Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A Miscellany

After 7 or 8 weeks of shameful idleness, I suddenly find myself absurdly busy this week - the cultureshock is daunting (though my bank manager is no doubt delighted).

It is therefore entirely likely that I won't be doing much if any blogging again until the end of the week. To tide you over, I offer a few amusing bits and pieces from elsewhere on the Net that I've been meaning to recommend (in some cases, for ages), but somehow haven't quite got around to.


In my recent peregrinations through the back numbers of the excellent Other Men's Flowers I particularly liked this piece on holidays out of the sun. The spirit of Beachcomber and Flann O'Brien lives on.

The Peking Duck a while ago referred us to this interesting post on China's Worst Laws (most of them are pretty bad, but these might be seen to be the core of the problem) on the Foreign Policy Magazine website. (Guess what? It appears to be blocked in China at the moment! Go try your luck with a proxy.)

On a more positive note (never let it be said that I am a China-basher!), the Duck also ran this thread about why people love Beijing (or Shanghai, or both, or neither) - which prompted my own 'list of the month' on this topic back in September.

The Virtual Forbidden City (hat-tip once again to the estimable Jeremiah, this time from his own Granite Studio blog rather than the Duck) could keep you happily diverted through many a long winter evening.

If you don't have quite that much time to waste, you could instead check out this interactive webpage that gives you a scary peek into Sarah Palin's Oval Office (thanks for that one to my buddy Tolstoy's Webside Gleanings).


There - don't say I never do anything for you.

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