Thursday, November 27, 2003

A.M.V. I.

I fell asleep with the radio on last night and as a result, I accidentally caught a few minutes of "A.M.V.I." this morning--one AM station's attempt at a pseudo Tom Joyner morning show. Somebody put these people out of their misery...please. Words cannot begin to express how lame it sounded. Here's a funny thing: most West Indians are black (although we also have "Frenchies" and white folks who are natives), but you're never gonna confuse a West Indian with Soul Brother #1...or even Soul Brother #21. So hearing this radio host talking to his female co-host in his best brother-man style...well, it sort of made me wince. It's just a WHOLE different vibe from all of the African-Americans I know (including the one I live with.)

West Indians have this quirky thing they do with their vocabularies. Their vocabularies may be impressive, but their usage is often a little off. Example: The guy on the radio this morning said he walked into a bakery yesterday and "saw the expose of pies and tarts" they had prepared for Thanksgiving. Scandalous! Then he said the bakery employee talked him into buying his first-ever sweet potato pie, but he was shuddering to think how awful it was going to taste. Sacrilege! Thank god the boyfriend slept through that--he'd be outraged! Among my African-American friends, sweet potato pie is IT! We may be living in a territory with a primarily black population, but trust me, there's not a morsel of soul food to be found anywhere in the vicinity.

Thanksgiving is a big deal here, too, but then West Indians celebrate ANY holiday (including many you've never heard of), but their Thanksgiving menus are a little different from ours. The secretary at my office will not be serving mashed potatos and gravy or stuffing (as we think of it)--instead she'll do a potato stuffing, which is a casserole made with white potatoes, parsley, tomato sauce and raisins. Now you see why I opted to bring salads to the potluck we're attending today. I didn't want to prepare a hot dish that might not be what the West Indians are expecting. Hard to go wrong with potato salad and Jell-O though.

Our forecast for today is for partly cloudy skies, with a 30% chance of a shower. High of 86, low of 78. Ahhh, perfect Turkey Day weather for this likes-it-warm-every-day gal.

Hope you're having a great day, wherever you are.

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