eat, pray, throwup a little in your mouth

i haven't read this book or seen the movie, and yeah... i won't ever. if you don't know the premise, it's about this woman that gets divorced and then takes her settlement to go off and find herself. so she goes to countries that begin with "I" (to find her inner "I" is what i'm told, and i just stabbed out my left eyeball.) she should've gone off to countries that started with "me" - like mexico? well, she starts with italy (eat), then india (pray), then indonesia (help all those poor people... my right eyeball is now gone.)
but admittedly, i'm a hater at heart. so i didn't like this book when i first heard the title. and why would julia roberts agree to be in this thing?



she is really too cool for this movie. and i know yall are out there questioning me for saying that julia is 'too cool' but have you ever seen her in the orangutan documentary? i never liked julia till i saw her in this. here is the best clip from it, and she is awesome:



and she also did the amazing doc on the wild horses of mongolia. if you've never seen it, here is a clip. i think the seattle public library has it in their collection, so put it on hold.



after seeing this documentary i immediately added mongolia to my list of countries i wanted to visit. but i just know i'd get off the plane and run around asking everyone, "where's julia? where's julia?"

well, let me get back to where i started. i woke up this morning to hear this fascinating report npr. (basically, that 'eat pray love' relies on orientalism and stereotypes to create its magical story,) and i thought, "finally, someone has legitimized my need hate 'eat pray love!' woo hoo!" and here is the link so y'all can hate "eat pray love" too, (and maybe even vomit a bit in your throat.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129254808

black dahlias: rotting bulbs in the hmong flower fields

this is from the front page of today's seattle times about the difficult summer for the hmong flower farmers due to an overly wet may and june. see the link below.

i was down at pike place market a few weekends back when my folks were in town visiting from louisiana, and i bought a small bouquet of flowers for my stepmom - well, actually, i didn't have any cash, so i got the money off my brother who was visiting from germany. i can't really tell one flower from another, but they looked pretty nice. anyway, the hmong have been selling flowers at pike place market ever since i got to seattle, so i try to get some every so often when i got people in town. anyway, if you get the chance, pick up some flowers when you take your next trip down there.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2012632277_hmong16.html

hidden

at a shrine in her Fresno apartment, yeng mua grieves for her son, kick boxer yia mua. he died from liver cancer that doctors say was caused by hepatitis b.

this is a very important story about the high rates of hepatitis b in the hmong population in fresno california. according to the article, liver cancer is the leading cause of death in Laotian men, especially because most do not know that they have hepatitis b. below is a link to the story in the fresno bee, and then a link to the story on npr.

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/06/27/1986989/hepatitis-b-a-silent-epidemic.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129061711 thank you laura for this link to this npr story - yall can listen to the report - or read the transcript.

an education

i got this email from a coworker. isn't this really is how it should be - access to education, regardless of financial status? seeing stuff like this, (and the new health care reform) makes me a little more happy here in america... just don't jaywalk.

Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the announcement, Harvard's president Lawrence H. Summers said, "When only ten percent of the students in elite higher education come from families in the lower half of the income distribution, we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution."

To find out more about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than $60,000 a year, visit Harvard's financial aid website at: http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/ or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581 (617) 495-1581 .

copy and paste: the battle of the kao chii pate

this american life is awesome. this episode (412: million dollar idea) features a bit on vietnamese sandwiches - well, more than just vietnamese sandwiches: but of the theft of a recipe, a menu, even the font of the menu! this is as bad as the theft of rosalind franklin's dna.

well, "stop talking about the past", and listen to this broadcast - even if you just listen to the first 8 minutes. thanks ben for making me aware of this. see link below:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/412/million-dollar-idea