Bizarre article

While reading plastic.com I came across this scholarly article about the CADAVER SYNOD, a truly bizarre and gruesome trial that took place in the ninth century and in which the body of a pope was dug up and put on trial by the pope that succeeded him. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Interesting Article

From The Washington Post:

"A Christian lobbying group fighting the proposed importation of low-cost prescription drugs has received behind-the-scenes help from the drug industry, the latest example of pharmaceutical companies trying to influence Congress clandestinely."

Why Hadn't I Thought Of This?

Courtesy of my favorite season: The Black People Love Us Site. These guys are brilliant. The facial expressions are priceless. Inside Scoop: the girl sitting next to me has actually met the guy who came up with the site. Apparently this guy is white and is into robotics. He came up with the idea and his girlfriend took all the pictures.

It's kind of sad, but I can only count one black person among my close friends. On the other hand, I still have a pretty diverse group of friends though: whites, East and South Asians, black (no plural unfortunately), and Hispanics. Oh well, I don't pick friends based on racial quotas.

Too Good To Be True

Woohoo! They are planning to place paid public toilets on the city sidewalks, although judging by the history of public toilets in NYC, I probably shouldn't be too excited so soon. We could definitely use more bathrooms here. Even 20 will help. There have been a couple of times that I had to buy snacks/drinks just to use the bathroom. Once I bought a slice of chocolate cake at a cafe only to find out that it didn't have a bathroom!

We Don't All Look Alike Dammit!

Earlier today at lunch, the Asian guy who was in line before me ordered a slice of sausage and pepper pizza. When it was my turn to order, I made the same choice. The server, who happened to be black, looked at me with a confused expression. "You only want 1 slice, right?" He asked. "Yeah, " I answered, somewhat puzzled myself by his question. "I put a slice in there already," He said. I looked in the oven thing and saw only one slice of pizza. Then I realized that he had confused me with the other guy. I said, "No, that slice belongs to the guy who ordered before me" and pointed at the other guy. The server looked at the other guy and said, "Oh." Finally, he put a slice in the oven for me. I found the whole episode pretty amusing. I guess it wasn't really all his fault because the other guy also wore a blue shirt, had short hair and was even about my height. But he wasn't wearing glasses!! We were as different as Clark Kent and Superman!

Speaking of being Asian, I have really enjoyed that new Fox show, Banzai. It's so stupid, bizarre and funny. I love everything about that wacky show, from the oddly animated Japanese characters to the "Ahhh, BANZAI!" karate chop transitions. I can see why the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans are protesting the show for its unflattering stereotypes, but I don't find it offensive at all. I'm somewhat puzzled by my own lack of reaction. Perhaps it's because I'm too busy laughing to care about all the racial caricatures. Or maybe because Banzai does a very good job of mimicking many real, wacky Japanese game shows.

The Illogical Stuff In Life

On Saturday, I went to Century 21 (voted the best place to shop in NYC in Zagat's) and bought a crapload of jeans because I realized that khakis and white pants just couldn't cut it any more when I was picking out clothes to wear to go clubbing the night before. So there I was, flipping through piles of clothes, trying to figure out which pairs of dark jeans I should get while the temperature outside hovered above 90 degrees, with lots of humidity. It seemed so absurd and illogical that I had to shake my head as I tried to find a pair of D&G jeans my size (I ended up buying and then returning a pair of size 31, which is a size smaller than what I usually wear, because the damn thing was so tight in the crotch, I could feel the inner lining partitioning off my crown jewels). It was almost as absurd as that time when I had to drink chicken soup during lunch because the AC at the office chilled me to the bones. Meanwhile, the temperature outside was 95 F.