Pimping Jesus

Tis the season…to pimp Jesus.
Is it just me or does it seem like every year retail promotion of Christmas starts earlier and earlier?

I understand that businesses have to make money and owners will manipulate whatever they have to to make said business successful. And what event can make more money than the start of the school season and regular sale events put together? The birth of Jesus.

I was just in some malls and stores last weekend and they were playing Christmas songs and had decorations all over the place.
For that matter, if you drive down any downtown street you can see holiday decorations just waiting to be lit.

For once, I’d like to get through Halloween before hearing Christmas carols, seeing holiday advertisements and decorations.

What would Jesus say if he were here today?
I know I can’t speak with any type of authority on this, but I think to celebrate His birth, He’d rather we do something priceless like get along, stop the wars, help others…see where I’m going with this?
How does me getting a new pair of boots and a digital camera celebrate the day Christ was born?

Am I thinking too much into this?

Also, are businesses the only ones at fault or are they simply supplying what we as consumers demand?

Census Bureau reports the obvious again

Looking at the staggering differences in income and education between whites and minorities is certainly a significant issue, but since when is that anything new?

The U.S. Census Bureau has just reported gaps in salaries, diplomas and degrees, but when is this going to change? More specifically, who's going to change it?

Race matters to me and a lot of other people. It defines who we are and often who we hang around. But when do we really become WE?

When does motivating young, black men to finish high school become important enough to middle-aged white dads to do something about it? Or how about a black teacher learning Spanish to communicate with a Hispanic student's parents? Why is it always someone else's problem?

Obviously, parents or other responsible adults in young people's lives aren't doing something to change things.

I get tired of reading the same reports, too, but I think we have to do something to make them change. Ideas please?

I'm independent but I can't change a tire

I was driving Sunday, enjoying the sunny skies and listening to Ryan Adams when my car started to wobble. At first, I thought it was just the wind tugging my vehicle back and forth across the road. But then I was hit with that feeling of dread -- I had a flat tire.

There's not really any good spot to pull over on Interstate 20, but I found a little cubby and parked. I did what any hometown girl would do in case of an emergency and called my brother. Chris, familiar with my damsel in distress routine, seemed a little irritated but hurried over to fix my flat.

I have to admit, I know there are nuts to unscrew and a jack you have to lift your car up with, but beyond that I'm just left scratching my head. I had to retrieve the instruction book just to find the tools. Then there's the whole issue of what you do once you've found them. I consider myself to be extremely independent, but when it comes to fixing tires or moving furniture I'm helpless. I figure this is why I was blessed with two brothers and no sisters.

Now, $440 and four new tires later I'm a little bitter about life's unpredictable moments. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not really at the point in my life where giving up $440 doesn't sting just a little bit, especially around the holidays. Looks like I better find a good recipe for fruit cake.

One last look at the week that was ...

As I get ready to face a new week, I can't help but reflect on the events of last week.
I mean wow, what a week of historical proportions.
There was the good news (at least as I see it):
Shreveport made history by electing its first black mayor. The Dems took back Congress. Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the House ever, making her third in line as president in case something ever happened to Bush or Cheney. Massachusetts elected only the second black governor ever in American history. And all of this was literally in one day. Wow.

Then there was the bad:
Longtime, trailblazing journalist Ed Bradley died of complications from leukemia. Man, I didn't even know he was sick. I still remember seeing him in person about six years ago. I was a senior at Dillard University and a group of us mass com students flew to D.C. to attend Howard University's annual mass communications fair. Bradley and Mike Wallace were two of three panelists at this CBS workshop. To see the same man I'd grown up watching on television since I was a little girl was just simply incredible.
I remember he was so intelligent, yet chill, laid back and even had a sense of humor throughout the panel discussion. I came out of that brief experience with even more admiration and respect for him than the huge amount I already had. What a loss.

R&B lovers like myself are still reeling from the sudden death of R&B crooner Gerald Levert, son of O'Jays singer Eddie Levert. I realize many of you out there probably don't even know who he is. I mean, it's not like his death has gotten much national mainstream press beyond BET, which I find simply amazing and somewhat offensive, considering this man had a 20-year career in the business that included many R&B hits like "Casanova," "Just Coolin'" "Baby Hold On To Me" and I literally could go on and on and on. But like I said, real R&B lovers for sure knew who he was and ultimately that's all that matters anyway. Not only was he a vocal powerhouse, but he represented for the grown and sexy plus-size men out there. And what fan out there can ever forget the energy and fiery passion he put into his performances?

Next, to complete the set, (because you know celebs always die in threes) there was death of longtime actor Jack Palance. I'm just really clueless right now as to who he was, especially considering that he was 80-something and the only thing I'm familiar with that he was in is "City Slickers," but still I'm sure it's a huge loss for his fans all the same.

It's still hard to believe all of this drama popped off in just one week. It kinda makes you wonder "Gee, what in the world could happen next?" Still not sure if I want to know the answer ... I think I'll just wait and see.

Shameless promotion

Janelle and I got the surprise of our blog lives recently: Johnny Q. Public actually knew about Link 222.

Granted, our new pal Goodwin thought the name was Link 122… but man, it was kind of exciting to find out people are reading this with basically no advertising so far.

We met Goodwin at Stray Cat (which also happens to be located at a 222 address) through my dear little (but grown) sister. She told him we were Times reporters and he immediately asked if we blogged on … “122 or whatever it's called.”

But we knew what he meant. (Goodwin also thought it important to remind everyone Hootie and the Blowfish is playing at Sam's Town next Friday, Nov. 17.)

Thanks, Goodwin. Keep reading, and tell your friends!

That's amore... or more, eh

I had the good fortune today of eating at what I would say are two of Shreveport-Bossier's best Italian restaurants, AND someone else paid! (And no, I'm not ashamed of that as a just-out-of-college twentysomething. I've got plenty of years ahead to buy my own and others' meals.)

The first was on The Times' bill, since I got take a job interviewee to lunch. And it was at Olive Street Bistro. I had the spinach-stuffed cannelloni, and I have to say it was delicious. I'm a fan of almost anything with cheese and the non-contaminated green stuff, but it was really a great combination with the tangy tomato sauce.

Then tonight, I got a surpise call from my parents to meet them at L'Italiano Restaurant in Bossier City. This one seems kind of lost on people on the west side of the river, I guess it's because it's in that foreign place we call Bossier and it's not a chain... Anyhow, since I was still stuffed like cannelloni from lunch (and I am a busy night crime reporter), I just scarfed a piece of tiramisu. It was excellent. (Another nice surprise: my aunt and uncle were there and they footed the bill.)

So I love Italian food, but is it really a good idea for a (somewhat) health-conscious guy like myself to eat it twice in one day? Would you? And anybody out there got thoughts on these restaurants?

To speed date or not

I have about an hour to decide if I'm going to a speed dating event tonight. It sounds like fun -- or funny, I should say -- but I'm thinking no.

Clearly, the event would yield itself to a good laugh or two, but I get the feeling Shreveport is too small for something like this. I can just imagine sitting through an evening of five-minute dates only to end up sitting across the table from an ex-boyfriend. Or even worse, one of my dad's friends!

The concept of getting to knowing whether or not you like someone in five-minutes is ridiculous, but it may save me some heartache and time wasted. Usually it takes me five months to take an ax to the relationship. Knocking 4 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours and 55 minutes off my typical rejection cycle could be convenient and beneficial.

Umm ...

OK, Michael Jackson is undoubtedly, inarguably the King of Pop. I'll give him that.
Though many have tried (i.e. Usher, Justin Timberlake, heck let's even throw in Chris Brown.) nobody can match his show-stopping dancing skills. I'll for sure give him that. And even despite the embattled star's terrible fall from grace and inexplicable, physical metamorphosis, he was getting on up there in age anyway and well, we'll always have his hits to jam to.

In other words, sitting out for a minute really didn't seem like a bad idea to me.

So, upon reading this today, my first reaction was: Ummm, I don't know, Michael... I just don't know...

What do y'all think? Is a comeback really possible at this point?

By the way, bump all that weirdness that he's become now, this is the Michael Jackson, the one of MY childhood, that I'll always remember:

Granddaddy Fields would be proud

My great-grandfather was a smooth-talker and a lady killer with his large frame, light brown eyes, and dark skin.

He lived poorly and barely finished high school. He went to the Air Force and was worldly, proud, funny, and hardworking. He also smoked incessantly. But Carl Edward Fields was more than just my crazy-acting, cigarette-smoking granddaddy--he was also a genius, a Nashville activist who called me on my 18th birthday to remind me of the importance of voting.

He told me that I'd better exercise my right to vote because too many people, especially black people, don't. He emphasized the importance of black votes and told me that it was my job to care about the issues. He told me that he and too many other people before him had died, fought, and struggled to gain this simple right and it should not be taken lightly.

He said, "If you don't vote, you can't complain. Everyone can make a difference."

And now after years and years of blacks not voting in Shreveport, they came out in record numbers to elect the city's first black mayor, Cedric B. Glover.

That's a big change for this city.

Nobody thought Glover would win because the ideology in Shreveport is that blacks don't vote, whites do vote, and blacks and whites only vote for skin color. Therefore Glover wouldn't win.

But he did. By over 4,000 votes. And blacks and whites voted together for who they thought was best to lead the city. According to voting precints, blacks came out in record numbers to vote when they hadn't before. An 88-year-old woman cast her vote Tuesday for the first time in her life.

Wow.

My grandfather would be proud of Shreveport.

CNN no news updates

CNN Breaking News: "Britney Spears files for divorce from her husband Kevin Federline, citing irreconcilable differences."

First of all, didn't we all know that was coming? And secondly, since when does that (I refuse to call it "news") deserve to be urgently shipped to my inbox with headlines such as Saddam Hussein's death sentence or a plane crash in New York? Last I checked, Britney is a used-to-be pop star and her husband was only famous for being Britney's husband.

Every day young men and women give their lives in Iraq and that never makes it to my inbox.

Need a sample ballot?

Click here for Shreveport candidate profiles and links to other local election stories and polls. There is also a funny cartoon of Jerry Jones, Cedric Glover, Liz Swaine and David Wright, who drew them.

Don't remember what the eight amendments are about? Click here for short descriptions and the The Times editorial board's predictions for today's elections.

And here's a cool special report on the growing importance of young voters. That'd be you!

Polls close at 8 p.m.! Now go get on it!

Walk this way, shop this way?

Man, weather like yesterday just really makes you want to stay bundled up under some covers. The last thing you feel like doing is getting up early on your supposed vacation day to go stand in the rain, which is exactly what I did.

I admit, it was my fault. That's what I get for being so freakin' nosEy (that spelling is for Joel who insists that the correct spelling for nosey is actually 'nosy.' But ahhh, according to American Heritage Dictionary, I'M RIGHT!) Anyway, skipping half of a vacation day to voluntarily get the scoop on the latest retail coming to southeast Shreveport just made sense to me at the time. I mean I LOVE being the first to know stuff and then telling it. That's just how I am. It's why I RUSH to get the CD the day it comes out. (Yes, I still buy CDs!) Or, if I'm lucky, I'll magically have a burned copy of it BEFORE it comes out. To sum it up, I just like to know stuff and I like to know it first. But yesterday morning, as my alarm was going off waaaaay too early in the a.m. and I heard the heavy downpour, I wondered what in the world was I thinking?!

Anyway, so if you read the paper today, you saw we're getting a DSW Shoes, possibly a Borders bookstore (yeah, like Youree Drive really needed another one of those) and a host of chain restaurants that we've heard of forever, but never been able to get to without traveling at LEAST 3 hours away to Dallas or some other major city.

I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed because I was hoping for something a little more in retail offerings like, I don't know, maybe a major clothing store like Urban Outfitters or something. But the shoe store is definitely a gain because we just do NOT have enough of those in this town at all.

As someone who's from here, went away to college and basically lived in New Orleans for 4 years and returned after graduation, I have to admit, this place has definitely grown when it comes to retail, but I still think we've got room for more.

This is what I scratch my head about though and lately, I've heard alot of people ask the same thing: Why is all the retail growth in Shreveport mainly going to southeast Shreveport instead of other areas? What do y'all think about it?

Two words

Go vote.

Find your polling place. Drive there. Exercise your constitutional right and moral duty to have a say in your government.

Especially in Shreveport, the mayor's election is extremely relevant to young adults. Both Cedric Glover and Jerry Jones have talked about what they would do to keep us here. Check it out.

Ten miles

I was never an athlete of any sort. But yesterday, under beautiful sunny skies along the river I ran TEN MILES! It took me nearly two hours, but physically, I felt pretty good when I was done. And mentally, it's a huge hurdle. I know this sounds like shameless, self-congratulations -- it is to some extent. But it's also to say if I can do it, anyone can.

Four weeks to go before the half marathon in Memphis, and I actually think I'll be able to handle it, no problem.

Sunny skies...

Man, I've figured out my favorite thing about Shreveport so far - the weather.
I love it.
I talk to my friends back in Ohio and Virginia/Maryland and they've been dealing with Old Man Winter pretty consistently already.
I didn't know how I was going to deal with a place that residents warned only has one season, but it hasn't been that bad. Though it did get pretty hot this summer, it has cooled off without getting too cold. But I will admit, there were a few days last week that had me wondering if I was back up north.
I guess I'll have to wait to see what weather winter brings, but for now it's gorgeous outside...sunny, kind of warm, a slight breeze...what am I doing in here on this computer?
Hope everyone's enjoying their day.

The price of being an adult

Today I signed up for my job's insurance. Since I moved from Nashville to Shreveport, my insurance providers naturally changed. I thought it would be no big deal.

I was wrong.

My insurance costs doubled. Literally. Instead of paying $30, I'll now be paying $60 for the same type of medical insurance. And, this isn't a once a month deal. This is $60 every two weeks--for one person! I'm not married. I don't have kids and I don't even smoke OR have any diseases.

What's the deal?

And on top of all of that, my parents call themselves teaching me to be responsible. What does that mean? I've been responsible my whole life. I've always been responsible enough not to do anything too stupid and I know how to get myself out of a jam. I graduated from college, with honors no doubt, and even got my own apartment and bought my own furniture too. But recently my parents made me start paying my own cellphone bill. I didn't mind that much, it was my phone. They had also paid for two cars of mine. I got my mom's hand-me-down Nissan Sentra when I turned 15 and when I graduated from high school they bought me the somewhat sporty Ford Escort ZX2. They even paid for my car insurance. I was so thankful for their generosity--I thought it would never end.

But, as many folks know Fords aren't the best cars. Mine broke down many times and eventually had me on the side of the road in tears. I started lobbying for a new vehicle to my parents. They weren't biting. They told me, "the next car you get you'll buy it."

That's fair, right? I figured if I bought a car, they'd still pay my insurance, right? Wrong again, Ashley. So in July, right before my 23rd birthday I had the pleasure of buying my first brand new car (I'll never buy another brand new car, the deprecation value is insane) and it marked the start of me paying my own insurance. Crappy.

My car note is around 320 and my car insurance is around 110. My cell phone bill costs an average of $70 (unless I get too chatty). That's $500 bucks my parents just got out of paying and shifted to me, on top of the $30 increase in insurance. It's amazing how I'm expected to pay all of this and have a life. My mom says I'm being a responsible adult. I say it sucks-my expenses increasing $560 in a matter of months. Who knew life would be this hard?

My dad always said I look back on my childhood years and wish I was a kid again. I thought he was out of his mind, but boy he was sure right.

Would you live at a 666 address?

The address gods must really frown on such things.

My reason for asking is sort of cheating, I guess. I just came across a 6666 address on a Shreveport street. A co-worker tells me the fourth 6 probably cancels out the evil powers of the other three.

I realize home owners probably don't get to pick the actual digits in their address, but I think I'd have to look on another street or beg the city to renumber my plot.

Either way, the multitude of 6s is just kind of creepy.

Why do I even care? I suppose because when I was little, my family's P.O. box was 777, and I thought that was so cool. But any address (especially a lucky one like that) would be better than any combo of the triple 6!

Cable as a means of communism

Not to be a shill or anything, but I love my DirecTV. Really.

As such, there's really no good reason for me to be forced to switch cable TV services simply because my apartment has formed an evil alliance with some cable company called Sudden Link (apparently, it's the descendant of Cox or something).

With the lease at my Bossier apartment complex coming to an end on Nov. 1, I was informed that to re-sign, I'd have to agree to a rent increase of $80 a month to include the costs of cable and Internet access.

Now, I don't have to actually use these services but I do have to pay for them - of course, each of them are more expensive that the services I get through DirecTV and Bellsouth. And, on a journalist's salary, I can't afford to pay for two separate cable services. This is a problem.

And this, my friends, is akin to a form of communism: all of us subject to weekday nights without ESPN Classic, MTV2 or TVOne as a means of social control.

So, if you're interested, help me rise up against this mighty political force that is threatening my TV-viewing habits in Bossier. Preserve my right to have a satellite on my 2nd-floor balcony.
How can a guy get by on Wednesday nights without a replay of the 1985 Michigan-Ohio State game?

If you don't agree with me, not only are you wrong but you're a commie.

You be the judge

OK, I don't know if it's because I'm a journalist, naturally observant, just plain ol' bored or what, but I often have my own theories about certain things in life.
One of my latest theories involve two celebrities that seemingly have no connection at all, but if you just took a moment and looked at them together, the answer is obvious.

What in the world am I talking about? Well, think about those movies or TV shows where every person has a twin somewhere in another part of the country or even a whole 'nother country. Like The Patty Duke Show. (Ok, I know I took it back with that one.) Or even Sister Sister. (Think about the premise: Twins separated at birth who didn't didn't even know the other existed until they were brought together by chance.)

Where in the world am I going with this? OK, here it is. After much observation, thought and consideration one day I had an epiphany: "GGGG-UNIT!" rapper Lloyd Banks and UK pop/R&B sensation Craig David (You may remember him for that annoying song that for some reason was a hit several years ago "Can You Fill Me In?") are half-brothers, cousins to say the least.

I've known this for some time and although my colleague and Lloyd Banks aficionado Janelle completely disagrees with my theory, I know it's true. But to end this argument, why don't you all be the judge:

(NOTE:Pic 1=Lloyd; Pic 2=Craig)
Exhibit A

If that doesn't convince you, keep scrolling ...
Exhibit B

Coincidence? I think not.

Finally Exhibit C

Come on, admit it - it's uncanny.

Yea for the time change!

I know it happened over the weekend, but this morning was the first day in weeks that I ran outside and could actually see the sidewalk. This is critical since the sidewalks in my neighborhood are dangerously uneven in places. Better yet, cars on the road could see me!

It almost made up for having to get out my gloves and headband.