“I was so drunk on Sunday night, because my girlfriend’s father was suddenly in town and he made me go drinking with him, and we drank soooo much, so I know my essay is one day late, and I’m sorry. I was hung-over.” That’s the more amusing spoken version of what was scrawled on an envelope bearing one essay that had been slipped under my door sometime early on Tuesday morning. I don’t even know whether it’s true, but it amused me enough to let the lateness slide. I mean, imagine being forced by your girlfriend’s father to drink until …
Category: KOREA
Pyongyang back in six-party talks
Ah, so the little shit and his gang are willing to talk sensibly now? I doubt it, but they’re still planning on showing up, at least.
A Long Way To Go
Today was one of those frustrating days. In one of my classes, I was leading an exercise in which students were creating “interesting characters” for the plays that they’re going to write and perform. Well, what do you… several times, people said things that, well, I can’t say they were simply racist, but they were quite obviously offensive, and all I could think was, “What are you THINKING?” For example, I did a funny exercise when we we talking about this idea of a disease outbreak. (For those with whom I attended Clarion West… yes, I totally did rip off …
More Gleanings
Been grading. More amusing bitlets: Tom Cruise isn’t his name. His real name is Thomas Cruise. Universities are obviously obligated to provide convenient services to students, like, say, free bus service to the subways. Because 2km is too far to walk, and the equivalent of 25 cents per ride is ridiculously overpriced, whereas 10 cents would be reasonable. I’m not sure why the student thinks so. (And I should note, I often use this bus. But I happen to think it’s an inexpensive and handy service, actually.) What’s M.C. an abbreviation for? That’s right, Menstruation. (Apparently, this is a Chinese-English …
The Third Chimpanzee, by Jared Diamond, & The Ostensibly Weak Identity of Teenagers
I just finished this book this evening. Fascinating stuff… so much so that I put off starting grading just so I could finally actually finish it. Granted, there wasn’t a lot in the book that I didn’t sort of know, or suspect, and there are sections that are very clearly his later (and equally fascinating, though somewhat more flawed at the beginning and end) book Guns, Germs, and Steel in embryonic form, but still, it was an excellent read. I really quite enjoyed it. One of the funny side effects of reading this book of Diamond’s is that I’m always …
Get Them Where It Hurts
Marmot linked to More Kim hijinks, this time, supposedly, by a network of spies in South Korea. Maybe. If this is true. It wouldn’t surprise me much, but who knows… In other news, it may have been because of mistaken analysis assuming impending collapse that non-engagement with North Korea was the main US strategy. So I’m thinking I have it… the solution. Cut a deal with Hennessy cognac. Engineer something that will infect, and kill slowly — optimally, something as slow-acting as AIDS, but harder to detect, and engineered to survive transmission via alcohol, but to die if it’s out …
Traffick — Korean sex trafficking in the American news
So the SF Gate (San Francisco, not science fiction) ran a four part-series on Korean-related sex-trafficking in America. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4) and Marmot reports that some Korean-Americans are angry that, well, this doesn’t make Korea look good in the American media: Instead of educating Chronicle readers about the cultural background of South Korea, the world’s 10th largest economy, the “Diary” series dwells at length, and with questionable purpose, on the titillating details of one individual’s forced sex acts and non-typical family history. The Chronicle series includes many cultural inaccuracies and paints a distorted picture of …
Anyone Know Anything About Ali Khan
I was emailed a link to a blog called Free Ali Khan, which is about a guy apparently in Daejon Prison. He was apprently tried yesterday and convicted, and from the descriptions of the trial, it all sounds sketchy. Like, beyond sketchy: someone confessed to the murder and exonerated the guy, after the trial, but the case hasn’t been reopened, says someone named Audrey in a discussion over at Flickr. Apparently, the theory is, if a mass of comments are collected on the site, there might be enough momentum to reopen the case. It sounds dubious to me, but commenting …
Learn Something Everyday
In the course of grading my midterms for Popular Culture in English Speaking Countries, I’ve learned the following: Bombay can also be spelled Bumbay or Bombai. “Elbiss Presly” (Preslley, Plesly, etc) was the King of Rock’n’Roll, and he died of glycosuria (and/or stress, and/or suicide) Indians love song and dance more than any other people, which is why song-and-dance numbers are so prevalent in Indian films one prevalent stereotype of African American men widely expressed in blackface minstrelsy is that they’re all bisexual The only Beatle who has not been assassinated is Paul McCartney. The Indian festival Teej is celebrated …
Pyongyang Comic
I just finished reading Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea. Its a graphic novel about the comic artist’s stay in Pyongyang in the mid-nineties, supervising an animation outsourcing project in Pyongyang. Fascinating.