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I scream, you scream, we all scream for Tommy

The house terrors found their way to me in St Maarten – every night I had nightmares about the house – the worst of which was the one where I got home from my trip and saw that the floor had been ripped up to fix some pipes, the walls had holes in them where the wiring needed to be redone, and I walked into the outdoor shower to find men roaming around scratching their…

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Wanting to be two places at the same time

When we arrived in St Maarten, G and I hurried to the lobby with her laptop to check on news of the march that had taken place earlier in the day in New Orleans – the march entitled Silence is Violence – the march that was awakened by the death of a local filmmaker and the Hot 8 Band leader – tragedy on our doorstep while we are off on a privileged trip to the…

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A toast to media noche

Proust had his madelines and I have the media noche, café con leche, and guayabera to transport me into the wide web of my experience. In the Miami airport, G and I had lunch at Carretta’s, the delicious Cuban restaurant that is well worth a stop. We ordered media noches, café con leche and tostones and proceeded to have our palate overwhelmed with goodness. My senses were in high gear as the men in guayaberas…

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Oprah’s largesse is focused in the wrong place

Oprah has tons of money and no children. She is using her resources to help children in South Africa – in particular, she has selected young women whose opportunities are limited. It’s an odd thing don’t you think that here in New Orleans we are killing each other on a daily basis because young black men don’t have an opportunity to get out of a life that has marginalized them, an education system that has…

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Taking my Carrara down a notch or two

I went over to Pieri to select the Carrara that they are going to cut my slabs out of and they asked me if I wanted Calcutta Gold or Carrara and I said what is the difference. Well then I saw the difference – the Calcutta Gold is gorgeous – white as snow with occasional wide brush strokes of fur soft grey. The Carrara is greyish with spider veins of darker grey. However, the Calcutta…

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The LaLa lists

I made lists for Giovanni, Ken and Greg while I’m in St. Maarten. And it seems like since they’ve had lists – they move through the work more effortlessly. Why don’t contractors make lists? Everyone is trying to keep all the stuff in their head and they get distracted by all the many tasks that have to be done. K pulled me aside and said that Gio was overwhelmed and you have to go slow…

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