apropos of anything

I have another post in my head. It’s late, which matters as it’s somewhat timely, but I’m going to get over that and to the 3BT today because it’s Thursday and because I haven’t in a while and because thirty years ago this weekend, a movie changed the course of cinematic history.

If you think I don’t love Star Wars… you don’t really know me that well. So, today, three random things, possibly not even my three favorite things, about the original Star Wars movies.

1. The uneven dialogue plus the uneven acting. “Many Bothans… died to bring us this information.” Right, lady. It’s not a great line to work with, but you didn’t even try to sell it. And yet, despite all that, people (myself included) love these movies. They’re so incredibly flawed — the first three, at least; the second three are hopelessly beyond repair — but there’s still something magical about them that sucks you in, gets you to snicker when Leia calls Chewbacca a walking carpet, and keeps you glued to the screen for viewing after viewing.

2. “I know.” Legend has it that Harrison Ford, notorious for flying by the seat of his pants, ad-libbed this Empire Strikes Back line during one of the takes, and it worked so well they incorporated it into the final cut. It’s perfectly in keeping with the Han Solo the smuggler, Han Solo the pirate, who wouldn’t be likely to announce (especially in front of the enemy) that he loved Princess Leia even if it was pretty obvious that he did.

3. The pop culture impact. Han Solo shot first. The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to 1. Princess Leia is not, nor will she ever be, a committee. And of course, Darth Vader is your father (which means we’ll forget about the time that you kissed your sister).
May the Force be with y’all.

Because it’s late and because the weeks, they just keep getting worse as the year goes on, so much that I am almost ready to hand 2007 the “Worst Year EVER” award, and it’s only March. But. That’s why TBTT is so important: It reminds me that things aren’t really as crappy as they seem.

Click to go to the original Flickr photo.

1. Stealing your lunch (or as Dan calls it, running up a tab). Last week, I ran over to Ali Baba’s on Broad St. because I was craving some grape leaves. I thought I had eleven dollars in my pocket, so I didn’t bother to take my purse. I waited in line (because they only have grape leaves at the gyro counter, which almost always has the longer line), ordered a side of grape leaves ($2.95 without tax), and went to the register to pay… except that I didn’t have eleven dollars. I had TWO dollars. It was one of those wishing-the-floor-would- swallow-me-up moments. I told the guy at the register that I was sorry, but I couldn’t pay for the side. He had a conversation in Turkish with the other guy, and then he told me it was okay, I should take them, and I could pay for them later. I refused. He insisted. I refused some more. The other guy piped up that he knew me, it was okay, I’d pay for them later, no more arguing. I took them. Going to Ali Baba’s and back was my only free thirty minutes of the day, which meant it was my only shot at lunch, so Alhumdulillah for trust and generosity.

2. People who understand your righteous indignation. Y’all, I have been full to bursting with righteous indignation this week. So much so, in fact, that I’m a little surprised people around me haven’t gotten fed up and said, “Shut up, princess.” Instead, they’ve been righteously indignant with me, on my behalf. So while I am possibly due a “Shut up, princess” for still being indignant this late into the week, I appreciate their remarkable restraint and extremely well-timed “You’re KIDDING me”s.

3. Sleep. When you realize you haven’t gotten enough in about… three straight weeks, there’s nothing so beautiful as being able to climb into bed.

Because food is always, always beautiful:

1. Berries and berry season. I look forward to summer for so many reasons (baseball (duh), sunshine, Screen on the Green, the Shakespeare Festival, fireworks on the Fourth of July, etc., etc., etc.), not the least of which is the return of fresh fruit, especially berries.

The color and contrast in this photo is just gorgeous.
As always, click on the image to get the source photo.

Sometimes I think I love berry desserts more than chocolate desserts, shocking as that may sound. I certainly love making berry desserts. My mother would say the abundance and variety of berries is just another sign of the glory of God, and she would be right.

Click to go to the original Flickr photo.

2. Grapefruit. I know it’s not to everybody’s taste, but I love it. Dark red pulp, surrounded by bitter white pith, surrounded by yellow rind. How pretty is that? Martha uses them for sandwich cookies, and chockylit uses them in cupcakes (seriously, how yummy looking is that?), but they’re also great just by themselves, sliced and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, or maybe just a pinch of sugar. I will eat them in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train. And in a car. And in a tree. They are so good, so good, you see!

3. Indians are passionate about mangoes. When I was twelve and went to Mumbai for my cousin’s wedding, we came towards the end of mango season, but my grandmother had stockpiled them for us. She’d set aside so many we couldn’t possibly eat them all, so I spent one afternoon with my cousins making mango jam out of the spoiling ones. When I was twenty-two and went to Mumbai just to visit, we came at the beginning of mango season, when the fruit was still mostly green, yet my mother came back from the villages with crates full of mangoes, all of them gifts from family who wanted us to get our fill of India’s prize fruit before we left for the desolate, mango-less American wasteland.

To a man, all non-resident Indians attest that the mangoes available in the States (from Mexico) are “nothing” compared to what you can get in the villages of India. When given the choice, the NRI will always choose the mango-infused version of a food. Mango ice cream, mango cheesecake, mango juice. It will never be as good as the Indian kind, but they will choose it anyway because mangoes, even the inferior ones, are a temporary passport home.

These mangoes are not Indian, I don’t think, but the shot was too
beautiful to pass up. Click on the image for the original Flickr photo.

In the end, I think maybe this TBTT was less about food and more about gorgeous photography… and of course, about the endless bounty of God, which is so large and amazing and beautiful we aren’t capable of fully comprehending it.

1. Pitchers and catchers reported today. You know what that means: Baseball is back! Pitchers and catchers reporting is only a short step away from everybody reporting, which is only a short step away from spring training, and then, before you know it, we’re in April, looking at Opening Day. I can’t wait.

2. Believing in something. The speech Izzie gave on tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy was kind of hokey and way inappropriate (how is Meredith’s impending death about you, Izzie, and why would it be a good time to tell George how much you think his marriage sucks?), but the point of having her make it was to show that she’d regained her faith in medicine. She believed again. If you’ve ever had even a moment of being unable to believe in anything, or anyone, you know how amazing it is to finally step out of that fog.

3. Stuffed grape leaves. Sometimes all I would eat for dinner in Saudi was two grape leaves and an orange. They were a staple at the dinner buffet, but even knowing I’d get them after isha didn’t stop me from craving their tangy goodness during the day. One of the girls in the group said you can find fresh ones at Middle Eastern markets, but I haven’t found any Middle Eastern markets in Atlanta that carry them. In the meantime, I guess I’ll have to make do with canned, or I could try making my own.

1. Untrodden snow. I have lived in the Sunbelt for most of my life. I have never had to shovel it, never had to drive in it, rarely seen it piled up, sludgy and brown, on the sides of the roads. I’ve never had to dig my car out from underneath it. I am not currently buried in it. Under those circumstances, perhaps it’s cavalier of me to say that snow is beautiful, so I will say this: Snow that has just fallen, that has yet to be stepped on, is beautiful.

2. Options. How lucky I am to be able to choose. Sometimes I think many doors are closed to me, and while that may be true, I still have a plethora choices. In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. If I do not dare to disturb the universe, that too is a choice of mine. Maybe I am not ready to reach for the options that are within my grasp, but knowing that they are there is beautiful. And perhaps one day, the mermaids will sing to me also.

Vinegars this nice belong in your salads, not in your drains. Click on the image to go to the original photo on Flickr.

3. Vinegar. It’s a stinky miracle worker.

I have always had an issue with drains and Drano. Y’all know this. Probably far better than you want to, even. And even though the hole in the bathroom ceiling wasn’t caused by Drano, I’ve been looking for alternatives since then, just because.

Heather and Jason suggested I try boiling vinegar, which seemed odd to me, but who am I to question both Heather and Jason? Of course, it works. Expertly. So now, in addition to being a wallpaper remover, a dye remover, and an essential component of salad dressing, vinegar unclogs my drains without adding extra chemicals to my water.

Useful AND environmentally friendly. And it doesn’t even burn my fingers. Beautiful.