By all accounts our first State dinner was a huge success. Even Katy thought so! 
Glitz, glamour, Hollywood! Just like the campaign.
We’ve been preparing for the Indian State Dinner all week: setting up the tent alone was a huge chore. It’s almost as big as the Big White, which I guess isn’t big enough for our parties any more.
But today was an absolute nightmare. First we had to deal with the high strung celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson who, as it turns out, knows nothing about Indian food. North Africa? No problem. Swedish? Got it covered. Vegetarian southern Indian? Not a clue. Honestly, who’s in charge around here? But no matter, we just cleaned out whatever was left laying around in the garden and slapped some curry gravy on it. Here’s a partial menu:
Potato and Eggplant Salad
White House Arugula with Onion Seed Vinaigrette
Red Lentil Soup with Fresh Cheese
Roasted Potato Dumplings with Tomato Chutney
Chick Peas and Okra
or Green Curry Prawns with caramelized salsify with smoked Collard Greens
and coconut aged basmati
That’s not really dinner; more like garden compost. But no one will notice. The New York Times will be raving for weeks about the edgy fare: “Inspired.” “Creatively vegetarian.” Creatively pathetic, IMHO. I sent out for pizza after everyone split. The secret service guys were very grateful.
The guest list was pretty touchy too, since everybody wanted to come, especially all the rich American Desis. And Hollywood is always a problem for these events: they think all they have to do is call the day before and remind the social secretary how much money they gave Big Guy.Then there was the problem with Oprah’s invitation going missing, just after I thought everything was back on track.
But tech support was superb.In fact we haven’t seen this much tech support since the Democratic primaries.Everyone around here was asking for help with their iPod apps. Even TOTUS was a bit of pest; he wanted one of the tech specialists to take a look at his back up hard drive, which has been sending unauthorized messages to one of his channels.
But let’s just cut to the chase: it was a very busy day, with many wardrobe changes. Here are the highlights chronologically.
Morning, tangerines and limes:
Afternoon,Champagne J.Crew snowflakes, first seen with the Queen. New belt and skirt though:
Evening. Naeem Kahn – Indian born American based designer. Oh, how clever of Lady M! “The dress is entirely handmade, requiring three weeks of work by 40 people, completed in Naeem Kahn's family workshop in India.” So that’s another 40 jobs created or saved right there.
The O’s, pictured here in the portico with Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and his wife, Gursharan Kaur. They look like they just saw the dinner menu.
I could be mistaken, since I’ve only been here since Ronnie and Nancy, but I believe the only other FLOTUS to go strapless at a state dinner was Jackie. But I’m sure that’s just one of those weird cosmic coincidences. I’m absolutely positive Rosalind never went strapless.
I think, given the parameters I have to work with, I did a pretty darn good job with this. The only tricky part was getting MO squirmed into the Spanx body suit, but it was worth it. After all, even a high-tech mirror needs a little help sometimes. (OK,OK. Raj from tech support boosted my trans-imaging abilities too. But a mirror’s gotta do what a mirror’s gotta do. It’s a jungle out here.)
Over all, a great night. We made it through the whole evening without a single “Apu down at the 7/11” joke.
But I hope they get here soon to pick up the elephants. They’ll probably scare the turkeys.
9 comments:
I've never seen a man who looks WORSE in a tux than Barry. It rally brings out his stringiness, esp when standing next to M!
Is that a cammo skirt with the JCrew sweater? Signaling a new foreign policy with India?
MOTUS,
You did good with the gown..a momentary blip on the MO's radar of bad taste.
Now..about those shiny legs.
And finally the question that's on everybody's mind since those photos came out this week....Did the perky Katie get down and dirty on the dance floor last night and if so with who?
Boy if looks could kill.... I see Hill giving MO one of MO's own killer glares? And congrats, MOTUS, on the apparel selection for the evening but what gives with the hair? It's sticking out straight in the back. I guess she was so impressed with how she looked from the front that she never turned around to check the "do". I am sure it's too soon to hope that her wardrobe taste has improved but this was an unexpected reprieve.
one: who put the boob shells in MObitch's beige tapestry dress? and who taped her into it?
two: if she sneexes, those enormous fake choppers will fly out! Duck!
three: can those two idiots be any more of an embarressment to the USA???????
The picture of the two of them looking at each other is just gross...They look like they'd love to break into a fist bump...such a self-congratulatory pose.
It would have been nice for MEshill to wear flats in light of the guests of honor being half her size and co-ordinate her dress so as not to overdressed at a party supposedly to honor the guests rather than her desperate for attention self. Again, over the top expense for their image shows they are cluesless and don't care about what the rest of us have to sacrifice. When will something come along to bring down those unhealthy out-of-whack egos?
Cripes Suzette has some lovely pictures of MO eating with her fingers at the formal banquet and attempting to hide behind her hands while sucking bits of food from her teeth. Not your fault MOTUS that she wasn't taught table manners. . .
I got a kick out of the presidential couple photo. BO grins nervously at MO while falling into a self-protective gesture...interesting body language.
The Prime Minister and his wife look like they're having soooo much fun.
Unfortunately the gown, while striking, once again shows how MO's mental image of herself is in conflect with reality. She bulges out the top and I have seen a shot from the rear that makes it clear that she has been packing some serious gains in poundage on the bottom of that pear. The seams seem to be straining. Why dear MOTUS does she seem to have the impression that she is at least a full size smaller than what she is? This seems to carry over to most of the getups she appears in. . .
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