Far East Cynic

Food, wonderful food!

My two favorite things in the world are women and wine. Having dinner in a nice restaurant allows you to enjoy both at the same time. Thus on Sunday, after perusing the S.O.’s tour book, I informed her that we were skipping the hotel’s “breakfast” ( cereal, coffee, and donuts

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Making a list and checking it twice….

A 133 Sailors don’t need to be in too much of a hurry to sew on the First Class Crow. Details here.

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Avoiding the Christmas rush……..

I’m going to start hating the new Supreme Court nominee now. Sitting here in the lounge in Dulles on the way back to Shopping Mall. I’ve been watching her on TV. There is something in the way she talks-something of a pompousness in the gait of her speech, that has set

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To the Plains of Abraham and back….

I have known you as a gallant adversary. It is now my pleasure to make your acquaintance as a friend. And I yours, Monsieur La Marquis.-From the movie Last of the Mohicans…….. Uh, how’s that getting out flanked thing working out General? We made the circuit up to Quebec City

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Bienvenue au Montreal!

Or whatever it is one says in French. The S.O. and I arrived here in one piece-no worse the wear for having to traverse America’s worst airport (IMHO) Dulles International. We arrived in Montreal via a route of flight that brought us right over the city and we could see

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Out the door……

Looking for….Something. Have not had the time, energy or wherewithal to blog the last couple of days. Actually that’s not a 100% true-I could have blogged, but truth be told, I-JUST-DID-NOT-FEEL-LIKE-IT. Not sure why. Because there certainly was a heck of a lot of stupidity that deserved to be commented

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A monday melody…..

Some good music to get quietly drunk and morose by-while looking at pictures of the “good old days”: This is a video by Chitose Hajime-and its one of my Japanese favorites. This was the theme song to the NHK Asa Dora ( Morining Drama) “Sakura” in 2003. I used to

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The Mass

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.-Stanislaw Lem. I woke up early this morning and decided to go to the 7 AM Mass-the one I like to refer to as the “golfer’s mass”. ( Which isn’t really true-dedicated golfers either worship at our holy

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How much is enough?

There has been a lot of coverage of the Colgan 3407 mishap. I’ve watched it very closely because, living here in Shopping Mall, we are very much at the mercy of the commuter airlines. Unless you want to drive up to Nashville or over to Atlanta and those options are

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No politically awkward questions here……

At the 2009 Japan Miss Universe pageant. Speaking of good looking women on display, here is an HD of the pageant showing the winner-Emily  Miyasaka. (The Miss Universe site writes her name in English as “Emily,” but the kanji for her name is actually read “Emiri.” On her official blog,

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