bear

I mostly ignore online petitions, since most of them are ... less than weighty, shall we say.

However, there's one right now calling for an apology from ABC and the writers and producers of Desperate Housewives for the racist remarks written into this Sunday's episode, and I agree pretty strongly with it.

In a scene in which Susan was told by her gynecologist that she might be hitting menopause, she replied, "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines." ... A statement that devalues Filipinos in healthcare is extremely unfounded, considering the overwhelming presence of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical field. The Philippines produces more U.S. nurses than any other country in the world.

Given the recent amounts of media attention that has been given to Michael Richards (against African Americans), Isaiah Washington (against gays), and Rosie O'Donnell (against Asian/Chinese Americans), it is ridiculous that this type of hateful speech made it through various screenwriters, the show's producers, the show's actors, and ABC itself.

I hope to see more prominent news coverage about this in the coming days.

(via the Racialicious del.icio.us)

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In much more soothing news, my friend Liane has just launched her craft shop Craft Attack on Etsy, specializing in hand-knit goods and soaps. I'm looking forward to trying the Cinnamon Oatmeal bar a try myself :) Go check it out!

In yummy news, bending sed to my will is so much easier with help and a piece of warm pecan pie. Also, I need to learn more about sed and awk, because a job that was going to take like, four hours of manual tedium? Just became a half-hour stretch-your-brain session in configuration, and as I get better at this, I can see this coming down to mere minutes, if not seconds.

But really? Mmm, pie. Must save room, though; am going out with hyounpark and my fam tonight to Craigie Street Bistrot. They change the menu nightly, but given their current sample menu? Drool.

I'm in love.

Well, I mean, I'm in love with hyounpark, yes, we established that months ago :) but I've found perfection in a used bookstore on the country roads of western Massachusetts. With comfy chairs and sofas to curl up in, free wireless, and a homestyle cafe attached; a river bubbling up just down the hill from it. The owner had both doors open to let the mild spring breeze sweep through yesterday, and it felt wonderful and calming.

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When we decided to go to Amherst this weekend, he asked if we should go out Friday and stay overnight. I replied, "Nah, that'd be overkill; let's just go out Saturday. Besides, we've got Restaurant Week reservations."

Which we did, at Brasserie Jo. Service was a little uneven, and the prix fixe didn't look that exciting to me, so I went back to the regular menu and ordered garlic-butter escargots. Ladies and gentlemen, they have got that one DOWN. The sauce was so incredibly tasty that I kept dipping my bread into the leftovers. The steak tartare was good, though slightly odd - they'd shaped it into the form of a hamburger patty, and the pommes frites came along American-style in one of those old-style metal milkshake containers. And then île flotante for dessert, an airy cloud of sweetness that I have yet to be able to duplicate at home (particularly at that scale).

And then the next day, we had Bub's (which Hyoun had never been to!) and Antonio's; walked around campus and marveled at the lack of triples for frosh and how shiny-new Stearns and James looked and where the hell did the wood paneling in the South and North libraries go and how they got rid of the Fishbowl and THEY'RE PUTTING FREAKIN' ELEVATORS into Pratt and Morrow.

Nightcaps at Black Sheep (the cream puff of doom for him, a demure cinnamon-white chocolate chip cookie for me) and Judie's (we have popovers!), where of course I ran into Rikita and Deby; and then it was time to go. Winding our way down 9 to 202 to 181 to 20 to 32 to the Mass Pike (and until you hit the pike, all of those routes are 2-lane curves that we can navigate practically by feel now) to 95 to 9 again, past oishii's and then home.

And we still missed Bueno and DP Dough's and not even enough room to stick in tea rolls from Fresh Side or AmChi (which I still regard with a great deal of suspicion - if you're sticking the town name in something, that's automatically suspect to me - but apparently, AmChi gets their veggies from the same farmer I do in season, so maybe it's not so scary) and Pasta e Basta and the Crazy Noodle place that replaced Nancy Jane's and the new breakfast cafe Lone Wolf and there's even an AFRICAN restaurant there now.

I love Pioneer Valley Food Runs. :)