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New York, 6:47 AM
Tue Dec 8
49 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/28/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Which I think is a bit snobbish. But that's what being a Top Chef is about, isn't it?
Years ago I was driving with some cousins through the hills and wilds of Donegal in Ireland. It was the US Thanksgiving Day, and the wee inn we stopped at was serving turkey in honour of that. It made me smile, and was delicious. Thanksgiving is the best American holiday, imho.
Of course, as lady of the house, I insist on strangling my own turkey. It's humane, and over quickly, before I hand it off to the scullery girl. It's all in the wrist, really. #magazines
10/27/09
I'm not sure if you're kidding about killing your own poultry, but if you are not jesting, I admire you greatly.
My Eastern-Euro grandma, may her precious soul rest in peace, raised chickens and turkeys and butchered them herself. Those birds lived happy lives, roamed vast expanses of garden and pecked at delicious grains and fallen apples all day long. Us kids gave them names and treated them like pets. When the axe inevitably fell, we stood at the elbow of our elders and watched the deed being done; watched them pluck the birds clean and cook them. Then we all ate them with joy and gratitude. Circle-of-life stuff, man! #magazines
10/27/09
10/27/09
No, I'm not going to cry about Native Americans on this, about Thanksgiving. I do my penance every time I hear "National Native News" on my local public radio. The latest dismal tally, reported in a singsongy voice, of how alcoholism and poverty and every ill is still the white man's fault.
I actually do have Native American friends- they actually call themselves "Indians" unironically. The Shinnecock reservation is directly opposite what was formerly Southampton College, where all Reservation occupants were entitled to a full college education- for free. Not a cent. As opposed to non-Res people I've known who paid through the nose for their degree. I'll save comment on the fact that an alarmingly low percentage of Res residents ever even bothered to get the free college degree across the road. But there it is.
No, I won't be guilted out of loving Thanksgiving. And I won't be guilted into thinking Native Americans are perpetual victims, in 2009. They're not, and it's insulting to them to say they are. Who on Earth is prejudiced somehow against Native Americans these days, as if it were the 19th century?
Maybe you think I am. But I'm not, just have no patience for the endless victimhood story well-meaning people romanticize and get melodramatic about. And don't call me "man". #magazines
10/27/09
10/27/09
But since you insist on turning this into a serious exchange, here's what I think: Working up righteous indignation against the privileges of Native Amers is moot, because there are barely any of them left. We (collective, historical "we") exterminated them. It's not unprecedented, but it is sad. Theirs was a rich and beautiful culture, proto-ecological, if you will, because they had developed such a wonderful belief system to honor the beasts they killed for food.
It's not like I was advocating boo-hooing over the plight of Native Americans, a people stripped of their land and their means of survival. ("When the buffalo stopped roaming the plains, the Native American culture died."--Joseph Campbell)
I respect your intellectual prowess and adore your writing style but sometimes you are just.. wrong.
Enough of this serious stuff, we need to have a good turkey dinner capped by a peace pipe and all will be good.. #magazines
10/27/09
Pass that peace pipe, love. #magazines
10/28/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
Franklin's Letter to His Daughter (excerpt)
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . .
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on." #magazines
10/27/09
"He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.." HAHAHAHA!
Here's a turkey breast with a generous dollop of cranberry sauce for you!
[Runs off to track down letter where Thomas Jefferson the Botanist defends cranberries against mulberries.] #magazines
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
LOL @ the passive-aggressive sabotage of the NYT writer who didn't clean up her quote so she sounds like a fool in print. #magazines
10/27/09
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10/27/09
@Smitros: Dana Cowin be a womyn. She's quite charming, too, when she doesn't mix up her verb conjugations. #magazines
10/27/09
10/27/09