Starry Night in Texas
By Nordette N. Adams
A man flew to Dallas one Sunday
To meet a young lady on Monday
They'd connected online.
Her pictures were fine.
He thought he should marry her one day.
The woman arrived at the bar
to meet the man who'd flown far.
She hoped he would see
though she was a he,
their Internet love was on par.
The man who flew in carried flowers.
As he looked for her, minutes seemed hours,
but then there she stood,
and he stiffened like wood,
feeling he might need cold showers.
She wore a red dress as she said.
Even better her hair was quite red,
but she opened her mouth,
and the voice that came out
revealed he'd been mostly misled.
Looking the gent up and down,
her smile went to flat, almost frown.
His build was much smaller,
She'd thought he'd be taller.
Online he looked white, not so brown.
Romantics, they dared not tempt fate.
They'd come way too far not to date,
so sat down at a table
to unravel their fables
and honestly look at their state.
"By now you may see I'm a man,
but I'll love you the best that I can,
like a good wife," she said,
"and keep you well-fed.
Let's not go astray of our plan."
He felt badly misleading her so,
and told her what she did not know:
"The reason I'm small,
and not very tall
is I'm not that man you've called Joe."
"If I were to strip and undress,
you'd see that I've strapped down my breasts.
What can I say
but my real name is Faye,
and I promise to give you the best."
Two people walked into this bar
not knowing they'd each traveled far
to take one last chance
at finding romance,
wishing upon the same star.
(c) Copyright 2009 Nordette N. Adams
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Starry Night in Texas, a Tale in Limerick Verse
Monday, November 9, 2009
New Orleans literary calendar, Nov. 10-14
Here are New Orleans literary events (book signings, writers' groups meetings, poetry readings, book sales, book discussions) for Tuesday, November 10, through Saturday, November 14. ... Please visit the New Orleans Literature Examiner for more information.
Oprah & Anderson Cooper's Big Book Event
Tonight is Oprah and CNN's big literary event, the world's largest book discussion. The billionaire talk-show host will join Anderson Cooper and millions of readers in an exploration of her Book Club choice, Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan. You may register for the discussion, which will be simulcast LIVE ... Please read more at the African-American Books Examiner.
Play CNN's News Challenge Game
O.K. CNN wants to make the news fun, get you more engaged and they're doing it with a new online game called CNN Challenge. Pick an anchor as your news guide, and then answer questions about current events. You can even play with a buddy. Do you know the news the way you think you do?
I call the game new because I just learned of it today on Twitter. I'll need more rest before I play.
At the blog, Thoroughly Anderson Cooper (yes, somebody's dedicated to Anderson), a fan writes, "Listen to the ominous music starting from frame one, its very good especially for the occasion, but please don't get scared."
Read some of the comments on this game at CNN.
I mention CNN so much, it's obvious I favor them, and maybe it's also because I go for the underdog. So many news networks are going for opinion over news and so many people are eating that up that CNN's losing ground, I think. Perhaps this is also why the network's revamped its website and is trying new ways to attract viewers.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sapphire's Push: Merciless Honesty (book review)
I first became aware of the buzz about Sapphire's debut novel Push in 1995 or 1996. The novel gained attention for its distressing storyline but possibly more because the novelist received a $500,000 advance, a sum unheard of in those days for a first novel. Well, unheard of except that another writer that year had received even more, Jacquelyn Mitchard.
The two women appeared on a morning news show. I think it was Good Morning America, Sapphire for Push and Mitchard for The Deep End of the Ocean, a novel also notable as the first pick for Oprah's newly-established book club. Mitchard's book terrified suburban mothers, pricking their worst fears, the disappearance of a young child. "How could she even write such horror," people asked. That was more than a decade before incidents like that of the non-missing Balloon Boy glued some of us to our television sets.
And Push was another ghetto tale, but one about a girl, the victim of unspeakably heinous child abuse. Beatings, cruel words, incest.
So, both new novelists had hit the jackpot and both stories involved children in peril, but after that commonality, these stories diverged. Just three years later, ... Please continue reading full post at BlogHer.com.
Republican Cao Votes for Health Care, Bill Passes
Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, the first Vietnamese-American in Congress and the New Orleans attorney who beat William Jefferson in the race for the 2nd Congressional District here, was the only Republican to vote for the health care reform bill that passed in the house tonight.
Some of us have been watching Cao to see if he would play fair and honor the wishes of his constituents or go with the good ole boy Republican flow, desperate to rise in his party. He represents a diverse, heavily Democratic district.
He joined 219 Democrats to make the final margin 220 to 215 in favor of reform's passage.BlogHer.com also has news on the landmark vote tonight. Next stop, the Senate.
Cao was a major (and possibly the lone) target for Democrats hoping to get even a semblance of bipartisan support for the bill. He said after the vote that he had obtained a "commitment from President Obama that he and I will work together to address the critical health care issues of Louisiana." (Read more at Huffington Post)
If Cao's former opponent's name, William Jefferson, sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you heard it so much in the news August after he was convicted on corruption charges.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Man Shoots Up Orlando, Fla., Office, 1 Dead
CNN is streaming it and WFTV Channel 9, Orlando, Fla, has the latest local updates on another shooting. Today's shooting occurred at Reynolds, Smith & Hills, an engineering firm, and the alleged shooter, Jason Rodriguez, 40, was at one point at large, being called "armed and dangerous." Authorities just announced he's been apprehended. News sources further report that Rodgriguez may be a former employee of the firm who was laid off in 2007.
One person has been confirmed dead, and at least five have been wounded, per Police Chief Val Jennings.
This shooting comes on the heels of another mass shooting at Ft. Hood in Texas yesterday.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Photo of Alleged Fort Hood Shooter
See updates here. The alleged shooter is not dead, according the U.S. Army. Furthermore, officials now believe only one shooter may have been involved.
As previously reported at this blog and at BlogHer.com, the killer in the Fort Hood mass shooting was killed. News sources have identified as a soldier and psychiatrist, Major Malik Nadal Hasan. He has been killed and two other soldiers have been apprehended as suspects.
Officials says it was not clear what Hasan's religion was, but investigators are trying to determine if Hasan was his birth name or if he may have changed his name and converted to the Islamic faith at some point. (Huffington Post)More details at BlogHer.com. The death toll, including Hasan, is 12, 31 wounded.
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