A much belated, long bunch of unrelated ruminations on society..and mac n cheese!

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Hey everyone! It's been a while. Even though the roadtrip is over, the adventure continues!

I will definitely be using this blog to write about my Boston adventures. Stay tuned next time for more on that! I've had a hankering for a while to note some remarkable pieces of journalism and op-eds. While I'd love to do some sort of witty, pithy, and oh-so-clever analysis a la Politico, for now, given time constraints, I will just post the links for you, with my favorite quotes.

As if we don't have enough to read in this too-much-information age! But if this is too boring or dry, then definitely skip to the end of this post, where I will discuss "recipes for the cooking-challenged." And hopefully soon, I will upload some songs Robert and I have been recording.

Onto the news. This topsy-turvy election has given everyone, including journalists, a run for their money. Not to mention the unprecedented dynamics of having a black Presidential candidate, a woman up for VP, and the oldest Presidential candidate ever. This makes for some oh-so-juicy social commentary! I thought I'd just go ahead and share some of my favorites.

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This article shows a connection between both men's and women's attitudes on gender and their salaries. It provides evidence that both men and women can be negatively impacted by gender-related bigotry. That's why I think of feminism as a misnomer given that sexism of any kind is an overall human rights issue. Here's my favorite quote:

"Some would say, 'Of course traditional men earn more than traditional women -- they are both fulfilling their desires to play different roles in the home and workplace. Our results do not support that view.

If you were a traditional-minded woman, would you say, 'I am fine working the same hours as a traditional-minded man in the same industry with the same education but earning substantially less'? I don't think traditional-minded women would say that."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/21/AR2008092102529.html?referrer=emailarticle

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I'm proud that New Jersey has one of the best records of minorities holding state jobs (40%), but as a nation, we do not have fair representation of minorities and women in these positions.

"Of 1,834 top state jobs — including advisers to governors, department and commission heads — 643 were held by female appointees, or about 35 percent of the total. Minorities held less than 16 percent.

...Women, of course, make up 51 percent of the country’s population, and within a generation, more than half the population will be composed of Latinos, African-Americans, Asians and Native Americans. For leaders to rise from the mix that is America, governors need to cast a wider net for appointees today."

♫ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/opinion/10wed4.html

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By now most of you have heard about the infamous rape kits-- when Sarah Palin was mayor, her town of Wasilla billed sexual assault victims for the cost of these kits and of forensic exams! The very idea gets me so mad.

Favorite quote: “We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence,” said Alaska’s then-governor, Tony Knowles. “Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.”

Also, Biden is THE man !

"Senator Joseph Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, drafted the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, he included provisions to make states ineligible for federal grant money if they charged rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies needed to conduct them. (Senator John McCain, Ms. Palin’s running mate, voted against Mr. Biden’s initiative, and his name has not been among the long list of co-sponsors each time the act has been renewed.)"

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I adore Nicholas Kristof. I'll probably be kicking myself forever for not meeting him when he came to Grinnell (well, not really). But once again I found myself clapping while reading his column.

Obama is Christian-- not the dutiful, inevitable, half-hearted Christianity of a person who is raised that way, identifies with the heritage and then goes with the flow-- his religion is the thoughtful, self-examining, social-justice oriented deliberateness of a man whose mother was an atheist anthropologist and encouraged him to find the commonality and beauty in the beliefs of others.

Moreover, his religion should not matter...but, it does. Apparently people see the dark skin, the foreign name, and the upbringing in Hawaii and Indonesia..and somehow draw the conclusion that the man is Muslim.

Kristof writes, "What is happening, I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice. In public at least, it’s not acceptable to express reservations about a candidate’s skin color, so discomfort about race is sublimated into concerns about whether Mr. Obama is sufficiently Christian."

I could quote this entire article as a favorite quote! I think it's dead-on.

"The result is this campaign to “otherize” Mr. Obama. Nobody needs to point out that he is black, but there’s a persistent effort to exaggerate other differences, to de-Americanize him."

AND THIS IS THE KICKER:

"(Just imagine for a moment if it were the black candidate in this election, rather than the white candidate, who was born in Central America, was an indifferent churchgoer, had graduated near the bottom of his university class, had dumped his first wife, had regularly displayed an explosive and profane temper, and had referred to the Pakistani-Iraqi border ...)"

A golden example of white privilege (and racism) in action.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21kristof.html?scp=1&sq=otherizing%20obama%20kristof&st=cse

I can't believe this election will be over so soon. It has seemed to go on forever, but the national dialog it has stirred-- on gender and race, on America's role in the world, and what it means to be American-- is just starting.

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On to the recipes!

I am hardly a Martha Stewart, as most of you know. This has lead to some interesting, very easy, accidentally delicious recipes which I thought I'd share:

(Oh and they're all really healthy and natural, too!)

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
This was the product of the happy convenience of Shaw's having a sale on butternut squash.

-Chop up some butternut squash
-Break up some broccoli
-Put the above two ingredients in a blender/food processor, and blend!
-Put some olive oil in a pot, and put the above ingredients in the pot with a little water (or milk if you want the soup thicker)
-Melt in a little butter and stir with the stove on medium
-Melt in some American cheese, if you like
- Add garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano etc. to taste!

You've got soup-- hooray!

MAC AND CHEESE- JZ STYLE

This was a total accident-- but it turned out better than the soup!

-Get some delicious all-natural pasta-- the twisty, curly-cue kind works best.
-Put the pasta in a pot with olive oil and chopped carrots and broccoli and spices
-Drain the pasta and veggies
-Put them back in the pot
-Melt slices of all-natural American cheese in a bowl in the microwave
-Pour the cheese-sauce on the pasta

Voila! Mac n' cheese!

Today some of the mac and cheese was leftover, and Robert brought home some salmon, so we had sauteed Salmon with the mac n' cheese-- also very good!

Well, I leave you for now! Hope the weather where you are is less icky than here, and hope you are all doing well!

Pictures and video!

We Made It!

Well, we're back in Metuchen, New Jersey, after a heck of a long trip! It's good to be here! What an adventure!

I had left my camara cord at home, but within a day or so I'll have some pictures posted.

All the best, from the Garden State!

Update on the Adventures

A Road Trip Talley

-Country Fairs: 2
-Rodeos: 1
-Parades: 1
-Harry Potter books listened to on tape: nearly 3
-Bikers spotted on their way to the Sturgis ralley: too many to count!
-Biker couples befriended: 1
-Perkins dined at: 5

I wrote the post below two days ago, but was having trouble posting it, and then got sidetracked. Since writing the post below, we've basically just been driving a lot...watching the landscape change from farmland to gentle hills to forest...listening to Harry Potter on tape, people-watching, and generally trying to hoof it safely over to New Jersey, since we're both rather road-tripped out. It has, however, been a very fun and memorable trip. Right now we're in Lamar, Pennsylvania and planning to arrive in Metuchen tomorrow! Here's Monday's post:

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It's so great to be back in a familiar place. Today I strolled around campus feeling highly nostalgic, and went for a little jog to my favorite park. Then we met up with our friend Smita and enjoyed delicious Thai food at Thai Basil. The waitress even recognized us and remembered what we liked to order. Then we visted Smita's apartment and discussed, among other things, activism, feminism, the Malaysian prison system, the Guerrilla Girls ( http://www.guerrillagirls.com/ ), and badminton. Thank you so much Smita for the lovely visit.

Backing up a bit, the parade in Buffalo was fascinating. There were lots of horses in the parade. There were also old men in go carts wearing odd beanie hats, who called themselves "Shriners" and were raising money for a children's hospital. They were speeding their go-carts around in circles, and looked like they were having a great time.

There was also a marching band with women dressed as Native Americans marching at the front. There was a man in a little cart pulled by a horse. He was sleeping in a bed of hay. I think he was supposed to be a folk character of some sort. There were also a lot, I mean a lot, of old cars. I noticed small town America, Metuchen included, likes to showcase old cars. Well, I have never seen so many old cars (like 1950s era) at one time. There were some local Republican politicians on floats, representatives of local businesses and community colleges giving out soda (pop for you Midwesterners), candy, and advertisements, and veterans and military people. The spectators sat on the curb and waved fans to cool themselves in the heat; the fans were really cardboard cutouts in the shape of cowboy hats.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that we befriended a biker couple in Buffalo at the Mexican restaurant. I use the term "befriended" loosely; they were pretty tipsy and were trying to joke around with anyone around them. The waitress was a good sport, but I don't know how she put up with them shouting random Spanish words. Finally, the man shouted "Bonita!" (pretty!) and she said "Gracias...but I'm not Mexican. I"m from Indonesia, and just look Mexican." Lesson learned was to speak Spanish in Mexican restaurants at your own peril.

As we were leaving, we ended up walking with the couple. Turns out the man was from Seattle and the woman from Las Vegas. They were on their way to Sturgis, which is where hundreds, if not thousands of bikers make a pilgrimage of sorts to a biker's rally. They asked us where we were from; Rob said he was from Mount Vernon and I said I was from New Jersey. The man said, "Jersey! Naw, it's JOISEY! Why don't you have an accent? You can't have grown up there! You're not from New Jersey, you're from the West! That's what you sound like!" After a few more minutes of boisterous talking, they wished us a good trip, shaking our hands and clapping us on the back.

The drive from Buffalo to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, felt very long. Fortunately, Rob brought books on tape, so we listened to the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in its entirety (we'd already finished Sorcerer's Stone).

It was also fun to watch the bikers. They were everywhere. They seemed to travel in herds, with tiny sleeping bags and luggage backs strapped on the back of their motorcycles. All the businesses along the highway were trying to take advantage of the upcoming Sturgis rally. Everywhere there were signs saying "bikers welcome!" When we had stopped at the Perkins outside of Butte, Montana, al the servers had worn Sturgis or biker related shirts. There were bikers at our hotel in Buffalo, wearing the signature leather jackets and jeans, and sometimes incredibly unique hairstyles that make a mohawk look tame, and bedecked in tattoos.

We also saw biker families at Mount Rushmore (biker mom and dad, grandparents and little biker children- all in the biker getup and looking adorably edgy). It's like there's this whole culture surrounding the biker lifestyle!

Though Rob had already been to Mount Rushmore, this was my first time. I was torn between sentimental patriotism stirred by this monument of democracy...and crusty cynicism at the sight of all those white men's faces. Jefferson, who owned slaves. Roosevelt, who laid the foundations for systematically impovershing and profiting from Latin America.

In the end, some sort of positivity won over my crusty cynicism. I think it was the story of the sculptor who designed Mount Rushmore, and the sheer amount of work he and the workers put into it (about 30 years of work). I can't remember the name of the sculptor...I think it was Borgum...he was the son of Danish immigrants, grew up in the American West, and clearly loved this country and believed in it very much. He wanted Mount Rushmore to serve as a testament to American society and believed each generation should leave the earth a bit better than it had been. In 1000 years, he wanted Mount Rushmore to be standing and our descendents to remember the liberty that (in theory) Washington and the others had fought for. And it would be hard to deny that Washington, Lincoln, etc were incredible visionaries.

Tomorrow we are leaving Grinnell and heading east. We'll stay outside of Toledo, Ohio, before heading on to Metuchen. It's been a good roadtrip, but I think we're both ready to be more settled.

Best wishes from Iowa!

Rodeo!

Hi again! So it must be Fair season, because we are in Buffalo, Wyoming, in time to catch their country fair. Guess what- it was very much like the Western Montana Fair in Missoula, except without the rides. There were exhibitions and competitions of floriculture, quilting, scrapbooking, cooking, and art of all sorts. There were also adorable billy goats, including baby ones with little horns, and pigs, cows, rabbits and other animals.

But- best of all- was the rodeo! We arrived just in time to catch it. There was a huge corral about the size of the average high school's track, and there were some rickety wooden bleachers and chairs where people were sitting to cheer on the competitors. I realized I didn't really know what a rodeo entailed, and learned that there are actually many events involved in a rodeo competition. Today we saw barrel racing, in which cowboys and cowgirls steered their horses as they ran around an obstacle course of barrels. Most of the contestants took between only 18 and 20 seconds to complete the course on horseback, though occasionally the horse would hit a barrel. During the events, real country music would play on a loudspeaker, and an announcer narrated the winning times.

People dress a lot more Western out here, unsurprisingly, complete with cowboy hats, and occasionally, boots and spurs. There were so many horses with riders young and old; I bet a lot of people who grow up here learn from a young age how to ride and feel comfortable on a horse.

It was neat to see such a close relationship to animals. We saw young boys herding cows and goats, families and people of all ages shearing sheep, milking cows, and generally tending to their animals in a way that is surely very basic, and yet alien to me.

The next event that we saw involved lassoing! The cowboy would dash into the corral on horseback after a bewildered calf that would run around in circles. The cowboy would lasso the calf, then jump of his horse, wrestle it to the ground, and tie its legs. The cowboy who could do this in the fastest time was the winner. It was interesting to note the different ways of taking down the calf- not unlike wrestling. Face locks and body slams were applied liberally.

Tomorrow we are fortunate again, because coincidentally there is a parade tomorrow morning, right on Main St, here in Buffalo! After the parade, we will head to Sioux Falls, stopping to see Mount Rushmore on the way.

Tonight walked to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, and on the way passed two houses, one with a lawn sign in support of local Republican candidate for state representative, and one supporting Obama for president. From the mailbox near the Obama sign hung a small notebook with a cover that said: "please write comments here rather than taking down the sign." This lead us to believe that the sign had been taken down before. No one had commented yet, so we each wrote something. I wrote a long comment about why I support Barack Obama, then Robert wrote a single sentence in support of free expression. Somehow I think that one sentence makes the necessary point completely.

Well it's getting late and the George Lopez Show is on, so I'll wrap this up. I haven't written yet about our first stop in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. Basically it's a cute little city on a big, beautiful lake. I liked all the independent, locally owned shops downtown, like a toy shop that stocked such items as "Ugly Dolls" (three-eyed monster dolls etc. that, though ugly, are somehow still really cute!) and "Cuddle the Food Chain", (like a babushka doll, with little fish stuffed animal inside a bigger fish inside a bear inside a whale).

Well, take care everyone! I'll keep you posted on our next adventures.

Road Trip Thus Far

Hi Everyone!

I'm writing this after just being caught in a Montana storm. The lightening was really something and the rain seemed to pelt harder and harder until, within minutes, it became a light shower, then started pouring again. We made a dash for it into our hotel here in Bozeman. We are heading to Buffalo, Wyoming, tomorrow to see the rodeo! This will be my first rodeo ever..and I'm really excited about it!

Today we were fortunate enough to be in Missoula, Montana, for the Western Montana Fair. At first Missoula seemed like a characterless strip of corporate conglomerates, chain restaurants and seedy motels staffed by bored chainsmokers. The main strip is very unfriendly to pedestrians and highly depressing.

Of course, this is probably a very unfair judgement to make, considering we didn't visit the more residental parts or the University of Montana campus. And the mountains around Missoula are breathtaking. They're very different from the greener mountains of Western Washington and even different from the dusty mountains that we had seen in Eastern Washington and Idaho. The difference in the topography of each region is really remarkable. Anyway, the mountains in Missoula are sort of sandy and imposing, towering over the tacky casinos and that ubiquitous McDonalds M.

Once we left the commercial strip and entered the fairgrounds, I felt transported into a different world- the world of the country fair! This was entirely different from the Metuchen "country" fair, because it actually took place in the country. There were the typical fair rides and fair food, but there was also a "Little Miss Montana Rodeo" pageant. Wearing a cute cowgirl get-up, the girls (and they really were girls- 13 or 14 or so) had to field impromptu questions ("what would your friends say is your worst fault?") and perform (the one we saw performed a monologue from the perspective of cowboy boots at a rodeo- "I am the sole of the rodeo! With me, my cowboy's always well-heeled!")

Then there were hundreds of animals! First we saw fat pigs being prodded with sticks and paraded around a corral as judges decided who was best- I have no idea how they decided this. One of the pig's handlers was a tiny little kid not much bigger than the pig! The pig decided it had had enough and started snorting loudly at him and refusing to move..frothing at the mouth a bit, sort of rabid looking. I wonder if the judges make their judgments based on looks (what makes a pig good- its fatness?) or behavior (if so, that pig probably failed), does anyone know? For those of you who are from areas with genuine country fairs complete with animals and bona fide Americana, you'll have to forgive my naivete about these matters. But I loved the whole thing!

Well that's enough blogging for me; we're going swimming in the hotel pool. In my next post, I'll write about the other animals such as llamas and oxen and cows and ducks and rabbits and geese and bulls! Plus they had a floriculture room with a competition for growing and arranging flowers, a quilt showcase room with genuine American quilts! Plus a sort of miscellaneous part of the fair with booths ranging from psychics to Republicans ("will you sign here to protect our second Amendment rights? Will you sign this petition to keep our water privatized?")

It was loads of eye-opening, all-American fun! More later! Hope you are all doing well!