Absurdity, Allegory and China

George Bush is coming to town. For fun. And Games too. And to speak, as well, on religious rights (or right, as in, “When he fumbles the ball he’s ambidextrous, but in the church softball league he bats right.”), or so it looks from here. A duck, lame or otherwise, in Beijing in August 2008 [...]

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In the latest dance of finger-pointing into empty space, the IOC has unveiled their newest strategy, which is actually an ESL Revisionist View of Recent History. As the flap continues over what the IOC was promised by BOCOG and China and what the IOC head, Jacques Rogge, actually meant to say about the censorship issue [...]

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It’s 5:05 AM, the day the Olympic Torch comes to my neighborhood in Tianjin. The sound checks have just begun, eight minutes before sunrise. The sound-checker’s voice seems tired, as it should. He was sound-checking until after 10 last night. Perhaps he camped out in the stadium overnight so he wouldn’t have to walk so [...]

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On the Chinese solar calendar Li Qiu, the Beginning of Autumn, falls this year on Thursday, August 7th (it’s always either the 7th, 8th or 9th). Should we look for a favorable change in winds and weather, and, if it happens, what would that mean? This is a test.

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