If Anthony Weiner ever texts you …
How to handle Anthony Weiner’s sexting problem.
Category: Musings
Summer meals and memories
This has been our go-to dinner as of late. And so much of it is from our garden. We had a delicious caprese salad with our homegrown tomatoes (nothing like them!) and basil, fresh mozzarella and my balsamic vinegarette drizzled on top. The kid and I made pizza dough in our bread machine, and it tastes so much better than the dough we used to buy from Trader Joe’s.
Newsflash: K-pop bands sing in Korean
Let me start this post by saying that I’m pleased that non Koreans like K-pop. When I was growing up in Chicago, few people knew that Korea even existed as a country. None of my American friends were interested in Korean music and they certainly didn’t idolize any Korean stars.
Konnichiwa and death threats
A while ago, I used to do segments on a local radio station. It was a popular show with a host who was vaguely shock jockish. We got along fine, and it was a good forum to promote the newspaper I worked for. One day, they called me at work and put me on the air live to tell them about some of the music acts coming to town that weekend. They kept me on the line as they began another segment, in which they called a bunch of establishments that were operated by Asian Americans — dry cleaners, Chinese restaurants etc. I would soon find out that the sole purpose of these calls was to make fun of the people speaking accented English.
Back to you, KTVU
As someone who worked in broadcast journalism—both on air and behind the scenes writing news to be read by reporters and anchors on the Teleprompter—I call a big B.S. on KTVU’s “mistake.” An anchor announced that the Asiana pilots involved in the tragic crash were “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk” and “Bang Ding Ow.”
Marion Bartoli just won Wimbledon. Too bad she’s not “hot” enough
This is Marion Bartoli. As in the elite athlete who became a Wimbledon champion over the weekend. Shame on her for not being attractive enough. After all, female athletes aren’t worthy to compete in anything unless they’re pretty enough for the spectators to ogle, right?
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
Every time my son goes out to mow the lawn with his father, he takes a short break to bring me something. He usually waits at the bottom of the stairs and says, “Mommy! I have a surprise for you.” It might be a pretty rock he found. More than likely, it’s a flower from our garden.
A boy’s first car
THIS is what you drive if you’re a 5-year-old boy whose father is a scientist. Word.
At seven
I was invited to go to a swimming pool with a friend and her family. I remember being really excited about getting to play in a real pool. Per the admittance requirements, we all rinsed off in the locker room and waited in line. One by one, we stuck our arms out so that a park district employee could rub his or her fingers on our forearm to ensure our cleanliness. The whole thing sounds crazy now. But those were part of the rules, I guess.
A swimmer’s divide
For too long, Asians have had a reputation as being meek, smart, well disciplined and bad at sports. Look at Jeremy Lin. Despite playing at an elite level and leading his high school and college teams to championships, he was overlooked by the NBA. Maybe the instructors saw Kyle and his blue-eyed, blonde-haired friend and assumed that my son would be the weaker swimmer. I’m sure they never heard of Olympic gold medalist swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who is the Michael Phelps of Korea.
Where are you from?
There’s a funny video floating around on social media that’s getting a lot of attention. It shows a young woman of Asian descent preparing for a jog. A white man starts a conversation with her with the dreaded, “Where are you from?” For a lot of people, this is an innocuous enough question. If you say, “Maine,” or “California,” or “Florida,” that’s usually the end of the conversation. But if you look like I do, the series of questions won’t stop until your lineage is traced back to ancient fill-in-the-blank.
Tiny bubbles
I was looking through some old photos, and I found this picture. My husband was testing a waterproof camera and got this shot of our son (then two-years old) playing in one of the pools at the Kalahari Waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells. I ending up writing about the trip for the New York Post. This photo didn’t make it in. So, here it is.
Sheldon and Jae play bongos
In honor of tonight’s season finale of “The Big Bang Theory,” I thought I’d have a bongo-off with Sheldon Cooper. Who’s the winner? You be the judge.
Happy Mother’s Day!
I’m a sucker for hand prints. Foot prints, too. This year for Mother’s Day, Kyle made me a gift designed around his hand prints at preschool.