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Tuesday, January 20

Barack Obama's Face

My son is in kindergarten this year, and I am continually fascinated at how much he learns each day and how articulate he can be in expressing himself. Sometimes he makes me turn my head so fast at what he’s saying that I should be wearing a neck brace. This post may not be much, and may need polishing, but I wanted to get this out right NOW!

Now, I’m not one to get into politics and to rant and rave about which candidate is better and who’s not this and who is that. Although I am a bit right of center rather than left (as you can probably tell from my blog) to me, it’s all about the issues rather than the partisan politics.

My son’s school held a mock election on Election Day, as many schools did. Barack Obama won, 200-18 votes. I asked my young one why he voted for Barack Obama and he told me simply, “Because he has a cool name.” I thought that was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. (Maybe we should all vote like that and see what happens).

Saturday night, as he was undressing for bed, he suddenly said to me “Barack Obama has a brown face.” What? I said….and he repeated for me “Barack Obama has a brown face…..like mine.” I sat back in my chair, put my pen down and said to him, “That’s right, he does.” Inside I was thinking what an impact this presidential race has on the young children. My son now can truly believe that a man with a brown face like his can run for PRESIDENT! It does not matter about the politics, who’s right, or who’s wrong, it’s about the possibilities that Barack Obama presents to black children of America, and especially to my young black male.

Staggering, isn’t it?

Will Cook for Sex

I decided to revive this blogspot blog as there were so many visitors here and I didn't want to have you readers clicking all over the place. These posts won't be as up to date as the ones on http://black-domestic-goddess.com but it'll keep you in the loop!

Happy reading!


Well, of course the title is catchy, right? I was fortunate enough to win Will Cook for Sex: A Guy's Guide to Cooking (along with its companion book, Will Mix for Sex: Twenty-one Classic Cocktails to Set the Mood
and apron and a corkscrew) from The Recipe Box radio show. Being a Betty Crocker type of cook – traditional and reliable, I was interested to see how the other half lives – a cookbook written by a man.

Ok, the book was not for me, I know, it was for my husband, but I took a peek inside. What I liked best about the book were the large pictures. Granted, this book was written for a man who wants to impress a date or two, but the pictures were still wonderful. In addition, I also liked the way Rocky Fino, the author, listed the ingredients, then told you how much of each you needed, i.e. flour – 1 tablespoon, cilantro – about 1/3 cup. I think it helps a lot to have a overview of what you need for a recipe before they get into measurements.

Onto the food. My husband first prepared the chocolate soufflé for me. Now, I love chocolate, but it has to be good, rich chocolate….I won’t eat just any chocolate. These soufflés came out perfect! Not only did they have a wonderful aroma while baking, but they had an amazing gooey chocolate pudding center when they were done. Best when served with ice cream of course, but being a woman of a certain age, I went for the plain soufflé. And it was simply delicious. The children also enjoyed licking the batter!

The next dish was the Shrimp and Shreds salad which was bacon, iceberg lettuce, shrimp, cilantro, avocado and cherry tomatoes. I could have eaten the entire salad bowl of that stuff. The dressing that shrimpandshreds1went along with it was simply divine and to boot, was a cool shade of green from the cilantro. I never was a big fan of avocado, but in this salad, avocado was king!

The recipes are simple to put together and don’t require any special equipment, making it ideal for your man, hubby, boyfriend, significant other or whatever you call him, to get cooking in the kitchen. Makes a great gift for any food lover and highly recommended.

Saturday, December 20

The Mom Song

I first heard and saw this video at a MOPS meeting, and I loved it. Now, this new version with the "lyrics" really bring home what we say as moms all day!

Enjoy!

The Mom Song- LIVE from Northland Video on Vimeo.

Sunday, March 30

We're Moving! See Below for new site.

Loyal readers, we are moving to a new spot with new hosting. The blog will still be located here, but will be updates at www.black-domestic-goddess.com. Please check us out over there.

Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!

Friday, March 28

In the Middle with Barack Obama and the duality of black folk

Barack Obama and the dual souls of Black Folk

First of all, the goddess is not “up” on politics, world history or physics. Don’t expect her to enter into a debate about the Iraq War. This is the woman who thought the Hanoi Hilton was a real hotel, ok? I’m not ashamed to admit my ignorance about certain events, but I do know how to change a two prong outlet to a three prong with the grounding wire, so back off my political ignorance!

This is the first time I have taken time out of my very busy day (see preceding posts) to actually think about Barack Obama and the effect his campaign is having on America’s conscience. Let me first say that I did like Mr.Obama, but was truly put off by his wife’s comments about ‘this is the first time I was proud of my country’. Then the comments by the pastor – while some of his comments may have some truth (who can deny the horrible Tuskegee experiments, Scottsboro Nine, Emmet Till, Bull Connor and his dogs, the Little Rock Nine, ugh, must I go on?) let’s just say that while I do believe the CIA did help to incite riots during those tumultuous times, I don’t believe that the ‘white man’ invented AIDS to kill the ‘black man’. Some black folks are killing themselves w/out the help of the white man….and many of the medical personnel involved in the Tuskegee experiments were black. Just as some Jewish people were involved in the holocaust – no one race can be held blameless for the trouble in this world. Shoot, I LOVE America despite its faults – I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else. (Do you know what the bath tissue is like in European countries – no Scott tissue, no goddess.)

Well, goddess, what’s up with the dual souls of black folk? Tell us!

Dear readers, for those of you who know about W.E.B. DuBois, know exactly what I’m writing about. From Mr. DuBois: One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

As black people (I can’t stand the term African-American – I am from New Jersey, folks and since my family/married name is Irish-English, whoa, do I have a problem or what!!) we are equal, yet not equal. There is still the old boys club. There are still job interviewers who see us coming and imedialty make their decision before we open our mouths. I went to a nearly all white prep school and Yale College in the 80s and in my experience….well let’s just say some folks of the “other” race are less than enlightened. (and the goddess is being VERY nice.)

This is what I see in Barack Obama. Not only is he bi-racial, he is part of the black upper class. His speeches about unity and understanding and change, I feel are a very personal cry - all of his life he has been plagued, in a very real sense with his duality…the feeling that he had to pick a side. Tell me if that came out more obviously when he referred to his grandmother as a ‘typical white person’. I don’t know about you, but what a thing to say about your blood relative!! (Remember folks, this is my personal opinion). Unfortuantely, that is how it is with many black people who “make it”. Do you go “white” , or do you go so “black” (rev. wright black) or do you hover in the middle?

I remember attending a dinner with my husband who had done some work in education about the Holocaust. We were the only black folk there, and there was this old man (80s) who talked to us. Now, the man was old and I bear absolutely no ill will toward him at all, in fact, my husband and I joke about it now. When he found out that I had graduated from Yale, he thought for a moment and said, ‘you know this may interested you that black women at Princeton….blah blah” Now, was that racist? Or was it an attempt by a man, separated by two generations, interests and race trying to make me as a black woman feel more comfortable? Who knows and you know what, who cares? The man was nice and I did him the favor of talking to him about things that I thought would interest him. Certainly we weren’t bosom buddies at the end of the night, but we did have a civil, if somewhat stilted, conversation.

I hope that I have made my point. It’s been so long since I’ve written something serious for this blog (in between answering requests for juice and Word World) that I certainly hope my words and/or my message is jumbled.

Let me know what you think.