ABRACADABRA

When Journo ate his words

A US journalist has kept his promise of literally eating his words if Donald Trump clinches the Republican presidential nomination as the scribe consumed a nine-course meal featuring newsprint from his column.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank in October last year wrote a column predicting the demise of the 69-year-old billionaire’s presidential ambitions. The headline of the column read, “Trump will lose, or I will eat this column.” “Literally: The day Trump clinches the nomination I will eat the page on which this column is printed in Sunday’s Post,” Milbank wrote last year.  “I have this confidence for the same reason (Mitt) Romney does: Americans are better than Trump,” he had said. The Post writer, of course, was proven wrong earlier this month, when Trump became the Republican party’s presumptive nominee after the Indiana primary. Milbank delivered on his headline’s promise. The Washington Post carefully curated a nine-course meal to document the occasion including newspaper chilaquiles, dumplings, falafel, steaks, the way Trump likes them, and even a Trump Tower-inspired taco bowl. The dishes, prepared by the head chef at Washington’s Del Campo restaurant, Victor Albisu, creatively incorporated newspaper pages into the recipes — with some of the ink “mercifully well-ground” into the steak’s chimichurri sauce, or sprinkled into the guacamole topping the taco bowl, or mixed into the chickpeas of the falafel, CBS News reported.     

 To wash it all down, there were also some Trump wines.   Milbank consumed it all on a live Facebook video stream. Later, Milbank said the experience “actually turned out not to be too bad at all.” “It was not all that painful. And certainly not anywhere near as painful as it’s going to be over the next six months,” he told Facebook viewers. “I didn’t think Trump was a flash in the pan. It was a showman who would – should not be taken seriously. I thought he definitely should be taken seriously. I thought the Republican voters ultimately would say we don’t want this kind of guy representing us,” Milbank was quoted as saying by National Public Radio.

For Kerala Minister Boxing legend is Malayalee

The social media is having a field day over the faux pas made by Kerala Industry and Sports Minister E P Jayarajan in his obituary reference on late boxing legend Muhammed Ali. 

Senior CPI-M leader, Jayarajan by virtue of being the new sports minister, when asked by a TV channel here for his reaction to the death of Ali started by saying that “he just heard the news that Muhammed Ali passed away in America”.

He then made a complete mess by saying that, “Ali was an eminent sports personality of Kerala and is one who has won a gold medal thereby raising Kerala’s position in the world.”

As he was going ahead, the TV news anchor acted swiftly to save the minister further embarrassment and cut the audio. But now the social media is having a field day over this with trolls going forward in a big way and one comment reading, “had not the anchor intervened, the minister would have announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs five lakhs and a state government job for Ali’s daughter.”

WHEN CHATTING COST THE MARRIAGE

A woman in Saudi Arabia was divorced by her husband minutes after their marriage as she ignored him and kept on chatting with her friends on mobile phone, a media report said.

Following the marriage ceremony, the newly-wed couple went to a hotel where she began exchanging messages with her friends soon after they entered their room.

The groom wanted to talk to her but she ignored him. When he asked her about the reasons, the bride said she was busy communicating with her friends who were congratulating her on their marriage on the mobile, Gulf News reported.

The groom then asked her to chat later but she refused and became angry.

At this, he asked if her friends were more important than him, the bride answered yes, Saudi daily Al Watan quoted one of their relatives as saying.

As the argument between the couple became heated, the groom told his bride he was divorcing her and left the hotel.

A divorce case has been filed and the court referred it to the reconciliation committee to assess if the couple could be reconciled. The groom, however, was too hurt in his pride to forgive and refused to withdraw the case and insisted on the divorce, the report said.