Bright Words, No. 6

Bigoxeria

Bigorexics dislike their bodies so much that they often hide them in shame. -- Rogers-Anderson, S. "A male body-image disorder is affecting thousands of extraordinarily fit men. Could you be one?" online article. Men's Fitness magazine. November 2012.   


Defined: (Men's Fitness) " Muscle dysmorphia is characterized by obsessive thoughts about not being big enough and a calculated and rigorous diet regime,” says clinical psychologist Dr Stuart Murray. “Some guys overload on protein at the expense of carbs and fats. They also follow a meticulous training regime they find hard to deviate from."

The article goes on to share details of the condition: muscle dysmorphia — also known as bigorexia, reverse anorexia and the Adonis complex — is a disorder in which the person suffering from it becomes obsessed with the belief that they’re not muscular enough. While some bigorexics are preoccupied with adding muscle bulk, others pursue a lean look. 

My Take: The rise in male athletes seeking perfection via steroid stacks has attracted law enforcement and medical studies. The obsessed can become bigoxeric if they spend hours fixated on their body image issues. 

Some perfectionists become disturbed, violent 'roid ragers'. Famed Wrestler Chris Benoit at age 40 was a beloved WWF star when he joined many of his peers who went off a drug-induced cliff. Benoit's alleged mania ended in an unexpected deadly outburst: he was found hung in his house near the lifeless bodies of his wife and child in 2007.  


Sources:

http://www.mensfitnessmagazine.com.au/2012/11/bigorexia-2/

http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/apr/18/pro-wrestlers-stalked-death/

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/anabolic-steriods-nhs-pump-clinic-7018253
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/chris-benoits-dad-son-suffered-severe-brain-damage/story?id=11471875

Bright Words, No 5

Microagression

A student at McGill University recently had to apologize publicly for the “microaggression” of “emailing a doctored video of President Obama kicking open a door” as part of a joke about midterms. Campus newspapers have begun denouncing the evils of such small, apparent slights. --McWorter, J. "Microagression is the New Racism on Campus", web article. Time. March 21, 2014


Defined: Lingust John McWhorter said: ..."here’s a new word on the street that the old-style social racism is still with us, 24/7. That word is: microaggression." He continues by sharing academia's take on it: quiet, often unintended slights — racist or sexist — that make a person feel underestimated on the basis of their color or gender.


My Take: Unapologetic NBA Franchise Owner Donald Sterling, an alleged serial microagressor, has been slapped with $2.5 million fine and was banned from the league after one of his racist tirades was leaked to TMZ by his biracial girlfriend.

Sources:
http://time.com/32618/microaggression-is-the-new-racism-on-campus/

Bright Words, No. 4

Frankenfood

Ministers are trying to cover up secret briefings with GM companies hoping to push ‘Frankenfood’ on to dinner tables.-- Poulter, S. "Ministers covering secret meetings: GM food lobby Owen Paterson refused Freedom Information request about talks about 'Frankenfood'," web article. DailyMail. April  16, 2014. 

Defined: (oxford dictionary) genetically engineered food (GM - genetically modified food)

My Take: Reducing pesticides on crops and producing cheap food for starving masses in underdeveloped lands are tooted benefits of 'Frankenfood.' Food safety advocates, however, challenge big ag like Monsanto and Syngenta  to consider farmers' uptick in cost as they battle a surge in super bugs and resistant weeds related to genetically modified crops.

Sources: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2605570/Ministers-covering-secret-meetings-GM-food-lobby-Owen-Paterson-refused-Freedom-Information-request-talks-Frankenfood.html
http://grist.org/food/frankenfoods-good-for-big-business-bad-for-the-rest-of-us/
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/Frankenfood

Bright Words, No. 3

Chockablock

The Georgia GOP Senate primary is chockablock with Republicans who voted for the cuts — one of them will be running against Michelle Nunn, who hasn’t. -- Beutler, B. "Why the Republican Mediscare attack is magically dwindling," web article, Salon.com. March 5, 2014.

Defined:(free dictionary) Squeezed together; jammed.Completely filled; stuffed, Nautical Drawn so close as to have the blocks touching. Used of a ship's hoisting tackle


My Take: San Jose native Joey “Jaws” Chestnut face was a chockablock with 69 frankfurters  in 10 minutes to win his seventh  mustard-colored  championship belt at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest  in New York.

Sources:  
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/05/gops_magically_dwindling_mediscare_attack/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/chockablock
http://www.nathansfamous.com/index.php/hot-dog-eating-contest

Bright Words, No. 2

Larping

More than 70 people were armed with daggers and swords in Fairmount Park Saturday. They stormed the field, competing for a replica of Ice, the sword used by Eddard Stark in the Game of Thrones series, in Nerd Union’s inaugural War of Thrones LARP Event. -- Duran,C. "Nerds Union storms Fairmont Park," web article, The Sunflower newspaper. April 27, 2014.

Defined: (urban dictionary) a type of game where a group of people wear costumes representing a character they create to participate in an agreed fantasy world. Uses foam sticks as swords, foam balls as magic and other props to create the games world.


My Take: James Danceforth's chest heaved in a chain-linked vest and his eyes widened as he jousted against his archenemy in a muddy mot during a larping battle in Glen Park. 

Sources:  
http://www.thesunflower.com/entertainment/article_3d6f839e-ce87-11e3-a480-001a4bcf6878.html

Japanese Internment Memorial

A calm Hawaiian morning exploded into chaos as Japanese bombers blanketed the sky with torpedoes that tore into the USA naval fleet at Pearl Harbor and took 2,403 American lives on December 7, 1941.

“All of a sudden, three aircrafts flew right overhead. They were pearl gray with red dots on the wing  Japanese,” said Daniel Inouye at 17 when he was the son of Japanese immigrants living in Honolulu,  to PBS. “I knew what was happening. And I thought my world had just come to an end.”

Inouye was a teen like Ruth Asawa, artist of the Japanese Internment Memorial, when panic swept America. 

 Anxious rumors labeled Japanese immigrants as “enemy aliens” who were cohorts in on the surprise attack that drew the US into World War II.  The angry mob swelled many called for Japanese Issei and Nisei (first wave immigrants and their US-born children) to be removed. Agitators included the head of the California Grower-Shipper Vegetable Association, who said to PBS: 

“If all of the Japs were removed tomorrow, we’d never miss them… because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we don’t want them back when the war ends, either.”

President Roosevelt heard the call and he responded to the alleged ‘national security threat’ with Executive  Order 9066, authorizing the military to imprison Japanese families in February 1942. 

Asawa ‘s father was  60 and a  farmer when  he was arrested by the FBI and sent to New Mexico. The artist’s entire family was among 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast who were removed and caged in 10 government-sanctioned internment camps. Hawaiian powerful landowners opposed the mass internment and Japanese American farmers, laborers and families – 40 percent of the island’s population – remained free.

On the mainland, California farmers held ‘fire sales’ of their property in a rush to handle their affairs  and prepare their families for an April 1942 evacuation. Asawa captured farmers in her mural, many of them left behind more than 458,000 acres of rich California land they controlled in the 1940s. 

Pinned with a number on their chest and armed with only what they could carry they were removed from their homes, unsure of their future. Many  internees arrived unprepared for the hard conditions that awaited in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Arkansas and Colorado.  Families faced cold winds, meager supplies and tight spaces. Yet innovative internees inside the wired fences plowed small gardens, started newspapers and organized baseball teams. 

The Supreme Court sat idle as civil rights lawyers challenged the imprisonment.  Japanese American families finally emerged from the camps in 1945. Later the nation apologized and gave Japanese Americans reparations.

Sad to say history - on different scales - has already repeated itself in this nation. During Occupy Wall Street, peaceful protesters were arrested in  New York City (while riots in Oakland lead to violence). Also after tragedy of September 11, Arabs were targets of hate crimes, sought for deportation and questioned regarding their American allegiances.  

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_home_civil_rights_japanese_american.htm

http://www.janm.org/exhibits/breed/gloss_t.htm

www.ruthasawa.com/internment.html

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views4b.htm

http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html

A Look at ZZ Packer's Drinking Cofee Elsewhere: "Every Tongue Confess"

Syrupy colloquialisms glaze the sketch that ZZ Packer uses to unpack a narrow-minded, judgmental Christian caricature in “Every Tongue Shall Confess” short story. 

Readers seep into the mind of Sister Clareese Mitchell on Missionary Sunday. She is perpetually obedient with an undercurrent of rage as she wears a stark white dress during her monthly cycle and sits fearful of a bloody downpour at Greater Church Emmanuel Pentecostal of the Fire Baptized.

Packer layers the self-righteous Bible tooting stereotype by using similes to show an introverted, dateless woman who seeks to drive the hell fire out of others. Yet Sister Clareese remains clueless to her own blazing resentment that targets everyone in her midst. Packer shows the cross-eyed lead character with twisted eyes and a twisted view of showing God’s love to others.

Sister Clareese leads the church choir and sits on her perch in the choir stand glaring down at all: 'the liar,' a deacon who vulgarly groped her; the 'flashy' Pastor Everett; and the possible ‘pick pocket’ ex-con who is visiting. 

 The author jets between Emmanuel Pentecostal and cutaways of Sister Clareese working as a RN at University Hospital. The sister puts on the “Armor of God” to fight for souls and do good works; while she forgets God call for her to love and forgive.  
 

Packer’s is a master at character development; she frames Sister Clareese as an intelligent Jesus freak who has lost her way in her zeal to win souls for Christ. The Christian is caught presses her ‘come to Jesus message’ a bit too hard on jubilant amputee and musician, Cleophus.  He questions: “Why does God allow pain in the world?”  She answers with a loud voice and storms out the hospital room as the amputee falls to the ground –and her caring facade unravels.  

Packer seems to take a swing at know-it-all Christians such as Sister Clareese who bruise the unchurched with their dogmatic proselytizing and overlook the need to first show love.  The hospital makes her pay for her misstep  in yelling at a patient, by suspending Sister  Clareese.

She seems to miss the wake up call to put the brakes on her overbearing evangelism. It seems like Packer gives her lead no arch – she stays stuck the whole story. Packer, in the last few lines, however, gives her a chance to be redeemed. Cleophus visits her church and his mere presence on Missionary Sunday seems like a fig leaf of friendship and hope after their debacle.