A deep, stentorian voice echoed through the dry canyon air. Laser beams scattered across the wide, flat surface, forming images to match the narrator’s tale: trampling mustangs of water, swooping eagles, the Statue of Liberty. It was a story of mythical proportions, the battle of man versus nature, national progress, and Democracy,...
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Posts Tagged ‘ Expat ’
Blockage: Visits to the Three Gorges Dam
The River
We go to the river when we can. From our apartment it is just a quick turn and a crossing and we are there. It is wide as it bisects the city of Yichang, and slow moving. The water is not clean. We judge the quality of the air...
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Corn Juice for the Masses
Stuff People Ingest Voluntarily episode 31
Before you start accusing us of focusing on the poor, fading laundry as part of our own Antonioni scheme to sabotage the world’s image of an entire nation, let us be clear: we are more interested in the one small bright square so carefully preserved like some tiny peep...
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Face Value
The Nanjing Galaxy Yacht Club floats securely in the yellowish, turbid water of the Yangtze River. The neighborhood – in the northwest of the city, far from the Ming Dynasty wall – is mostly industrial. Not far upstream is the famous Yangtze River Bridge, a dark, ominous shape stretching across the water....
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Dear Big Ants Who Were Bossing Around the Little Ants
Dear Big Ants Who Were Bossing Around the Little Ants,
First, I must say that you look crazy up close. Sorry, but I have been a little off lately and have found that brushing aside distractions clears up a path towards almost clarity.
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Signs of Thought 5
“Xinjiang that pulls raises the character and style garden”
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Dear Students Who Covet Our Autographs
Dear Students Who Covet Our Autographs,
When you tell me “write your name” on this pencil case, jacket, notebook, text book, toy, hand, etc. and I ask you, “why?” it is not because I don’t understand what you are saying. No amount of repetition, louder, slower or otherwise will answer my question. I’m looking...
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Ode to the Ugliest: a poem
You of the snaggled teeth and underbite,
(no Spell-Check, not “snuggled,” never snuggled for this beast)
of the drool pooling lips and potato-shaped head,
your face so empty of symmetry,
and suffocating on excess character:
Sit.
You gnarled mess of pedigreed inbreeding.
Do you recognize your disfigurement?
Where is your basket?
Your sweater?
SIT I SAY!
Perhaps you speak no English.
That would explain...
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This Ridiculous World Guide: China – Walls
China loves Walls. Chinese people build walls everywhere. Some are great, some are less so. Many serve multiple purposes such as advertising, keeping people in, keeping people out, hiding something from view, indicating property line, etc. Usually, when a wall isn’t tall enough to deter ninjas, they line the top with shards of glass....
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