Japan Today

fanofjapan2005 comments

Posted in: Jazz fans seek ways to spend eternity with greats See in context

Brings new meaning to the term "deadbeats."

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Posted in: Is a penalty shootout the best way to determine the winner in the knockout stages of tournaments like the World Cup? See in context

Why in the heck are they called "penalty" shots? Nobody was naughty. Goalie doesn't have much of a chance ... unless the kicker screws up and misses the cage entirely.

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Posted in: What is a slur? Redskins case forces us to decide See in context

How 'bout Pale Faces? Then the majority could get mad!

Speaking of linguistic racial outrages, here are a few "Pecos Bill" movie-cartoon lines from dear, sweet, innocent Walt Disney in the 1940s:

Now, the Indians were having a war dance. Pecos started shooting up their little game. He gave those injuns such a shake up That they jumped out of their make-up, And that's how the "Painted Dessert" got its name.

No protests back then.

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Posted in: What is a slur? Redskins case forces us to decide See in context

I think a lot of this is malarkey. Why? Have any Native Americans -- individually or in groups -- ever griped about the MLB Cleveland Indians' grinning, goofy-looking VERY red-skinned, one-vertical-feather-in-his-hair Indian? That's the graphical version of "redskin. Talk about disparaging! "Redskins' owner, Daniel Snyder, heels dug in, is red-skinned from anger, not from embarrassment, so there's no way he will win.

We need to resolve this no-win situation. I suggest that "Potomacs" would be a good name. The Potomac River, running through/alongside Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, was once called, along stretches, many other names, until various tribes huddled and decided on its present name. The problem is: there's a Minor League baseball team by the name of Potomacs, which is in an immediate area just outside of D.C.

The 'Skins' venerable logo is heroic and noble. But if it can't be, and the "Redskins'" name goes with it, here is my humble, workable suggestion. It's a very football-ish word, AND we could also "honor" America's Legislative body, those elected officials who do nothing but wallow in mud, fling mud at each other, and whose bulging pockets make them look fat from the tons of money fed to them by hundreds of lobbyists. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for our 2014(??) "Washington Pigskins!"

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Posted in: Future may be bitter for chocolate lovers See in context

"Parting is such sweet sorrow!"

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Posted in: What are your views on tattoos? See in context

IMHO, the bigger and/or more tattoos on bodies immediately labels the wearers as no class at all to maybe second class for the smaller, fewer tattoos. I'd rather dart through hell wearing gasoline underwear than get a tattoo.

My belief and opinion, of course, doesn't apply to my two perfect, married children; a son with one minor tattoo on each shoulder, and a daughter with one tattoo covering half her back.

You see, they're wonderful, classy people, intelligent, kind, productive, hard-working kids with good jobs and their own wonderful children. They're caring, compassionate citizens who make their parents immensely proud.

This brings new meaning to the term "mixed emotions."

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Posted in: Obama ate only half the sushi course: media See in context

Food for thought ...

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Posted in: 2016 presidential race off to an early start See in context

I'm all for Hillary, but wouldn't Bill ("The First Gentleman") really be orchestrating and running the show in the background, suggesting to her how to handle Congress, the U.S. and the world -- what to do, when and how to do it -- from upstairs at the dinner table, breakfast table, and over pillow-talk?

I mean, seriously, wouldn't that happen? How could it not happen? Other than his humongous, outrageous, totally stupid affair with Monica, ol' Bill did a pretty good job in the White House, so she should listen to his advice.

Or maybe she'll lock Bill out of the WH.

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Posted in: Foreigners love Japanese conbini so much they made a song about them See in context

Give 'em a break! Y'all are a bunch of Scrooges! ;-) I enjoyed the heck out of it. And I'm older than dirt.

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Posted in: Mori slammed for critical remarks about Asada See in context

Sighclops wrote: "Ladies and gentlemen, the head of the 2020 Olympics campaign." Can we assume, following that introduction, that the head was served -- on a platter?

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Posted in: Rangers' Yu Darvish jokes about Tanaka's contract See in context

The "English" Yu-san puts on the ball is enough. It speaks for itself. I really admire the guy. Being a celebrity isn't always easy, bucks not withstanding. Being a foreign celebrity is even tougher.

It's SOP for players to rib each other - with sharp elbows as well as barbs. MLB teams have "kangaroo courts" after each game they WIN. They really poke fun at each other and even, individually, themselves. Self-deprecation is manly. If you dish it out, you have to take it as well. They do, and they do.

We'll see who earns he fattest contract each time Yu-san and Tanaka-san meet on the mound this season! Go Rangers!

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Posted in: Virginia vote on Sea of Japan hands victory to South Koreans See in context

So much for "Bridge Over Troubled Water" ... (Trouble Over Abridged Water?)

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Posted in: GPod - Mastering Japanese See in context

Sugoi! ;-)

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Posted in: Amazon unveils futuristic mini-drone delivery plan See in context

Fine and dandy thought technology-wise, but it won't work. Jerks will shoot them down, keep them (and/or, keep the package), break them. The devices will crash, run into each other, fall and harm outsiders, be re-conditioned by crooked recipients to spy on others. This one's sad reality over technology.

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Posted in: Japanese women list the worst gifts they ever received from boyfriends See in context

I have a long-sleeve T-shirt that I break out every Christmas. Printed on the front is: "Fruit Cake, the gift that keeps on giving."

These so-called "gift-givers" mentioned above remind me of the BF, on vacation, who hastily writes on a post card to his GF: "The scenery is here; wish you were beautiful."

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Posted in: Darvish carries Texas playoff bid into last game See in context

Yu can do it! (If his teammates score some runs for him for a change.)

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Posted in: Killing the ums and ahs See in context

The author didn't include the "you know"s. If all U.S. athletes of every sport had to pay a dollar to the U.S. Treasury for each "you know" spoken in TV and radio interviews, the U.S.'s debt problem would be non-existent.

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Posted in: Lawson store closed after employee puts photo of himself in freezer on Facebook See in context

Dumber than dumb, but there is a solution: Take the freezer outside (following much pre-publicity), give the ice cream away (or throw it away), have the "cool" kid pay for his sin by scrubbing and washing the freezer from dawn until dusk in front of the mob, put things back where they belong, re-load the freezer -- with ice cream, not cool kid -- and everyone will be satisfied and forgiven.

Not to mention that the "estranged"-for-24-hrs. customers will then buy more ice cream from that store in an hour than they would otherwise buy in a month. Make a promotion out of the ashes!

That's the American way: turn a fiasco into cash. HQ cutting off the store, the store firing the kid, and every potential buyer puking was, as stated earlier on JT, way OTT.

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Posted in: Japan baseball chiefs admit lying over ball change See in context

This sad, sorry yet silly situation brings new meaning to the term "foul ball."

We in the U.S. survived a corking-the-bat couple of years several decades ago, when Sammy Sosa's broken bat revealed enough cork to keep the wine-bottling business afloat for a while. (If they'd only, earlier, checked the bats' origin name: "Made In Cork, Ireland.")

What I'm wondering now is, why are so many MLB bats being broken per game? Never used to happen anywhere near that often. Maybe Louisville made a $ecret deal with Spaulding to iron-coat their baseballs.

What's next? Maybe spraying some stay-sticky glue on fielders' gloves?

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Posted in: 84% of women don’t want to see men's nipples at office: survey See in context

Humans: "Why did you adorn men with nipples in the first place, God?"

God, with that all-knowing smile: "So that wives could say, 'Around the house, he's as useless as his nipples!'"

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Posted in: At least 91 dead in Oklahoma City tornado See in context

Where is God through all these disasters?

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Posted in: Hotmail is dead as Outlook.com takes over See in context

I was (we were) forced to give up MS's Instant Messaging (IM) a month or so ago because MS sort of moved its IM (cannibalized it?) into its latest purchase, Skype.

I like Skype's emoticons, but I also liked IM's emoticons. I wish MS would wake up, combine the two sets of emoticons and just toss out one of any almost-duplicates. Sigh ... MS should change its name to "Engulf & Devour."

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Posted in: Darvish improves to 5-1 as Rangers beat White Sox See in context

During last night's game (above), I could see him laughing when, with two outs, 4-2, Rangers, he caught the toss from the first- (or second)-baseman, but his foot missed the first-base bag as the White Sox runner whizzed by, safe. He didn't laugh for long, however; the next guy up hit a homer to make it 4-4.

Yu is an incredible guy. These days, he is seen chatting in both English and Spanish in the dugout, all of them -- including Yu -- laughing hysterically. He's really "one of the guys." He makes a smooth effort to be that way.

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Posted in: School flasher identified by semen left at scene See in context

"No, fool!" I said. "'Education,' NOT 'ejaculation'"! What a, er, um, jerk ...!

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Posted in: Why do some native English speakers use broken or grammatically incorrect English, when trying to communicate with someone who isn't a native English speaker, but who may understand some English? Do t See in context

For some (strange) reason, the actual article is not showing up on MY monitor; just the lengthy headline and all the replies/comments. What gives?

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Posted in: Why do some native English speakers use broken or grammatically incorrect English, when trying to communicate with someone who isn't a native English speaker, but who may understand some English? Do t See in context

As a retired ancient journalism/English major, I "teach" on a website called "Lang-8" -- a foreign language site with probably a hundred-thousand people from all over the world learning each other's languages. Its URL is "Lang-8.com." Some of you might find it amazing, fun, and rewarding. Surely, others here on JT have explored this site.

While teaching via computer, I always try to use "perfect" English. Often, I throw in some slang, street talk, idioms galore, etc., but I always try to explain them. The present and former Japanese Eigo-learners learned strict, totally proper English in their schools, probably from old-school, my-way-or-the-highway-type native-Nihonjin teachers. On Lang-8, the learners are discovering, with the help of us native-English speakers/writers, that there's quite a gray area between "prescriptive" English (by the book) and "descriptive" English " (how we REALLY write and speak TODAY).

Egg-zample: They avoid English contractions like the plague. "It is a beautiful day," they write. I respond with, "Yes, you wrote it perfectly, but you will always be labeled a foreigner if you don't use any contractions at all. We use them ALL the time, especially when speaking but also in writing." They have sort of acquired the feeling (from "school daze") that "contraction-speak/write" is sinfully casual, way too informal, other-side-of-the-track lingo. Noooo!

Another example: I point out to my Lang-8 "students" that President Obama -- and most any prior president -- uses/has used wanna-gonna-hafta-gotta when speaking informally with the press or to the nation. However, when reading his teleprompter, say, for the State of the Union address, it's contraction-less, as it should be.

There's a time and a place for every communication style.

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Posted in: '42' shows why Jackie Robinson still matters See in context

The lack of replies and comments on this JR article bolsters the fact that virtually nobody cares. "So what?" What a shame!

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Posted in: '42' shows why Jackie Robinson still matters See in context

I'm white. Jackie was my boyhood hero. I have an autographed baseball containing his name (worth $4K, I'm told). I'm 30 years older than Jackie's number, but I still wear his "42" Dodger shirt each April 15th. I wore his "42" shirt on April 15 for each of the seven years in which I substitute-taught 9th graders.

I showed them my JR baseball (sealed in a see-through plastic sphere -- and held tightly by me; no hand-passing down the rows).

These 15-year-olds hadn't a clue. In 2012 (I had heard that the movie was coming out in April of 2013) I begged my students to see this movie, especially the black kids. They need to know about him and what he did for baseball. Can't wait to see it ... a few times! ;-)

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Posted in: Darvish loses perfect game with 2 outs in 9th See in context

Yu can't fool all the people all the time! The 9th batter in the Lastros' lineup broke thousands of hearts, including mine. Why is it that my Rangers seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when they're one inch, one out, one pitch from winning or tossing a no-no? (Well, they won THIS game, anyway, and, yes, that IS what counts. Meanwhile, Yu for Emperor!)

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Posted in: Japan enthusiastic about Caroline Kennedy's possible appointment as ambassador See in context

Fascinating irony here. An armed Japan split and sunk Caroline's father's PT Boat, and now his daughter walks on water and is welcome -- with open arms! ;-)

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