Month: December 2004

The day after the longest night

Last night was the winter solstice, which is apparently some Chinese excuse to freeze and eat a lot of good Chinese food made by P’s mom. P and I get into the house, drop our stuff and immediately make our way back out to go to the fruit stand.
(in Cantonese)
P’s mom: Where are you going?
P: FC wants to buy oranges.
P’s M: You don’t have to. (the subtext being, "it’s nice that you remembered that you’re supposed to bring oranges")
P: (to me, pushing me out the door) Go, let’s go!

Tuesday into Wednesday

People are getting awfully excited that J.K. Rowling is finished with Book 6 of the Harry Potter series. Personally, I have to finish Book 5, and I doubt I’ll get that done this year. But, at least I got through Books 1 to 4, so that’s pretty good, even for me (and I’m not as fast a reader as I used to be either). I may get to Book 5 around Christmas, assuming I finish Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” (yep, I’m back on my Austen fixation. This book is so not similar to the Emma Thompson movie – in fact, it’s a satire that’s pretty darn funny. I can see how this book has stood the test of time – “So, Marianne, when are you getting married?”/ “Ah, Elinor, so you have a beau. And, what is his income…?” – Western society – or humanity in general – has yet to advance, so far as I can tell).

Ohmigoodness, Slate.com has been sold… to the Washington Post. I always had my qualms about reading something so tied to Microsoft (aka That Big Conglomerate with the Rich Guy Bill Gates that Joel Klein in the DOJ tried to prosecute — well, Microsoft is still alive and kicking, and Klein is… the chancellor of the formerly known as NYC Board of Education – and it’s debatable as to how well that endeavor is going… never mind). But, the more Slate.com stuff I read, the more I liked it, even if that Rich Guy Bill Gates had some help in making it happen (maybe it’s envy talking – I mean, the guy is rich and powerful, so I can’t help not liking him all that much; but I suppose he can’t help but be powerful and it’s a good thing that he’s a philanthropist).

The point is, I liked Slate.com and liked it more when Doonesbury joined on board (again, putting aside that they were associated with Microsoft). See, good work ought to be recognized – good work such as cool writing and stuff like that. So, kudos to this interesting sale to WaPost. The WaPost isn’t a bad piece of media to now be part of. (well, it was that or the NY Times, considering how many former Slate people are now employed by the Times). Hopefully, no editorial changes (I like Slate.com and WaPost the way they are – separate and interesting entities – thank you very much).

Down to two more days of Christmas… yay… Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…