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June 11
The weekend before Memorial Day, MJ, CY and I had a tour of Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, a small Missouri town.
I never fell madly in love with literature. I finished reading few literary masterpieces in the traditional sense. They could be counted on the fingers of two hands, if not one. None of those fingers are allocated for Mark Twain's most noted works "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "the Adventures of Tom Sawyer". But thanks to the language lessons in high school, every student learnt about Mark Twain among other masters. His "Million Pound Note" and "Running for Governor" were quite absorbing, even to me who then wallowed in love stories.
Speaking of high school, I recall our language teacher used to insert one or two interesting and tricky questions, similar to brain quiz, in our monthly or quarterly tests. One of them was about Mark Twain: Mark Twain talked to a reporter at a cocktail party "Some congressmen are sons of bitches". Conceivably he was under fire after such a strikingly bold speech and was required to apologize. Finally he revised it by adding one word but stuck to his original intent. How did he get there? Yes, as you may know, he added "NOT" so the sentence went like "Some congressmen are NOT sons of bitches!" It might be just a joke, but why not believe? It is in line with Mark Twain's style, a mixture of wit, humor and satire, having anti-Congress arguments down to a fine art.
Mark Twain was hailed as "Father of American Literature". It's undeniable that the adventures he experienced shaped his life, colored his writings, and partly accounted for his success. He was once a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River among other occupations. In fact, that experience on the river was the inspiration for his pen name (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens). In his days, a leadline was used to determine water depth. Among other marks on the leadline, Mark One means 6 feet, and Mark Twain means 12 feet. The latter was a frequent call of the leadsman and indicated safe water for sailing. That's a gain in knowledge from this tour, but not the only one...
Before wrapping up the trip, we entered SUBWAY to grab a bite to eat. When it was my turn, I blurted out " I'd like white bread, six feet, chicken teriyaki!" "You mean… six inches," murmured the attendant. Oh, my! No wonder several other guests nearby raised their head up from the tray and look at me, weirdly. In what circumstance you wanna dig a hole and hide in? That's it. Anyway, finally I got my Six-Inch sandwich. But since then CY and MJ dubbed me 'Mark One"L
April 29
I rarely have appetite for talent shows, either Chinese "Super (Voice) Girl" or "American Idol", let alone "Britain's Got Talent" in UK, which I hadn't heard about. However, three people in three places, at diffent time on the same day(last Monday), tingling with same excitement, spoke to me of Susan Boyle, a singing sensation in "Britain's Got Talent".
As the Chinese proverb says, "three men make a tiger" --If repeated enough times, a lie will be accepted as a truth. Certainly I don't think Qiqi, Linda and ZL would lie, but it is highly likely that they happen to have the same eye so they were all wowed by that Scottish singer. All three emphasized her frumpish appearance and magic voice. Probably it is just the sharp contrast between look and sound that helped her win over the audience. I was chomping at the bit to watch her audition online so that I could tell it is a lie (an overstatement in this case) or a truth, a tiger or a cat.
After listening to her singing "I dreamed a dream" from the musical "Les Miserables", I have to admit Susan Boyle is a "tiger", a crouching tiger?! HohoJ
March 11 Although the media is flooded with bad stories, I didn't feel the economy had become that ugly until I saw this episode from "60 Minutes" on CBS: a middle-aged man carrying a safety deposit box rushed into a local bank, just taken over by FDIC, to draw money. He feared that his bank would go bust and he would end up with nothing. That guy was really exaggerating since FDIC insurance covers his one hundred grand (250 grand in 2009). But as some have said, what if FDIC collapses? Who knows!
With no immediate end in sight to the downturn and the picture even getting bleaker, most people tighten up their purse strings more or less. On my part, I have been, in a regular manner, clipping coupons, which I used to forget to do. Before heading to the stores (most of time for grocery shopping), I jump online or into mountains of brochures, leaflets, where I scour for coupons. However, the saving plan doesn't work well for me. Since I became keen on coupons, rebates, and deals, I extend, rather than pause on, my dispensable purchases. I even brought home a guitar at discount. I had long been flirting with the idea of learning guitar, but I know it is the discount that finally spurred me to it. I guess it soon will be shelved, as well as the coupon clipping. January 03 I was pigging in Lanxi days ago, but now I am racking my brains for what to bite for next meal. "There is no place like home. " If only we all had ruby slippers like Dorothy's to take us back home with a tap, in a wink ...
凉月如眉挂柳湾，越中山色镜中看。兰溪三日桃花雨，半夜鲤鱼来上滩。----戴叔伦 November 26
Since the end of last month, Minjie has been working from home for another company. I frowned at his jumping ship because I think job security is above something, if not everything, at such a critical time with a global financial crisis. Should the breadwinner fail to earn their bread, the housewife might really turn desperate.
One month passed, MJ remains psyched about his new tasks and I haven't felt it inconvenient his working from home, and taking business trips once in a while. So far so good, even better if his working background music could be updated, for example, zài huí shǒu, wàng qíng shuǐ, yesterday once more and the like. They are fine, but imagine they are played in a loop-based manner ...Anyway, hope everything is going fine with his new job and he can experience what he wants.
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