Ellington

Qweem-O-Wheat: "Now that the holiday season has ended, another economic nightmare looms like a large ole Christmas parade balloon, casting a shadow onto a crowd of people shocked and awed into doubt and despair. The swift backhand of being broke, jobless and nearly homeless stings the skin of the middle class, while the poor folk hurt some more.

"This situation—like the Great Depression—reminds me of the time my great Uncle Qweem-O-Wheat fed Mr. Langston Hughes a hot bowl of qweemy Qweem-O-Wheat with raisins. He looked at the raisins in the hot bowl of Qweem-O-Wheat cereal and asked Uncle Qweemy some thought-provoking questions: 'What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—and then run?'

"Uncle Qweemy continued to listen to Mr. Hughes as he asked questions about things like stinky, rotten meat and crust over syrupy sweet. Then Mr. Hughes talked about heavy loads about to explode.

"He sure had the weary blues. After eating that hot bowl of Qweem-O-Wheat with raisins, Mr. Hughes got up and wrote the poem 'Dream Deferred.Ҕ

"The moral of the story is: Fix yourself a hot qweemy bowl of Qweem-O-Wheat with raisins or semi-sweet chocolate chips. This might inspire you to be creative, wear a happy smile and make your dreams come true. Meanwhile, look for me at the inauguration, serving the people hot bowls of history-making Qweem-O-Wheat cereal!

"Whoo! Whee!"