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Catacombses, my precious
From the Guardian: In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema In my third year of university here, my pal T came back from a two year journey all over the world, most recently Paris, with a crazy gypsy girlfriend in tow. She had red hair and crooked teeth, and although I never caught her doing it, I swear she had a little bag of bones she would occasionally toss into the ashes with which to determine the alignment of Jupiter or tomorrow’s chance of rain, or some such crap. Actually, she was pretty cool to hang out with because she made T act like a man sometimes, which…
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What to do when you’re bored in Iraq
There’s a great article about soldiers fishing in Iraq over at the ESPN site: Fishing Saddam’s Waters Excerpt: “We’ve heard that Saddam only allowed his family (tribe) to fish these lakes. All others (caught fishing) were put in jail. When Palace Lake was drained (searching for weapons), they found over a hundred dead bodies in the lake.” (No wonder the fish were big!) All of the soldiers interviewed said they didn’t eat what they caught – bodies aside, I can understand that sentiment. Adam and I have been fishing the murky waters of our local river, where we never see anyone fishing. When people see us, they invariably ask: 1.…
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Clear Lenses
Clear or yellow-colored lenses (aka “ambers”) are one of my pet peeves, because it all seems so high school. I think Options magazine is at fault for popularizing this trend in the states as well as Japan (although I cannot truly disparage this holiest-of-holy publications). I remember my Acura Racing Club pals ordering these parts from Japan for their Integras. That was ten or fifteen years ago, so when I see how many middle-aged men put them on their cars now, it makes me kinda sick. Grow the fuck up already, ya know?.
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Day After Songda
Although me and mine (thx Kev) were unscathed, I saw a lot more damage around town as I drove to work today than I thought there would be. Some roads were being repaired, with fallen trees and bicycles being removed first, then the actual paved surfaces being refilled in areas. As seen above, many cars can be seen with broken windows patched over by cardboard or trash bags. In the gravel parking lot I use for work, there were piles of window glass and shattered sideview mirrors all over. I feel kind of sorry for the owners of the cars, but they really should have known not to leave their…
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Storm has passed
Everything is OK.
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‘zat you, Dorothy?
It’s very close now. Nothing much to report, except that the neighborhood strays are fighting for porch space.
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Evacuation Tip
If you are in Japan during a major disaster and need a place to evacuate, do not blindly follow the people in front of you – they are just as lost and clueless as the people in front of them. Follow the homeless, they know the best places to go. Today they are sprawled all over the massage chairs on display at Jusco, our local department store.
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Typhoons # 18 and 19
The company is making us go home at an unprecedented 2:00 in the afternoon so you just know we are in for a real beating. I haven’t been this happy since the fifth grade… Just waiting for that bell to ring… In other news, there was another magnitude 4 earthquake here this morning. It feels like the world is going to end, and all I can think about is the recess bell.
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Sure Won’t Happen Here
Even more news from our future host country this week: Follow the Leader: Israel and Thailand set an example by arming teachers. Thailand has followed Israel’s lead by allowing school teachers in the troubled southern areas to pack guns at school. I think this is a great idea – who better to keep our children safe at school than their teachers? When I was young, my dad went to a lecture by Mel Tappan (he recorded it on cassette and I think it’s still in the garage somewhere), and brought back a paperback copy of Survival Guns. I believe that book addressed the issue of school shootings and teachers who…
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Eating Fido
As a wannabe chef, I might have thought about making a submission to the Carnival of the Recipes #3, a showcase for recipes from all around the blogosphere, but got pretty miffed when I saw the introduction at the top of the page: This week, we have a lot of great recipes to choose from. I am adding a rule, though – The Carnival of the Recipes will not link to any recipes involving household pets or horses, I don?t care if you live in France or Korea! I really do not want to offend the author of the page or start any shit, but I’m sorry – that’s sounds…
