RIP George Carlin

What can you say about a guy who knew the REAL difference between football and baseball, was the first ever SNL host (back when it made me laugh), and was the station-master on Shining Time Station--not to mention played Cardinal Glick in Dogma, a very funny movie. I liked Cardinal Glick's take on Jesus: Christ didn't come to earth to give us the WILLIES. He came to help us out! He was a BOOSTER!"

The Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television don't mean much to me, but I like the fact that George rode with Lenny to jail.

Happy Summer!

We celebrated the official beginning of the season by going to the Summersday Revels, and by making crowns and necklaces out of lawn clover, and by traveling via red wagon to the new ice cream store on Centre Street.

Happy Leilei Month!

Leilei turned 6 on June 8, and she graduated from kindergarten June 12. When I enrolled her at Holy Name, I fully expected she'd need to repeat kindergarten. After all, the kid had only been in the country less than 2 years. This girl never fails to surprise me! She made steady progress all year, socially, emotionally, academically, and yes, in English, though she still refers to both genders as "she".
I think it is cute, just like everything else about my babiest. Every day I think how lucky I am that she came into my life.

Please don't forget . . .

Even though the American press has moved on, the crisis in China continues. Here is an update from Half the Sky

And my friend Mary DePalma sent me the link to these incredibly moving images drawn by a Chinese artist. Click on the right where it says 5.12 strips.

Please help with donations and/or prayers.

My New Best Friend

My Chinese teacher, Hongchen Wang, invited me to go to lunch with Ha Jin!!!! Hongchen is a member of the Asian American Writer's Group, which sponsored Ha Jin's reading Saturday afternoon at Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center.

I am a huge fan of Ha Jin's work (especially the novels War Trash and A Free Life), so I was delighted to go, although I felt a little nervous about meeting him. As it happened, I got to sit next to him at dim sum! He poured me tea!!!! He passed me dumplings!!! I told him I graduated from BU, where he teaches, and he said "small world" to me!!!! Alas, that was about the extent of our conversation, as I was far too overwhelmed to speak with him further. But I did get my picture taken with him. And I feel sure that, while few words were exchanged between us, he too feels the profound connection between us that will lead us to become soulmates and bff!!!

From dim sum we walked to the reading. Ha Jin talked about some of the American books that inspired him in writing A Free Life, including My Antonia, Call It Sleep, and Typical American by Gish Jen. My Antonia gave him a sense of the American attachment to the land, and Call it Sleep and Typical American showed him ways to convey the experience of trying to live American, while speaking limited English, and thinking deeply and lyrically in another language. Ha Jin also read some of the poems from the novel's epilogue, which is essentially the main character's poetry journal.

The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center sponsors lots of interesting events and classes. Check out their "Sunshine Saturday" classes for adults and kids. Libby and Leilei took a lion dance class last winter, and loved it!