sisu

A pose is a pose

"Utter nonsense to be changing a name that has been in place and recognized as a respected institution for over 200 years," writes our Beltway correspondent, Sarah -- who also happens to be our darling niece -- re her alma mater, Governor Dummer's proposed "name refinement" blogged here:

Will be writing a letter from home tonight expressing my outrage and disappointment in the institution as a whole. All calls are encouraged, Auntie Sissy!!

She gives us courage.  We have already emailed both the headmaster and prez and received a boilerplate, one-size-fits-all reply from [former?] headmaster Marty Doggett, quoting a letter to alumni ("Dear alumnus" . . . what about the alumnae, sir?) from Board of Trustees President Daniel Morgan that invites ridicule:

Improvement and growth are important to ensure the long-term viability of any institution. Today, we need to generate awareness and consideration among a broader geographic group of potential studients.  We have determined that one of the actions we should take to achieve this strategic goal is to refine our school's name.

How sadly removed from intelligent discourse and gracious living to talk about "refining" our school's name and dump the idea full blown into the laps of alumni (according to alum Thomas H. Driscoll, who's spearheading the outraged response) without ceremony:

A nationwide study of prospective families and students, undertaken by a marketing company headed by an alumnus, as well as consultations with admissions and placement personnel at colleges, middle schools and private agendies, all confirm this conclusion . . . One of our first activities is to develop a thoughtful process that will elicit and consider feedback from key stakeholders, including graduates, parents, faculty, and students.

Where are the grownups? You gotta watch out for those marketing companies headed by alumni.

What's in a name?

Traditional run and leap over the wall at Governor Dummer graduation ceremonies

''It's a horrible move," said Thomas Driscoll of Swampscott, a 1978 graduate and football co-captain who is now the Essex County Clerk of Courts. ''Governor Dummer has such tradition. That's what troubles me about this.. . . The name is very special," notes the Boston Globe in a report forwarded to us by our Beltway correspondent Sarah, whose fellow alumna, Catherine, issues a call to arms:

"In the interest of smarter marketing, the board of directors at Governor Dummer Academy, a private boarding school in Newbury [South Byfield, actually. --ed], voted to change its name to something else, something that will probably not include the name of Governor William Dummer of Massachusetts." reports the Globe.

"Apparently," writes Catherine, "a vote was taken by the Board of Trustees and they have decided to change the name of the school. Personally I feel that this process is quite a ridiculous and enourmous waste of time and money which could be better spent on things like improving the math curriculum, placing more students in AP courses, or focusing on college placement."

Seeing as three generations of our family, from Goomp, through brother Ben, and then on to our nieces, Sarah and Heather, have proudly matriculated there, we are fightin' mad.  Our sister-in-law, Ellen, genealogist par excellence, wrote a touching anecdotal homage to the three generations for an alumni fundraising speech a couple of years back:

GDA has always kept the best of its past while constantly reaching toward its future.

Which brings us back to the cluelessness -- can you say insensitivity? (probably only if it has to do with PC causes) -- of the proposed jettison of Governor Dummer's name.  We are reminded of the recent controversy re the EU's attempt to erase its Christian history from the new constitution:

The European Parliament's center-right European People's Party (EPP) is spearheading a grassroots movement to petition EU heads of state to adopt wording that acknowledges Europe's Christian heritage when they implement the constitution in their national laws.

In an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who heads the EU body that drew up the draft presented this week, said he could not mention Christianity for fear of offending other religions.

How delicate.  How nuanced. The EU is into erasing history for fear of offending politically correct "victims," while the powers that be at Governor Dummer seem only to be worrying about the bottom line. Either way, dumb and Dummer.

Update:  "I hope that you will join us by writing to [former] Headmaster Doggett and President Morgan to voice your disapproval and overall outrage over the proposed change," writes Catherine.

Update II:  We've sent off our emails to the former headmaster and the prez as outraged daughter/sister/aunt. Should we call, or should we leave well enough alone?

Follow the money

"With the relative lack of violence, many nerves appeared calmed. Iraqis, especially, may have been emboldened by the coverage," reports the NYT -- yes, The Gray Lady herself -- re the unanticipated positive spin of Arab TV coverage of the Iraqi elections yesterday [via Mind of Mog]:

Overwhelmingly, Arab channels and newspapers greeted the elections as a critical event with major implications for the region, and many put significant resources into reporting on the vote.

Often criticized for glorifying Iraq's violence if not inciting it, Arab news channels appeared to take particular care in their election-day reporting. For many channels, the elections were treated on a par with the invasion itself, on which the major channels helped build their names.

Far from the almost nightly barrage of blood and tears, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, the kings of Arab news, barely showed the aftermath of the suicide bombings that occurred in the country.

For many Arabs, the surprisingly strong turnout on election day proved a singular opening, one that made the daily debate on TV screens more nuanced. On Al Jazeera, especially, many Iraqi guests lauded the process even as analysts from other Arab countries and Iraqis tied to the former government of Saddam Hussein decried the election for having occurred under occupation, and for having been centered on sectarian issues.

The daylong reporting of the election process, details on the personalities and almost step-by-step guides to the voting were a significant departure from what the Arab news media has produced in some time.

"We think this is a very important event, not just in Iraq but in the Arab world," [Al Arabiya's] Mr. Hage said. "It's the first real democratic event in the whole region, and it deserved the attention." Giving the event such special attention, Mr. Hage said, would help build Al Arabiya's brand as a critical news source, if not expand its viewership.

Adam Smith's Invisible hand at work winning hearts and minds -- and dollars! for the TV folks -- in the Land of the Purple Finger. It's a keeper.

Update:  Well looky here.  Al Jazeera is uprofitable and depending -- like PBS?-- upon state subsidies [via Roger L. Simon].  Qatar is trying to find a buyer. Who knew? Maybe that explains the recent wake-up call to facts on the ground.

Stuff it

As good as it looks. We swear, eggplant could pass for lamb. The Tongue of the Judge, our adaptation of an Iraqi recipe for sauteed eggplant slices stuffed with meat, won the case at our celebratory dinner tonight in honor of the electoral triumph of our Iraqi sisters and brothers.

One change -- simplify, simplify -- from the published recipe:  Forget about rolling up the meat.  Just lay out half of the sauteed eggplant slices in the casserole dish, form the meat mixture into sausage-shaped portions and add those, then layer the rest of the eggplant slices on top. Then you pour on the tomato sauce, bake at 450o for an hour, top with mozzarella slices and broil for five minutes.  The rice, of course, was perfect.  So was the lovely chef's salad.

If it's purple, they can't cheat

Red and gold, ruffled pink and dark green against a mahogany backdrop stand in for all the beauty and mystery of Mesopotamia and environs in our mind's eye, not to mention on our dinner table

The table's set, and food preparation is well underway for tonight's festive meal in celebration of this day of days.  We found some purple food coloring and stained our index finger -- "as a sign of solidarity and a tip of the hat to the courage of the Iraqis today," as one of Andrew Sullivan's readers suggested [via InstaPundit], but there was one problem. We tried photographing said finger in front of our post of Chris Muir's Day by Day cartoon featuring that lovely Iraqi woman "giving the finger" to the "insurgents," but it came out looking x-rated, and this is a family blog.

Purple food coloring on the underside of the other hand bears witness to the dying of our index finger in solidarity with the Iraqi people.

Instead, we went for the other hand, the one we used to empurple that index finger.  What a mess.  But that's the idea.  It doesn't wash off, so you can't cheat (a simpler version of Hugh Hewitt's If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat).

Speaking of x-rated, did you hear the latest goal-moving meme -- [again via InstaPundit] from Cigars in the Sand -- being promulgated by our glass-is-empty friends of the left?

Yes, Iraqis voted today in massive numbers. But voting isn't democracy.

As John Kerry told Tim Russert this morning on Meet the Press (couldn't find the exact reference after a reasonable search, darn it), this election can never be considered legitimate until we get the world community behind it.* Tell that to the millions of Iraqis who stepped out and braved potential terrorist attacks to cast their votes today, mister.  No wonder you're toast.

*Update: From the MSNBC transcript: "No one in the United States should try to overhype [Hype? Overhype?  Just say no. --ed] this election . . . what really counts now is the effort to have a legitimate political reconciliation, and it's going to take a massive diplomatic effort and a much more significant outreach to the international community than this administration has been willing to engage in.  Absent that, we will not be successful in Iraq."

One picture . . .

. . . is worth a thousand words.  Chris Muir does it again (he always does).

"Iraqis have truly raced the sun"

"The media is reporting only explosions and suicide attacks that killed and injured many Iraqis thus far, but this hasn't stopped the Iraqis from marching towards their voting stations with more determination. Iraqis have truly raced the sun," write Mohammed and Omar of Iraq the Model in a rousing we-shall-overcome post that brings tears of joy:

We woke up this morning one hour before the alarm clock was supposed to ring. As a matter of fact, we barely slept at all last night out of excitement and anxiety.

We had all kinds of feelings in our minds while we were on our way to the ballot box except one feeling that never came to us, that was fear.

We could smell pride in the atmosphere this morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while walking out of the center.

From the early hours of the morning, people filled the street to the voting center in my neighborhood; youths, elders, women and men. Women's turnout was higher, by the way. And by 11 am the boxes where I live were almost full! Anyone watching that scene cannot but have tears of happiness, hope, pride and triumph.

The sounds of explosions and gunfire were clearly heard, some were far away but some were close enough to make the windows of the center shake but no one seemed to care about them as if the people weren't hearing these sounds at all.

I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?" . . . "Model for what?"

Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.

So many of our own soft-underbellied fellow citizens have forgotten -- or, more likely, never learned -- that freedom isn't free.  The Mohammeds and Omars of this world are our teachers.

"This is a whole new day"

Iraqi woman (ain't she beautiful?) in Mosul proudly displays her proof-of-having-voted ink-stained finger, symbol of a new birth of freedom in the Middle East (FOXNews photo)

"Thousands of people are now walking a 13-mile stretch between Abu Ghraib and Gazaliyah to cast votes in the elections, military sources tell FOXNews," reports Captain Ed. We heard that one too -- in early-morning reruns -- from Shepard Smith, live on the scene in Iraq (will publish photos when they become available, although this story sounds almost too good to be true):

The mass march has been caught by unmanned drones, and Fox says they will soon have pictures of the subtle demonstration of the Iraqi desire for liberty.

More as it develops. Fox also reports long lines in most polling stations, with some even calling for more ballot materials as they run out of ballots faster than they anticipated.

Those drone photos of the freedom marchers are the obverse of the satellite tracking of thugs who bombed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad yesterday. They're now in custody [via Deborah of My Little Corner of the World].

If you're rooting for freedom, the glass is more than half full.  Meanwhile, Aljazeera, with the glass running on empty, is all gloom and doom, headlining that "Iraqi elections begin amid violence and bloodshed":

The Iraqi people started voting Sunday in their country's first election after ousting . . . Saddam Hussein, as anti-occupation and anti-government rebels, bent on wrecking Sunday's vote, stepped up their deadly bombing and mortar strikes at several polling stations across Iraq.

We guess it depends upon what your definition of "stepped up" is.  Sure, there have been the usual suicide bombings and such, but even CNN is sounding optimistic, noting fewer than expected attacks in the first few hours of voting and presenting on-the-scene interviews from Iraqis giddy with the joy of casting their votes in this new era of budding freedom. Christiane Amanpour, no less, delivers good tidings:

"Despite the explosions and attacks, people have been turning out, and the trickle has become steadier since the polls began. The people have told us that they are thrilled, they are happy, that this is a new day. Many people even brought their children to watch this. On the whole, at least according to the UN, the turnout is better than expected."

Another CNN reporter says "Celebration has replaced fear." You know what?  This is the best thing ever for freedom and human happiness since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Before that, it was 1776 and all that. Teddy and Barbara, call your offices.

Update:  We read this headline to Tuck -- "Iraqi Voting Disrupts News Reports of Bombings" -- and he new at once it was ScrappleFace scoring yet one more hit for truth and freedom.

Update II:  InstaLanche. Another reason to celebrate!

I'm nobody. Are you nobody too?

This morning we were in the high 900's in the Ecosystem -- have been as low as the high 200's in the recent past --  but all of a sudden, here we are at 353.  What gives?

Guess what?  We're 928th.  Stinky poo.

Update:  425 the following morning.  Reminds us of what Mark Twain is often said to have said -- but probably never said -- about New England climate:  If you don't like the weather, wait a minute.

Tongue of the Judge

"Ok, this dish takes a little bit longer to make than the other stuff, but it is really easy," wrote Iraqi "girl blogger" Riverbend in December of 2003 under the category "Is Something Burning?" While we find her political arguments unconvincing and derivative -- a sort of reflexive Marx-lite with generous helpings of Bush bashing -- her recipe for a classic Iraqi dish sounds authentic and appetizing.  We blogged about Riverbend last September:

Other Iraqi bloggers, like Riverbend, blame not the thugs and terrorists but the US for their troubles. While we can't imagine the horror of living under constant bombardment and wouldn't dream of judging another's reaction in that respect, her arguments and even her exact word choices . . . echo our own Democratic party's talking points.

She's bitter at living conditions in Baghdad -- who can blame her? -- and still bashing us and Allawi to this day. "Isn't there some 'idiots guide to being a good Vichy government?'" she wrote just last Thursday. But tomorrow's the big election, and we're laying down our rhetorical sword today in anticipation of feasting in honor of the Iraqi people -- all of them, on whatever side of whatever "aisle" -- who are going to exercise their franchise. We wish them well.  Here's our own adaptation of Riverbend's recipe, combined with another similar recipe we found online for Lis-san el qua-thi (Tongue of the Judge), plus our own fine tuning (of course):

Eggplant-Wrapped Meat for two

1 large eggplant
1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp corn oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound ground beef
1 sweet sausage
1 cup tomato sauce, homemade or bottled
1 tsp turmeric
4 slices mozzarella (That's Italian!)

Peel eggplant, cut off stem and cut lengthwise into 1/8-inch ovals.  Sprinkle with salt and drain in a collander for an hour. Rinse off salt, dry with paper towels and brown eggplant in batches with corn oil in a large frying pan.

Mix together garlic, beef and sausage and form into sausage-shaped portions. Place portions on one end of eggplant slices and roll up.

Place in casserole dish and cover with stock and tomato sauce.  Stir in turmeric and bake, covered, at 450o for one hour. Remove cover, place slices of mozzarella on top to cover and broil 5 minutes.

Serve on a bed of perfect rice.

How do you say "mangia" in Arabic?

Update:  This week's "Carnival of the Recipes" is being hosted by Kinayda of Kin's Kouch, who claims to have organized things "in a manner appropriate for us manly types."