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Archive for September, 2006

Make It Stop

26 Sep

One thing I really enjoy here is the ability to read all of my favorite time-wasting blogs like GoFugYourself. However, I don’t think my friends at that blog do enough smackdowns where my arch-nemesis Donna Karan is concerned. Oh, sure, they made fun of one of her dresses, but the key crimes that this woman commits are:

1. If you have shoulders like an NFL linebacker, don’t wear a dress that FOCUSES on them. I don’t care if your whole line caters to models with willowy shoulders, that does not mean YOU can wear the stuff.

2. Big saggy breasts should be either propped up or not displayed. Period.

I offer for evidence the following photo of Ms. Karan’s appearance at Fashion Rocks. (which was not fashion, nor did it rock.) Consider yourself warned. Read the rest of this entry »

 
3 Comments

Posted in Personal

 

Ramadan Mabrouk

22 Sep

According to the Fiqh Council of North America, the first night of Ramadan is tonight, so the first day of fasting is tomorrow.

Hamou doubted this, since one of his Moroccan friends in NYC told him it was going to start on Sunday. He also wanted me to find out if Saudi Arabia had started their fast today, since “Morocco always starts one day behind Saudia.” I simply dialed the number for the local masjid and asked – “Yes, it’s tonight, inshallah.”

I don’t know how well we’ll do here – I always do well in Morocco, but I have the support of the community behind me. I’ve only tried to observe Ramadan once in the States (as compared to three times in Morocco), and it was awful. As for those of you who might say that I don’t “need” to do Ramadan, or that it “doesn’t make any difference to Allah, because I’m not Muslim” – stuff it. Oops. Need to curb that anger before tomorrow, eh?

[audio:YusufIslam-Ramadan.mp3]

 
1 Comment

Posted in Food, Personal, Religion

 

Gerrni Berdan (Crossroads)

14 Sep

Time for some input from my audience – I’m trying to decide what to pursue next. Read the rest of this entry »

 
4 Comments

Posted in Blogroll, Personal

 

Book Review – Behind the Courtyard Door

09 Sep

Behind the Courtyard DoorThe next book up for review is Behind the Courtyard Door : The Daily Life of Tribeswomen in Northern Morocco, by Ursula Kingsmill Hart.

The author lived in Morocco as a child, but she wasn’t able to visit the more remote parts of the country until she married anthropologist David Montgomery Hart – and then she ended up living among the Aith Waryaghar, a Berber tribe from the Rif area. The book is an absolute joy to read – Ursula is down to earth, funny, and made a real effort to connect with the women from the tribe. She learned their language so well that her husband even complained that she should avoid “yakking” sessions and help him more! A photo in the front of the book shows her dressed in traditional married womens’ clothes, and my husband thought she was Berber, saying “She looks like my Mom!” Out of the dress, though, she was a very chic American blonde.

At the time of their stay in 1959-1965, many of the old traditions were still in place in the tribe, and Ursula describes them with sensitivity and humor, while still admitting her frustrations with some of the restrictions and mindsets. I enjoyed all of the little trivia she related, mostly gleaned from the women, such as what she discovered during a frank discussion on traditional birth control methods. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted in Blogroll, Language, Women

 

Uppity

09 Sep

I just realized how pompous I sounded in the post before last – what I should have said was “The book is so packed with information, no one could possibly absorb it all in just one reading.”

 
1 Comment

Posted in Personal

 
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