Thoughts on the Bailout

Does anyone else feel like the Apocalypse is coming? It was if you believed the media or George Bush on Monday. OMFG!!! The locusts are coming and frogs and the economy are falling out of the sky...

To use the phrase of my favorite blogger, smells like BULLSHIT.


If the rich get any richer by my poor ass getting poorer, I will be waiting for my serf's cottage and plot of land to work.

Desperate Attempt at Blogging

I have an author who's books I love, but she won't ever update her web page. Her last update referred to the fact that at least it hadn't been a whole year since she had update the site. I guess this would be one of those pot calling the kettle black situations since it's almost been a full year since I've posted.

I recently watched the Dixie Chicks doc, called Shut Up and Sing. It's all about the times before, during, and after those now infamous comments about Natalie being embarrassed about George Bush being from Texas. How basically country radio, the media, and legions of once professed fans turned their backs and loosened their fangs on the group.

I wonder about those people, so shocked that one person would dare speak up again the president and the war he was starting. I wonder how they now feel, while paying $3.50 for gas, losing their homes to a government that would have had the money to stabilize the economy if not for this debacle George Bush calls a war. I wonder if they've lost their jobs to this economy.

But most of all I wonder, will these people, who were once so shocked at a simple statement that they would send death threats to a "girl" singer, will they speak up now? Or in November? For the last 8 years, I've wondered how a whole country lost the balls to speak up and stand up to those in government that we elect? And now, he wants us to bail out companies so the rich can get even richer on the carcass of this sickly economy. I guess we know who's got the biggest balls of all...

Last Meal

I read a book last night that was called "My Last Supper" that basically interviewed famous chefs with questions about what they're last meal would be. It was very interesting and got me to thinking about what my last meal might be like.

So here it goes. My dinner would have to entail the clause that you could eat as much as you wanted and not feel overfull. The book asked 5 questions: where would this meal be, who would attend, would there be music, what would you drink, and what would be on your final menu.

My location would be under a large tree, in an open field in France behind my fabulous (nonexistent) house, in late spring or early summer, where I could smell honeysuckle growing.

My dinner companions would be my family and close friends, Tony Bourdain for those hilarious kitchen stories, Alton Brown, Dave Chappelle would perform, Marilyn Monroe for my brother, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Marlon Brando (circa Guys and Dolls days), the Angryblackbitch.blogspot.com, Shirley Corriher, my Aunt Gailon, my old dog Georgia, and all the various musical, culinary, and cosmetic persons named later. Oh, and Edgar Ramirez, Gael Garcia Bernal, and Olivier Ramirez just for me to look at. :)

My musical guests would include Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, Anna Netrebko, Jill Scott, The Fugees, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, and Ella Fitzgerald. And when Ella sang "Rocks in my Bed," and sings that part about being underloved and overfed, for once I would disagree.

To drink I would have Gallons of made from scratch margaritas and tequila shots, untold bottles of champagne, Fiji water for when the tequila made me dizzy, and pitchers of my mint iced tea.

For my last meal, we would start with warm La Brea or Kayser baguettes split and spread with french butter and drizzled with tupelo honey from the Savannah bee company. Then Tom Douglas's panzanella salad and the caprese salad from Taverna, Mario Batali would cook a seafood course with shrimp and scallops, someone from Louisiana would make a crawfish poboy and crawfish etouffee, Mario would also make polpettini, for the main course there would be organic grain fed Bistecca alla Fiorentina with rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper cooked in butter and olive oil till Medium, fried chicken from John T Edge, a risotto from Taverna, my baked penne with sausage and lots of balsamic, a chili cheese dog from Coit's with a homemade Root Beer, my Mom's mashed potatoes, fried okra, grilled zucchini and squash, my Mom's sauteed mushrooms, my grandma's green beans with bacon (the ones from years ago when she had her eyesight), canned asparagus cooked in butter (yes, I know, but I grew up eating them), and fresh corn.
For dessert, there would be in season fruit at it's magical peak, peaches from the way they tasted when I was a kid, fraise de bois, raspberries, blood oranges, cantaloupe, cherries from Alice Waters, who would handle all of the fruit and veg, then Ina Garten's brownies without the instant coffee, pastries from Pierre Herme, Dalloyau, Gerald Mulot, Francois Payard, and Laduree, my pralines or prawleens if you will, a cake or cookie from Martha, chocolates from Valrhona, La Maison du Chocolate and Scharffen Berger, a selection of Bologna's finest gelato and Sicily's finest granita, my peach and strawberry ice creams, Terry's butter cookies w/vanilla sugar, cream puffs, and at very last, a cappucino w/sweet whipped cream and another warm baguette, buttered and honeyed. Then we'd listen, dance, and sing along with all the concert performers. Then I'd bid adieu to everyone but my closest family, then go inside and shower and then Federic Fekkai, Oribe, Oscar Blandi, and Orlando Pita would fight to do my hair and Keyvn Aucoin would do my makeup (I want to look pretty when I go). I'd get into the softest, fluffiest bed with soft sheets and my husband would hold me and I would hold my kids (neither of which I have right now) and then I would retire.
So, how about you? What would you want for the last meal of your life?

Hip, Hip, Hooray! They're Here!

Happy Marzipan Frankenstein Day!!!
Back for their second year in a row, it's the lovely
marzipan Halloween figurines from Rebecca Russell.
Her website is in my blogroll and I highly recommend it.

These Halloween truffles are also really
cute! But I have to say the ghost's mouth
really gives me a good laugh! It looks like he's seen a ghost.

Honey, We're Killing the ... World

I saw an episode of Oprah where they were speaking about the show, "Honey, We're Killing the Kids." And they were talking about how they are seeing patients in their mid-twenties and beyond with these fat-related problems. Diabetes, knee problems, back problems, etc... All of these problems from just carrying all that fat around. Sadly enough, I realize I'm one of these persons, but without health care, which I don't have right now, I'm not able to see a doctor. And if I was able to see a doctor, with the lack of preventative care in this country, they'd probably give me a pill.

If you haven't seen Sicko by Michael Moore, I urge you to. I saw the doc and afterwards, I was literally mute. My dad had been bitten by a snake a few days before and the hospital told him that anti-venom would not be covered by his health insurance or Medicare, and that a single vile of the anti venom was $10,000 and that they would start with 2 vials and could use as many as 9. So, they pumped him full of anti-inflammatories and other assorted drugs and after 3 weeks, the toxins in his body regenerated (supposed some snake poisons do this) and tried to kill him again and his whole arm was swollen like he'd just been bitten. Which could have been prevented by the anti-venom. Which he could have received in another country. Yes, I understand that they pay exorbitant taxes, but look at what gains they reap from those taxes.

Sorry, my train of thought derailed a little but the condition of health care in this country is ridiculous. I was talking with a person in a bookstore a couple of days ago, and we agreed that Oklahoma City is playing at being a "city" and in the same context, America is playing at being the world's greatest country. We have all of the resources, but none of the execution.