今早客廳有一隻蚱蜢，全身還不到一公分長。從沒看過那麼小的蚱蜢。

燈
籠
花
開
了

一個人要有錢，通常是因為愛錢，向錢看齊。這種人，因為人生觀建立在金錢上，所以通常勢利：打從心中看不起沒錢人、工人、黑手、勞動階級。一般而言，越是弱勢團體，越要靠自己人，不盼望有錢有勢的人發心﹝山村有災，同族自救，高高居上位的人只會叫他們移民南美﹞。越是貧困的人，越清楚富豪的鐵石心腸。

所以很奇怪：每當選舉季節，富貴人沿街叫，拜託拜託給他機會為我們服務。費解。

當然也有真心幫人的富家；看Bill Gates把錢大把大把送去幫助窮困的人，一出手是幾百萬美金。但是他想作好事，不必競選、不需當官。

要知道富貴子弟當選後對下層同胞的關懷，請看今夏Katrina過後，腐屍橫陣 New Orleans 街道，Bush總統因為還在放假，不聞不問，幾天後才應付一下。

拜託拜託，讓我花大錢爭取機會為百姓服務。相信嗎？

Don't vote, it only encourages them.

This morning for the third time, I had the honor of attending the annual gathering of the Jingpo (景頗族) in Taiwan. (If you would like to read about last year's gathering, please go to the archives of this blog for November 2004.)

This year, Chairman Kung / 孔會長 looked at the thinning ranks of the Jingpo guerillas who came to Taiwan over forty years ago, and said, "We are old. It is time to pass the gathering on to younger hands." His nomination for Chairman was a young Jingpo, born and raised in Taiwan, who had graduated from the national military academy; his election was unanimous.

In his first official act, Chairman Pai (排會長) promised to pass the Jingpo association of Taiwan on to second, third, and fourth generation Jingpo. The elders had made a concentrated effort to bring in the young people, and this year there were far more second generation Jingpo than in previous years that I had been there. There was even a sprinkling of third generation Jingpo. Long may they thrive!

With 排會長 Chairman Pai

From the Left, by tribe: Wa (佤), Jingpo, Jingpo, Serb, Jingpo, Jingpo, Jingpo

There are even members of the Hanni nationality in Taiwan.
打領帶的這位是哈尼族的。
「我不曉得臺灣有哈尼族的。」
「有! 我們人數很多！大多住在龍潭這一帶。」
「你們有多少人在臺灣？」
「三十個左右。」

Here's an old riddle:
What does man love more than life,
hate more than death or mortal strife?
It is that which contented men desire,
The poor possess and the rich require,
The miser spends, the spendthrift saves,
And all men carry to their graves.

Got it?
I've posted the answer on November 20th.
Hey, I'm lousy at riddles too!

一家臺北公司的老闆過生日，今天跟職員在烏來餐廳吃吃喝喝。全體關在房間裡，空氣很恐怖：肉+酒+汗+煙，說不出的噁心。男的都還穿西裝打領帶，多不舒服! 大家喝的爛醉，放聲唱卡啦OK，聽起來比較像是哭爹娘。唱完、吐完，就回都市去了。

想問兩個問題。

第一，要這樣慶生，何必來烏來？他們一點也沒享受到我們的特點。

第二，吃吃喝喝，吼吼吐吐，這是甚麼人生？人的尊嚴掃地。他們一點也沒享受到作「人」的特點。說慶生祝壽，不如慶牲祝獸。

剛開始學中文時，發現「打」字用法之廣，歎為觀止。…幾名餐飲評論家打扮好後到餐廳打牙祭，等菜上桌，想打發時間，就打油詩。他們打算，餐廳打烊後，要打分數。有人打聽消息，打電話給老闆打小報告，老闆想打點，叫人好好打掃，這次要打拼！打開門打招呼，想問他們，打擾ㄧ下，要不要打牌？正在打如意算盤，突然打噴嚏，到診所打針，醫生本來打盹，打起精神給他打針，痛地老闆滿地打滾，想打醫生，護士來打圓場…天啊，怎麼那麼愛打？

歐陽修歸田錄云，「今世俗言語之訛，而舉世君子小人同其謬者，唯打字爾。打丁雅反，其義本為考擊，故人相毆、以物相擊，皆謂之打，而工造金銀器，亦謂之打，可矣；蓋有搥之義也。至於造舟車者曰打船打車、網魚曰打魚、汲水曰打水、役夫餉飯曰打飯、兵士給衣糧曰打衣糧、從者執傘曰打傘、以糊黏紙曰打黏、以丈尺量地曰打量、舉手試眼之昏明曰打試，至于名儒碩學，語皆如此。觸事皆謂之打。而遍檢字書，了無此字。丁雅反者，其義主考擊之打；自音滴耿，以字學言之，打字从手从丁，丁又擊物之聲，故音滴耿為是，不知因何轉為丁雅也。」

嗚，打字好累，誰來幫我打氣？

民國六十幾年的一天，一個朋友有大消息：「我發現一個很棒的地方，在長春路，是賣陶器的。進去逛一趟，好像身心清潔，洗了一個文化澡。」這是我跟陶朋舍的緣的開始。在民國六十年代的臺灣，陶器不是中華陶瓷，便是大同瓷器。(幾乎沒有人用心喝茶；沒有茶藝館，只有不太正當的茶室。) 陶朋舍是臺灣第一個賣陶藝創意品的場所。可以說他帶動了一種風氣。因為常去，跟老闆曾根雄成為好朋友了。

三十年了。曾根雄現在決定這個月底要收攤了。雖然這件事可能不受大眾的重視，但也是臺灣藝術史上值得注意的事。

長春路14號之一

語言不同，表達方式不同。中文的「參加」，一般不加思索，反射性地翻 take part in. 實際上，native speaker很少用到 take part in.

中文的「參加演奏會」，一般中國人講take part in a concert. 對方應該猜得出意思，但這不是英文。英文有分。如果參加演奏會是在臺上演奏，英文是be in a concert. 如果參加演奏會是在臺下聽，這是go to a concert或be at a concert.

我想一想，take part in a concert如果用的話，聽起來可能是幕後的工作人員。但是這種講法很怪就是了。

Nothing.

Dogs to the Rescue
This happened November 19, 2001. To this day I am not sure what this was all about. Tlahuy and Bengax were almost two then.

The weather was so nice I found work to do outdoors. At about three, the dogs were barking in the direction of the spring southwest around the corner a short ways from my home. They had been looking in that direction making a ruckus after lunch. I thought maybe a neighbor was out checking their water pipes, but didn't see anybody. However, I decided to go fiddle around there. I might see a neighbor, and anyway, the underbrush is so thick there that I rarely go back, so it was time to take a look. I carried my soki (mountain knife) to hack with.

I wandered around a bit, ducking through the underbrush. Tlahuy and Bengax kept barking at something; by this time, I had decided there must be another dog back there, arousing their territoriality. Suddenly they came rushing out of the bushes, helter-skelter. They do that only when they have been surprised, or see an enemy. They stopped and looked at me: they had been surprised. Now this is getting interesting, I thought, maybe they have found a boar or something. I called them to me. The sound of my voice was answered by a weak call from the bushes: "救命!" Help! "Who's that?" I called. The man's voice came again: Help. "Where are you?" No reply. Then again: Help. I called in Tayal: "Ima isu? Inu isu, ini mita ku. Nanu su qasa?" No response, so it wasn't someone from the Tribe playing a joke on me. I followed the sound, and thought I saw a shape lying face down in the tangle. I moved uphill from him, and said, "Where are you?" The voice called again, Help, weaker and weaker. I couldn't see who it was: could be a lost hiker, could be a drunk, could be a nut, could be a sorcerer for all I know. I decided to play it safe: "Stay right there, I'll go get help."

I raced out of the spring, ran down my steps as fast as I safely could, and ran to the Chief's house, where I knew I would find Silan and Bunqet, who has been working there. As soon as I saw them, I called out that someone was in trouble (Hanna later told me that when they saw me racing in, mountain knife in hand, shouting that someone was in trouble, they thought I had killed somebody. Nice thing about neighbors: they think such good things about you.)

Bunqet and Mkaw, Silan's uncle, rushed to the spring with me to see what was up. We spotted the man, face down below a cover of vines. I cut a way in to him. Bunqet turned him over. Not an aborigine; a man in his thirties, dressed in black leather jacket and blue jeans, socks but no shoes, barely conscious. After some discussion, Bunqet lifted him up piggy-back and carried him down to the road. I was quite impressed: experienced hikers walk with caution down my steps to the road, and Bunqet carried this guy down without straining.

He put him down by the road, and discussed the situation. He was not dressed like a hiker. We didn't smell any liquor, so he probably wasn't drunk: maybe on drugs? He was either stoned or exhausted. We didn't see any serious injuries, but if we hadn't rought him out, he would have died there, because he was incapable of moving another inch. If he had pitched on his face another step forward, he would have drowned in the water from the spring. We wouldn't have found him until he started to smell, if then. But how on earth did he get through the jungle to that spot? Later I searched, but couldn't find his shoes anywhere near. I have no idea how long he was out there, but from the dogs’ behavior after lunch, at least a couple of hours. I suspect he had been outdoors overnight.

He lay there on his back like a dead man. He rolled over and tried to crawl forward, but was too weak to move. We decided to call an ambulance, so I ran to the Chief's house. Hanna, Silan's wife, was so nervous she kept dialing the number wrong. Finally, I dialed, and, report in, went back to where the man lay.

The man suddenly weakly cried again, Help. "Just lie there, you're okay, the ambulance is on the way," I said. He looked at us carefully, and said, "Two guys tried to kill me." "Don't worry about that now, you're okay," I said, thinking, great, that may explain the black leather jacket. However, he wasn't missing any fingers, didn't have obvious tattoos, and had not been eating betel, so I would guess, if anything, maybe Homicide or Intelligence, rather than underworld. Also, I think he was exhausted and frightened, rather than drunk or stoned. He was obviously not a mountain person, and from where he was, there is no way he could tell there was a house anywhere nearby, or any chance of being rescued. He must have thought he would die right there, unknown to anybody. If not for Tlahuy and Bengax, he would have.

He tried to sit up, but we told him to take it easy. With great effort, he pulled out his wallet. Nothing but an ID and some cash. I checked his ID: 沙XX, born in 1963, lives in Taipei. His unusual surname, Sha, provoked further discussion: With a name like that, he could be Aborigine, but from another tribe. But he doesn't look like an Aborigine. Mr Sha pulled money out of his wallet for us: we said, None of that. Bunqet stuffed the money back in the wallet, and we put it back in his pocket.

The ambulance arrived. As we lifted him on to the stretcher, the driver said, "Smell that liquor? He's drunk.” Bunqet and Mkaw looked embarrassed, because the smell of liquor wasn't coming from the man on the stretcher. I quickly told them how I found the man. The attendant said, "Let's hope he hasn't been bitten by anything, because if he has, he's in big trouble." As they placed him in the ambulance, Mr Sha looked very carefully at me and said, "I will come back." "Don't worry about that now, just let the doctors take care of you.”

好的文學作品，應該每一次看，因為不同的時空、年齡、心情、閱歷，而有不同的感觸、收穫 (藝術作品均然)。

三十年來，論語不知道看了多少遍，到現在每次翻開，都有新的收穫。不過，論語不純屬文學作品。──曾經利用上下課路上時間把整本論語從頭背到尾，一背完就放了好幾年，把記憶洗掉：歸零，重來。

每逢端午，把離騷誦一遍；夏末始觸秋意，讀歐陽修秋聲賦應景。每年如新。

如果一本好書，你十年前看、現在看，感覺都一樣，恭喜，你白活十年了。

記mgup
Raran ga, mahoni 行mgup，取菖蒲根，未乾時穿孔，切，曬乾，串為項鍊；吹，擦患者臉。

說實話，我有點失望。我記得，九二一有很多外國救援隊來臺幫忙。臺灣也有很優秀的搜索隊。為甚麼這次巴基斯坦大地震，政府默然隔岸觀火，不吭聲、不派人去？希望只是我不知道消息。政府可以砸下巨額打點細小國家外交，為甚麼這次災難不肯伸出救援之手？

明‧羅欽順‧困知記：「孝乃百行之首；漢去古未遠，猶以孝廉取士。」然漢民風樸質，俗厚法簡，仍行三章之法。民多散居村落，故孝廉足以為令。若執為後世方，為韓非所笑。

當然這個年代絕無人法古以孝廉取士。但理須究。

若以孝廉取士，立委席多從缺。

Tlahuy is an avid hunter, but for some reason, he is not alert to snakes. On more than one occasion, I have seen him walk right across poisonous snakes, blithely unaware of their presence. Snakes are not aggressive; they let it pass.

Yumin is another story. Beagles love to make a ruckus anyway, so when he spots a snake, he barks. I've never trained him; it's instinctive.

Yesterday I was going out the back way. Tlahuy and Yumin raced ahead of me. Yumin paused, barked once at the side of the path, and continued. He was alerting me to the presence of a fair-sized 南蛇 (ptyas mucosus) by the path. I happened to have my camera, but maybe the attention disturbed the it, and it whooshed off into the grass. Watching a 150 cm snake flash across the ground is a beautiful sight. If Yumin hadn't barked, I probably would have noticed it no more than Tlahuy.

This evening when I came home from class, I put my pack in the kitchen and walked out the back door to get dogfeed for the boys. Yumin started barking at the door. I had almost walked on a qimbahu 龜殼花(trimeresurus gracilis). The snake coiled up under the rack. I decided to put on shoes, just to be safe, because those are very poisonous. By the time I found them and put them on, Tlahuy was interested too. I didn't want anybody getting hurt. I told the boys to stay away. With a long bamboo pole, I prodded the snake and nudged it into the grass, where it promptly disappeared. If you have never seen a qimbahu, you have no idea of how fast they move when they want to, so I was ready to leap inside the door at any moment, but the snake allowed itself to be shoved across the floor. Generally, if you don't get all upset, snakes are not very aggressive. Keep your distance and don't play games with them, but there's no need to get hysterical about them, either.

芒草季到了

Our woodcarving class had a visitor today.

佛話經曰，比丘在聚，身口精勤，諸佛咸憂；比丘在山，息事安臥，諸佛皆喜。

說文無們字。方言，暮困切，願韻，們渾，肥滿也。何以為我們、你們之稱？宋明小說云我每、你每，們殆每音之變。

Kansas has mortified itself. The state Board of Education has voted to include intelligent design in biology textbooks. What's sad is, those potato-brains on the Board of Education are weakening the US. Education in America is lousy enough already without their sabotaging kids' nascent ability to think and to learn. Everywhere else in the world, students learn rigorous scientific concepts, but in Kansas, they are fed rubbish. Garbage in, garbage out. Cut funding for musical education and you get rap. Undercut scientific reasoning, and.... you'll get more like Bush in high office.
(Aside: I'm very proud of myself. Yesterday I posted a comment about the mentally deficient and NOT ONCE did I mention His Travesty President Bush.)

My July 11 posting discussed creationism, and Christian doublethink; I can barely bring myself to use the term 'intelligent design,' because the whole scheme is so unintelligent. Some think that the Founding Fathers founded the country as one nation, under god, intending it to be a Christian nation. They must have been asleep during junior high Civics. Even the elder Bush, shot down during WWII and floating in the Pacific, pondered the separation of church and state. That Founders explicitly established the Republic of that foundation. Thomas Jefferson would have fits if he knew what the religious right is up to; he said, "In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot.”

If you are going to insist on establishing the United States on the literal reading of the scriptures, as I said before, laws have to be rewritten. Again, I do not read Hebrew, but those who do say that the original commandment that Thou Shalt Not Kill meant don't kill Jews, anybody else is fair game. Should homicide laws be rewritten to comply with scripture? Over and over the god of the Bible cheers the massacre of innocent non-combatants. By that token, homicide laws really need to be revamped, because you can find plenty of biblical proof that god says its just fine to kill babies. 19th century Christians objected to the use of anesthetic for mothers in childbirth because the bible says women should bring forth in pain; does the modern creationist who claims the literal truth of scripture prohibit painkillers in labor? Be consistent, please.

Of course you cannot ask religious nuts to be consistent; they pick and choose. Parts of the Bible which they choose to agree with, they call for literal readings; otherwise, ignore it. This is hubris. Take it or leave it.

Second, the Christianity, and intentions, of the Founding Fathers require scrutiny. Of the nine most prominent Founding Fathers, seven did not believe in the divinity of Christ.

Those men were revolutionaries. They were not smug Republicans leading the country wherever business interests dictated. Although many were businessmen, they were thoughtful men bucking the system, trying to deal with the problems of history and the future. They were men of their times. At that time, atheism was simply not an option; had it been, they may have embraced it.

The United States was founded at the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution; the Founding Fathers had completed their schooling long before. They were so far-sighted that we are apt to forget the limits of knowledge during their time. For example, physicians did not know the body is made of cells; the word biology did not even come into being until after George Washington died. We also forget how thoroughly we are steeped in mechanistic explanations and how naturally we accept materialism. Even the most ardent creationist will attempt to find some mechanistic explanation for the sun's standing still, will tell you that the water that burned was naphtha; that the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem was a comet. Even the most willful creationist will not simply say that these events were god's will and leave it at that.

But I need no further proof that the creationists are incapable of thinking: the Kansas state Board of Education has voted to include intelligent design in biology textbooks. Sufficient proof.

Some time ago, a woman with Down's syndrome (唐氏症, retarded) needed a heart-lung operation to live. Stanford University Medical Center refused to operate on her, because "We do not feel that patients with Down's syndrome are appropriate candidate for heart transplantation (sic)." The University of California at San Diego turned her down for the same reason: your tax dollars at work.

A human being is more than just an IQ. If intellectual ability were all to value, we should all commit suicide together and leave the world to computers. Is someone who is incapable of love and hate human? Are we to kill all dogs merely because they cannot learn simple arithmetic? Much better to euthanize people who butcher English with monstrosities such as 'transplantation.'

Those with Down's syndrome perform a vital function in society: keeping the retarded alive allows us to keep our compassion alive.

Come on, George, you know what you should do – send the troops into France, to restore order and democracy.

前幾天走去搭公車，某一溫泉館的交通車要下新店，有空位，問我要不要搭便車。好吧，上了。過部落的時候，司機就開始當起導遊來了，跟遊客講，「你看這些番仔，只會喝酒，一喝就好幾天…. 然後繼續喝。」一直講，遊客聽的很樂，我們不是他們，高級的很呢。
我坐人家的車，也不好意思吐草。有沒有想過為什麼原住民喝酒？是不是因為他們看你們把祖地弄成甚麼樣子？外面來的商人霸佔了他們的烏來，儘性糟蹋環境，不僅不創工作機會，還邈視、譏笑、污衊，叫弱勢團體如何快樂呢?

November in Wulai is usually rainy, but we have been having high temperatures (25C in the afternoon) and sunshine.

for your edification
I have always highly respected the logic of my dear old friend 803. Recently we have crossed swords over logical questions concerning New Orleans and Katrina. For the general uplifting of overall reasoning ability throughout the population, I am making public our rapier-like exchanges. This is not for the faint-hearted, for there is razor sharp reasoning here. For the brave, those who would venture fearlessly into the realm of the intellect, take notes as the dialogue unfolds.

It began with 803 making certain comments concerning the Bush administration's dealings with Hurricane Katrina.

I replied,
Please tell me, sir, what PROOF you have that the US Government did not create that hurricane for the EXPRESS PURPOSE of wiping out New Orleans. Recently I learned that the US Government created last December's earthquake and tsunami, so if they can do that, why can't they create a hurricane?
Science deals in PROOF, my dear sir, and unless you can offer me proof that they did not create the earthquake, hurricane, and tsunami, I refuse to believe otherwise.

803 replied:
LOGIC 101:
1) It is not possible to prove a negative.
2) Youse is engaging in a "Straw Man" argument.
3) It was really them guys in the Flyin Saucer UFO things. I seen it on Snopes so It gots tah be true.

I engaged him on the issue of proving a negative:
You say it is not possible to prove a negative. Can you prove that? If you can prove that it is not possible to prove a negative, you have proved a negative. If you cannot prove it, what backs up that statement?
Huh?

Note the use of "Huh?" This is a device used by highly trained logicians, but please, unless you have undergone proper training by an authorized teacher, please do not attempt to use this logical device without supervision.

To torpedo his so-called 'logic' (pooh!) even more thoroughly, I added this:
And sir, who SENT the guys on the flying saucer? Obviously they were launched from Air Force One. What proof do I have of that? Because they were NOT at Roswell NM (talk about proving a negative, sheesh). So if the aliens were NOT at Roswell, then they had to be SOMEWHERE, which proves to all but the most skeptical that they started the tsunami from their flying saucer on orders from the White House.

803 sought to wiggle out by replying:
My dogs told me this. Dogs never lie.

Sadly, I replied:
My dear sir,
For the first time, I am beginning to see holes in the finely woven net of your logic. Dogs never lie? Dogs which are awake never lie, granted, but don't you know that once they fall asleep, dogs are terrible liars? They are very sensitive about this, too, and are deeply offended if anybody points out to them how many lies they have told.
This is the origin of the expression, Let sleeping dogs lie.

803 remained silent for several days. Finally, I sent this missile:
I know you are writhing in agony as I grind your so-called "reasoning" beneath the heel of my remorseless logic, old buddy, and now I am going to deliver the coop D. grass. You recall that I informed you that the tsunami had been set off by aliens working for the US Government. Now I would like to nail the lid of proof on the coffin, with quotes from the final interview with Edward Teller, the Hungarian-born physicist who worked on such projects as the atom bomb, the hydrogen bomb, and the robotic banking machine which still goes by his name, the Automated Teller. This comes from the Summer 2005 issue of Invention & Technology magazine. The interviewer discusses
"the disproportionate Hungarian connection to physics in the last century. There's an old theory that coming from Hungary, a mountain-rung country with no linguistic connection to its neighbors, you were clearly aliens using your superior intellect to help the rest of us along. What are your thoughts?”
Teller: "….. since we could not talk English without an accent, we had to pretend to come from someplace, because no one would believe in a Martian. So we settled on Hungary, and that was where we came from.”
I&T: "You're not widely known for actively espousing the Martian theory.”
Teller: "Not necessary, it's a simple fact.”

HA HA! A simple fact! Try to deny THAT, sir!

Thus ending the dialogue. After all, I offered publish proof. 803 is now hiding in Simi Valley, struggling to regroup his forces. Good luck.

Ashley Montagu: "Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof."

With great pleasure, I announce my latest brilliant scientific discovery: the cause of the Northern Lights, the aura borealis (and I spelled it write the first time, without my spell checker).

What, you ask, causes the Northern Lights? Allow me to enlighten your ignorance: it's the earth farting. They are lit up then by all those volcanoes around Alaska.

What, you ask, proof have you to offer? Thus: I flipped my lucky coin five times in a row and it came up tails five times, a pretty, and apt, omen.

If I don't get a Noble Price in Psychics for this, it's only because the Committee is prejudiced against Serbian-Americans.

I was shocked by a comment in a newspaper article, that some people "wouldn't understand how impolite it was to wear flip-flops to a White House meeting with the president." What could be impolite about flip-flops? I guess they must have been the wrong color. That's it, for a formal occasion like that, you want to wear black flip-flops.
Any more questions, just ask me, Mr Etiquette.