This slays me. I just got done watching UCLA and Oregon in college basketball, on ESPN-Asia. A game that was at least 24 hours old. Well, at least I’ve seen the Bruins once. But the big bowl of the day? Which is going on right this minute? Texas and Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl? […]

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With Leah back in California, I’m on my own for dinner, on my nights off. Like tonight. I’ve never been one of those people who can do a restaurant alone, and I’m not ready for the fast food thing, and it’s basically not possible to cook in this apartment … So. So, I went up […]

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I am struck, today, by how far in the past my tenure with Gannett/MediaNews/L.A. News Group/San Bernardino Sun seems. It has been only nine months since those entities were huge in my life, but it seems like years. Probably because I’ve been through what seems to be a couple of major changes. Moving to Long […]

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So, yes, the cable operator on this side of the Pacific Ocean is, in fact,  showing some of the college bowl games. But at weird hours, and all over the dial. Right now, I’m watching the Cotton Bowl, about 12 hours later. A few days ago, I saw Iowa and South Carolina, in whatever bowl […]

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I wrote something about this back in August, when I was in Beijing. If anything, my infrastructure envy has gotten even keener. Why do we have to come to Asia to find new, clean, big, efficient, attractive, innovative public works? Talking about airports, ports, mass transit, bridges, tunnels, escalators, people-movers, underground parking, public buildings. In […]

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We weren’t exactly ambitious about this. It was a bit cold, Leah’s back was twinging and the idea of pitching ourselves into an enormous crowd when dealing with crowds is everyday life here … well, that held little appeal. We were not going to make an effort to get to the local version of Times […]

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If I’m picking up on this correctly, from the other side of the ocean, 2008 can’t be over fast enough for a lot (most all?) of people. “People” meaning Americans. Or at least English-speakers. Like, everyone is all fixated on this “economy” thing … Letting it get them down. Hey, 2008 wasn’t that bad. Take […]

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Apparently, no one in Asia cares about college football except me. And a few other cranks from America. We have reached a point in the year where the rest of the world is generating almost zero live sports. Pretty much everything is shut down. Making this, of course, a perfect time to show some college […]

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Maybe this applies to all of China. All of east Asia. I don’t know. But I can speak for Hong Kong Island, and here, everyone goes to lunch at the same time. And I mean everyone. From 1-2 p.m. No one starts before 1. No one finishes after 2. Entire sets of logistics are set […]

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Hong Kong is a tight spot. Have I mentioned that? Oh, a hundred times or so? People on top of people. Something like 6.8 million people in the territory of Hong Kong, and something like 1.2 million of them living cheek by jowl in a stunningly narrow band of land on the northern edge of […]

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