Don't Come For India ... Or Curry

Gene Weingarten is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and is not at all a comedian. Case in point: last week, the Post published  Weingarten’s attempt at humor in a piece entitled, “You Can’t Make Me Eat These Foods,” in which Weingarten writes about the kinds of food he will not eat … foot stomp!

These foods include balsamic vinegar, sweet pickles, anchovies, and Indian food. Indian food. ALL Indian food. Weingarten says Indian food is “the only ethnic cuisine in the world insanely based on one spice” [curry]and he doesn’t get it “as a culinary principle.” 

Well, Weingarten received all kinds of blowback on social media, including accusations of racism. And even Indian-born Padma Lakshmi, food author and host of my favorite reality show competition, Top Chef, didn’t sit this one out, when she Tweeted:

And why was Padma so incensed? Well, not just because it was an ignorant thing to say, but there were some not-so-subtle racist undertones in what Weingarten said, like:

“Indian food. The Indian subcontinent has vastly enriched the world, giving us chess, buttons, the mathematical concept of zero, shampoo, modern-day nonviolent political resistance, Chutes and Ladders, the Fibonacci sequence, rock candy, cataract surgery, cashmere, USB ports … and the only ethnic cuisine in the world insanely based entirely on one spice. If you like Indian curries, yay, you like Indian food! If you think Indian curries taste like something that could knock a vulture off a meat wagon, you do not like Indian food. I don’t get it, as a culinary principle. It is as though the French passed a law requiring every dish to be slathered in smashed, pureed snails. (I’d personally have no problem with that, but you might, and I would sympathize.)”

And when Lakshmi, and others, began coming for him, Weingarten Tweeted, then deleted, this:

“Took a lot of blowback for my dislike of Indian food in today’s column so tonight I went to Rasika, DC’s best Indian restaurant. Food was beautifully prepared yet still swimming with the herbs & spices I most despise. I take nothing back.”

That’s when Padma entered the chat, replying to the now-deleted tweet:

The Washington Post proceeded to edit Weingarten’s original piece and added the disclaimer:

“CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Indian cuisine is based on one spice, curry, and that Indian food is made up only of curries, types of stew. In fact, India’s vastly diverse cuisines use many spice blends and include many other types of dishes. The article has been corrected.”

But Lakshmi wasn’t done with Weingarten just yet, and posted this to her Instagram:

“There is truly no need for something like this to be published in 2021 (or ever). It’s racist and lazy at best.

My issue is not this person’s performative contrarianism (although it is tedious) or that he didn’t enjoy the Indian cuisines he’s tasted.

My problem is in this attempt at a comedic piece he’s actually just regurgitating old colonizer tropes, gleefully reducing the culture and country of 1.3 billion people to a (frankly) weak punchline- and that the [Washington Post] published it."

But the best was one Tweet, not from Padma, that said:

“I pride myself on my Pakistani cooking. I also love South Indian, and fusion dishes. That you got paid to write this tripe, and boldly spew your racism is deplorable. May your rice be clumpy, roti dry, your chilies unforgivable, your chai cold, and your papadams soft.”

Mic drop.

PS You also pissed off one Carlos in Smallville who loves Curry perhaps a soupçon more than he loves his husband.

And I’m good with that!

Oh No He Di'in't!!

We had a bit of excitement around Casa bob y Carlos yesterday. And by excitement, I mean, Carlos was almost murdered, and by murdered I mean I almost killed Carlos.

I decided to mow the lawns, and so I was out in the yard tooling around on the mower, with my phone in my pocket, ear buds in my ears, listening to music, and no doubt signing along and aloud to that music. I spotted Carlos cleaning up some branches that had fallen from a tree--we have a "Tree Guy" coming this week to "branch up" the trees--and wandering with Ozzo. My next pass around the yard and they were gone. My third pass around the yard was when I saw it ...

I thought it was Ozzo, still outside and roaming the yard, but upon closer inspection... IT.WAS.TUXEDO. Carlos had obviously opened a door, and even in his old, creaky boned, wobbly legs state, Tuxedo left the building for the front yard. Luckily, because, again, even in his old, creaky boned, wobbly legs state, Tuxedo wandered to the big [damn SpellCheck] gate, which was open to get the mower through to the front yard for mowing and strolled around the back yard. And, again, even in his old, creaky boned, wobbly legs state, Tuxedo didn't hear the mower, and wasn't afraid and as I turned the engine off and dismounted ...scoring perfect tens across the board ... he came walking up to me as if to say:

"Look at me Daddy! I'm outside by myself."

I scooped him up and started toward the small gate to get him back inside, when Carlos rounded the corner; I said:

"Look who I found wandering the back yard!"

"How did he get out?"

Clearly, Carlos thinks Tuxedo has a key.

He dodged a bullet that day. Literally.

Vacation Want: Casa Ojalá

I am not a difficult traveler. I don’t need five-star accommodations, but I do like someplace nice and clean, with a comfy bed and nice bath.

Enter Casa Ojalá. After a celebrated debut at Milan Design Week in 2019, Casa Ojalá [Hope House] has officially premiered its first unit in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia region. The compact cabin, conceived by Italian architect Beatrice Bonzanigo, is perched on a hillside in the 5,000-acre Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco estate, which hosts a luxury hotel with its own Brunello di Montalcino winery.

If you’ve never had Brunello di Montalcino, a delicious Sangiovese, you haven’t tasted heaven, but I digress …

After the smash debut, Bonzanigo teamed up with engineer Ryan Nesbitt to develop the concept into full-scale production, featuring manual mechanisms of ropes, pulleys, and cranks—inspired by the same system on boats—the roughly 291-square-foot guest suite can be fully opened, or closed, concealing walls, floor and ceiling tiles, and furniture.

The customizable, timber-clad cabin comes with options for retractable single and double beds that can be stored beneath the floor to maximize space in the living areas. A freestanding tub sits below one of the structure’s roof panels, which can open for sunbathing and stargazing. A ladder leads to a terrace lounge area that is accessible via a roof hatch.

These little transformative off-the-grid hotel rooms can be placed just about anywhere in the world, whether “by the ocean of Tulum, among the Vermont forests, or on the sands of Dubai.”

I want one in Tuscany so I can climb the roof and drink my Brunello di Montalcino, or sit in the open-air bath and drink my Brunello di Montalcino, or in the sitting area or the bedroom area, or just wandering through the fields drinking my Brunello di Montalcino.

Casa Ojalá  Dwell

The Funny Papers

Ann Telnaes, JD Crowe Ed Hall, David Horsey, Michael de Adder, Matt Wuerker, Darrin Bell, Deb Milbrath, David Fitzsimmons, Mike Luckovich, Dave Whamond, Nick Anderson, Adam Zyglis, Clay Bennett, Jack Ohman, 

In Ain't One To Gossip But ...

It was never lost on anyone that it seemed weird that Sex and the City never had at least one Black friend—and Jennifer Hudson, as Carrie’s assistant, doesn’t count—but now, some twenty-three years after its premiere, the producers, including SJP, have finally noticed there are people of color in New York City.

You.Don’t.Say. Yes, I do, because now Nicole Ari Parker has been added to the reboot and it’s being reported that her character will fill the vacancy left by Kim Cattrall who has had enough of SJP and left the building.

The reboot, entitled And Just Like That… so no one shrieks, “Oh my god, not another sequel to this crap,” is currently shooting in NYC with SJP, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, and Nicole Ari Parker, playing Carrie Bradshaw’s new best friend, documentary-maker Lisa Todd Wexley.

Somewhere Kim Cattrall is reading this news and saying, “Meh.”

Just like the rest of us.

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Prince Harry fancies himself an environmental activist, even appearing … again … with Oprah Winfrey on her Apple TV+ series The Me You Can’t See to talk about an issue he is passionate about: climate change.

Nice, Harry, but then please explain why you took a rich friend’s private jet from Aspen to Santa Barbara playing in a charity polo match.

Charity good, private jet bad, Harry.

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In the latter part of the last century, actress Brett Butler was making millions from her hit sitcom Grace Under Fire based on her own life and stand-up comedy act. Trouble was, Butler had addiction issues, boundary issues—she allegedly bared her breasts to a twelve-year-old boy—and was difficult on set. Things got worse when Butler became addicted to Vicodin—which a doctor prescribed for sciatica—and began butting heads with the show’s creator Chuck Lorre—who would later have the same types of issues with Charlie Sheen on the set of Two and a Half Men. As Brett battled addiction, the show’s ratings fell and cast members began quitting. The show was canceled, and Brett left Hollywood to live on a farm in Rome, Georgia, until losing that to foreclosure.

She returned to Hollywood, ready to start her career over again, and is using GoFundMe to ask her fans to help her out even though she earned some $25 million from Grace. In the last decade she was cast on Sheen’s Anger Management for 38 episodes, did a few episodes of The Young and the Restless, appeared on The Leftovers, How To Get Away With Murder, The Walking Dead, and The Morning Show. She generally gets paid over the guild minimum and sometimes makes $5,000 for a one-day shoot, but doesn’t work that often, and, you know, it’s hard out there for a former millionaire and Butler struggles to pay her $2500-a-month rent and so is down to the social media money beg.

Sorry, hon, but you seem to think you’re owed something. And you aren’t. I remember when former Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens, who was struggling to make ends meet after the show ended, didn’t head to GoFundMe to have the public pay his bills but took a job at a Southern California Trader Joe’s. Maybe they’re hiring Brett …

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Kanye has recently filed papers with a California court to have his name legally changed from Kanye Omari West to … Ye.

I think he should change his name to ‘Who’.

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And speaking of Kardastrophe-adjacent folks, leave it to Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott to prove themselves tone-deaf … again.

Stormi Webster, the three-year-old love child of Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner, expressed an interest in how poor people get to school, her dad surprised her with a school bus of her own so she could experience what normal people do. And because Kardastrophe-adjacent people live on social media, Kylie shared Stormi’s shock-and-awe at the bus in her Instagram Stories.

I guess it’s lucky Stormi didn’t express an interest in rocket ships because then she’d be circling the globe about now.

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I Didn't Say It ... The All Asshat Edition

Candace Owens, a conservative wingnut with too much time on her hands and too many microphones in front of her piehole, used former NBA superstar Dwyane Wade used 13-year-old trans daughter as an opportunity to lash out at his parenting:

“His son now says that he is a woman and Dwyane Wade is…’this is who he’s always been.’ No it’s not! You’re not going to tell me that your child is wearing long nine-inch nails and a belly shirt because that’s just how they came out. Did he learn if from Instagram? Did he learn it in school? Did he learn it in a music video? Your child learned this behavior because there was an absence of masculinity in that child’s life and that makes sense for a basketball player.”

I wonder how ignorant Owens ‘children are, or will be, having this hate-filled, transphobic feckless c*nt as a parent.

No child, NO CHILD, will come out as trans because they saw a video on Instagram or because he, or she, heard about it in school. They come out as trans because it is their truth and they are trans.

Just like Candace Owens is a bigoted asshat.

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Ron DeSantis, Florida’s dumb as dirt governor, blasting President Joe Biden for failing to “end COVID,” and taking credit for his state’s “great success”:

“You know, he said he was going to end COVID. He hasn’t done that. We are the first state to start the treatment centers for monoclonal antibodies. We’re having great success with that. That should have been a bigger plan, a bigger part of this whole response throughout the country from the beginning. At the end of the day, he is trying to find a way to distract from the failures of his presidency.”

Great success … coffins are being stacked up in mortuaries because of a backlog in burying the dead.

Yesterday Florida reported 21,765 more COVID-19 cases and 901 deaths. Yes, they’re back to dying by the 1,000s in Florida thanks to Ron DeSantis, who is a lying piece of …

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Kayleigh McEnany, Bullshit Barbie for the last administration, doing what she does best … lying:

“Look, when [Thing #45] was president, you didn’t see crisis after crisis. You just didn’t see it. I shudder to think about what COVID would have been like under Joe Biden. We’ve seen Afghanistan blow up. Crime in the streets. You named it all. What would COVID have been like? Because I was in the White House when it was pretty scary times. We weren’t sure if we’d have enough ventilators. But we were able to produce it with the private sector. I watched [Thing #45] oversee a vaccine in record time, produce four working therapeutics. Do you think Joe Biden could have done any of that? The answer is absolutely not.”

Um, honey, you brainless, illiterate lying tool … under your president we were to drink bleach or take hydroxychloroquine or shine a flashlight up our asses while more than half a million of us died and your boss told us it was no big deal and would end when the weather got warmer.

Take a seat, Karen.

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Maria Bartiromo, taking Thing #45 lapdog Kevin McCarthy to task for not perpetuating the Big Lie:

“I’ve got to tell you there are viewers of this program who have lost faith in the Republican Party leadership, lost faith in Mitch McConnell and in you because we do not know if you have your arms around free and fair elections. How come there’s no discussion about all of the states that are changing their voting laws right now? How come there’s no discussion about the audit going on in Arizona right now? What are you going to do? Can you prove to the American people that you are in control here and able to ensure that we will have free and fair elections in 2022 and 2024?”

Honey, it’s been proven over sixty-some-odd times that the election was free and fair. You need to take a seat.

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Rachel Campos-Duffy, Fox News hack blaming … wait for it … Jill Biden for the Afghanistan crisis:

“When you look at what’s hurting America, when you look at this lack of leadership, and you wonder who are the people responsible for putting someone this incompetent and frankly this, you know, mentally frail in this position? And yes, of course, the media and many people are saying Susan Rice and Obama and maybe Valerie Jarrett. I’m sorry, as a political spouse, I can’t help but look at Jill Biden. No one knew better his state of mind than Dr. Jill Biden. And if you ask me, the most patriotic thing Jill Biden could have done was tell her husband. To love her husband and not let him run in this mental state that he’s in. I think she failed the country as well.”

Campos–Duffy is married to Sean Duffy, a former Thing #45 lapdog, and a former reality show star so I think her thoughts on any wife of a politician is skewed and screwed.

Also, how pathetic to continue this 'Joe has dementia filth'. Where did this bitch get her medical degree and when did she ever examine Biden?

Lying feckless …

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Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee GQP asshat, spewing lunacy because …well, it’s what she does:

“When you talk about country music, and I know the left is all out now and trying to change country music and make it woke. When I’m talking to my friends who are musicians, I say, ‘If we have a socialistic government—if we have Marxism—you are going to be the first ones who will be cut off because the state would have to approve your music.’ Taylor Swift came after me in my 2018 campaign. But Taylor Swift would be the first victim of that because when you look at Marxist socialistic societies, they do not allow women to dress or sing or be on stage or to entertain or the type music she would have. They don’t allow protection of private intellectual property rights.”

Seriously. This is what this dim bulb is talking about? And Tennessee can’t do better than this?

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Bobservations

I have always called Carlos the Absentminded Professor because his memory is like a sieve. But the other morning, while watching the news, that Subaru ad came on with the dogs driving the car, and he asked why they don’t use cats, and I replied:

“Cats don’t drive. Cats are driven.”

We chuckled, and then I told him the story of my friend Laura who, when I recommended years ago that she see the movie The Red Violin she asked if it had subtitles, and then said:

“I don’t read.”

We chuckled some more, and then Carlos starts talking about The Red Violin and literally spells out the entire plot, and every minute detail of the story. This from a man who cannot remember where he left his phone, every single time he sets it, but The Red Violin which he hasn’t seen in over twenty years? 

He’s got it.

Tuxedo asks all the right questions but the noise on the right, who are clearly trying to distract from their Big Lie and Voter Suppression Agenda, are too loud.

Well, Jeopardy! is back to guest hosts after the resignation of Mike Richards who said some pretty awful things about women in a podcast several years ago, and subsequently resigned. Now actor Mayim Bialik will return as the first in another round of guest hosts until a permanent host is picked … by Mike Richards.

Take note: whatever you post on social media can and will be used against you one day, so, you know, watch your mouth.

It speaks volumes about the ignorance of some people when the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] has to use Twitter to remind people—who don’t want to take the vaccine—to not to take the “horse paste” drug Ivermectin to fight COVID-19:

“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

Ivermectin is the new bleach … which was the new shine a light up your ass …which was the new hydroxychloroquine.

The other day at work two co-workers were discussing their political ideology and one, who makes no bones about being a Republican,  said something about having no problem with gay people because he … wait for it … has a friend who is gay and so he clearly has no problem. Now, try as I might to keep quiet, big surprise, I could not. So, I channeled my inner Julia Sugarbaker—for the young ones in the crowd, Google her—and I said to Mr. Gay-friendly.

“So, you’re cool with The Gays because you have a gay friend? I find that odd because never once in the entire time you have worked here have you acknowledged my husband or even said his name. And, whenever I have mentioned him, and I talk about him a lot because we have a twenty-one-year life together, even in the early days of your employment, did you ask who Carlos was, what he did, how we met, while the first time you mentioned your girlfriend I asked about her. Perhaps you ought to rethink what being ‘cool with The Gays’ really means. It means speaking to us, acknowledging us, and treating us equally. Acting like we exist outside of being your friend. But thanks for telling us all that you have ‘no problem’ with me. I’ll sleep better tonight”

Sometimes I just can’t.

Spencer Elden, the grown-ass man whose unusual baby portrait was used the cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” filed a lawsuit alleging that the nude image constituted child pornography.

That’s the cover there on the left, and that’s grown-ass Spencer on the right, recreating the cover shoot on the 10th, 17th, 20th and 25th anniversary of the album’s release. And don’t you just love his “Nevermind” chest tattoo?

Elden wants $150,000 from surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Courtney Love, the executor of Kurt Cobain’s estate; Guy Oseary and Heather Parry, managers of Cobain’s estate; photographer Kirk Weddle; art director Robert Fisher; and a number of existing or defunct record companies that released or distributed the album in the last three decades.

Elden seems to have forgotten that his parents signed a release for the photo, and were paid for the photo, so if he wants to sue for coins, start with mom and dad.

Down here in South Carolina, where It’s Not The Heat, It’s The Stupidity, some parents in Greenville County attended a school board meeting to discuss COVID. Some want masks; some don’t. Even though right now 910 students are quarantining, 245 are isolating, and 407 are waiting for test results.

But the icing on the cake was a woman who stood up before the board and claimed that she had … dear goddess you cannot make this shiz up … uncovered a plot by the CDC to shut down schools and turn them into Nazi-style concentration camps, where children will be taken away from their parents, and couples separated from each other.

Again, the biggest virus in this country is Ignorance and the only vaccine is education and active brain cells.

Erik Prince, the American defense contractor who, let’s be queer, makes his coins off of war, is offering people seats on a chartered plane out of Kabul.

For $6,500 per person. He can literally fuck himself into oblivion.

Following his wingnut tour of the Midwest with fellow Congressional lunatic, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz got married  on Catalina Island off the coast of California. And for a guy who craves the spotlight, the event was decidedly understated. The bride's brother, Palmer, and his partner, Nicole, and Nestor Galban, Gaetz’s adopted “son,” represented the family.

Note to Gaetz: a wife cannot testify against their husband about anything that happens after the marriage, but she can be compelled to testify about your sex trafficking life before saying ‘I do.’

Shomari Francis. I know almost nothing about him, other than he likes wearing barely there briefs and is smolderingly hot. And I’m not mad at that.

Architecture Wednesday: Useless Bay

I’m guessing by the name of this location, when you get there, you just do nothing, and if that means living in this little house by the water, I’m fine with useless.

This home sits on the aforementioned Useless Bay at the southern end of Whidbey Island, Washington; the bay got its name due to frequent inclement weather. The area where the house is sited in on a 100-year old manmade spit that creates a separation between the open waters of Puget Sound and a freshwater wetland for wildlife.

This was the site of an old family cabin passed through generations, and when it because useless—see what I did there—the two older structures were replaced with one larger, more durable structure for family gatherings.

Pretty, yes, but living here, or even just visiting on vacation, presents some significant challenges. The harbor is completely unsheltered from prevailing winds from the Southwest, while high waters from winter storms can flood homes with corrosive saltwater. All that means is that FEMA requires newly built homes in Useless Bay to meet the highest set of flood-resistance requirements.

So this home was elevated on concrete piers that enable floodwaters to pass below the dwelling. Not a minor undertaking as it required sinking roughly 50 lengths of galvanized 8’ pipe up to 55 feet into the ground, and then pour concrete around those pipes to create reinforce pipe pilings. This style of foundation will create a strong anchor into the earth and ensures the structure will not settle or slump.

But this is a home for a family, and an extended family, so it’s a house designed to handle them all. The central great room is flanked by a pair of fireplaces with the idea that the furniture can be moved seasonally to take advantage of light and views.

The kitchen is set to one side of the great room, facing the expansive glass and the views beyond, while identical bedrooms are located at either end of the home.

It doesn’t sound useless at all.

 One Kind Design