Friday middle eastern pop star blogging: the beauty of ordinary women

For many months my friend Don "please stop asking me where you can find a mechanic for your Fiat" Bintz has been urging me to do this FMEPS post, but I hesitated, because my Arabic is still not good enough to tell you what the caption says. A snippet of our ongoing conversation:

Don: Just crop it out.

JV: No. I want to ask Fayrouz, the lady from whom I got this image what it says, but I'm embarassed. Her politics, such as I can glean, are different than mine, and although I don't think that would bother her so much, she seems like a very busy person.

Don: then don't crop it out, whatever. Jonathan, you are smart, but you don't know everything. You speak Arabic, semi-fluently, but can barely read or write your mother tongue? Big deal.

JV: My mother's tongue. Not my mother tongue.

Don: Oh, that again. "I'm half-Arab and All-American?" Please. You should've gone into advertising. That makes you one-and-a-half people you know.

JV: I'm large, I contain multitudes. Didn't that poet you like say that? Hey, quit rolling your eyes!

Don: How can you see me rolling my eyes in cyberspace? And don't tell me that stuff about your mysterious voodoo powers again.

incidentally: Texas proposition 2, the constitional amendment defining marriage as a thing between one man and one woman, passed with approximately 76 per cent of the vote, in case you were wondering. My understanding is that less than 20 per cent of the eligible voters bothered to participate. If , this past Tuesday, you were sitting on your ass watching repeats of Will and Grace, live in the Lone Star State, and are over 18, don't blame me. Also, keep in mind: If you think this makes Texas voters look backward to you, keep in mind that they rejected lifting the 28 per cent cap on interest that state banks can charge. And you know what those 2 propositions have in common? They both deal with the freedom of citizens to enter into contracts. Who cares?

[an addendum: Monday, 14 Nov 2005: Fayrouz has since informed me that the photo I had posted was originally from the AFP, and may have, in fact, been of two young ladies from a different country altogether. I apologize for my error. - JV]