9 posts tagged “qotd”

If your Vox Neighborhood had a potluck dinner tonight, what dish, drink or dessert would you bring?

 

I used to make a mean Chicken Jambalaya, which I also took to potlucks, never brought any back home! I can post the recipe on my blog!  It is a terrifically spicy and wild kind of dish, with plenty of "personality" and justifies the couple of hours it takes to mix together.  I do not go to those lovely potlucks anymore, and can't stand up in the kitchen to make this one, either.  But it is a yummy dish! 

What's the most memorable crush you have had? 
Submitted by spectacular.  

Long ago, in my first year at college at South Dakota State as an art major, I absolutely fell to the floor hit by that lightning bolt, when I first came up near the most gorgeous man I had ever seen!  His name was Al Ramey, and he was a Sioux Indian from the Ft. Yates reservation.  His whole appearance drew me like a magnet, and I could not help but look for him everywhere.  Soon I knew every aspect of his six foot tall wide-shouldered frame, I knew he was a champion shot-put thrower on the college track team, that he was a veteran of the U.S. army during WWII, and that he was a noted drunkard and fighter, often wrecking both men and furniture in the athletic dorm where he lived.  But it did not matter to me, a dumb 19 year old from a small town where the Sioux were considered bottom of the heap, nobody knew any Indians!  I turned into a sometimes stalker, looking everywhere for that shape of him, that cat-like walk, that black hair and equally black eyes that looked right into your heart and head when he finally noticed my silly activities of sitting somewhere in the student union cafe, staring at him, wishing he would speak to me, and then when he did, not having much of anything to say.  I told him I was part Indian, and he gave a cynical laugh.  "Which tribe?"  I was smart enough to lie.  "Sioux.  Yanktonais."  I had read it in a book.  He grinned.  "I'm half-blood Lakota.  My mother lives at the Res.  Where does your mother live?"  I swallowed my lies and said, "I have no idea.  Wherever she wants to, I guess, but not with me."  He nodded.  "They do that sometimes.  Run.  Is your mama a runner?"  I nodded.  Some other members of the track walked by and one said, "Come on, Al.  Time for running."  Al laughed.  "It's always time for running, little girl," he said, and walked away, not looking back.  I never talked to him again. 

Today begins Día de los Muertos.  What are your rituals or occasions when you remember loved ones you have lost?

Personally, I have no such rituals, but I once played onstage in a production of "Streetcar Named Desire" and played all of the street characters who walk behind the scrim of the room set, portraying New Orleans street people.  My favorite was the old Mexican woman selling tin cutouts of strange images such as skulls and black flowers, and singing "Flowers for the Dead" or something like that, in Spanish.  One of my several stepmothers was a nice Spanish-American woman in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, where on this day she and her many cousins went across to Piedras Negras, Coahuilla Mexico to celebate with dead relatives in the cemetery there, taking them sugar candies shaped like skeletons and licorice whips, and things of that sort, along with bouquets of flowers.  They would sit among the tombstones, retelling stories of childhood memories of those dead friends and relatives, laughing and not afraid of the ghosts they knew were there, partaking of the sugar and the odors of the wine in their glasses.  I liked that way of celebrating with the lost companions, instead of making them boogey men and haunts and bad guys.

What do you think of cousin Colin?   I like Colin very much!  In spite of his readiness ofr violence, such as bashing his employer's auto, he is just the kind of guy Mike needs to help take care of that idiotic bad guy Moe!  I dislike Moe so much, I deeply resent the script guys for letting his absolute corruption trick both the astute Freddy Cork and his chief assassin Silent John!  Colin ought to be able to deal with any of those three guys!  And his love and respect for the Caffees is just what the family needs.

O.J. Simpson is back in the news again.  What are your thoughts on the release of "If I Did It" and his recent arrest?

 

Poor OJ is another example of those folks who are very talented and highly paid in some field our culture over-values.  Perhaps his life after football is an example of the contempt in which he holds our American life.  He somehow believes that being a superathlete, he is above the law, and above being judged by people beyond his own ways.  If he could just serve perhaps twenty-five years in a real prison, such as Folsom, with people of his own color and attitude, he might learn something about real life.

Should driving while talking on a cell phone be outlawed? 
Submitted by Soup.  

Definitely!  Most drivers need whatever meagre brain power they have to use on avoiding accidents.  They should NEVER use cell phones while driving!  Just as they should NEVER blast loud sound or music inside the cab while driving, because they need to hear the sounds outside the vehicle.  PLEASE realize that driving is not an automatic function, but the whole attention of the driver MUST be focussed on driving!  Killing yourself or others just to hear some silly gossip or anything at all from another outside party should NEVER become a priority!  Phone companies ought to be sued and held responsible for all accidents in which their phones are used during an accident. 

Would you sign a prenuptial agreement? Why or why not?  Maybe depends on who I was marrying.  If I were fool enough to marry someone I did not trust or who did not trust me, I would say yes!  But if I knew the person I loved enough to promise to marry, I believe I would trust that person and not offer them such a contract, nor would I expect them to offer one to me.  Trust is certainly a very important part of love.

Which friend or acquaintance most influenced your taste in music? 
Submitted by Rev Stan.

My mother. Actually, she probably would never think that was true because she left our family looking for happiness in other places, but as I recall her from my preschool days she sang all the time, in a nice mellow contralto voice, as she listened to local radio stations where, in the 1930s in Depression time South Dakota, all that was available was local country type music, hill-billy fiddlers, folk singers, and records of far away bands.  She could sing anything and knew the words to hundreds and hundreds of songs.  She always liked it when I sang along with her.  It eased the strain between us, when even as a little girl of four, I knew she might be gone tomorrow, and not ever come back.

Would you lie under oath to protect your family?  It would depend on what the reason for that demand to swear might be.  If it were a simple thing, such as for the IRS, definitely YES!  But if a son of mine molested a child or murdered someone, I am afraid I would not protect him by lying!