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md or nba?

My students may know me better than I think.

More than a few of them accused me of canceling classes last Monday so I could stay home and watch the NBA All-Star Game on TV — not so I could go to the hospital and have a doctor check out my bum ankle.

I did go to the hospital. I promise. Of course, before I did, I watched the NBA All-Star Game on TV.

02.23.2003, 12:06 PM · School, Sports

i’ll have the hugh grant, please

Are there any other straight guys out there who carry around photos of Hugh Grant in their pockets?

Every time I visit my neighborhood barber — US$0.63 per haircut — I never say a word. I just hand him two photos of Mr. Grant from About a Boy, point to them and then point to my head. This strategy has worked well so far.

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02.23.2003, 12:05 PM · Humor, Observations · Comments (2)

smooth moves

After six months in Shanghai, I have finally found a good smoothie. And it’s at a noodle joint in Xintiandi, of all places. Nooch has a RMB 28 banana, honey and soy milk smoothie that I believe still would have tasted fantastic had it not been the first real smoothie I’ve had since August. And it’s called the “b.h.s.” — which also happen to be the initials of my high school back in Bloomsburg, Pa.

My smoothie tolerance — built up thanks to my one-a-day habit back in Georgia — has disappeared, however. So now I must start over. But the b.h.s. is worth a few brain freezes.

02.23.2003, 12:03 PM · Observations

i hate firecrackers

Just wanted to get that off my chest.

02.23.2003, 12:03 PM · Observations

dismemberment plan

When a white guy on crutches hobbles through the elevator door, the attendant automatically pushes the button for floor No. 15. Because that’s where all the white people go at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai. They speak English up there. Well, kind of.

I was on crutches for the second time in a month. The first stint was due to a badly sprained ankle from basketball. The second stint came because I never gave the original injury proper time to heal.

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02.23.2003, 12:02 PM · Observations

ad nauseum

Feeling down? Need a laugh? Well, all you need to do is peruse the job ads at www.thatsshanghai.com. Here are some of my favorites from the past couple weeks:

RANDOM TALENTS

Ben Kinglsley Look Alike?
Do you look like Ben Kingsley? Remember Gandhi, Schindler’s List, Dave and many other movies he acted in? We need a double for him in an upcoming movie to be filmed in Shanghai. Please contact me and include a photo. Let’s meet and talk…

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02.23.2003, 11:57 AM · Humor

super bowling

I was in Nanning, China on Jan. 26 … and I couldn’t watch the Super Bowl for the first time that I can remember. Granted, the Super Bowl started at around 7 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 27 for me, but for some reason I still thought I might be able to catch the game on TV. (We Americans tend to think that the Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the world.) The TV in the $12-per-night “hotel” I was staying in had Star Sports and what appeared to be ESPN Asia — although the information on the station appeared to be a couple days old — but there was no Super Bowl to be found. The closest thing? The Asian Bowling Championships. And I watched every last frame. Would you believe a white guy won?

02.23.2003, 11:51 AM · Sports