Sunday, November 30, 2008

Giving thanks

Many things to be thankful for this year, one of which was introducing A to family Thanksgiving with these people.
Here eating pad thai after being plied with negroni, just like the Pilgrims.
Also had plenty of the traditional stuff:
Embarrassment on all sides was kept within tolerable levels.
A was a very good dancing monkey, had them eating (gianduiotti) out of his hand. Even leaped across the table to rip a spoon out of mom's grip during a compulsory fun activity. So proud.

Photos courtesy of levitating cousin Ohng:

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Spicy food, zesty song

Nothing keeps you young like ma la and karaoke.

Friday, November 21, 2008

New Wild Boar Village


Etymology is great fun, as this post describes. Names we think of as proper nouns in fact mean things:

New York? “New Wild Boar Village.”
(Apparently, York, in England, derives from the Old English eofor for wild boar and the Latin vicus for village.)

Great Britain? “Great Land of the Tatooed.”

Grozny? “The Awesome.”

London? “Hill Fort.”

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Happy World Toilet Day!


I Sing For Toilets from Gino Federici on Vimeo.

It's amazing what one finds when searching for information on the World Trade Organization. Like this important announcement from another WTO:

Today is World Toilet Day!!!

Apparently 2.6 billion people in the world lack proper toilets. To help us remember, they have come up with "three we's" of toilet advocacy. We we we.

Indeed, this is not the only pun they have developed to promote the cause. There is also the Let's Observe Ourselves (LOO) campaign, which aims to get people to pay more attention to their habits. (Er, let's NOT, shall we?)

But they can also be rather direct. The third "we" is "WE DESERVE BETTER PLACES TO DEFECATE -- PROPER TOILETS". Well, yes, that about sums its up.

Unsurprisingly, the organization is based in Singapore. I'm just glad WTD is not tomorrow, when this important cause would be overshadowed by an even more important event.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Sunshine!

Internationally acclaimed painter DKlein has just completed her latest project, "Country Sun," at the 48th St. Gallery. The world thanks her for this artistic gift.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008