Black Friday sales have long since started, and I’m now just wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Don’t worry, I hardly forgot about my favorite holiday. The past two weeks, I’ve been running around town getting prepared for the big meal — deciding on dishes, hunting down the ingredients, buying necessary host-wares. It was exhausting, to […]
The past midterm elections were the first elections I got to witness from afar, not mired in the political machine that warps reality and makes normally intelligent and sane people go bonkers. America is so ugly when it comes to campaigning. For me, the reality of a midterm election had been looming somewhere in the […]
This is apropos of nothing. Coming from a background of both journalism and political science, I am still completely bewildered by how there is so much misinformation out there concerning our political (i.e., social) affairs. I rant a lot about how the Chinese government and media are so adept at muddling facts that it’s almost […]
No, not because of the freedom. It has a better postal system. Post offices worldwide are dismal places to be, akin to the county jail or maybe the local morgue. But at least USPS delivers packages in a timely and inexpensive way. To wit: I mailed a 3-pound package to San Francisco two weeks and […]
I haven’t seen a bottle of this Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 (going for 300 kuai for a 750-milliliter bottle, or more than $44) yet, but Evan Osnos’ story about the appearance of Pabst in China reminded me of a single can of P.B.R. I saw last year in Dandong on a cart selling various snacks […]
Two special things today this year: 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square … incident. National Doughnut Day, celebrated the first Friday of June every year. Krispy Kreme is handing out free doughnuts! Alas, it’s only “national” and not “international,” so even though there is now a lonely KK in Shanghai, I don’t know if it […]
After a glorious weekend during which I discovered American-worthy sandwiches and American-worthy pie, I am going to try my luck for American-worthy pretzels. I’m going after work in search of Auntie Anne’s, that American pretzel icon, which is located somewhere in my larger neighborhood. Yay pretzels!
Why can’t the Chinese invest in some air-freshening products? I know air fresheners aren’t necessities, so they’re reluctant to waste precious monetary resources on such frivolities. But my nose and sense of smell really wish they would indulge for once every time I go to the bathroom. Am I ever again going to be able […]
Food problems exist on both sides of the world, not just in China. According to this WaPo article, food fraud is rampant in the U.S., with suppliers labeling cheaper goods as something much more expensive. John Spink, an expert on food and packaging fraud at Michigan State University, estimates that 5 to 7 percent of […]
And Google has left China. After finding hackers had violated some of their users’ Gmail accounts last December and threatening to pull out, Google had kept mum about what it’s final decision will be. It shut down its google.cn site yesterday and is redirecting all traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong site in a final […]