Our planned trip to Bangkok to see friends and my wayward cousin came down with a slight case of politics. So we turned it around and went to Singapore for Thanksgiving instead. As long as you don't break any minor laws or criticize the government, Singapore's a fine place to visit. Instead of closed-in restaurants, the city forces street food vendors to gather together in open-air food courts with running water, bathrooms and cleaning staff. Kinda eliminates the excitement of just finding random snacks, but on the plus side there's no better place to eat in the world than a food court selling roti prata, laksa and spicy fish soup. I've gained -- and this is no exaggeration -- 1.6 million pounds. That's right -- Einsteinian space-time now bends around me.

Also, it's impossible to find college football scores here, so I just now found out we beat Mizzou. I'm a happy little boy. Can the New York Norlosers tell me whether Hellx has crawled down from the ceiling yet?

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What's the deal with KU against Syracuse in big games?

* 1996 Regional Finals
* 2003 National Finals
* 2008 CBE Finals

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Apparently there's been a bit of a furor about somebody who wrote in "Lizard People" on his ballot in the Minnesota Senate race. This was originally counted as an overvote, but I agree with the Franken campaign that it should be counted for Franken. If you look at the larger ballot, you'll notice that he wrote in "Lizard People" in the write-in candidate space, but did not black out the oval next to it as he did in the other races.

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It's one of those racist words that a lot of people don't really see as racist, or perhaps use ironically. It's no great stretch for me to understand why people can get offended by it. Still, for conveying meaning it's a great word, one that I wish was usable in polite company because everybody knows exactly what you mean when you say it. I also feel that way about "tar baby."

The Putonghua version of "ghetto" is pretty cool, and less offensive: 山寨, or "shanzhai," meaning "mountain stronghold." I'll just copy and paste from the awesome Web site -- Black and White Cat -- I learned this from:

...literally “mountain stronghold” in reference to historical warlord holdouts that were outside of government control. A “shanzhai” edition product thus refers to products outside of government regulations that are widely reflected in the numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today.

Thus, a shanzhai train:

Check out the link for more trains.

And over at an occasionally not-safe-for-work-but-always-interesting site called ChinaSMACK, is a shanzhai brand:

Check out more shanzhai brands at ChinaSMACK. I also like this one:

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Yesterday, after symbolically pardoning a turkey, Sarah Palin conducted a three minute interview as other turkeys were being slaughtered in the background.

H/T: memeorandum

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In Mandarin it means "cat king." And we don't mean this:

This is the Cat King:

A co-worker explains this morning that more people in China know Elvis as "Maowang" than know his real name. Which, mathematically speaking, makes it possible that more people on earth know him by that name.

Why the hell "Maowang"? My co-worker thinks it might be his sideburns. This guy thinks it's because he was once called "The Hillbilly Cat."

But wait. Did he also go by that name in Japan?

This is why we have American studies majors. Go get 'em, culture detectives.

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On Friday I stopped by Bar Tano after the evening performance of the latest show that I worked on. I grabbed a seat at the bar next to this guy who looked familiar. So I said, "you look really familiar." He said, "you do, too." Then it hit me where I knew him from: he works at Slope Cellars.

We strike up a conversation and he's actually familiar with Lawrence and Madison and said that he had really fond memories of playing at the Outhouse. Finally I asked him who he played with. It turns out he's the drummer for Alice Donut (above with Killdozer). Who'd a thunk?

On Saturday evening, I stopped by Safe Haven (in the space where Bar BQ was located) after two shows and a shift at Vin Rouge. It'd been a long day. I was just chatting with one of the owners, when a song by the Drive By Truckers came on. She gets quiet for a second and then says, "he may be a good singer, but he was a shitty husband. It turns out that she's the ex-wife of the singer. Who'd a thunk?

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7:30: I can't help it. I just get up.

7:35: Kansas played last night! How'd we do.

7:36: Shit.

7:38: Ok, brew tea.

7:41: Goddamn it, we could have won the Big 12 North.

7:59: Guess we could still beat Mizzou.

8:30: Web sites of NYT, FT and my latest favorite read, the South China Morning Post, completed. I contemplate.

8:31: Verdict: The world is fucked.

8:32: Wonder what's on Phog.net.

9:40: I should probably go for a run.

9:59: Yes, a run.

10:12: I mean, now.

11:17: Well, look who's up. And how did you sleep, Dr. No?

11:21: Yeah, sure, I'll buy you breakfast. Because we have a refrigerator full of eggs and onions and tortillas. Yes. Good idea.

12:15: OK, local Vietnamese place was an awesome idea after all.

12:52-3 p.m.: Read weekend FT and SCMP, front to back. Drink Victoria Bitter.

3-5: There's some work. Not much. Time to play Spore!

6:30: The 'hood got its first wine shop! Sign says there's a tasting!

7:04: No tasting. In other news, wine from India? Maybe good idea in concept.

Rest of evening: Drine wine. Eat chicken. Watch Deadwood. Play piano. Nice to have a quiet Sunday for a change.

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When I heard promos for this movie on the radio, I just thought that Terrance McKnight just had problems pronouncing "Schenectady"...

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evil loop

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Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

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Dr. No and I honored the event in an old-timey way -- Indian curry lunch buffet and the BBC, which interviewed Gore Vidal. In other news, Gore Vidal is old. And insane.

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Slate has an interesting article about partisanship in kids. I found it interesting mainly because I was that über-liberal kid and because it used a photo of store mannequins wearing Obama masks:

As soon as I saw it, I rolled my eyes because I see those every single day and I find them really creepy.

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From Obama's final rally of the campaign:

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Rachel Trachtenburg, of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, is fourteen years old now and supports term limits for NYC politicians.

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Hellx is attracting national attention again:

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...but the death of his grandmother seals the deal. There is no way that McCain can come back now. There is no conceivable way that McCain can break through the sympathetic narrative of a man standing on the brink of the presidency who loses one of the women who raised him.

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After nearly two years, the 2008 presidential campaign is drawing to a close. Barack Obama has now spent so much time as the front runner speaking in front of ginormous crowds and appearing presidential that it's useful to look back to just one year ago. At the time, Clinton was leading Obama 44% to 25% and he was speaking to groups that numbered in the hundreds, not tens of thousands:

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That wild finish between Texas and Texas Tech reminded me of this game between Plano East High School and John Tyler High School.

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In my dream, while the job in Hong Kong was a great opportunity for Mr. Guapo, the real reason that he accepted it is because he is a transgendered individual and the Guapos thought it would be easier for Mr. Guapo to transition to a female in a place where nobody knew him as a male. In Hong Kong, Mr. Guapo came across a bit of information about the McCain campaign receiving money from the opium kingpins of southeast asia that he posted to Norlos.

The post resulted in Norlos being inundated with hate posts from the right wing. Mr. Guapo's response to this was to post a video of him dressed as a woman having sex with Dr. No at the top of the blog to welcome the right wingers. Let me just say, that Mr. Guapo was distressingly attractive in my dream as a woman...

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