god bless mao

This article appeared in the SF Chronicle today. Its hysterical...

Mao Offered Women to U.S.

Thursday, February 14, 2008 15:34 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chairman Mao Zedong made what Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.

"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office. "We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it."

ahh... the memories

Today, MTV announced their very own "Real World" awards show. (Seriously.) Of course, no Real World history could omit Coral, from Back to New York, a.k.a. my former roommate from hell. This should bring a nostalgic tear to my friends from 1999, who provided refuge for me from her.

The award she is up for is very appropriately named.

I wanted to embed the video, but MTV doesn't publish the link, so go here to check out Coral in all her glorious insanity: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/specials/real_world_awards/category.jhtml?catId=roommate_from_hell&cpid=9

In fact, it was MY interview with the producers that got her onto the show. One of these days, I'm going to get off my lazy ass and write up those stories.

btw, some fresh pumpkin...

What a bunny-bunny!

the irony of pumpkin

Yes, I know its been more than months since I've posted. Everytime I think of something to write, I get distracted by the adorable little puppy I have at home. Or, rather, distracted by something bad that she's doing, trying to do, or trying to pretend she's not doing.

(It doesn't help that my wireless has been down for weeks, so I'm tied to the LAN line - which is closest to my couch - and everytime I sit down with the laptop, Baby plants herself on the keyboard.)

One of the bad things Pumpkin has been doing is eating her own poop every once in a while. According to my Vet, is normal puppy behavior. But still - EW. So I've been trying different ways to get her to stop doing it. I've tried scolding her (associating negative consequences), spraying bitter apple on it, even adding MSG - which my vet said would work, and promptly induced a tummy allergy in the poor thing.

Finally, I found something non-toxic to add to her food that seems to be working. Yep, you guessed it... pumpkin!

It took feeding Pumpkin pumpkin to get her to stop recycling her food. The irony is beautiful.

pet travel is a nightmare

I swear, I never realized how much I love my little Pumpkin until last night, when I tried to book her a reservation as a carry-on for my flight back to PA.

First of all, can I just say that this new outsourcing customer service to India is NOT a good idea? I mean, no offense to India - we have fantastic engineers that either have come to the US, or work out of our Bangalore offices. However, when it comes to customer service, its probably not best to hire people whose English is not that great. I'm sure when it comes to 99% of reservations, its fine, but when it comes to complicated issues, it becomes a nightmare.

So the flight I was originally on didn't have carry-on room for my baby. I spent 2 hours on the phone with United last night, and then another 1.5 calling other airlines to find a flight that had availability. Apparently, Delta doesn't have the same information on their website as their phone agents do :-S

Finally, this morning, I demanded a supervisor (and had to go through 4 people and repeat my request!!!) before I got the deal settled. Luckily, it only cost $75 for me to change the flight - but this doesn't include the $85 each way ticket for Baby. So my grand total for this already expensive ticket - going home when I don't particularly feel like seeing the parents or traveling with a young puppy - comes out to $788.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!