Why aren't I sleeping? oh yeah, urge to post rising, RISING...!

[fredericks]

If anyone on my FL happens to wander through Bed-Stuy and is hungering for a slice of pizza expertly prepared by a skinny black dude from Trinidad who just happens to be my uncle, pop on by A Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Shop at 685 Franklin Avenue. He's had the place open for almost a year now and I checked it out for the first time on Saturday. He gave me the full tour, from the freezers to the Fry-O-Later (used later that evening to make fried bake, which I found HI-larious) to the mixer, where I gave him and his two sons a hand whipping up the pizza dough for the next day. It's such a NY joint: the owner's from the Caribbean, the current chef's from Ecuador. And the pizza really *is* damn good. So, you know, spread the word or whatnot.

****

"Nation's Blacks Creeped Out By All The People Smiling At Them". My favorite line (because, my GOD, so true!): "Although poll respondents said that the regularity of jovial white strangers greeting them in elevators has risen approximately 450 percent since mid-January, the incidents are reportedly nowhere near as frequent as they were on Nov. 4, 2008. On that day, the country was temporarily seized by an epidemic of unsolicited white-on-black hugging.". Moreso on the 5th than the 4th, but, yeah. Jebus, that was awkward.

Somewhat related, captainschlumpy and I are working on making the Friday after Thanksgiving "White Guilt Amnesty Day". It would make it that much easier to separate the naive but well-meaning (and willing to listen/learn) wheat from the bigoted close-minded chaff.

***
Thursday afternoon was amazingly cold in the city. I was making my way down 5th Avenue when I saw a woman walking with two toddlers; the kids were bundled but one of them had his face exposed, and I could see he was *not happy* about that. Then the wind picked up, and I gave a loud "FUCK!" in my head, because homygodCOLD. The little boy, at the same moment I made my mental exclamation, started bawling. I could not blame him at all. Felt quite bad for him, in fact. Sort of wished I could do the same thing. But I figured the tears would freeze in a track down my face and make things that much worse.

****
I don't necessarily have a problem with doing tasks incorrectly, but rather having other people know that I've done a task incorrectly. My Shame Meter is messed up.

***
Saturday, March 28th @ Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn: A Symposium at the Bi-Annual Meeting of the National Black Writers Conference on The Works and Life of Octavia Butler. Be there or be completely square (+1!).

Comments

[sometimesdee.livejournal.com]

That's right near my new favorite Indian place, and not too far from my office. I should totally try it out. Do they deliver?

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

If that's the Indian place across the street, another one of my uncles owns that joint. Literally. He owns the building and shook them down for some awesome samosas and mango yogurt shakes the same night I was in the pizzeria.

And, yes, they deliver - 347.461.9572 is the number.

[sometimesdee.livejournal.com]

Your uncle owns Bombay Masala? Get out of town!

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Get out of town!
I would if I could. At least for tomorrow. Goddamn 40 mph winds and 10 degree wind chill. What weather gods did Paterson piss off???

And, yeah, he totally does. Boggles my mind, as this guy is always mooching meals off us at our house.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

EXCELLENT icon, btw. :)

[childofmetis.livejournal.com]

I wish I lived in NY so I could try it out! But the cold does NOT make me want to live there. It is cold enough here, and I am miserable with just this. I would like to take part in White Guilt Amnesty Day, please ;) I need to be told that unsolicited white on black hugging is not okay!

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Heh. I never thought of NY as cold. Then again, I usually don't mind it. But tomorrow? we're going to be rocking 20-40 mph winds with wind chills in the teens. Not. Fun. But I'll take it over the heat any day.

*grin* Honestly, I think I'd take the hugging over the warm welcoming smiles. It was surreal.

[darker-one.livejournal.com]

I don't necessarily have a problem with doing tasks incorrectly, but rather having other people know that I've done a task incorrectly. My Shame Meter is messed up.

Oh yeah, totally with you on that one. I'll take responsibility, I'll happily do all the work to fix it, but I never want anyone else to know. Because everyone else should think I'm perfect, dammit.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I'd take at least competent. I want people to think I'm capable. And then my inability to lie screws with my need to cover up any mistakes. Having a sense of morals beaten into you at a young age messes everything up.

[sometimesdee.livejournal.com]

Silly parents! At least mine beat me into learning to cover up my mistakes!

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

My brothers learned that lesson. As the first child, I had this whole *honesty* thing whaled into me before I grasped the bit about hiding my tracks. I've always been a little slow about these things.

[captainschlumpy.livejournal.com]

I'm telling you we need to make t-shirts! You know after you told me about the random congratulations and creepy/happy white people I started watching and you are so right! You can see so many white people who just want to walk right up to the nearest black person and hug them. must...resist...urge....to...hug!

Also, I'm sitting in a truck on the top of the big landfill right now and it is rocking so hard with the wind I feel like I might tip over! I was in Manhattan with Damon (Coraline 3D!) on Fri and came home with wind burn!

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I sing The Other Father Song every so often ("Makin' up a song about COOOR-a-line...!). Damn catchy.

CafePress is the way to go, I think. We totally need shirts. Might as well make money off our combined insanity.

And I see your truck was arockin'. Heh. Must have been nutso later on in the afternoon.

[mersipan.livejournal.com]

On that day, the country was temporarily seized by an epidemic of unsolicited white-on-black hugging.

This made me chuckle, because there was a lot of that in DC. I tried to keep my unsolicited hugging to a minimum, however.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I could only imagine. And I'm loving that icon. :)

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

I was gonna post that Onion article, but I forgot. Ick. Liberal racism is insidious and creepy.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

(Best Sokka moment *ever* encapsulated by that icon, btw)

That Onion article was definitely full of win. I'm happy the almost obligatory congrats from white folks have fallen off, at least. It was like I'd won something personally.

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

(I've been looking for an icon of that scene for ages)

So white people actually were congratulating you? That's really icky.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Not making that up at all. You'd think I'd personally won something. Instead of, you know, the NATION actually winning something. Or whatever.