Coalition Government

The Torries (G.O.P) received the largest percentage of the Canadian vote 40%. Their elected leader Steven Harper became the prime minister in October. The other three parties are upset with some "Camel straw-back tactics" and propose to take their combined total of the votes 60% ,and start a new government.

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Holy Crap! The Bloc, separatists get a nice slice of pie. The NDP (commies) get 25%. The Liberals support their green man, Mr.Dion to become the new PM.

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Exciting movements and race and gender were not an issue. Well the Torries were accused of attacking the rights of women. We don't have a "race card", we have a cultural anti-french card, but that is only because they want to break-up with us. Then again those threats have gotten them a lot of federal dollars.

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Are the ministers going to pull us together or tear us apart?

"Opposition parties blasted the Tories for... using tumultuous times to try to push through ideologically-driven measures they said attacked women and public servants". ?? Economic issues??

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Hmm public servants, what like public school teachers, or postal workers... Well not exactly Canada has 200 departments of bureaucrats and perhaps those offices are feeling the "Crunch of industry business failure, albeit through the long faces and paper cuts and noisy telephones".

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There are a total of 308 seats. The Torries fell short of the 155 needed to have a majority government, able to efficiently push bills thru the house. With 77 Liberal MPs and 37 New Democrats, plus the support of 49 Bloc members(60 %) the three parties have more seats than the 143 held by the Tories. .

Which of the following could you buy for a buck?

Mr. Bean's ride - Bought from Bread, and with several various tape enhancements, still performing at peak condition.

Say hello to Andrew. He and his twin brother, Adam, are my students at my house on Fridays. He is sporting a paper New York Yankees cap that he made himself. He also created the scorpanzee. It's like pretty much his favorite animal.

Southern Command Security - Bao Bao on duty.

兆溱豐 - Dumplings

I like dumplings. Steamed dumplings are obviously superior to boiled dumplings in every way. Pot stickers are especially good when you can get them with a slightly crispy skin. There are also broth filled dumplings called Tang Bao as well as a bigger steamed dumplings called 小籠包 (xiao3 long2 bao1). Taipei has the most famous 小籠湯 shop in Taiwan, 鼎 泰 豐 (ding3 tai4 feng1) and my wife got a chance last month to eat at both Taipei locations.

This was convenient for me because I had come across a similar style shop in Taichung, 兆溱豐 (zhao4 qin2 feng1). There are now two in Taichung - one on Wen Shin South road (map) and one in the Dong Hai area. We visited the Wen Shin shop. The story goes that a "master chef" from the Taipei dumpling store came to Taichung and opened his own "McDougal's." With my wife having eaten at the two Taipei locations, I thought she would be able to give me a good comparison of the two. So, off we went.

We were ushered through the first floor which has the kitchen, a shrine to some gods as well as a shrine to the master chef himself. Seated on the second floor looking at the menu, we met our first problem. Traditionally, Tang Bao are smaller dumplings with more broth than the bigger 小籠包. However the menu listed 小籠包 and 小籠湯包 (soup-filled). What? Weren't they all soup-filled? After questioning the waiter and not understanding him, they had to show us pictures so we could understand. Turns out that this place has their own nomenclature. The former was indeed the big, soup-filled dumpling that we wanted. The latter were smaller, no-soup, steamed dumplings that came with a bowl of soup to let you combine the two. Here are some good photos of the 小籠包 ( the first 3 food pics).

The dumplings were very good. My wife thinks they are about as good as the Taipei joint, and most of the Taiwanese bloggers that I've read concur. The prices are a tad cheaper than Taipei, but still, one steamer with 10 dumplings is $150 NT. The rest of the food was nothing special, though my wife thought their chicken soup was also very good.

On the negative side we have their service. When seated, we made up the third table on the second floor - one for each of the servers 5 feet away. They, however, were caught up in the task of filling cups with tea - either for guests who were not yet there or they thought we all wanted forty cups of tea apiece. Their attention did not improve. Additionally, they had a poor selection of side dishes. Most restaurants have an array of side dishes on small plates. When I went to look at their selection I had this conversation with the same waiter who had baffled me and my wife earlier:

Me: You don't have much of a selection, do you?

Server: Oh no! We have a lot! Look!

Me: They're all tofu dishes.

Server: But we have lots (of dishes).

Me: You have lots of plates but only dried tofu or tofu strips.

Server: See! We have lots.

Well, the dumplings were good, and I learned the best way to eat them. I had always just plopped the whole thing in my mouth and chowed down. My wife corrected me. You should first bite a tiny hole in the dumpling skin and let the broth pour into your soup spoon and drink that first. Then you eat the dumpling with ginger strips and vinegar. Definitely the way to do it. Their broth was great. I had been missing out on the chance to enjoy the broth independent of the dumpling for years. Be sure to eat while still hot before it cools and is absorbed into the filling.

We decided we would go back, but only for the 小籠包.

D o n g g u a n

2 weeks after "National Week" holiday......



99

Worldmapper

Worldmapper.com has about 600 maps.

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

The top one shows the distribution of Muslims.

The one on the bottom highlights alcohol consumption.

All the Economic Stimulus I Need

Ignore the egg tart. Ignore the other fried shit and the obligatory icy beverage.

That pentagram-shaped puppy right there in the middle is a Szechuan Beef Wrap.

And its pretty damned tasty. For KFC food.

Its really some bastard form of Mexican food, because it comes in a toasted tortilla.

For a long time I have silently thought that China's KFC was far better than Taiwan's KFC.

Now that Ma is president and the Szechuan Beef Wrap is on sale I can finally speak openly of this.

Did I mention this food is Pentagram Shaped?

"36-38-36, that's how you...stuff a wild fair-air-ee!"

I have been holding off on finishing and publishing this post mainly because of laziness, but also because the story is constantly changing. The Taiwan government decided on a stimulus package for the economy last week. $3,600 NT for every Taiwanese citizen, regardless of age. They have decided upon a shotgun stimulation: the $3,600 will be distributed in the form of vouchers, not cash. Use it or lose it.


Originally the vouchers could only be used at retailers, hypermarts and restaurants with business licenses. It only took the sight of a few Mom and Poppers, Street Vendors and Night Marketeers wearing their ball caps and shoulders draped with a rolled towel to prompt them to reconsider. Not that it mattered that much. They still could have received the vouchers as payment. They would not have been able to cash them, but would be able to use them to purchase other things. Even the druggies were prepared. The China Post states that pushers will give $3,000 cash for the $3,600 of vouchers or $3,000 worth of their drug of choice.


Who is eligible? Who knows? What time is it now? My Li Zhang (precinct boss) didn't know. The papers say citizens and those on the authorized household registry are eligible. I am on the registry but not a citizen. Do I get them? Best not to leave it to chance. I have regularly paid my taxes and should get a seat on the (watered-down, black pepper) Taiwanese gravy train. At the very least I think that I should get a mandatory "Thank you" from every citizen unemployed and/or under the age of 18.

How to ensure it? Simple. Protest, threaten, complain. I'm pretty sure that in Taiwan, it's illegal, or at least culturally taboo, to protest without a movement name. During the pre-game to last year's presidential election, there was only one group that Ma Ying-jeou didn't promise scads of money to, or threaten to sleep over at your house for two weeks. That would be students. The current Wild Strawberry Movement protesting the Assembly Law and the police response to the citizens' protest of Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit hasn't got a lot of reaction from President Mark Ma as of yet ( Note to students: Go talk to a taxi driver). Fortunately, we are not students now. However, there was one successful "Wild" movement before: the Wild Lily Movement of the 1990's.

So, taking taking the success of the Lilies and in honor of our original base of command in Taichung, I am dubbing this the Wild Fairies Movement. The name alone guarantees success. Either President Ma will don a feather boa and hightail it down to Taichung Park for an after hours "Long Stay" to show his empathy or the legislature will start burning enough incense and paper money to melt Hoth and drown all the Wampas in order to avoid the wrath of the disgruntled deities.

On Saturday, the opposition DPP, dropped their...opposition to the voucher plan and upped the ante. They now want vouchers worth $3,800 - and they want it paid out in cash. [ Aside: Read and appreciate The China Post's renowned "staff's" take down of the DPP's spinelessness. Me very love The China Post - Me very hate Blogger's blockquote function.]

Instead of criticizing the administration of the ruling Kuomintang for creating greater debts for children and further generations, DPP lawmakers now decide to take a free ride on the popular program by coming up with new plans to demonstrate the DPP is much more generous when handing out money to the people. (China Post)

(Me again.) Not positive that it will be enough to secure the esteem of voters, some in the DPP have proposed a tax rebate of $6,000 to each person who has paid income taxes last year, and $4,000 for those who did not. Welcome to Survivor: Hooker Island. Lotsa floosies peddlin' their wares, and you are the john. The only one.

Note: This was started last Friday. As of now, all citizens, temporary (ARC) and permanent (PRC) residents that are listed in the household registry can receive the vouchers. It looks like it will stay at $3,600. They can be used in most places - traditional markets, vendors, moms and pops included. Even though it looks like I will get to sop up some of the gravy, I urge those tax-paying residents who do not have a Taiwanese spouse to carry the Fairy banner and demand yours. Next week, I fully expect to be ciphering my dog's voucher into our budget.

Q i n g d a o

27 days b4 the BIG "O".......
Kinda pales in comparison 2 where we r now?




123 main st.

Chinese Andy Rooney

China�s Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is


These actors are either hoping nobody gets sarcasm in China or they don't visit the Motherland often.

The Uni-President Lions of Taiwan lost to the Seibu Lions of Japan yesterday in the finals of the Asia Cup. They lost 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth. The Asia Cup is a tournament of the league champs from Taiwan, Japan, Korea and China. They were not even expected to make it to the finals, but did so with a nice 10-4 stomping of the SK Wyverns of Korea. So here are two of my favorite Chinese baseball phrases:

Three up, three down: 三 上 三 下 ( san1 shang4 san1 xia4)

Swing and a miss: 揮 棒 落 空 ( hui1 bang4 luo4 kong1)

Pop at Southern Command told me that the runner who scored the game winning run should have been called out on strikes, ending the inning. Replays showed this to be correct. He then told me the ump was Korean. So here is one more baseball phrase commonly heard, this time in Taiwanese.

Thou hast on excrement 'pon thine eyes ( saved for use on umpires): Li ba zhu hou sai gou diou
I will not attempt to assign tone markers. Ask you Taiwanese buddy how to say it.

下 一 項

Johnny Neihu said in last Saturday's column that " Many have become so disillusioned with our new leader that they have begun shortening his title from Ma zongtong (馬總統, “President Ma”) to matong (馬統), a homonym for “toilet.”

I said the same back in March. Why does it take so long for Taiwanese to come up with good catch-phrases and slogans? When a foreigner is beating you to the punch it is time to re-asses the efficacy of 抗議 to the millionth power. I would have given 壓 扁 阿扁 ( ㄧㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇㄚ ㄅㄧㄢˇ) - Flatten Ah-Bian to anyone in 2004 for a few Gold Medals.

下 一 項

Why is there so much road construction going on? Anyone? Anyone? Well according the flyer posted outside my house by the Chinese Taichung City Government, it is to install broadband cable as part of Taiwan's program to... here, I'll let them say it: The “M-Taiwan Program” hopes to build Taiwan a “Brave New Mobile World”. It enables people to access multiple ICTs anytime, anywhere — it promises a better M-life.

December is also Information Month in Taiwan. There will be expos in Taipei, Taichung, Kaoshuing and Tainan. Actually the Info Month is from September 29th in Taipei to January 13th in Tainan. Dates for Taichung are December 12-17 at the old Taichung Airport at Shui Nan. Here is the main page with links for all four cities and here is a link with a map and times for Taichung. My Chinese teacher says usually you can only get marginally better prices but the freebies are worth the trip.

Hokkien words in Indonesian

Here are some words in Indonesian that come from Hokkien (Taiwanese) roots:

mihun/bihun = rice noodles
sabun = soap
kecoa (pronounced kechoa) = cockroach
diam-diam = shut up

I find the word for cockroach the most interesting. Like they didn't have a word for that bug before the Chinese immigrants arrived? Weird.

Indonesian is one of the most fascinating languages because it has so many borrowed words and roots in it. The classic example is the word for "man"

orang = man or person, coming from the indigenous root.
manusia = mankind, coming from Sanskrit when Hinduism influenced Indonesia
insan = individual, from Arabic with the coming of Islam.

Then they have the loan words from Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, and English.

All in a phonetic language with no tenses and extremely logical grammar.

Okay, I hope that was interesting for somebody. I didn't know about some of those Hokkien root words until today and thought I would share.

Now, as the Taiwanese say, "Bye bye"

The Tonka XVI issue, vol 15

Paving our way 2 a better 2morrow...





shoe phones?

S M L 2

Room, patio and lake :)






cone of silence...

Single Malt Health Care

Scotch Whisky and Prescriptions...






Control

So I was reading the Taipei Times

and they had an article about a DPP politician warning Ma andthe KMT about how bad the Communists are.

Really?

Really?

So, in 2008, the left-leaning party in Taiwan must warn the historically extremely anti-communist KMT about the dangers of communism.

I have only two characters to say:

共匪

Construction Hell

They are building a pedestrian footbridge across the canal near my house.

This footbridge will serve no purpose, because it will connect a small row of townhouses to a few apartment buildings.

There is already a perfectly fine bridge about 50 meters away that would get pedestrians to the store or park faster than the footbridge would.

I guess kids can go stand on it and drop things into the canal.

That is not worth the week of jackhammers, the cuttting down of fine shade tress to make space for the bridge, the blocking of the sidewalk, and I really have to mention this again: JACKHAMMERS. SUPER LOUD, SUPER BIG JACKHAMMERS. Just started today, so I am sure they will be working all week-end.

And this helps the neighborhood chief show he cares and gets him re-elected.

Cleaning out my notebook

Two Theories

Many have heard Warren Buffet's quote from a 2004 letter to the shareholders, "They (investors) should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."


But have you heard of the Lean Goose Theory (瘦鵝理論)? This comes from Wang Yung-Ching (王永慶), founder of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), who passed away in October. During World War II, a young Wang would buy less expensive, hungry, lean geese and use discarded vegetable scraps and and broken bits of rice kernels to feed them. By using what was not wanted at the time and waiting patiently, he was able to produce stronger and heavier geese than the better looking geese who were less motivated to continue to grow. This was to be one of his guiding principles as he became Taiwan's first mega-tycoon and the God of Management.

Victory

I wanted to write extensively about the Tech game but instead used my time watching every clip and reading every article I could find about the game. D-Wayne and I decided to watch it live and cheer on Tech at an Internet cafe. Imagine my surprise as I was waiting outside for him to see him pull up wearing an orange t-shirt. However, I countered his unintentional bad mojo with my Tech hat, socks, shirt and boxers. My nervousness and 4 cups of "breakfast" had me shaking like Charo on the casting couch for 4 hours. And then, it was over. We shed our past of coming up short, of not being able to finish. Not this time. We won this game and regardless of what happens next, Tech has cleared a very large psychological barrier.

My favorite off-the-field action came courtesy of a Longhorn alum, Matthew McConaughey. The shot of his expression while walking down the sidelines to the exit was priceless and also cemented his position as the biggest (non-paid) celebrity to leave Lubbock disappointed.

Congratulations

To President-elect Obama. I don't support all of any president's policies but I always support our president. For what's next, two words (please turn universal translator to Bidenese): Welcome Back, Carter.

Bits and Pieces

First off, congrats to John and his boys. It was a remarkable game on so many levels. That UT was even in the game in the game in the fourth quarter was unbelievable. TTech outplayed them and deserved victory. I think McCoy will be dreaming of #93 in his kitchen for a long time.

Second off, congrats to Obama and all my friends who voted for him. You have been given a unique opportunity -- don't fritter it away like Clinton did. Redefine what mainstream America is and I just may come back to the fold of the Democratic Party for the first time since 1992. You can start by doing away with the Clintonian measure Don't Ask, Don't Tell and proceed to challenge our nation to lead the way in renewable energy like JFK did with the space program. We are happy to work toward a common goal, we just have to believe in it.

Thirdly, Denise Juneau was elected to be in charge of Public Schools in Montana. Why is this important? Because she will be the ONLY Native American Woman to hold statewide office in the nation. Her opponent referred to her as "that Indian girl" in radio ads and consistently tried to belittle her as incompetent because she had only worked in the Indian Education for All program here in Montana. Yeah, those Harvard grads are notoriously incompetent, especially her Uncle Ray Cross...

Finally, I'm not gonna lie. I shed a few tears tonight. Watching the scene unfold was beautiful, even if I didn't vote for Obama. As they panned the streets of NY, Chicago, and Oakland and showed so many faces eager to be led, looking forward with hope, and ready to accept Obama's challenge, I was moved. Not just in reflecting upon from where we've come, but also into looking at where we are going. Sappy? Sure, I can accept that. Maybe for those of you not currently in the United States it was easier to look with a more lucid eye. For me, that eye was blurry.

It is...

歐巴馬

Congratulations!

I would suggest taking a nice long vacation, now. Or a staycation, because he probably doesn't want to see another plane or bus for a while.


By the way, if you bought this T-Shirt, it spells his name wrong in Chinese. (see below.)

UPDATE: I had a suspicion about 奧巴馬 and sure enough, this is how the Hong Kong papers transliterate Obama's name. The mainland Chinese also use the same transliteration 奥巴马.

Y i w u

middle of BFE.......




Kaos

It just popped up!

"IT" eats and speaks, Surprise!! Other than that the article was good.

Pumpkin Carving at my House

This pumpkin was then cooked with those tiny white fish that look like maggots. Bu-la-hee.

College Game Day: Lubbock

That's right. No. 1 Texas, versus No. 7 Texas Tech, Saturday at 7:00 in Lubbock. Two Top Ten unbeaten Texas teams face off and everyone is asking the same question: What is the status of the Longhorn Marijuana Zeppelin Squad and how will Tech counter it?

As far back as February this year, UT established the Zeppelin Squad in response to spikes in fuel costs and their ongoing desire to show the rest of the state they will always have more money than any other school and can do whatever their heart pleases.

For example, they also considered a huge, gold-plated, pot filled longhorn pushed by slave labor from the University of Houston. Rejected because they did not want to invite comparisons to anything "Trojan."

Almost adopted but ultimately ix-nayed was a ruse involving the UT male-leaders. They would parade by law enforcement officials wearing giant diamond encrusted, cannabis-crammed, foam letters T, H, E, U, o, T. Rejected because officials worried that bystanders would interpret oTHUE as some sort of statement by the Irish lispers association.

Current forecasts hold that shipments from Tennessee and Kentucky will have perfect flying conditions. The primo crop from California faces potential heavy winds and rain. If the west coast wacky weed is unavailable for game time, look for the Longhorn's offense to suffer as their high wears off quicker and the pain sets in. Advantage Tech.



This brings us to the Tech game plan. They will plan assuming that the top crop will get through and present Coach Leach with his biggest decision: Cold turkey or Wild Turkey? Going cold turkey will allow the defense to go the entire game. However, Tech's biggest weakness (outside of kicking) has been giving up of lots of points. Going against UT's high, high-octane offense, this is a strong probability. Advantage UT.


The Wild Turkey option brings the benefit of that crazed alcohol-fueled rampage that could shut down the UT offense - and maybe land some defenders in jail - but at the cost of having to suffer the hangover lethargy of the shorter lived energy burst. I suspect Coach Leach will combing the two strategies, starting with cold turkey and saving the Wild Turkey option for as late in the game as possible. If Tech is able to hang around until the middle of the third quarter, look for a Tech timeout and the flasks of "Gatorade" being unscrewed. Advantage Tech.


D-Wayne and I will be calling the game live from the Internet cafe next to Holiday KTV on Mei Tsun road. Kickoff is 8:00pm eastern, which is 8:00am Sunday morning I think. Come and join us.

Warning: Watch til the end!

Pretty graphic!
18 or older!!




Halloween gonna suck this year!



Happy Halloween SOHO!
my favorite pagan holiday






And loving it!

Taichung 6th Annual Jazz Festival

Live music, good food & drink, fun for all ages....








Johnny Doughboy found a rose in Ireland.
To each his own.

S h a n g h a i 2

Hunt 4 red october.........




I lost my dinghy.
Why don't you try the Brooklyn Naval Yard?

Graffiti in Taiwan

Its come a long way from those cool faces on the utility boxes.

Now the park where my daughter plays is covered in graffiti that's not so artistic.

Yesterday she correctly identified the letter "F" and let's just say I am glad she doesn't know the letter "U' yet.

When relating this story to the wife, she said, "But she knows the letter C. Did you ask her about that?"

No, woman, I was not going to make this a spelling test.

Yahoo News headlines

Potted plant in Japan automatically writes daily blog entries

but does it write them about beer-drinking, airports, or baseball?

"Special Welcome" Part I

On Monday, a Chinese official visiting Taiwan in his role as a professor attending a mass comm symposium was interrupted by protesters and given a "special welcome."

According to the Taipei Times, the protester is a grad student who was born in the US, but came to Taiwan eight years ago to study the Taiwanese language and culture.

According to his spelling, he needs to switch a few of those Taiwanese classes for some remedial English courses.

Also check out the expression of the gent to the left of the protester.

Phillies closer blows World Series again!

What an exciting year for baseball! Who would have picked the Phillies vs. Rays? Perhaps one of our bloggers here at Nihowdy boldly picked his favorite team to win it all and at least one bartender from Philly will be up every morning to watch the World Series!

What a team the Rays have! After nearly blowing it, the Rays were able to overcome their absurd collapse (blowing their 7 run lead in game 5) to take the series in an exciting game 7. It turns out that game 7 had the highest tv ratings ever for a league championship. I'm not sure if it was the state of Massachusetts hoping to witness one of the greatest turn arounds of all time, or simply the rest of baseball fans crossing their fingers and hoping the Red Sox do not appear in the WS. Anyways, this team is stacked! Being led by the recently hot bat of BJ Upton, eventual rookie of the year Evan Longoria and the return of Crawford. The pitching hopes to stay hot too with Garza outshining all star teamies Kazmir and Shields. After hammering the Red Sox with the long ball the Rays hope to continue their sweet swinging ways against a mediocre Phillies pitching staff.

On the flip side of things, the Phillies also offer an exciting all-star like offense. Homerun champ Ryan Howard and MVP candidate Chase Utley anchor this lineup. Add a little bit of youth (i.e Victorino, Werth and superstar Rollins) and we have ourselves a Series! It will be on the shoulders of Brett Myers to continue his late season turn around if the Phillies pitching is to match up with that of the Rays.

Now having examined the all-star like calibre of both teams I believe this series will come down to execution and use of the pen. Could it be the Rays pen struggle and blow unbelievable performances by the starting pitchers? Or will it unravel unhittable Lidge returns to his Astros form and coughs up a series winning long ball that crushes the spirits of Phillies fans everywhere.

My money is on the Rays in 6. It's going to be a great series!

Surgeon General says

Grab a smoke and a check up....
While waiting for your next flight.




Who wrote Little Women?
Lonely little men.
Who do you love?
I want to be loved by you, just you, and nobody else but you.
I want to be loved by you, you hoo hoo.
Boop boop be do.

Sun Moon Lake

Say good bye to the summer........


A wet duck only flies at midnight.
The night is the devil's playground.
When the swallows come back to Campobello,
there will be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover.

Review For Deano

Strange how this post fits in with the previous few. While Matt Stairs was hitting that shot in LA, I was hanging out in State College, PA...home of the 3rd ranked, undefeated Lions. I was back in PA for an appraisal class/visit with the folks, that happened to coincide with a (Grateful) Dead reunion concert with the Allman Bros opening up. The last time I saw the Dead was 1984 & the Allmans was a few years before that. A few observations from the show:

Arenas at Dead concerts still smell like 1,000 simutaneously fired-up joints. Bic lighters have been replaced by glow sticks. Tie-dye apparently will never die. Dudes still wear doo rags & the girls still wear sun dresses. The scraggly haired, sun dress look was much sexier on the skinny 22 year old girls of 1984 then it is on their more robust contemporaries. Countless grey ponytails. Older Deadheads have swollen bellies and swollen prostates...the concession/bathroom lines were ridiculous. Seeing four 50 something, tie-dyed people get out of a BMW is a bit off. Seeing a family of four tie-dyed folks roll out of a VW was spot on.

If you can imagine Bruce Dern lost in the jungle for 4 months, then you can picture Bob Weir...fortunately his voice is still there. Phil Lesh sings a lot more these days and sounds good. The drumming is still amazing. We moved to a spot right behind/above the drum riser and took it all in from there. The highlight of the night was the Allmans encore performance of "Whipping Post." They had 3 drummers who just hammered them for 2 hours and Derek Trucks on guitar. No Bruce Hornsby. Not the best show they've ever done, but pretty decent. Closed with excellent version of "Not Fade Away." They may be touring next year...worth the price of admission.

The Phillies get in the playoffs once every 15 years or so. I'll get to see the rest of this series, but leave Sunday for a few weeks in Colombia. Will probably miss most of the world series. At least the Cowboys are imploding...there's always a silver lining!

The Greatest Thing You Could Imagine?

Gotta love Canuckistanis. After Matt Stairs (of New Brunswick) hit the eventual game winning homer in last night's heated contest between Philly and LA, the press asked him if this was the greatest thing he could imagine. His response: Well, I've always dreamed of scoring on a breakaway. Not a breakaway in the Cup Finals or a game 7 in the conference finals. Just a breakaway. Hmmm, game winning homer in the LCS or a breakaway goal in the fifteenth game of the regular season in a heated game between the Atlanta Thrashers and the Tampa Bay Lightening.....

In other news, both the TTech and UT are unbeaten still. Let's hope it holds up until they meet in Lubbock in a few weeks. UT has a tough one against Mizzou While TTech gets a wounded fAggie team.

Finally, today will determine if the Canuckistanis give Bush-Lite a shot at a majority government. How are those Kyoto agreements working out again?

Ferrari

Billionaires, movie stars, swimming pools and cattle trucks?





The Grateful Dead are alive and living in Beverly Hills.
Simon and Garfunkel fell off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

I watched the OU vs. UT game yesterday at Fubar. Sorry for the late post, but if you saw it you should have come out. It was a great game. Three and a half hours of everything: big plays, stupid plays, lots of points, bad calls, lead changes and perhaps the biggest surprise, Bret Musburger stating the obvious truth that is usually glossed over on network coverage. And he did it not once, but twice.

One instance was when Colt McCoy was being chased out of bounds and a defender very lightly placed his hands upon Colt's person. One hand was clutching the back of his jersey near the neck and the other was in front around the stomach also apparently clutching some jersey. It appeared that he was trying to help Colt remain standing but Colt had other ideas. Colt must have thought the defender was carrying tasers and he was in for a tasering because Colt blasted forward, tumbling onto the ground like he was blasted by Black Lightning. McCoy got the ref to throw a flag for a personal foul that put the Longhorns deep in Sooner territory.

Musburger (my recollection): The refs are going to have to start issuing yellow cards after a dive like that.

The second instance was a roughing the kicker penalty against UT that resulted in a Sooner first down. The UT defender lightly grazed the punter - a piece of jersey flailed the punter's knee. Of course the punter went down immediately. Looking up while on all fours, after a couple of seconds the punter remembers the scene is not over and grabs his knee, cringes, rolls around until the ref signals the end of the act with a flag.

Musburger (again, my recollection): The punter should get the Heisman Award for Acting after that performance.

Congrats Brett and UT. Yall have another tough one next week. Meanwhile, my Red Raiders are savoring their pit stop in the Top 10.

College Football Sunday

Fubar will show the #1 Oklahoma Sooners vs. the #5 Texas Longhorns at 1:30 today (Sunday). I doubt they will have a replay later in the afternoon because they are having their Canadian Thanksgiving celebration starting later in the afternoon.

The Tonka XV issue, vol 14

Workin on th chain gang........




The fuchsia fox fell fifty fathoms from father's famous fish fry.

Tampa Radio Broadcast

It's Friday Night, and I just heard this on the radio:

Rays Announcer: I'm here with Hulk Hogan.

Hulk: When I slammed Andrea the Giant in 1995 brother everyone went crazy. It's gonna be the same brother, we're gonna kick ass like I did. We got the original Ray hawk, we're gonna have to create a U hawk for me brother. It's gonna be like Wrestlemania, brother!!!

Announcer: Hulk --

Hulk: We're not cocky like the Boston fans. We know we're the best. We don't need to talk about it! I've been a fan for a long time. When I started coming to these games in the Division series, brother, I knew it was gonna get big brother! I'm gonna be on the bottom of the pile when they win this thing brother! I'm gonna be on the field! Rays Nation has been built over three years brother!

Announcer: Back to the booth.

Booth Announcer: I wasn't going to cut him off.
Color guy: Me either.

Gotta love baseball in America...

This Day in Alternative History

This is the flag of the Republic of Formosa.

While its pretty cool, I still like the Republic of China flag in use today.

Happy Double Ten!

S u z h o u

Blue ridge mountains.....




Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
I've been to London to visit the Queen.

Random thoughts

a.j.'s gout remedy (white wine, really?)

kevin sandbagging a boat and winning 5NT

CROSS!

the smell of ponce's house after a night a night of AC and cards

stoney being stoned and wondering where all his money went (i'm not comin', i always lose man!)

beating dean and john with a straight flush, 8-Q of diamonds

brit brett struggling through the english language, arriving after everyone has lost their money and calling five card stud, which i never won

a.j.'s floor and kevlar's table (black and red version)

j-hole and myself fighting over the finer points of 727, perhaps the dumbest game known to mankind. we had many meaningless arguments...

red A telling me he quit smoking and then proceeding to smoke my entire pack of 7 lights

me folding on a royal flush because i simply couldn't comprehend the amount of wild cards in the random canadian style poker game (7s and 8s, really?)

that final night of Murder at my house and the $12000 NT pot that went with it (floating my boat on a two of clubs, the lowest card in the deck)

the birks that i'm still wearing from winnings i took when i revisited taiwan

red A rubbing his hands and telling kevlar "it's only money" after red A had folded ten minutes previously

ann's big eyes when she collected my money-- the only night we allowed her near the table

mushroom nachos (what was i thinking?)

retro night at the pit

spending the evening's winnings on tepanyaki (or however the hell you spell that)

learning my lesson and buying red A a pack of 7 lights on my way to the pit

cleaning up after all you sorry bastards left

dothead paul coming at me after i wiped my ass with his jacket (thinking it was john's).


i'm guessing it would be worthwhile to revisit taiwan simply for a game of poker.

K u n s h a n

Jiangshu Province.........

West Virgina

Never before in the history of human endeavor have so many given so much to so few.

Red A Update

My daughter has bronchial pneumonia, so she's been staying in the hospital for the last week. (Cheng Ching hospital on Chung Gang on the way to Dong Hai, which I highly recommend for children - Dr. Hu is a great pediatrician.)

Its actually not as scary as it sounds, but they like to keep kids under six for monitoring when they have serious respiratory illnesses and fevers. How sick can your kid be when it takes FIVE people to hold her down to get the IV drip in.

The hospital had no rooms at first, so we had to wait about half a day, and then we got the VIP room with the extra bed, couches, kitchenette, and private bathroom. Our private insurance just covers the cost, and its the best room on the floor.

She should be coming home this week, latest on Friday.

H a i N i n g

Almost Heaven........
1.5 Hours from N i n g b o or S h a n g h a i ?


Herb Alpert takes trumpet lessons from Guy Lombardo

Canadian Tonka

Discovered this in my backyard in August.

Steak Typhoon

Another typhoon visited Taiwan this week. This one was Typhoon Jangmei, the third in a month's time. The previous one seemed to have heavier rains, this one concentrated on wind. Typhoons were new to me when I came to Taiwan from Lubbock, and I have really only experienced one real knock-down, drag-out, take-no-names kind of typhoon in Taiwan. I live in Taichung so we are spared the worst of many of them because of the Central Mountain Range which usually can downgrade a big typhoon to a gutter cleaner. My favorite typhoon of my time here is, was and shall always be Typhoon Doug. Doug closed down work on Monday, like this one, but hit only a mild slap and left us to enjoy a sunny Monday.


Mondays are my worst day work-wise. I teach seven and a half hours with one 30-minute break for lunch. This is not too bad. It is not bitching. It is just griping. I know I've got it good but still enjoy the time off. Given that I have only 30 minutes, I must have food prepared to put in the one microwave in the office or eat the crappy bian-dangs from How Ma Ma. If I want to eat crappy fast food, its got to be the crappy fast food that I grew up with. How Ma Ma's steamed, plain, white rice, heavily breaded meat look-alike and a wilted, oily, stir-fried green veggie isn't enough to get me to change teams.


Taichung beat everyone, I think, by calling a typhoon day for Monday by 3:00pm. Places that were more affected, like Keelung and HuaLien, still had to work and study. Knowing that Monday was free, I went to my wife and informed her of the urgency of the situation. I was hungry, we needed food and there was a typhoon coming, dammit! We needed to stock up. So, of to Costco we went where we procured the basics: steak (obvious), cheese (nachos and tacos) and wine ( because if the power went, we still had potable and medicinal beverage - it was also 5 liters worth). Somehow we also ended up with a baker's butt-load of shiitake mushrooms. That package is now down to just a mere butt-load.


Next, I had to secure the grilling site. There's a lot of water falling and while we do have a covered porch, water from the outside seems to like our house the best to meet, hang around and accumulate. I have lived in several different residences in Taiwan and I seem to always choose the ones designed by the architects who went to the Putt-Putt Institute of Design and became infatuated with the Ant-Hill hole: all the drains require the water to travel uphill. But this time it was windier than rainier, so the shoe-soaking-but-not-grill-inhibiting rain was dismissed.


We started by preparing the side dishes: Spanish rice from the night before that we liked so much we both were just spooning it cold out of the tupperware, stuffed mushrooms which Petra added my full glass of wine for drinking to the chopped stems and veggies ( A little purple, but, what the hey? It was good ) and plain old grilled mushrooms.



The next step was to prepare this.



Then this: Combine ingredients for marinade.

• 1/2 cup of soy sauce



• 1/4 cup of mirin or orange juice


• juice of 1/2 a lemon


• 3-eleventy cloves of chopped garlic


• 1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce


• 1 tbs. olive oil

Method: Discard marinade (or use it for some cubed chicken breasts or chuck steak and make teriyaki kabobs). We're talking steak here. If you feel the need to alter the natural taste and bite of a good cut of beef, give me the good cut and dump your sauces on a bian dang from How Ma Ma.

Next was to throw our sirloins on my Lodge cast iron grill, listen to the sear, flip and admire the grill marks. Once ready, I poured myself some wine and hid it from my wife while the steak rested. If you don't let your steak rest for several minutes after taking it off the grill the juices will flow out. I actually like it this way as well as I always have a piece of sourdough to sop it up with.

Finally, everything was in place and I asked my wife to select some appropriate music. She chose Trisha Yearwood. Petra really likes her. Really likes one song in particular. Likes it so much that she played it 3 times in a row. She then went online to find the lyrics and I finished dinner with a pseudo-karaoke session with Trisha backing up my wife.

My next Monday off is in November and I'm already thinking about Steak Super SuPao.

Rocky Update

For those of you who remember Rocky (the Steve Largent/Terrel Owens like superstar who used to grace our football field at the middle school), he recently sent me a post with these two websites. Those more versed in reading Chinese can perhaps decipher what exactly he is advertising, but I thought I'd pass them along anyway.


http://pub.taichung.emmm.tw/
http://happyintaichung.emmm.tw/?ptype=vote

Enjoy, and thanks for the scuba update J-hole.