A short while later, a crowd had gathered in the village center, surrounding a circle about ten cubits in diameter, drawn in the dirt with a white powder. Big Mose was there already, flexing his muscles and acknowledging cheers from the crowd. So this contest was to be an amusement for the people.

When Mose saw Kweku approaching, he pulled ( Read more... )

Later that morning, scrambling up the riverbank which was even steeper and slipperier than Turtle Woman had told him, Kweku looked up to see a hawk flying overhead in the direction he was going. He took it as a good omen that he was on the right course.

After he made the last turn, he entered a small clear space in the woods, with a stake ( Read more... )

-Whatcha makin for dinner?

-Wät.

-I asked, what's for dinner?

-Yes.

-What is?

-Yes, it is.

-What?

-Sure is!

-???

There's this type of rich, spicy Ethiopian stew called wät that is at the center of Ethiopian fine cuisine. The word is pronounced pretty much the same as the English word what. So we've had plenty of Abbot and Costello ( Read more... )

When I think about how to understand my racial identity, it gets so complicated as to defy definition.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, I'm classified as "white," because they define that category to include people from North Africa and the Middle East. As a Sicilian, I look to my North African Berber and Arab heritage as much as I do to ( Read more... )

½ lb. fresh hot red chili peppers ( Read more... )

What drew me into studying Arabic and Islam in the first place, many years ago, was an interest in my ancestral roots in North Africa, the Arab and Berber strains in the Sicilian people.

A Sicilian-American folksinger named Michela Musolino bears this out.


( Read more... )

By the Righteous Mothers

Knock it off, or we'll take it off...

Thanks to Beth Owl's Daughter for sharing this gem. :D

It's a proud day for Virginia. A great day for America. I'll never forget this excitement. This is something you get once in a lifetime ( Read more... )

1 eggplant, diced ( Read more... )