{"id":2863,"date":"2013-06-26T12:36:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T18:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=2863"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:05","slug":"2863-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/2863-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perils of Paula"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"paula\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For those of you who are smugly satisfied at Food Network Star, Paula Deen\u2019s fall from grace after admitting she has used the \u201cN\u201dword in the past; fill in the blank of this little poem:<\/p>\n

\u201cEeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. ”<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, we all used this counting rhyme every time we chose up sides for a ballgame. I even remember saying it when picking playing partners during Vacation Bible School recess at First Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n

During the innocence of our youth, most of us said the forbidden \u201cN\u201d word on occasion; like when dad opened the big can of mixed nuts at Christmas time and we\u2019d all pick out our favorite. I\u2019m not sure I knew the real name for Brazil nuts until high school.<\/p>\n

I remember laughing hysterically at Mel Brooks\u2019 \u201cBlazing Saddles\u201d movie..especially how the old lady first greeted the new black sheriff or when the church bell rang covering up the \u201cN\u201d word as Gabby Johnson announced the sheriff\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

These admissions, I suppose, could get me fired but I, like most of my peers, grew up and realized the insensitivity of certain words and became naturally more sensitive to the feelings of others.<\/p>\n

Before having anything to say here about this subject, I wanted to be dang sure of what Deen actually said and what her termination was based upon so I read the entire 140 page transcript of her court deposition in which she and her brother, Bubba, are being sued by a former manager at his restaurant ..Lisa Jackson\u2026for a million and a half dollars claiming she was harassed and worked in an environment rife with innuendo and racial slurs. I would encourage you to read the whole thing for yourself \u00a0too before coming to any conclusions based on hyped-up tabloid TV or internet headlines. \u00a0What I took from her interrogation was that if anybody should be charged with harassment it would be Jackson\u2019s lawyer for the way he treated Deen in the witness chair.<\/p>\n

The deposition transcript HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

The bottom line is that Deen grew up in the deep south during the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s in the days of state mandated segregation. \u00a0Changing old habits and attitudes probably came a lot harder for her than for somebody like me up north whose cultural diversity was limited to Norwegians and Dutch. I don\u2019t know Paula Deen but have appreciated her story of\u00a0 building a business with nothing more than a dream, hard work and determination which eventually resulted in the phenominal success she’s enjoyed.\u00a0 A Facebook friend of mine who works in network TV recounted a recent backstage meeting with Deen who was about to appear on a talk show. He said he was surprised that she still enjoyed her cigarettes but was as sweet as sassafras tea on camera and off. \u00a0And, from watching her cooking show over the years, that\u2019s been my impression of the lady too; a genuine, fun loving, caring mom of two fine sons who, yes, might even laugh at an occasional naughty joke. She certainly doesn’t deserve to be railroaded out of a career for admitting that she has used the “N” word in her past but not for a long long time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a puzzle to me how most Americans dream of achieving personal and financial success and yet, when somebody else actually does it, we can\u2019t wait to see them crumble like a dried up cookie.<\/p>\n

On its web and Facebook sites, The Food Network is getting blasted by viewers for the \u00a0hasty decision to dump Paula Deen.\u00a0 Good.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but wonder if there\u2019s not more to it than what we\u2019re hearing.\u00a0 At 66, could it be that the network feels Paula is becoming too old to attract the dream viewer demographic? Maybe she should get together with Emeril Lagasse on a discrimination lawsuit of their own.\u00a0 You remember that Emeril was cruising along with his popular nightly live cooking show when \u201cBam\u201d he was cancelled. \u00a0Two people who played a major role in building The Food Network suddenly out on their ear..along with their high salaries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched Paula Deen since her first appearance on TV when she was taking part in a program called \u201cDoor Knock Dinners.\u201d I marveled at how she gently and respectfully visited with folks who were sometimes reluctant to allow a TV crew into their home to make a gourmet meal from what was in the cupboards and fridge. \u00a0As outgoing as Paula Deen has been on her many television and personal appearances over the last dozen years, I don\u2019t believe she\u2019s a good enough actress to be concealing a true personality filled with bigotry and hate.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not convinced, there\u2019s the rock pile..start casting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those of you who are smugly satisfied at Food Network Star, Paula Deen\u2019s fall from grace after admitting she has used the \u201cN\u201dword in the past; fill in the blank of this little poem: \u201cEeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.. ” When I was a kid, we all used this counting rhyme every…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11652,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2863\/revisions\/11652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}