“Southside With You” – A Love Story
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 11th, 2016
Good Sunday Morning!
Lol!! So delighted you all got a kick out of yesterday’s post. I had so much fun with it. Thanks for all the awesome support, encouragement, and kind words (Well mostly. I can see somebody can’t take it.)
Now…onto today’s write…
It’s Sunday…We had some fun, now it’s time to do some lovin’. What better way to begin the week than to post something precious about our president and his beloved. Yes…I’m talking about the movie about the Obamas. Here’s an account from a real couple, also featured in the movie, who ran into our POTUS and FLOTUS on their first date. Sweet.
From the Huff Po:
The Real Story Of The Obamas’ First Date: We Were There
“Southside With You” is a charming, witty, and heartwarming movie of the Obamas’ first date. My wife Jo and I saw them that night, and the movie has two characters based on us, a couple who run into Barack and Michelle at a movie. This is what really happened.
In more than 35 years of teaching and serving now as dean at Harvard Law School, our daughter Martha Minow called me only once to recommend that our law firm recruit one of her students as a summer intern. “I know you don’t normally bring on first year students for your summer program at Sidley Austin,” she said, “but this one is truly exceptional, and he wants to work in Chicago this summer.” I asked, “What’s his name?” “Barack Obama,” she answered. I replied “Wait a minute, I need to write that down, and you’ll have to spell it for me.”
I called John Levi, the head of our firm’s recruiting, who also oversaw the summer program for law students, and discovered that Barack Obama had already been hired. Levi had interviewed him and offered him a place in our 1988 summer associate program.
“I know you don’t normally bring on first year students for your summer program at Sidley Austin,” she said, “but this one is truly exceptional…”
We assign lawyers in the firm to supervise the summer associates, and Levi selected one of our most promising young lawyers, Michelle Robinson, to supervise Barack.
I wanted to welcome him to Sidley, and I was curious to see what impressed Martha, so I invited Barack to stop by my office and have lunch. And we worked together on a client’s case.
I could soon see Martha was right. Her student was truly exceptional.
Later that summer, my wife Jo and I went to the theater at Water Tower Place in Chicago to see the Spike Lee movie, “Do the Right Thing.” We walked into the theater and saw Barack and Michelle buying popcorn at the concession stand. It was their first date.
They were startled and embarrassed, because she did not want anyone in the office to know they were seeing each other outside of work. They thought a supervisor should not be dating a summer associate. Jo and I reassured them that there was no problem, and we went in together to watch the film.
At the end of the film (spoiler alert!) they share their first kiss at the Hyde Park Baskin-Robbins. My wife, Jo, loves that part of the story because her maiden-name is Baskin and she is very proud of her cousin who co-founded the chain.
Barack was everything my daughter said, and we were eager to have him join the firm. But it was clear his ambitions were in a different direction.
They were startled and embarrassed, because she did not want anyone in the office to know they were seeing each other outside of work.
So I was disappointed but not surprised when Barack came to see me to tell me he would not be accepting our firm’s offer of a job after he graduated from law school. We were both standing in my office. Then he said, “You’d better sit down for the next part.” I looked at him warily and we both sat down. “I’m taking Michelle with me.”
“What! You can’t do that! We want her here!” I said.
“We’re getting married,” he told me. I wished them great happiness and we stayed good friends, with concerts at Ravinia and many lunches over the years.
A few years later, I was asked to recommend Barack for a national award. I wrote, “I cannot tell you what this young man will do, but I can assure you he will one day achieve national leadership.”
In 2006, I wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune urging him to run for president. I said he combined a first-class temperament with a first-class intellect. Later that year, he asked to meet with me and with my lifelong friend, the late Abner Mikva, because he was deciding whether he was ready — and he country was ready — for him to run. His most important question was whether Ab and I, each the father of three spectacular daughters, thought he could be a good father if he campaigned and was elected president. We told him he would see more of his daughters as [resident than he did as a senator, and I thought of that conversation many times as I read about the Obamas’ nightly family dinners in the White House.
“Southside With You” is a lovely film, touching and romantic. For Jo and me, it was a pleasure to see it on a whole different level as it brought back memories of Barack and Michelle when they were young and so full of promise. Seeing the graciousness, elegance and integrity they brought to the White House has more than realized that promise, and we will miss having them there.
Michelle and I were both born on January 17. This year, I turned 90 and Barack called to wish me a happy birthday. I thanked him, and asked him to give Michelle my birthday greetings, too. I told him how proud Jo and I are of them both. They have set an exceptional example for the nation of high standards, a loving marriage, devoted parenting and strong family life. And if they ever decide to return to the practice of law, we would be happy to welcome them back.
Thanks to my daughter, Nell Minow, for suggesting I share these memories.
❤️❤️❤️
Readers: My kind of weekend…a great deal of fun and lots of love. I hope it’s been that way for you too.
So…Wha’at’s up?
Blog me.
xox
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 11th, 2016 at 11:02 am
Hafa adai
Probably going to need a reply from Howie to answer this one, but here goes. I was given this by a friend who works for Homeland Security.
———–
A man was observed on video surveillance of that day walking into the airport restroom at about 2:21 p.m. He was about 6’1″. _________ who works with the cleaning company the airport contracted for janitorial services, saw the man enter the toilet stall. He waited for the man to finish while he finished cleaning up other areas in the restroom near the exit.
10 minutes later he checked under the stall but didn’t see feet. Checking the stall he saw that it was empty. Having not seen that man walk out of the restroom, he alerted security, according to court documents.
Footage showed the employee walking out of the restroom alone and back into the restroom, and then a man walking out soon afterward. He appeared to be wearing a blue uniform similar to the one worn by an employee of the janitorial services who was following him. He pulled an object from his pocket before proceeding towards the employee exit by the food court, according to court documents.
When __________, the janitorial employee saw a different man exit the toilet stall than the man he had observed entering that toilet stall, he tried to follow the man. But the man he tried to follow in the blue uniform exited through the employee exit and just disappeared, documents state.
Did we just have an Extraterrestrial Visitor or what?
Perhaps only Howie can answer this one. Incoming and outgoing flights for the day were checked. No one was unaccounted for. Thus far, one extra visitor was observed entering the restroom and another extra visitor was observed exiting that same restroom.
The obvious question is; where did they come from and where did they go? The janitor and everyone involved has been ordered to keep mum about this. If it was a blip on the video surveillance footage, who was the man the janitorial employee clearly observed entering a toilet stall, and who was the man he followed into the employee exit?
September 11th, 2016 at 11:14 am
Obama is beloved, fired up, and ready to help Democrats elect the first woman President Of The United States.
Obama approval rating, obama job approval rating, obama poll, President Obama getting more popular
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/06/26/obama-approval-rating-skyrockets-56-gop-faces-trump-led-collapse.html
=============================
Obama’s at 56% and climbing. Considering in this country is 33% die hard racist at any given time. This is amazing.
I can’t wait for Obama to help Hilary kick some ass.
September 11th, 2016 at 11:16 am
Beautiful couple and we never had a better one in the White House.
September 11th, 2016 at 11:17 am
I, too loved your last blog Michelle. If this country wasn’t so full of racist white men stoking the flames of racism, Obama would had accomplished so much more during his term.
September 11th, 2016 at 11:19 am
The World loved this couple, probably better than their own country men, considering the vitriol tossed toward them on a daily basis by America’s racist horde.
September 11th, 2016 at 11:20 am
Interestingly and refreshing not to have a POTUS family complete their term without a scandal of any kind.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:30 pm
Now we are being bombarded by 9/11 crap and the endless doom predictions of the white race. This is a race so evil they continue to predict the imminent coming of the end of the world.
I suppose when you are so evil, you need the prophesy of doom to keep the evil your race is capable of to a manageable minimum.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
I want to know why the government gave money to the victims in those buildings when they didn’t do the same for the victims of the Oklahoma building.
I suppose if more of the victims had been white, they too would have received that kind of money.
Just another case of sick biased white justice. Makes me want to vomit every year I hear this shit.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:35 pm
No Regrets. I could not possibly care less about 9/11 if I tried. And other people pretending to care about it one day a year in order to express their “patriotism” infuriates me.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Just like there is a culture of feigned outrage on the Internet, there is also a culture of feigned empathy, and it always rears its head on this holiday, and it always pisses me off.
The MSM gets in it to sell ads and they milk it for all they can.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:38 pm
Most of you people don’t give a shit about the people who died on 9/11 past the effort to put up a fucking meme about it on your Facebook page today. Tomorrow you will go back to planning your work day and forget.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:39 pm
Fuck 9/11. It happened over a decade ago.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:40 pm
Let it go already. I’m so tired of hearing about this every goddamned year. It’s depressing how easily manipulated the people are into an emotional reaction to something they have literally no relation to at all.
No wonder the American government runs roughshod all over us. We are a bunch of damned morons doing our Two Minutes Grief on Facebook for faceless people we never met, and our Two Minutes Hate against Muslims or whoever the current set of bad guys is.
This whole thing makes me sad and angry and disgusted, but I can’t discuss it with anyone in real life without being accused of being a traitor or an insensitive bastard or what have you, because I live in an extremely conservative part of the country.
So I’m confessing it here. It sickens me, every single year. If I never heard about 9/11 again it would be too soon.
The overwhelming majority of you people posturing on social media about 9/11 don’t care and a lot of you were kids when it happened.
Shut the fuck up.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:45 pm
All of the comments by the bullshitting hosts and not one person on any of the MSM has mentioned the foreign policy that has led us to that day, and since.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:50 pm
Suzanne#13, I am right there with you. I can’t stand this shit. It makes it worse because I am a firefighter and the over dramatic remembrance shit is even more rampant.
Can’t really talk about it with anyone because of the reasons you stated.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:51 pm
The day that America discovered terrorism.
Having helped fund The Troubles in Northern Ireland which scarred me deeply as a young boy. It is interesting to watch American reactions to 911.
Thousands died in the Terrorism America funded here in my country through Noraid and other groups.
Welcome to real terrorism. Enjoy the pain and reflect on the effects your people bought to other countries of the world.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:56 pm
Yes, Janet#14, and no comments about the major fuck up by the bush administration. I mean how do you miss arabs on the terror watch list being allowed to take jumbo jet flight lessens in Florida but refusing to take any courses on how to take off or land those planes?
Duh??
I guess you can if all you are doing is trying to find out how you can invade Iraq for profit.
September 11th, 2016 at 1:58 pm
Suzanne#13, I’m Canadian so I won’t pass judgement on the emotions of Americans on 9/11. But i can understand your annoyance.
My feed is flooded with Canadians who are not political, never ever mention war, or american politics, or the realities of the war in Iraq/Afghanistan and Canada’s involvement.
Yet today they all post huge rants about 9/11 and how it affected them and where they were and how they felt… it feels cheap and for nothing more than likes and comments.
A way to feel good about yourself as a person on a day you haven’t thought about since last year.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:00 pm
White americans should take the advice they give black americans about slavery, get the fuck over it.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:02 pm
I agree most of the 9/11 mourners are hypocrites. What about all of the people who die just as horribly or worse every single day in terroristic actions, many of them in situations caused by the instability in the Middle East the United States is directly responsible for sowing with our vengeance wars?
Where are your tears for THOSE people? Not trying to be a dick, but it’s just really weird to me how people put this group of dead martyred innocents on a pedestal and this other group which is currently being tortured can fuck off because they’re not American or white enough, or we don’t see videos and pictures of it.
Spend some time in /r/morbidreality and you’ll start to understand why I’m a little jaded.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:03 pm
What’s the difference between a cow and 9/11? You stop milking a cow after 14 years.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:07 pm
White folk have a long memory, but not too long……I mean they did drop a nuclear weapon on a city full of innocents…..oh wait two cities…..that memory thing is a tricky deal.
And they did enslave millions of blacks for more than 250 years… that memory thing again.
And they did exterminate 12,000,000 native Americans. That compares well, I guess to 3,000 americans, yeah, that memory thing is a tricky deal.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:10 pm
No offence America, we love you and stuff, but you’re kind of a massive dick.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:13 pm
Carlos#22, Well, frankly, World War II was war. I don’t necessarily agree with the decision to drop the bomb, but the leaders of Japan could have easily prevented it, by surrendering or never starting the war in the first place.
But the US government couldn’t possibly be blamed for 9/11. The attack wasn’t a last measure to stop Americans from trying to conquer the rest of the contintent. There was no warning, and nothing the administration at the time could have done to prevent it.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:14 pm
John, I think you really need to read up on the events that led to dropping the bomb.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:16 pm
Hundreds of thousands have died in conflict since 9/11 (many arguably as a result of the instability caused by the poorly thought out US reaction), yet the US doesn’t care since they are just some poor brown/black people on the other side of the planet.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:22 pm
There are people who were present in nyc, or who knew people who killed or otherwise directly impacted who are immensely effected by the memory of 9/11. For these people 9/11 is an important day and I respect that.
But if I were truly honest, 9/11 had very little little direct impact on me personally. I actually found myself more affected by the London tube bombings than 9/11 since I lived in London for a year as a kid.
When 9/11 happened, after the first few seconds of taking it in, it actually made sense to me America would be attacked. Kinda like an “oh yeah…” moment really. I mean… Who were we as a nation to think we were immune to attack?
What gave us the right to exert our influence upon other peoples of the world and not expect some backlash or hate? Why should we be surprised by violent attack on our soil when we ignored violence in other countries for decades? The only answer I can come up with off the top is that I think coming out on top after ww2 and then desert storm made us kinda arrogant as a nation.
What actually made me upset and frustrated was not the attack but the American mass hysteria that followed 9/11. The American people could have used the initial moral support of the world as a unifying force to promote the US’s reputation as a world leader while backfiring the terrorist goals.
But instead the neocons took up 9/11 as a symbol of a generalized encroaching, evil entity and used it for a fucking decade to terrorize the masses into allowing them the reigns of power.
Suddenly it became sacrilege to question anything that was against their view and if you did you were automatically branded “unpatriotic”. Suddenly people were talking about concentration camps and it was okay to be racist against middle eastern people and say you wanted to kill Muslims as long as they were terrorists which really meant all of them.
Suddenly it was okay for the government to openly violate the human rights of citizens in the name of national security. I lost a lot of respect for my average fellow American for the decade or so after 9/11.
So anyhow I understand why it annoys you about 9/11 being memorialized.
Their memory of the actual events has been corrupted and commandeered by right wing propagandists. I used to be a proud American. I had my issues but at heart I believed in my country and what it stood for. I grew up with the pledge of allegiance and proud to be an American commercials on TV.
I still get emotional when I hear the national anthem. But, to me personally, 9/11 represents the day Americans as a people failed. The day America gave it’s freedom away for false promises of security from corrupt bullies and liars. To me all the people who fought and died and who volunteered are still heroes.
But they are heroes as individuals to me more so than as Americans. And while there is so much phony bullshit and false empathy surrounding this anniversary, I still respect it because regardless if you were directly affected by it, for all Americans, including myself, 9/11 is a black day of loss.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:24 pm
What you experience at the airport is ongoing evidence that the terrorists won that day and USA is still cowering in crippling fear. The world doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh at USA’s lack of spine.
Since that day america has shown weakness, not strength. You gave up all your freedom because of a little sting from a nest you’ve been hitting with a stick for decades.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:27 pm
As a foreigner, I agree and here’s another thing.
After 9/11, the US had the sympathy of the world. Yes, even Iranians felt sorry for you. And what did you do with this outpouring of empathy?
Why, your twisted leaders decided to lie and deceive and connive their way into an illegal and immoral invasion of another country that had FUCK ALL to do with 9/11.
Basically, your leaders took that worldwide sympathy and mashed it into the Iraqi ground beneath the trampling feet of American soldiers who were told they were fighting for your freedom.
Even as the rest of the world was going, what the ever loving fuck are you doing, you people were swallowing this jingoistic bullshit wholesale and sending your sons and daughters to kill and be killed so Dick Cheney would make more money and Condoleeza Rice could get another fucking oil tanker named after her and that half wit President of yours could one up his pappy at the dinner table. “Yeah, well I invaded Iraq and you didn’t.
Pass the taters.”
TL DR: We all felt sorry for you after 9/11 but you fucking ruined it. Idiots.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Even when people have a death in the family they usually only wear black for a year. Wearing black for two decades is a little ridiculous regardless of how close you are to the event.
It’s like that woman who becomes a mentally ill hoarder and makes a shrine in their house to their dead relative after losing a loved one and totally just loses their general ability to cope after a tragedy.
It’s not healthy and we need to move on.
September 11th, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Peter/Guam#1, great story man. Okay Howie, it’s your call dude.
What’s up?
September 11th, 2016 at 6:40 pm
If you think all the 9/11-centric attention is bad, go to ‘ground zero’ in NYC it’s ludicrous what they’ve shrined out if this…if you lost someone in any attack on your countries soil or in 9/11 I understand the grief and empathize for personal loss but this national sensation every year is enough already. I hate to say it but I will the US is like a misguided teenager (with missiles and a gang of muscle and thieves) so I’m happy to be out of country.
Meanwhile back at the ranch we #28 Tabish batted the nest for a very long time and then we got shocked when it happened on our soil. US is arrogant fr sure, #29 Yass, YEZZZZ agree. #21 Ruth/AF good one.
Mischa, I luv this story and I hope I can catch the movie in Hong Kong soon, hope you enjoyed your weekend away and again, Luvd your rant on Saturday : )
Luv, Zen Lill
September 11th, 2016 at 6:41 pm
I think the US***
September 11th, 2016 at 6:57 pm
PS I wish we could just postpone this election and give Obama another year or two, we need to give the grand OLD party some time to catch up if this is the best candidate they could come up with in 8 years
~ ZL
September 17th, 2016 at 11:41 pm
Apabila saat pemberangkatan bus sampai tidak datang (Akibat
kemacetan / Bencana alam ), maka perusahaan bus hanya dapat mengembalikan uang
sejumlah harga complete sewa.