Cuban Diva BFF and I talk on the phone almost every day and somehow this Wendy’s commercial from the 1980′s came up a few days ago. She tracked it down so I am embedding it here. I think it’s one of the funniest commercials of all time. But it’s also an illustration in 59 seconds of the difference between socialist and capitalist countries: choice.

Cuban Diva BFF is first generation Cuban-American — I know, what gave it away? — and she LOVES Mexican food. I do not know if she will love the recipe from The Pioneer Woman for Mexican Tres Leches Cake, but I am bringing it up because I have a humorous piece all set and ready to go if she will only get busy and translate part of it into Spanish. So I am hoping a nice piece of cake — drat! I just remembered she is allergic to one of the ingredients. And she’s not crazy about desserts. And she reads every word of this blog. Oh, well — I’ll think of something to inspire her. Meanwhile, The Anchoress says this cake is heavenly, and I trust her judgment.

Update, 9/13/09: Cuban Diva BFF reports that she LOVES this cake, allergy-be-darned!

Saturday evening I asked Cuban Diva BFF, who is the wise Latina in my life, what she thought about Sonia Sotomayor being sworn in as the newest Supreme Court justice, replacing David Souter. She told me she had watched the ceremony and then added, “Wow! Her mom is really hot!”

I replied by speculating that, unlike her mother, Sonia Sotomayor looks like her closet is filled with comfortable shoes.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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“Is it over, yet? I am so DONE with her!”

Just so you know, Cuban Diva BFF is a wise Latina woman from Manhattan who does NOT favor Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. (Even as I type, she is in mid-rant providing considerable detail about how Sotomayor’s story was not nearly the “girl from the projects” triumph over adversity and racism that it has been portrayed to be.)

P.S.

Cuban Diva BFF is much hotter than Judge Sotomayor. In case you were wondering. And she is a conservative Republican. Really. I swear. In Manhattan. (!)

To thank the constituency that put him over the top in the 2008 race for U.S. Senator in Minnesota.

H/T Cuban Diva BFF.

“Meh.”

P.S.

Cuban Diva BFF’s father is home from the hospital and on the mend. (He was hospitalized Easter Sunday when a family member realized he had an inflammation that was spreading very fast and got him to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.)

Cuban Diva BFF’s 84-year-old father was taken to the emergency room on Easter Sunday when an alert family member realized he had an infected wound that was getting worse rapidly. It turned out to be necrotizing fasciitis and the wound was in his groin, so an hour or so more of delay and he would probably not have made it.

As it was, he had two surgeries and was in ICU and on a ventilator (i.e., a tube was put down his throat so a machine could breathe for him and the tube would ensure his airway stayed open). Well, good news! He’s been off the ventilator for over a day and will be transferred to a regular hospital room as soon as one is available. He’ll have another week or so in the hospital.

Thank you to everyone who was praying or holding good thoughts for Cuban Diva BFF, her father and her family.

(I have Cuban Diva BFF’s permission to post this.)

… her father’s bedside in a hospital in Manhattan. Her parents and older sister emigrated from Cuba legally in the 1950s. Cuban Diva BFF is an American-born, lifelong New Yorker — Manhattan, baby! — with all the style and culture that implies. She is a fiscally conservative Republican in darkest blue Manhattan. Really, it’s like being in the French Resistance. Hollywood MIGHT be worse — maybe.

But her father is 84 and going into surgery at 11:30 am EDT for necrotizing fasciitis in the groin. This is his second surgery — they want to ensure they removed all the infected tissue from his surgery on Easter Sunday, when he was admitted. Later there will be plastic surgery. I have her permission to write this and ask for prayers and positive thoughts for her father and mother and her family.

FYI, when you have a loved one in this kind of situation, if you are a calm and positive person, spend every minute at the hospital at their bedside that you can. Lift every chore from the staff that you can — like cleaning up stuff that falls on the floor. (You do NOT want a nurse to contaminate her hands picking up trash — that’s why this is housekeeping’s job.) Make yourself part of the solution. Just being there supports your loved one emotionally and spiritually and makes a huge positive difference.

Also, if you are in this situation, put as many bouquets of flowers around your loved one as you can. It wasn’t something I could do for Margaret — we didn’t have the money — and whenever she was hospitalized I saw how differently her roommates with lots of flowers were treated. The nurses always smiled more and spoke more often and more cheerfully to the patients with flowers. Cards, balloons and stuffed animals do not have that effect.

And do nice things for the nurses. My ex-sister-in-law is a nurse and I have plenty of stories about how hard they work under difficult circumstances. I suggest getting deli sandwich platters and deluxe flavored ground coffee, too, if you can manage it, for each of the three shifts. Sweets and pastries are not as wholesome, but the sandwiches platters are a godsend for nurses who didn’t have time to pack a meal before going to work. Plus, it saves them time and money getting their own.

You are not bribing the nurses and staff to get better care for your loved one. They will all do the best they know how no matter what. But your appreciation and practical support do help the staff do a better job for everyone in their care just because you made their lives pleasanter and easier that shift.

Update: Cuban Diva BFF called tonight and said her father is doing much better.

My first follower was Cuban Diva BFF because if you can’t get your BFF to follow you on Twitter, maybe you need to, you know, talk. Also, she was home and let me walk her through the process. I tell her that I am grateful for her in my life every single day that we talk, which is almost every single day.

My second follower was — drum roll — THE BLOGGESS!!! — who is the most awesome and funny writer ON. THE. PLANET. — because I asked her nicely. She kindly remembered my recent homage to her — soon to be available as a dramatic reading by me on YouTube, pretty much so she can watch it whenever she needs a morale boost, but I’m OK with you watching it, too, as long as you write comments that are really nice to her and e-mail it to everyone you know and random people you don’t — where was I? 

Anyhoo, not long ago The Bloggess posted a screen shot of a tweet that included a startling message from Twitter, and I began to feel I might be missing something. Until then my attitude about the social networking Web sites is that they take the elementary school playground to an exponentially higher level of shunning and inclusion. (“WHAT! I friended you on Facebook and you didn’t friend me back? Now you are dead to me!”) 

But the prospect of following smartasseries by The Bloggess warmed me considerably toward the Twitter gestalt. So when an e-mail came announcing a free webinar by HubSpot, I signed up, and it turned out to be quite the revelation. (Here’s a sample post from their blog.) Then, yesterday, just one day later, when I was sore annoyed that my little parody news story about Obama was not flooded with readers — although I’m grateful for everyone who came! — I joined the Twitterati to try to draw it to the attention of a wider audience. If you understand Twitter, stop laughing. It turns out to do that you have to HAVE a wider audience of followers on Twitter ALREADY.

SO — gentle readers! If you would like to follow me, I am @conservativelez, or http://twitter.com/conservativelez. I’m pretty sure that if you follow me, in the Twitter sense, I will follow you in reciprocation. But please cut me some slack while I’m figuring it out — thanks.

P.S.: One of the first persons I followed on Twitter is Robert Stacy McCain, of The Other McCain, with whom I trade shellackings, except when we take turns shellacking Ross Douthat. It appears Stacy has tweeted his followers that they should look into following me, and I thank him.

P.P.S.

Showtime recently showed a remastered “Liza with a ‘Z’,” which I saw in 1972 when it aired, then bought the album and wore it out. The song is apropos of “lez” with a “z” instead of “s” in @conservativelez:

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OK, if I didn’t have the cute photo I might not be writing this update about Cuban Diva BFF’s blind date awhile back — the one that never happened.

It wasn’t that he was just not that into her.

It was more like he, a man in his forties, did not have the ability to commit to a plan that was more than 15 minutes in the future.

Also, while he could not bring himself to go dutch with Cuban Diva BFF at Starbuck’s, he did inquire about her annual income.

So we’re sure he has a practical streak.

Not that there should be any suspense about this, but he has no chance whatsoever with Cuban Diva BFF now — that’s the beauty of having standards.

P.S. That is not Cuban Diva BFF and Angelo Gatto (her kitty’s nom de blog) in the photo.