This was the headline from CNN,Com on Saturday. Wishful thinking perhaps or just spoilsports? You be the judge.

The other day i was in the bookstore and as I always do (foodie that I am), I peruse the cooking section..religiously (smiles). I don’t know why I never noticed the number of cooking “bibles” there were. In fact, i own a number of these “bibles” in my extensive collection of cookbooks. My initial reaction was that perhaps the authors of these books were being a bit sacrilegious. But the more I thought about it, the more convinced I am that perhaps not.

Consider: During most of our major holidays…at least the ones with religious meaning…food plays a major part. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Ramadan and Hanukkah to name a few. Couple this with the fact that most churches and religions have all sorts of events planned around sharing a meal. Frankly, I am amazed.

This begs the question of why we can’t all get along better. I mean if we all sat down to a meal together, maybe the world would be a better place. After all, who do you know, that isn’t happy sharing a well cooked meal? So with that thought in your head…Happy Easter, one and all.

I just saw this video that Microsoft put out. They gave this lady $1000 tp buy a laptop computer and she goes into an Apple store and can’t buy a laptop with a 17″ screen for $1000 or less. She comes out disapointed and says he is probably not ‘cool” enough to own a Mac. Duh. So she buys a PC laptop for about $700. I had to laugh….cause when she gets it home and discovers that it comes with “nothing” and that she has to buy all this new software, she gonna realize that she would have been better off paying a little extra to get a mac that comes with some of the programs she is going to have to pay for.  But she will get something for free…viruses!

Anyone that knows me understands how much I dislike the “talking heads” that spew on the airwaves. However I have to give props to one in particular. Jack Cafferty from CNN made some great points in his latest column. If you have gone to a restaurant and been forced to put up with the bad manners of little monsters that their parents are unwilling to control, then this will be of interest to you. I think he hit the bulls-eye with this one. I for one, want to shake some sense into these clueless parents. If I am  at a fine dining establishment, paying big bucks for a meal, I centainly don’t want to be hit with food, or loud and obnoxous behavior. Had I done some of the things these little whiners do in public, I probably wouldn’t be alive to write this post!

After talking to a few of my married men friends, we all have decided that one way to stay married is to insist (and I use that word advisedly) on having your own space. Said space hereafter known as a Man-Cave. Face it, women always get the walk-in closet while your clothes are lucky to be relegated to a few hangers and perhaps (if she’s feeling generous) a second  minuscule closet somewhere in the house, or possibly in the next time zone. They always get the  most shelves in the bathroom, filled with makeup that most men can’t even pronounce.

But fear not my brothers, because recent studies by scientist say that men that have their own man-caves are more rounded and better husbands. No bull. This is mine shown above and still a work in progress. Although its in the bowels of my domicile I love it and even have a door by which I can escape when the wife issues any directives that pop into her head. And in case you don’t think that a man cave is important, just do a search for “man cave” and see how popular they have become. I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite “official” sites!

One important aside: Don’t think you are completely safe gentlemen…cause they can hunt you down from any place on earth. Enjoy while you can before the summons comes. Just practice the following: “Coming dear!’

Yesterday I was reminded that American sensibilities for different types of “foreign” food is really horrible. Most Americans will turn up their collective noses at all types of things the rest of the world knows are delicious declicaties. But thats cool…More for me!

Yesterday, Hannamari, my friend Yee and I went to a Chinese restaurant that was the real deal. Its true that most Americans have only eaten at restaurant where the food has been “dumbed down” to their palates. No so this place. The menu was really authentic. I have a friend that owns a great restaurant in Hong Kong and have had the real Chinese meals. I have visited him and nearly ate myself sick on deep-friend chicken paw (chicken feel). They we unbelievably good and after 15 or so of them, he had to make me quit. “There will be some tomorrow!” Imagine my surprise when I saw the menu of yesterdays restaurant..they had Chicken Paws on the menu! As well they had items most American’s would not even think of eating! Chicken tongues and bits of this and that were superb! We had the chicken paws and the most authentic Peking duck ever…served in the Chinese style….crispy skin carved right at the table and served  steamed bun, duck sauce and thinly sliced spring onions. While we ate the skin, the staff took the rest of the duck back and carved the rest of the meat, then stir fried it with fresh vegetables. They brought that back to the table abd served it with fresh lettuce leaves! Needless to say, we shall return to try more item.

Since we travel a lot and are not afraid to try different types of food, finding authentic foods in this country is a treat. I highly recommend that when you travel, you at least try the food. Ask a local what to eat but at least try. You might be surprised. Italian or Spanish restaurant in this country bear little resemblance to food I ate while living in Milano or Barcelona. In this time of recession, I think other cultures eat much more cheaply them Americans. Try different thing before deciding that its yuckee. I guarantee you might be surprised!

Rush L and Mr. Hannity are at it again! I wish they would get over it. There is a new president in the White House so they need to help or get out of the way. Rush L. still say that he hopes the  President falls. Problem with that kind of think is that if he falls, the country could be in worst shape. One only needs look at the lack of leadership qualities that Bush brought to the table to understand that. Rush L. says that President Obama is making American’s fearful, but the truth of the matter is the last administration wrote the “fear” book. Its akin to yelling fire in a crowded room. I give no politican a blank check and that includes Obama. But I give him plenty of time to try to save our country. Obtructionist give me the willies and having the Republican party lead by a bunch of pundits is really scary.

Some years ago when I lived in DC and worked for the Washington Post, I had a friend that I met frequently for lunch a few time a month. We’d haunt the bookstops and other shops and each time I made a purchase he would always ask me why I took a bag for my purchase even if was just one magazine or even one bag of chips and soda. Each time my answer was the same…”its a black thing!” I never bothered to explain this and even Hannamari had asked me once in a while as well as others. “Save a tree” they’d say. Or, “Do know that plastic bag would take a hundred years to biodegrade?” I still took the bag.

A few days ago, my friend contacts me and says, “I get why you take the bag!” The story he told vindicated me. It seems that while he was home in Arizona he had gone to a mall to a store and observed a young black man make a purchase of an item. When asked if he wanted a bag by the cashier, the young man declined. Purchase in hand he left the store only to be confronted by a rent-a-cop just outside the door. He was asked to return to the cashier to verify his purchase and responded that he would do no such thing and stated that he HAD purchased the items. However the  rent-a-cop didn’t wait for the young man to finish his explanation, but tried to phyiscally force him back into the store using a arm-lock and other tactics, whereupon the young man suffered a broken arm in the process.

Onlookers tried to tell the rent-a-cop that they had seen the youth pay for the item but their pleas fell on deaf ears. The youth was force into a back corner of the store and was forced to wait in agony while the police arrived. The cashier was informed of the actions later and rushed to tell the police that the young man had paid of the item, whereupon the police released him and called for medical assistance. The cashier also called the manager, who had been absent from the store at the store at the time of the incident. My friend was motified by the whole thing.

The moral of this tale is that I ALWAYS get the bag! Its nice that we have a black president and that maybe things are getting better on the race level, but until I am no longer racially profiled in neighborhoods where I can afford to live, or am followed around a store from the minute I step in the door, or have someone actually cross the street when they see me coming, then the BAG is my only recourse.

Ask any guy about his aversion to “chick-flicks”…roughly translated as any movie that he is dragged to (kicking, screaming and pouting), by his significant other. The first thing he will tell you is that he hates them and would rather eat glass or swap spit with Richard Simmons then admit he EVER attended such a movie. But if you dig deeper you will find nothing is further from the truth. The problem lies in the fact that some “chick flicks” are not recognizable as such. But fear not dear ladies. If you are interested in attending a movie classified as a chick flick by your favorite knuckle-dragger, then follow these general rules.

1.It must have some humor…the slapstick variety is best. 2. A little action never hurts and I’m not talking about the horizontal kind. 3. Skin, skin and more skin. Hopefully the skin of the starlet lending her talents to the hated film.

This pretty much guarantees attendance at the movies with a minimum of fuss and bother. There are those enlightened gentlemen, such as myself, who actually enjoy a good chick-flick, mainly to keep the peace and because some of them actually have some merit as films  (But I still want the skin though). I gave this some thought one night while sitting with my friend Yee and watching one of my favorite “chick-flicks” on the TV. She enjoyed the film. Chick flicks are better watching when there is an actual “chick” present. I was surprised that I liked so many of them. Below is a list of my top 20 favorite “chick flicks”. What are yours?

1. Cyrano (The old one with Jose Ferrer. Plenty of swashbuckling action too!)
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Anything with Audrey Hepburn is worth a watch)
3. The Princess Bride (This is a classic! Can you believe it was made 20 years ago?)
4. Romancing the Stone (The ultimate Action/Romance movie)
5. A Little Romance (Diane Lane’s First Movie)
6. When Harry Met Sally (Worth it for the classic Meg Ryan restaurant scene)
7. Waitress (What man doesn’t love pie?)
8. Love Actually (Lots of skin and then some and great Brit cast!)
9. Mostly Martha (The American remake of this GERMAN movie was crap))
10. The Importance of Being Earnest (I love period pieces)
11. A Room with a View (A period piece with one of my favorite actresses, Helena Bonham Carter)
12. Splash (Tom Hanks is brilliant)
13. Once (The REAL music biz.)
14. The Holidays (Jack Black being serious..kinda)
15. Under the Tuscan Sun (More Diane Lane later in life)
16. Dirty Rotten Scoundrel (Who can resist Steven Martin and Michael Cane)
17. Father Goose (Cary Grant was a class act and could teach style to a pig)
18. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (A breakthrough movie in so many ways)
19. As Good As It Gets (Jack Nicholson at this best)
20. Love and Basketball (A good movie for a sports nut)

Well after a long vacation away from the blogsphere and with the kind backing of a lot of people, I’ve decided to give it another try. Thanks to all the people that “pestered” me to get started again. You know who you are and I’ll get you! (Smiles) I’ll be tinkering with the appearance for few days, so bear with me. In any event, I’ll try to make this as entertaining as possible. And visual too. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

*Rules: As usual a few rules for those reading that object to any of my content. THIS IS MY BLOG and I’ll write anything I damn well please. Feel free to comment, but any mean-spirited, nasty stuff will get you booted and deleted. I try to keep the cussing to a minimum, only because I have better ways to express myself and since this in an exercise in writing it makes sense to try to use the language properly.*