eat one

what went wrong with the definition of Lao?

this is from the webster's dictionary.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lao

Lao pronunciation: \ˈlau\
function: noun inflected form(s): plural Lao or Laos \ˈlauz\
date: 1808 1 : a member of a buddhist people living in Laos and adjacent parts of northeastern thailand 2 : the thai language of the Lao people — Lao adjective

Lao is not a "thai language of the Lao people"

Lao is the "official language of the country of Laos"

oh well.

(thanks to chaleurn for sending this to me. i have heard of Lao and thai described in academic settings as part of the tai linguistic family, but i've never heard Lao described as a "thai language of the Lao people.") comments?

uncovering the past...

not my tagline, but from the article. see the preview below and then read the article, linked here: seattle times article link - click here!.

in seattle this next friday:

see my previous post for details...

so are you chinese or japanese?

the funny thing about this clip, is that i've been quoting it for years although i'd never actually seen it until today. (i should start by saying this clip is from king of the hill, and it shows the arrival of the new neighbors, the souphanousinphone family.) i'd heard about the episode and the Lao family that lived next door to the hills, and i've always thought that this particular scene was an accurate representation of the invisibility of some southeast asian groups in the usa. so i sometimes will reference it (without ever having seen it) when discussing cultural issues with the group i facilitate at the local high school in order to illustrate the stereotypes and cultural expectations of southeast asians. but its hilarious... especially the line, "man them chinese, you never can understand a word they say... mumble mumble mumble." (and thanks to lone for passing this along.)



here is the original link to the online discussion...

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=98894&p=3&topicID=27191714

happy new year

khao chii pate

now look at how everybody's trying to get on with some of this vietnamese sandwich. see the new york times article linked below. ima bout to head off to tony's to get me one. but i've taken to the bbq pork with the fried egg. its so good especially when they leave the egg a little runny. and for the extra egg, its still only 2.50! that's dealz! yep... gonna take my lunch now! (i left my soup at home by accident, so soup will be lunch tomorrow, khao chii pate will be lunch today!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/dining/08banh.html?_r=2

thanks to jacob for this here link.

rotten tomatoes guy

so i was watching some rotten tomatoes at a friend's place over the weekend (i aint got cable). and i saw that the guy host, brett erlich, was wearing a shirt with...



where did he get that shirt anyway? any guesses as to what it says? i mean, i think it's "thank you" and with a "dueh" after it? like the restaurant in viengchan? i also "contacted" rotten tomatoes to ask about it, (see link below), and i would suggest yall all do the same so that they'll actually answer one of us. below is their website, and you can watch the show online! and here is their email address. but regardless, it shows that Laos is rising up into america's collective consciousness, and that soon we'll have a Lao-american president that will declare a holiday to celebrate the eating of padek.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/help_desk/contact.php

next week event!

we've been working on this for a while, so hopefully it comes off okay!

beer

i went to a reception for a non-profit organization a few weeks back, and i was surprised that beerLao had already hit the shelves of local asian supermarkets. but here is the proof. i took these here pictures with the camera on my phone, so they aint the highest quality... but anyway.





(in case you don't remember, a while back i posted a link to an npr story about beerLao and its hopes of becoming an internationally popular brand. and maybe it will.)

king county police: serving and protecting our community

i have been meaning to put this on my blog for a while. this is an ongoing problem with the police force. in my work, i hear stories about this kind of behavior regularly: tazing a kid when he is already in cuffs, allowing a police dog to bite a kid when he's already on the ground with his hands displayed... it goes on and on. the issue seems to be that we don't have enough cameras out there watching the police's every move, cause that seems to be the only time anyone does something about it - (maybe cameras on every corner would help deter the police officers and the law-breakers from their respective errant behaviors.)

here is the article from the seattle pi.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/401779_schene28.html

a village in california just lost its idiot (the mayor)

from cnn:



thanks wl for this link.

beerLao

of course, i've never tasted beerLao, but when in Laos, i've questioned european/australian tourists about their opinion of the homegrown beer, and they've all given it the thumbs up. well, Laos is hoping to expand the beer's reach so you can purchase it at a corner store near you.

here is a link from the article from national public radio

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99874538

the curious thing about beerLao, is that the Lao government is its producer. (this seems foreign to the american in me, but of course, i am on a life-long quest to remedy that malady... and i guess living in seattle is helping, because in washington, all liquor is sold in state-run stores.) but somebody named carlsberg just got a 50% stake in the company, and so it goes.... a round of capitalism for everyone (and on the house.)

thailand: refugee scandal

you'd think after past abuses, thailand would know a little more about assisting refugees. neighboring countries such as cambodia, Laos and vietnam have produced many refugees over the years due to internal conflicts, and this isn't the first time thailand's conduct (robbery, rape, murder) toward these refugees has been questioned. take a look at this video and some of the articles linked here.



http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/01/22/thailand.refugees/index.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1872426,00.html?cnn=yes


thanks to wl for this link

whopper virgin: snl spoof

tasteless: the whopper

i am surprised at the tacky burger king marketing campaign that goes to remote villages in thailand to find "whopper virgins." well, one more example of amerikan capitalism using others to their economic advantage. (ha ha. look at those primitive uncivilized hmong people that aint never ate no whopper before!) i could go on and on about this, but watch for yourself, and then choose to boycott burger king, home of the (tasteless) whopper.


you can also call burger king to express your opinion of their marketing strategy:
305-378-3535
305-378-7200

snow in seattle

aint worked for the past couple of days, cause the office has been closed. so i am trying not to drive. and this is why:



two buses trying to get to the station slid down an ice-covered thomas street on capitol hill and crashed through the barrier separating them from I-5.

anh joseph cao

been meanin to share this with everyone. louisiana has elected bobby jindal (first indian american governor) and now anh cao, the first vietnamese american congressman. he is from new orleans; check out the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/us/politics/08cao.html?_r=3&scp=2&sq=cao&st=cse

absurd

i should change my blog title to - "absurdities," and this should be my first post. yesterday, went to a caribbean restaurant in columbia city, and this is what they decided to advise the general public regarding the use of their urinal:


my second absurdity would be something about stepping in a soft, mushy pile of dog poop on the way to my car this morning. its seattle i tell you... the rain had the pile all squishy and soaked through. and to top it all off, i didn't realize what i'd stepped in until i got in my car and smeared it all over the carpet. i sat there wondering what that smell was, "did somebody leave a vietnamese sandwhich under my seat?" and then i looked down and saw it... light brown too. and then in my subsequent frenzy (i stopped the car twice to wipe it off in the grass on the side of the street) i spilt my diet cherry pepsi all over myself.

i tried to clean it outa my car and off the bottom of my shoe... but it never really works. i can still smell it. in fact, if i breathe in deeply enough, i can smell the poop right here where i sit, even though my shoe looks clean enough for a white glove test. its gonna be the fish sauce story all over again. a real poop emergency.

the betrayal