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!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Daily Kor for April 29, 2010

Well, if Pyongchang's for finally winning the right to host the Winter Olympics has probably shot up quite a bit. I think only a totalitarian wolf in democratic clothing could scare the IOC away from giving South Korean hosting rights now, and that already happened.

Seriously, Kim Yuna represents quite a few things that give the ROK an edge — she's an Olympic celebrity of considerable skill and popularity, she represents a growing interest in winter Olympic activities, and she's just genuinely likable. I don't want to go on record saying Pyongchang is a shoo-in, because I've been wrong twice when the county won a plurality of votes on the first round but lost in the end, but I'm hopeful.

Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna enlisted to help Pyongchang's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics (AP via WaPo)
Seoul seeks support of Beijing and Moscow to bring sinking of Chonan to UN (Yonhap)
ROK Defense Ministry insists stray South Korean mine could not have sunk Chonan (AFP)
ROK financial watchdog says credit downgrades for Greece and Portugal will have little impact on South Korea (Yonhap)
Fact-finding committee to summon twenty-eight current and former prosecutors accused of bribery (Donga Ilbo)
Farm on Kanghwa-do Island is site of South Korea's ninth outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease (Yonhap)

Outbreak takes toll on meat sales (Joongang Daily)

LG Electronics books $605 million quarterly profit on sales of cell phones and flat-screen TVs (AP via LAT)
South Korea to ban foreign spouses from "adult entertainment" venues such as massage parlors and karaoke facilities (Yonhap)

Not that anything illegal or untoward goes on there

In latest sign of Kim Jong-un's ascent, pictures and artwork of son of Dear Leader featured on packaging at Pyongyang McDonald's pilot restaurant (Yonhap)

2 comments:

John from DaejeonThursday, April 29, 2010 10:22:00 PM
They could always use this as a selling point: Coldest late April Ever
...well, in recorded history.
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7Ø7Friday, April 30, 2010 10:43:00 AM
Shouldn't Kanghwa-do Island be either Kanghwa-do or Kanghwa Island, seeing as both "do" and "Island" are redundant?
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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.

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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.