Category Archives: blather

{interlude} Looking for racism where it doesn’t exist

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I’ve been watching soccer on TV for years. Over a decade. Long enough to have become a fan of regular anchors (like Bob Ley) and those who became anchors or color folks after their on-field career ended (like Alexi Lalas or Eric Wynalda). Max Bretos has been a colorful character, for sure, seemingly hyper-caffeinated on-screen and maybe Alexi’s BFF off-screen. I was glad to see that his career continued to progress, until it apparently came to screeching {suspension} this week thanks to a turn of phrase taken WAY out of context.

Bretos asked former Knicks player Walt Frazier about current Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin: “He’s handled everything very well, as you said, unflappable – but if there is a chink in the armor, where can Lin improve his game?” The world then seemed to have spun out of control with people accusing Bretos of racism because he used the word “chink” in the same sentence as “Lin”. Lin is of Asian descent, and much of the press about him seems to be focused on him not because he’s a fantastic player but because he’s a fantastic Asian-American player, and yet Max is the one who gets called out for being a racist? I’m sorry, but that’s nuts.

In the context of the phrase (speaking to its origin), “chink” refers to chain mail that’s got a hole or a snarl in it, creating a weak spot in the armor. In other words, what Bretos was asking was, “What are the weak spots in Jeremy Lin’s game?” In fact, if he had used this very same phrase when talking about ANY other NBA player – say, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James – NO ONE WOULD HAVE CARED. The reason no one would have cared is because the phrase was uttered innocently and in a completely valid, non-racist context. The people who are making a big deal about this, to the point where people are being fired or suspended, are the ones who should check their own heads.

Don’t get me wrong: racism is bad, mmmkay? Calling people bad names because you think they’re inferior is just wrong. However, picking up words that have been used for racist terms and calling them racist when used in complete other contexts is just silly.

Here’s another example:

The mid-90’s song “Alright” by Supergrass is a catchy, amusing tune that I remember hearing in the movie “Clueless”. One of the lines goes: “We wake up, we go out, smoke a fag, put it out, see our friends, see the sights, and feel alright.” OMG THEY SAID FAG. OH BUT WAIT…turns out that the band wasn’t talking about actually lighting a gay person on fire…they were just using a British slang word for “cigarette”. OOPS. So, given that the song got picked up by movies and even Intel, does that mean all those people are homophobes? Uh, no. Not remotely.

Words aren’t inherently bad until they’re used by bad people to do or say bad things. Many words have more than one definition or use, and not all definitions and uses of a bad word are bad. And it frustrates the hell out of me that someone who used a word innocently is being denied the ability to work because other people with their own racism issues have decided to make the word seem less than innocent. They’re the ones using the word badly, and if anyone should be suspended, it should be them – not Max.

One-offs: the glue to hold together a meal plan

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Typically, when we do our meal plan on Saturday (or Sunday morning, right before going grocery shopping), we plan as follows:

  • Sunday – some form of fresh fish
  • Monday – crock pot #1
  • Tuesday – crock pot #2
  • Wednesday – one-off
  • Thursday – crock pot #1 leftovers
  • Friday – crock pot #2 leftovers
  • Saturday – meal to be determined that day

It’s not that we can’t make something on Sunday that lasts into the week; we occasionally do that just to relieve some of the tedium that can set in from keeping to a fairly set routine. Still, this is our most common/standard meal plan template. We then fill in with these “one-off” meals (ones that are designed to fill a single night and are not expected to generate leftovers). DH and I had identified a bunch of these before we had kids, since leftovers were never really as big of a deal in our pre-kiddo days, and our list has had to change substantially in the last few years, to accommodate the toddler/preschooler palate.

Our typical go-to one-off meals these days are those that cost very little to prepare, can be made with items that are easy to stockpile/maintain on hand, and that typically take no more than about 30-40 mins to prepare (often with very little “active” cooking time).

The list includes:

  • Turkey tacos
  • “Brinner” (breakfast for dinner)
  • Fish and chips (where fish can be sticks/squares and chips can include fries or tater tots)
  • Pasta (dried pasta or ravioli/tortellini)
  • Homemade pizza
  • Quesadillas
  • Faux Chinese (assortment of frozen Chinese food items, like dumplings, Gen. Tso’s Chicken, and egg rolls)

I’m curious as to any other one-offs that work for others. Feel free to post any in the comments section. We’re always on the lookout for new ideas, especially those that may be kid-friendly.

The other thing I’d be interested in hearing is any tips on how to get a fast one-off that’s short on active time but that doesn’t lean heavily on prepared foods. I suppose that we could manage to get some of the prepared foods out of our diet (or at least reduce the reliance on them) if I made things in advance and either refrigerated or froze them for later reheating. It’s all a matter of planning. And, since our schedule is still fairly dependent upon meal planning, I’m fine with that.

We do lean on lower-sodium, lower-fat options, when available – but all of these meals rely on some measure of convenience/prepared items. Knowing that we may have no more than 30-40 minutes to prepare a meal, it feels so daunting trying to push these prepared items out of the pantry. Somehow, I doubt that we’re the only ones fighting this battle. Or at least I’d like to hope that we’re not alone out there.

Getting back in the swing of things…

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The last week has been a bit odd. I won’t go into all of the details, but suffice to say that things have been busy at work, at home, and with the exercise schedule, so it’s been hard to have the motivation to post. It’s also been hard to post when there isn’t always something good to post. Writing We had PASTA for dinner! is not nearly as interesting as when I post something about a scandal or stroganoff, I know. Of course, if I could manage to tie together scandal AND stroganoff, I’d probably have hits out the ying-yang…but that’s neither here nor there.

The gist of it is that I spent the bulk of this past week out of town for a funeral, and my travel schedule meant that I left dh in charge of dinner for 3 weeknights out of 5 – so we planned three “one-off” dinners: ravioli one night, “brinner” another night, and homemade pizza for the third night. This coming week will be a bit easier, since we’re both expecting to be in the same state, so I have a couple of crock pot dinners on the meal plan. I also have a couple that I’m going to post from prior weeks that I hadn’t yet posted; these are recipes that I think have promise, although I will note the mods I suggest for lighter attempts than what I did.

So, there it is. I may even be inspired to post a selection of our go-to “one-offs” that are generally quick and inexpensive. In fact, I think that’s what I’ll do now.