russian butter and asian values

back in the USSR, Russians know that when reports about the dangers of butter appear in the press, it was a sure sign that people would soon face a butter shortage.

here in Asia, when you read about politicians talking about “Asian values” in the press, it’s a sure sign that people would soon be confused with Confucianism, neutralised with sweet Namastes and sodomised as we Sawatdee-ka and bend.

don’t bend.

sympathetic pregnancy

FT:

In Yunnan, for example, near today’s Burmese border, (Marco) Polo encounters men who take to their bed for 40 days after their wives give birth, a practice known as “sympathetic pregnancy”.

from ebony to ebony

Lee Daniels:

When I was young, I went to a church where the lighter-skinned you were, the closer you sat to the altar.

she once was walter but now am wendy

The Telegraph:

Most people’s first exposure to synthesized music was in 1971, on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. The film’s sinister score – written and performed on the Moog synthesizer by American composer Walter (now Wendy) Carlos — would lead many listeners always to associate synth with the idea of a bleak and alienating future.

what does it mean

Mainichi Daily News:

33 percent of Japanese men confess to sitting down to take a leak

2 reasons why i am afraid of eastern europeans – hostel (2005) and this

FT:

I was recently warned about a trap being sprung by a professional gang from eastern Europe. They plant an attractive female staff member in an organisation. At roughly the same time, a male co-conspirator also gets a job; the connection between them is unknown to the employer. After a little while, he sends a series of highly suggestive internet jokes to the pretty female. She complains of harassment and threatens to bring an embarrassing employment tribunal involving sexual discrimination – and, once she reveals that she has hired expert legal advisers and PR agents, the victim business settles quickly.

japan in a nutshell

Japan Times:

In one of the book’s more opaque observations, Raskin writes, “People often ask me what fascinates me about Japan, and for a long time I never knew how to explain it. Here it is though, in a nutshell: There’s a Gyoza Stadium on the third floor of a video game arcade called Namco City, and a chart on the wall lists the ratios of soy sauce to vinegar found in gyoza dipping sauces in different regions of the country.”

i’m empty and aching and I don’t know why

the NYT on america:

A nation skilled in innovation and craftsmanship relinquished its traditional focus on engineering goods and services of intrinsic value in favor of financial make-believe…

the origin of Holga

South China Morning Post:

When the product was first tested, Mr Lee (Lee Ting-mo, founder of Universal Electronics Industries) bragged to observers that the camera was ho gwong, meaning “very bright” in Cantonese. He says some non-Chinese buyers later dubbed it “Holga“, and the name stuck.

you’d say you rather read the paper and you don’t want to talk

FT:

…Japan’s most haunted social group is the “firefly tribe”: harried businessmen who escape their wife and bawling baby by smoking alone on the balcony of their apartment blocks at night. So many of them seek this refuge that the glowing tips of their cigarettes appear like fireflies.

there are some things that I just can’t talk about

The Japan Times:

The most astounding moment in “Flowers and Troops,” a documentary film by Yojyu Matsubayashi, is when the young director leans close to one of his subjects — an 87-year-old former corporal in the Imperial Japanese Army — and says, “I’ve heard that some Japanese soldiers ate human flesh.”

The former corporal, named Yaichiro Nakano, averts his eyes and, after a long pause, replies: “There are some things that I just can’t talk about.”

but i eat meat what

Reuters:

Most herbivorous boys lack self-confidence, like to spend time alone, and use the Internet a lot…

so many virgins, so little yen

NYT Magazine:

According to a government survey, more than a quarter of men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan do not have friends of the opposite sex.

you mean apart from having a stuffed pillow for a girlfriend

Nisan:

I can’t eat meat because of my diabetes. I’m just an unlucky guy.

there is nothing else to do

Ghulam Nabi Azad, India’s Health and Family Welfare Minister:

If there is electricity in every village, then people will watch TV till late at night and then fall asleep. They won’t get a chance to produce children. When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies.

that’s a lot of cock

Reuters:

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have destroyed nearly 1.5 tonnes of goat’s penis imported from Australia that was contaminated with bacteria, officials said. The importer was fined but 47 of the 72 imported boxes had already been sold as food.

aunties are horny

Books Blog:

Almost 2,000 women aged between 45 and 60 were asked about their reading habits – two-thirds said they liked “raunchy scenes” in novels, and more than half said sex in books was “titillating”.

they are not alone

Asahi Shimbun on benjo-meshi:

… (for some students) it is better to eat in a toilet than to be perceived as friendless and spotted dining alone in the school cafeteria.

solution for disagreement

Bangkok Post:

Tens of thousands of Buddhist temples have been built, many practically next to each other, because the solution for disagreement among members of the congregation is to build another one.

why can’t you set your monkey free

Salon:

In “The First Word,” her book about the origins of language, Christine Kenneally describes the scene when two apes trained in sign language first encountered each other: “What resulted was a sign-shouting match; neither ape was willing to listen.”