A friend of mine used to be in the movement to reclaim the Swastika from its current and stolen use in the White Supremacy movement, and restore it to its rightful, historical position as a symbol of Heaven.
It stands for "The Winds of Change" and is connected with Shiva, a generally beneficent deity (on a whole, a lot more pleasant than anything the Greeks and Romans gave us). I think everyone in this campaign would testify that Change is indeed, a good thing. Hitler and his buddies subsumed the Swastika for ten years but it has thousands of years of positive connotations. I see the Swastika Reclamation movement to be the ultimate rejection of Nazism and White Supremacy. Guys — your central symbol is a sham. It wasn't creatively generated, it was stolen.
Currently there is a movement within our campaign to adopt "Hussein" as a middle name. I won't because I'm a woman and I don't want to append a man's name to mine, but anyone who wants to — go for it! "Hussein" means "masculine beauty," and so our candidate's name means "Blessed (Barack) Beauty (Hussein)." I can definitely get behind that and I think it's a very auspicious name to have. Handsome and Blessed. Yes!
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This weekend's activities went well. I couldn't make it to the Eugene4Obama meeting on Friday because I was at the Opera, but when I went to park I noticed another car with one of our stickers and home-made signs in the window, so I guess I wasn't the only one of our group that gave the Fishbowl a miss in favour of Madama Butterfly.
The rally on Coburg and Harlow went fairly. I estimate that we got one thumbs-down for every two thumbs-up, but that's a slightly older, monied, more conservative neighbourhood. Older people who were well-established householders around the time of the civil rights movement. We also got cruised by some Hillary hardcores who yelled out the window at us and did the "Shame On You!" finger-shake at us. I just brushed it off; it's getting a little easier to "take the high road" and not get dragged down by their negativity, but there's a little goblin crouched down in my heart that wants to twirl another finger back at them...
About midway through, a cop car pulled up with lights blazing and we thought one of the neighbours had called in to complain. But he was concerned about some of our people who were standing on the admittedly narrow median islands and was asking them to get onto more secure terrain. He smiled and waved at us as he drove off and I waved and thanked him. Good man...just doing his job.
But, we gave out a lot of stickers, thumbs-downs are fair play (flip-offs aren't and I have no qualms about throwing hexes at anyone who does that to us) and I noticed some creativity is coming to the fore.
I made one finally. In answer to "A Rose By Any Other Name," I got red and white silk roses (couldn't find blue) and adorned a corn-straw broom with them. I admit to nicking the "broom" idea from our friends in Los Angeles, who brought brooms to their debate rally last month. It just makes sense: Barack Obama is sweeping the nation, and he will clean house once he gets into the Oval Office. I'm going to add silk sunflowers (for Kansas) and a Hawai'ian flower next. I was thinking hibiscus but decided against that: hibiscus blooms only last one day and we don't want our movement to be that short-lived. Maybe ginger...I have a fake ginger plant somewhere around here...
A couple Obama stickers, stick back-to-back on the broom's handle, and I had a rally sign that was the envy of everyone who saw it. The Obama Sensation That's Sweepin' the Nation!
A young man named Matt (?), his girlfriend and their dog Noobs attended and they'd made a nice sign with various photos and quotes from Barack.
We're talking about doing a sign-waving rally every week now. Next one's going to be in Salem for the teachers' union nominating convention.
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My next Obama project will be to get the Obama "sunrise" logo embroidered on a saddle pad. The show season is coming up, it'll be a good way to spread the word. My trainer Cyndy hasn't really told me who she's supporting but she has tons on her plate right now.
Speaking of plates, I'm getting yanked in three directions right now. Ronald, one of our people, just got elected Secretary of our group and asked me to assist, but I had to decline with thanks. I have the Andalusian horse breed circuit to get ready for, a horse Expo in three and a half weeks (on a shoestring budget), and produce inventory for my Saturday Market booth, which starts next month. We're in high excitement because the Olympic track trials are being held here and we're making a big push.
Eugene Saturday Market has had a decline in sales over the past couple years. Basically we've glutted whatever art and craft market exists here, and people are circling the wagons against the recession. The Market goes on but it's turned from a market to an open-air arts and crafts gallery, without the wine and intellectual discourses. The Olympic Trials will bring the world to our doorstep and we're getting ready to ride that like a carousel. I'll be offering the usual — wands, walking sticks and ceiling fan blades — plus a couple other items that will be of interest to athletes and other physical types. More on that after I've produced some...
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We were expecting 25 people to show up for the Statewide House Party: Eugene Edition yesterday, but about nine turned out. We raised a hundred-ten for the campaign and unfortunately missed Forrest Whitaker on the conference call owing to some technical issues with Skype. I made two kinds of chocolate chip cookies — regular and double-chocolate mint chip — which were varying degrees of success. I ran out of white sugar so I subbed in honey instead. Not a bad idea, but they came out...spready. And when baked, they shoggothed into a big, dimpled mass on the cookie sheet. Here's a tip: if you're going to do that, use a 1-ounce scoop to shape the cookies, and use a cookie sheet with sides, lined with baking parchment. They were a crumbly mess but they tasted terrific, it goes without saying. Honey, almond extract, cocoa and mint chips: where's the bad news?
Here's the recipe:
Standard tollhouse cookie recipe, with the following ingredient substitutions:
- Replace 1/2 cup of the flour with cocoa powder,
- Mint chips instead of chocolate chips,
- Replace 3/4 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup honey,
- Replace .5 teaspoon vanilla extract with .5 teaspoon almond extract.
Tips:
Measure up your ingredients first, and portion them off into containers (like yoghurt cups, Mardi Gras or other plastic cups, butter/margarine tubs, etc.), then mix them.
If your butter comes straight out of the fridge, put it in the mixing bowl first and beat it soft with the mixer paddle on medium speed (2-3 on a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer). Then add your sugars, cream them, eggs, flour mixture, the flavouring, nuts and chips last.
Use a small (1-ounce) ice cream scoop to shape the cookies.
Baking parchment is available on store shelves now! Use it, even if you have nonstick pans! It makes cleanup and cookie handling so much easier, just lift the whole sheet straight onto the cooling rack.
If cooking with honey, keep a closer watch on the cookies because it caramelizes faster and makes the batter "spready." Better yet, forget the scoop and roll it into a log and freeze it, then cut the cookies. They'll keep their shape better.
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Tomorrow's our big day...hopefully there's a decisive victory for our side. Keep a good thought, see you in the Field of Hope, and stay Fired Up!
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