Good evening, 919 Gang. It occurred to me: We talk about
Japan and China being in the “Far East.” Isn’t that a European perspective?
Shouldn’t we (particularly Californians) think of those countries as being in the
“Far West”?
CHUCK BOYD writes:
My daughter has been sending me some outstanding photos
from Cambodia. I have never traveled in that part of the world. Yet.
When she started talking about doing some international
travel, I piped up with details of my fun experiences in Berlin and Munich and
farther travel south to the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Naturally, I touted many good times in London, Edinburgh,
Dublin, and Belfast and, more recently, recounted memories of Lisbon, Portugal
and traveling across Spain to Seville (with a day trip down to the British
colony at Gibraltar), Cordoba, Granada, Madrid, and Barcelona.
She said Madrid would be good and then maybe head up to
France and Italy for her first foreign destinations.
After four days in Spain, her husband suggested they travel
another 6,000 miles to Cambodia.
After a month there, she reported they like it so much,
they've rented a 2 BD, 1 bath house in a resort area near Siam Reap and
extended their visas to one year. She said the rental is only USD400 a month in
a great area.
Among the photos she has sent are temples, monkeys, hammocks
and some 3-D effects with 2-D images at Art Box in Siem Reap.
Now she has made me curious about that area and its low low
expenses. Enjoy.
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MICHAEL BURGE
writes:
I thank Alison DaRosa for her kind words and for the photo
of the Miyajima Island torii gate at low tide. I was less impressed with her
photo of the deer molesting tourists. It could be that the tourists stole that
yellow umbrella from the deer, and the deer wanted it back. Or maybe the
tourists spilled peanut butter on their umbrella and the deer was kindly
offering to clean it off. There could be many reasons for a deer to behave so
ill-manneredly, and I'm sure the tourists were at fault.
But mostly I'm grateful to Alison for giving me a perfect
springboard to talk about Nara, where tame deer mingle with tourists and
unabashedly beg for treats. The scene is positively zany.
Nara dates to the eighth century and served for many
centuries as the eastern center of Buddhism after the religion was introduced
from mainland Asia. It is still a rare place. I was quite taken with Nara
because it combined ancient ritual with crazy modernism in a head-spinning way.
It was wonderful.
 |
| Deer mingling with visitors on the approach to the Todai-ji, a Buddhist temple and World Heritage site. |
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| Deer graze wherever they want on the temple grounds. |
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| The deer are so brazen that sometimes you wonder who's watching whom. |
Tomorrow I will offer photos of the Todai-ji, one of
Japan's more impressive sites.
BRIAN CLARK writes:
Alison DaRosa’s photo of the aggressive deer at the
Miyajima shrine in Japan reminded me of an ill-fated trip to a petting zoo in
wild and wooly western Michigan about a dozen years ago when my youngest kids
were 2 and 4. We were strolling around the open-air (read uncaged) property,
petting sheepies and such, when a pair of pygmy goats spied the donut my 4-year-old
daughter had in her hand. One of them charged, I picked her up just in time and
was rammed below the belt by the goat. Oh well, better my nether parts than my
daughter’s head. But man, those goats didn’t fool around. We departed quickly.
I recovered.
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REBER: Last night Rick Smith wondering
why his paper is being delivered so much earlier these days.
MICHELE DAVIS
writes:
Info for Rick Smith: It is very possible that you have a
new carrier who is delivering the route in a different manner than the previous
carrier. It is doubtful that a "manager" spoke to the previous
(perhaps) carrier about running late. Carriers are generally allowed to report
to the Distribution Centers at whatever time they wish, as long as they get the
route delivered on time. I had some carriers show up at midnight, even though
the truck delivering the papers did not show up until about 2 a.m.; some showed
up around 4 am. Any time was fine with me, as long as they delivered the route.
It is also possible there is no longer a carrier on the
route and a U-T employee is delivering the route.
REBER: Rick also asked
this question: Anyone have an answer to this?: Correct or incorrect, use of
colon after question mark?
PAMELA DUGAN
opines:
The colon's unnecessary, Rick. Put it in a drawer for some
later use.
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DAVID FARMER writes:
Another
daft definition--lassitude: the geographical point in Scotland occupied
mainly by girls.
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REBER:
Happy Birthday, Aug. 12 to Fernando Romero and Leonel Sanchez.
P.O. Box 2239
Ramona, CA 92065
U.S.A.
