Young, Stormy Lust
We feel like we’re an intimate part of the NYTimes and the WaPo news these days. Whether the news is about Grace Young, or Stormy Daniels, or Erika Lust, we’re – at the very most – one handshake or Facetime away from them – and fame!
If you’ve read our blog for long, you know that both Andy and I are intrigued by the “one handshake away” rule. We’re one handshake away from Jennifer Lopez, Bob Dylan and Winston Churchill. How utterly cool can we be? Andy, however, is not always cool. See today’s Andy’s Corner.
But this “one handshake” doesn’t take into account the new world of Facetime and Zoom. Can we count them? For example, if our daughter, Sara, is on a one-to-one Facetime with Erika Lust, are we the equivalent of one handshake away from Ms Lust? Did I hear you say you haven’t heard of her – and what’s the big deal? Well, as linked above, there’s this from the NYTimes, an article about Lust’s “Alternative Porn Vision.”
Before you go crazy wondering why Sara was Facetiming with Erika, rest assured there is a simple and nonsexual answer: Sara interviewed her for a new magazine, Mother Tongue, which Sara’s LA friends have launched. The article is about how to teach your children about porn – since they are bound to stumble upon it during their hours – and hours – of screen time. Ms Lust even has a website, The Porn Conversation, devoted to her approach to this disconcerting issue. I’m SO glad I raised my kids before the internet took hold!
Now I probably never really shook hands with her, but surely I can count Stormy Daniels as even LESS than one handshake away. After all, she was a student (and known then as Stephanie Clifford) in my Scotlandville Magnet H.S Civics class in Baton Rouge – and I take credit for any kudos she got from the press on her ability to hold up to Michael Avenatti’s cross-examination. Avenatti, of course, then got convicted for swindling poor Stormy out of the proceeds from her book about her tryst (or possible tryst) with Donald Trump. 🙂
After the “Stormy Lust” connections, Grace Young is a breath of fresh and wholesome air! Sara first met Grace years ago, not by Facetiming or Zooming – but the old-fashioned (dare I say “better”?) way – a one-on-one interview for a magazine article Sara was writing about Grace and her cookbooks. And then we were fortunate enough to get to have dinner with Grace and Sara in NYC.
If you ever need help with stir-frying or using a wok, Grace is your go-to. Grace’s first cookbook, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, was published in 1999, but her most acclaimed cookbooks are probably The Breath of a Wok, published in 2004, followed by 2010’s Stir-frying to the Sky’s Edge. I recommend you visit Grace’s website. I know you’ll be as impressed as I am with all she’s accomplished in the world of cooking.
But that’s the old (or young?) Grace Young. The Grace Young who is all over the news today is all about saving the Chinatowns – and Japantowns and Koreatowns and LittleSaigons. As the Coronavirus shut down restaurants all over the country, the restaurants of Manhattan’s Chinatown were possibly even harder hit. The anti-Asian sentiment – sadly – also impacted the situation. In an effort to boost public awareness of their dire straits, Grace recorded a series of interviews with NYC Chinatown’s restaurant folks, entitled Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories. The press coverage of this has been fabulous, including this article in the Smithsonian Mag. And Grace is fabulous. I’m in “Young Love!” (If you don’t get our “friends and family” email that precedes our blog, you won’t appreciate this :). If you’d like to be put on that email list, let us know, by clicking Contact in the upper right and filling it out. We promise not to share your email with anyone because we don’t know how to!)
We’re sharing two of Grace’s stir-fry recipes, one easily-made vegetarian and one with beef. They’re both to “lust” after!
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