Mad Man and Flannery O'Connor Stories

Better late than never  Tony has been sick so this blog entry was late in getting to the Internet.

Mad Man:  I bought the first three seasons of the show.  The buzz I have heard on the net because of the show's fourth season has got to me.

Fallen:  Baseball was in the Garden of Eden till it adopted the Wild Card.  Shameful!

Revelation:  In this Flannery O'Connor story, a woman sits in a doctor's waiting room.  Engaging in conversation, she notices a girl staring at her malevolently.  She continues her conversation.  All of sudden, the girl throws a book a her and says to her "Your Evil Warthog, you go to hell!" (or something along those lines).  The woman is shaken by this.  All her acquaintances tell her that the girl was crazy and she has nothing to worry about.  But the woman can't help but wonder.  Now this sort of thing happens to me on the Internet as people have directed some nasty comments against me -- including the "obnoxious" comment I directed your attention to a few weeks ago.  O'Connor's depiction of the incident was so superb that I couldn't help but say "aha!" when I read it.  I can relate to the what the woman was feeling enough to wonder why my blind spots, worthy of malevolence from others, are.

Thunderstorms  A pair of thunderstorms this week in downtown Wuxi.  For one, I felt the opening droplets before I was able to get to a DVD shop (where I bought Mad Man); the other happened as I was at school.  I love teaching in thunderstorms -- it gives the class a feeling of giddy freedom.

Parker's Back  O.E. Parker doesn't like putting tattoos on his back because he likes to admire them without a mirror.  However, he marries a girl, who is a Christian, and doesn't care for his tattoos.  Parker thinks it would be a grand idea to impress her by putting an image of Jesus on his back.  He does it, but his wife beats him with a broom because he has engaged in idolatry.  What a story by Flannery O'Connor though I can't say as I see it having any parallels with my life as I did with Revelation.

Trying to get to the crux of the matter:

Where in the world would you like to go?

I would like to go to Paris.

Why would you like to go to Paris?

Because I like it.

Why do you like Paris?

Because it is romantic.

Why do you think it is romantic?

Because it is rainy...

(I didn't bother to ask the student why  he thought rain was romantic.)

Tony's Third Birthday  Tony will be three on August 23rd.  I had talked to Jenny about having a party for it.  However, the August heat has squelched the desire.  We will probably have a family supper and buy Tony some more toys.

 

What's your favorite Chinese Tourist Sight?  The student said there weren't any he liked.  So I asked him if there were sights that others liked.  He said he forgot.  I then put him on the spot till he gave me an answer.  The students can sometimes be so stupid or lazy or shy.

 

Train Station  There are all sorts of tunnels at the Wuxi train station which people don't seem to know about because you will see them instead climb over fences and dodge cars to cross the street.  

In one of these tunnels, I saw a man asleep on the floor with no sheet or mattress to lie on.

 

Mao said that?  An older gentleman, who spoke good English, approached me on the bus Saturday Morning.  He told me about the times he had visited Canada with delegations from the Wuxi government with whom he had good relations.  I told him about my six years in Wuxi  my having a Chinese wife, and our having a son.  He said we were like a "United Nations" couple.  He told me Chairman Mao said "that one is not great till one has seen the Great Wall."  He also told me he was a Christian and that he went to the Sunday 1330 English services at the church next to our school.

 

New Nickname for Tony  From now on, or at least till I find something to replace it, I will call Tony "Two Tents".  Tony today got a second tent when his mother bought some formula from this baby store.  I tell you the fact that I called my son Anthony was a stroke of sheer genius on my part because there are so many things I can with his name like call him Tony "Two Tents" Kaulins.

 

All I wanted was... a pepperoni and cheese pizza  That was easier said than done.  My wife never realized that one should be able to order a basic cheese pizza and add toppings to it.  But then the workers at the Pizza Hut I went to in Wuxi didn't seem to realize either.

 

I will never ever:

• eat fish
• eat noodles
• eat eggplant
• wear white trousers
• wear red shoes
• wear yellow pants

Declarations made by students at a recent English Corner.

 

Twilight Students like the show and so does Jenny.

 

Train Station Beggar  Waiting for a bus there, I saw this very aggressive child beggar who actually was physically hitting people for money.  One man hit back.

 

On a piece of cardboard laid on dirt under an over pass, I saw an old man sitting at his leisure with you young children.

Air Con  In a place I just went to, the A/C was set so high that the workers were wearing jackets.