It's not the degree that shows you are educated

My mother only had a fifth grade education in the American schools.  When she wrote letters, she would pour over a termite eaten elementary school dictionary to spell the word correctly.  If she couldn't find the word, she would write it in hiragana.  Her letters were a mixture of English, Japanese, and Hawaiian pidgin.  But she got her message across.

Mom would keep our letters in a little bag in her purse.  She could dig up our notes from weeks, months past.  Am not quite sure why she did this but guess that the letters were important to her.  She kept her bankbooks in her purse and she would scrimp and save to put away money for her grandchildren...$5 here, $10 there.  Her purse said much about her as an individual.

Despite not being educated by American standards, she was a businesswoman, a seamstress, a clothing designer, a teacher, and a sewing school principal.  She was able to support our family when my father was disabled by a stroke when I was two years old.  Her proudest moment was when she received her 8th grade graduation certificate from the adult school in Lahaina.

Although she might have been judged to be illiterate, her children were all college grads.  Education was paramount and the only way to escape the poverty of our childhood.  Ritsuko Okimoto Ah Sing, you did a great job in giving us, your children, the education of our lives.

Small Minds, Limited Horizons

I am always amazed how people can be so small minded.  They see a piece of litter on the ground and fail to see the amazing sunset filling the horizon.

Life is too short to not adventure out into the infinite possibilities.

Start off with a Tasty Morsel and Embellish It.

     When planning for a Super Bowl gathering, it is so easy to overdo and overthink things.  What happens is that there is much too much food, with an overabundance of protein and salty foods.

     For the next eating frenzy, consider beginning with something really delicious like a moist and tender roast, and set forth to embellish it.  The embellishment can be in the form of a variety of sauces, or a complement of different forms of carbohydrates, or vegetable or fruit to add texture or taste contrast.

     Here is one approach.  Begin with a pork roast, seasoned, and cooked with a layer of onions, garlic, bay leaves, and some broth in a slow cooker.  Cook until the meat is easily shredded.  Serve the pulled pork with some coleslaw of cabbage, carrots, and leafy greens seasoned with Best Foods mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and dill weed.  Make several sauces to kick up the flavors of the pulled pork without drowning it.  Consider a fruit-ketchup barbeque sauce, a mustard and balsamic vinegar sauce with a kick of cayenne pepper, and finally, a sweet chili-mayonnaise mix with garlic galore.  Have some buns ready for guests to "make their own" sliders.

     Here is another fun idea for an interactive supper where people will have to talk to each other.  Begin with a store bought rotisserie chicken.  Shred the chicken and put it on a large platter.  Surround the chicken with thin sticks of crispy cucumber, green onion curls, radish sprouts, and thin slivers of carrots.  Have flour tortillas ready to be filled.  Show the guests how to do the wrap.  Navigate them around various sauces they can use to flavor their wraps:  hoisin sauce, plum sauce, chili garlic sauce, black bean and chili sauce, a kochujan mix with Korean ko chu jan with sugar and vinegar.  Easy meal with tasty results.

Too Much is Not a Good Thing

In the Holiday Season, delicious food is on everyone's mind when there is a gathering. Rich food, special foods, time-consuming preparation in immense quantities.
But Too Much lessens the impact of the food. I think the Japanese have a good handle on food: beautiful presentation, just a small tidbit or two to enjoy the full taste, with the carbos coming at the very end of the meal.

Limit the number of choices for your next party. Get a handle on the portions. We only have so much space in our stomachs. Make the food look pretty. Make the food smell wonderful. Give every guest small plates to keep them from overloading and pigging out. It is all for their own good!

The sharing of food is the sharing of love...between the cooks and the guests, between family and friends.

Eating Like the Natives

Whenever traveling, learning explodes when you spend time watching the local people and what they are doing and how they are doing things.


Here are five tips that might help you to enhance your visit to another country.

1. Do not go to American restaurants, stores. Look for the little businesses that are full of local people.

2. Even if you do not know the language, observe what local people are purchasing. In a restaurant, point to a dish that someone else had ordered and request that one.

3. In whatever country...learn the phrase...How much is this? in the native tongue.

4. If someone tells you how much something is, and even if you really want it...shake your head, put on your blah face, and walk away. If the merchant is willing to bargain, he/she will call you back.

5. Walk around discretely, observing everything, willing to try anything at least one. Avoid at all costs, the Ugly American stereotype.

Is there an art to thinking clearly?

I've been reading Rolf Dobelli's book, The Art of Thinking Clearly and I have found that there are many cognitive errors that keep us from thinking clearly.

Consider the titles of his chapters:
Don't Accept Free Drinks:  Reciprocity
Leave Your Supermodel Friends at Home:  Contrast Effect
If You have Nothing to Say, Say Nothing:  Twaddle Tendency
Live Each Day as If It Were Your Last--but Only on Sundays:  Hyperbolic Discounting

As I read the book, I found that my thinking began to become more muddled.  Logic was crowded out by fallacy.  I have always prided myself in rational thinking but I can see how emotions can impact decisions.  I was getting worried until I read the Epilogue where the author admits that he does not live an error-free life.  He sums things up in this manner:  "Nature doesn't seem to mind if our decisions are perfect or not, as long as we can maneuver ourselves through life--and as long as we are ready to be rational when it comes to crunch." (p 305)

Well, that sounds good enough for me.  Methinks I overthinketh.

Listening and Conversation

      Have you ever had the experience where someone asks you, "How are you?" and before you can answer, they have already walked off and are talking to someone else?

      Was that just a rhetoric question?  Or, was the person just not interested in how the hell you were?  It is amazing how some people like to have conversations where they are the only ones talking.  Sometimes, in order to get in a word edgewise, you have to wait until they take a breath before you try to blurt out your comment or contribution to the "conversation."

      The dictionary defines conversation as people talking together.  There is no indication of people listening to each other.  Sometimes, the ability to listen is an art, especially for fast talking people.  If you are a slow talking Midwesterner,  you don't have a chance to get a word in the exchange.  You might have a whole lot of listening to do in the conversation, though.

      Listening is necessary for appropriate reaction.  There are people whose demeanor cause speakers to just spill their guts out, whether they wanted to or not.  It is interesting to watch a conversation and watch the expressions of the listener...do the expressions show interest, disdain, disbelief, or a blank look of euphoria.

      When have you had a conversation with comfortable periods of silence?  As the proverb reminds us, you have two ears and one mouth to listen twice more than we speak.