The First Album I Ever Bought For Myself

It was an LP. It was a soundtrack. I had that whole thing memorized a few days after I bought it. Later would come Glenn Miller (my mom’s choice, since I was about to start playing the saxophone), and then Bon Jovi (yes, Slippery When Wet, I’ll admit it), Miles Davis, Guns’N’Roses (and then the famous backpatch jacket), and then John Coltrane (and then the tenor sax I still have with me), and much more… … but this was the first album I bought for myself, with my paper route money, and man was I happy to have it so …

Continue Reading

Wanna Be a Famous Blogger? Here’s Who to Criticize…

Though I tend not to really pay much attention to the hit rates on my blog, I occasionally pop by Google Analytics just to see what people have been looking at and what’s brought them to my site. This is something I particularly do on days like today, when I am stuck at home. I lost my voice on Monday and took today off to let the medicines I was prescribed kick in and make everything all better. Looks like I’ll be back to work tomorrow, but my throat is still a little blah at the moment. (I expect it’ll …

Continue Reading

Indonesians Avenge the Mangling of English on Korean Notebooks by Mangling Hangeul on 대어 오ㅜㄴ 노트보ㅗㅋ

Often, expats in Korea like to share some of the crazy English that they see on things like the covers of notebooks, on T-shirts, and so on. I myself included one example–taken from a T-shirt I got at the Jeonju International Film Festival several years ago–in a story titled “Country of the Young,” where a carry-bag has the enigmatic phrase, “And Of Course Carrot!” which, if you know enough Korean, is not at all enigmatic. Basically, it’s a transliteration of a pun. As far as I understand it, in Korean, 당연 (dang-yeon) means “naturally, of course, certainly”, and a similar-sounding–but …

Continue Reading

A Hard Decision Made

Well, folks, I’ve decided, finally, to come clean. Those of you who have met me in person? Seen my photograph? That’s not me. It’s a guy named Leonard. He’s a pretty good actor, and a swell chap. He lives in Korea, he pretends to be me. He even spends a few hours a day just sitting in front of a computer, so that this blog is plausible. He checks the blog every day, logs in, types some crap and then deletes it. Just, you know, in case anyone decides to look into the records. He’s part of an elaborate ruse. …

Continue Reading

What Is and Isn’t Fun About a Sigmoid Endscopy

Don’t worry, I won’t give you the gory details, but: WHAT’S NOT FUN ABOUT A SIGMOID ENDOSCOPY… Er, well, there’s the obvious. Like, those alien abduction reportees? They picked a doozy of a procedure for their imaginary aliens to perform on them. (1) Various other minor side effects afterward, like, er, well, scentless flatulence (2) and mild discomfort from being pumped full of air. WHAT CAN BE FUN ABOUT A SIGMOID ENDOSCOPY… Cheap, legal narcotics. I was flyin’, folks. Well, until the procedure began. Then I was just dizzy, but, hey, whatever. It didn’t hurt, at least. Seeing your insides. …

Continue Reading