8 WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM Cooking, kind of Corn Chowder With Max George Layout Editor I woke up mid-afternoon to a cold, damp Sunday in late March. I was hung-over and my homework inbox was overflowing. I had slept through lunch, not that my waking condition was con ducive to the consumption of food anyway. After a couple hours of Internet tangency (YouTube + Wikipedia = expanded worldly knowledge & in creased possession of random factoids for deployment to impress and persuade in fu ture settings), 1 decided that if I was going to be awake on this dreary Sunday after noon, I had better get some work done. So, I took a nap. Dilemma resolved. When 1 woke up around 7 p.m., 1 began to think about sustenance. Another glance out the window had me con sidering a very specific set of dinner choices: the rainy day foods. Unmotivated to at tempt any overly ambitious dish and still in possession of a very large pot, which I bor rowed to cook pasta earlier in the week, I decided on cook ing a soup of some kind. In honor of the Red Sox opening the 2008 season with a win in Tokyo, I proposed we try our hands at New England Clam Chowder. My suggestion was shot down in seconds, as Ana was not excited about the clams, a seemingly essential ingredi ent. She would, however, love to make corn chowder, she confessed. Now we're talking the complete opposite region of the country, the southwest. I don't know much about how they do things down there, but I did recently hear Ari zona doesn't recognize Day light Savings Time, which is marginally bodacious of them. And I was hungry. And it was promised to me that com chowder is easy to make. I called my dad for his recipe and discovered that, indeed, corn chowder is a pretty simple deal. My mom suggested adding jalapenos to the soup. "Be careful not to touch your eyes after cut ting them," she warned. Apparently she forgot I am in college and an Iron Chef. Thanks, Mom. One unchar acteristically painless trip to 'Teeter later and I was stand ing over the aforementioned large pot, ready to dominate, as per usual. The process was quick and effortless. Com chowder is one of those chop-it-up-and-throw-it- in-the-pot-to-simmer-for-a- while-until-the-potatoes-are- soft-and-the-broth-has-thickened deals. Classic. Com chowder's merits go beyond it's easiness in the Utchen. I didn't pay any at tention to proportions (see process, above), but it still, came out fine. I don't know if it was the weather or the hangover, but the chowder tasted like I knew what I was doing, like I had made some intuitive decisions in the kitchen and added just the right amount of something that really made the soup. Plus, it was only, like, 13 bucks for everything, includ ing two baguettes to go with it. And with such a large pot, it is great to share. Everyone acted like I had done some great service to the world, thanking me . again and again. *rhe meal's best quality, though, is the atmosphere in which it is eaten. With the effects of global warm ing raging outside, we all sat together and talked and ate, passing the baguettes around and keeping warm together. It was a lovely Sunday din ner, shared with friends. And then it was back to sleep for this busy bee. Corn Chowder ! onion ' 2 potatoes I jalapeno (optional) some butter I can of cream com I bag of frozen corn I carton of half-n-half I carton of broth Chop onions and sautee with butter in bottom of pot Chop up the jalapenos and po- J tatoes, add to pot Pour in cream corn, frozen corn, halfn-half, and broth. Sim mer, stirring occasionally until potatoes are soft m Serve with good bread. F E ATU RE S OBAMA IN GREENSBORO Jack Sinclair/Guilfordian 2,000 people showed up to support Barack Obama at his town hall meeting March 26. Barack Obama campaigns at War Memorial Auditorium Continued from page I came politically aware. I know a lot of friends of mine whose reactions in this election cycle was to support extreme candidates. I think that's in dicative of their want for a fresh, new, unorthodox, different kind of candi date." Ten Guilford students, including Ericson and junior Eddie Guimont, volunteered at the rally. Guimont previously volunteered with both the Howard Dean and John Kerry presidential campaigns and said that Obama's "campaign seems a lot larger and more organized than those did." He says part of Obama's suc cess comes from his ability to make "people think he's the candidate for all the people." By one o'clock, the audience had packed into the auditorium after waiting for hours and surviving the five local, state and national law en forcement agencies, their intense security screenings and their large German shepherds. While the pre tentious national press and anxious audience members struggled to find the best angles for a picture, Obama walked calmly onto the stage and took his place at the podium. 55 lucky Greensboro residents sat just behind him under a large banner reading "Change We Can Believe In" with American and North Carolina flags hanging on each side. Obama covered several issues in the nearly two hours he spent in the auditorium and the overflow room at the Coliseum, most which were well received by the audience. "He cracked me up when he was talking about no child left behind," Assefa said about Obama's quip that "on no child left behind we left the money behind." Other issues were more contro versial, including a question from a Southern Baptist high school student about Obama's religious beliefs. According to Carter, the most im portant questions in American politics tend to be about "religion and your sex life, the two things that Europe cares absolutely nothing about." Because of the "Jeremiah Wright (Obama's former preacher) contro versy, and (questions) in some ex treme right wing blogs about wheth er Obama's even Christian or not, it's a crucial element to this campaign," Carter said. "His response to me was absolutely brilliant. First off he used the key terms an evangelical Chris tian would be looking for ... Then Obama went on to say that, and this is what warmed the cockles of my little Quaker heart, it's not just what restitution from illegal immigrants. "But I understand that at the end of the day he's a politician." "The section on immigration I didn't like that much because he had very strict views," Assefa said. "I think (the process) needs to be changed before he can be strict. He didn't answer it wrong, it was just different from what I believe." Carter said Obama would find it difficult to force illegal aliens, some who have worked for less than mini mum wage for more than 15 years, to pay upwards of $50,000 dollars in back taxes. It could have "enormous financial ramifications," he said. "Compared to other candidates he I was most impressed by Obama's ability to gear his speech toward Greensboro's college crowd, both young and old. you believe but how you live." "That question really drove me up the wall," Ericson, a Christian, said. "There were all these other questions that could have been asked that were pushed aside." Carter disagreed, saying, "I would pick at the Guilford students (who disapproved of this) for not being aware of the theological complexities and the political ramifications of that question." Several members of the Guil ford community also thought that Obama's immigration policies, which he said he wants to be effective and not "a political football," became just that. "The one cringe-worthy moment was when he said that illegal immi grants have broken the law," senior Chelsea Simpson said about Obama's plan for seeking economic and legal certainly has a more acceptable poli cy," Carter said. "Td like to see some more wrestling with the ramifications of that like he did with the faith ques tion." As for me, I was most impressed by Obama's ability to gear his speech toward Greensboro's college crowd, both young and old. Aware of the city's large college community, he delved into his policy to provide a $4,000 "lifelong learning credit" to "upgrade skills" and provide edu cation and training for people of all ages, incomes and education levels in exchange for community service. Obama also wants to "work with colleges and universities to reduce tuition" and said that "universities need to work themselves to keep costs down." ! "That textbook," he said, "didn't cost 100 dollars to make."