February 16, 1993

"TODAY IS A GOOD DAY", or so says Ice Cube in his little ditty. Mrs. Offerman just sed that Thursday is OPPOSITE GENDER DAY, which means that we must dress up as the opposite gender. Where's kd lang when we need her? And how come so many people misspell her name? KD Lang, no I don't think so. Actually, I like her songs, but she is a major cross-dressing Canadian non-effeminate roller derby-loving slut. Well, slut is such a strong word, but I needed a noun to complete the sentence.¹ So, what's up? Alex Haley's new movie is out, entitled QUEEN, which I am recording off CBS TV. It is a six-hour long epic tale which is being presented as a mini-series over three days, not unlike his best-known work ROOTS, which had a similar process of presentation in he mid-70s, when it was shown. ROOTS traced Alex Haley's mother's heritage back to Africa; however, QUEEN, which follows Haley's father's ancestors, goes back to Scotland, where his great-great-grandfather immigrated from. It is important to know that this man, Haley, whom we are talking about, so often associated with the black experience, is actually 1/8 white, as a result of the child born to Haley's great-grandfather and a slave woman in the 1840s. The child was named Queen, which of course, is the name of the mini-series. That is the background information. This is how it came about: The story begins on a Southern plantation in 1841. Haley's great-grandfather (played by Tim Daly) owns the plantation, or at least his parent's do, and there are a multitude of slaves on it. One of these slaves, Easter, (played by Jasmine Guy) falls in love with daly, and vice-versa, and pretty soon, Queen (played by Raven-Symone, and later, Halle Berry) is born. Easter denies that Daly is the father, and he will have no part in it either. Queen only finds out about her father when she is sixteen years old. Actually it's probably around 20, becuz the CIVIL WAR is going on. Anyways, that's the basic jist of Part One. Part Two airs tonite, and Part Three will air on Thursday. Stay tuned for updates.
--JMC 11:55 am

1 I'd cringe at this description, except I find it too amusing ("roller derby-loving"!). I was clearly confused as to how I was supposed to respond to someone like lang. I did like "Constant Craving" a whole lot, though: I remember enjoying it on the radio in Steve's parents' car several months before, on the way home from the only BHS football game I ever attended.