Monthly Archives: July 2012

A Year Out of Oppression

On this day one year ago, I walked out of the circus, or the zoo, as some would prefer to call it. After ten years of indentured servitude, I left a cold-blooded, soulless organization filled with lots of lying, incompetent, … Continue reading

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Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding

Let me say it once more. Yes I have been to North Korea to check things out but I am no defender of that retarded chubby baby face Jabba the Hut lookalike with the bad haircut, an equally rotund wife … Continue reading

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The Poisoned Apple

If you have a wife or a girl friend who can’t get over your ex, this post is a must-read for her. In a novel I’ve just read, the protagonist’s love interest once had a lover who has since passed … Continue reading

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Permanent Adultescence – Singaporeans, Are You Breeding Monsters at Home?

I read in The New Yorker that in 2004, Carolina Izquierdo, an anthropologist at UCLA, spent several months with the Matsigenka, a tribe of about twelve thousand people who live in the Peruvian Amazon. The Matsigenka hunt for monkeys and … Continue reading

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In-N-Out Got it Right

California cult burger joint In-N-Out – the favorite burger of chefs like Thomas Keller, Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain, and Mario Batali – caused a frenzy yesterday morning, with its first pop-up store at Circular Road. A line started forming at 9.30am with … Continue reading

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No News is Good News

I was supposed to be away from July 15 to 25 but postponed the trip due to conjunctivitis. It was however too late to rescind my instructions to news vendors to suspend the delivery of all the newspapers I subscribe … Continue reading

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Courageous

I invited two families to a private screening of Courageous yesterday. Courageous addresses the questions relevant to today’s fatherhood such as the negative consequences of absentee fathers and the impact of ineffectual dads. It also lends a more balanced perspective … Continue reading

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Wine from Starbucks?

Nah. It’s Coffee Pinotage. Pinotage is a South African specialty. Sure, it is grown in a few other parts of the world but this is a variety that was developed in South Africa. It is a cross of Pinot Noir … Continue reading

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Why I Never Sit Around Waiting for Free Meals

2010. She begged me to conduct a teambuilding workshop for her department. Literally begged. I was busy, my calendar was full. But she begged. Seeing that it was for the good of the circus,  and being such a pushover, I … Continue reading

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The China That Can Do No Wrong

On June 20, a so-called “distinguished Chinese thinker” arrived in Oxford University to give a talk. This man, Zhang Wei Wei, author of The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State, used to be a senior interpreter of Deng Xiaoping. … Continue reading

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