As a kid I remember eating fried rice from the Chinese restaurant in the food court at the local mall. I loved it, but it always baffled me. How they actually accomplished the “frying” of the rice, I could never figure out. Eventually, I concluded that it must be done in the same way that [...]

A few weeks ago, upon receiving the letter from the Church council citing 1 Timothy 2:12, an 81 year old woman named Mary Lambert was dismissed from her role as Adult Sunday School teacher in a small Baptist church in Watertown, NY Since then, there has been a media frenzy, with news sources as far [...]

I just put O-Zone’s Dragostea Din Tei on my cellphone. In the past I haven’t been too particular about ringtones; if it let me know my phone was ringing, it was good enough for me. But this song has changed everything! Everytime my phone rings, I just want to dance! I’m even in danger of [...]

Since we’ve gotten to the field, I’ve become one of those people that devours books, especially what Paul and I call “candy books” or books that are just for fun. Lately I’ve been reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series, by Douglas Adams. It originally started out as a British radio comedy program in [...]

I’m always whining about how difficult it is to learn a tonal language, especially a tribal one without classes, books or cds. (See, don’t you feel sorry for me?!) Tonal languages are notoriously difficult to learn for ….well, anyone who’s native language is not tonal. Anyway, my last post reminded me about another funny language [...]