This month will see the start of two baseball tournaments in Taiwan - The Asian Baseball Championship (The Asian Cup) and the Baseball World Cup. The former will be held exclusively in Taichung at the old Taichung stadium and the new Intercontinental Stadium from December 1st-3rd (English schedule here, Chinese here). The latter will be hosted at several cities around Taiwan. Taichung games commence on November 2nd and end on the 14th. The finals will only be in the Taipei area. Chinese schedule here. (D-Wayne, can you help out with the English schedule you found yesterday?)

Ticket information - outlets, online purchasing and types -for the Baseball World Cup can be found here (English).

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Final Costco (好事多) post, I hope.

The grand opening for the Taichung Costco is November 11. Hours are 8:30am-9:30pm.

• Memberships purchased by the 8th will still include an extra membership card. So, if you purchase a membership you will get a primary, secondary and a gift membership for $1,200NT (personal) and $1,000NT (business)
• Regardless of when you obtained your Taichung membership card, it will be valid until the end of November 2008. Mine was purchased in August and I will not lose any months because I purchased it before the store opened.
• There will be a free "Western" breakfast for the first 6,000 cardholders. 8:30-10:30am
• They will also give away to the first 20,000 cardholders... 10 eggs. Yes, 10 eggs.
• The temporary office has been moved into the actual Costco building. So, if you want a card, go to 台中市南屯區文心南三路289號 and the office is on the 1st floor.

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"Too much garlic is not enough." Me. A long time ago.

I love garlic. A lot. And now there is some initial research that garlic can be really good for us. Researchers at UAB found that garlic juice injected into human red blood cells prompted them to emit hydrogen sulfide, which causes blood vessels to relax. They also say that after crushing or chopping the garlic, you need to wait at least 15 minutes to allow the reaction that produces this release. Here are two articles discussing the study. The first is more general and the second a bit more specific.

However, do not view this as a coronary panacea. Garlic has no effect on cholesterol and also this:

Eric Block, professor of chemistry at the State University of New York, Albany, has also done extensive work on garlic. He called the paper "provocative" but expressed some concerns.
For example, he said, "the benefits of garlic on cardiovascular disease remain controversial, because they have not been established by the gold standard method of placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical studies," he said.

My mother told me that while she was in Saudi Arabia the Saudis would swallow whole, peeled cloves of garlic to aid their digestion. While my wife was talking to a farmer near Taichung about a natural make-up remover and cleanser, he started talking about garlic. Now we have a bottle of garlic wine in the mail. They might be on to something. Drink up and reek not of booze, but of garlic.

Hola Carrefour

Firstly, I think that I should be thanked for not posting about this morning's visit to my hematologist which quickly revealed my versatile doctor to be every bit as eager as Jack Elam to deploy his middle digit in The Cannonball Run. Really. Thank me. Or you will hear about it.


This morning's clump of fliers included Carrefour's and their obvious attempt to deflate the impending opening of Costco in Taichung. Costco will open in November, though the actual date was not set when I went there. They do have an office open to view products, watch their videos and sign up for membership. If you are interested, here are the details.


Personal Membership (Gold Star Member) - $1,200NT a year. This will include two photo ID cards. But if done before the opening, they will give you a third card you can give to a friend or a family member. Split it three ways and it's $400 apiece. The next year's membership is $1,200 for the two cards and the gift card recipient will also have to pay the same if they would like to retain it. However, if you use your China Trust credit card during the year to make purchases of $90,000NT, the next year's membership fee is free. This is not limited to purchases at Costco, but anything purchased with the China Trust card. Costco accepts, cash, China Trust cards and AmEx (pretty sure it's AmEx. I just know we didn't have the correct kind of card). Nicely enough, the people helping you complete your membership are actually China Trust employees. A China Trust card is now in the mail. I just hope it's more than the $500US limit on my other one.


Business Membership - Not sure. I think they give it to you free with an X-Box. I did see a $500 figure on the sign for businesses but just figured it was that or the X-Box.

Back to the Carrefour flier. The online cover features Max Von Sydow dressed like Uncle Sam beholding a bag of Friday's Quesadilla Chips. Here, let's a look at one of the pages.


What do we have here? Chicken enchiladas, black bean enchiladas, a bean and cheese burrito and cheese quesadillas. And all made in the USA - see the red, white and blue ovals with 美國製造? It doesn't say where in the US so I guess I'll go and sample one and see if they have more info.

Bonus pic for our Canadianer friends in Taichung. Heard Special Dinners have become scarce.