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!

The Funny Papers

JD Crowe, Bruce Plante, Kevin Siers, Jack Ohman, Ed Wexler, Dave Whamond, Drew Sheneman, Michael de Adder, Adam Zyglis, Clay Bennett, Steve Sack, Ed Hall, Phil Hands, RJ Matson, Ann Telnaes,

Architecture Wednesday: Krishnan House

The site of the Krishnan House is over 16,000 square feet, with several exiting trees, so the architects at Khosla Associates created a low-slung house to accommodate the surroundings. There are locally sourced Mangalore tiles on the roof, with rough-cut Shira stone clad and polished Kota and Teak floors throughout.

The living room soars with 25-foot ceilings; its verticality is emphasized by large floor-to-ceiling windows and large overhangs to protect against the harsh afternoon sun while horizontal timber louvers provide for natural cooling.

The living areas open to a wooden verandah overlooking an internal courtyard garden; almost all the spaces on the ground and first level flow into the garden. The central feature of the living room is a burnt orange spiral staircase sculpted out of steel with housing timber treads.

The spatial flow takes into consideration the family’s requirement of segregating public and private space. The ground floor has living, study, dining, puja, or worship space, home theatre, two kitchens, and two guest rooms; the upper level has 3 bedrooms, yoga and meditation spaces, and a family room.

On the garden side, the study and the living rooms flow into their respective verandahs around a large pebbled fishpond. An existing tree emerges from the water and is uniquely framed by the shape of the house on either side and by pivoted vertical timber slats as a backdrop that gently separate it from the home’s entrance.

It’s probably one of the most peaceful homes I’ve seen, with the gardens and trees and the pond, but so vibrant on the inside. Plus a library and a movie theater? Yeah, I’ll take it.

Floorplans ... click to emBIGGERate ...

Khosla Associates

Random Musings

So, is the beard in again, or is it out again? And I don’t mean the “Mrs. Tom Cruise” or “Mrs. John Travolta” kind of beard, but the actual facial hair beard.

In a study of 1,453 bisexual and heterosexual women, Australian University of New South Wales researchers found that the more women were exposed to images of bearded men, the more likely they were to find clean-shaven men more attractive, and vice-versa. The women were shown 36 images of men’s faces — the first 24 were exclusively of bearded or clean-shaven men, while the final twelve were a mix of facial hair styles — and as they viewed each picture, they were asked to rate each man’s attractiveness on a scale of four to negative four.

Head researcher Professor Robert Brooks says men who grew beards to be more sexually attractive may have lost their allure now that facial hair has become more popular among other guys: “We may well be at peak beard.”

Someone tell Tom and John that the beard may be over.

Sidenote: years back I had long hair, well beyond my shoulders, and luxurious and curly; I also wore a full, yet neatly trimmed, beard. While standing in a grocery check-out line behind a woman and her son, the little boy kept staring at me and finally tugged his mother’s sleeve and said, loudly:

“Mommy? That man looks just like Jesus.”

Oh, I had a field day with that one!

Remember a few weeks back when Alec Baldwin, after being dumped by MSNBC and Visa for his homophobic taunts to paparazzi, said he would be leaving public life, including social media?

Yeah, he lied. He got into a twitter war — though Baldwin, like the homophobic coward he is, deleted his Tweets — with former Romney aide, Garrett Jackson over the Keystone pipeline documentary Above All Else:

Then came insults about politics and such, until Baldwin tweeted about his thoughts about Jackson’s avatar and wondered what he might be doing on his knees; you know, maybe he's on his knees because he's a gay man and he's about to ... you know, cuz calling someone a gay slur, or intimating they're gay is the height of insult.

Naturally, Baldwin deleted that Tweet, though Jackson kept up:

Last word: Alec Baldwin? You said you were giving up public life; please do so. And stay off Twitter and stop trying to insult people because you have the insulting technique of a 10-year-old child.

Grow the fuck up, and then shut the fuck up.

What’s this? There was a Mrs. Jesus Christ?

A faded piece of papyrus called the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” — which caused an uproar when unveiled by a Harvard Divinity School historian in 2012 — has been tested by scientists who have determined that the ink and papyrus are very likely ancient, and not a modern forgery.

Skepticism about the tiny scrap of papyrus has been fierce because it contained a phrase never before seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife...’ ” and also contained the words “she will be able to be my disciple,” a clause that inflamed the debate in some churches over whether women should be allowed to be priests. You know, cuz it looks like Jesus said so.

Of course, this doesn’t really prove anything because, even though the papyrus is ancient, it doesn’t mean what’s written on it is true. Still, I do love to see Churches scamper as they try to deflect the idea that Jesus took a wife, probably Mary Magdalene, because all Churches have long held that women are second class citizens.

Except, now, maybe  Jesus …

So, Nurse Jackie is back and still funny as ever, but while I loves me some Edie Falco, one cannot ignore the charms of Morris Chestnut. Yum.

And, on Bates Motel, Nestor Carbonell has been co-starring since the beginning, but somehow this week’s episode had me looking at him, um, differently, shall we say? Yum.

After weeks of debate, producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race pulled a controversial episode, and made adjustments to the show's future content by eliminating the phrase "she-male" in any context; they have also put an end to the show's long-running "You've Got She-Mail" segment.

It all began on March 17, when the show featured a mini-challenge titled "Female or She-male," in which the contestants were shown a photo of a woman's body part and then asked whether the picture was "female" — meaning a non-transgender woman — or "she-male" — meaning someone who born male but now presents themselves in a feminine manner.

The following morning, a number of transgender activists voiced their concerns on Twitter, followed by stories all over the web and in print media. Finally, the show’s producers, including RuPaul and Logo released a statement:

"We delight in celebrating every color in the LGBT rainbow. When it comes to the movement of our trans sisters and trans brothers, we are newly sensitized and more committed than ever to help spread love, acceptance and understanding."

Notice though, the lack of an actual apology, which caused the debate to rage on until ...this week, Logo issued a follow-up statement with the new rules:

"We wanted to thank the community for sharing their concerns around a recent segment and the use of the term 'she-mail' on Drag Race. Logo has pulled the episode from all of our platforms and that challenge will not appear again. Furthermore, we are removing the 'You've got she-mail' intro from new episodes of the series. We did not intend to cause any offense, but in retrospect we realize that it was insensitive. We sincerely apologize."

I’m glad they did this; though I will say, that while I was offended and uncomfortable with the “Female or She-Male” challenge, I always looked at the ‘You’ve Got She-Mail’ as a riff on Tyra Mail from America’s Next Top Model.

Still, it’s a positive and much needed step forward, so kudos to Ru and Logo for that.

And so, while we’re talking Drag Race …

This week’s Mini-Challenge had the remaining seven queens play a game of "Hung Man" with the Scruff pit crew — grown to ten beefy men in tight Scruff briefs — doing a Ru-version of Hangman, only the letters were pinned to their asses. I’m seeing a new Logo game show because it was fun, and cute and ass-o-licious.

The Main Challenge was Host Your Own Talk Show, with Cher’s son, Chaz Bono, and Cher’s mother, the fabulous Georgia Holt, as featured guests on each queens’ couch, while the runway task was to make an animal of yourself.

Let’s rip …

Courtney Act took the top spot, and I would have given it to her just for the bird wings — the ginormous bird wings — she sported on the runway. But she also got points for her interview look and style. It was Courtney’s first win, but … hot on her heels was my personal fave …

BenDeLaCreme endured a bad few weeks, but this week she really shined. I loved her interview with Chaz and Georgia because she was really interested in it, and not just play-acting as EllenKatieWendy. Plus, that runway look, The Fly, was creepy and cool and ingenious and totally outside the previous weeks looks. Highlight: DeLa guessing ‘butterface’ with just a ‘B’ on that hot ass in Hung Man!

Bianca Del Rio is another fave, and while I loves me some DeLa I can’t help feeling Bianca will take the whole thing. Her runway look was true Bianca, but her interview was one0sided, and directed only at Chaz,

Adore Delano was a mess, and not the hot kind, in her talk show and her runway look didn’t fare much better. On any other year, she might get far, but up against DeLa and Courtney and Bianca, and even Darienne, I think she’ll go in the next couple of weeks.

Darienne’s interview was a bundle of nerves, and pieces falling off. I’m over her, and I’m over her attitude, which might just be hiding a severe lack of confidence.

Joslyn Fox. Bitch should’a gone home tonight. Her questions during the interview were rude and inappropriate—really, Joslyn? Abortion? And her runway look had nothing to do with animals at all.  When Ru said she was safe, I almost through the remote at … Carlos; hey, a new TV is an expense I can’t do right now, and Carlos could heal quickly … right? But she Shantayed and stayed, which means …

Trinity K. Bonet Sashayed Away. Sure, her interview was awful, I mean, when you can’t even remember Chaz Bono’s name isn’t Chad, that’s a bad thing, but it wasn’t any more cringe-worthy than Joslyn’s. And her look on the runway was feathered and fierce. I liked that she’d found her sense of self and confidence and kinda wished she stayed longer.

What did YOU think?

In the same India that recently voted to once again make homosexuality a crime, the Supreme Court ruled that transgender people, or “third gender” as the court said, should be given the rights of citizens.

It’s a bold move, especially given the Court’s last ruling, and I hope it helps with the efforts to overturn the old-new-again anti-homosexuality laws.

In the Too Stupid To Live category we have twenty-five-year-old Bostonian Kevin Edson, who thought it would be a kick to leave a backpack containing a rice-cooker near the finish line of next week’s Boston Marathon.

Cuz nothing is funnier than bombs going off and killing and dismembering innocent people.

I hope when they lock his ridiculous ass up they throw away the key.

And let’s continue with The Stupid … ShoeGate.

Asshats and wingnuts are saying that Hillary Clinton actually planted that shoe-throwing woman in order to look more presidential because … W. Yeah, because someone once threw a shoe at W’s melon, these fools actually think that Hillary Clinton thought someone should toss a stiletto at her head because then she’d look presidential, like W.

Oh hell no. Hillary looks more presidential standing still than W looked during all eight years of his reign of lies and terrorism.

From Fox — of course — commentator Bernard Goldberg: 

“There is a political axiom, I believe first posed by Euclid or Archimedes, that when Hillary does something, or when something happens to her, she has carefully calculated it beforehand. This is almost always true, the one trivial exception being the nomination and election of Barack Obama in 2008. So it would not be stretching logic to suppose that Hillary arranged to have the shoe thrown at her. Remembering the Bush incident, she may have calculated that this would make her seem presidential. This would explain why Ms. Ernst was not pounded to a pulp by Hillary’s bodyguards, and why she seems on the verge of getting off scot free. Don’t be too surprised, the next time you visit Phoenix, if you see her sitting at a table in a downtown Hillary for President store front, stuffing and sealing envelopes.”

Seriously? This tool thinks having a shoe thrown at you makes you look presidential? No wonder he’s a Republican. Also stepping into the crazy ring, weighing in at just 900 pounds, and filled top the brim with prescription meds, is Rush Limbaugh:

"I think it was staged, or set up, or whatever. I don’t know why anybody would be throwing a shoe at Hillary unless maybe it’s an attempt to make the Benghazi people look like nuts and lunatics and wackos."

Sit down, Rush, before the meds truly kick in and you fall down.

Last week Anderson Cooper Tweeted out his support of college athlete Derrick Gordon for coming out as gay:

His Tweet apparently offended at least one moron, Damian Goddard, who Tweeted this:

But, since The Gays are quick with a quip, Cooper Tweeted back:

Snap!

Thanks to pressure from anti-gay Christian groups, the Louisiana House yesterday refused to repeal an unenforceable and unconstitutional anti-sodomy law.

The conservative Christian Louisiana Family Forum sent letters to every legislator urging them to vote against the proposal, claiming that teenagers would be less protected from sexual predators if they went through with the repeal.

Oh, it’s the Save The Children fear tactic again.

So, blowjobs in Louisianan are technically a felony, but I’m guessing that none of these straight men and women legislators and Bible Thumpers thought about women who, um, go down, as being criminals.

In other news, it’s still perfectly legal to fuck a corpse in Louisiana, but two adults performing oral sex is a crime.

Way to go, Louisiana.

In the Everything Old Is … well, still old department comes the news about a sequel to 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire and Robin Williams is set to star again.

Twenty-one years later.

The original  centered on Williams as a struggling actor and recently divorced father of three who, in order to be closer to his children, takes on the persona of a Scottish nanny, Eupheginia Doubtfire.

No word on how they’ll transform this into a new story that takes place two decades later, unless Williams will play the Scottish nanny hired to take care of his children’s children.

Yeah, that screams hilarity.