Tou-xie

My shoes were considered "tou-xie" in Chinese, which is usually translated "slippers," but literally means "drag shoes." In other words, my shoes didn't have a heel strap. "Tou-xie" are usually considered "too casual" for work or school, even though my shoes were beautiful and far from flip-flops. I decided to get some sandals, which won't be questionable for work attire in China.

It's been three years since my last Dansko purchase, and I find their footwear to be the most comfortable and durable.

They came this week, "Lillian." Danskos are the kind of shoes that make you moan when you try them on because they are so comfortable. They are also very pretty, and come in classic and modern styles.

I bought a big suitcase yesterday, which makes the whole thing that much more real. I'm in the middle of packing to clean up the apartment too. It's so sad that I can't really think about it.

-MsLin

Language Acquisition

I found some old pictures, still in frames, inside my hassock, from every time DN and I visited each other. I found a wedding invitation, samples of perfume, notes written on scraps of paper. Notes that are no longer important, written on old checkbooks, "4:30 Monday, visit NH." Notes for html codes, "cornflower blue #6495ED." Notes on linguistic examples:

1a. Paint the red barn.
1b. Paint the barn red.
2a. See the red barn.
2b. *See the barn red.

I remember why I wrote this. It's about language acquisition. If children simply follow a pattern, how would they know that 2b is ill-formed? They don't follow a pattern, because there are tons of examples like this. Children are hard-wired to identify the adjective-noun order of English, and they will recognize 1b as having a special meaning, independent of 1a. The proper write-up involves elaborate phrase-structure tree drawings, and I'd love to impress you by drawing a likely-incorrect tree and BS-ing my way through, but I'm kind of preparing to go to China. I think you get it.

-MsLin

Degrassi

I was at work the other day, and I overheard one of my coworkers say, "blah, blah Degrassi blah, blah..." The word "Degrassi" means one thing to me, a show that was on public TV when I was younger. I watched it about 3 times, but one of those times was when my mom was home. Although, it was on public TV, Degrassi High was kind of racy. The episode I remember was about a girl who thought she was pregnant and went to an abortion clinic. My mom deemed it inappropriate.

The Degrassi concept has moved on, following through the Degrassi High character Spike, whose daughter is now in middle school-high school. In what's now called Degrassi The Next Generation, junior high students tackle issues such as meeting strangers on the internet, taking someone else's Ritalin, first dates, out-of-control rumors, and menarche.

I'm kind of excited about finding Degrassi again, but it's a Canadian show, which is pretty amateur-looking. The acting is not so realistic. But the thing that bugs me the most is how they say "SOrry" instead of "Sah-rry." And "What are you talking aBOAT?" It's the pure "o" that makes it difficult for me to take this show seriously.

-MsLin

Fires and Moving

My parents are cleaning out their basement. My mom's theory is that if she wouldn't run downstairs in a fire to rescue it, she's throwing it out. My theory for packing for China is a little different. If I would rescue it in a fire, I'm not taking it to China. That includes a lot of my favorite books and my Turkish coffee grinder.

My theory on books is, if the book is good enough, you should have a "home copy" and a "traveling copy," because I'm a little obsessive like that. For example, my "home copy" of Mists of Avalon is the hard cover reissue that came out a few years ago. My "traveling copy" is my first copy, which is a paperback, but pretty flimsy, since it's a book of over 1,000 pages. I have four copies of The Peacock Spring by Rumer Godden, most of which I found at thrift stores. With The Peacock Spring I waited so long to find my own copy, and then whenever I saw it, I had to buy it. Don't worry, I've probably only put down $4 on this title. The thing is it's not popular and it's out-of-print, so if something happens to my copy, then I have a back-up, and if something happens to that copy, I have another back-up, and so-on and so-on. I need to really be picky about the books I carry to China, just because books are kind of a pain to move, esp. over an ocean.

I won't have an oven. That means I won't need a lot of the cooking stuff I have, all of my gadgets, a pastry mixer, a mixer-mixer. It's going to be like being in college again, except one step higher because I'll have a microwave AND and stove. I probably won't need measuring cups, because I can't think of a time when I used measuring cups to cook on the stove; I use a liquid measurer for that. It will be fine--just like in the summer, when it's too hot to bake.

-MsLin

Why the hell is "hell" a swear word?

When we use words as swear words, they lose their true meaning and become exactly that: swear words. It's almost as if the definition of a swear word is a word that is offensive, but used in a context in which it has no real meaning. Furthermore, when a swear word is used in a meaningful context, it usually has a more desirable alternative. (e.g. "to make love" or "a female dog")

But "hell." I don't think it's a swear word here: "It's like my own personal hell." It Iisa swear word in "What the hell?" and "Get the hell out of here" and "Go to hell/See you in hell." It lacks a more desirable alternative, exp. for "Hades," which isn't really more desirable, but is more Greek.

It's very difficult to find a true meaning for swearing or vulgarity. When you look it up, you find "indecent" or "profane," but like the words they describe, the meaning of vulgarity depends on the meaning and connotation a particular person attaches to it.

I think "hell" is a swear word because of superstition. Certainly, in the case of "Go to hell," hell is used in a meaningful context, but in that case it's truly an evil wish. But I suppose making "hell" a swear word is more-likely caused by a superstitious desire to avoid saying the names of evil things. After all, doesn't The Secret teach that if you want to avoid something bad, focus on the good. In other words, say "Heaven" because that is where you want to go, and avoid saying "Hell," even in a negative context because you don't want to go there.

Keeping "H-E-Double Hockey Stick" on the "bad words" list is effing ridiculous if you ask me.

-MsLin
P.S. The Secret is complete pap and I do NOT endorse or encourage the reading, buying, borrowing, or redistributing of this rag. The Secret is: If you want something, as the Universe. But you must ask in a positive way. If you say "I don't want cancer," you will attract cancer to yourself. So, instead you should say, "I want to be healthy," in order to attract good health. Sounds a little like victim blaming, doesn't it? Ok? So now you don't have to read it. The rest is testimonials from normal and famous people. It's almost as much crap as J.Z. Knight being interviewed while channeling Ramtha, which I just can't get enough of. Look up Ramtha on your own if you don't believe me, and see J.Z. Knight channeling an Atlantian warrior from 35,000 yrs. ago, who speaks English with a British accent and bad grammar.

Musicals

I checked out Phantom of the Opera from the library. I guess I HAVE seen it live before, at the Ordway in Minneapolis. We went two times, Thalians, which was our school's speech group. The first time we saw Les Mis which obviously made a bigger impression than Phantom. We were in the nosebleed, which means folding chairs in the second balcony (yes, folding chairs). Those were the best two school trips ever, all of us on a school bus to Minneapolis, and we traipsed around downtown until the performances. And, afterwards we would stop at the Mall of America.

I've always been fascinated by Phantom, but not the musical. I have my favorite Phantom of the Opera TV miniseries on an old video tape somewhere in my parents' house. It was a great miniseries, which didn't have all of the songs, and featured a very handsome Raul, and actually showed a glimpse of the Phantom's face and how he got that way. (His mother, who resembled Christine, had an affair with the opera director. He refused to marry her when she became pregnant, and she tried to commit suicide by slowly walking deeper and deeper into a lake. Which I thought was kind of a romantic way to commit suicide, albeit frightening and painful. He saved her, but she got more and more pregnant and more and more miserable. The next time he saw her, she was at the end of her pregnancy, buying some potion presumably to induce abortion. After drinking the potion, she went into labor, and he delivered the baby under the opera house. So, the potion burned the baby's face. Alternatively, he had a birthmark on his face, and it didn't have anything to do with the potion. ?? But I digress.)

Here's the list: Les Mis twice, at the Ordway and at Hancher. Victor/Victoria with THE Julie Andrews on Broadway with my aunt and uncle. Cabaret on Broadway with my uncle, and then at Hancher. And Hair at the Des Moines Civic Center on a trek with my college friend AH. And may I say that Hair was the first time I saw a naked man, which was shocking and disturbing and...I was so disappointed. I can't even tell you how much I love Hair.

-MsLin

I'm a vegetarian, and no, my shoes aren't leather.

*I've decided that some posts are better off in my personal journal. I do want to mention that I've just seen Earthlings as narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. I'm disgusted at every turn by our/my utter complacency toward animals and other humans. Watch it, but don't watch it. (Google video)

I've been a vegetarian for almost 1/2 of my life (13 yrs. in October). I wish I had more guts. When I first became a vegetarian, my classmates bothered me about it: asking me if I had leather shoes, if I eat eggs, if I eat cheese, and did I know that leather, eggs, and cheese come from animals too? After all, they didn't want me to unknowingly be a hypocrite. Oh, and the most annoying, most ignorant question that vegetarians have to put up with: Where do you get your protein? It sounds innocent, but at least to me and, I would guess, to other vegetarians, we hear things that aren't said: Don't you know vegetarianism is so unhealthy? -and-You must be pretty stupid, cutting out your only protein source. -and-I'm going to catch you in your uninformed ignorance. -and-I'm determined to prove to you that being a vegetarian is a bad choice.

Finally, the absolutely most annoying is the assumption that just because I'm a vegetarian, I love all vegetables, and cast aside all preference. The idea is that when you cut out meat, a "major" part of your diet (primarily derived from 4 sources: cows, pigs, chicken, fish), you limit yourself way too much by also refusing those vegetables that you dislike. My parents explained this to me when I refused to eat mushrooms, which aren't really a vegetable, and asparagus, as I had refused for my entire life. Vegetables, incidentally, are derived from many many sources, so many that I can't name all of those that are sold in my local market. Therefore, my refusing to eat one or two types of "vegetables" shouldn't be too much of an issue. (I do eat asparagus now, with Italian dressing.) The argument didn't hold, and everything turned out ok.

Honestly, I forget that I'm a vegetarian. I read labels and order food without meat instinctively, and I forget that it's weird. One time we were going to make a chili bean dip with some friends, who I had known for two years. We all went to the grocery store, and one friend picked up beef chili with no beans. That's when I realized that I had never told her. No harm done, no one offended. It's just something that doesn't come up unless it matters.

I've been known to choke down meat and mushrooms, for that matter, out of fear of offending a, usually foreign, host. The last time I had beef was in Turkey, mushrooms in SF, and pork eleven years ago in Czech Rep. The last time I had chicken was out with DBF's colleagues at a Phoenix restaurant, where we waited forever for our food, the waiter was incompetent, and my dinner got switched with someone else's at our table, even after the waiter took them back to check which was which. Meat as a surprise is the least amusing kind.
And that brings me to shoes. Actually, I have some leather shoes, which is something that I try to avoid if I can, but also something that is pretty hard to avoid. We have a dinner to go to tonight, so I went to look at shoes to wear with black pants and one of those stylish polyester shirts. I'm picky about shoes with heels because I really don't think one should be in danger of falling or twisting an ankle due to tipsy heels. I found these, which had a blue sticker, which meant that they were 50% off, yay. Then one of the workers came over to me and said that they were changing all of the blue stickers to yellow stickers, which meant they would be 80% off, YAY! So, these are so cute, entirely man-made, non-leather shoes, which I got for the low low price of $10. I can't even stand it!

-MsLin

Bald Eagles

When I was little, I was pretty much the same, I absorbed useless information and remembered rules to the note. So, one day my teacher asked the class "Why is the bald eagle called 'bald?'" I knew the answer, since I had seen it on a kids nature show. I retold what I had heard, that the word "bald" has a connection to the word "white" in Old English, and this refers to the white head.

She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "No, it's because they look bald, with no color on their head." I felt stupid, but that's how I usually felt in school. I had a tactless teacher who didn't mind humiliating me, even when I was right.

I saw a special on bald eagles this morning on Today. They've been removed from the endangered and threatened lists. I remembered the discussion so long ago, as I always remember when someone mentions or I see a bald eagle. I decided to look up the reason for the name "bald eagle" on Wikipedia. If I was stupid and gullible as a child, then I decided that I would let it go and get over it. Here is what Wikipedia said: "Bald in the English name is derived from the word piebald, and refers to the white head and tail feathers and their contrast with the darker body." In your face, first grade!

I never wanted to go to school in first grade. My teacher was horrible, always making me feel stupid, giving me bad grades for following directions too literally, never giving positive rewards, enabling other kids to make fun of me, and dropping me from the top reading group, only to promote my babysitter's son. My generic blue crayon colored purple, and I knew I wasn't crazy. I got in trouble for coloring things that were supposed to be blue purple. So when I colored an ice cube white, I got in trouble because she couldn't tell that I colored it. Well, actually ice cubes are clear, but I thought white would be ok. I guess I should've colored it blue...um, purple.

-MsLin

The Peanut Butter Solution

...was a movie about a boy who was cursed and all of his hair fell out. A witch gave him a recipe for a concoction that would make his hair grow again. It worked a little too well, and his hair grew fast and never stopped. So they started making paint brushes out of his hair, which were magic.

I still had the scotcharoo craving, and I still had the resistance to shopping for ingredients. So I used what I had and loosely followed a recipe in my macrobiotics cookbook. The result was marshmallow-free, and not too crazy sweet. They are:
1/3 c. pure maple syrup
1/6 c. natural peanut butter
Heated on the stove, over med. heat, until smooth and bubbly.
2 c. Go Lean cereal
Mixed into the syrup mixture and pressed into a small bowl.
1/4 c. choc. chips
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
Melted in the microwave and spread on top.

I guess this will cover the craving because I don't have any other way to get scotcharoos. I'm just proud that the recipe worked, and it tasted pretty good. I finally used up my choc. chips too.

-MsLin