Interesting Article on Newspapers in the U.S.

A friend forwarded this to me and I think it is absolutely funny, and, to the purpose of generalization, true. I wonder what the list will look like if we're comparing newspapers in China...Anyone want to give it a try?

Demographics of American Newspapers

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country, but don't really understand The New York Times. They do, however, like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country -- if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country . . or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happens to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
12. The Sacramento Bee is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something in which to wrap it.

好心做壞事

今天上班時,看到一位仁兄騎著電單車在路上穿梭,仔細一看,他在掛車牌的位置,放了一個牌,牌上寫著一句大意是"不要殺生,改吃素吧"的標語(忘了原文是甚麼),然後頭盔上又印了一句"Meat is cruel"之類的口號(也是忘了原文是甚麼),我和老公看了,相視而笑.


回到公司,又看到了紐約時報一則新聞,內容大致是保護動物團體Peta開展了一個以吃肉會導致global warming為主題的宣傳計劃.


我自知太貪吃,一定不會做素食者,但我並不會岐視素食者,而且身邊也有不少只吃素的朋友.可是今天碰上的兩件事情,讓我想起了一句話:"好心做壞事".何解?我深明那位騎鐵馬的男子跟Peta一樣,都是希望引起大眾關注愛護動物的重要,前者的做法,我認為並無不可,但後者嘛,就讓人感到有點強辭奪理,嘩眾取寵了.


吃肉本身是不會導致地球升溫的;大量及不當的飼養方式才是global warming的原凶.Peta這趟亂扣帽子,便令人非常反感了.


就像其他葷食動物一般,吃肉是人的本能,所謂一物治一物,我們只是食物鏈上的一員,並不應因為吃肉而感到罪咎.換個角度看,蚊子散播登革熱,我們殘害蚊子,難道我們就是喪盡天良嗎?


是,我知道那頭牛那隻雞那尾魚沒有對我們造成生命威脅,但若果我們以人道的方法飼養然後屠宰牠們,我實在看不出有何不當.


或許,以上這些廢話都是我為自己貪吃而編出來的謬論,或是我作為中國人所以深信四腳朝天皆可食的詭辯,更有可能是我的思想太backwards,根本看不出事實的真相.但我敢肯定Peta這次市場攻勢,必會惹人反感,結果令人認定保護動物團體只求激進,妄顧現實,吃力又不討好.


好心,有時是會做壞事的.

暱稱

我手可以寫我口,但我這人天生不善辭令,永遠不能我口講我心.

平日一般社交應對當然沒有問題,但一旦要表達內心情感,我便會舌頭打結.有幾杯酒到肚壯膽還勉強可以,沒有的話,只好把說話都吞到肚裡了.

我是個追求社交和諧的人,所以最怕出口傷人,說話時總愛顧左右而言他,毫不蕭灑.故此我最愛與爽快敢言的人交朋友,一來是這些人性格一般可親,二來是希望自己有話說不出口時,也有他們替我出口嘛!

不要說我跟朋友未必能暢所欲言,更令人難以置信的是,我跟丈夫結婚五年多,還是不知該怎麼稱呼他.不知怎的,我實在不能接受自己喚他作honey, baby之類的暱稱,但叫他的名字又太生外,我有時索性叫他"喂"便算了.

行為或肌膚上的親暱我是完全沒有問題的,我和他在公眾場合拉手,親咀也不會感到尷尬,但就是不能大大方方的喚他作親愛的.奇怪的是,我也不怕對他說我愛你,但暱稱嘛,偏偏就是說不出口.

這算不算是phobia的一種?我也不清楚,但總認為這怪異行為是我內心某種不安的投射,可是到現在仍然找不出答案,有時也會讓我感到點點困惑.

My Other Self

Okay. I have finally decided to launch a separate blog devoted for knitting.

The name of the blog is Spinning My Yarn. And it is up and running! Please visit my other self and release the knitter in you!

Cool chicks knit! Yay!

雲吞

雖然正寫是餛飩,但我還是喜歡廣東的寫法--一口把雲吞進肚子裡,多詩意啊!

自少愛吃雲吞,但母親大人嫌麻煩,從來不會自己包,只會到街市買,或者索性到食店吃.

到我中學時開始有家政課,第一樣老師教我們做的便是雲吞.那周未趕緊在家動手做, 母親吃後大讚不絶--我媽是個最偏私的食評,但凡是我做的東西,她只會說好.也許我便是在她不斷鼓勵下對煮食愈來愈有興趣,愈煮愈有信心了.畢業以後,便很少自己開灶,更遑論要包雲吞了.

兩年多前開始,我又再動手包雲吞.一來因為所需的材料在一般洋人超市也不難買到,甚為方便;二來是雲吞真的像雲一樣軟綿綿,我的孩子未足一歲,我便開始餵雲吞給他吃,見他吃得開心,我便做得暢快.

有兩款雲吞是我最愛做的,第一款是以免治豬肉加上上海白菜,喜歡的話也可加上少許雪裡紅吊味.以蔬菜做雲吞餡料,最重要是先把菜切碎,然後抓一把鹽與之拌勻,待數分鐘,水份會從菜中流出,把水隔去,不妨再用手擠出更多水份,那煮出來的雲吞便不會水汪汪不夠味.

另一款是以魚肉加紅蘿蔔,魚可以是任何白肉魚,我喜歡用朧脷,因為就算不是游水鮮魚,味道也還算鮮,而且骨大易去.做法跟上述的菜肉餡大致相同,紅蘿蔔同樣要以鹽抓過,隔去水份, 再跟魚肉碎拌勻便可.

還有一款雲吞我是相當愛吃的,可惜現在也很難找到了,那就是錦滷雲吞了.還記得兒時愛跟媽媽兩份吃一客,我最喜歡在橙紅色的酸汁中尋寶,魷魚啦,雞肝啦...

不要說在這荒蕪德州難找到錦滷雲吞,就是在香港也不是隨便找到.要自己做,又沒有食譜照版煮碗,無計可施下,唯有得個恨字.

Racist, really?

I was reading this article just the other day. It's basically about a Canadian who tries to figure out why he is often called a racist. And then last Monday, something happened that makes me think about one more time this issue called racism.

So what actually happened? It's not that big a deal, really. But a group from a major oil company in Vietnam took a visit to where I work. One of the group members was extremely rude, and my colleague, who's a relatively young lady who grew up in Texas and didn't have a lot of experience working with people from other cultures (Well, in Texas, you're a foreigner if you're from California. Imagine that.). She got a little offended by the Vietnamese guy because he kept asking her to take pictures for him in a very rude manner - no thank you or please, & gesturing instead of speaking. I was suspecting this made her think that Vietnamese are very rude in general. And, because of how she reacted, it's easy for an outsider to think she is discriminatory toward Vietnamese.

It is, of course, unfair to make generalizations like this. But at the same time, it is easy if this is your only encounter with people from that culture. Depending on the context, an individual does not only represent his/her self, but also the family, community, and culture that one is from.

Is she racist? Or is the rude Vietnamese guy racist? Probably neither of them are. But I can see it would be easy for anyone to think they are because of what happened.

I remember when I was in Hong Kong, my foreigner friends would complain to me that Chinese are racist. I never understood why. I think Hong Kong people are generally not racist. They're just discriminatory to people with no money.

Is it racist to call a Caucasian gweilo/gweipor (ghost man/ghost woman)? I genuinely don't think so. When we say gwei, we don't really mean anything bad about the westerner we're addressing to. It's just a name that we've been using for so many years that it's hard to change.

My husband is black. When we're in Hong Kong, some people would call him haak gwei (black ghost). At first, I felt a little uneasy about the name. But after a while, I realize that it's just a name that distinguishes him from other ghosts.

One time when we were driving in Houston, we asked a passerby how to get to China town. This person was obviously not very educated. He gave us the directions and then he said, "You'll see a lot of Chinamen there."

So was he being racist? Probably not. I know some Chinese get really upset about the name Chinaman. But I think, at least in this incident, that the guy was just using a phrase that he knew. He didn't know better. What did he know about racism, honestly? When he was giving us directions, he looked nothing but genuinely eager to help.

It's a fine line between racism and otherwise. But in the U.S., I feel like some people are using every chance they get to accuse someone of being racist so as to take advantage of it.

Take the N-word for example. It's okay for a black stand-up comedian to address himself by the N-word, but if any white person say an African-American (This term is itself problematic. My husband hates it. He's of African heritage but is from the Carribeans. So he never considers himself an "African".) is an N----, it's an absolute no-no.

Especially in the U.S., I think a lot of politicians are using the race issue as a tool to get what they want.

It's easy to say someone is racist, but before we make the accusation, we should really think about the motives or reason behind the obvious.

一個還是兩個?

雖然經常被人問這個問題, 但我說的是網誌而不是孩子的數目.

秋季快到了,又是我另一興趣出閘的時候--織冷衫.最近四出搜購了不少新毛線,待天氣稍涼便可馬上行動.

我想在網誌裡紀錄自己的projects,但又怕會令網誌精分裂,所以想到不如多開一個專為我的手作仔而設的blog,可是想來想去都不知究竟該開還是不開--我連一個泊都post得這麼疏落,再多一個恐怕支持不了,各位網友有何高見?

P.S. 這陣子事忙,整個星期沒有新post,這兩天會趕快寫文會眾,請見諒!

Guilt of a Working Mom

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my career. What and where do I want to be in 5 years? Am I getting anywhere in this job that I seem to enjoy so far? Or do I want to pursue something else? With my son going to kindergarten next year, these are the questions I have to ask myself, as a mom and as an individual.

One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to be a stay-home mom. I am by no means a workaholic nor am I career-crazy. I just know that I'm not, and never will be, a good housewife. It's probably an excuse, but I have to say I suck at household chores. I can keep the house moderately clean and organized, but never spotless, an interestingly sharp contrast to what my husband can do.

Yet on the other hand, I have this increasing urge to spend more time with my son, especially when he'll be starting real school in just a few years. I want to be there when he comes home from school and help him with his homework. I want to do art projects with him. I want to make him treats while he's doing his homework. My mom is a housewife, and I know how precious the experience is for a child to have someone by your side whenever you need help and guidance.

I feel bad that I don't spend enough time with my kid - between working, cooking and sleeping, I probably spend no more than 3 hours a day with my son (well, except for the weekends). At the same time, the idea of being a housewife drives me nuts. And, so there's this strong sense of guilt in me that I don't know how to deal with.

Men don't struggle as much, if at all, on this issue. Women are supposed to nurture their children, not men. I know this is the 21st century and everything, but I guess I'm more of a traditionalist than I think.

Anyway, I'll use the next few months to explore what options I have in life, and make sense of what's best for me and my family.

標準淪陷

上星期看了這則新聞, 內容是中國官方新聞網站新華網的英文版本, 竟然在一篇極嚴肅的醫學報導中, 以卡通人物Homer Simpson 的X光照片作為附圖! 而且還要過了三天, 才在高人提點下把附圖抽起. 事件當中, 不但沒有人需要負責任, 甚至連例行的 "更正啟示" 也久奉. 其中的馬虎, 不得不叫人刮目相看!

熟知新聞運作的朋友, 都應該知道一篇報導刋出之前, 起碼要通過幾個關口, 才可得見天日. 就是規模較小的媒體, 也最少要經由寫手到排版到編輯過目才可出街. 今次的事件, 除了反映出部份中國媒介工作者的不認真, 還透示了當代中國的另一嚴峻危機 -- 欠缺標準的建制.

從食物安全到假新聞, 中國出品給人的感覺是anything goes, 沒有甚麼是不可能的, 今天是有毒牙膏, 明天又可以是紙皮大包, 無規無矩, 話乜就乜. 長此下去, 公信力盡失之餘, 經濟損失更是沉重.

這些問題的存在, 我個人認為是現代中國欠缺一套批判好與壞的完備準則, 所以很多東西都是做了出來便可以了, 凡事都只求形似, 內涵是甚麼都不打緊. 就算出了事, 當事人也會理直氣壯的跟你說: "一分錢一分貨嘛!"

我有一位大陸來的同事, 是大學裡的研究生, 工作態良好, 做事也挺勤快, 可就是不理解 "標準" 的重要. 每次我要她替我做一些資料搜集, 她總是把資料從網上結集到同一文案上便交給我, 完全沒有經過編輯過濾, 字體大小顏色不一, 版面也一點沒有修飾, 看得我頭昏腦脹. 嘗試跟她解釋formatting的重要, 她卻認為那只是西方人愛玩的花臣而已, 中國人還是要踏實點好. 結果我要跟她多番對話, 才讓她了解有一些基本是必須的.

撇開存心撿財的奸商不說, 內地一些生意人之所以出售次貨, 可能只是出於無知. 在缺乏產品及行業認識的情形下開展有關生意, 加上業內沒有基本準則可循, 他們天真的以為甲原料與乙原料的唯一不同只是價錢的高低, 於是便毫不猶豫的捨貴取廉, 釀成惡果.

你會說, 難道他們連一點點的常識也沒有嗎? 要知道所謂的常識, 是我們日常經驗與文化洗滴下得出來的, 內地人在跟我們完全不一樣的文化下成長, 培育出來的常識自然與我們的有些出入了. 我們的理所當然, 可能是他們的為甚麼不.

我不是要為誰辯護, 只是希望從另一個角度看這問題, 試圖找出解決辦法. 有時我會想, 這一輩的中國人是後文革一代, 要在拋卻所有傳統準則之後再找出新標準, 實在並不易為, 但若不加快腳步趕齊國際步伐, 我恐怕中國會在經濟起飛的高峰上被重重擲下, 落得遍體鱗傷.

Cheap, but good

Me and my husband are both cheapskates (though him more so than I am, ha!), and we're not ashamed of it. As a matter of fact, we're even proud of it. One of our favorite weekend activities is to find cheap but amazing wines at local grocery stores. Whenever we found something we like, we'd be very excited.

The good thing about cheap wines is that you can drink it without guilt. You don't have to worry about saving it for some special occasion. It's just some table wine that you can enjoy any time you want to. If you like it, great. If you don't, you won't feel being ripped off.

Our recent pleasant discovery is the Folie a Deux Menage a Trois Red, which costs only about $10 a bottle. When it's on sale at Albertson's or World Market, you can even get it at $8.99.

The taste of this wine has as much character as its name. It's fruity yet not overly sweet; it's peppery but smooth and silky; it has a firm tanin while the mouth feel is rich. It has a complexity that most cheaper wines lack.

The "Trois" in the name comes from the 3 varieties of grapes that was used: Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. These 3 grapes are fermented separately, then blended together before bottling. That's probably why you'll discover something new in every sip.

What food goes well with it? Well, for less than ten bucks a bottle, I'd say, just experiment! It tastes great with or without food. But, if you insist to have food with it, any tomato-based pasta or chicken would be wonderful accompaniment.