The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Open Thread At Noon

Re: Open Thread At Noon

bread & roses — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:24:35 -0000

I think there's a significant and crucial difference between a male athlete who poses as a woman to win races, and one who has some male hormones naturally but identifies as a woman. The difference is that Semenya isn't faking womanhood to compete as an athlete. Her lack of compliance with a standard of femaleness isn't her fault. Doping is a choice; being intersex is not. So let the intersex compete in the gender they live their lives in. It's not going to ruin women's sports.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Brad L — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:59:24 -0000

Persia, please to explain how this: http://food.theatlantic.com/cooking-from-the-south/bringing-a-home-a-taste-of-vacation.php bears any resemblance to an inexpensive hobby, and then you can bring back the condescension and sass.

Looks to me like that recipe calls for about $7 worth of ingredients, if they are bought from a grocery store.

(This comment brought to you by insomnia).

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Quizfan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:57:08 -0000

You have seen this, yes?

http://apoeticjustice.blogspot.com/2006/09/suheir-hammad-def-poetry.html

Re: Open Thread At Noon

anna perez — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:43:04 -0000

I guess the late, great Edna Lewis had a "food fetish" long before it became fashionable. Ms. Edna was a Black woman who grew up in an all Black town/farming community in the south who in the 1940's and '50's proselytized and advocated for using fresh, local ingredients, using simple but precise techniques to draw out their flavor. Years later, after moving to NYC she was embraced by the cognesentie (sp) (Marlon Brando used to walk her home from the resto where she was "Top Chef" and Andy Warhol was a big fan.) About a year or so ago, "Saveur" mag had a wonderful article about her, including a posthumous essay she'd written. IMHO, Ms. Edna was the original Alice Waters. Do yourselves a favor, and find her cookbooks and essays.

Also Elizabeth David, MFK Fisher and Calvin Trillin (who I think of as Anthony Bourdain with a much better sense of humour.) Wonderful writing and delicious food. "Foodies" are not new, but their are probably more of us now, and amen to that.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

anna perez — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:17:58 -0000

Go to chowhound.com and the NYC board. Chowhounder rec's are usually very reliable. Have big fun.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

DougEMI — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:51:59 -0000

I put in my picks, it is much more user friendly than last time I was in a league. I like how it doesn't let you reuse a confidence point.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:35:35 -0000

Sorn: oh it's cool. thanks!

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:33:16 -0000

I don't mean to be critical; I feel the same. I just felt compelled to confirm my suspicions of its origin.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:24:45 -0000

Thanks beeb.

I hope you understand that my reaction on hearing the name, in no way is meant to undermine the good points you were making.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:23:55 -0000

(replying to Sorn @5:11 here as comments only nest finitely)

Pretty much, yeah. Perhaps not even musical. It's like "cellar door" having a nice sound, but from an anti-aesthetic appreciation (reveling in the ugliness or dissonance of the aggressive sound), or the way the Merovingian curses in French.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:11:21 -0000

Josh,

If I understand what you just said corectly. You dislike what it represents but you think the words have a musical sound . I can understand that.

Thanks for adding to my knoweledge.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:11:08 -0000

http://www.sdlatinofilm.com/trends12.html

Quoted from above link:

"In 1967, Frito-Lay Corporation launched a national advertising campaign featuring an "unshaven, unfriendly, and leering" Frito Bandito who stole Anglos' corn chips at gunpoint.1 Initially, Frito Bandito commercials appeared during children's television shows, where they were an "unqualified success," leading Frito-Lay to use the character in all its television and print advertising.2 Despite growing protests from Mexican American groups, the Frito Bandito, developed by Foote, Cone & Belding Communications, sold a lot of corn chips during its four year run. In 1971, under increasing pressure as members of congress, local television stations, and the press joined the cause, Frito-Lay reluctantly dropped the Frito Bandito campaign."

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:06:16 -0000

Thanks Josh.

I'll mind my P's and Q's in the future.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:05:18 -0000

Going back to an earlier discussion, I kinda feel about it the same way about it as I do the word "fucktard"; I can't help but be drawn in by the aesthetics of it purely as a phoneme group even as I'm horrified by it as a morpheme group.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:59:21 -0000

It was a Mel Blan character created for a Fritos marketing campaign that was criticized by the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee et al, sort-of a part of the dark underworld of MGM/WB/UA cartoons.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Sorn — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:39:24 -0000

El Frito Banditos.

Sir,

::Stands at Attention::

Requesting permission to laugh with the understanding that no one will think of me as a racist.

::Awaits reply::

I had never heard of the El Frito Bandito's before today

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:20:14 -0000

Got it.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:18:35 -0000

"so I'm inclined to agree with Welch's point even if I can see that he's being rude"

Exactly. He is being rude. And like I said, in my "context" point below there's a lot of "rudeness" thrown around regarding Latinos and Latinos in the English language media. I'm absolutely tired of it. And I don't care how small the point is.

I told him that line detracted from his argument. Fake Spanish isn't cute. I've had it.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:13:53 -0000

But isn't Welch being sarcastic, showing how absurd it is that people are supposed to have documentation to be allowed in an ostensibly free country and how opposition to open borders is often rooted in racism? I mean, one of the problems I have with national health care is the nationalism; I think I have the same moral obligations to other human beings regardless of what side of a certain river they were born on, so I'm inclined to agree with Welch's point even if I can see that he's being rude, but I think he was tilting at the people objecting that "illegals" might be benefited by reform (along side people that are selling them out to move their issue along).

Henry J.W. Richwhitejerk, Jr. was high-larious, though. Given my heritage, I might toss in Ander MacNonbifurcatedpants.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:56:47 -0000

...also let me give you some context for my rage. Latinos and Latinas are really discussed in the English language media, in terms other than as being one big problem, i.e. illegal immigration, poverty, low test scores, etc. There are very few English language Latino and Latina writers out there giving out a balanced view of our communities. So, I've already had enough of being alternately ignored and maligned in the English language press. Matt Welch's little obnoxious dismissiveness doesn't help. I already wrote him. I asked him he didn't go ahead and call them all El Frito Banditos.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:53:46 -0000

um, Steinglass is being sarcastic, showing how absurd Welch is being with that Juan and Juana stuff...you know, applying the same sort of logical Welch used, to other ethnic groups.

wow...

Re: Open Thread At Noon

GAPeach7 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:51:28 -0000

Venus Hottentot comes to mind. The same morbid and horrific inspection of another human being. The de-sexualization of a woman. This entire ordeal is god-awful.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

Joshua Lyle — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:42:45 -0000

I'm not sure I understand the disproportionate outrage -- aren't Matt and Matt doing exactly the same thing?

Re: Open Thread At Noon

silentbeep — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:21:34 -0000

Well, I didn't exactly want to do this here, but my log-in over at True Slant is giving me problems so, forgive me for another mini-rant but Matt Welch over at Reason just wrote something really f'ing obnoxious, and yes, I think it is safe to say, he is one white person that should be screamed at, by me, a brown person (sort of kidding here, but not entirely).

This is what he wrote over at Reason quoted by Steinglass at True/slant:

Sep. 11 2009 — 10:42 am | 119 views | 0 recommendations | 4 comments

Or, for that matter, Hymie Greedstein?

Hit & Run > Maybe it’s a Little Bit Fun Being an Illegal Alien – Reason Magazine.

Steinglass - "Matt Welch probably shouldn’t have gone quite exactly there:

"my question is this: If the government is coercing John and Jane Healthy to buy insurance so that the rest of us have to pay less money for their emergency room visits, on what planet does the same argument not apply to Juan y Juana Undocumento? - Welch"

Steinglass: But what about Sean O’Drunkard? Shaniqua Crackhuffer? Jeb McRedneck? Deepak Premednerdi? Henry J.W. Richwhitejerk, Jr.?

--------

http://trueslant.com/matthewsteinglass/

If you read the comments section Matt Welch has the gall to ask "what is wrong with that?"

Jeeez. If you need someone to tell you what's wrong with that Welch, there's not enough patience and energy in the world to try and educate you out of your ignorance.

Re: Open Thread At Noon

CitizenE — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:08:38 -0000

I personally enjoy those shows, although I live in an area in the US where there are more people engaged in food making at a high level than most, and so I have friends and neighbors, family too, in the business. But Pollan's discussion, which was a critique of these shows much on the same basis as your final paragraph, does not ring so true for me and the people I know who are into it. I have been growing my own gardens for over 40 years. When raising my kids, before and after divorce, I was the person making their meals.

When I was a poverty stricken hippie, I would go to nearby orchards and vineyards and with permission of the owners harvest fruit for free. When I lived in one county where pears were a big crop, there was no end to the pear pies, pear cobbler, pears in wine, and pear butter. I get requests from friends and family for my pickled peppers, my pepper sauces, tomato sauces, my salsas, my bar b que sauces, and so on.

I personally love to cook while watching these shows--especially after a long day's work and I am home alone, they keep the inspirational juices flowing.

Now that doesn't mean that when I hear chefs talking up something like Jerusalem artichokes, basically an utterly bland root vegetable that as a plant is so invasive one has to go to some lengths to weed it out of one's garden, as haute cuisine, I don't have to laugh. And when I know that people who frequent a famous restaurant two blocks from my door pay more for a meal for 4 than I put out for monthly rent, it's hard to miss the conspicuous consumption element to it, however well deserved that restaurant's reputation may be.

Personally, I wish that Michelle Obama in her role as first lady would speak to the issue of home gardening, something that can be done in containers on roof tops and balconies, as well as in lieu of back yard lawns. We live in a time when someone who is raising their own hens is eating eggs that are gourmet quality by contrast with what can be bought in a store. And right now I am pulling in tomatoes by the bushel with flavors you can't find in stores most of the year and making awesome sauces of every description every weekend.