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Product Review: Sahale Nut Snacks

2010-03-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

No compensation was received for this review. I would like it if you tried the snack to see if you enjoy it as much as I did, but that's about it.

I had a Sahale nut blend flavored with ranch and chili. Normally, I might be concerned about these strong flavors, but the blend was well-seasoned with light notes of each flavor. The flavors turned out to be a good match with each other.

The Starbucks website lists each serving as having 140 to 150 calories. They are priced at $2.50 for two ounces, which definitely makes them a splurge. However, if Starbucks drinks and snacks are part of your busy routine, these nuts can be a great afternoon pick-me-up.

I think that Starbucks new push for natural or healthy snacks is well-advised. If you're on a budget, buying in bulk and making small portions of your own snacks is going to serve you much better.

Veritable Quandary v. La Palapa

2010-03-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday is brunch day, plain and simple. Of course, we were distracted by the time change. J and M Cafe was closed, chair legs pointing to the sky. Veritable Quandary was next closest in geography perhaps, so we dealt with bridges and parking and went there. First, we had to swat our way through a curtain at entry. Listen, establishments, curtains are not good for some of the handicapped people who will be your clientele. My people and I like doors. But, whatev, that's not personal.

I follow the sign telling me to speak to the host for seating. The podium is empty, but staff is milling about close by. I expect to be attended to in short order. In fact, I am. The host tells me that the dining room seating is closed, but I can take a seat in the bar. Let me be clear: we are here for the food, not the chairs. There are three small menus available. When the water server comes, he says that these are the only menus available.

I feel that we were treated without courtesy. The host should have been the one to tell us that the restaurant was no longer serving food until the dinner service began at 5 pm. Instead, the host could not be bothered to speak to us in complete sentences to orient us to what was available. We will not be going back. I wondered if part of the ill-treatment we received was because I'm a person of color, but that would be extremely difficult to judge.

We decide to cross back over the river. As we head down Hawthorne Boulevard, I am alerted by a bright neon word that La Palapa has fresh tortillas. This seems enough inducement to try it. When we get there, they are serving breakfast all day! I order huevos rancheros. H orders the chorizo plate. Both of these meet or exceed our expectations, but then, I had a feeling they would. Our meal started with warm, freshly made tortilla chips and fresh salsa. The food arrived piping hot. My eggs were perfectly over-medium, layered with cheese, black beans, and red sauce. I would definitely order this again. I also ordered a flan, which was a cornstarch-based pudding, rather than an eggy custard. It was all right, but not the rock star of the meal, like the fresh tortillas and hot dishes. Go there when you are hungry. Go there when you need tortillas (every day!)

La Palapa

Shopasaurus: Leggings

2010-02-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

I am something of a recovering shopasaurus. A shopasaurus can most easily be spotted in her natural habitat, the mall! Shopasauruses are attracted by the bright lights of a sale and the wafting aroma of clearance. I don't shop as a matter of course anymore, but I do keep an eye out for what's hot. I have noticed that lately, the Store wants me to wear something new for me: leggings instead of pants-pants. We can consider this, surely, as long as we stick to a few guidelines.

I'm not going to pay a lot for these leggings.

We have to look into the dark science of leggings.

We have to feel jazzed about the result.

Yesterday I went to Avenue, a plus-size store, because they were having a sale. While I wear sizes on the smaller end of the plus scale, I really appreciate clothes that are not almost too tight. I was prepared to be skeptical, able to be convinced of goodness, if the goodness did indeed show its elusive face.

On the rack labeled $4.99, there wasn't much, some orange sweaters. But nearby, I made an awesome discovery: leggings in charcoal gray priced at $10 dollars. This is about half the price of leggings at No Skinny at the mall. (But hey, I didn't realize that it was a Portland-based company. That might change my position on some items, ie, I'd pay a little more to support a local store.)

I looked around at tops. At first I was inclined to get a t-shirt to go with the leggings, but then I stumbled on a white button-down with navy stripes. I settled on that and got it for around $1o. I work graveyard in a cubicle. It turned out to be a great outfit for work: tidy, comfortable, and attractive.

Tips for Wearing Leggings

Key #1: Make sure your top is the right length. The hem of your top should hit your upper thigh. A regular t-shirt emphasizes lumps and bumps. Anything too much longer than upper thigh threatens to unbalance the long, lean lines you achieve.

Key #2: Wear the right shoe! The right shoe for leggings or tights is flat. Ballet shoes, moccasins, skimmers are all good options. Unfortunately, heels with leggings will transport you squarely to the nearest 80's dance floor where you can fight over man candy with other women who have hairspray bangs and aren't afraid to use them.

Another key is that the best fit for leggings is slim but not tight. That is one thing that will accentuate your legs as an asset. Whatever you do, a little bit of attention to fit and detail will give you another look in your arsenal that is flexible and comfortable.

*Dinosaur art=morguefile.com+picnik.com

**Moon clip art courtesy of Clip Art ETC.

Now for something totally different...

2010-02-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

The blog entry in which I consider instances of genocide in North America...

I watched The Last King of Scotland recently. I was struck by the drama of the story, but also deeply affected by consideration of Idi Amin's reputed acts of genocide, numbering around 300,000 people. I initially reacted with relief, "Well," I thought, "at least we haven't had that kind of genocide in the US."

Then, I gave the issue further consideration. The truth is that some of the acts of war and other conflict in the US and North America can probably be considered genocide: "deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group."

Displacement of Native American people

There are many examples of this genocide. An early example is the Pequot War, which took place between 1634 and 1638. The Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies united with an alliance of Mohegan and Narragansett tribes. Their enemy was the Pequot Tribe, which is hard to say with certainty, since Pequot and Mohegans were related. However, by the end of the war, most of the Pequot people were killed. A smaller number were sold into slavery in Bermuda.

The destruction of the Pequot Tribe was nearly total. The terms of the peace treaty after the Pequot War took specific steps to dismember the remaining people so that they could not exist as a tribe. In 1856, the State of Connecticut sold off 600 acres of Pequot land without their permission, another deliberate step to destroy Pequot as a cultural group. A lawsuit in 1976 to recover the land resulted in a $700,000 settlement.

The Manshatucket Pequot claimed Federal recognition in 1983 and went on to open a casino and bingo operation in 1992. Gambling makes the House rich. It took the Pequot tribe approximately three and a half centuries to reestablish political and economic power, but they did it.

Internment of Japanese-Americans

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt--the cool one in a wheelchair--signed Executive Order 9066. The Executive Order is one of the exciting things about being president. It's a type of rule that has the force of law most of the time. However, Congress doesn't have to approve it. The president sits in his office and writes it. Then, the country, usually a government department or agency, has to follow it. This one, 9066, was a bad one. It allowed for the establishment of military areas, "from which any or all persons may be excluded..."

The force of this order was used to move Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJAs) to internment or prison camps. The general feeling as voiced by the Attorney General of California at the time was that when it came to Caucasian people, there were methods to test the loyalty of them, but, [W]hen we deal with the Japanese, we are on an entirely different field." It seems like a boneheaded, idiotic thing to say, but it made perfect sense to (Paranoid) People In Power at the time. At least 120,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated. 62% of these people were American-born, second and third-generation Japanese-Americans. They were Americans. Internment in this case can be viewed as an act of genocide because of the intent to subjugate or suppress a specific cultural group.

Acts leading up to the internment movement underscore the intent of the US government to destroy the Japanese as a people. Suspicion before the war in the early 1900s led to rules that prohibited the Japanese from buying land, marrying outside their race, or owning homes in certain areas. This property right can be easily compared to the control and dismemberment of Native American tribal groups. Owning land allows people to leverage their buying power into stability and putting down roots.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, people spread rumors about Japanese residents in Hawaii and on the West Coast, saying that they were involved with espionage or sabotage against the United States. Wow. More brilliance in the form of scapegoating. When I examine history, I always wish I could have confidence that people today would act smarter, but they probably wouldn't. The government eventually determined that the rumors were false, but never had the good grace to mention it to the American public. Also, when it comes to this, evidently I could devote an entire blog just to Japanese-American injustice; but I'm not.

At least in these two instances, the United States and Americans of their day were involved in acts that can be classified as genocide. It is a matter of definition because genocide is an abstract, like pride or empowerment. However, to the thinking person the process of identifying genocide is not an impossible one. The very concepts of family and human dignity are the framework that says when an action goes over the line and when it fits the definition of genocide. Knowing what it is and when it has happened it the past must inform our future need to protect Americans when the government takes steps against its own citizens.

Books I've Read In 2010

2010-01-30T04:57:00.000-08:00

1. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare: YA Fantasy: 4/5: 485 pp.
An invisible city exists in the same space as New York City, with a battle raging between Shadow Hunters and Underworlders.

2. Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer: YA Fantasy: 4/5: 290 pp.
An elementary school detective solves a complex case, while being as funny and hard-boiled as a kid can be.

3. World War Z by Max Brooks: Science Fiction: 5/5: 342 pp.
The next World War is a zombie invasion, and the enemy, Zack, isn't even alive.

Up Next: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard.

Love means you never have to say you`re sorry*...but you...you have to!

2010-01-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

Part the First, in which The Bus Driver catches the ~~Heroin's~~ Heroine's cane in the lift and bends it at an unnatural angle.

I ride the Short Bus in Portland, Oregon. I do not like the Short Bus because of its behemoth bureaucratic inefficiency. There is also a component of being treated like an infant or an object that I despise. Maybe I should be pooling my zen or wrapping it in pink puffery, but it just makes me mad.

I generally have a lengthy ride to work because, according to the Short Bus, the distance between home and work is far. They plan for about an hour and a half to go fifteen miles and make lots of stops picking up and dropping off people. Tonight, I was sleeping as I rode. At some point, I woke up because my cane was hitting me in the leg. Bleary-eyed, I realized that my cane was somehow caught in the wheelchair lift.

"Wait," I said. No response.

"Wait," I said. This time I was louder. Still nothing.

"WAIT!" I yelled at the top of my angry lungs. The Bus Driver finally stopped bending my cane, like a paper clip.

It came out pitiful, looking like it had a sprained ankle. Obviously, I have tender feelings for the thing that keeps me from falling over and facilitates my walking around in polite society.

The Bus Driver was busy getting this person that was on the lift to her destination, so I sat tight for a minute. When the lady had gone on her way, I yelled at the driver that he ruined my cane. I was really mad because I didn't figure it was possible for him to operate the lift with a metal tube jammed in it, bend the tube, and not even notice that the lift was running differently. Angry!

I told him to look for the rubber tip for the bottom of it.

"I am," he said. He gestured at the cracked pavement. "There's nothing."

I was winding up to give a speech about how if it wasn't on the bus, then it was outside, when he found it.

"Here it is," he said. He put the rubber tip in my hand. I slid it onto my injured friend.

The Bus Driver came onto the bus. "Keep your cane out of the lift," he said. Glib.

"It's a little late," I said, "now that you have bent it."

I told him again that he'd wrecked it. He acted as though I was in a diving bell at the bottom of the sea and he was observing me through many feet of glass. I cannot begin to tell you how angry I was at his non-engagement. I told him that acting like he didn't hear me was making it worse. He didn't react then either.

When I arrived at work and was getting off the bus, I waved my bent cane around. "Look!" I said. "You should have apologized."

He still didn't say anything. I went inside. I asked my supervisor if he could beat up the bus driver. "Beat up the bus driver?"

I knew he was more into English literature than fisticuffs, so I let this one slide and told him what happened. "That's awful," he said, with appropriate grave inflection.

"Yeah," I said, "I guess it's good you didn't beat him up. I'd hate for him to have to pay such a high price."

Honestly, what's so hard about admitting you were wrong? Or admitting at the very least that you can understand why I am upset. I like this blog article about apologies: How To Apologize Like A Man. Gender focus aside for a moment, I think the authors, Brett and Kate McKay at artofmanliness.com make excellent points. Things like,

Sincerity
Taking complete responsibility
Expressing understanding of the underlying wrong
Offers of restitution

Any or all of these would have been appreciated in the Cane Mauling of Twenty-Ten. And speaking of restitution, my buddy Kim says it took her six months to get Trimet to pay for some medical bills that their negligence caused. That sounds like forever. I hope getting a new cane doesn't take that long.

*This was a song by the group Sounds of Silence, played for the movie Love Story.
**Clip art courtesy of Clip Art ETC.

I like blogging.

2010-01-29T05:12:00.000-08:00

I plan to post at least three times a week. I don't have a theme, per se, other than

ephemera, my favorite definition of which is "a fever lasting one day" but it also includes references to insects with short, one-day lifespans. The implication is that I will blog about whatever shiny thing catches my fancy, but perhaps a theme will develop.