當年我字彙班上，很驚訝發現全班一群大學、研究所高材生中，最強的居然是一位中山女中的小妹妹，就是Thais。我後來請她留下當助教。

出國念大學，不到一年發現有喉癌。好不容易征服了病魔，她還是那樣蹦蹦跳，笑容滿面。過了幾年，癌魔又回來纏她，但被她的笑聲打敗了。從來沒看過她愁眉苦臉。這麼痛苦，一定有的，但她給世界看的永遠就是精神抖擻、健談愛笑。

一段日子沒有她的消息，本不以為意。赫然得知她住臺大醫院十個月，換肺。雖然很虛，但從不抱怨，有鬥志，有勇氣，不怕。

但到最後，還是逃不過，就不再活在痛苦中，不再受苦。Thais解脫了。

好吧，這個軀殼不好用，回去換一個再來，下次留久一點，好嗎？

阿彌陀佛，Thais，妳保重。

今天才知道，原來「參差不齊」的「參差」指的是排蕭(排笛)。

處辭、九歌、湘君：望夫君兮未來，吹參差兮誰思。

一九七八年發掘曾侯乙墓得其實物。原來排蕭是國產的，歷史悠悠，而不是泊來品。

You learn something every day. It turns out that China had pipes of pan back in the fourth century BC. I hadn’t realized that. 

現在雙十節很淡。民國六十年代，很多人吃完晚飯到總統府介壽路、東門拍照；若相機有三腳架、定時快門(上發條)就很拉風。但國慶日早上，好像多數人睡大覺，電視轉播遊行才起床看。七十年代那種愛國愛鄉愛臺灣的氣氛很明顯。東門附近來逛逛的民眾都抬頭挺胸：這是我們大家的成就！所以民國八十年本要閱兵，民進黨出來大力示威，民眾不敢去~~何況總統府附近被圍起來，不得靠近。八十年代，我們住總統府附近的居民都怕民進黨來鬧，很掃興。從那時到現在，二十年來政客的爭權奪利很成功地削除了七十年代的那股團結、自尊、自信。

通常颱風老遠扗關島成形，慢慢靠近臺灣。今年奇怪，很多突然扗附近迸出來。而且，都是週末、假期來的。Typhoons usually form way off near Guam and Yap and build as they come closer. This year they’re just popping up nearby. Weird. And they come on weekends and holidays.

Meanwhile, South Dakota got four feet of snow. 

How the Republicans serve the United States with their shutdown: while President Obama has to cancel his Asia tour, Xi Jinping of China is taking his place. link<<

I’m sure the People’s Republic of China would like to extend their hearty thanks to the Tea Party for providing this great boost for their prestige and international prominence.

If you’re going to fool around in politics, you should have some political sense. Seems reasonable?

The Soviet Union was a world power, but after the breakup, Russia was greatly diminished. They have had hard times, but are getting back on their feet, and eager to show that they still can swing their fists.

They are reasserting their presence in the Arctic, which makes sense strategically. Recently they sent practically their whole Navy up there to reestablish a base that had been closed when the USSR fall apart. The Russian public has apparently followed this with enthusiasm and support.

So Greenpeace picks this time to send a boatload of protestors into this sensitive region, and what a surprise, the Russians were not happy. LINK They arrested the protestors, who are probably feeling very self righteous. LINK
I am deeply committed to environmentalism, but I have never felt the need to protect the environment by making myself unwelcome or by traveling in gas guzzling boats. Perhaps I should be ashamed, but I am not.

I don't know a lot about the issues, but to me, the idea of anybody "shutting down" the government sounds treasonous.
The Constitution defines treason as citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the US, so I know this is legally not treason, but I still think the people responsible should go to the wall for this.

There is something sardonically symbolic, and we hope prophetic, about an NRA spokesman shooting an elephant, the symbol of the G.O.P.
LINK

為甚麼才藝班只給兒童上？上班族非常需要。

為甚麼文學名著只給高中、大學生看？成人非常需要。

我十九歲踏進論語，果真仰之彌高，鑽之彌堅；瞻之在前，忽焉在後。欲罷不能，既竭吾才，如有所立卓爾。下了多年功夫，但時日逝去，我發現要三十歲以後才開始懂孔子教我們的：孔子講真功夫，人生歷練不夠，紙上談兵是無法嚐出滋味來。

可是太多人出了社會，忙著賺錢，忙著立家，忙著創業，忙著茫然，不知道自己怎麼活的，這不打緊：糟糕的是，從來沒想過自己是怎麼活的。

悲。

孔子說，「志於道，據於德，依於仁，游於藝。」為了不辜負自己的人生，我們應該這樣生活。

老師，生日快樂。

People today spend far too much effort on their jobs and careers, and when they have some energy left over, they work so hard at having fun that they have nothing left over. In The Closing of the American Mind, Alan Bloom said people “have lost the habit of reading serious philosophical books or of considering them essential.” A tragic loss. 

It’s worth learning Chinese just to read The Analects, an inexhaustible treasure trove. Today is Confucius’s birthday. Commemorate the day by making sure you are thinking and living. 

我們的功力越來越深。昨天吃晚餐時只是討論今天要不要洗車，不到兩個小時就下雨了。厲害吧！All we did last night over dinner was talk about having the car washed, and within two hours, it started to rain. 

公車司機姓名標于車後，增加路上的樂趣。有的很有意思。那天看到一位叫做

林桂土

怎麼寫？三個木、三個土。想找類似的恐怕很難吧。要在五行內，我想得出來的只有

林棪火

稍做弊，可取名

林梙中

或

林梠口。

好像只有「林」「呂」姓可以這樣玩，而呂不屬五行。但姓呂，更好發揮：

呂啉木

呂啖火

呂哇土

還有呢，

呂品口
呂唂谷 (or:呂唂八八口)

我承認，應該沒有很多人想給孩子取名呂哇土~~而話說回來，桂土，土土土，這樣好嗎？

棪一ㄢˇ 一種像柰的樹，紅色，果可食。

梙 ㄏㄨㄢˋ同槵，無患子當作梙、槵。
梠 ㄌㄩˇ  屋檐；芋頭

天兔颱風雖強度，但不算太猛，而陣風有力。一支巨竹被撕成這個樣子~We had a strong typhoon, but it passed without too much trouble. Parts of Taiwan got up to 780mm, or thirty inches of rain (a bit more than they got in Colorado, where eight inches were called a “biblical downpour” or “unprecedented torrents”). We got only about 100mm, or four inches here. Some of the gusts of wind were pretty strong. How strong? Consider that bamboo has the tensile strength of steel, and see what happened to one of my giant bamboos. 

灼灼西隤日

餘光照我衣

迴風吹四壁

寒鳥相因依

~~阮籍詩

準備過中秋！Friday is the Moon Festival. 

Brightly burning the western sinking sun

Waning light brightens my clothes

Probing wind blows the four walls

Cold birds huddle together.

from a poem by Juan Chi/Ruan Ji (3^rd century)

百三年九月十六日link謎底：

勢在必行

overheard at 素食展

鴨耕米，扗稻田養幾隻鴨子，鴨子吃蟲減少蟲害，可少用殺蟲劑；鴨糞可以代替肥料。這個作法很環保，值得鼓勵。LINK:

我們扗素食展買一包，很好吃。但我付款時，一個阿姨過來問，

「鴨耕米跟鴉片米有甚麼不同？」

攤位小姐不太想理她~~~

overheard in 上海湯包 a restaurant in Taipei Station

老太太：我那個媳婦蠻聰明。

老先生：喔，是嗎？

老太太：是啊，博士論文快寫完了。

老先生：嗯。會煮飯嗎？

老太太：每天三餐。

老先生：嗯。我今天量血壓。

Old lady: That daughter-in-law of mine is smart.

Old man: Oh, really?

Old lady: Yes, she has almost finished writing her doctor’s thesis.

Old man. Oh. Does she cook?

Old lady: Three meals every day.
Old man. Oh. I had my blood pressure checked today. 

九月九、丑時，偶醒，星斗佈天，不得不佇足抬頭久望。由北往南飛來一群白光，乍為流星，再看，是九隻高飛白鷺鷥，從七姊妹與獵人座中南飛。詫異萬分，從未見過白鷺鷥夜飛，還沒回神，須臾回頭往北飛，又片刻看到牠們一行南飛。太稀奇，真是見所未見，決定把超挖起來一起看，但等她從夢鄉歸來，白鷺鷥已經不見了。我們觀星一回，又進去睡。

The stars were so bright that I had to go out for a look. At almost precisely 2AM  I was startled to see a line of white light shooting south between pitu ci Ya’azuonʉ no cou (the Pleiades) and Orion. The line was not a shooting star, as I first thought, but nine egrets, flying high overhead. I was astonished. I had never seen egrets flying at night before. A formation of flying egrets is a sight of haunting beauty. They flew south, out of sight, then came north again and flew out of sight. I stood there with my mouth open. Before long, they came south again, and I decided I had to drag Sabiy out of bed to see this. But the egret show was over for the night, so we stood admiring the stars for a while before we crawled back into bed.

後來，我想到我要怎麼說：天鵝湖兩排舞者想要表現的仙境，應該是如此. Later in the day, I realized what I wanted to say: in Swan Lake, when the two lines of ballerinas dance, they are trying to recreate the magic I saw in those flying egrets. 

We often observe inexplicable behavior in others. Meanwhile…

In Two Years Before the Mast, Dana observed a funeral procession in California in 1835, and says, “the most singular thing of all was that two men walked, one on each side of the coffin, carrying muskets in their hands, which they continually loaded, and fired into the air. Whether this was to keep off the evil spirits or not, I do not know. It was the only interpretation that I could put upon it.”

A hundred pages later, describing a wedding, Dana says, “Our guns were loaded and run out, men appointed to each, cartridges served out, matches lighted, and all the flags ready to be run up….Twenty-three guns followed in regular succession, with an interval of fifteen seconds between each…. This we thought was pretty well – a gun every fifteen seconds – for a merchantman with only four guns and a dozen or twenty men.”

And for what did you fire the guns, Mr Dana? To keep off the evil spirits, perhaps? 

戈喨！掛扗屋簷下的風玲突然響了。但那風玲通常吹不到風，離地三公尺多，是誰把它撞響了？我拿著手電筒小心翼翼把頭伸出去看~~~~原來是你！

Klang! The wind chime by the living room rang out suddenly. But that wind chime is three meters off the ground, and usually the wind doesn’t blow there. Flashlight in hand, I very carefully stuck my head out the window
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: the culprit! 

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車禍，聽到救護車來，希望聽到救護車走。火災，聽到救護車來，不希望聽到救護車走。

If you hear an ambulance going to a car accident, you hope to hear the ambulance leaving the accident. If you hear an ambulance going to a fire, you hope not to hear the ambulance leaving the fire.

阿彌陀佛，everybody’s safe::link::