It’s one thing when people have to put up with security theater in the airports of the world, but my sense is that, unlike one might expect, the Korean airport security have not quite upped the ante on pointless and officious ritual. It’s possible to get through security relatively quickly. Though, uh, that might not be such a good thing. Recent high rankings for Korea’s Incheon Airport — the main international airport in the country — in customer service and airport quality seem to ring a bit hollow, once you hear the story that just hit the news… Because you …
Month: June 2008
Clarion West Write-a-thon, 2008
This year I’ve decided to do the write-a-thon again, though not in such a demanding way as I did last year. Last year, I wrote something like 15,000 words a week. Which made me, physically, a little sick, so I won’t be doing that again. (I need to get my blood pressure and health under control, plus I’m working on a big textbook-writing project and a few articles this summer.) So instead, I’ve got a more manageable goal in mind: I will write or co-write three or four stories during the write-a-thon, of which three will be going out by …
Damn You Little Old Ladies!
Damn you, little old ladies! How dare you hike up Wonmi Mountain at a pace that puts me to shame! Damn you and your smiling faces as you head back down past me, having passed me on the way up, while I’m still struggling along. Damn you, fellas with neon-yellow- and hot-pink-eared poodles who go along the mountain trails without a drop of sweat in sight, whilst I leave a veritable trail of stinky dew behind. Damn you, teenaged couple who, having reached the top, do not take ten minutes to stop dripping and catch you breath but immediately start …
The Story of Banana Mountain
My father used to tell me stories all the time, stories of the Old Country. That Old Country being Nyasaland, of course, and sometimes Rhodesia. Neither of those countries existed by the time he left the Old Country with my mother and me for Canada. His stories were weird in the kind of way that stories immigrants tell can be, but it used to hammer home to me the fact that, despite being a white man, he was absolutely a foreigner to the place I was growing up. It’s not to say he didn’t have advantages over, say, some of …
Fan Mail
I got fan mail today. Perhaps my first piece of Fan Mail ever.(1) It was about “Lester Young…” What a very nice feeling. It made my day. But now I should clear off my desk and grade some essays and exams. With a big grin on my face. 1. I’m not counting comments on the site here, because, although that also makes me happy and is appreciated, comments are not “mail.” I’m not counting emails from reviewers because, while reviewers can be fans, they’re not, er, “civilians” in the way I think of when I think of fans. I’m not …