I may often refer to Colin Powell as cousin Colin. Lest anyone in the blogosphere think I am dissin’ him, I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way. And no, he isn’t my cousin. I have a very close friend who is married to one of Powell’s cousins, hence the reference. When I found out about their relationship, we started jokingly referring to him as ‘cousin Colin’, as in “Man, you need to tell cousin Colin to tell those jokers at the U.N. to shut up.” That’s all there is to it.