Setting the Record Straight

An editorial in the right-wing New York Post ("Oh (No) Canada," February 3, 2010) erroneously stated that "President Obama...hopes to overhaul American health-care."
It's not health-care that needs to be reformed, it's health-care insurance.

Make Pepsi Throwback Available Year-Round

Pepsi should offer its Throwback product "made with real sugar" year-round instead of making it available for a limited time. It would give consumers concerned about the use of high fructose corn syrup an alternative.

On Crime

"For someone never trained for useful work, crime is a skill like any other. It has its craft, its lore, its traditions, rewards and risks. Poverty helps train people for such jobs, the way poverty goads so many other people to acquire legitimate skills."--Pete Hamill, "For Looters, $ Overcame Good Sense," New York Post, August 17, 1977. Re: the Blackout of 1977.

A Racial Double Standard

Cord Jefferson states in his theroot.com article promoting the use of the word "colored" to describe black people that he's "brown, but for whatever reason, that descriptor was given to Latinos." He further states "I don't begrudge anyone that decision, but I find it difficult to agree to being called black, because I'm not."
Yet when discussing the white med student from Mozambique who wanted to be called African American, Jefferson had no problem with the use of the word "white." Are whites really white?
And isn't there diversity within the white community? Ever hear of blondes, redheads, and brunettes? A set of encyclopedias I once owned as a kid divided whites into three groups: Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. Obviously an acknowledgment that whites are not all the same, just like blacks.
Plus there are whites who shy away from calling themselves white and instead use the word "Caucasian." This is probably because white is not a good description of their skin tones. Although Caucasian might not be accurate either. Does the term mean that whites originated in the Caucasus Mountains? However, I don't see whites getting all bent out of shape over nomenclature. Maybe it's because whatever name they go by, they still dominate the global power structure.

Honoring Strawberry Ice Cream

While browsing through my Turkey Hill Ice Cream 2010 calendar, I learned that January 15 is National Strawberry Ice Cream Day. That brought to mind my junior high school days in California, when I would purchase at the campus snack bar a Dixie cup of what passed for strawberry ice cream--vanilla ice cream topped with a dollop of strawberry preserves that was to be stirred with the wooden spoon supplied. I've been meaning to duplicate this concoction to see if it comes close in taste to what I had in junior high.

Overcoming Our Violent Side

A city like New York is a testament to the scientific and technological strides that human beings have made over the centuries.Despite our ingenuity, there lurks within each of us, whether we want to admit it or not, a primitive side that manifests itself through violence and mayhem. If we could find a way to eradicate that side of ourselves, we would have a truly beautiful world in which to fully enjoy our technological advances and we wouldn't need to fear war or its handmaiden terrorism.

Fela's Musical Journey From Nigeria to America

The first time I heard the late Nigerian musician Fela was on WBAI, Pacifica Radio's New York FM station, in the 80s. The music reminded me a lot of James Brown's music, which I believe was an influence on Fela. I was so moved by what I heard that I taped the music off the radio and played it back often.
Seattle writer Rick VanderKnyff's theroot.com article, "The Strange Love Affair Between America and the Afrobeat Superstar" discusses Fela's slow ascendancy from an unknown to a revered celebrity on the American music scene, culminating in a hit Broadway musical, directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones.