BBC Three has begun a new funniest videos show called 'World's Crazy Fools.' While we all love a good funniest videos show (who doesn't enjoy chuckiling at other people being idiots), this show deserves particular mention and possible nomination for Funniest Thing Ever Seen for two reasons:
1) The videos are top-notch. I have no idea where they managed to find so many truly gut-busting videos, but I'm sure glad they did.
More importantly, 2) Mr. T is the narrator!!!!! And oh, my gosh is he hilarious. Just when you think maybe Mr. T has finally lost relevance in today's Jersey Shore-obssessed popular culture, the BBC, of all people, snatches him up and reintroduces, well, Britain to the amazing Mr. T.
After watching the first episode, my face was burning from all the tears of laughter and I was literally weak from laughing so hard -- all I could do was sit on my couch and wheeze for about 90 seconds.
Find a way to watch this show, it will make your year.
07 June 2011
Addendum
Last night's rains resulted in multiples deaths, building collapses, and serious floods all over the city. Stephane's employee did sleep at our house and even had to walk most of the way here because the flooding was so severe. We were up until 1am cleaning water our of our house, and a friend who lives only a mile from our house left our house at 8pm and didn't get to his house until 3am because of all of the debris coming down from the mountains and the standing water on the road. Pretty miserable.
06 June 2011
Please, please, please do not be a harbinger...
Given all of the recent weather-related unpleasantness in the US, I would imagine that most of you have not heard much about the weather here in Haiti. For the last week, a storm front has been stalled over Haiti and Jamaica, making for an uncharacteristically grey, breezy atmosphere. (It was so [relatively] chilly last week that I even broke out the going-to-the-US-in-winter long sleeved wardrobe.) Today things got particularly nasty, as it rained in the mountains from the early morning hours, which of course means that the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area flooded even without actual rainfall in these areas, due to the heavy runoff from the surrounding mountains.
Then the fun *really* began.
When Stephane left his office in Carrefour at 530pm this evening, there was already 1-3ft. of standing water, which is typical in that area due to its negligible elevation and vastly inadequate sewer system. Unfortunately, this deeply impoverished, densely populated area is also the current site of a cholera resurgence, as well as being home to at least 300,000 camp dwellers. One can only imagine the implications of even this minor flood in such an area....
Just after Stephane finally reached our home almost two hours later (we live only about 15 miles from his office, incidentally), the rains finally reached this side of the mountains. It POURED for more than 30 minutes, with thunder strong and close enough to shake our concrete house. Poor Ewan shook like an epileptic for most of the evening before collapsing from fear and exhaustion. (He and McArthur, who seemed wholly unperturbed by the evening's clamor, are now curled up together, asleep -- very cute.) There is a ravine directly behind, but about 500 feet below our house that is normally bone dry; tonight, we could hear the water rushing through it like a rapid, punctuated by the shouts of the people who live precariously close to its banks.
We even had some flooding in our house, though only a couple of inches on one side (tells you something about the construction here, no?), so we can hardly complain. One of Stephane's employees lives down the hill from us and has already called to say that his house has flooded completely. We offered for him to bring his family here at least for the night, but they want to try to start clearing the water.
To make all of this more ridiculous, we are now a full week into hurricane season and no government ministry can articulate a coherent 'plan d'urgence'. We are trying concertedly not to consider what will happen if an actual hurricane arrives.
Then the fun *really* began.
When Stephane left his office in Carrefour at 530pm this evening, there was already 1-3ft. of standing water, which is typical in that area due to its negligible elevation and vastly inadequate sewer system. Unfortunately, this deeply impoverished, densely populated area is also the current site of a cholera resurgence, as well as being home to at least 300,000 camp dwellers. One can only imagine the implications of even this minor flood in such an area....
Just after Stephane finally reached our home almost two hours later (we live only about 15 miles from his office, incidentally), the rains finally reached this side of the mountains. It POURED for more than 30 minutes, with thunder strong and close enough to shake our concrete house. Poor Ewan shook like an epileptic for most of the evening before collapsing from fear and exhaustion. (He and McArthur, who seemed wholly unperturbed by the evening's clamor, are now curled up together, asleep -- very cute.) There is a ravine directly behind, but about 500 feet below our house that is normally bone dry; tonight, we could hear the water rushing through it like a rapid, punctuated by the shouts of the people who live precariously close to its banks.
We even had some flooding in our house, though only a couple of inches on one side (tells you something about the construction here, no?), so we can hardly complain. One of Stephane's employees lives down the hill from us and has already called to say that his house has flooded completely. We offered for him to bring his family here at least for the night, but they want to try to start clearing the water.
To make all of this more ridiculous, we are now a full week into hurricane season and no government ministry can articulate a coherent 'plan d'urgence'. We are trying concertedly not to consider what will happen if an actual hurricane arrives.
30 May 2011
A weenie dog and a Haitian street dog have a baby and....
It looks something like this:
How cute is that?! That is McArthur Jameson at about four weeks old (last weekend).
These are his lame-o parents, Ewan and Bella:
These are his lame-o parents, Ewan and Bella:
Yeah, they're pretty cute, too...
Ewan is a pure-bred dachshund who was wandering the streets of our old neighborhood for a few weeks before he fell in love w/Bella (who is in fact Stephane's mom's dog, but has lived with us since the earthquake) and moved in w/us. Seriously, he LOVES Bella. As in, sits near her and just stares adoringly, with the occasional wag.
Ewan had tried in vain many times to consummate their love and since Bella has a past history of infanticide by neglect (she is truly the world's worst mother), I had begged to get one or both of them fixed, but Stephane, in Haitian style, kept putting it off. Honestly, I wasn't too worried about Bella getting knocked up b/c, ya know -- look at them! Ewan couldn't reach her if he stood on a stool!
But obviously nature prevailed and five weeks ago we awoke to find a tiny mini-Ewan in our downstairs guestroom closet.
(Actually, we have a hunch that our former maid may have assisted in the mechanics of the mating process. She was the only one who insisted that she had seen them successfully 'get together' and was wholly obsessed w/the idea of a Ewan-Bella byproduct, so....Thanks, Gert.)
The baby was really something of a surprise, as Bella had not looked pregnant at all. It was literally only a day or two before McArthur's arrival that we thought maybe she was acting like a pregnant dog, not that she looked much like one.
McArthur is pretty awesome. He is learning to potty outside already and seems to be developing quite a feisty personality, so smart and sassy -- my favorites! We didn't start calling him by name until last week, just in case he, too, fell victim to Bella's lackadaisical approach to mothering, but it seems he is quite tough, persistent; hence the strong name.
Since he doesn't have any littermates, we are relying on Ewan to help McArthur learn about being a dog. (Bella is predictably no help here, as she is too old to want to play [seriously, she's about 10 -- we're lucky McArthur wasn't born a mongoloid] and doesn't care about his development anyhow.) Ewan, being rather neurotic and desperate for attention himself, is a somewhat ambivalent tutor: On the one hand, he very much enjoys having someone to play with (Bella snubs him, too) and he will roll around w/McArthur until they are both exhausted. On the other hand, McArthur takes up a lot of our attention with his puppy needs and I think sometimes Ewan considers eating him. But I think they'll work it out. The possibility of McArthur will develop into a stable, 'normal' dog seems rather too much to hope for, but I think he's going to be pretty fun, if nothing else.
25 May 2011
What a great way to start my day
As most of you know, I am unabashedly fascinated w/the British Royal Family, so it should come as no surprise that with my morning tea this fine day, I decided to check out some photos of the Obamas' recent visit w/the Royal Family in Britain. What I found was a CBS photo gallery that was far more laugh-track than pomp and circumstance....Here is the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-504963_162-10007880.html?tag=page
The first few pics are of the Obamas meeting Wills and Kate (whose headline-making dress was the real reason I wanted to see these pictures in the first place). I was mildly amused to see that Michelle, although 'cute' in her '50s housewife-style dress, looks deeply frumpy when posed next to the lithe, sophisticated Kate.
However, things only got funnier from there: Keep clicking until you reach the pictures of QE2 greeting the Obamas as they arrive -- the Queen and Michelle are wearing (practically) the same dress! You know Michelle saw that as she got out of the limo and thought, 'F**k, I'm dressed like an 85 year old.' But the next picture provides even more hilarity, as it poses the Obamas next to QE2 and Prince Philip, who is wearing a suit similar to that of Obama. I fully understand that guys have fewer options when it comes to dresswear, but the lineup of this foursome wearing their matching outfits is nothing less than comical -- the Obamas look like a younger, darker, taller version of the Queen and Prince Philip.
The last bit of real entertainment comes in photo 16, wherein everyone looks as if they've smelled a fart and Prince Charles's comb-over is caught in a rogue breeze. Priceless.
All things considered, I feel like the Royal Family has finally found another head of state family who is less photogenic than they are, but maybe the Royals are still riding high on their acquisition of the lovely Kate. Even Prince Charles's comb-over faux pas could not even the score after the preceding pictures.
Do you think CBS *meant* to satirize the state visit, or did they just have no choice b/c they couldn't get better pictures of this motley crew?
And this, folks, is how I started my day. heh.
The first few pics are of the Obamas meeting Wills and Kate (whose headline-making dress was the real reason I wanted to see these pictures in the first place). I was mildly amused to see that Michelle, although 'cute' in her '50s housewife-style dress, looks deeply frumpy when posed next to the lithe, sophisticated Kate.
However, things only got funnier from there: Keep clicking until you reach the pictures of QE2 greeting the Obamas as they arrive -- the Queen and Michelle are wearing (practically) the same dress! You know Michelle saw that as she got out of the limo and thought, 'F**k, I'm dressed like an 85 year old.' But the next picture provides even more hilarity, as it poses the Obamas next to QE2 and Prince Philip, who is wearing a suit similar to that of Obama. I fully understand that guys have fewer options when it comes to dresswear, but the lineup of this foursome wearing their matching outfits is nothing less than comical -- the Obamas look like a younger, darker, taller version of the Queen and Prince Philip.
The last bit of real entertainment comes in photo 16, wherein everyone looks as if they've smelled a fart and Prince Charles's comb-over is caught in a rogue breeze. Priceless.
All things considered, I feel like the Royal Family has finally found another head of state family who is less photogenic than they are, but maybe the Royals are still riding high on their acquisition of the lovely Kate. Even Prince Charles's comb-over faux pas could not even the score after the preceding pictures.
Do you think CBS *meant* to satirize the state visit, or did they just have no choice b/c they couldn't get better pictures of this motley crew?
And this, folks, is how I started my day. heh.
03 February 2011
YAY!
So most of you know Stephane proposed while we were at the Grand Canyon this week, and now you have the pictures to visualize it!
In typical less-than-what-I-plan-to-be-in-my-head style, my response to the proposal was not quite what I had hoped it would be....It happened like this:
Stephane and I were walking along the Canyon Rim Path when we found a rare scenic spot not flush with other tourists. We stopped to enjoy the solitude and beauty, shivering in the strong wind of the winter Canyon in the late afternoon. Stephane took a few very deep breaths and I asked if he was too cold. He said no, but asked to hold my gloves, and I laughed at the idea of him shoving his hands into my too-small gloves. I gave him my gloves, he dropped one of them and then stiffly got down on one knee -- I thought to pick up the glove -- and he started to rummage around in his pocket.
I asked him first the very romantic, 'What are you doing?' And then when I saw him pull out an amazing ring, sparkling in the sunlight, he swears I said, 'Are you serious?!' I have no recollection of this coming out my mouth, but knowing my jackass self, it seems likely. However, when he did actually ask me to marry him, I was very quick to say, 'Of course! Yes, of course!' So let's pretend that makes up for 'What are you doing?....Are you serious?!' (Stephane, incidentally, takes every opportunity to remind me of the latter....)
A Japanese tourist happened along just after the proposal and took the lovely picture featured at the top of this entry. I think he was very confused by our giggles and uncontrollable smiles, but he took our picture anyhow before scampering off.
So there you have it -- the proposal! I feel cheezy in my extreme excitement and will not subject you to it further. Hopefully the pictu
res speak for themselves.
In typical less-than-what-I-plan-to-be-in-my-head style, my response to the proposal was not quite what I had hoped it would be....It happened like this:
Stephane and I were walking along the Canyon Rim Path when we found a rare scenic spot not flush with other tourists. We stopped to enjoy the solitude and beauty, shivering in the strong wind of the winter Canyon in the late afternoon. Stephane took a few very deep breaths and I asked if he was too cold. He said no, but asked to hold my gloves, and I laughed at the idea of him shoving his hands into my too-small gloves. I gave him my gloves, he dropped one of them and then stiffly got down on one knee -- I thought to pick up the glove -- and he started to rummage around in his pocket.
I asked him first the very romantic, 'What are you doing?' And then when I saw him pull out an amazing ring, sparkling in the sunlight, he swears I said, 'Are you serious?!' I have no recollection of this coming out my mouth, but knowing my jackass self, it seems likely. However, when he did actually ask me to marry him, I was very quick to say, 'Of course! Yes, of course!' So let's pretend that makes up for 'What are you doing?....Are you serious?!' (Stephane, incidentally, takes every opportunity to remind me of the latter....)
A Japanese tourist happened along just after the proposal and took the lovely picture featured at the top of this entry. I think he was very confused by our giggles and uncontrollable smiles, but he took our picture anyhow before scampering off.
So there you have it -- the proposal! I feel cheezy in my extreme excitement and will not subject you to it further. Hopefully the pictu
res speak for themselves. 17 January 2011
Sure, why not add another tire to the fire?
Stephane and I were enjoying a quiet evening at home last night (on what was supposed to be the day of the run-off election that recedes further and further from actuality with each passing day....) when his accountant rang. Hearing only Stephane's side of the conversation, I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but it didn't sound like anything good, as he kept repeating, 'I hope you're joking. That's not funny.'
When he hung up the phone and told me what his accountant had been saying, I, too said, 'You're joking.' The big news? None other than the impromptu return of Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was sitting at the airport when we got the call.
Really? Dictator Lite returns to Haiti after a quarter of a century's absence, four days after the one year anniversary, in the midst of contentious elections and a cholera outbreak? Why? And *how*? The man hasn't had a legal passport since being rushed out of the country in 1986. There are rumors of a diplomatic passport, but no one knows if that is true and if it is, from which country said magic passport originated.
It is certain that the French knew of his departure for Haiti (journalists here received phone calls from Guadeloupe, where his flight from Paris had a layover, alerting them to his imminent arrival), but the extent of their involvement in his return and whether or not anyone else (i.e., the Haitian government and MINUSTAH) had knowledge of this visit is unknown.
Initial reactions were mixed: lots of people at the airport cheering his return, lots of other people (those who remember the 'good old days') reflecting back on that era without the least bit of nostalgia. There were reports of big groups in the streets in various parts of town, but I think most of these were actually just rah-rah bands playing Carnival music as they begin their campaign to bring back the festivities, a whole other debate.
At the moment, the predominant sentiments seem to be shock and wariness, as people question what Baby Doc wants with their country at this moment. The television last night kept running footage of his return intermingled with archival footage from his hasty departure, which will hopefully remind people of why he left in the first place.
But the thing is, in a country where 46% of the population is under 18, most Haitians *don't* remember why Duvalier left, why people fought to get him the hell out of here. And even those who were alive then often succumb to the common error of remembering the good (rule of law, stability) and forgetting the bad (corruption beyond even contemporary levels, a culture of fear). Haiti's fundamental fault is that its memory is too short; it can't learn lessons when it can't remember what happened in the first place.
So that's why you get people spray-painting 'Bon retour JC Duvalier' all over the place and dreaming of bringing back the man who, although less persecutorial than his father, did very little beyond exploiting the country during his 15-year rule and then ran off with millions of dollars that rightfully belongs to the country to live the good life in France.
Thus far, this wholly bizarre 'rentree' has not significantly disrupted anything here aside from the television viewing schedule, but in Haiti, one never knows. And if Aristide decides to follow suit, well....That would be a whole other keg of powder.
When he hung up the phone and told me what his accountant had been saying, I, too said, 'You're joking.' The big news? None other than the impromptu return of Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was sitting at the airport when we got the call.
Really? Dictator Lite returns to Haiti after a quarter of a century's absence, four days after the one year anniversary, in the midst of contentious elections and a cholera outbreak? Why? And *how*? The man hasn't had a legal passport since being rushed out of the country in 1986. There are rumors of a diplomatic passport, but no one knows if that is true and if it is, from which country said magic passport originated.
It is certain that the French knew of his departure for Haiti (journalists here received phone calls from Guadeloupe, where his flight from Paris had a layover, alerting them to his imminent arrival), but the extent of their involvement in his return and whether or not anyone else (i.e., the Haitian government and MINUSTAH) had knowledge of this visit is unknown.
Initial reactions were mixed: lots of people at the airport cheering his return, lots of other people (those who remember the 'good old days') reflecting back on that era without the least bit of nostalgia. There were reports of big groups in the streets in various parts of town, but I think most of these were actually just rah-rah bands playing Carnival music as they begin their campaign to bring back the festivities, a whole other debate.
At the moment, the predominant sentiments seem to be shock and wariness, as people question what Baby Doc wants with their country at this moment. The television last night kept running footage of his return intermingled with archival footage from his hasty departure, which will hopefully remind people of why he left in the first place.
But the thing is, in a country where 46% of the population is under 18, most Haitians *don't* remember why Duvalier left, why people fought to get him the hell out of here. And even those who were alive then often succumb to the common error of remembering the good (rule of law, stability) and forgetting the bad (corruption beyond even contemporary levels, a culture of fear). Haiti's fundamental fault is that its memory is too short; it can't learn lessons when it can't remember what happened in the first place.
So that's why you get people spray-painting 'Bon retour JC Duvalier' all over the place and dreaming of bringing back the man who, although less persecutorial than his father, did very little beyond exploiting the country during his 15-year rule and then ran off with millions of dollars that rightfully belongs to the country to live the good life in France.
Thus far, this wholly bizarre 'rentree' has not significantly disrupted anything here aside from the television viewing schedule, but in Haiti, one never knows. And if Aristide decides to follow suit, well....That would be a whole other keg of powder.
12 January 2011
4:53 has come and gone....
...And I cannot believe it has been one year.
It has been a very long, very hard, very sad year.
It has been a very long, very hard, very sad year.
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