfortunately, when my colleagues in the national press see people holding signs comparing Obama to Hitler or Stalin or Mao, they say, 'well people have some strong feelings about healthcare. There are people with strong feelings on the other side too."

That's bullshit and we as journalists should know better. I suspect there are some of us who do suspect there's a strong racist element to these protests, but are afraid to be labeled as taking a partisan stand in the issue.

But sometimes, you gotta call a spade a spade. Or a racist fuckhead who holds up her birth certificate at a rally and calls the president a Kenyan citizen - a racist fuckhead.

Which brings me back to Maher, who, while he's not a journalist, is not afraid to confront ugly truths. And one of them is - as these right-wing, rally troglodytes are showing us - there are a lot of stupid people in this country.

the omnivore's orgy

Last week, I feasted on a variety of critters from land and sea, raw and cooked, in one evening - all in small tasting portions, of course:

grilled octopus (pictured)
The following were eaten raw: scallop, oyster (on the half shell) and yellow or bluefin tuna.

Also had fried clams, beef short ribs, lamb sausage, lamb bacon, deep-fried lamb brain, lamb and other meat meatballs. By the time the duck confit wrapped in filo dough came about I was too full to try it.

Of course there were other veggie side dishes: beans, hummus, grilled 'squeaky' cheese with watermelon. I'm probably forgetting several things. Maybe that's because everything was washed down with several glasses of sparkling wine, a mojito and a bottle of beer. Perhaps the most unusual part of the story, is, the next day, I felt great.

The sea food came courtesy of the grand opening shin dig for a restaurant called Sea Change - in the Guthrie. After that we ventured down to Saffron, where chef Sameh treated us to some of his favorite food. And it was all good.

Such is the life of the husband of a food writer. Before I met her, I probably would never had tried half the stuff I ate that night. Life tastes so much better with you, baby. Thanks.

"Never been there before" lunch week continues...

The top photo is a "german sausage" from the German Hot Dog Company. It's located right next door to Falafel King in the TCF skyway area. Due to my predilection for the crispy, deep-fried balls of joy, I'd never ventured over to the little hot dog joint. The first thing you notice about the German Hot Dog Company, is that it's run by two Asian women. Such is the nature of the great ethnic salad bowl which we call America. The sausage was very, very tasty. Unfortunately, in my haste to get back to work, I forgot to secure some ketchup and mustard. But the onions were juicy and sweet and were almost good enough to make up for the lack of liquid condiments.

On Wednesday I ventured down to Cosi in the IDS Center. They apparently focus on the Triple S lunch formula: soup, sandwich, salad. And from my limited exposure, it looks like they do a decent job. I grabbed one of my favorite sandwiches, the caprese. Although at Cosi they call it the BMT (basil, mozzarella and tomato). The flatbread was crispy on the outside and flavorful. The tomatoes were actually decent, as were the B and the M. I'll go back there.

I've never been there before

I've decided to keep the lunch week theme going, but this time I'll use a geographic, rather than food-type basis. It's easy to get stuck in a rut or routine when foraging for sustenance in this vast mountain-range of skyscrapers. So I got it in my head that I should focus on places where I've never eaten before.

First stop: Sushi Dynasty

For the first day of the new theme, I stopped at the first place I've never been to. I walked past Taco Bell, Cousins subs, Royal Orchid, a Subway (a chain which I've likened to violent ass-rape in a past post), Taco John's, Zen Box, Potbelly, and Allie's Deli before I saw this hole-in-the-wall instant sushi place.

I got a couple combos, checking closely to make sure they actually contained at least some raw fish. You have to be careful that someone isn't sneaking smoked salmon into their rolls and making them look like tuna. I'm sorry but getting smoked salmon in a roll when you expect tuna is like a kick in the taint. After the pain goes away, you're just angry.

Luckily there was raw tuna in these rolls, but unlike my favorite skyway sushi joint Tensuke (now Sushi-Do), they mince the fish. Which I think is a blatant attempt to hide poorer quality tuna. No, I don't think they're trying to poison people (most sushi tuna is frozen before it gets here anyway, killing the potential nasty bits), but part of the appeal of sushi is the presentation. And minced fish in a spicy tuna roll, doesn't look good.

I also had some eel rolls and california rolls (they help fill me up). Both left me going, "meh."

Meatless Lunch Week: Last Day

Work gets in the way of lunch sometimes. That was the case on Friday. I was rushing around town covering an Obama cabinet official's visit to Minneapolis and couldn't grab lunch until after 2 p.m.

Lucky for me Torby's Pizza lowers the price of their slices after 2 p.m. I was able to grab a slice of veggie and a slice of cheese for just more that 5 bones with tax.

Torby's is decent pizza. Although sometimes, especially after 2 p.m., the pizza you get looks like it should be placed in a 'factory seconds' bin. There's been a few occasions where I've gotten back to the office and just as I'm about to shove the slice into my mouth, I notice that parts of the crust have been charred beyond recognition. A more disciplined person would just walk back to the joint and ask for a new piece. I'm usually too hungry and just shave off as much of the edible upper layer of the crust as I can.

A hamster in the lentils

heh, heh, heh, CLASSIC

Meatless Lunch Day 4

Curried lentil soup w/ whole wheat baguette

from Au bon pain

There are three or four of these joints near me downtown. I frequent them more often during soup season (winter). But there are times during the summer when I have to grab a bowl of the curried lentil soup. It's their best liquid food offering and I really like it. Some of their soups taste like paste, so you really need to doctor them up with lots of salt, pepper or sriracha. This soup actually has flavor and usually only needs a splash of hot sauce to complete it. The medium bowl and bread is only $5.17. The baguettes are usually pretty fresh and tasty.

Meatless lunch day 3

This is the veggie curry, with a side of steamed veg from Zen Box. It is probably the best curry I've had outside Namaste Cafe. It's a hearty and elegant curry; well-seasoned and smooth. And it's filling. Sometimes, I don't finish the whole bowl. However, you know how it goes, an hour or two later, I'm hungry again.

If you can't go all the way veg with this one, they do offer the curry with a deep-fried, cheese filled pork chop on top. I'm not lying.

It's vegetarian, but not exactly health food

King size falafel w/fries from Falafel King

You can pat yourself on the back after eating this meal because it doesn't require the death of an animal. But don't fool yourself into thinking this is some kind of health food. There's deep-frying involved in this dish. The lovely balls of herbed bean paste are cooked crispy in a fryolater. You can get this dish with a side of rice instead of french fries, but don't bother. I've given up on it. The rice is so bland and overcooked, you'd get better flavor from grated styrofoam.

When the falafel are fresh, they are devine. But when they've sat a while in the steam table, they are cold, dense and mealy.

Robert Strange McNamara...

...was a complex man. He had some mighty big regrets in his day, especially escalating the Vietnam war. A few years ago I watched this documentary "Fog of War" in which the former Secretary of Defense recalls some of the big events of his long life. For me, the above clip from the movie stood out the most. In it, McNamara explains how the U.S. backed down from the brink of nuclear war with the Soviets by understanding our 'enemy.' The Soviet leader at the time was Nikita Kruschev. As you listen to what they say about him, imagine if Kruschev was Saddam Hussein.

Sadly the same advice given to Pres. Kennedy was not given to Pres. (W)Bush. Or, maybe Bush wouldn't have followed it. Yeah, he probably wouldn't have.

Meatless lunch week

It's lunch time again. And I can still feel last night's spicy meatball sub trundling through my colon. So I thought it might be appropriate to dedicate this week's adventure in lunch blogging to those dishes that are meatless. And yes, fish and seafood are included.

I'm not giving up on meat. However, Mecca and Michael Pollan have convinced me to limit my meat consumption and to eat only naturally raised and humanely slaughtered animals. And I've already taken that to heart and stomach. It is clearly more than just a health decision. There are moral and environmental factors involved which I will not go into detail on.

I regularly eat two to three meatless lunches per week. When I do eat meat for lunch it's usually meat-lite. I opt for turkey sandwiches, a slice of pepperoni pizza (i even pick off some of the pepperoni because some places just put too many on), a Chipotle burrito with chicken or the weekly sushi splurge. On a rare occasion I'll get something more meat heavy like a gyro from Falafel King.

For the first day of meatless lunch week, I chose a favorite.

Yellow curry with tofu and white rice (pictured above).

When they see me approach the steam tables, the identical twins who run the Royal Orchid in the skyway say, "the usual for you today?"

This is a substantial meal. I often can't finish it. The yellow curry is creamy. The hunks of skin-on potatoes and stewed carrots are weighty. You have to cut them with a knife. The tofu pieces are meaty and hold the flavor of the sauce. Royal Orchid also serves a side of steamed carrots, cabbage and broccoli on the side. Thankfully, the veg is nice and firm, not overcooked. I top it all off with a few squirts of sriracha chili sauce.

You may be wondering about the combination of white rice and potatoes. 'Aren't refined carbohydrates and starches evil?' Well, asian cultures have been eating white rice and potatoes for thousands of years without their folks keeling over from diabetes. I'm no nutritionist, but I suspect that white rice and potatoes combined with fat - like from animals - is more responsible for obesity, than just the carbs and starches with vegetables.

But really, I eat this dish once a week because it just tastes good.

You're lucky to be an American, act like it

Yesterday, I was lounging poolside with my friends Kim and Eric out at their Bloomington estate. As I sipped my 'beer-garita' and dipped my toes in the cool water, I reflected on my good fortune. A lot of acts of man and nature, good and evil and just plain friggin' chance got me to where I am today.

As an African American, obviously, some of my ancestors were brought here against their will. The Atlantic slave trade was one of the greatest evils committed by humans. But I have to look at the odds. My people could have easily been among the scores of millions of Africans who lost their lives.

Had my people stayed in west Africa, they could have perished in civil wars or died from a very curable disease - and I would have never made it here. Lets be real. America has not been the most hospitable place for African Americans. But considering the state of most African countries right now, I'd much rather live here than in the Motherland.

Face it if you're a natural citizen, you're here because a parent or some other ancestor came here. There are other cool countries out there, for sure. And on those days when I write out a big check to Fairview Hospitals, I yearn to live somewhere with single payer or (i'll say it) socialized medicine. But for a lot of reasons, if you were born here, you're in the top 98th percentile of good places to live. Really. You kinda won the lottery.

Unfortunately, too many of us natural citizens act like we had something to do with this. And we're proud of it.

Personally, I feel more lucky to be an American than I am proud. I really think there's too much pride in America right now. And it's lead to some pretty shitty behaviors, ie: invading Iraq, torturing suspected terrorists, and so forth.

So on this Fourth of July, think of how fortunate you are to be an American. Maybe we'd be doing a little better if more Americans started acting like they've been given a gift, instead of an entitlement.

OK, I'm getting off the soapbox and back on the couch now.

Happy Fourth of July everybody....

Turkey Sandwich Week Day 4

Thursday: Brothers Deli

This is the turkey melt from Brothers Deli. If you other so-called turkey sandwiches can hear my voice, take note. Here's what you should know. This sandwich is absolutely delightful. It is polite and thoughtful and I'm sure if it had a mother it would call it everyday.

The turkey is thickly sliced like it was carved off the bird. The dark rye bread (you should try this bread) is lightly toasted. The cheese, perfectly melted. The tomatoes taste like they're supposed to be there and are not an afterthought. And, they top it all off with a zesty, tasty mayo-like sauce.

Mozeltoff!