news.imagethief.com

Look at the expression on the pearl ox and then ask yourself, where is the girl's right hand?   Because an ox figurine made with 130,000 pearls that conspicuously invokes the Wall Street ''bull'' statue doesn't seem, you know, vulgar or anything on the eve of a walloping recession. (By the way, the recession will be a real test of China's ...

Although Imagethief is not particularly religious, he is by descent a card carrying member of The Chosen People. He was therefore highly amused by the two following videos: Jon Stewart, in one of his all-time great rants, on congress breaking for Rosh Hashana this week, at the height of the economic crisis (note -- readers in China will need a ...

I don't normally go for the straight Chinglish stuff, but this one is worth sharing. Via Language Log:   Full explanation at Language Log. A better translation of this might be, ''The world's biggest sporting celebration is about to burst forth!'' But even so, the copy writing is, shall we say, unfortunate. Hat tip: Bishop Joey

Snark goeth before the eating of a generous helping of crow. I owe Beijing an apology. On Thursday and Friday I lamented the return of Beijing's air pollution to what I assumed was status quo ante. But yesterday was one of those days --of which Beijing gets a mere handful each year-- that make you realize how time here erodes your standards for ...

From the ''you couldn't make it up'' department here in Imagethief Towers, an old-school China Daily gem:City gets tough on foreign jaywalkersBy Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is taking stern action against foreigners who break traffic rules, the public security bureau said Tuesday.It follows tough measures ...

This probably counts as an abuse of blogging, but for posterity, here is the stream of 40-odd tweets I posted during last Friday's opening ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I've flipped them back into chronological order and removed the extraneous material (and some typos):Well, here we go. Good luck, Beijing! 7:52pm Alright. Gotta ...

Conan the Barbarian, age 20 Mongol General Conan! What is best in life? Conan To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. To hear the lamentation of their women. Conan the Barbarian, age 40 Mongol General Conan! What is best in life? Conan To spend quality time with your family. To see your kids after work. To hear the precious ...

From the New York Times, which is apparently pulling out all the stops in its peri-Olympic lifestyle coverage, comes this article about a woman who offers pole dancing classes for fitness here in Beijing. It has possibly the best lede/quote combination I've seen in a Times China story ever:BEIJING — Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts ...

Anyone within earshot will know that Imagethief welcomed his son, Zachary, into the world last March 9th. The nearly four months since have been one long sleepless adventure. Despite my fatigue induced delirium, however, the experience has been a happy one. Like parents everywhere I take the most profound pleasure in things that non-parents ...

Back when he lived in Singapore many of Imagethief's friends used to run with the Hash House Harriers, the ''drinking club with a running problem''. Imagethief, being a solitary, sober runner used to give that miss. But it did sound like a sloshing good time. Apparently there is a chapter here in Beijing as well, where, as we all know, a frosty ...