“With Every Christmas Card I Write….”

“With Every Christmas Card I Write….”.
And the hits keep on coming and coming.
I never imagined this essay would be so popular, but then again it is about Christmas cards and maybe more people are sending them this year. I most certainly did!
Check it out (if you haven’t already).
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Read Full Post »

Let’s Boogie on down to the Boogie Café

It was a cold, rainy November Friday evening when my Japanese friend, rock and roll and tattoo brother Kenny Shangrila took me to the Boogie Café in Yokohama. On my way from Bangkok to Chicago via Japan, I had a three-day layover in Japan where I would be hanging out with Kenny. After he had [...]

Read Full Post »

It’s all a lie!

“Liar, liar pants on fire
Hanging from telephone wire.”
At one time or another we’ve probably all had to lie—for better or worse. Maybe it was a little white lie you had to tell a friend that he or she looked good in some outfit when in fact he or she didn’t or maybe we had to [...]

Read Full Post »

Spam: Mystery or Miracle Meat in a Can?

It’s Chuseok time again in Korea and time for those boxed gift sets of soap, sesame seed oil, tuna, and Spam that Koreans give as gifts to family, friends, and colleagues.
Some of these gifts seem practical like hand soap or even sesame seed oil, but for all the years I have been in Korea, I [...]

Read Full Post »

Breaking up is not hard to do on Facebook

Imagine this scene: two acquaintances have gotten together in a café, coffeehouse or similar establishment. They are both sullen and have not said much since arriving. Then one acquaintance turns to the other and says, “I’m sorry, we just cannot be friends anymore.
“What do you mean, we cannot be friends anymore?” the second acquaintance asks. [...]

Read Full Post »

Sea Monkeys, X-Ray Vision & Charles Atlas

Like many kids from my generation growing up in the 60s and 70s, when I wasn’t spending my allowance on Revell model kits and baseball cards, I was spending it on issues of Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man and Archie.
For those of us who were devoted and enthusiastic comic book aficionados, when we were not [...]

Read Full Post »

“Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis all….”

One of the things that I have always been proud about my past were the two years that I attended Eureka College, a small, Christian (Disciples of Christ) Liberal Arts College located in Eureka, Illinois (about an hour west of Peoria, Illinois) from 1985-1987.

There is a lot to be said about attending a small [...]

Read Full Post »

Culture Shock?

The Story Behind the Story
 
In January 1999 I started to make monthly and bimonthly contributions to the Korea Times, the oldest (but sadly, not most read) English-language newspaper in Korea.
 
Although I had done a creative writing MA thesis in 1989 at Western Illinois University (Macomb, Illinois) I had only written a few essays before I [...]

Read Full Post »

Go Dutch? Why not Go Greek or Go Italian?

English language learners, at least many of the students I have taught in Korea since I came here in 1990 are always looking for “English expressions/idioms” to spice up their language skills and “go native” as it were with colorful expressions. To be sure, whenever I have the chance I use these expressions in class [...]

Read Full Post »

Hey There Yogi Berra! — "I never said most of the things I said"

I was reading an article today about some interesting quotes made by Australian Rules Football Players which made me think about some of the interesting and wacky quotes made by New York Yankee Great Yogi Berra.
Born Lawrence Peter Berra on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri, Berra is a former Major League Baseball player [...]

Read Full Post »