Rapa Nui

Mamá & Axel with the moais... not, not a giant bottle of pisco, kids.

I learnt that each of the big heads was meant to look like the dead person it represented. Axel also told me he was able to ride his bike for 4 hours (he enjoys marathonic trips) without seeing a single human on Easter Island.

MyohMy

"China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday. (From an Associated Press wire)

I have news for Ms. Yu: it’s already complicated.

Have you heard what’s happening in Myanmar? I hear it every morning on the radio news, like a slow, persistent, deathly drumbeat. I bet these monks are in it for the long haul. If you’re a Buddhist monk, I would guess you’re not too concerned about whether it’s you getting beaten to death or the next guy, and that’s how you win a battle, I think. Individualization of soldiers annoys me, because I feel it undermines the concept of a united front, where each man is everyman. Samurai, Spartan, whatnot. Didn’t they do it this way? I don’t know much, but I hope these monks and their compatriots win. From what I gather, they have nothing to lose.

[the photo is of the Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, 52, who died after being shot while trying to photograph the events]

We all need to feel secure, we're so middle class

Tautology

From the book Armed Gunmen, True Facts and Other Ridiculous Nonsense (comments by Mental Floss.com)

• “False pretense”
If pretense is “the act of alleging falsely,” as Dictionary.com asserts, then wouldn’t a false pretense be … true?

• “Advance warning”
A warning delivered after the fact is known, I believe, as “Monday morning quarterbacking.”

• “Convicted felon”
If we’re guilty until proven innocent, there shouldn’t be too many convictionless felons running around.

• “Surviving widow”
Kallan defines it thusly: “The last woman standing in an all-widow game of Russian roulette.”

• “Fall down”
Gravity tends to make this modifier unnecessary.

• “All throughout”
More pervasive than occasionally throughout.

• “Close proximity”
As opposed to a distant proximity?

• “Sum total”
This really gets the point across … and then sum.

• “Shared dialogue”
When was the last time you heard a shared monologue?

• “Mass exodus”
When everyone leaves church at the same time? And speaking of church …

• “Holy Bible”
I’m so tired of these unholy Bibles.

I need a housewife

What I am looking for is someone to:

*clean my apartment
*make small home repairs (see post re: my broken curtain)
*run errands

More about me:

*I'm out of the house a lot, don't have time to sit around waiting for a load of laundry to get done in the building's basement before anyone steals my basket (again)
*I like to eat healthy, simple things but can barely get around to purchasing them at the supermarket, much less preparing them into lunches
*Life is chaos, things break, my list of items in need of repair or change is growing and I'm not doing anything about it. Can you help?

Ideal housewives are:

*Equally opportunity employer
*Harassment free environment
*Fair pay, fair labour conditions
*Must enjoy taking care of *moi* and *mes needs* and thrive on praise