Link to a Happy Valley blogster

While looking for the Happy Valley Police Station phone number, I turned up this other blog: Powmarday. Looks like this person's been living in Happy Valley much longer than I have, and has posted up a bunch of interesting HK and Happy Valley info.

Enjoy...

Views of Singapore

Although this sign (about US$700 for littering) indicates quite rigid control of its society, Singapore is not as strict as you might think. You still get executed for drug possession, and caned for graffiting, but this society still allows such vices as drinking, smoking in bars, prostitution, and souped up cars.

I'm not a whisky connoisseur by any count, but in attempting to understand it some more, I tried the whiskeys below at Highlander (Clark Khee, Singapore), as well as a 12-year Macallan and 12-year Glenfiddich (Indochine, Singapore). I liked the Macallan better, due to smoothness and aftertaste. Had them both with 1 cube of ice each.
(this was a single-malt TAHDHI from November 1969, which cost about US$20 for a single. It was smooth, and had some indescribably nice aftertaste--kind of like chocolate?)

Takashimaya basement has many food stalls. This one was notable because it had an Yakitori machine, which dipped yakitori sticks in sauce before grilling.

Pics from the National Museum of Singapore, and its History & Living exhibit (bascially, a history of the country)

(above right) An old school textbook supporting the Kuomindang (Nationalists). 60% of Singapore citizens are Chinese.

(right) This was a cool exhibit, which allows you to smell food ingredients common to Singapore, such as coconut and lime.

Alternative Views - The Don Imus firing shows Asian Americans' lack political clout

Don Imus was fired today over his racist remarks of the Rutgers womens bball team. I just want to note that this would have never happened if he'd made the remarks about Asians. Just look at the two New Jersey radio broadcasters, "Jersey Guys". Jersey Guys had an entire song dedicated to mocking a Korean mayoral candidate (Jun Choi) in 2005. (betraying their uneducated backgrounds, they used a Chinese accent to do this). They apologized, and lost some advertisers, but ultimately did not get suspended or fired. People did sign petitions at the time to request their resignations, but Asians just don't have the high profile activists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (who asked for Don Imus' resignation).

Sidenote:
Go here to read about the original Jersey Guys incident. Here are some choice quotes from the show:
“No specific minority group or foreign group should ever dictate the outcome of an American election. I don’t care if the Chinese population in Edison has quadrupled in the last year, Chinese should never dictate the outcome of an election, Americans should.”

Carton went on to call APAs “fringe people,” “Orientals” and illustrated his point of view by saying, “Ching, chong, ching, chong, ching, chong” in a stereotypical, high-pitched voice.