Take a Cruiser with All Hands

Many Americans cheered when Osama bin Laden was killed. Some people said that was in poor taste. Osama was a bad guy to most of us. He was a terrorist. He was responsible for the murder of thousands of people. Sane people would not mourn his death. But openly applauding the murder of a fellow human being is a bit much for some.

My personal view is that people can cheer his death as much as they want. He was evil. Plenty of people are vilified and characterised as evil but he truly was. I did not applaud his death but I do not mourn him either.

Many Brits are now cheering Margaret Thatcher’s death. Some Americans say it is all in poor taste. Maggie was a bad person to many. She was not a terrorist by any stretch of the imagination. But one could argue that she was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. Though I doubt she ever ordered anybody to strap on a bomb and blow up children.

I will not mourn her death. She was the leader of a country with which I have no special connection. I reacted to news of her death in the same way that I reacted to the death of Roger Ebert. Neither was a particular surprise.

A glaring difference between Thatcher and Osama, other than the terrorism and democratic elections, is that one of them was the active leader of his group while the other had been out of power for more than 20 years. I can see rejoicing when Thatcher left office. But there seems little point in gloating at her death. If you think she was a terrible leader who ruined your country, fair enough. But she stopped doing that a long time ago. Dying changed nothing.

Americans, those people who were called gauche when Osama died, rejoiced when Richard Nixon resigned. I don’t remember any of them cheering when he died. Perhaps the British could learn something from their backwoods cousins.

Places I’ll Remember All My Life

I don’t normally get nostalgic when government documents expire but when I passed through the pages of this passport I saw all of those stamps and visas. There are a lot of memories to go with each stamp. I don’t generally collect memorabilia. I never keep ticket stubs or packets. The only souvenirs I buy on trips are for other people. You will not find many chotchkies around my house. Usually the only reminders I have of trips are pictures, memories and all of those stamps on my passport.

Rest in peace, tiny book of stamps.


RIP

[Updated occasionally]

China
Japan
Indonesia
Korea
China again
Thailand
Israel
Cambodia
Hong Kong
Maldives

Separated By a Common Language

Want to take a drive? Most of the English speaking world and former British territories drive on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. So does Japan for some reason. America and the rest of the world drives the opposite.

South Africans drive on nationals, as in N12 to Witbank. Americans drive on the interstate, as in I5 to San Diego. Brits drive on motorways, as in M1 to Leeds. A circle in RSA is a traffic circle in US and a roundabout in UK. When you reach one be sure to use your directional in RSA, turn indicator in UK, turn signal in US. Once you arrive in RSA use a parkade, a car park in UK, a parking lot in US. Watch out for robots in RSA. I don’t think anybody else does.

It's All Greece To Me

And a little slice of Turkey, too.

Not the golden fleece, Volos

Mykonos

Panagia Paraportiani, Mykonos

Oia, Santorini

For years I’ve been looking at similar pictures of Santorini and thinking this church commanded a space at the top of a hill surrounded by nothing but sky and sea.

Not even close.

Santorini is famous for its sunsets.
A blind monkey couldn’t take a bad picture here.

The famous lighthouse in Chania, Crete

Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania, the lone survivor

A view of Chania, featuring Kioutsouk Hasan Mosque

A view from Chania

The Acropolis at Lindos, Rhodes

Acropolyptic

St, Paul’s Bay, seen from the Acropolis

Izmir, Turkey

Konak Square, Izmir

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
formerly a church then a mosque now a museum

Galata, Istanbul, seen from Sultanahmet

Sultan Ahmet Mosque, very large and very peaceful inside.
Hagia Sophia was noisy and crowded and they’re renovating.
Since the Blue Mosque is an actual mosque it was much more relaxed.

Since I know somebody’s going to want some nude beach pictures, here you are

Warning: just looking at this picture will make you want to marry a goat.

Make Mine a Double, Isaac (or Greece is the Word)

The next day we arrived in Mykonos. This was more like the Greece I wanted to see. There were too many tourists but Ria and I found a way around them. While the oldsters took a bus tour of the shuffleboard museum and a pelican, Ria and I hired scooters and wandered about the island. The pelican part is not a joke. There is actually a famous pelican that people go to see. Ria and I did not see any pelicans but we found a great little beach. I think Mr Ya’acov would have had a heart attack had he gone with us. All those bare young bodies would have put him over the edge. Ria is not as textile liberated as I am but you know what they say. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When on a Greek beach, take off your clothes.

Interview with My Grandmother

Yom huledet same'ach. Ani ohevet otach.

Der Körper und das Fleisch

[Warning: This post contains 2 graphic images. One is from a movie. It’s fake. Mostly makeup and rubber. It’s not real. The other is from a public execution. It’s not visually graphic but some may find it disturbing anyway. Otherwise everything else is safe for all ages in my opinion.]


Acceptable for all audiences

Restricted

Legal

Illegal

Decent

Indecent

Beachwear around the world
Switzerland

Israel

South Afrika

China

Saudi Arabia

All pictures above are probably under copyright but I’m not going to bother finding out who owns what. The film stills are from Tokyo zankoku keisatsu (© Fever Dreams) and American Beauty (© DreamWorks).

Cunning Linguists

Some would say Jie Yi speaks two languages, 中文 [Chinese] and 英語 [English]. She would say she speaks four, 官話 [Mandarin], 吳語 [Wu], 徽語 [Hui] and 英語 [English]. This is where it gets interesting, to me at least. I can recognise how this might be very boring to some. If 中文 is a language then 官話 and 吳語 are dialects. If 中文 is really a linguistic group then 官話 and 吳語 are languages. No matter how you want to classify these things 徽語 is really a dialect of 吳語. It’s like calling 美語 and 英語 different languages. They are but they’re really not.

I’m undecided. If they’re all really dialects then why do each of them have their own dialects? And why do they sound so different? Somebody speaking 官話 might not recognise somebody speaking 吳語. But if they’re really different languages then why do they all have the same written language for the most part? If you can read 中文 then you can read 官話, 吳語, 徽語.

Father’s Day

I stayed with Mother in Israel for a while after Papa died. It was nice to be so close to the family but I don’t know if I can live there permanently. I’m the last one. Everybody wants me to but I have some political issues with Israel. I know I won’t stay in China permanetly but I don’t know how long I’ll be here or where I’ll go next. I’d love to try other parts of Asia or even South America. Israel should still be there when I’m done.

I think Papa would tell me to keep exploring.