Thursday, June 19, 2014

Speaking of immigrants

I love them so. The immigrants I come into contact, the ones that I speak to directly, are all fine people that I am proud and pleased to welcome.

That is not the present situation under discussion though. I have not seen the likes of a political party abandoning law and demagoguing the issue of immigration and presuming to lecture us all, the children and grandchildren of immigrants ourselves about our country being made up of immigrants while cooly dismissing the difference between legal and illegal immigration. Simply and completely dismissing the real issue at hand challenging us all while hurling racial invective on top of it all. This proves to me repeatedly they obsessed with race are the ones who are racist, and racist in all things.

One of the women I gave the Dixon chile power to is such an immigrant. We adore each other. She teaches me Spanish, we have a good time together. We share.

Check this out, Checkerouters, by way of repayment for the bag of chile powder she told me she has a book she wants me to have. By what she told me in passing I was led to believe she had in mind a cookbook written in Spanish. I was hoping for that. Today, just now, she knocked on my door and turned over to me this whole pile of books she can no longer use. She told me why each one is unsuitable for her, why they must go.


  • Better Homes and Gardens Anyone Can Cook. This will not be useful to me either.
  • Chocolate treats. I already have Chocolate Bible and other chocolate books I read them and absorbed them.
  • Taste of Home's Best Holiday Recipes A magazine, the sort I toss without looking through, like Sunset. Too many annoying drop out cards.
  • Creative Crepe Cooking I already know all about crepes.
  • Wolfgang Puck Make it Easy I do not need anything easy.
  • Weber's real Grilling.  I could have written this book myself. 
  • Ultimate Rose I sodded over an extensive rose garden of some fifty plants decades ago. Way too much work for so brief a reward. Plus my dog dropped dead in that rose garden. Too much emotion for me for that.
I cannot use any of these books. And I am in a paring down mode presently. These books are not for me, I would not choose any of them. But still, here they are, a thoughtful gift indeed, in deed, and I do appreciate that. I am just too hard to please. So off to Goodwill with the rest of the stuff that is going there presently and I do and always will appreciate the impulse behind the trouble of bringing all this directly to me. 

Come to think of it, she may be thinking the same thing about the chile powder I gave her. She might have her own thing already and cannot use this. Maybe she's advanced beyond whatever it is I can think of. But why blow it by letting each other know all of that? Don't tell her, okay? It really is the thought that counts. And count it does. 


Dixon chile powder (5 stars)

21 comments:

KCFleming said...

There must be a German or Hebrew phrase for "the unwanted gift."

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Well said Chip. It is the thought that counts.

Although I do like Sunset when I run across a copy every now and again. It sometimes has great gardening ideas and camping locations.

Trooper York said...

Indeed that was a good thought.

Immigration is a sticky problem for the sons and daughters of immigrants. The natural tendency is to pull the ladder up after you when you get there. But this mess on the border is just insufferable. We need responsible and patriotic leaders to find an equitable solution. Unfortunately there does not seem to any on either side of the aisle.

edutcher said...

You're right about immigrants.

Most of them are good people.

what Teddy Kennedy did and the Demos want to expand is arrange for the worst to get in.

chickelit said...

Notice that there are no swarming problems in California and San Diego more specifically. It couldn't be because those states are under Dem control, could it?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

(1) Sorry to hear about your dog, Chip. That really sucks.

(2) Maybe it might cheer you up to know that my wife still keeps a bunch of cookbooks by "The Frugal Gourmet." That's really funny.

Chip Ahoy said...

I spoke too soon. Now that I looked through the books there are a few I will keep. They do have good photos and some good ideas too. I might copy some ideas out of them.

She told me she's going to bring more.

The weird thing is, she is Mexican and her name is Olga. Go figure. I thought they were putting me on but that really is her name.

edutcher said...

There are an awful lot of O'Tooles and Odonojus in Mexico.

Not to mention a very luscious Salma.

Chip Ahoy said...

Jeff at protein wisdom talks about hermeneutics all the time, interpretation of texts, especially regarding Biblical texts, and I've looked up that word three times, at least I have three cards that all say the same thing. I make a new card as punishment for forgetting. But at last I have it: Hermeneutic., and I also finally know how to say it. Thank goodness for the internet that actually says the word for you.

Trooper York said...

I thought Hermeneutic was what Herman Munster named his penis?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I love them so. The immigrants I come into contact, the ones that I speak to directly, are all fine people that I am proud and pleased to welcome.

They are desperate. Sometimes I also like the desperate to impress. ;-)

Or maybe they are just relieved. The recently relieved are also very pleasant. ;-)

edutcher said...

chickelit said...

Notice that there are no swarming problems in California and San Diego more specifically. It couldn't be because those states are under Dem control, could it?

The idea the Choom Gang wanted to turn TX and AZ blue occurred to me, too.

Trooper York said...

You should read about the history of the St Patrick's Battalion during the first Mexican War.

A bunch of Irish deserters from the American Army switched over to the Mexican side because of the way they were treated by the American Army. It include many other Ethnic groups such as Germans, Italians and Poles who had one thing in common. They were Catholic.


First Mexican War?

When was the second, with the French?

And I know all about the San Patricios.

More Bergdahls than heroes.

Most of the Micks stayed loyal and earned their place, just like the Dutchmen.

Trooper York said...

The second Mexican war is now Ed.

We just don't know it. Well at least the government doesn't know it. Just sayn'

edutcher said...

OK, like the Cold War was WWIII and the War on Islam (that is what we're fighting, after all) is WWIV.

I see your point, although our fight is less with Mexico than with Lefties like Teddy Kennedy and Chuckie Schumer.

PS What few stories are coming out of the New Obamavilles make it sound like what the media wanted Superdome during Katrina to be - kids getting sick, being sold for sex, etc.

edutcher said...

Speaking of people passing as immigrants, guess who just captured Saddam's WMD depot?

ndspinelli said...

There's a famous place in downtown KC where I would often eat lunch, Dixon's Chili Parlor. I wonder id Dixon's Chile Powder is related?

TTBurnett said...

“The United States will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man who swallows the arsenic which brings him down in turn. Mexico will poison us."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

rcocean said...

"A bunch of Irish deserters from the American Army switched over to the Mexican side because of the way they were treated by the American Army."

That was the excuse. Life in the US Army (for enlisted men) was tough, dirty work for everyone. That's why you had a high desertion rate. Its also why few native born Americans joined up to be privates. The Irish thought it would nicer in the Mexican Army. Too bad they got captured. They paid the price.

rcocean said...

You know what you call someone who deserts one army to fight in another?

Traitor.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Santa Ana wore a dress.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Well it is said Santa Ana wore a dress at San Jacinto? Or maybe it was silk underwear.