Plant Babies

I am so pumped for this year's garden.

How Do You Spell the Name of Libya's Leader?

I've been asking myself this question a lot since the start of recent risings in Libya. I've grown up thinking the crazyman's name was "Muammar Qaddafi" and got confused when I first saw "Gaddafi." Had I been wrong this whole time?

According to the Washington Post, I'm not the only one who was confused. ABC News put together a list of the 112 different spellings of the leader's name. Arabic transliteration is a difficult thing but I would think journalists would choose one source, say the AP or CIA World Factbook, and just go with it. Not so easy. According to the ABC piece, "the Library of Congress lists 72 alternate spellings, and the New York Times, Associated Press and Xinhua news sources used 40 additional spellings between 1998 and 2008."

This is worse than the crisis over how to pronounce "Ahmadinejad."

I've also noticed that this guy rivals Michael Jackson in the number of unfortunate portraits that exist of him on the internet.

A New Idea In the Food Movement

For about a year I've been wanting to launch a radio series that involves sitting down to dinner with some of the country's top food and farming experts. The aim would be to unearth some good ideas, maybe even a winning policy handle for addressing food deserts, food security, factory farming, or any number of the food related issues we face in this country. I also wanted to shed light on what IS working in America.

While it isn't a radio show, someone else beat me to the punch. Ellen Gustafson, FEED Foundation co-founder has launched a new initiative called The 30 Project. Here's her TED talk on the subject.



Ellen wants "engaged citizens" to have 30 person dinners where they talk about food in their communities and how they might "recreate basic food distribution and consumption patterns." I sure hope she has good organizers working on this. It sounds like a great, feel-good idea, but if dinner participants are not engaged, it might not lead to any real change. All kinds of people have been talking about our food problems for years. What we need is a forum for idea sharing on solutions so that we can establish best practices for solving our food problems at the local, regional and national level.

Something else fun:
Now you can see street art around the world with Street Art View, a collaboration with Google and Red Bull.

I am a casserole-making badass.

What's inside: potatoes, chunks of homemade bread, sauteed leeks and onions, eggs, milk, cheese, chicken sausage, salt, pepper and Slap Yo' Mama Cajun seasoning. Just 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

A Valentine's Dinner

Scallops in roasted tomato butter with wilted spinach and watercress



Pork butt


+ Mirepoix


+ sauce and four hours


= damn good ragu for homemade gnocchi



Chocolate mousse cake with vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis

After eating all that love and affection, Wyatt and I got to watch both Top Chef Masters and Cee Lo's hilarious Grammy performance, complete with feathered pants and a muppet back up band. Valentine's Day is kind of a silly holiday but I couldn't ask for a better way to spend it.

Dog Sitting Is The Best!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love dogs. An old roommate of mine used to marvel at my ability to pick out dogs from miles away when we were driving, as if I had a special "dog-dar," or radar for finding canines.






This is Mina. She is named after a city in New Zealand because the white marking on her back resembles the shape of the country. I have the privilege of watching her this weekend. We've only been hanging out for an hour and already I feel as if my soul is lighter.

I think she's the perfect companion for celebrating the Egyptian revolution.
Happy Bye, Bye Mubarak Day to all! Good Luck there Egypt. As they say in the south, "I'm proud a yahs."

Waiting for Mubarak

According to AlJazeera, the revolution is here! I've already been waiting for Mubarak to speak for 35 minutes. Is this yet another false start? The suspense is unbearable.

Egypt: Tragedy or Revolution?

I am struck by how much Americans' opinions on the current unrest in Egypt differ according to what new outlets they follow. Some folks say "Oh, it's so sad, all the killing..." and others, perhaps those who watch Al Jazeera, see current events as a mark of exciting things to come for the Middle East and North Africa. Others are worried about what all this means for Israel. Me, I'm sad about the bloodshed but I'm more excited than anything else.

I hope this means an end to the era of presidents-for-life and the beginning of true democracy in the region. Of course, it will take time. I think it was Rami Khouri who, in a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School Thursday night, pointed out that it took America more than a hundred years after the birth of its democracy to grant women and blacks the right to vote. Even if Presidents Mubarak (Egypt), Bouteflika (Algeria) and Salih (Yemen) follow in Ben Ali's (Tunisia) footsteps, and step down or go into exile tomorrow, we cannot expect freedom, jobs, cupcakes and rainbows to materialize immediately. Egypt, for example, has been struggling with high unemployment and a host of other issues for a long time. Additionally, in the case of Mubarak, as stated by Harvard Kennedy School professor Tarek Masoud in the New York Times, it might not actually be a good idea for him to step down tomorrow as the protesters suggest. The Egyptian constitution states that only an elected president can dissolve the parliament and call for new elections. This means that if Mubarak leaves without electing a new parliament, an essential part of the "orderly transition" that Secretary Clinton has called for, an interim president will be stuck with a largely useless, Mubarak-era parliament. I just hope that Clinton and Obama can convince Mubarak, and the Egyptian people, that a little more time in office is a good thing.

For a good collection of news and resources related to what's happening in Egypt and Tunisia, check out this site made by Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

You can also follow The Middle East Initiative Twitter feed, maintained by myself and an awesome intern from Emmanuel College.

Song of the Week

I can't stop listening to "Blue Gowns" by Blue Hawaii off of Blooming Summer. It is, at least in part, a tribute to Bjork and I love it.