Friday, September 08, 2006

Arnold Speaks   [sonnet]


Forgive me if I said you are a babe
it was a rather vapid way to speak
I'm trying really trying to behave
alas my discipline was rather weak
my good Teutonic blood I aim to marshal
my every utterance shall be P.C.
my bonhomie has been a bit inertial
and yet no racial slur was that from me
I said the Cubans and the Puerto Ricans
are passionate by nature through the mingling
of African with Spanish traits? Mohicans'
finale stands before you blithely tingling
  I am the man who accidentally uttered
  taboo remarks no dog would dare have muttered





==========

Riffing on the media brouhaha apt to emerge from the perceived (or so-called) gaff (in the form of a notably cordial and decent off-the-cuff remark) reported by the Los Angeles Times as having been made by the Governor of California (who has, in this connection and in this particular instance, my decided sympathies). Vide: Schwarzenegger Apologizes Over Remarks (New York Times)

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Why don't you send this one to me for OCHO?

Didi

david raphael israel said...

ps - I guess the NYTimes requires registration. To make
handily clearer the context, here's the opening passage from the
linked article...

-------

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized today for saying during a closed-door meeting that Cubans and Puerto Ricans are naturally passionate because of their combination of “black blood” and “Latino blood.”

The ad-lib comments were captured on tapes recorded during a March speechwriting session between the governor, a Republican who is seeking re-election, and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, when the two spoke of their shared affection for State Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia’s passionate legislative style.

“I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot,” the governor says on the recording. “They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.”

The Los Angeles Times, which obtained a tape of the remarks, reported about them today, and thus ensued a by-the-book narrative of an embarrassing gaff revealed during a heated gubernatorial campaign.

[etc.]

david raphael israel said...

Didi--

ah okay, will do, gracias.

luc u! said...

oh yes - now that's the way a sonnet was meant to be wrote -

ps. david, your name is fantastic good job on having such a great name!!!

all that is good to you,

lu! c

CSOC said...

I'll be back.

david raphael israel said...

Thanks luc. I've my parents to thank for my name.

keros -- took me a little while to catch your bon-mot.