Absurdity, Allegory and China

It’s difficult to get through an entire spring and summer without writing something about baseball, even if it won’t ever get much of a grip here in China. Despite the MLB’s recent series of promo events in Shanghai, Wuxi, Guangdong, Chengdu, and now, as I write, in Beijing. I think baseball has about as much [...]

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The MLB (Major League Baseball) season is underway again, and for some of us, that means some nebulous sense of order has been returned to the universe. Last year there were two pre-season MLB games in Beijing at the field at Wukesong. Good fun, really. I missed the first game when the PSB (Public Security [...]

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The Second Major League Baseball Game in China When I saw Jet Li throw out the first pitch, I thought, man, he throws just like my sister threw the night she hurled the rock at my head and took out the living room clock. I was lucky. Then, I kept my mouth shut too. © [...]

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I belong to a listserv group, one I‘ve been dropping in and out of for about 14 years. Over the years I have had face-to-face meeting with eight other members, all without the least shred of disappointment. In fact, all the meetings have been more pleasant than I could have hoped for, and I look [...]

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BAGHDAD -  Television reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi  threw his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki today while screaming, “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog.” The AP video shows Mr Bush nimbly ducking Shoe #1, which would have popped him in the [...]

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A few days back I mentioned how I watched from from afar while Tug McGraw pitched the final inning of Game Six of the 1980 World Series, an unforgettable few minutes for any Phillies’ fan. Tug, who died in 2004, has a son, the wildly popular country/western singer, Tim McGraw who was on hand before [...]

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I was born on the twenty-sixth day of the eighth month in the absolute middle of the 20th century, 8/26/1950. My first recollected memory, from 1953, is of my father coming home on a Friday evening as I, his eldest son, sat dutifully on the bottom step along the Weaver Street sidewalk waiting for him [...]

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Though it is highly unlikely that anyone hasn’t yet heard, the latest issue of the New Yorker with it’s trademark cartoon cover shows the Obamas in the Oval Office kitted out as rad-Muslims, a burning flag in the fireplace and an Osama portrait hanging on the wall. The Obama camp has called it “tasteless,” and [...]

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Under the headline “Wary U.S. Olympians Will Bring Food To China” a story in the February 9, 2008 NYT reported that a caterer working for the US Olympic Committee, whose job is to feed the US athletes while they are in Beijing, did some local Beijing shopping in preparation for the Games and found a [...]

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In no particular order: Shake It Twice A reporter submitted green tea as his urine specimen to 10 Hangzhou (China) hospitals, then sat back and waited for his results. Six hospitals determined he had an infection, and five prescribed medicine totaling 1,300 RMB – in today’s money market, nearly $180 USD. Expensive tea. A spokesperson [...]

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