Barbados Independence

First Prime Minister of Barbados,
Errol W. Barrow (an original pin)

Today, Barbadians or Bajans as we like to call ourselves, celebrate 46 years of independence from Britain.

As I checked out photos of the capital, Bridgetown, and the people decked out in the national colours of ultramarine, gold and black and this morning as I watched the live broadcast of the parade, I wondered why I never considered visiting my place of birth at this time of year.  Well, I have added visiting Barbados during Independence celebrations to my list.

Barbadians have much for which to be thankful and although Barbados, like many nations worldwide, has encountered economic difficulties, Bajans remain a positive and industrious people, who find ways to overcome their hardships. I remember women who made and sold confections and pudding and souse and cultivated kitchen gardens or sewed and the men who sold snow balls (now snow cones) and learnt to be tailors and bakers and other trades to earn a living and support their families; most often done right from their homes. 

To Barbados, Bajans and Bajan wannabes everywhere, have a wonderful and safe Independence Day celebration. Until I am there to celebrate in person, have a shot, or two, of rum for me.

Will keep you posted!

President Obama Will Win

I am going on the record to state, unequivocally, President Obama will win the election and his win will have ripple, no make that tsunami effects on the right.

He will win because he deserves to win. President Obama is a great example of staying strong, cool and collected in the face of incredible resistance and disrespect from the right. Even more galling are the intellectually stunted willing to believe that by the virtue of their skin colour, they are so much better than this President.  They know who they are and it will pain their sorry derrieres to see him still standing after their onslaught.

President Obama is the epitome of the American Dream and his story should be one loved by the right since he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and all that. He is highly educated, personable, witty and easy on the eyes. The family values Christians should see him as an example of their beliefs as he is still with his original wife and has no scandals (sexual or otherwise) unlike many we could name in their camp. Were these qualities to be found in one of their own, along with steady management of the foreign policy file, healthcare and especially eliminating Osama bin Laden, the right would have been over the moon . Anyone running against such a candidate would have been looking at very long odds of winning and might as well have folded up their tent and slunk away long ago.

But no, they insist he is not an American; demand to see his birth certificate and college records when this has never been asked of any other president or candidate for the position; question his religious affiliation and happily forward the vilest emails to denigrate him.  Heck, Mitt Romney not showing ten to twelve years of tax returns caused nary a ripple with the belligerent right who would have been blowing a gasket if candidate Obama had pulled that crap. Even the so-called Christians, who never respected Mitt Romney’s religion and called it a cult, can now overlook the lies, flip-flops and copious amounts of bovine excrement and embrace Romney, whose rivals found him unpalatable and so difficult to love back in the primaries. For shame!

President Obama is who he is, so the knives must be drawn to eviscerate him. The lies told are so out there one finds it hard to imagine anyone with two brain cells to rub together would believe them but they do. To allow this decent man a scintilla of success, even as his accomplishments are evident, would put to lie their racist, malignant beliefs that his skin colour deems him inferior, therefore he must be slagged and disrespected. From the day he was inaugurated, the nastiness of those who brayed for his failure was evident. Lord forbid they spent the time and energy looking for ways to work with him to achieve success.  Their behaviour showed they would rather have their country suffer than have this Black president succeed and as we can see, they would rather support a man with no core who is easily buffeted and spun like a weather vane in a wind storm. 

I believe President Obama’s win will be the best thing for the right although they won't see it right away.   After the initial hysterics, convulsions and conniptions, they will be forced to take stock and regroup and look at why self-respecting minorities want nothing to do with them. Why racists are happy as pigs in merde under their banner.  Why the most insane christofascists are supported as viable candidates and are emboldened to stick their noses in women’s uteri. Why they advocate and support draconian measures to restrict a woman’s right to choose her healthcare and why they see voter suppression as a great way to win elections. They need to make their party uncomfortable for the simple minded egoists, the terminally stupid, racists, malcontents, Christians in name only and the happily ignorant and loving it who have found a happy home to the exclusion of the moderates. 

A purging will take place, naturally and with great effort. Many of those who thought it the height of intelligence to hold signs at tea party rallies warning government to keep its hands off their Medicare would have shuffled off to their just rewards. The upswing in minority populations will take care of a few more by weakening their grasp on power. Hopefully, shame will come back in style and force many to keep their stupidities and prejudices in check as no decent person would entertain their pathetic behaviour.

I do not believe this race is as close as is reported daily. I believe there are more decent people who are dismayed by the behaviour of the right and are embarrassed by the candidates they support and see no reason to reward abhorrent behaviour. These are the people who will re-elect President Obama who, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, showed his quiet strength and compassion and modelled how working across party lines benefits all.

To have it any other way would be to condone, lying, corruption, deceit, racism and overall disgusting behaviour.  Good people will never allow this.

Will keep you posted!

A Tapeworm Story

I was hooked from the first sentence. I kept reading, knowing at some point in this story, I would be cringing. If it were a movie, my hand would be up to my face and I would be peeking through my fingers at what was developing in front of me.

Tapeworm

The writer just reels you into his story. I was feeling the  movement in his bowels along with him.

I thought about the tapeworm diet I had read about; you buy eggs and the resulting worm(s) would share your calories therefore helping you to lose weight. Is this what happened to tapeworm egg dieters when they had reached optimal weight and their diet pal had to 'move on'? The horror:)

If you like stories that are humorous, slightly off-kilter with a soupçon of scary as in OMG, what if that happened to me? Click here to read the story.

Will keep you posted!

Quinces

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade the old saying goes but what to do when your neighbour hands you quinces? Well, you make quince jam or is that just me?

I have had quince jelly but never had the opportunity to get up close and personal with this fruit. I never saw them at the supermarket nor the farmers’ market but surprisingly last Friday, there they were at one stall at the farmers’ market.  Not many but enough, I will assume, to get those who know the fruit to buy or pique the curiosity of others to try them. 

I was being advised left, right and centre on the web that quince is inedible (I tried a small piece; it was not that bad) and it looked like everyone was pushing jelly. Since I wanted to use all the fruit, well, not the wormy bits, I was on the lookout for a simple jam recipe. I found it and voilà, the result:

Quinces - From Fruit to Jam

In the middle of winter when I bite into a piece of toast covered in quince jam, I will be taken back to a beautiful autumn day and the heavenly aroma of quinces simmering on the stove.

Will keep you posted!

Eat-More Lovers, Unite!

Tasty, nutty, chewy. What more can one ask for in a treat? Not the first choice of many but what do we Eat-More lovers care? We know what they are missing; that chewy, chewy goodness.

Eat-More Candy

I admit it, sometimes I opt for other bars but more often than not, I choose the delicious Eat-More.

I have been kidded about my love for Eat-More bars and  been told I am the only person buying them.  Your snark rolls off me like so much water off a duck’s back.

Hershey is not making this delicious, chewy candy just for me so wherever you are Eat-More lovers, show your love for this delectable treat; flaunt it and eat it with pride. I do.

Will keep you posted!

Sammy Bear - A Cat Tale

My daughter Sharon and her husband Mark had to put to sleep their beloved cat, Sammy Bear.

Sammy was a rescue cat. He was a big, handsome, long-haired cat. Sammy was not the most fastidious of cats and not much into grooming.  Despite efforts to keep him well brushed, he had to be taken in on a number of occasions for expert grooming because his fur would be in knots. Sammy would be shaved and return looking like a little alien.

Sammy Bear

He was such a loving, gentle cat who insisted on sleeping between Sharon and Mark and licking Mark to the point where to get adequate rest, they installed a baby gate to keep him on the lower level. Not liking this arrangement, like a persistent child, his cries would soften hearts and Sammy would be back in his favourite spot. 

Sammy loved Sharon but he adored Mark who returned the love. We would often see Mark playing with Sammy and talking baby-talk to him. What cat would not enjoy such attention especially after his original home was not a happy place for a cat.

Sammy started to deteriorate late last year. There were additional trips to the vet, medicine and special food until something was found that he liked and he would be stable for some time and be his old self. However, the good times dwindled. After his last shave, his fur did not grow in. He was not eating and unlike previous times, he could not be coaxed to even eat his beloved treats.  Sammy had become a shadow of himself and his bones were protruding.

It was time. On October 4 at 5:15 p.m., Sammy Bear was put to sleep. We are sad and will miss that lovable kitty.  Sammy will be remembered as a sweet-natured cat and we, his family, believe his constant licks were thanks for rescuing him and making the last years of his life as stress-free and full of love as all cats deserve.

Will keep you posted.

President Obama – Underestimate at Your Peril

It appears pundits and some of President Obama`s supporters tuned in last night to watch the President as pugilist and not as debater.  From their shrieks of disappointment in his performance, it looks like they wanted him to pummel Mitt Romney to the mat or maybe drop-kick him out of the ring. That would have been spectacular, for a minute.

Yes, President Obama was low-key and I believe it was for a very good reason. I do not think for a minute he was off his game.

Angry Black Guy, Uppity are just two derogatory terms used to describe President Obama and are all too familiar to Blacks who, in the opinion of some, dared to rise above their station in life.  It does not matter that he has reached the highest position on this planet; President Obama will always be less than in their warped, simple minds, as can be attested to in this Media Matters link.

Would his detractors have been happy to see this thoughtful president go up against the combative Romney of last night with anger and aggression?  The right would still be having conniptions. Fiery headlines would be blazing across the internet on how the angry Black man beat up on poor, ole Mitt and how dare he!.  Talking points would be spewing forth like so much puke at a party of drunks. There would be no end of clips of an angry Obama appearing in ads to further scare the fearful and fence-sitters.  The angry black man label, attached to President Obama, would have hit the stratosphere with predictable results.

President Obama did not get to where he is by being reckless and stupid; he is a thinker; he is logical; he plays the long game. I believe he allowed Mitt Romney to win this debate (and the pundits to lose their collective merde) knowing Romney and the right would rejoice and spend precious time high-fiving, gloating and revisiting the embers of the debate to bask in any remaining glow. 

Meanwhile, President Obama has put himself in a position to use the remaining debates to his advantage.  Romney threw all the punches he had in this first round; let him have his moment but he has been further tagged as a flip-flopper and having a passing relationship with the truth. He defined himself before a huge audience. I am sure Mitt Romney is on a high and thinking he has President Obama on the ropes and unless he flops back from the debate flip, he has nothing more to add to the upcoming debates.

To those who wanted anger and aggression, remember, Barack Obama is the President not a street brawler. You would have been doubly disappointed if he had behaved in such a manner. To those on the right, you may wish to enjoy your pyrrhic victory and, may I suggest, if you have never heard of rope-a-dope, look it up..

Will keep you posted.