Paula Deen Backing Obama?

Who knows?  But Michelle Obama joins Deen on Paula’s Party.  Read on:

MICHELLE OBAMA AND PAULA DEEN THROW A PATRIOTIC PARTY!
New Episode of “Paula’s Party” Premieres Saturday, September 20th at 7:00pm ET/PT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Join America’s favorite Southern cook Paula Deen as she catches up with First Lady hopeful, Michelle Obama on the campaign trail for an all-new episode of Paula’s Party. On Saturday September 20th at 7:00pm ET/PT, Michelle gives Paula a taste her family life on the road to the White House and shares fun facts, including the first meal she made for Barack, what kinds of local foods the family seeks out on the road and that Barack makes a mean chili! And, with Paula showing her secrets for frying up some popular American comfort foods, this is one party viewers won’t want to miss!

EPISODE:

PAULA’S PARTY: GREASE IS THE WORD PARTY
Premieres: Saturday, September 20th at 7:00pm ET/PT
Grease is definitely the word when Paula Deen and her guests cook up greasy comfort food! There’s no debating, Michelle Obama is thrilled to learn how to make Paula’s famous Fried Shrimp and Creole French Fries! Maury Povich and Connie Chung join Paula to share the recipe for Connie’s mother’s Fried Dumpling, and Paula makes Maury his favorite dish, Fried Apple Pies, Paula’s sons Jamie and Bobby Deen round out the frying fun when Jamie makes a Sunday dinner favorite, Fried Pork Chops, and Bobby joins his mom for a delicious Sausage Potato Salad.

I think I speak for eveyone when I say, “Maury Povich, he’s dead right?”

Retrospective

Many of you who have ventured this blog lo these many years (both of them) doubtlessly believe my life revolves solely around food.  That is mostly true.  I do have other interests and profiencencies like my love of Auburn football and super heroes.  In addition to eating and cooking food I also write about it, but I write about other things as well.  It is with this thought in mind that I share with you a short essay I wrote about five years ago.  Read, think, remember.

Astrologically autumn begins in mid-September.  Its beginning is signaled by the vernal equinox- one of two instances a year that the sun actually aligns itself with our equator.  We know this because modern scientists have peered through giant telescopes noting each infinitesimal detail of our planet’s orbit through the solar system.  Native American shamans, pre-Druid Celts, and the Egyptians have known this for two millennia because they could count.

The heat of summer was beginning to dissipate.  The September sun gleaming in the clear sky personified Ronald Reagan’s metaphor of America as “the shining city on the hill.”  Wall Street was buzzing with economic activity.  Time Square flickered with vendors, shopkeepers, and tourists.  Horns honked, children laughed, and cabdrivers shouted profanities.

To the un-indoctrinated this is chaos.  To those who have ever lived in the Big Apple it is simply Tuesday.  Poets, lyricists, and authors have long seen the complex beauty in New York much as scientists see the beauty in mitoses.  It has inspired phrases such as in a New York minute or New York state of mind.

A roar echoed through the man-made canyons like a dragon from above.  Cacophony is no stranger to the average New Yorker, but this new sound was not right. A shadow of foreboding crossed the sidewalks at high speed.  Pedestrians looked up in horror.  It was headed right for the  . . .

On September 11, 2001 terrorists, enemies of peace, attacked the United States of America by hijacking two commercial airliners and crashing them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.  That same day two other airliners were hijacked, one was flown into the Pentagon in Washington DC.  The fourth crashed to the ground killing all.

At 8:15 our world changed forever.  By 9:45 in a field in Western Pennsylvania the first indication of that change was evidenced in the selfless sacrifice of the patriots aboard American Airlines Flight 93.  The images and words that followed that week are now eternally etched into each of us who remember that tragic event and its aftermath.  From the frantic plea of a family member carrying a tear soaked photograph, to the heartbreaking sight of a flag draped stretcher emerging from the rubble of ground zero, to the stern warning, “the people who knocked these buildings down will hear us all,” something in each of us changed.  Heroes died.  Grown men wept.  Grandmothers became bloodthirsty.

The fall classic, the World Series, became a seven-night wake.  Each sporting event centered more on the singing of the national anthem than on the final outcome.  Before we knew it Thanksgiving was here and yes, we did give our thanks, but more so we faced the holiday with sorrow.  Without notice Christmas arrived and finally we began to heal.  Months passed before we completely regained our collective equilibrium. 

It is only now, years later that we look back and ask ourselves, “What happened to autumn?”  We try to remember how our seasonal procedures worked and what we did that year but we cannot remember because there was no “autumn 2001”.  That fall never happened.

It is like the old philosophical question – if a tree falls in the woods and there is no one around to hear it does it make a sound?  Now years removed from that tragic day there is no clear memory of autumn.  No remembrance of the leaves changing their colors or the cool wisp of a north wind at night and we have to ask ourselves – if the seasons change and the world is in mourning did that season ever happen?  History will record that there were in fact four seasons in 2001: winter, spring, summer, and grief.