Mercurial with a Purpose

Trump is like a ventriloquist.  He talks out of both sides of his mouth.  As he explained to a talk-show host, when he's trying to strike a deal with someone, when he wants something from people, he acts like they're his best friends. That must be the reason for his recent turn-around regarding the Latina governor of New Mexico.  After savaging her, he's suddenly reversed course and is saying he loves her, and that she's doing a great job. Translation: he wants her to kowtow, just like Paul Ryan and the other Republicans have.  Apparently he thinks that sweet-talk technique will also work with Putin, the Chinese, and Kim Jon Ugly.

The Arabs, though, he wants to bomb off the face of the earth--and possibly the Hispanics, if they don't stay on their side of the border.

At least, that's what he's saying today.

Where Are You?

Gdyeh moy roosskee druzyah ooshlee?

Where have Fio's Russian friends gone? Ever since Fiorella began this blog in 2008, the old Soviet bloc has been her major audience. Whether it was because of her own Eastern European roots, because she'd studied the roosskee yazik in college, or because Putin thought her posts were so ridiculous that they must be encrypted messages to American spies lurking about in the Kremlin, Fio doesn't know.  All she knows is that they're gone.

On the other hand, her Chinese following is picking up.  Nee hao!

Language Madness Strikes Again

Fiorella can now read three Chinese characters: "person," "big," and "little."

Yes, your Fio is endeavoring to pick up yet another writing system.  She's rusty on them, but at one time she could handle Cyrillic, in which Russian is written; devanagari, the Sanskrit script; and the Dravidian script Telugu uses.

But, as with Chinese, she's never been in a situation to do more than dabble.

Sigh. Maybe in her next life . . . .

Big Mouth

Fiorella has no built-in censor.  Thus, when her neurologist's intern said his father was Chinese and his mother was Czech, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Oh, a Chinese Czecher!"

Thank God the intern laughed.

Christmas Round-up

As it turned out, the Chinese delegation didn't arrive till 4:00, which worked out quite well for all concerned.  They spent at least an hour at the house, with Fiorella giving them their gift bags and making over the darling baby while Husband answered their questions about the use of the fireplaces, a no-no in Hong Kong. The visitors were charming, and Fio hopes she and Husband were too.
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It seems weird to be back to real life after a week of concentrating on NOTHING but Christmas.  Fiorella's first concern now is getting Moira's story written, although she'll have to take her baby car into Mazda sometime soon.  Husband says its radiator is leaking coolant, whatever that means--apparently, nothing good.
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Fiorella intends to leave the Christmas decor up for at least a month.  After all, she didn't finish it up till Tuesday.

The More, the Merrier

Ah, the serenity of the day before Christmas when, for the first time ever, Fio and Husband had almost everything prepared and worked out.  All the remained for Fiorella to do was cook the chocolate pudding in the microwave, wrap some selected pieces of family jewelry for daughter, and neaten up her desk in the den. The next day, of course, she and Husband would set the timetable for cooking Christmas dinner for themselves, Son and wife, and brother and wife, then proceed at their leisure.  Easy--no sweat.

Until Fio learned last night that Nephew, his Chinese girlfriend, and her family would be dropping in on Christmas morning.  Actually, Fio and Husband felt honored, but also a bit frantic.  On the way home from the Christmas Eve service, Husband stopped at Walgreen's for Fio to rush in and buy whatever Christmas stuff was left on the shelves to put in little gift bags for the family--can't have people drop by and not have gifts for them.  And Fio and Husband are gonna have to get up extra early tomorrow to get as much done on the dinner as possible in order to spend some time with our their-morning visitors.

In other words, it's Christmas as usual around Fio's holiday house--crrrrrazy!

Just Wondering

All our enemies of yesteryear--the Germans and Japanese, the  Russians and Chinese, have been/are being recycled as our friends.

Somewhere along the line, the world powers recognized that there is more profit--figuratively and literally--in peace than in war, that it is better to sell goods to each other than to kill the populace and ravage the countryside. 

So when do the Islamic extremists reform their ways and join together with the rest of the world?

Yes or No?

Fiorella's conversation with the agent was postponed till today; however, she did have a great time at her dentist's yesterday. Getting the old filling drilled out and a temporary crown put in place wasn't much fun, but she really enjoyed practicing her Mandarin--all six phrases of it. And she learned two new words so listen close. "Yes" is "sih," but the vowel is sorta a cross between a short "i" and a long "u." And the word is cut off at the end.

"No" is "booh-sih," which means "not yes."

Makes you think, doesn't it? Linguistically, the Chinese can always be persuaded.

Sinking Her Teeth into It

Fiorella came out of her dentist's office yesterday as high as the proverbial kite. Not only were her teeth x-rayed, bright and shiny, but she had used her meager Mandarin on the office manager, Dr. Ma's brother, and HE UNDERSTOOD HER. He also taught her how to ask where the bathroom was.

In addition, Dr. Ma taught her how to say "dog" and "my name is--."

Fio can hardly wait for the appointment when she gets her broken tooth fixed--and, more important, can practice her Chinese.

Nee Hao Mah?

Fiorella is so excited. She's going off to see her dentist bright and early this morning. This is the dentist who's taught her some Mandarin phrases, and she's planning to use them all, and, she hopes, learn more.

Oh, and get her teeth cleaned too, shyeh-shyeh.