You Write The Caption

Posted Mar 24, 2006 by Marty Strasen

Updated Mar 24, 2006 at 12:06 PM

Is there a baseball game going on here, or is the entertainment confined to the stands?  Is it so cold that a fleece blanket isn’t enough of a heat generator?  Or are the Cubs just so bad that there’s no sense watching a club that hasn’t won the World Series since 1908?  We want to hear from you.

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Taking The Swastika Back

Posted Mar 24, 2006 by Vidisha Priyanka

Updated Mar 24, 2006 at 11:16 AM

It was an ordinary day. A day that provokes no profound thoughts in one’s brain. “Get ready for work,” my brain seemed to tell. I pulled out a blouse from the hanger. It was the new ethnic collection that I had brought from my recent visit home to India. (ethnic in the American psyche, for me it was native, everyday, ordinary)

I slipped it on and with my eyes still fighting sleep, stood in front of the mirror. As my eyes focused I saw my shirt with my trained eyes (The ones that decipher stuff that might seem offensive and undesirable). All I could see was a pattern of Swastikas on it.

My brain started working overtime. Will it be considered “Neo Nazi” if I wore it? Will I be a considered a skinhead with my brown eyes and brown hair?

Nah! I thought, the Swastika is a spiritual symbol in my world. Why would anyone misread it?

In some twisted turn of fate, Hitler borrowed the Swastika from the Hindu religion. He inverted it and made it diagonal. In doing so he subverted it and made it a symbol of hatred and cruelty.

My Swastika is straight and considered auspicious, a symbol of harmony, peace and balance.

Hitler’s Swastika became synonymous with death and destruction, with fear and fanaticism; my Swastika is synonymous with spiritual healing, the bounty of nature, the symbol of well being, beauty and kindness.

Hitler’s Swastika was made to instill fear in World War II, my Swastika has been benign for more than 5,000 years.

A part of every auspicious ritual, imprinted on boxes of sweets, painted on walls to bring good luck, printed on shirts to incorporate spirituality, the Swastika has never been used as a weapon of fear or a branding iron in my world.

I remembered an incident as I decided against wearing the shirt.

A friend of mine who married a German was unable to give boxes of sweets to any of her visiting guests for fear that the Swastika printed on the box would be considered as an insult.

I remembered another festive occasion. As I painted floor designs to decorate my apartment in the ‘land of the free and the brave,’ my sister stopped me from drawing the Swastika. “They will think you are a skinhead. Don’t go looking for trouble.”

I drew the Swastika despite her warning. I drew it the way it has been drawn for centuries. Beginning clockwise and straight, symbolic of culture and spiritual healing, symbolic of the beautiful self.

Nothing harmful in that. Is there?

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O-Town on a Tuesday

Posted Mar 22, 2006 by Alex Vila

Updated Mar 22, 2006 at 11:33 AM

Mickey and I ventured to Orlando last night to watch DJ Greyboy, one of my favorite acid jazz DJs. After a sushi dinner and a Lambic Framboise on Wall Street, we had a drink at a dive bar and then another at a tiki lounge.  If I could remember the names of the places I would tell you, but suffice it to say that they weren’t hard to find.  Then, we headed to The Social for the show.

Greyboy spun from about 11:45 p.m. until 1:45 a.m.  I was surprised by the lack of hip-hop he played, but I wasn’t displeased with his musical choices.  He played plenty of old-school funk tunes that had people jamming on the dance floor. 

After the show, I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to play. It was neat to talk to someone whose music I’ve appreciated for years.  Then, Mickey and I had a few words with another couple who had also driven from Tampa for the show.

Every time I go to Orlando, I find myself drawn to Paris Hilton’s nightclub, Club Paris.  I’m not very fond of the heiress, but the club looks really nice.  Maybe I’ll check out that place someday.  The last time Mick and I were in Orlando on a Saturday night, we saw a green Lamborghini out front that was practically identical to (and very well could have been) Missy Elliot’s.

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You Write The Caption

Posted Mar 17, 2006 by Janine Dorsey

Updated Mar 17, 2006 at 09:02 AM

We all enjoy a good snowball fight or making snow angels when the time is right. But what’s this little girl doing? You write the caption.

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Have you seen Nicole Richie?

Posted Mar 14, 2006 by Jaymi Curley

Updated Mar 14, 2006 at 05:38 PM

I highly doubt it. The woman is so skinny now, she’s like a mirage; you can only see her if the light hits a certain way. If she’s turned sideways, forget it. She weighs 93 pounds! I think my purse weighs more that. 

The big gossip says that she has an eating disorder brought about by her breakup with DJ AM, (Adam Goldstein) and that this wasting away is actually pining for him. Duh! Her major weight loss is one of the things that drove him to call off the relationship in the first place. He liked her curvy. But then, she started listening to the tabloid wonks, and tweaking her image to something a bit more blond and chic and bony. (Hmmm…can we say Paris #2). 

Still, Nicole’s reps say she’s fine, perfectly healthy, and she thinks she looks great, now that we can all count her ribs, and her knees and ankles look like something out of post-World War II news documentary. I’ll bet Karen Carpenter said the very same thing. Somebody needs to get Nicole a clue and a cheeseburger, stat!

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