This is my blogchalk:
United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Friday, November 22, 2002

At their first meeting in June 2001, Bush looked into Putin's eyes and was "able to get a sense of his soul". In May of this year, George and Vladimir took a cruise on the Neva River beneath the midnight sun. This time, I think they should just go ahead and have sex 5:27:58 PM    comment []

Listening to Songs For Survivors, first cut, "Dirty Little Secret"  before the first line, "Greenwood, Oklahoma, June of '21"...first thought - who is that bassman? He is Viktor Krauss. No bio on Artist Direct, amazing it itself, but an impressive number and variety of sessions appear on his resume - especially Shades Of Gray by Jason White where his credits are "Bass (Electric), Keyboards, Piano (Electric), Vocals (Background), Producer, Guitar (Classical), Bass (Acoustic), Guitar (Baritone), Synthesizer, Guitar (Acoustic), Piano". I'll have to wait until Graham Nash has finished before I listen to the previews. I'm a little disappointed by the first listen to Songs For Survivors so far, a little too sing-song given the events that inspired it, too Monkee-ish, approximating schadenfreude (Ha! -I've wanted  to use that word ever since I first heard it, but somehow it is a bittersweet moment now...) more closely than angst. There is some solace in the precision musicianship and strategic bass-plunking Viktor Krauss provides, but this is just another 9/11 tribute. Somebody buy PhotoShop for Graham Nash. Can I do CD reviews for Fox now? Back to food... 5:03:51 PM    comment []

Not many people in the US have bought a yucca root, though they're readily available now in specialty produce sections of grocery stores. It is commonly called cassava and its flour manioc. Steak dipped in toasted manioc (farofa) is doubly tasty, highlighting the deliciously decadent Brazilian Churrascaria. 500 million people subsist on cassava since the plant thrives in bad soil. It is a staple in Nigeria, where meat use is frugal. Next time you're making okra or egusi soup, try a side of Eba/Gari. If you liked fried okra, you might want to experiment dipping the slices in manioc instead of cornmeal. It is not easy to find Farinha de Mandioca online, but a half-hour searching finally got me here. Whew! 5:17:36 AM    comment []

Carrboro used to have a large Chicano population. Each morning, many of the men would gather outside The Pantry looking for day work. Local contractors swore by their work ethic. As the population mushroomed in the late 90s, Mexican food stores began to appear and even the Food Lion devoted a aisle to it. An authentic restaurant, El Chilango, featuring live music and tango on weekends opened near me. Nearly all minimum wage jobs - fast food, Jiffy Lube, grocery, WalMart - were filled by Chicanos until 9/11. El Chilango closed a few weeks ago. Those who didn't have valid papers, people who were welcomed and tolerated during the boom, soon disappeared. Now many of those jobs are filled with Nigerian immigrants. This morning, after hearing of the 100 dead at the Miss World riots in Kaduna, Nigeria, curiosity about these people eventually led me to OnlineNigeria.Com. There I found OnlineNigeria Jokes. Many are fairly long stories, some self-deprecating, some triumphant, with ironic humor and insider charm - not many short jokes or one-liners. Here is one of the shorter ones: The white lady and the Naija doctor:     By chidimma A lady went in to see a Nigerian doctor working in an English hospital. When she finally gets in to see him, she tells him "doctor, doctor, i feel like a bee". Instead of checking to know what was wrong with her, he replies "then buzz out off my office then". The lady (a white lady) was so suprised that she walked out on him. The next week, she returned feeling really ill. She went in to see the doctor, but unfortunately, it was still the Nigerian dictor that she met. She tell him "doctor, doctor, i feel like a curtain". Again, instead of checking to see what was wrong with her, he replies "then pull yourself together". The lady stormed off again. She became so ill that she died the next week! 4:37:37 AM    comment []