Serving Bread

When campaigning among Spanish speakers, Obama translated his campaign slogan “Yes we can” to “Sí se puede.” During the campaign, there were allegations against Obama for having lifted some phrases from other orators. This Spanish phrase is unfortunately one of those lifted phrases. He stole this one from… none other than… “Dora the Explorer!” That’s right!

While encouraging her nine month old brother to crawl toward her, Layla kept yelling, “Sí se puede! Sí se puede!” When I asked her what it meant and where she learned the phrase, she gave all the credit to the bilingual popular cartoon. I did double check whether she may have heard it during one of Obama’s stump speeches. She denied and seemed offended by the association. (I then remembered she had consistently supported McCain during the campaign)

Sidenote: Our friends with the United Farm Workers claim that the phrase predates Dora to the 1972 hunger fast by Cesar Chavez.

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While many people are celebrating the expiration of Daily Savings tomorrow morning, parents of young children everywhere (except in Arizona and Hawaii) are mourning the loss of an extra hour of sleep tomorrow morning. The expiration of Daily Savings actually causes us to lose an hour of sleep rather than gain the hour. Our children are usually up and ready to jump, scream, and play at 6am. Tomorrow, it will be 5am.

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My maternal grandmother passed away last Tuesday, March 18 at her home in Cupertino, California. She was 86 years old. Born on March 13, 1922, in Baghdad, Iraq, she was the third of five daughters of Dikran and Azniv. Her father (my great-grandfather) was one of the pioneers of the first Independent Iraqi Government in 1921. She married my grandfather in 1944.

Together they lived in Baghdad until 1979, then moved to Beirut, Lebanon until 1986 when they moved to the United States. It is difficult for me to capture one memory of her because she has been a part of so many of my memories. For years, we lived together, and until college, I had never lived more than a mile from her.

I will remember my grandmother for her brutal honesty. She never feared speaking her mind. If she didn’t like something I did or something I wore or just something about me, she did not shrink back from telling me. Yet despite such honesty, she expressed unconditional love to many, especially to those in her family.

She is survived by her husband of 64 years, four daughters, nine grand-children, and three great-grand-children.

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