Stateside with Rosalea (Bonus Edition)
Barbie Goes To Washington
The silly old job counsellor at my soon-to-be-no-longer workplace thinks I'm clinically depressed. She obviously hasn't
caught up with the latest acronyms on the subject. Anyone can see I'm suffering from e-gads!: electronically-garnered
anxiety and depression syndrome!
E-gads! is the result of watching too much television and reading too many websites. Even retrieving your mail is an
e-gaddic experience when you keep getting Senior Friend Finder shoved in your face and all the happy seniors look like
Barbie and Ken on a grey hair day. Well, actually, Senior Barbie is still blonde and seems to have forged the date on
her ID card in order to qualify for Medicare.
It's been a very Barbie day, really. On my way to the job counsellor I passed a totally naked abandoned brown-skinned
Barbie sitting perkily propped up on a windowsill with her arms upraised, looking for all the world like she was leading
the Brer Bunny Gospel Choir down at Hef's place. Here's hoping they be singing "Massa's In Da Cold, Cold Ground."
But the most ghastly Barbie invasion was waiting for me at home. Under cover of a magazine from the League of Women
Voters, Hillary Rodham Clinton, guest columnist, snuck into my kitchen and insulted my intelligence. At the bottom of
her column was an accompanying photograph credited "Courtesy of Senator Clinton's Office" with a caption that read:
"Prior to Senator Clinton's Thanksgiving 2003 trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, she met on Capitol Hill with Iraqi women
leaders and fellow Members of Congress. Together with the Iraqi leaders are (l-r): Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX),
Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Representative Susan Davis (D-CA) and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)."
There are nineteen people clearly visible in the photograph, the four pollies being interspersed among the twelve women
standing in what might be termed the front row. So how does "(l-r)" help you decide which of those twelve are US
Congresswomen and not Iraqi leaders?
The answer is, it doesn't. Not unless you assume that women with dark skin and black hair could not possibly be US
Congresswomen, all four of whom in this instance are blonde.
Later, no doubt, the Washington Barbies joined in a rousing little rendition of Stephen Foster's song--Massa made de
darkeys love him, Cayse he was so kind--as they helped Aunty Hillary pack her invisible knapsack.
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