Hope moves

First Lady Michelle Obama writes in Newsweek of Let's Move, the nationwide campaign she is spearheading. Its primary goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity in a generation.

This excerpt provides a decent taste:

"It's now clear that between the pressures of today's economy and the breakneck pace of modern life, the well-being of our kids has too often gotten lost in the shuffle.

"And let's be honest with ourselves: our kids didn't do this to themselves. Our kids don't decide what's served in the school cafeteria or whether there's time for gym class or recess. Our kids don't choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in supersize portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn. And no matter how much they beg for fast food and candy, our kids shouldn't be the ones calling the shots at dinnertime. We're in charge. We make these decisions..."

Inauguration Day pie

Or, in this case, Boston cream pie. That, I have decided, will be the Inauguration Day pie. We ate it all through college on the East Coast: dessert following Saturday night meals in the Ratty. It was the only reason to tolerate the turkey tet.

Boston cream pie. It reminds me of the people I met from across the country: black girls and guys from Florida and New Jersey, white guys from Mississippi, Japanese Americans from Hawaii, friends I made at school 3,000 miles from home. So many times, we talked and laughed in the dining hall.

It is fitting then, I think, as we welcome a new American president - one whose experiences and aspirations mirror our own, whose rhetoric and demeanor we greatly admire - to get to enjoy pie so good it is actually cake. Chocolate frosting, sweet cream, and soft, spongy cake. I will eat a slice with my morning coffee and turn on the television. I might even have seconds.