Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Loose change of the day

Should Mt. St. Helens (shown above during March 2005 eruption) become a national park?
Should Tejon Ranch (near Los Angeles) become a state or national park?
Should Maine Woods become a national park?
Should Southern California's chaparral get national park protection?
Proposals for new national parks (in case you haven't detected a theme by now)
BBC pictures of life in North Korea (including a scene from a church!)
Nintendo drops prices on Wii
Common-sense ideas for how to look seven years younger
WaPo op-ed on why health care reform needs to go all-out if you really want to make it work
Notorious English teacher-hating law-talking guy warns foreign buyers of Korean property about an innocuous document that foreign nationals must submit when they get a new home (English-language version of law relating to this)
The Seoul Podcast podcast that links to one of my posts but doesn't appear to talk about that post or any of the other related posts (an interesting podcast nonetheless, with Chris in South Korea as a guest)

2 comments:

dokebiTuesday, September 29, 2009 12:38:00 PM
Are you bored?
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kushiboTuesday, September 29, 2009 12:44:00 PM
No. The "loose change" posts (and expect more of them) are things that are of interest to me that I think would make good posts but I have no time to do them.

It's quite the opposite of being bored: I run out of time to do all the posts I'd like to, but I still want to be able to present these links for people to look at, on the off chance they are of interest to others as well.

I'm running on the assumption that regular viewers of this blog fall into two categories: (a) people who find my take on things at least occasionally interesting such that they might find some of these links interesting, and (b) people who trawl my blog for clues as to what sock I must be using elsewhere.
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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

So if there’s something you’d like to know from a “contrarian scourge,” click on ASK KUSHIBO and just ask a succinct question in the comments section below.

Oh, and play nice. Please don’t make me regret this.

九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.