Put to Shame; Put to Shame Again; More Bigotry; Tossing Coins; Parking Garage Flooding; Benny Hill

• Sometimes, the locals put me to shame. The man who runs the small shop, I always go to, chased me down a hundred meters because I had forgotten to take a bottle of water with me that I had purchased. I had left the bottle on the counter of the shop and didn't put it in my backpack. When I saw him chasing me down. I was embarrassed. I also wondered how I would make it up to him. Or maybe it was just a privilege of being a regular customer.

• And a lot of Wuxi Expats put me to shame as well. Some actually are interested in the local culture. Some take the effort to learn to speak the language (I just book study it.), some do some charitable work, and talk to the locals while I have ceased to bother about it.

• What the world needs is more bigotry, not less. Why would I say such a thing? Because, I have a low view of humans in their entirety. I am aware that they are different. I am aware they are grouped along many lines. I am also aware that they are all very flawed. Some of these flaws rest with the individual; some of these flaws are from the group that individual belongs. Apparently, saying the latter is the cause of individuals' flaws is bigotry. And to this, I would say: So what! Prove to me what I said isn't true. (How I wish people instead of shouting racism or bigotry would say something is not true or a over broad generalization!! At least we might be getting to the truth of the matter.) If what the bigot says is true, that the individual confronted should find it within himself to fix the flaw. If it isn't true, the individual confronted should not shout bigotry and try to end the conversation. Humans are all flawed and we need bigots and the like to point out our flaws to us. Chances are, the flaws are real. Again, I say humans are all flawed after all. So when you see a bigot thank him. When it comes right down to it, he is judging you by your actions and the actions of people of your group that he has seen before. And if you can exceed his expectations you will stop him in his tracks and he will be forever grateful.

• I was teaching some children. The lesson plan with which I was supplied had the students play a board game where they had to toss a coin. Tossing coins is something I have done a lot of in my time. I don't want you thinking that is because I am a very indecisive sort. But when I was young I developed this solitary activity where I would create sports leagues and tournaments based on the results of tossing coins. So, I spent a lot of time tossing coins up in the air. But I never thought of the tossing coin action as something that was hard to do. No one showed me how to toss a coin and catch it. Tossing coins seemed naturally easy. But the children in this class were so uncoordinated. Every time they tossed a coin in the air, they couldn't catch it and it landed on the floor. Why was this? Had I developed a talent of being able to toss a coin two feet in the air, with a quick tight end over end spin that most people can't easily do from the start? I find it hard to believe.

• I saw basement flooding at Ming Du Da Sha, the tall apartment building near my school. I wouldn't have known about if I hadn't decided to walk a slightly different way to school from the bus stop on October 25^th. I first saw a bunch of locals gesticulating around a manhole cover that had been pried out of the hole in which it normally rested. Walking past the men, I was able to look down the entrance ramp to the apartment building's underground parking. A big stream of water was flowing down the ramp and parked cars were immersed in about a foot of water. Some sort of plumbing problem.

• Via torrent, I downloaded an episode of The Benny Hill Show from about 1970. One of the sketches in the show featured an Indian (from India) going to a Chinese restaurant. The Indian was played by one of the show's cast members whose skin had been painted brown. Benny Hill played the Chinese waiter with coke bottle glasses, crazy accent and a black hair wig. It would be simply audacious if such a sketch was performed today.