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How Many More Books?
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Time To Enjoy NYC: Is there a better month to enjoy New York City than May? We don't think so. The weather is beautiful, baseball is in full swing, the performing arts scene is humming, and Broadway (where Tony nominations are soon to be announced) is in a self-celebratory frenzy. April in Paris is fine, but for our money, May in NYC is the ticket.
The first wave of reviews for A Raisin in the Sun has arrived and, against all odds, hip-hop icon Sean “P. Diddy” Combs seems to have survived the critical storm. The "paper of record" was pretty nasty, but otherwise Puffy (as we like to call him) seems to have done OK.
There are some great theater deals available now. Both The Producers and Mamma Mia! have discounts and some great seats available. If you haven't seen either of these mega-entertainments, now may be the time.
Here are a couple of shows for adventurous theatergoers:
Caroline, or Change and
I Am My Own Wife .
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 Well there seems to
be a new book coming hot off the press
before we can even finish the one we were reading. How many more books about the Bush
Administration will we have to read or hear about?
We need some air. And all these authors tell more or less the same stories.
Are they all lying? They all can't be lying now. Where there is smoke there is usually fire.
I believe that there are things to which we are not privy regarding pre 9/11, 9/11 and
post 9/11.
Let's see the result of the 911 Commission.
What the handful of U.S. soldiers did in Iraq with the prisoners of war was just
outright disgraceful. Swift action is needed and those responsible dealt with publicly.
However, were these soldiers carrying out any orders from above? Generally, these
soldiers do not take action of their own accord.
President Bush has voiced his regrets to the Arab world and the Secretary of Defense
has come under fire but will not resign and will not be fired. As citizens and
residents of this great country, and of this world, we can only be thankful for
those in the media who still have the balls to print and write the truth.
June 30 is fast approaching and everyone will just have to wait and see what happens.
Although President Bush has fallen in the polls, John Kerry continues to be stagnant because
he cannot decide on which side of the issue he stands. Can his advisors please
sharpen him up quickly!
Well, enough politics! Have a great month. See you in June.
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In Da Kitchen w/ D
 This month I will walk you
through a fresh
delicious salad accompanied by plain rice and curried chicken. It's about 5 p.m. and I am a bit tired.
I need to prepare something really quickly without sacrificing taste.
Also I have to watch my carbs. I don't really want a
chicken ceaser salad, so I decided to make a salad and to prepare some curried chicken.
I know that some carb
is still important so I have also prepared a cup of plain white rice.
This dish is really easy and simple.
I am not Chef
Boyardee but before you sit at my table to eat, let's go into
the kitchen.
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| In This Issue
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It Won't Be This Way Always
Alice Marie Yarborough's newly released CD, "It Won't Be This Way Always,"
is blessing young, old, rich, poor, black, white, saved, unsaved, churched, and unchurched. Even the most hardened
human being would have to get up and shout when they hear "Strong Tower". By putting her personal testimony
into song, it gave her the opportunity to express the same experiences and feelings of so many people who thought
no one knew what they were living through. She put into words what they felt in their hearts but could not speak
through their lips. The many praise reports and testimonies attest to this point. By the time she arrives at her final track
on the CD, "We are Free", you know undoubtedly the reason why you can truly say you are free. Each and
every song is designed to cause a deliverance to take place in the listener's heart, mind, soul and above all, their spirit.
They can know, believe, understand, and say without a shadow of a doubt, no matter where they are, "It Won't Be This
Way Always".
Her CD Release Concert will be on May 15th, 2004 at the The Bergen Performing Arts Center, 30 North Van Brunt Street
Englewood, NJ 07631 at 7 p.m.
[Visit Her Official Site]
A Look at the Sept. 11 Commission
WASHINGTON - The federal panel reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks conducted its investigation in relative obscurity for months. Now it finds itself in the spotlight as it interviews top government officials and releases preliminary findings as to what went wrong.
Some questions and answers about the commission, including what it has uncovered and the obstacles it faces:
Q: What is the Sept. 11 commission?
A: Congress created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in November 2002 to study the nation's preparedness before the attacks and the response afterward. The panel is supposed to recommend improvements to increase preparedness.
Five Republicans and five Democrats sit on the commission, headed by chairman Thomas Kean, a Republican former governor of New Jersey, and Democrat Lee Hamilton, a former representative from Indiana.
[Read full story]
The DL Trait Cannot Be Blamed For The Rise of HIV in the African American Community
“…with a guy, was playing with my tits until he touched me down there. He felt it and he seen it and like totally
flipped out. He said ‘you fucking faggot. You’re a freak. You’re a victim of AIDS and you’re trying to give me
AIDS. You’re a homo.’” [Paris is Burning, 1989]
Recently, there has been much talk in the African American community regarding the issue of black men living on the "down low" (DL) and the rise in the HIV infection rate in African American women.
The silence about the hidden community of black men who secretly have sex with men, commonly known as men "on the downlow," has long been broken but may just simply had been ignored.
It's a secret society that many say is bringing rising AIDS/HIV infections to African-American women. According to the CDC, back in 2002, approximately 64 percent of newly HIV infected women were black. Most of these women contracted the virus through heterosexual sex.
Many black gay men are angry for making it appear that they were spreading the virus in women. According to J.L. King, the Chicago-based AIDS/HIV activist and educator, in a March 7, 2000 interview published in Bay Windows Online, life on the downlow is about African-American men, who have sex with both men and women, prefers sex with women, but will have sex with a man and refuses to disclose this with his female partners, refuses to deal with it outside of the bedroom, refuses to accept the fact that his behavior is considered homosexual and refuses by all means to call himself or his behavior gay. "For true DL brothers," King notes, "having sex with men is more a matter of gratification than orientation."
[Read full story]
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Mission
Not Accomplished:
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| Book Review
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Joyce Carol Oates
Rape: A Love Story
Reviewed by Stephen Earley Jordan, II
ISBN: 0-7867-1294-5
 With its disturbingly ingenuous title, Joyce Carol Oates incessantly surprises the reader by
twisting the hidden agendas of humans and their messed-up truths, only to leave the reader
gasping for breath in hopes the undeniably doomed fate is simply a dream.
“Rape: A Love Story” begins with scantily-dressed, sexy, white-trash widow Teena McGuire and her 12-year-old daughter Bethie taking the short-cut home, July 4th, through the park where they are groped, verbally attacked, and beaten. Bethie, with a dislocated arm, hiding in the boathouse, witnesses the gang-rape of her mother “[ . . .] by the five drunken guys—unless there were six, or seven. . .”, and instinctually becomes her mother’s savior.
Oates follows her traditional motif of portraying two types of characters—the victimizers and the victims. As the only witness, Bethie identifies the victimizers in a line-up and soon a trial begins, while Teena, barely alive, recovers. Oates creates a marvelous, yet unsafe, haven exemplifying how an entire town, even the media –basing their knowledge on rumors— turns its back on one family, and ultimately one woman, one child, and one grandmother; and how Teena denies, and eventually loses, boyfriend Casey who apparently can’t get over “what-happened-to-Teena” on the Fourth of July.
“Rape: A Love Story”, effectively overshadowed with convoluted thoughts, puts one in perspective with the psychological windows of remembrance that victims of rape must slowly open to begin healing. But the question remains—will justice prevail? And, if so, in what form?
An explicit tale of a group of young men’s unwaning ardor and eventually a woman’s requited love. Literarily questionable, yet intriguing—simply for the notion of discovering its ending. For the weak-kneed reader, try hard-to-find (but easy-to-order) tale also by Oates, “First Love”, for comparison in regard to the forced-forward approach in “Rape: A Love Story” versus a metaphorical, yet more subtle approach.
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Balancing Life and Practice
When Office Romances Bloom...
by Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press
It's one of the most sensitive situations a business owner can face: two employees involved in a romantic relationship. It can be especially difficult in a very small company with very few workers.
Many people caution against office romances because such alliances can lead to discomfort for other employees who don't want to see public displays of affection. They can also create a tense atmosphere if the couple is having a fight or the relationship ends badly. At the extreme, especially if the relationship involves a supervisor and a subordinate, it can mean sexual harassment charges.
Professionals who advise companies on employment matters say the owner, upon learning of the relationship, needs to talk to the couple.
"You should immediately meet with those people and set some guidelines for appropriate workplace behavior," said Arlene Vernon, a human resources consultant in Eden Prairie, Minn. "You need to tell them, 'This is not your place for any of the fooling around that might go on - sneaking hand-holdings, hugging in the corner, passing little notes."'
But you shouldn't try to forbid the couple from having the relationship.
As lawyer John Robinson puts it, "You can't stop biology." And Vernon said that trying to force an end to a relationship can create an unpleasant atmosphere for everyone, including other employees who wouldn't want similar interference in their personal lives.
She suggests telling the couple, "I'm glad you met and that things are going well, but this is what I expect in the workplace."
Robinson, senior employment lawyer with Fowler White Boggs Banker in Tampa, Fla., said owners should also set expectations for the couple in the event of a breakup. He recommended telling them, "If this ever becomes a situation where one or the other of you becomes uncomfortable with it, we want to know about it so we can take action to continue with you and the company being successful."
A workplace romance doesn't have to be between two employees to cause problems.
Julie Swenson, owner of Abbas Public Relations in Minneapolis, found that out when she entered into a contract with her fiance's father, and her relationship ended suddenly shortly afterward. She said she found it very hard to talk to her client, and her receptionist was caught in the middle.
[Read Full Story]
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What's the Big Fizz?
Soft drink giants Pepsi and Coke will offer low-carb, "midcalorie" brands this summer for consumers
seeking suds without the sugar.
Called Pepsi Edge and Coca-Cola C2, the new soft drinks will cut back on high-fructose corn
syrup with Splenda, a no-calorie, no-carb sweetener. In one 12-ounce can, Pepsi will halve the calories and
carbs in its new brand.
A Chilly Option
Prefer foam over fizz? Then you will have to try a fresh-fruit cooler.
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