Mordor, Isengard, or the Shire? Where am I?

TLOR  I am working my way through the novel.  I am now in the midst of the second part.

 

Mad Men  is a tv series, set in the early sixties on Madison Avenue, that I am watching on DVD.  Everyone sleeps with everyone.  All the characters seem to have been teleported from 2008.  One character said "what is wrong with you?"  An expression that I am sure has become over -used only recently.

Creative Destruction  Wanting things on the cheap - failing of Liberalism.  You cannot find the proper solution without failed experimentation -- sometimes you stumble on things that you wouldn't have thought to look for.  They also want peace w/o willingness to fight and no fault gravity.

Purgatory  At first seems like heaven but then the others there start to grate on you -- people won't shut up about what they did on earth.

Ms. Allocation  a good name for a feminist economics minister.

Coincidence almost, I meet a woman with a son exactly one month older than Tony.  And then I meet someone who son was born a month after Tony.

Henan Province.  I have two students from this province in the same class.  "Lots of Chairman Mao slept signs here?" I asked.

Ants  China has 1.3 billion people.  I wonder how many ants?

Rubble next to newness  A brand spanking restaurant next to a pile of rubble and garbage.

The Pail on the Bus... is for vomit!  I had thought it was for garbage but then two days in a row, I saw some sick passengers run from their seat and head straight for it.  All buses have a pail near the rear exit door.

Incentives!   That's what it's all about.

You can lead a horse to water but....  you can't get your wife to do anything.  (as completed by a student Vitas)

Two's company....  Three's a family (as completed by a student)

What?!?  "I want to own a bar!" said a slim pretty girl, about 22 years old, at an English Corner.  I exclaimed What?!?  She corrected herself and said "a coffee bar!".  What a relief, I thought.  

A What?!? from the past.  After being asked if she would cheat on her husband, a young girl said yes, but only in the first year.  After being corrected, she became very red faced.

An another What?!? from the past.  A student said you can tell if someone is in love with you by the sound of their accent.

Miles or Casey?  When I go into a class, I like to think I will teach like Miles Davis, putting out all the vibes, the riffs, with the students responding in kind -- the class is a sort of English Jamming session.  But in truth, I often feel like Casey Stengel, manager of the woeful 1962 New York Mets (losers of 120 games).  Can anybody......!?!

 

Sisters of Charity in China?  It was something prayed for by Mother Teresa.