Posted on 05/17/2010 8:04:04 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
On Wednesday, the Obama White House will host its second state dinner, honoring Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife, Margarita Zavala. It’s shaping up to be quite a different affair from the now-infamous first state dinner late last year.
Let us count the ways.
First, new social secretary Julianna Smoot is helming this event, and she’s as discreet as Desiree Rogers was flamboyant. Consequently, the dinner is going to be much more intimate than the 400-guest party that honored India last fall, and will bring about 200 people (including stars Eva Longoria and George Lopez) together in the executive mansion’s East Room instead of a large pavilion on the South Lawn.
Second, the food. Rather than American food with an ethnic twist, the Obamas are going with straight-up Mexican. Chicago celebrity chef Rick Bayless (an Obama favorite and owner of the Frontera Grill) will come to D.C. on Monday to prepare with two of his own top chefs. Bayless’s manager and publicist Jennifer Fite couldn’t reveal to POLITICO what would be served (“The first lady wants it to be a surprise for her guests,” she said) but did say that Bayless’s team will be “using everything we can from the White House garden.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
When the President travels to Paris, or to Moscow, he isn't served cheeseburgers and fries. He is served the finest Parisian or Russian cuisine prepared by the finest French or Russian chefs. Why the pandering?
George Lopez is a filthy pig. His jokes are disgusting so how fitting he be a quest of our Clown in Chief.
LOL, they are treating the Mexican president with the Chicago version of Mexican food. He could have stayed home and got that.
Obama has never been a leader or managed anything in his life, so he has no idea how to host a leader. When I was a corporate manager, and hosted other corporate managers from non-US nations, you give them a taste of America. They can get their own national food back home, and cooked to perfection exactly as they like it. Why travel all the way here to try an imitation of what they have at home? Even if they are vegetarian, you can find plenty to fill their palate. Obama is a loser who has no idea what his job is, or how to lead.
Why the pandering? From the Obama administration? Ha ha ha!
PS Can’t you just imagine the reaction if the upcoming Palin administration were to similarly serve teriyaki moose from the top Chinese restaurant chef in Wasilla to the Chinese premier?
Off topic, but I don’t get wives that don’t take their husband’s name. If my wife refused to take my name, I wouldn’t have married her. If a woman sees taking my name as oppression, then marriage must be oppression. Therefore I’d just as soon not be an oppressor, and would have taken a pass on marriage.
Be careful when looking at other societies. I remember this from Spanish class all the way back in high school. It is simply tradition in Spanish culture and has been for a very long time (hundreds of years).
IIRC, the wife retains her name separate from her husband. Girl children are given their father’s surname. Boys are given the mother’s surname or the surname of the mother’s father. Something like that.
What is ripe in the WH garden already? Can you really feed 200 people from that garden?
Oh that’s interesting. Never knew that. Thought this was just new age PC again. This trend in our culture just confuses me, though. If a woman is with a man and she doesn’t have his last name, I default assume that they are not married. Also think when the children have different last names than the mother, that makes the family less of a unit. I’m a throwback. Preferred the days when you didn’t need a program to know who was related.
You are so right, I couldn’t have said it so well myself. Thank you for your wonderful words. Lopez is dog poop!
Only the manure.
Children, both male and female, take their father's surname ( the apellido paterno) first, then their mother's (the apellido materno.) El Presidente's full name is Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, since Hinojosa is the family name of his mother and maternal grandfather. Informally, the mother's surname is frequently omitted, or abbreviated to one letter, e.g. "Felipe Calderón H." For anything formal such as a social invitation, business letter, or interaction with a goverment agency, the full name or at least the abbreviation of the apellido materno would be used.
There's more to Hispanic naming, especially among families descended from the old nobility, but this is the gist of it. It makes Hispanic genealogy a good deal easier, but causes no end of trouble for American police forces, hospitals, and other institutions that have to deal with illegal aliens who report their full names including the mother's surname. Prisoners have been mistakenly freed and escaped back to Mexico because American police are unable to comprehend Hispanic namng customs.
Thank you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.