beauty

This came up on Reddit.  Miss Arab World 2007 pics.  The Redditor calls it "A rare event from Arabian countries."

Not that I'm all about beauty contests.  But I like some of the outfits.  My daughter would love the more princessey ones, like Miss Lebanon in the conical hat.  (I thought that was a European Renaissance style.)

   

Irving Karchmar and I had the opportunity to speak with and buy some of these beautiful scarves from Rabia Keesha-Rousta to profit the Pakistani women and families who make them.  I ordered several scarves (nearly all represented here) and sent in a review to a list-serve about the gorgeous fabics I received.  First read Rabia's letter about her work

My first memory is of my grandfather, Dandy, frying me chicken in the early hours of the morning. I am sitting on his hip watching the chicken fry in the iron skillet. I remember crawling down the back stairs backwards to get to his room. I could not go down the stairs standing yet. I opened the door to the guest bedroom, walked over to his bed and said "Make me fried chicken." He tried to pull me into bed to go back to sleep, but I was having none of it. Nobody makes fried chicken like my Dandy did, Allah yarhamhu. He died when I was nine. I miss him. i grew up in a hard way. Dandy took good care of me.

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Most Wanted

Warning: God has slipped the noose
We must confirm the worst
Of our righteous fears
God has escaped the mosque
Where we?ve locked him up for years
We repeat unto you:
God is on the loose
He could be anywhere
There is no telling anymore
He is no longer the guarantor
Of this people or that faith
Henceforth beware:
You may find him in heathen beauty
Take appropriate measures:
You may have to behave
as though each human being
could reflect his Face

from Vach El, Springfield's own American Dervish, utopian dreamer, and anti-work poet, patron saint of the Uplift Church of Beauty (our local Moorish Orthodox Church).

The Gospel of Beauty
by Vachel Lindsay

Being the new "Creed of a Beggar" by that vain and foolish mendicant, Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. Printed for his personal friends in his home village--Springfield, Illinois. It is his intention to carry this gospel across the country beginning June, 1912, returning in due time.

I. (Prologue.) I come to you penniless and afoot to bring a message. I am starting a new religious idea. The idea does not say "No" to any creed that you have heard. After this, let the denomination to which you now belong be called in your heart The Church of Beauty or The Church of the Open Sky. The Church of Beauty has two sides: The Love of Beauty and The Love of God.