WHAT OBAMA AND THE CONGRESS SHOULD BE DOING

It was on this day in 1933 that newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a special session of Congress and began the first hundred days of enacting his New Deal legislation. For the next several months, bills were passed almost daily, beginning with the Emergency Banking Act, followed by federal programs such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

As part of the New Deal's cultural programs, grouped together as Federal One, the Roosevelt administration created the Federal Writers' Project, which employed more than 6,600 out-of-work writers, editors, and researchers — among them Zora Neale Hurston, John Cheever, Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, Studs Terkel, and Ralph Ellison — and paid them subsistence wages of around $20 a week. The main occupation of the Federal Writers' Project was the American Guides Series. There was an American Guide for each of the existing states of the time, as well as Alaska, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and several major cities and highways. Not mere travel guidebooks, they were also collections of essays on various subjects from geography and history to architecture and commerce.

Perhaps not these same programs, but the country needs similar stimulus to put people back to work, help them pay their bills, and put money in their pockets to buy stuff, all of which will help the economy recover.  Plus, our infrastructure is in dire needs of repair.  All the programs mentioned above left behind positive legacies.

The stock market is booming, and corporations are making record profits, but poverty in the country grows and grows.  Something is wrong with this picture, and austerity is not the answer, nor is the deficit a major concern at this time.  Those who constantly bray about reducing the deficit do not live in the real world.  If the economy recovers, the deficit will fall.

The present Republican Party is using the deficit as an excuse to meet their goal, which is to destroy social welfare programs in the country.  Of course, when their own areas are in need of federal help, the Republican politicians are first in the begging line.

 

OYSTERS RIGHT AND LEFT AND BUBBLES

Pictured above is President Franklin Roosevelt dining at Antoine's Restaurant during a visit to New Orleans in 1937. Seated to the right of FDR is Governor Richard Leche and to his left is New Orleans Mayor Robert Maestri. After the the diners finished the appetizer course of Oysters Rockefeller, Mayor Maestri leaned over to FDR and said, "How ya like dem erstuhs, Chief?" I've always loved the story, which I remember hearing from my father when I was quite young. Though Maestri never went beyond the third grade in school, he was no dumb bunny and played the game of politics skillfully.

All of the above is a lead-in to tell you that the present crop of Louisiana oysters is to die for. I've eaten more than my share of outstandingly tasty raw oysters this year, before Grandpère has a chance to cook them. He now knows to stand guard, because the first taste of an oyster is addictive, and once I start eating, I can't stop. We've had oysters fried (perfectly!), broiled, oyster spaghetti, and oysters in tomato sauce over pasta. All the dishes were delicious, but oysters in tomato sauce was a mistake. The taste of the tomato sauce overwhelmed the taste of the oysters, and why would anyone want to do that? GP admitted that when oysters are as divine tasting as this year's crop, tomato sauce is not the way to go.

Although I've eaten oysters from several different waters, I've yet to to be served bivalves as tasty as the Louisiana variety. The two varieties that came closest in quality, though the flavors were quite different, were from Long Island Sound and the waters off the northwest coast of Scotland.

Read in NOLA.com what New Orleans chefs say about the local oysters as compared to those from elsewhere. They know because for six months after the BP oil spill, Louisiana oysters were unavailable.

Photo (minus the thought bubble) from Wikipedia. The bubble comes courtesy of MadPriest, master bubble maker.

Below is the same photo with an unrequested speech bubble inserted, because I sent wrong instructions to the master bubble maker about which gentleman with FDR should have the thought bubble, which necessitated a redo by MadPriest. The problem is that I have difficulty knowing my left hand from my right. It's true. I have to stop and think if I hear, "Turn left here," and, at times, once I've thought, it's too late to turn. Over the years, I've learned to compensate to a degree, but I still don't always get right and left right...if you know what I mean.

How could I possibly know FDR's (or the master bubble maker's) right hand from his left, when I don't even know my own?