Posts by Jolisa
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
(nobody, not even the rain, has such clever hands)
-
Ian - I bow, rainlike, to your poetic genius.
-
I reckon he'd be a laugh on E.
Like this guy, whatever he's on? Goes to show, party central is where you find it:
-
Amy, that is indeed a super-awesome pamphlet and I'd totally forgotten about it, although at the time it reminded me strongly of the super-awesome nihonjinron material I'd been given as a foreign student in Japan.
I re-read it with a sort of worried/horrified/"awww, bless" expression on my face, as if I was looking at a kitten that had just been rescued from a storm drain.
Favourite bits:
Frequent bathing and the use of chemical deodorants, perfumes, and soaps may not be necessary for one's health, but they may have an effect on a person's social relationships in the U.S.
People from other cultures sometimes see the large number of casual relationships that Americans have as their reluctance to become deeply involved with others. ... This casual friendliness should not be mistaken for deep or intimate friendships which are developed over a long period of time.
Americans place considerable value on punctuality. Because they tend to organize their activities by means of schedules, they may seem harried, always running from one thing to the next and unable to relax and enjoy themselves.
-
Back to the heatwave, or Heatwave: there has to be a word for what MM is doing to that song. "Sing" just doesn't cover it, really. I love how her sequined brassiere gets a whole line all to itself.
Plus, Deep South -- oooER!
And the Who - the Whuh? the How?! the HELL??! I'm suffering a bad case of Eurovision* after that. What next, the Beatles doing I've Got a Loverly Bunch of Coconuts?
Happy birthday, Ringo, by the way. Peace and love!
(Alas, "Only Mr God Knows Why," Anthony Lane's excellent account of this year's Eurovision Song Contest is not available online, but I thoroughly recommend you get hold of a copy of the 28 June issue of the New Yorker, and suffer through it, as he did, and as I did just by reading about it. Now, that's what I call embedded reporting -- and he did it without a kevlar flak jacket, or earplugs).
-
What Amy said. Especially about the sob-related baggage allowance, although I have been refused even when bawling. What you need, if that happens, is a shameless Mum who will turn to the carry-on-baggage-only Japanese businessman in the queue behind you and say "You look like a kind man. Would you mind checking in one of my poor daughter's suitcases for her?"
(NB this may only work pre 9/11/01, and with my actual Mum).
Also: clothes-shopping is pretty cheap over here, if you need to supplement your stuff. It's also really quite boring. So if you are a femmey clothes-horse-type like, ah, me, do bring a suitcase full of uniquely gorgeous NZ-made skirts. I wear mine year-round, with strappy tank-tops in summer, and layers of merino and tights & boots in winter. It gets me through. Otherwise, it's khakis, khakis, and more khakis, with the odd pair of jeans.
Berkeley mid-August, for This-Is-America, Plagiarism-Is-Bad indoctrination
Wow, that's new since I arrived. I think we had America-is-Bad, This-is-Plagiarism? But it was the Clinton/internet bubble years, though, so maybe we just got the America-Fuck-Yeah! seminar. Amy, do you recall?
-
Could never fathom why he was scared of the former, but not the latter.
For the same ineffable reason we are all terrified of nuns? (I don't know why; I just know that when my 4 year old sees the large blue nuns from over the road going walkabout, he hides behind me and growls "I hate those grannies").
Disclaimer: my favourite teacher ever was a nun of such celestial sweetness and intelligence that I still think of her often and would write her a fan letter if I knew where she was.
Undisclaimer: my least favourite teacher ever was also a nun, and if I knew where she was, I would give chase, and then give her the strap for running in the corridor.
Nuns, mummies, hairballs... what is this, the summer-camp Things That Go Bump in the Night scary story thread?
-
On the other hand, if the socks had Union Jacks on them, would it be all right?
-
Oh Ian, you can't do that and not post the video...
I do question the fact that it's raining men who are wearing undies with sports socks, though. That's... problematic.
-
Or No Jersey?
Oh, gracefully done!
From the Weather Underground (no, not that one, this one):
A record high temperature of 103 degrees was set at Newark NJ at 1234 PM (ldt) today. This breaks the old record of 102 set in 1999
The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising... maybe we will need that New Ark sooner than we think?