Thursday, March 13, 2008

TOSSING MY COOKIES!!

It's here - a harbinger of Spring. My favorite of all seasons. The crocus shoots are coming up, the daylight lasts longer, spring training is happening in the South. You get the idea.
The Girls Scouts have started delivering the cookies!! When they begin taking orders in January the countdown begins....how many weeks until they are delivered and how to manage the loot once it arrives. Being a huge supporter of the Girl Scouts ever since I was one myself-I buy way too many and then have to devise a plan to distribute the cookies to people who'd like them but say "they'd better not." These cookies come but once a year which definitely adds to their allure. After all - with all of the amazing cookies available all year round what is it about the Girl Scout cookies that have such a powerful hold? It's the memories -has to be. The cookies really aren't even that great anymore. Ok-the thin mints will always be, well...."mint!" Plus if you put them in the freezer they are frozen and yummy and if you happen to forget they are in the freezer you have quite a treat coming that you don't even know is coming! I have the boxes from the scouts in the neighborhood and soon the ones from my nieces will arrive. In total we have probably purchased 25 boxes of cookies. Perhaps next year I'll write the check to GSA and forget about the cookies.Naaaaaaah!!!!

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

OPRAH OUTRAGE!!!

Good thing we live in a world with dvr because after watching a segment on Oprah today-I was glad I was able to rewind and make sure I heard what I thought I did.
Oprah was doing a segment with personal chef, Art Smith, and was going on and on about this chicken dish which is her favorite,favorite,favorite- okay, we get it. You love this dish!
What was completely shocking and incredibly offensive was when Oprah went on to punctuate this display of passion for this food and said something to the effect of this being the meal to have if you are going TO THE GAS CHAMBER!!!THE GAS CHAMBER!!! How in the world can this woman so casually throw around a reference which one would attribute immediately to the atrocities of the Holocaust. I can only imagine her outrage if someone in the media likened the desire for a last meal as something to have on the way to a lyching! imagine!!
I played back the comment a few times to make sure I got it right.When the show came back from break I was expecting some type of mea culpa from the Big O. But no such apology was forthcoming. I thought for sure someone on her staff would have alerted her to what could have only been a stupid comment. I wonder what Elie Wiesel would say if he knew the woman he traveled through Auschwitz with would make such a matter of fact comment about the gas chamber.Hmmm.....I would love to have a public apology from the mighty Oprah on this but as my attempts to reach her through the years to connect on our mutual love of books has proved fruitless I am not too confident that a criticism will reach her any faster. It's hardly unlikely that this blog is on Oprah's list of must -reads but just in case ......here it is!