That would be me, actually. Me with a beard. The first I have ever had. Perhaps my last, as well. And I don’t know how long I will keep messing around with this. I know some guys, a lot of them, are tinkering with facial hair most of their adult lives. Mustache, then a goatee, […]

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We knew from the moment USC lost at Oregon State, that the Trojans’ had a very hard road ahead of them — almost certainly an impassible road ahead of them — to get to the BCS title game. And we wrote that, the night of Sept. 25. They had to win out and hope all […]

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Crowded out, every one … When will “they” ever learn? (Everybody, sing!) Or not. One of the more interesting realities of Hong Kong: Very little seems to live on this stretch of the island aside from humans, their handful of pets … and some insects. And that’s about it. Which leaves you to wonder where […]

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Here’s something else we, as Americans, rarely think about: Nobody celebrates Thanksgiving except us. And if you happen to be out of the country when Thanksgiving rolls around … good luck finding a turkey. Cooked, uncooked, still in its feathers.  Non-Americans just don’t know Thanksgiving. “What? American colonists and Indians and … what?” But it’s […]

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This murderous business still going on in Mumbai, India (formerly known as Bombay), still unfolding … what apparently is a series of terror attacks aimed at Americans and Britons … If I were sitting in my place in SoCal, it would seem quite remote. People on, literally, the other side of the world, dead, wounded […]

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Back in the United States, most journalists don’t really know about this. Unless they have traveled in Asia and perhaps seen these newspapers on news stands — or had them left at their hotel-room doors. There are more than a few English-language newspapers in Asia. And they could wind up employing out-of-work American journalists. Those […]

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Well, of course it’s not. It’s Hong Kong. It’s China. We’re in the tropics. It’s 75 degrees and sunny. At night it might get down to 65. Hongkongers like to make believe we’re deep into Fall now. They dress like it, anyway. The women wear boots and jackets. The men break out their sweaters and […]

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Not many Americans grow up in a vertical environment. Folks from New York City, I suppose, but that’s about it. And for those of us from the country or small town or suburbs … our world is a two-dimensional place. Forward and back, left or right. That is not the case in Hong Kong, however. […]

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They have sports channels over here, in Hong Kong. You get the basic cable package, and you get a half-dozen channels. Star Sports, Eurosport, a couple of channels labeled ESPN. But college football? Nope. Not live. Never. Not in the nearly two months I’ve been here and not seen this or that college football Game […]

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On other excursions out of the States, I have been vaguely aware of a condition I call “language fatigue.” It comes from struggling to understand another language. One you don’t speak. Hearing it, reading it, trying to make sense of it. At least the basics. Often, I didn’t really notice it until I got on […]

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