Guess who's coming to dinner?

“Guess who’s coming to dinner” was a GREAT movie from 1967 that included Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn as the main characters in a plot that involved their Caucasian daughter bringing home her fiancé, a black man played by Sidney Poitier, to dinner.



Now that we have a black man in the White House, who recently met with a visitor from overseas, the story takes an interesting twist.

A few months ago, Barrack and Michelle Obama were taking a mid-morning coffee break when, out of the blue, the President said “Hu’s coming for dinner”.

Michelle said, “I don’t know. I’ll have to check with Julianna Smott (current social secretary who is in the process of moving to Chicago to help President Obama’s re-election campaign) to see who is scheduled."

The President responded, “ Michelle, what I meant was that Hu Jintao, the President of China, is coming for a brief visit in January.”

Michelle said, “That’s good news! Since he’s probably tired of Chinese food, let’s have an “all American” menu, and let’s include things like poached lobster, aged rib eye steak, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

you are invited to a dinner at The White House

The President said, “ The menu sounds good to me, but who should we include on the guest list?

Michelle said, “ Julianna will take care of most of the invitations for us, but for starters, we probably should NOT include the Dalai Lama” or the family of Liu Xiaobo (the Chinese winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize).

“I agree. How about a heavy concentration of Chinese-Americans?”

“Well", she said, "there’s B.D Wong and Vera Wang, Elaine, James, and Wang Chao, Steven and Jean Chu, Charles and Ying Woo, and David Wu.”

“Anybody else in that category?”

“Perhaps a few people in the entertainment business, like Jackie Chan and Michelle Kwan.”

“Other categories?”

“Maybe a couple of guys from The New York Times, like Tom Friedman and Nicholas Kristoff”

“Any business leaders?”

“ Well, I’d invite people like the Chase Chairman, Jamie Dimon, and the GE Chairman, Jeff Immelt”

“:Anybody else we haven’t thought of?”

“How about Ma?”

“Honey, your mother has lived with us for the last two years .....

“No, Barack, I meant Yo Yo Ma, the cellist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”

“Oh, yeah”.

“Speaking of Chicago, we should probably invite Richard and Maggie Daley, since Hu will be in Chicago later on this week”

“Agreed”.

“ I think we’ve got a good start, honey. We’ve got a Wong and a Wang, some Chaos and some Chus, some Woos and a Wu, a Chan and a Kwan, and a Ma”.

“Sounds good”

“Hey, it’s getting close to lunch time. Are you up for some Chinese food?”

Meanwhile, back in Chicago, Richard and Maggie are taking a mid morning coffee break ………