This day, 28 February, in 1972, the “Sino-US Joint Communique” was published in Shanghai. Therein it was stated that there are essential differences in the social systems...
I’m going to stop doing it.
And not only because the law has changed.
I’m going to put this filthy habit to bed… if I can.
Like that petty criminal in that O. Henry story, I will reform.
My vice is tea-leaf chucking.
I’ve long thought of myself as better than other litterers. I would never have thrown the contents of an ashtray out of the window, nor plastic yoghurt pots.
I’ve thought of the tea leaves I chuck as “like the leaves of Autumn”; fresh from nature and eager to return to nature.
Indeed, the...
It’s much easier to get maple syrup these days. Canadian president Justin Trudeau just announced the construction of a new pipeline to export it to the rest of the world (…or was that another liquid commodity?)
Anyway, when I was a child, our family received a bottle of this treasured syrup. Before that day, we had only known the “simulated” stuff. We then waited months before opening this bottle of “the real thing”; no moment seemed important enough, no pancake perfect enough.
And then we did open it, only to find...
"After drinking my local tea, you won’t be able to walk in a straight line.”
That’s how I was introduced to this tea. It was a generous, proud young friend that set the challenge.
By “local”, she meant Guizhou. I was surprised; Guizhou is not known as a tea place.
The province is infinitely more famous for its hard liquor, tobacco and coal. On paper, it sounds like a dirty, hard-living kind of place. But it also enjoys its share of beautiful scenic attractions and ethnic communities. The capital, Guiyang, has been...
So you drink coffee? Fair enough. You’re not alone. It’s an easy mistake to make.
There’s plenty of time to remedy your error. If you’re reading this here in China, you have ample opportunity to switch yourself on to a better pick-me-up.
Let me try and make a pitch.
I need to start with that smell you’re emitting as a coffee drinker. Coffee-roasting smells great. Coffee brewing smells great. Luckin smells delightful. You probably don’t, not unless you chased up your last cup of Joe with a gallon of water. Unless you...
