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August 2007
Jessica Alba’s wiggle
And you thought math homework was boring. After exhaustive research, mathematicians at Britain’s Cambridge University have calculated the ideal waist-hip proportions for the perfect sexy feminine walk. And the woman with the world’s best wiggle is … drum roll please … American actress Jessica Alba.
The “Fantastic Four” star beat out other actresses including Eva Longoria, Angelina Jolie, Kate Moss, and even Marilyn Monroe.
The research was serious stuff. According to Cambridge, a woman with a waist size exactly 70 percent of her hip measurement is a woman with the more angular swing and bounce to the hips that makes for the perfect sexy wiggle while walking.
So with a 25-inch waist and a 36-inch hip, Alba boasts the ultimate in girlish struts. Interesting. Now if only we knew how much government funding went into this project.
2 years on, the world again comes to New Orleans
Many British newspapers have sent journalists to New Orleans this week to check out the city two years after Hurricane Katrina. Almost all reports were dismal with most writers highlighting mile after mile of abandoned homes, disappearing behind creeping vegetation.
“There has been progress but it has been slow and limited, lacking energy and drive,” wrote Ewen MacAskill in the Guardian.
The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Leonard noted that the historic French Quarter was as beautiful as ever and that tourism is recovering. “But across the city one hears of people unable to find anything like the sort of jobs they once held,” he wrote.
The BBC’s James Coomarasamy said that thousands of evacuees have yet to return home and for those who have, or who actually stayed, there are still areas which have no gas, electricity or proper sewage systems.
All in all, he said, much remains to be done.
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Kiss this? British newspapers take a look at a hairy new American cultural debate
The United States is viewed by many Britons as a place where people generally fight over guns, gays and God.
But there’s a new cultural battle being waged in America, several British newspapers noted this past weekend.
It is the struggle over Americans’ right to bear hair on their upper lips. The newspapers highlighted the American Mustache Institute’s fight to stop discrimination against those with mustaches.
The articles cited a recent poll showing that more than half of American women would refuse to kiss a man with a mustache.
But the newspapers claim it’s tough to rally around a cause in which the poster boy is John Bolton.
Sam Leith, a columnist for London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, said that a more sympathetic world cause would be the one pushed by the Italian Association for the Protection of Animals. That association is fighting to stop the killing of 60,000 black cats a year by superstitious Italians.
“It is definitely bad luck to be a black cat when an ignorant peasant crosses your path,” he said.
In China, Michael Vick’s career goes to the dogs
Chinese have showed little sympathy for Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons’ star quarterback who agreed to plead guilty to dog fighting charges in a deal that will probably land him in prison.
“I don’t think Michael Vick’s much of a star since he’s so barbaric,” said Li Di, the director of a small non-profit association supporting animal welfare in Beijing. “The case is a shame for Americans.”
The reaction is a sign of the times. When I first arrived in China in 1996, pet dogs were rare and dog meat was commonly served in many parts of China.
Today, few restaurants serve dog (and a few cater to pets). As Chinese have gotten richer and traditional family structures have splintered — resulting in more lonely urbanites — the number of pet dogs has surged.
Most of my neighbors keep a couple Pekingese or dachshunds. One of my neighbors has a white poodle she’s trimmed to display the Olympic rings, a tribute to Beijing’s hosting the Summer Games next year.
After news on Monday that Vick had agreed to plead guilty to the felony charges including conspiring to sponsor a dog in an animal fight, many Chinese reacted angrily.
“I hate cruelty to animals, so I hope (Vick) gets a good scolding,” someone using the screen name Tina posted on the NFL’s Chinese language Web site.
“Regardless of whether it’s against the law to fight dogs, it’s certainly strange and maybe even abnormal,” a person posting on sina.com, one of China’s most popular Web sites, wrote.
Maybe Lindsey Lohan needs army duty?
In America’s celebrity-obsessed media culture, the focus is on Lindsey Lohan’s latest arrest and Paris Hilton’s newest outrage.
Israelis, too, focus on celebrities. One of the most popular TV shows is A Star is Born, Israel’s version of American Idol. But the tabloid fodder provided by young Israeli celebrities isn’t drinking and driving and drugs — it is the draft.
Israeli legislators are hopping mad about the record number of 18-year-olds dodging compulsory army service. They worry that draft-dodging is becoming hip.
Israeli media reported in July that four of the eight finalists on “A Star is Born,” have not done their army duty. More than a handful of Israel’s major recording artists, singers, actors and actresses have also been “outed” as draft dodgers this summer.
Draft-dodging is viewed by older Israelis as the equivalent of a federal crime in this nation that has fought multiple wars in its short history. But many teens think differently.
This summer 25 percent of 18-year-old Jewish males did not enter the army for their required three years of service. Forty-three percent of females, who must serve two years, avoided the call-up.
Parliament is considering special hearings on the topic, and the army is thinking about revealing a list of entertainers who haven’t done their service.
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China’s watching the debates, even most Americans aren’t
With the 2008 U.S. presidential race well underway, China is paying attention.
China has long played punching bag to American politicians on issues like human rights abuses, tainted China-made products, the trade imbalance and lost American jobs. China is “the most convenient of all bogeymen,” the South China Morning Post noted in a recent editorial.
But the dominant English-language newspaper of Hong Kong warns the presidential candidates to be careful.
“Those who insist on China bashing should think before speaking,” it says, chiding the Democratic frontrunners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama for criticizing China for not allowing its currency, the yuan, strengthen against the dollar.
While China is “the perfect pariah for the U.S.”, protecting the relationship between Washington and Beijing is more important, says the paper, which is independent but has a pro-Beijing tilt.
“In putting their case to potential voters that [China] has taken U.S. jobs, they are crying foul over alleged currency manipulation, the trade imbalance and the safety of imports,” the Hong Kong paper says.
Clinton warned last week that the U.S. must deal with China’s “currency manipulation.”
“If they’re manipulating their currency … we take them to the mat,” Obama said at a forum hosted by the AFL-CIO.
The paper warned the candidates against pushing the rhetoric too far.
The Chinese yuan, also called the renminbi, has risen more than 9 percent in value since 2005 and China has rejected calls for faster appreciation, a good call, the newspaper opines, stating that appreciation “should be done gradually so that the banking and export sectors are not destablilized.”
“When considering the widening trade gap, it must be remembered that the U.S. dollar is falling in value and that one-third of exports to the U.S. are from American companies with factories in China,” it adds.
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I’ll have another … and here’s 20 bucks
Cancun’s airport has just opened a new terminal and it’s spiffy. There’s a Starbucks, a Mexican bistro featuring breakfast burritos and a convenience store with $7 sandwiches and $3 bottled water. You’d think you were in Orlando.
The Mexicans have learned the art of tourism well, and the place is packed with Americans, with direct flights to cities all over the country.
Lots of other foreigners fly in, too, but Americans are the Number One market, and we’re the favorites of the waiters, skycaps and other workers.
“Brits and Spanish people are the worst,” my waiter at the Mexican bistro told me. “They sometimes leave no tip at all. We love Americans. You are by far the most generous tippers.”
We didn’t talk about the war in Iraq or Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, but it’s clear our standing in Mexico is still solid, at least on this count.
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Viva Las Jerusalem
The King was alive and well — and multiplying — today at the Elvis American Diner outside Jerusalem.
By late afternoon, 10 Israeli Elvis impersonators had flocked to the restaurant to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Old and young, hailing originally from Russia and Iran, they sang the praises of the musical icon.
The tunes were sometimes out of key. Some were downright dreadful. But they all came from the heart.
Joseph Rozen and his wife Rozidka were the oldest impersonators of the group. Both were sporting white-spangled jumpsuits of the Elvis Vegas era.
Joseph, who has been to Graceland twice, bought his from a store at the Memphis shrine, shelling out $1,400 to be able to say he has an exact replica of the one the King wore.
Rozen, who comes from the southern town of Beersheva, sells vitamins during the day. “But that’s just for money. What I really live for is Elvis,” he said.
The menu at the Elvis diner starts with the “All Shook Up” breakfast, consisting of an Israeli favorite of fried eggs in a spicy tomato sauce, and includes a “Tupelo Kid” children’s menu. The owner of the diner, Uri Yoeli, also offers a grilled cheeseburger that he says is based on the same recipe used by Elvis’ favorite diner in Memphis.
Given this sublimely greasy fare, it’s surprising that the diner’s best selling souvenir is the $10 Elvis wine that Yoeli bottled specially for the 30th anniversary.
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Don’t step on my blue suede kilt
Fans are flocking to Memphis’ Graceland today for the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Yet thousands of miles away, in the windswept villages of northeastern Scotland, residents claim they should be the ones benefiting from a tourist influx.
According to a book published a few years ago called “The Presley Prophecy,” the King’s great great great great great great grandparents Andrew Presley and Elspeth Leg were married in Scotland on Aug. 27, 1713. Their son, also named Andrew, would later join the flood of immigrants to the United States in search of a new life.
Scottish villagers lament the fact that little has been done to capitalize on the Presley connection. “If this was America, there would be statues up and hordes of tourists,” said Allan Morrison, author of “The Presley Prophecy.” “But the Scots don’t seem to be much good at that sort of thing.”
Even so, there are a few kilt-makers who are benefiting. An Elvis tartan is being unveiled in Aberdeen, Scotland, in Presley’s favorite colors: black, baby blue, pink, and gold.
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Shoot first, ask Britons later
Europeans have long been fascinated by the American gun culture. Floridians, it seems, can shoot whomever they please.
“For the last year and a half, Floridians have been allowed by law to shoot anyone they want,” according to Isaac-Davy Aronson, a columnist writing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
The “stand your ground” law passed the Florida legislature by a wide margin. Since it went into effect in 2005, similar laws have been passed in at least 14 other states. The law gives people the right of “self-defense without the duty to retreat” meaning people can use deadly force to prevent death or serious injury.
Aronson argues that shoot-first laws are a wholesale rejection of law itself, a step towards replacing a nation of laws with a nation of value judgments — a nation in which whomever is currently considered “good” gets a free pass.
He cites a statement from Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association, which is behind the Florida measure: “Good people make good decisions and that’s why they’re good people. If you’re going to empower someone, empower the crime victim.”
But Aronson said he knows a lot of incredibly good people who make bad decisions on a daily basis and a lot of good people he wouldn’t trust with a gun. But he said it’s clear the Florida law isn’t about gun rights but about a moral philosophy of good and evil.
“If a good person shoots someone, it’s O.K. If a bad person shoots someone, it’s not,” he said. “You might call that a double standard.”
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