Linda Chavis

Hi There. You should also find some groups to connect to. There is one on Facebook and the owner of the group is connected and should be able to point you in the right direction. Its called https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePitch101/

Hi Cyn...I suspect the reason this is a cricket post is because folks are feeling the same way and why there is no outrage about these items. I feel ya !!

Hi Troy. Im not sure why Monique still feels the need to bash her "peers" because that is what it feels like to me that she is doing. All the women in that film are well aware of what they make so Im not sure what Monique is trying to accomplish. If there is a pay disparity why not organize a "black" union or something in place of this whining that is feels like she is doing. It makes her look.....like she is hating. Im pretty sure she feels what she is doing is helpful...but.........

18 hours ago, Xeon said:

"On The News In Virginia ,Neo Nazi,KKK, Protesting ,People In Virginia Planning To Move Statue Of Confederate Robert E. Lee. .Protesters  Ready To Fight The Neo Nazi. Truman's Mouth Shut,So Far. Steve Bannon ,Who Trump Appointed To  A Whitehouse Position Is A Neo Nazi ,News Says. White Police Have Been Fired For Being KKK ,Klan Members. That Is Terrorist,Organization Not A Hate Group............,is Okay...Black Street Gangs Like The Neo Nazi Is ,Domestic,Terrorist..."

Well, what do you want? As disgusting as the KKK is, if they meet the requirements for a permit to march, well, there is nothing you can do. Contrary to what you believe, all forms of political thought and expression are allowed under the constitution. Even speech and events that may be unpopular. It's the by product of a free society that allows freedom of expression no mater how controversial and unsettling it may be...

Are you serious right now? First off a permit does not give you the right to incite a riot which these dudes did. Did you not see the white boy who mowed folks down and people were killed? This is NOT allowed. Ever. I wouldnt condone The New Black Panthers carrying weapons to march with. It can only have a bad outcome..as we witnessed. 

Ummmm folks betta leave Cyn alone LOL

On 6/18/2017 at 1:51 PM, Cynique said:

@Pioneer1 Really? An alternative assessment is that single black women looking for a good man are discriminating,  and a great percentage of the black dating pool is made of up of men whose fathers haven't schooled them on what constitutes being a good man because they don't know themselves, and these types are considered "rejects" by black women. So, as usual, sistas can't win for losing. 

@Linda Chavis Hi girlfriend!  How ya doin?  Good to hear from you!

Hi ya !!! Im well. About to go have a procedure on my left eye to keep from going blind on Monday. A bit anxious about it but hey...better than loosing my sight....so they say YIKES.....not feeling a long ass needle going in my eye. Think positive thoughts for me cause Im a big baby LOL 

Hi everybody. Great conversation. I have some thoughts I will share when I have more time

I think your reaching way to broad in your comments. I 500% agree about Carson and Barkely the rest not so much. Hi everybody long time no see

Hello all...I am dizzy reading all this...I will take a week to absorb...then possibly make a comment LOL

Guilty as charged, Troy. I do tend to want to stifle others' right to promote their causes. Smiley and West are, indeed, entitled to speak out and crusade for whatever mission they're on. I just get the feeling that these two are more interested in ridiculing Barack rather than empathizing with him in regard to the impossible situation he is mired in. Poor ol Obama

BTW, I LOVE the new and improved format you've facilitated. It makes everything so much more accessable!

What she said !!

Congrats and the honor is well deserved !

I think its fine because a good book, is a good book no matter the author. I look forward to reading. Sounds very interesting.

Oops. I didn't mean to sound like I was defending Clarence Thomas. Like a parent who wonders how a child went wrong by choosing a life of crime, I was wondering what drove Thomas to turn to a life of Uncle Tomism. For all we know, he may have originated that phrase about flies, etc.

Oh hail no..that isnt an orginal thought from Uncle TomClar, I grew up with that saying..

LiLi

CNN reports that two professors, from Emory University and the University of Hull in England, have analyzed the records of 35,000 slave-trading voyages over three and a half centuries. They have published their findings on a web site -- The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database -- and in a book -- Atlas of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The database identifies 67,000 captives by name, age, gender, origin, and place of embarkation. The atlas features 189 maps showing where Africans were taken from, where they were taken to, and who took them.

Among the findings:

• Four enslaved Africans left the Old World for every European.
  
• Almost every port city on the Atlantic was active in the slave trade.
  
• New York was a major center of the slave trade.
  
• The trans-Atlantic slave trade continued to grow until the very end, when it was forcibly suppressed.
  
• A total of 12.5 million Africans were taken in the slave trade.
  

The numbers are staggering. African outnumbered Europeans in the New World then, but not now. The numbers imply a centuries-long wave of death that may surpass the Jewish holocaust in absolute numbers.

The CNN writers say, "It is becoming commonplace to claim that there are more slaves in the world today than ever and that large-scale trafficking in people continues. The 'Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade' suggests that such claims tend to obscure the horrors -- unique in human history -- of the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas."

This is great..thank you ! I have shared..

LiLi

You guys are funny! LiLi: that's why I buy a whole fifth! I only need 1 cup for 2 batches then the rest is MINE!

Thanks for the info on the Cleo book Cynique - think I'll check it out.

The Wizard of the Crow is cracking me up!

Crystal

LOLLOL I hope you brought it in right..I was sick and still havent recovered

LiLi

(Lemme know what sort of stuff you wanna see and hear. I'll post ya a list of stuff to do..safe and family oriented)

Thanks..I will !

LiLi

So, what are you buying and what do you want?

I got Walter Mosley's The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for my son. I'm not sure it's really his type but it's become a tradition for me to give him a Mosley book and the new McGill won't be out till March.

For me I got Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi Wa'Thiong'O. It's been on my wish list for quite a while and I'm looking forward to it. Also got A Company of Moors by Justin Thomas - North Africa in 1640. Both of these are BABs 766 and 571 pages respectively, you know I like that.

I think it's been a couple of years since I posted my famous Rum Ball recipe for the holidays. Enjoy:

RUM BALLS

3 c Crushed vanilla wafers

1 c Chopped pecans (chopped small)

1 c Confecgioner's sugar

1 1/2 tb Unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tb Light corn syrup

1/2 c Rum

Confectioner's sugar for rolling

Combine vanilla wafers, pecans, sugar, cocoa powder, corn syrup, and rum mixing together well. Using slightly dampened hands, shape mixture into 3/4" balls. Roll balls in confectioner's sugar. Store in a tightly covered container.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Crystal

Umm sorry Crystal..but to hail wif the rest of that stuff...Im taking the rum and adding to some egg nog LOL..just kiddin..sounds tasty..

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/locations/sweetie-pies-the-grove-41863/

I was there earlier this week. Had the fried chicken. Black Eyed peas. Cornbread. String beans. All for $9.50. Couldn't eat it all.

I met Ms. Montgomery, the former Ikette who runs the place. Got pictures of herself from those days all over the place. You could hardly get in for all the white folks.

If you ever come to St. Louis and you aren't robbed assaulted or murdered, you should stop by there (It's in a safe neighborhood, too!)

YUMMY..Im planning a visit there this summer..thanks !

LiLi

Lili was it your first marriage? How old was your beau and was it his first marriage.

I'm sorry to read about your failed marriage.

No worries..he was about 37..but that wasnt the problem. I just shouldnt have married HIM.

LiLi

What did I tell you?

Now, no doubt, a lot of you tree hugging leftist socialist lip dragging liberals are accusing him of selling out. You are absolutely correct.

He had to. He's weak. That's why the Democrats allowed him to run.

Can he get back his base?

Sure.

The rabid radical right is sure to overreach and act up. He can pull a Clinton on them and rope a dope them.

For his base?

He should get the hell out of Afghanistan AND Iraq now. With these tax cuts we cannot afford it. He could do it easy, moving them battalion by battalion and brigade by brigade. Who gives a damn about them two crapholes?

Declare Victory and Get out, Obama!

You ever written him with your thoughts? Just asking. I plan to.

LiLi

I liked The Street too but I liked her book The Narrows even better. It would make a great movie. Check it out if you get the chance.

Crystal

I will thanks !!!

LiLi

(And what did we gain from this excercise?)

Geesh..somebody handle this for me.

LiLi

This culture is just so jacked up now. Knowledge about relationships should be so well defined and ingrained that everyone should know the deal by the time they finish puberty. Today we got comedians reinventing the wheel based upon calls from other nuts.

Cynique regarding blow jobs: I would have cited Karrine Steffans (God, this the 2nd time I wrote about Karrine in one day) to dispute your friend's claim.

I always think of Andrew Dice Clay who would inquire if the wife of some dude in the audience could give good head when they first met. Usually the proud husband would say, "yeah" and Dice Clay would growl, "How do you think she got that way!!!"

Some guys want head from whores but not their wives.

It all depends on the dude.

Frances Cress Welsing said men should not get married before age of 35 and women 30. Of course neither should have children before marriage. I suspect if you ignored all the stuff about about appearence, blow jobs, and anything else a Steve Harvey might mention in his book. This alone would probably be enough to greatly improve the odds of a successful family.

It would be interesting to see some data on the success rates of first time marriages of black people who got hitched up after 35/30 age. But I would bet the sample set would be too small to mean anything.

I was 43 and married a year..LOL I wish I had not.

LiLi

Celebrity is to Americans as The Royal Family is the British. I guess there is something in human nature that creates a tendency in the majority of folks to worship celebrity. And this is probably sufficient to answer my question.

I draw a line when we begin to value the advice of folks on subject matters they have clearly demonstrated little success in their own lives.

I’m not trying to pick on Steve Harvey personally, because I’m sure he is no worse (or better) than any of us. I just chose him of as one example, of many I could have selected, to illustrate my point.

In this month Essence magazine, Steve Harvey was on the cover again. This time the supporting article introduced Steve’s latest book: Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man. The promotional copy says, “Steve Harvey proves once again that he is the king of relationships.”

I don’t know much about Steve’s personal life; I really only care how funny he is. However I read the Essence article and learned that Steve is one his 3rd marriage and has four children by 3 different women. If being the “King of Relationships” is measured by the sheer number of relationships then I guess the crown is warranted.

Personally, if I’m interested in learning how to obtain, develop and maintain a quality relationship I’d be most interested in the advice of someone that has actually accomplished the feat or at least studied the issue in a meaningful manner.

Of course I realize a non-celebrity would be incapable of making the NY Times bestsellers list offering advice on the relationships. A Steve Harvey can. Presumably it should make no difference who delivers the message assuming the advice is sound. So I guess I should stop bitching and be glad someone can do the work and help others.

Then again, maybe Steve is simply capitalizing off his celebrity and offering poor advice to people worse off than he is; people with fewer financial resources and too fixated on his celebrity to know better.

We expect far too much from athletes, actors, and comedians. Whether it is Ronald Regan, Anorld Schweznegger (no I’m not gonna look up the correct spelling) or Al Franken we expect these folks to know a little more than us. Black actors for the most part have to be a rapper or comedian to be cast in a major motion picture; and athletes are expected to be model citizens.

And comedians, with multiple failed marriages, are expected to be able to offer sage advice on relationships.

We live in a twisted world.

Actually if you do read the slimed down version of Essence magazine check out the article on the rapes in Haiti it is a piece of journalism I'm unaccustomed to seeing in Essence

Most of my book buddies agree with you. We dont plan to read...

LiLi

Im part of a reading challenge on NING and I thought I would share my list I will read over the next 90 days:

1. Betsey Brown / Ntozake Shange

2. The Street / Ann Petry

3. The Salt Eaters / Toni Cade Bambara

4. Brown Girl, Brownstones / Paule Maeshall

5. Blood On The Leaves/Jeff Stetson

6. Sinful / Victor McGlothin

7. Trail Of Crumbs / Kim Sunee

8. Sweeter The Juice / Shirlee Taylor Haizlip

9. Destination Romance /6 authors

10. Standing At The Scratch Line / Guy Johnson

11. Echoes Of A Distant Summer / Guy Johnson

12. Keeping the Faith / Faith Evans

13. Red Hats / Damon Wayans

14. Who Fears Death / Nnedi Okorafor

15. Buying Time / Pamela Samuels Young

16. Shadow Tag / Louise Erdrich

17. Small Island / Andrea Levy

18. The Cheating Curve / Paula T Renfroe

19. What Mother Never Told Me / Donna Hill

20. Jesus Boy / Preston L Allen

21. Diary Of A Stalker / Electa Rome Parks

22. From Cape Town with Love / Blair Underwood/ Due/Barnes

23. Big Girls Do Cry / Carl Weber

24. Be Careful What You Pray For / Kimberla Lawson Roby

25. Stepping Out On Nothing /Byron Pitts

26. Walk Like You Have Somewhere To Go / Lucille O’Neal

27. Brother West Living and Loving Out Loud / Cornel West

28. My Fathers House / E Lynn Harris

29. Island Beneath the Sea / Isabel Allende

30. A Million Blessings / Benson, Griffith, McCollors

31. 32 Candles / Ernessa T. Carter

32. Sins of the Mother / Victoria Christopher Murray

33. Duplicity / Oasis

34. Murder In The Hamptons / Danita Carter

I did end up reading the following in Oct:

Betsey Brown / Ntozake Shange

The Street / Ann Petry (Really enjoyed this one. SOME Urban writers need to pick this one up and read )

The Salt Eaters / Toni Cade Bambara

Brown Girl, Brownstones / Paule Maeshall

Destination Romance /6 authors