This is a sucker I bought at Chengdu People’s Park. You pay 5 yuan and take a turn at the spinner; you win a sucker in the design that it stops on. The proprietor pours caramelized sugar out on a slab in the winning design. The dragon is the best design, because it is the… [Read More]
Blog
Why I Love the Olympics
I am an Olympics junkie, I admit. I’m thrilled that it won’t be in Chicago, and I think that the IOC’s demands on cities are unreasonable and unfair. I also love the pageantry, the heartwarming human drama, and the hard work of obscure athletes in obscure sports. As I writer, I love something else: the… [Read More]
Endless Construction
The hotel where I’m staying is on the Second Ring Road, which is being more or less rebuilt to accommodate all of the traffic. Hence, there is continuous construction in both directions – crazy, huh? This is life in China’s cities in 2012. By the way, I also took pictures on the street, and a… [Read More]
Paying for College: What’s the NCAA worth, anyway?
I’ve talked about athletic scholarships here before, and I want to revisit them in the wake of the Penn State scandal. All the programs operate at the whim of the NCAA, which has a twisted sense of priorities. Money screws up everything, and if your kid is in a position for an athletic scholarship, you… [Read More]
