Dinner Determining Your Destiny?

No fresh pasta, sea urchin, or kimchi on a first date? No shared plates? Yikes.

This Guardian article on how, where, and what to eat for a first date makes a few noteworthy points (like avoiding places with mariachi bands), but it ultimately sounds more punishing than pleasure-enhancing. I’m not so concerned about specific food items (though you might want to avoid asparagus, for reasons I’ll explain another time). Instead, at least for me, I think it’s incredibly important to find food compatibility. Granted, I’m a food freak, but if you’re hoping your first-time dining companion might turn into your life-long partner, I believe you should share some passion when you’re first breaking bread. After all, you might be sitting across the table from each other for many meals in the years and decades to follow.

Happily, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a first date, but thinking back, I came to realize I wanted to be with someone who loves looking at menus, sampling new dishes, and discerning the different ingredients. Someone with a healthy appetite, translating to a healthy appetite for life. Someone who likes to share plates, but will playfully fight for that last great bite. Someone omnivorous, who understands that bacon fat makes everything taste better, and who smiles instead of squirms at the prospect of ordering organ meats. Someone who’d perhaps even eat fresh pasta with sea urchin and kimchi!

Luckily, I found that someone. What’s hard for me to believe, especially now that I’m a food writer, is that it wasn’t long ago that I dated someone who didn’t like fruit…or fish…or beef…or any dark meat…or most anything. (Basically, it seemed like she only ate chicken breasts and overcooked vegetables, which made her the perfect candidate for hotel banquets.) Vacations, the perfect time to explore new cuisines and concoctions, felt like a nightmare. Worse, daily life at the dinner table became, well, dull and eventually dreadful.

Does that make you look at that first dinner date any differently?

(The FCC, not Janet Jackson’s)

Remember the fuss over the so-called “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 Super Bowl? You know: that microsecond of “boob flash” when Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson’s bustier during their halftime show. It drove conservatives (and some non-conservatives) crazy, with the ensuing controversy making us the laughing-stock of the world for our Victorian attitudes about nudity and sex.

Recall that the FCC slapped CBS with a $550,000 fine for indecency.

Yesterday, years later, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the fine, arguing that the FCC “arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy” by levying a fine for this fleeting episode.

Nice to know it’s not all boobs in the government…

…and watermelon

Continuing to wreak havoc on reproductive rights, the Bush administration just announced a proposal that would cut off aid to health programs (like hospitals, clinics, and medical schools) that refuse to hire workers who object to abortion—and even certain methods of birth control. In other words, the proposal allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman’s access to
contraception.

Meanwhile, John McCain has a major birth control problem. Carly Fiorina, his campaign advisor, had stated that “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.” Watch this video and see how the so-called Straight Talk Express totally derails when McCain stumbles and bumbles, eventually pleading ignorance, when asked his position on the issue.

Good news, though: watermelon may be the new Viagra.

And a wedge issue

The election is just four months away, and as I've been predicting on the lecture circuit (I didn't really have to go out on a limb to get this right), some right-wingers are trying to stir up homosexuality as a wedge issue. Just yesterday, conservative commentator Fred Barnes suggested that John McCain use gay bashing to energize his base.

Part of that base has reintroduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution. Ten Republican senators have submitted this piece of legislation to protect the so-called sanctity of marriage, saying that "marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman." As if it's bad enough that the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Madonna make a mockery of such sanctity, let's take a look at a couple of the co-sponsors of the legislation. David Vitter (R-LA) liked to wear diapers and hire prostitutes, while Larry Craig (R-ID) solicited sex from a man in a Minneapolis bathroom. Ah…the family values party in action. I'd love to see them run these ads as part of their pro-marriage campaigns.