Laila Lalami

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to have a sort of non-denominational holiday get together, sent the invitations, and THEN I decided that we should have some sort of a theme. So we thought, why not do it Cuban style? Except that neither of us has cooked Cuban dishes in a long, long time, and now I’m getting a little stressed.
Tons of stuff to do still. To wit:
Drinks: Got the lime juice and the rum for the mojitos and the cuba libres. Got the guava and mango juices. Still need to see if we can find Materva (type of Cuban soda). Will need to ask someone to get vodka and other drinks. In general, I don’t like worrying about booze, as neither of us drinks. But the 40 people coming tomorrow do.
Hors d’Oeuvres: Did the groceries this week. Making the picadillo and empanadas tonight. If enough time, prepare the plantain chips tonight also. Tomorrow: make the cuban sandwiches, prepare crackers with fancy topping, prepare the croquetas; fry the yuca.
Dessert: Still need to order flan. Might be too late now. Might have to skip. Have some Moroccan honeyed confections, but they would clash with the theme. Panic about dessert. Scrap it?
Also still need to clean, decorate, and take a nap before people come.

When the U.N. received the Iraqi dossier, it was supposed to have weapons inspectors analyze it, translators translate it, copies copy it, and THEN it was supposed to release it to member states who may need to know its content. But why bother? The 12,000-page Iraqi dossier has already been put in the hands of the U.S. by the ever-cooperating Security Council. The Council even figured it shouldn’t bother doing the copies. Let the U.S. do it. Kind of gives you an idea how things are going.
Meanwhile, the article says, “Inspectors hit several sites, including the alleged center of Iraq’s nuclear program near the Syrian border at al-Qaem. The facility, 400 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad, has been alleged to be where Iraq produced “yellow cake” — refined uranium ore — used in Iraq’s nuclear program.
Inspectors also searched an animals vaccine facility, the Al-Furat Chemical Industries General Company, the Ibn al-Haitham research facility in a northern Baghdad suburb and returned to the Tuweitha nuclear site for the fourth time in a week.”
And guess what? They’ve found nothing. But that won’t deter Bush. The Shadow Knows that the Big Bad Bogie Man has weapons and is a clear and present danger, and so he must be eliminated (and the Shadow will also be able to have more gas for his Shadowmobile.)
More on the subject here.

but if I open the New Yorker and see yet another one of his stories in there, I’ll puke. Are there no other writers worth knowing?

While Bush continues to beat the drums of war, it would seem that few people are questioning the wisdom of his move. I think in reality there are plenty of people who don’t want the U.S. to go to war, but there isn’t nearly enough coverage of that dissent in the media. The media seems to want the war. After all, ratings and ad rates would go up and the major media outlets are owned by companies for whom going to war could very well mean financial profit.
Some recent signs that people are not all aligned with the Shrub’s policies:
According to MobyLives’s informal survey of independent bookstores, Chomsky’s book 9-11 and William Rivers Pitt and Scott Ritter’s War on Iraq continue to sell well. MobyLives delves into this phenomenon and asks the question: If these books are selling so well, how come they are not on the bestseller list?
Meanwhile, actors Mike Farrell and Anjelica Huston are due to send a letter to Bush signed by a hundred other celebrities (including Ethan Hawke, Matt Damon, Sam Jackson, etc.) asking him to stop his war rhetoric.
Elsewhere, the Not in Our Name movement continues to sponsor anti-war events and rallies. (Check your local NION for events near you.)
I suppose I’m writing this mostly to convince myself that not all is lost. It’s so upsetting to watch the country headed in such a catastrophic course that I need to cheer myself up somehow.

New York artist Nathan Banks has been busy with a very peculiar project: he painted single words on the flanks of about 60 cows. When the cows wandered and happened to compose a line or a compound, he would snatch a picture or tape it on video. My favorite line in the article:
‘”There was a big concern that the cows would be stressed and give less milk,” [artist] Banks said. [Farmer] Gerry Ruestow said milk production actually went up a bit, “probably because the cows were a bit more active. The cows were as interested in the observers as the observers were in the cows.”‘
See, it’s not just milk that’s good for you. For healthy bones, you need poetry too.

According to President Bush, federal workers should not get their scheduled pay raises this year, because that somehow would “threaten the nation’s efforts in the war on terrorism.” Less than a week after that luminous move, Bush restored cash bonuses for political appointees. The money is for the aides (attorneys, assistants, advisers) of cabinet-level officials and agency chiefs.
Go figure.

From the “I swear I didn’t make it up” file: The Leo Flesh library in Ohio worked for three months to set up its website. When the big day came and they wanted to access the site, they couldn’t:
‘”There must be a glitch in the system,” [Library Director James] Oda said as he tried again. Again, he was denied access. It was then that Oda realized what had happened. “We banned ourselves,” he said.’
Turns out the library was using a filtering system (Net Nanny) that didn’t care much for the words “flesh” and “public” in the library’s net address: www.fleshpublic.lib.oh.us. Okay, so maybe this cracks me up so much only because I’ve worked with language filtering systems before.
Piqua’s library has to flesh out its own Web site. Link via MobyLives.

I liked this opinion piece from one of last week’s editions of The Independent. The commentator makes a case that The Quiet American (based on the Graham Greene novel of the same name) is being released in L.A. and New York not because of its fantastic relevance right now, or of any moral courage on the part of Miramax, but because enough people, including Michael Caine himself, have argued he might get an Oscar nomination. I wasn’t surprised by this at all. I suppose I’m too disillusioned to be outraged. (BTW, if you live in L.A., the movie is playing at Sunset 5.)

Today’s news brought this item which tells of how Alexandre Dumas’s remains have been moved to the Pantheon (where Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and other luminaries are interred.) This being the 21st century, there was a mini-controversy about the move, sparked by allegations he was a womanizer (gasp!) and has used helpers (Cela, where are you?). The news story brought back fond memories of sitting on my bed reading Le Comte de Monte Cristo when I was a kid (and loving every word of it.)
Elsewhere, the Guardian has an interesting story on Graham Greene. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show how the FBI spied on Greene and labeled him “anti-American”. Greene’s book The Quiet American has been recently adapted for the big screen (by Philip Noyce) and released by Miramax. Can you imagine if someone wrote a novel kind of like The Quiet American, but about current U.S. policies in the Bush administration’s “war on terror”? Anyone have an extra “anti-American” label lying around?

I’m bored with the “new” look. I long for something shiny and new. If someone has ideas, pix, or code to donate, email me!