The monolith is finally starting to crack. Good luck to all in North Korea... and hope you are soon well fed, warmly clothed, and decently housed. Amitabha.

here

各位鄉親父老兄弟姐妹好！我們平安從北京回來了，心得一簍筐、感想堆積如山，請待我徐徐道來。
(加上：在王府井書店買到了蒙曼寫的「隋煬帝楊廣」)
簡單一句話：紐約、東京、芝加哥、香港、洛杉磯等等，我這輩子不再去也無所謂，但北京呢，意猶未盡。
尤其因為回家後，才發現我錯過一處非常迷人的場所：中國西瓜博物館。西瓜博物館的網站(here)說，佔地兩萬兩千平方公尺，建築面積四千六百平方公尺，館藏圖片九百幅、蠟質西瓜模型三百一十餘件、雕塑模型七組、書法美術藝術作品三十六件、還有十組青銅雕塑講述西瓜的故事。這個不看的話，真會成為終身遺憾！

We're back from Beijing. Put it this way: I took so many photos that I ruined my battery charger and had to rein myself in. There are about 1200 photos in my camera now. Only about 1200 photos.

I came back with a lot to ponder, but first, let me say, simply: if I never go to New York, Tokyo, Bangkok, Chicago, or Hong Kong again, that's fine with me. But Beijing is a city to visit.

Especially since after my return, I discovered I had missed one of Beijing's main attractions: the Chinese Watermelon Museum, which, according to its official website (here) boasts a collection including 900 pictures of watermelons, over 310 wax models of watermelons, seven sets of carvings, 36 works of calligraphy and art, and ten bronze statues narrating stories of watermelons. How could I have missed that!?

朝發軔于烏來兮
夕余至乎北京
鳳皇翼其承旂兮
高翱翔之翼翼
我們到北京。有人請阿超開四天的工作坊，我抬行李。北京美金，美金北京，北京是美金最多的地方。說不定我去哭他們的中央銀行，看會不會可憐可憐，分我一下。隨意~~~隨億。

We are headed for Beijing, where Chao is holding a four day Dance Therapy workshop. I'm tagging along to tote luggage. Thanks to Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Bush, Beijing has the world's largest collection of US Dollars. Maybe if I hang around their treasury looking pitiful, they'll give me some.

And remember, the jing in Beijing is pronounced like the jing in jingle.

at this very moment, millions of people are trying to stand an egg on end.

Taiwan was really lucky this time. We get lots of typhoons every summer, that's part of the charm of living in Taiwan: watching rain sweep horizontally like it's getting shot out of a fire hose. Typhoons come as early as about May and as late as about December, but mostly in August and September. No matter what, the very worst time to have a typhoon is at the new moon or full moon, because the springtides often cause tidal surges.

But typhoons come off the Pacific, from the East, and usually break on the high mountains (high: Botonguanu is 3952m) that run down the center of this island.

Rarely, one comes up the Taiwan Strait, from the west, and strikes the heavily populated western plains. This happens about once a decade, I'd guess, but these typhoons are rightly feared, because they usually wreak enormous damage.

The other day a typhoon formed off Hainan Island, of all places, and came up the Taiwan Strait. What's worse, it came on the new moon and the day after, when springtides occur, and cause the danger of tidal surges. Fortunately, it brought some rain, but not much, and very little wind. There was damage, of course, but nothing compared to what could have happened. We got off lightly. Amitabha.

理論上，大家都知道忠言逆耳。那麼，為甚麼消費者被廣告捧上天還相信呢？

Who said bass fishermen have more brains than the fish they catch?

The Tayal have a tradition of facial tattoos, which were an honored mark of valor and skill. This is the English version: NOT the way to do it!!

Favorite comment: He looks like he dipped his nose in a pot of paint.

the bitter truth, seen on a T shirt:

your parents lied to you
you aren't special
you're just stupid


 good speech, lousy delivery

Okay, so we didn't get a real good view of the Venus Transit: click::

But this will more than make up for it: click
or
click

昨天到中正堂國家戲劇院實驗劇場看「組合語言舞團」本年度公演，「首映會2.0」，編舞概念新鮮、舞者非常認真，表演很成功。若有機會，該看！

但今天的重點不扗此。表演前，我們覓食，但愛國東路靠中正堂，就是一排婚紗照相館，沒得吃。

誰說不景氣？婚紗開了那麼多家~~可是我想，花了大筆大筆錢拍婚紗，重點似乎扗于滿足一種虛榮心：幻想自己是大明星、攝影師拿很專業的相機拍照…但婚後，幾人看婚紗照？

我只聽過一個人事後說婚紗照好：友人說，她與先生鬧離婚的時候，全家裏最重的一本就是婚紗照的那一本，她說用那本K她老公，威力十足。

是啊。離婚率那麼高，為甚麼只有婚紗照？我想一想，要離婚的夫妻，應該拍混殺照。

混殺照，可以拍各種廝殺、互毆的相；臉面猙獰、眼露凶光、手上可以拿剪刀、石頭、磚塊、短刀長劍、矛戈枴戟、齊眉棍、紅纓槍、偃月刀、七節鞭、雙節棍、電擊棒、衝鋒鎗~當然都是道具、假的，目的是拍照，不是出人命。

這系列拍完，就換道具：第一是白布條，上面寫

財產

兩大字，各抓一端，拼命爭(攝影師拼命拍)。若能把布撕破，拿大塊的贏了，整個布條歸為所有。如果有孩子的話，就換一個娃娃(數量依實際生育情況而定)，夫拉娃娃左手左腳，妻扯娃娃右手右腳，拼命拉(攝影師拼命拍)。若能把娃娃撕裂，拿大塊的贏得了監護權。假如有其它爭端，以相同方法處理。

其實，拍到這裏，很可能夫妻已經發洩好了、磨出一些共識來了，不必離婚；但是，混殺攝影師的帳要全額付清。

如果決定還是要離婚，最後、最受歡迎的鏡頭來了！把先前拍的婚紗照拿出來，一張一張撕碎！也可以咬、擰、踩、甩、踏、摜，看有甚麼創意的點子，請盡情發揮！混殺攝影師會把這難忘的一刻做最真實的紀錄，讓您日後保存著許多美好的回憶。

然後，要記得，混殺攝影師的帳要全額付清。

西元四百年左右，南燕主慕容超有心腹名為
公孫五樓。


我就很好奇：假如公孫五樓先生有後嗣于今代，會不會取名
公孫電梯大廈？

An extraordinary event this morning! Not the transit of Venus itself, that happens regularly (every 8 years → 105.5 years → 8 years → 121.5 years, ho hum). What was astonishing was that we had clear skies! For over an hour! and during this壬辰水龍年year of the water dragon, AKA the Year the Mold. I mean, come on, the glass in the windows is getting moldy!

The hard and fast rule is that any time there is an astronomical event worth watching, if it doesn’t rain in Wulai, there's thick cloud cover. But today was different. The transit started around 6AM and continued to noon. Around 10, the sky cleared enough for the sun to shine. I rushed out with my paper drilled with holes to observe the light cast onto a dark background, and sure enough! you could very clearly see the light cast through holes drilled in paper onto a dark background! But the thing is, I knew that it was happening, and we actually had clear skies. Until eleven.

Eventually I found a way to observe the event very clearly.

With best wishes to Captain Cook.

前幾天早上，剛好看外面，兩隻樹鵲追逐一隻隼。離家很近，才扗屋簷外一丈。隼飛的不快，正好讓樹鵲追不上：好了，好了，知道冒犯了，我走了。

A surprising scene the other morning. I happened to look out the window, and just outside our awnings, two tkrat (Himalayan tree pies, Dendrocitta formosae) were chasing a hawk. The hawk was flying fast enough to stay out of reach, slow enough to maintain dignity: okay, all right, I'm leaving.

一個問題我想了很久：我扗山上遇到煙槍，還沒見到人，先聞到體臭：扗山上，煙槍身上的臭味，五、六十公尺外都聞得到。百年前的達彥部落，人手一煙斗。或許有驅蚊效果，所以老少男女皆有。我很困惑，以前的人到底怎麼狩獵？還沒靠近獵物，臭味早已把牠嚇跑了。尤其，百年前的達彥很多還用弓箭，未必有鎗，而鎗的威力也不大，射不遠。

後來，我想到另一層關係：如鄒族lema'cohio Apu'u Peongsi所說，「'E cou ne o'amocu moso la yaa tamaku 'o momhino ta fuengu, moso la na'no sino iachi emʉm'ʉ to tamaku 'ola mici etamaku, a'vinano emʉ'a to aukukuyungu to emoo. Ho lac'u mameoi 'ola emu'a ci tamaku, tanac'u teoca ho taskufneni to pupuzu ho aopopoha'va taemi'ma hoci o'te poezi, ho poa oemi'mia, tenac'u peela etamakua: 鄒族人過去山裏的店裏沒有買賣菸時，想抽菸的人都會自己種植菸草，並種植扗家周圍。種的菸草長熟了，就會被砍了然後扗火上慢慢烤乾，或者扗太陽下曬乾，才能用來抽菸。」

從前，菸酒公賣局也是用古老、傳統、不合經濟效益的方法把菸草烤乾。因此，六十年代、七十年代，臺灣抽菸的人得癌率是世界最低的；而且，走扗路上，幾十步外有人抽洋菸就聞得出來，因為味道與臺灣菸截然不同。

到了七十年代，這個情況改了，主要有兩個原因。一則敝國雷根總統強迫臺灣進口美國的菸酒，否則把臺灣經濟毀了，所以公賣局的市場被入侵了。一則無黨籍(現在的綠營)猛抨擊公賣局的做法太傳統、太不合經濟效益。雙管齊下，公賣局只好用現代化的方式製菸，所以現扗臺灣抽菸的人死于癌症、死于心臟病的機率已與世界接軌了。這是雷根與綠營重大的政績。

總而言之，我想或許因為以前原住民的菸非自製則買公賣局不合經濟效益的菸草~~記得芙蓉牌菸草嗎？~~所以體味不嚇獵物；如今，社會進步帶來了經濟效率高、死亡率高的菸草，所以煙槍的體味那麼重。

今天是六三禁煙節。願：天下所有抽菸的人拿出勇氣、拿出魄力，改掉這個噁心、摧殘自己身體的習慣，爭取自由。加油！

Something that has often puzzled me. In the mountains, you can smell a smoker long before you see him; the stench of a smoker's body can be smelled from well over fifty meters away. A hundred years ago, every Dayan (Tayal) smoked a pipe, all the time, young and old, male and female (perhaps to help keep mosquitoes away). How on earth could they hunt? Many Dayan still hunted with bow and arrow, and firearms had limited range. Prey would smell them from a good distance, so how could the hunter get close?

Recently, I thought of another aspect. In the words of lema'cohio Apu'u Peongsi of the Tsou (Cou) tribe, "The Tsou in the days before stores sold tobacco in the mountains, those who wanted to smoke would grow their own tobacco, often right near their houses. When the tobacco was ripe, it would be chopped down and slowly roasted over a fire, or dried in the sunlight, and then be used for smoking."

The Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau used to produce cigarettes by outdated, traditional, economically inefficient methods. Therefore, in the 1970s and 1980s, smokers in Taiwan had the world's lowest incidence of cancer (among smokers). When you walked down the street in those days, if someone halfway down the block was smoking an imported cigarette, you could tell, because they smelled a lot different from locally produced cigarettes.

In the 1980s, this situation changed for two main reasons. First, President Reagan forced the government here to import American liquor and tobacco, under threat of destroying the economy otherwise. The Monopoly Bureau's monopoly was broken. Second, the fledgling opposition (forerunners of today's DPP), in their quest to oppose everything the government did, jumped on the economically inefficient methods used by the Bureau to process tobacco. Faced with these pressures, the Bureau had no choice but to update their methods, processing tobacco chemically, so now smokers in Taiwan enjoy death from cancer and heart disease as high as global standards. These are important contributions by Reagan and the opposition.

So what I think is, a hundred years ago, the tobacco aborigines smoked or bought was not chemically produced, so it did not produce such a stench in the pores of the smokers, but now, social progress makes all smokers reek.

Today is Non-Smoking Day, in commemoration of Lin Tzehsu's heroic efforts to combat the most vicious drug cartel in history, the British government (click). My wish is that all smokers everywhere may pull up their courage and determination and free themselves from this disgusting, debilitating habit. Good luck.

臺灣很多彌足珍貴的傳統面臨絕跡；所幸，幾年來，政府重視此問題，也設法延續臺灣特有的技藝。

這兩天，行政院文建會贊助製造口簧琴的工作坊。口簧琴，達彥(泰雅)謂虜布，是很多原住民共有的樂器，但是達彥彈的最好聽；在達彥的傳統，佔重要地位，但現代人多不會彈，更不用說製造。因此，延請民族學專家鄭光博協助將這項技藝傳回部落去。

Taiwan is home to ancient traditions that are in danger of disappearing. Fortunately, in the last several years, the government has been taking a hand in helping preserve ancient arts and crafts.

Friday and Saturday, the governmental Council for Cultural Affairs hosted a workshop to teach how to make the lubu, the Dayan (Tayal) jaw harp. Although this plays an important part in Dayan life and traditions, most Dayan today do not know how to play one, much less make one. The Council invited the noted ethnologist, lewin Watan Kahat, to help spread this tradition back to the tribal villages.

我沒參加，但光博送我兩隻虜布：一個是最古老的款式，用一片竹製成；另一隻為改良品，用銅簧。

I was unable to take part in the workshop, but lewin Watan gave me two lubu, one of the old style, made from one piece of bamboo, and the other with a bronze reed. Twang twang twang.

next time, go for the golfer.

解謎：link

謎底：
人各有志。

不了？
請按：link

Mounting a saw handle

以前的人買鋸子，通常沒有柄，要自己裝。傳統安柄方法，幾成絕響。

我常用的鋸子(click)，柄有點鬆，所以上次在新店光明街老五金行隨便問，「有沒有沒有裝柄的鋸子？」老闆說，「沒有，」但同時，他媽媽說，「有。」老闆看老太太，她從櫃子旁邊掀開一塊油布，拿出兩隻無柄鋸。老闆說，「我怎麼不知道有這個？」

老太太說，「現在很少人用這種鋸子，都用鍊鋸。這兩把已經在這裏放了三十年吧。我們這家店已經開了六十年。」本來不需要這麼大的，可是看它漂亮，就花了四百元買了。

以前的人找一節江冇(亦名鵝掌柴、鴨腳木、江某)，因為江冇木心是空的，把鋸子慢慢敲進去，然後削木頭，適合自己的手。

幾十年前，阿超的祖父在雙溪鄉做木屐，江冇也是製木屐的上好材料，所以我趁我們到祖厝的機會，選了一株江冇。現在就需耐心地敲敲敲，把鋸子柄安好。很好聽吧。

Decades ago, timber saws did not come with handles. Now nobody uses handsaws anymore, so the craft of affixing a handle to a saw has almost been forgotten.

The handle on the saw I use most often is a bit loose (more on that saw here), so when I went to an old hardware store to buy something, I asked, "Do you have any saws without handles?" The boss said, "No," but at the same time, his mother, sitting nearby, said, "Yes." He looked at her. She rummaged by an old cabinet and came up with two old saw blades. Her son said, "I didn't know those were there." The old lady said, "Nobody uses handsaws any more, so there's no demand for these. These two saw blades have been there for about thirty years. This hardware store has been in business for sixty years." I didn't really need such a large saw blade, but I couldn't pass up this chance. I chose one and bought it for NT$400, about US$12 or so.

The old way of affixing a handle was to use the wood of a tree called s'bwan in Dayan (Tayal，泰雅語), scientific name Schefflera octophylla; Google informs me the English name is the ivy tree. The heart of the s'bwan is soft, hollow, so you ram the saw blade into that, and then carve the handle to fit your hand. They say the handle never comes loose. And the saw makes a nice sound while you're ramming it in.

Huh?? what's that you say?

The moment it was announced, I knew this would happen. Early morning, May 21, a partial solar eclipse would be visible, the announcement said, to which I automatically – the voice of experience speaking here – added, visible only behind a thick layer of clouds.

At least the rain stopped for the first time since Friday. Here you see an actual photo of the solar eclipse taking place behind all those clouds.

Here’s a tip for predicting the weather in Wulai: any time a solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, meteor shower, what have you is announced, there is a 90% chance of clouds, and probably rain.

(not absolutely: sometimes we get lucky: click::)

很奇怪的組合。



二月時，弓人卓漢卿老師送我一隻韘，我改用拇指引弓弦:點:。射了一段時間，有人勸我從弓裏射；是比較好控制，但矢往右邊飛。

雖然要習慣，但喜歡拇指射，勝過三指射。三指射，感覺是「放」箭，而拇指射是「開」。

但韘會咬拇，所以我後來索性捨韘，用拇指引弦，感覺更好。好比說，用韘，像穿登山鞋爬山：不必擔心踩到荊刺，但與山土隔絕。我平常爬山打赤腳，因為赤腳才知道土石草蕨堅軟乾濕冷熱滑澀等等種種情形；如今要我穿鞋爬山，可能不太能走。上次試穿登山鞋爬山，幾乎不能走。

而三指射，好比留在鋪好的登山道上，沒有真正踏到山。

In February, I switched to shooting with a thumb ring :click: I was advised to shoot with a thumb ring from the inside of the bow, which makes sense, but I have practically had to learn all over how to aim. The arrows flew way off to the right of the target. But overall, I much prefer the thumb grip to the Mediterranean pull, because it puts you in closer connection with the bow and arrow.

But the thumb ring was wearing a hole in my thumb, so I just took it off to shoot with my bare thumb. This is even better. Here is the best I can explain it: using a thumb ring to shoot is like hiking in shoes or boots. You can trample over thorns with impunity, but you are out of touch with the mountain. I generally hike barefoot, because… okay, because I’m perverse, but barefoot, you know exactly where you are and the texture underfoot. Click here for the last time I tried to wear hiking boots on the mountain.

So shooting off the thumb is like hiking barefoot. And shooting three fingered is like hiking on carefully prepared paths, rather than striking off across the mountain.

Post 2222!

Sunday Schools teach that to God ~~ the god of the Bible, whatever you want to call him, God, God the Father, the triune god, Jehovah, Yahweh, as you please ~~ to god a thousand years is but a blink of an eye.

The Old Testament winds up in about the 5th century BCE, and the New Testament begins, of course, around the 1st century CE. We were also taught that god is love, god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and so forth.

According to biblical scholar Raymund Schwager, the Hebrew bible contains "approximately one thousand verses in which Yahweh himself appears as the direct executioner of violent punishments… in over one hundred other passages Yahweh expressly gives the command to kill people."

So in the blink of an eye, god goes from a maniacal serial killer to a loving father?

Okay, maybe not maniacal, but if you consider the Old Testament spans about five hundred years, a thousand instances would be only twice a year, not too rabid. But consistent.

We've come a long way since "We are not amused." But is it up?

吃肉的朋友們，要了解，每吃一口肉，就是贊助這種事。
If you eat meat, you are supporting suffering.
click

Here is a song I love, a beautiful traditional song from the Amis, an aboriginal tribe on the east coast of Taiwan. This is performed by Gageng, a group dedicated to promoting Amis music and culture. Lyrics, Chinese, and English translations follow.

O 'Amis hananay a tamdaw   
   阿美族的人呢  
   People of the Amis tribe
Sahtoay O Komeceday.   
   都是 個 很溫和  
   Are all easy-going and mild
O ci 'icelay Ko tatirengan.
   又是體魄強壯的人
   Amis are strong and energetic.
O komaenay to tatokem ato Sama'
   是愛吃龍葵等野菜 
   and love to eat nightshade* and other wild vegetables.
awaay Ko sasowalen to 'Amis.
   好得無比的人 
   They are wonderful people 
Aka tawalen no mita ko liteng liteng. 
   我們絕對不能忘本(祖先)
   We cannot forget our roots (ancestors)
O mipahafayay. To 'orip no mita. 
   他們的努力供應我們的生命
   Their hard work gave us our lives. 



O 'Amis hananay a tamdaw
   阿美族的人呢
   People of the Amis tribe
Sahtoay o matayalay.
   都是務農 
   are all agricultural.
Misasota'ay ko 'orip no mita . 
   我們在泥巴上殷勤耕作的人
   We are people who toil and plow in muddy fields.
oni o omah no liteng liteng.
   先人留下的這些農地
   Our ancestors left us these fields
Tadoan nomita o rarem.
   留給我們後人承受
   They left them for us to inherit.
Akatawalen no mita ko liteng liteng .
   我們絕對不能忘本(祖先)
   We cannot forget our roots (ancestors)
O mipamatangay to omah no mita.
   是他們幫我們開山墾地
   They are the ones who first cultivated these mountains and fields.


FYR: the Amis are noted singers and dancers. CK Yang, the "Iron Man of Asia" who dominated track and field in the 1950s, was also Amis.
* Nightshade (龍葵、黑籽仔菜、Tayal: wasiq; Tsou: mici; scientific name solanum nigrum) is a close relative of belladonna, feared in the West as a deadly poison. In the Chinese world it is a delightful vegetable with delicious berries, especially loved by Taiwan aborigines. For more on aborigines and nightshade: here::
More about the Gageng (Kakeng): here

quick ~ how many people are riding this motorcycle?

Science continues to inform and surprise. If you have spent sleepless nights trying to figure out why some Solomon Islanders have black skin and blond hair, prepare for a good night's sleep, because the answer has been found: a single gene mutation. Click here….

Overheard in the jungle

「好久沒見到你，你去哪裏？」
「我到祖國去玩。很棒！」
「去哪些地方？」
「很多！北京、上海、雲南…」
「還去雲南！雲南哪裏？」
「到瀘沽湖，很美！」
「哪裏？」
「瀘沽湖。」
「瀘沽湖？沒聽過。怎麼寫？」
「瀘，就是三點水一個盧，上面有老虎的盧。」
「那沽呢？」
「三點水、古、月。」
「三點水、古、月，那不是湖嗎？」
「是啊。」
「瀘湖湖？」
「不是瀘湖湖，是瀘沽湖。」
「瀘沽湖，怎麼寫？」
「三點水、古、月。」
「三點水、古、月，又是湖。」
「是湖啊！是瀘沽湖，好多水，當然是湖。」
「沽怎麼寫？」
「三點水、一個古。」
「啊，沽，不是湖。」
「是湖，是瀘沽湖！」
「那你上海去哪些地方？」

賽德克族青年Umin Basang說，「今天跟朋友談到有關生命的事情，我在回基隆的車上，就突然在想，要是我的生命只有一天，我要留下甚麼給人家記憶，是不是一段話或一段回憶又或者是還有其他甚麼東西.....之前對我來說編織背帶，是一個傳統需要保存的技藝但是突然之間，今天我編了這個的時候，我覺得似乎我可以用這個來說話，來表達我所思念與在乎的東西，在編織的時候我腦袋裡面只有三個東西...家鄉的櫻花、阿公和織布！我是不會幫作品命名的我覺得那很蠢，但是今天我想叫這個背帶叫做櫻花樹下的回憶....」The Sediq, a tribe closely related to our Dayan (Tayal), are also expert weavers. Umin Basang, a young Sediq, wrote, "If I had only one day to live, what would I leave behind to be remembered by? Something I said, or a memory, or something else? Before, weaving straps was for me a traditional art that had to be preserved, but suddenly, today while I was weaving this, I felt that I could use this weaving to speak, to express my thoughts and what I care about. While I was weaving, I had three things in mind: the cherry blossoms at home, my grandfather, and traditional weaving. I don't name my works, I think that's stupid, but today this strap is called Memories under the Cherry Trees."

氣象局宣佈，不再做每天的天氣預報，今年都下雨就是了。想要晴天，請搬到戈壁地區。

The Weather Bureau has announced that they are no longer providing day-by-day weather forecasts. It’s rain for the rest of the year. If you want sunshine, try the Gobi desert.

This man has walked on all fours, like a monkey, for the last eight and a half years.

here::

Why am I not surprised that he’s Japanese?

Just a thought
If smells could be recorded, and placed on YouTube, we would have fifteen thousand roses, eight thousand birthday cakes, two thousand recordings of fruit, and sixty million farts posted by teenage boys.

藍鵲雧樹上，樹鵲噪鳴；Taiwan Blue Magpies cavort in a tree, accompanied by a chorus of tkrat / 樹鵲 / Himalayan Tree Pies. Neither are very quiet birds.

臺灣藍鵲, Taiwan Blue Magpie, Urocissa caerulea; 樹鵲, Himalayan Tree Pie, Dendrocitta formosae. You can also hear the monotone trill of the byahoq, 五色鳥 / Muller’s Barbet, Megalaima oorti.

每年寫春聯，用雙面膠貼在山門，等著蜂來吃掉。

星期五、六、日我們早出晚歸。星期五回來時，看到下句下垂，剛要撫平，阿超說，不要碰。再看，有一條蛇纏繞聯紙，可能吃東西。好了，不打擾了，晚安。
星期六晚上牠還扗那。雙面膠有那麼黏嗎？怪！星期天晚上回來時，牠鬆鬆地掛在那裏，我跟超講，明天白天再來看，可能要埋。
今午出去找筍時，蛇還扗春聯上。蛇的生命力很強。我用竹竿碰了一下，牠馬上反應：活的！太好了！輕輕地撕下聯紙，喝住狗，把蛇送到谷壑，蛇摩石擦土，很快就解脫了。
很高興護生，但百思不解，怎麼會跑到春聯後面黏住？
不喜歡我的書法就說嘛！

I've seen some weird things in my time, but this just about takes the cake.
At Chinese New Year, I write door titles and post them on the gate. Usually the hornets eventually turn them into material for their hives.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we were out from morning to night. Friday night when we came home, I noticed that the left sentence had come loose, and was about to stick it back into place when Sabiy said, Don't touch it. I looked again, and there was a snake tangled up in the paper. It seemed to have eaten something. We left it there.
It was still there when we came back Saturday. We realized it had gotten stuck on the two way tape. Sunday it was hanging slack, and I told Sabiy, I guess I have to bury it tomorrow.
When I went out to gather bamboo shoots for today's lunch, I realized it looked slack but it didn't look dead, and snakes have strong survival powers. I decided to treat it as a live snake, so I got a bamboo pole and prodded it. After spending three days on the gatepost the week after Easter, it was alive. I carefully pulled the paper off the post, snake still attached. Keeping the dogs back, I lowered the snake into the ravine. With the friction of the ground, it quickly freed itself from most of the paper.But what it was doing stuck to the back of the paper on the gatepost, I'll never know.

白梅花蛇, mountain wolf snake, Lycodon ruhstrati ruhstrati

今晚去看韓國的環球芭蕾舞團。如果有機會看他們表演，一定要想辦法錯過。
We went to see Korea's Universal Ballet. If you have a chance to see them, be sure to miss it.

If you haven't seen this, you really should.
洛杉磯一名九歲的男生(聽起來大概是墨西哥人)用舊紙箱、膠布做成遊樂場。不只有創意，還很有經營的頭腦！


http://cainesarcade.com/

現扗婚姻制度很顯然不合現代人的需求：三對結婚就有一對離婚。從一而中，難。同性也要求合法結婚。
本blog前一篇提出，為了要與對方約會，願意關手機嗎？
我想，對多數現代人來講，關手機與對方獨處，要求太高，辦不到。人與人之間的交往這麼的薄弱，婚姻怎麼會久？
或許未來婚姻的發展，會一群男的與一群女的結婚。三、四個男的與三、四個女的結群婚，大家扗一起，離合自如，隨著心情變換。
The institution of marriage very obviously is out of step with modern life. The divorce rate in Taiwan is 33%. In the US, the divorce rate for first marriages is around 41%; for second marriages, 60%, and for third marriages, 73%. The divorce rate in Argentina is 200%.
Whither marriage? We are called upon to respect the right of two people of the same sex to marry; then why not three? Why not harems?
Modern people seem unable to spend time alone with one other person. If you want to see how prevalent that problem is, ask the person you are with to turn off his cell phone. Many would rather die.
Perhaps in the (not so distant) future, marriage will be a shifting alliance between three or four men and three or four women, maybe more, maybe less.

現扗人情淡薄，現代人是為手機而活的。
其實，年輕人要約會，應該看，願意為你/為他關手機嗎？願意把手機關掉，與他獨處嗎？
這要問可以發現，對她興趣其實沒那麼大。

當然囉，你要先關自己的手機….肯嗎？

This blog is noted among its readers (helloooo? anybody out there?) for endless pursuits into issues nobody cares the least about.
Today we are going to discuss something people do care about: money. Or more particularly, words for money, and even more particularly (or, if you would, even particularlier), words for money in Taiwan aborigine languages, which, back to the theme of this blog, nobody cares the least about.
Of course, a hundred years ago, aborigines had no use for money, so they had no words for money. The Dayan (Tayal) word, pila[pi´la], also used in several other languages, clearly comes from pira, silver, in Malay.
But what to do with the Tsou (Cou) besu [´besu]? I have come up with what I consider a reasonable etymology. Besu could very well come from the Spanish peso, the piece of eight (eight reales) widely circulated as the Spanish dollar, the Mex, 洋銀, and other names.
Seems reasonable to me, what?

隋書儒林傳：「四海九州、強學待問之士靡不畢集焉。負笈追師、不遠千里、講誦之聲、道路不絕。中州儒雅之盛、自漢魏以來、一時而已。」
隋朝學風如斯，而猶速兦，臺灣可不憂諸？

臺灣與美國的不同：臺灣大學學費漲，都是馬英九的錯；美國大學學費年年漲(公立、私立平均每年漲8%，每九年漲100%)，學生不高興的話，警察攻擊、噴胡椒粉。>>點<<

臺灣與英國的不同：英國大學學費一漲，就300%，警察打學生。

Did you enjoy your April Fool's day? Here are a couple good hoaxes I read about.
In 1976, the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM, April 1, Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily aligning their gravity in a way that would counteract, and lessen, the gravity here on Earth. He told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at that exact moment, they would float. 9:47 AM arrived, and soon hundreds of listeners phoned BBB2 telling how they had floated. One woman even reported that she and eleven friends had floated off their chairs and hovered around the room.
In 1981, the Daily Mail reported on the unfortunate long-distance runner, Kimo Nakajimi from Japan, who had entered the London Marathon but, because of a confused translation, thought that he was supposed to run 26 days, not 26 miles. They reported that Nakajimi was still running about on roads throughout England, determined to finish the race; furthermore, several people had spotted him and tried to flag him down and inform him of the mistake, but they couldn't speak Japanese.

梅毅：「倭人不解事，望文生義，市場中竟有標價不菲的『金屑酒』大肆擺賣。酒裏面金光閃閃，金箔片片，據中藥藥理，生金確可以消毒、祛濕。但以『金屑酒』為酒名，顯然倭人對中國古文化生吞活剝，一知半解。殊不知晉朝賜死人，都是這種『金屑酒』。如此不祥之物，竟被倭人歡天喜地過節過年作重禮相送，也真晦氣到家了。」

post #2200

一個夢想：臺灣所有高爾夫球場變成生態區、所有高爾夫練球場變成射箭場。
高爾夫球是世界上創傷生態最嚴重的運動，尤其在臺灣地少人多的小島上，應該全面禁止。
高爾夫球場要復元，成為健康的生態區，我們看不到，因為蒼天恐怕要幾百年才能彌補無知人類造成的傷害。早一天開始就是早一天好。
沒有了高爾夫球場，就沒有人打高爾夫球，當然就不需要高爾夫球練場，就可以變成射箭場。嘻！
Wouldn't it be nice if all the golf courses in the world were turned into ecological preserves? Of course it would take generations for the land to recover from the depredations inflicted on it, as golf is the most ecologically destructive sport in the world. But the sooner the land is allowed to begin to recover, the sooner it will recover. We need a healthy ecosystem a lot more than we need golf!
Then what to do with all those driving ranges? Turn them into archery ranges. What a wonderful dream!

六道輪迴中各有六道。這必定是人間的地獄道。哭。
Count your blessings. No matter how hard your luck is, you were not born in Camp 14.

camp 14

the book comes out today::

士林王家都鬧的很大。臉書上看到有人說，只有臺灣這個政權才會這樣拆民房。
很不幸的是，我想不出任何時代、任何國家不會常常發生這種事。
在歐美，拆民房之事，司空見慣(美國版，武裝警察先衝進去，跟民眾分享警棍、胡椒，若有違抗者，還送子彈。)
唐玄宗稱至道大聖，而公主擴建宅第，拆民房幾百戶。陳水扁當臺北市長，拆南京東路、林森北路的眷村；時久，細節忘了，但記得里長是賣水餃的小市民，因為強制拆除，被弄得頭破血流(當然也有政治因素：拆眷村的同時，陽明山平等里民在國家公園濫墾、起土雞城，不取締，因為深綠)。
但：臺灣新聞界，唯恐天下不亂；政客隨時挑撥離間、爭權奪利。事情總有兩面。我一位好友剛好在士林那一帶住了幾十年，大街小巷的居民他都認識，所以我問他。他是這樣講的：「那邊三十六戶已經答應要拆了，沒問題了，就是這兩戶不肯。建商要賠他們好幾棟新房子，他們可能認為還可以再撈。那三十六戶被他們搞的烏煙瘴氣。那兩戶拉布條，很多外面的人來湊熱鬧。可是我們這一帶的人都支持警察，我們認為一定要拆，不拆不行。」
可供參攷。

「這是我開車的英姿」
The flashy (ugly) blue-purple car ahead of us pulled over by a cement embankment, and a hand reached out of the driver's window: a hand with a cell phone:: the driver was commemorating his trip to Wulai by taking a selfie.

….. shaking my head….

Yesterday's post about the parachuting priests brought to mind a story told me by my friend Jerry L. Jerry had been in the Airborne in the late 1960s, at a time when everybody knew that
Airborne = nuts
Jerry said that if two Airborne guys had a grievance with other, they would each bite onto one corner of a handkerchief, and slug it out until one or the other man dropped.
The late 60s was a time when a lot of people were unhappy with the military industrial complex. To placate the taxpayers, the army decided to put on a show to prove that their tax money was being put to good use. Jerry's unit was assigned to work on the parachuting exhibition at a time when the men were at odds with their officers. I forget just why, but they were not happy.
At the show, the taxpayers examined a variety of trucks and tanks. Then the taxpayers were settled in grandstands by a field as two large trucks and a tank were loaded onto a plane, which took off, circled the field, and came in to demonstrate how the first truck would be wafted onto the ground with parachutes. Which would have been a lovely show had not the disgruntled soldiers tied all the parachute cords together. The taxpayers were certainly impressed when the truck nosedived and burst into a million parts, all paid for by the taxpaying public. They were even more impressed when the second truck did the same nosedive.
The announcer was building up patriotic sentiment by telling the taxpayers that this just went to show how dangerous parachuting was, so they should be grateful to the valiant soldiers who fight our wars, and provide them with enough money to buy only the best equipment.
Meanwhile in the control tower, Jerry's officer was screaming into his radio, telling his men that they had better not tie the cords together on the tank, which was the grand finale of the show. The men assured him, No sir, we did not tie the cords together. They simply pushed the tank out of the plane without a parachute at all.
Jerry was quite impressed. "You know, a tank is really tough. It didn't burst into a million pieces when it hit the ground. Instead, it went straight into the ground, in one piece." For their contribution to the show, Jerry and his unit were given the privilege of digging out the tank, with shovels, by hand. They found it about fifteen feet straight down into the earth.

Times have changed! The Soviet Army, the guardian of materialism and the implacable enemy of religion, has become the Russian army, with flying churches:: I quote from Russia Today::here::
Airborne priests and flying churches are set to fortify Russian soldiers’ spirits. Now priests who serve in the Russian Army will have to learn basics of military training to deal with an extraordinary device.
A unique hi-tech air-dropped church will be introduced in the army. The airborne church is reportedly needed because there are special sacraments in the Orthodox Church that demand a substantial number of utensils. However, some suggest the church could be used in order to bump up soldiers’ spirits. Others have a bold assumption that the project’s aim is to totally demoralize enemy with an unbelievable scene: a plethora of priests raining down from the skyline.
In order to match their new flying service, chaplains from the Russian Airborne Force will have to take part in military games in mid-March with their fellow-servicemen. They will not only practice parachute jumping, but also study the construction of a platform carrying the brand new airborne church.

If I personally were on the battlefield and saw Russian Orthodox priests raining down from the heavens with an onion-dome church festooned with icons, I would immediately put down my weapon and seek out a psychiatrist.

這張照片錯扗哪裏？
((先穿毛衣再看答案~~~))

那是「車前草」，怎扗輪胎邊？應該扗車子前面。
果然冷。

Yeah.

凌純聲、芮逸夫民國二十五年左右于雲南、貴州拍攝的無聲影片。這段似乎是景頗舞蹈。可以確定的是，四十九秒的女性確實是景頗，應是臨滄一帶的。
A silent movie shot in about 1936. Judging from the clothes and the dance, I suspect the dancers are Jingpo (Kachin). The women who appear at 0:49 are definitely Jingpo.

臺灣博物館「人類學的足跡特展」三、四個月，結果我們趕扗最後一個下午去看。除文物之外，還播放凌純聲、芮逸夫民國二十六年前後于雲南、貴州拍的影片，我們倆站扗那看了一個小時。
很想錄幾段，當然此時相機快沒電。但這兩段似乎是苗族蘆笙舞：

The Taiwan Museum had an exhibit about anthropologists. In addition to a small but superb collection of artifacts dating as far back as the Shang dynasty (2nd m BC), there was a film shot around 1937 in southwestern China. We stood there for an hour watching it, and, of course, since I wanted to film parts of it, my camera battery was almost dead. I did get several clips, including these two, of Hmong dances with the khaene, or qeej. Experts assure me that khaene and qeej are different spellings of the same word, and pronounced alike, something like 'kling' which is why it is spelled that way. Beyond me!

I really wonder about the last part, rolling about. Is that part of the traditional dance? Or did he just want to show the cameras that he could do it? Or maybe he was kind of mooning the camera. Anybody know?

Everybody knows that Rush Limbaugh is a low-class hypocrite. However, he does have his devoted followers who leap to his defense in this carefully reasoned website. It is well worth looking into.
http://defendrush.org/

今年雨水多、陽光少、不怎冷，所以櫻花開得不怎樣。但有開。
Not much in the way of cherry blossoms this year, but some.

Who said birds of a feather flock together?

Egrets swimming in formation with ducks, taken from the Wulai bridge.

We are so inured to advertising that we never stop to think, What gives advertisers the right to impose on us?
Here:::

An interesting look at developments in Burma: They Don't Want Democracy, They Want Freedom: worth reading:: here::

Happy Leap Day, everybody… now LEAP!
農曆二月十二日，古人叫做「花朝節」，是百花的生日。今年﹝壬辰百一年﹞花朝節是陽曆三月四日，請大家保密！！>>click<<

我們今晚到國家音樂廳聽Bobby McFerrin的演唱會~~我很想聽他潄口！
This evening we went to here Bobby McFerrin live at the National Concert Hall. I would love to hear him gargle!!
and I bet two thirds of the audience are making all sorts of strange sounds after they got home. We are.

今二月二日卯時春雷驟雨。

早上開前門，Tlahuy、Byajing躺在玄關，一步外有一條紅竹蛇(紫灰錦蛇)。你們兩個都沒看到嗎？
好了，遇上蛇第一步當然是把相機拿出來，「鼠牛虎兔龍~~~！」乖！拍好了，拿棍子推牠走。Yumin也來了，對蛇很好奇，用棍子擋住Yumin，蛇很快遁走。
好了，沒事了，可是我想，大概八、九年沒看到紅竹蛇，而且，以前看過的沒這麼大。很好，有蛇就表示生態健全。

到後門叫小朋友來吃飯，Byajing跑來，她奔跑真美~~~她踏過一條紅竹蛇！我叫阿超來看，是不是同一條？怎麼可能一下子看到兩條？肯定不是前門的那一條，但差不多大。牠們是不是剛約會完？相機！我靠近看；紅竹蛇被Byajing踩一腳沒反應，但我才拍了一張，牠倒退到石堆裏面去了。這是我第一次看到蛇倒退，動作與前進一樣快。真是奇妙！

This morning when I opened the front door, Tlahuy and Byajing were lying there waiting for us, and a step away there was a red bamboo rat snake. The dogs were totally oblivious to it. The first thing to do, of course, was to whip out the cameras and photograph it, say snaaaake! That done, I got a stick to nudge it away. Yumin came over to investigate, but didn't bark, apparently aware that it is non-poisonous. It left quickly.
It had been about eight or nine years since I had seen one of these, and none so large. Snakes mean the environment is healthy.
I walked to the back door to feed the dogs. Byajing came running. She's beautiful to watch running… and she ran right over another red bamboo rat snake! About the same size. Possible? I called Sabiy to come look. Could it be the same one? No, it was another snake. Two in one morning. Cameras! Maybe they were on a date? The snake didn't mind Byajing treading on it, but when I came close to get a photograph, it did something I had never seen a snake do: it reversed into a pile of rocks. Its movement in reverse gear was as smooth and swift as in forward. Nature never ceases to amaze me!

The scientific name of this snake is Elaphe porphyracea nigrofasciata
(Cantor, 1839)；我不知道泰雅語怎麼說，以前也問不出來，所以提議取名mqu ptasan，文面蛇。不覺得額上那條很像文面嗎？I have not been able to find the Tayal name for this snake, so I propose mqu ptasan: the snake with the tattooed face. It has the same stripe on its forehead that Tayal warriors had.

人生嘛，發奮圖強，拼命向上，最後跳進灰熊嘴裏。
that's life. Struggle against the current, fight for all you're worth, and just as you're about to reach your goal, you get eaten by a grizzly bear.

This is weird. This morning, parts of the sky have turned blue, and there's this bright, shining ball up in the sky. It's been so long since I've seen it that I forget what you call it… the stun… the soon… oh yeah, the sun, that's what it is.
This has been an unusually rainy fall, winter, and spring, even for northern Taiwan. Taipei had the rainiest December on record, with about thirty hours of sunlight throughout the whole month (at this latitude, about eleven hours of daylight on solstice day.) Wulai probably got less than a quarter of that amount of sunshine.
Don't you wish you lived in a rainforest?

奇怪，今年蛇都不怕冷。上個月破紀錄，十度溫度有龜殼花<(按)>，今晚Yumin一直吠，出去看，果然又是龜殼花，同樣十度溫度。怎麼解釋？
當然，先不解釋，先念佛，用一根長竿將來賓推進草叢，請他離開。
For some reason, snakes this year don't seem to mind the cold. Previously, the coldest I had ever seen a snake was 11C, a record broken last month by a snake, a qimbahu, out in ten degree C weather <(link)>. This evening I went down to see what Yumin was barking about. He was facing down a coiled qimbahu. I got a stick, told the snake some mantras, and nudged it into the grass, asking it to find someplace else, and for crying out loud, isn't it past your bedtime?

書展那幾天在公館捷運站看到兩個大一大二模樣的男生，顯然從書展回來，各背一個很大很大的包包，很明顯買了電玩。包包畫的是日本漫畫形的少女，眼睛像茶盤大，鼻子一小點，嘴巴又一小點，穿的很少，胸前兩個西瓜等等，一點也不像真實的女孩子，可是也沒關係，因為會買那種電玩的男生，這輩子也搭不上真實的女孩子。
我心中油然而生一種很幸福的感覺。我那個年齡，時間都花在看韓非子、論語、史記、經史百家雜鈔、詩經、古文觀止。我真的很幸運！
年輕歲月，你是花時間嗎？或者投資時間？
The mammoth Taipei International Book Exhibition has come and gone. One day during the Exhibition, at a subway station, I saw two college boys, freshmen or sophomores, who had obviously come back from the Exhibition. Each had obviously bought computer games, because each shouldered a gigantic bag, covered with Japanese manga style illustrations of "sexy" girls: eyes the size of CDs, tiny nose, tiny mouth, scantily clad, watermelon size breasts, bearing no similarity to a real girl: the obvious auxiliary rule being that it doesn't matter, because anybody who would buy that sort of computer game is never going to get anywhere near a real girl anyway.
But this caused me to reflect how lucky I have been. At that age, I was working my ways through the great works of Chinese literature and philosophy, grappling with challenging ideas that still stimulate, forty years down the line.
We say, spend time. Did you spend your youth? Or did you invest it?

美國很多自由、人權的概念、以及憲法結構，源于Iroquois易洛魁印地安聯盟。
易洛魁 (亦名Haudenosaunee)聯盟建立于西元一一四二年前後 (宋高宗紹興年間)，議會迄今已連續開八百七十年。
他們有一點，我認為臺灣亟須效法：每次開會儀式中強調，今天討論的事情，要考慮到七代的子孫。
七代！臺灣議員能想到七天後的事已經是人民很大的福祉，還七代！
另外，他們議會上不許任性、不得輕浮，需莊重、要嚴肅。臺灣立法院已淪為國際笑話。很像個穿西裝打領帶的幼稚園：一不順心就鬧脾氣。自己情緒沒能管好，怎能管理臺灣？臺灣政府形象隨著立法院鬧事而喪失地位；哪一天與中共有甚麼過節，外人會想，反正他們議會只會鬧，最愛抗爭，不如讓中共去管一管。
我們應該要求所有立法委員要長大，要成熟！君子動口不動手。如果在議會甩杯子、掀桌子、破口大罵、甚至動手推人、打人、踢人、咬人、吐口水等等不成熟的行為，立即消除立法委員的資格，並限制下屆不得參加選舉。
(我本來想說，立委動粗，立即推出去斬，梟首示眾。但這麼個法律可能比較難通過，所以我們稍微緩和一下。)
想想看。如果所有立法委員冷靜、理智，就事論事，謀臺灣七代之福，該有多好！

我們自己要先好好修，才能有偌大的福報。

六藝有射，可以修定，又好玩。從小偶玩弓箭，都以三指引弦，但一直想學韘射(韘，或謂扳指，套右拇指引弦)。
昨拜訪弓人卓漢卿先生，他送我一枚他製的韘。今天好不容易沒下雨，我拿我最輕的弓~~蔡明川製的二十二磅單體竹弓~~立靶三步，引弦‧…‧還沒引滿，第一枝箭一下子飛出去了！再慢慢練習。韘與三指射非常不同：幾乎不著意即射。感覺上，用韘，比較需要聽弓聽箭。
I have always enjoyed archery, and have for a long time wanted to learn how to shoot with a thumb ring. Yesterday we paid a visit to the bowyer Mr Cho Hanching. He kindly gave me a thumb ring he made.
Amazingly, it didn't rain this afternoon, so I got out my lightest bow, a 22# bamboo bow, and stood three paces from the target. The first time I pulled the string, the arrow flew out at half draw. I worked on it for a while. Shooting with a thumb ring is a whole different game from the three finger "Mediterranean" draw. It requires you pay more attention to the bow and the arrow.

說文：韘：射決也。所以拘弦，以象骨，韋系，著右巨指。从韋枼聲。詩曰：「童子佩韘。」

清、丘逢甲：元夕無月
三年此夕無月光，明月多應在故鄉。
欲向海天尋月去，五更飛夢渡鯤洋。

今答：元夕見月
半祀逢朢無月光，每天多雨在山鄉，

欲向嫦娥索月來，日落飛月渡峰巒。

不經刺骨冰雪，難曉春花之可喜、
未經霃霃久雨，焉知曦光之可貴。

現扗是壬辰年春~~
大家要有心理準備。壬屬水，辰為龍，春乃一年之首；首，頭也。所以壬辰春就是水龍頭；水龍頭是做甚麼的呢？就是放水~
雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨雨

今天去了一個不該去的地方~臺北國際書展~~也還好，買了十幾本而已~~
Today we went to the Taipei International Book Exhibition, one of the world's largest. Through valiant self-restraint, we came home with only a dozen new books. It was a struggle, though!
and happy Groundhog's Day to you.

政府早涉入烏來，讓我最感到僥倖的是，當年文學素養猶存，所以取的地名很不錯。村落有忠治、孝義、信賢、福山；可能還必須為現代人解釋，「信賢」源于『武經』的『黃石公三略』：「夫為國之道，恃賢與民，信賢如腹心，使民如四肢，則策無遣。」均為有涵養的地名，至于瀑布取名「雲仙」，真有一筆。
看看近年取的名字：情人步道。多乏味！
淡水有情人橋，臺東也有一座情人橋，臺中有情人木橋，基隆有情人湖，嘉義大埔有情人公園，高雄茄苳有情人碼頭，新竹也有情人碼頭…夠了沒有？
這個年代嘛，誰愛情人？現代人情淡薄，這些俗氣、沒想像的名字根本不合現代人的心聲。應該改為適應時代的名字：
簡訊公園
臉書碼頭
愛鳳橋
iPod步道
上網公路