In case somehow some way you missed this...

Watch this too (until the end)...

Paper sons...

Being involved in the Asian American community here in DC, I've learned a lot about the histories of other Asian American communities...  But, unfortunately, most communities' immigration stories do not get told beyond that community, which is why this article in the NYT was not only good to read but also good to see.

I know many Chinese Americans who have introduced themselves to me, saying something along the lines of... "My name is John Lee, but it's really Chen."  Or, s/he has two different names on her/his business card -- on the English side, it says, e.g., "John Lee" but the Chinese characters on the back read "Chen".  Because someone up the ancestral line was a paper son.

Interesting stuff.  I don't think there's an analogous history in the Japanese American community.  We don't have "paper sons".  Maybe because the numbers of immigrants were smaller?  I don't know.

And on a tangentially related note, here's another story about an Asian and American names...

Who knew?

Who knew that my pooch had a famous namesake

Now, if only our Gidget spoke Spanish and we could get the residuals on her commercials...

Ooooh, a new toy!!

A few minutes ago, I got an invitation to open a Google Voice account, and I just did it.  I'm very excited!  Yay, fun!

I'm sorry for two NSFW posts in a row ...

but this just made me laugh.

Not the letter so much as the advice columnist's response:

Dear Prudence,
Last fall, I met a terrific woman from the Mediterranean who may be "the one." She's beautiful and has a great body that she likes to show off, but she is also very hairy. She never shaved back home, and having now been steeped in years of women's studies in the United States, she has become militant about not conforming to the ideal of hairless womanhood. She can't wait to spend lots of time at my parents' beach house this summer. She has bought a tiny bikini that she plans on wearing, so lots of her pubic hair is guaranteed to be on display. My mom and dad are going to faint. Hair in the armpits? European. Hair on the legs? Granola. But pubic hair all over the place? I've told her she may want to "trim up a bit," but she refuses. What to do, besides hide her from my mom and dad?
—Hairified

Dear Hairified,
If she feels about you the way you feel about her, surely she wants to snatch this opportunity to make a good impression on your parents. Appeal to her vanity: Tell her that if she refuses to trim her undergrowth, your parents' embarrassment will keep them from appreciating her great mind and beautiful figure. Appeal to her sophistication: Since she's lived a cross-cultural life, she knows that making a small gesture can be all that's needed to keep from muffing a sensitive encounter. Appeal to her affection for you: Explain that if her pubic hair is also her public hair, you're going to want to hide in the bushes. Emphasize that you are not asking for permanent defoliation, just for an application of depilatory so that when beach time comes around and your neither European nor granola parents see her itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini, their hair won't stand on end.
—Prudie

Porn for pets!

I am posting this purely in the interest of science.  Nope, had nothing to do with the oddity of this article.   Nor any salacious intent.  Or any fascination with the subject at hand.  No indeed.  I'm posting this piece because it's interesting and bizarre -- and because my dad is now my "friend" on Facebook, so posting articles there about chickens choking their chickens ain't gonna fly (not for me, at least).

All mixed (up) metaphors aside, here is the article in question: Hands or Paws or Anything They Got

Make sure you watch the embedded video.  Ahh, nature in its natural state!

Facebook

Here's another reason for EMcPan not to join FB (if she hasn't already listed it): so you'll never have to be "friends" with your parents.

My father recently joined and "friended" me.  Now, what the heck am I supposed to do with that?  First, I had no idea that he had the remotest clue what FB is.  Second, I don't necessarily want him knowing the stuff I post on FB.  I didn't tell him all of my shenanigans as a teenager, and I am not about to begin doing that now.

But I guess I am.  Because, really, if a parent "friends" you, then you sorta, kinda have to accept (unless they have a bad enough memory that they'll forget about it).  I mean, I don't want to have my allowance garnished or be grounded or anything...

Seen scene

In this neck of the woods/'burbs, apparently, Burleys are grocery-schlepping machines.



Saw one so filled yesterday.

Happy Blog-o-versary to me...

Started this blog on July 5, 2004. Ironic that almost five years to the day later I'm thinking of signing off.

Separated at birth?

What do you think?

Still alive

but wondering if I should bother with this blog anymore... No more chronicles of law school, studying for the bar or even looking for a job -- and chronicling the crumpling and rebuilding of my house is just plain depressing. I just don't know if I have anything to say these days.

So I'm thinking of signing off.