Episode 45: Goin' To The Chapel...

...Gonna Get Married

Jo and I took our daughter Leslie with us to a remote Spanish village about fifteen years ago. Fearless as ever about plunging into any language in any country in which she finds herself, Jo introduced Leslie as "mi higo", not "mi hija".

Thus was Leslie bestowed with my nickname for her: Fig.

Now, for the first time, Fig is getting hitched. Her tootsie is Matt - bright, good-looking, gainfully employed, and a man who insists on doing the cooking.

He is also fifteen years younger than Fig. (I will pause here for female readers to exclaim, "Way to go! Atta girl!" and "Right on!") Matt designed the engagement ring (pictured) with stones he purchased in India. ("You go, girl")

Geezer has always admired versatility. Fig has been a writer and anchor for Public Radio stations in the Northeast, an editor/writer for INC. magazine, an instructor of graduate students at Emerson College in Boston, and a columnist on film for the Boston Globe, to mention a few highlights. She makes friends easily, in all of the countries to which she has traveled - the reason she finds the need to find hotel lodging a rare experience. Those she counts among her ever-widening circle can expect to receive from her photos, clippings, birthday cards, and notes about items of possible interest. She cultivates relationships as she would a garden.

Together, she and I have created a website for a hotel marketing firm and collaborated on three travel guidebooks. In that work, I have seen that Fig pushes back at current media expectations to just "get it done." She is more concerned with getting it right.

It's been a hoot watching Fig transform herself from diligent professional to girlie-diva-bride.

I couldn't be happier for her.

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That Was Then
In 1860, a rangy one-term congressman from Illinois who had opposed the Mexican-American War ran for president. In 2008, a tall, first-term senator from Illinois who opposed the Iraq War is following the same path.

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Let's Par-TAY!
There was a Halloween celebration at an office of the Department of Homeland Security last fall.
Costumes were encouraged. One intellectually-challenged white employee came dressed as a prisoner at a detention center, complete with a prison jumpsuit, a dreadlocks wig, and his face painted black.
He won a prize for "most original costume."
The judge was Julie Myers.
She presides over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, which has 16,000 employees.
It took her two days to realize that "a few of the costumes were inappropriate."
We can all go to bed every night knowing that our government is eternally vigilant.
And sensitive.

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We Don't Need No Stinkin' Gun Control
Not with humanitarian hunters like these stalking the woods.

It reminds Geezer of some of Hillary's recent ploys to position herself as just another good ol' country gal. She waxed fondly about her daddy (or was it her uncle?) teaching her how to shoot when she was just a li'l tyke back when in Scranton. (Strange nobody mentioned her past record urging stricter gun control laws.)
Then she gathered up a camera crew and went to a tavern where she could be filmed knocking back a beer and a shot.

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YouTube Alert
You have to check out www.babiesforobama.com.
Lookit there! I finally figured out how to hypertext!

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Health Watch
*Twelve years ago, Sonny Graham received a heart transplant from Terry Cottle, who had shot himself. Sonny married Terry's widow. In time, Sonny Graham came to think that Terry had a good idea there. Last week, he, too, shot himself to death.

*The article was illustrated by a black-and-white photograph of a room that looked like a sub-basement of Torquemada's dungeon. It was deeply shadowed, paint scaling off the walls, and at the center was a Chinese woman working at a crude table. She had laid out pig intestines, cut them open lengthwise, and was scrapping out the mucus membrane.
The membrane is a key ingredient of the blood-thinning drug heparin. It was administered to me during an operation on my carotid artery last summer.
I didn't die, but over sixty other people have.

************************************************************************************* Grilled Tuna with Fruited Rice
Serves 2
This has been a staple in my recipe file for at least a decade. I think I clipped it from the Times and that it was created by Marion Burros. It's a tasty light meal, and only about 550 calories total.

4 ounces yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
Three-quarters cup long-grain rice
One-and-half cup chicken stock
One-half teaspoon tumeric or, preferably, saffron
2 4-ounce tuna steaks
1 tablespoon lime juice
One-quarter cup dried cherries
2 scallions (green onions), trimmed and sliced
1 ripe banana, peeled and diced
Salt
Pinch of nutmeg

Preheat the broiler.
Heat the oil in a nonstick pan. Saute the onion until it starts to soften. Stir in the rice, stock, and tumeric or saffron. Bring to a boil, then lower to a bare simmer. Cover and cook until the liquid has been absorbed; about 17-20 minutes.
After the rice has cooked about five minutes, wash and dry the tuna steaks, place them on a double thickness of aluminum foil, and carefully put them under the broiler. Turn them over after 4 or 5 minutes and broil for 4 minutes more.
Pour the lime juice over the cherries and set aside.
When the rice is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cherries (with the lime juice), as well as the scallions, banana, salt to taste, and nutmeg. Serve with the tuna.