Home

Shitsui Hakoishi is a 104-year-old woman who carried the Olympic torch on March 28 for 200 meters in Japan, in the pouring rain. Her son and nephew, a septuagenarian and an octogenarian, accompanied her. And her nephew caught a chill in the rain and died soon afterwards. There were rumors … Continue reading The Feisty Centenarian →

There are many words for praise, but here I am talking about formal praises, often for ceremonial purposes, some in song and poem forms, and many concerning religion services or funeral arrangement. prothalamion: I learned this word from Pooja’s post here. The word means “a song or poem celebrating an … Continue reading New Word #8: To Praise Formally →

Many of us grew up with simple native languages with about 3000 basic words –the rest is just a mixture and extension of these basic building blocks. We are in for a big shock when we realize that English has so many words. One concept can be described by ten … Continue reading New Word #7: Can’t Describe It →

“I can’t go to a friend and say to him, ‘your wife is crazy’, can I?” Pan, the husband, says. “You need to point out to him to get his wife some psychiatric help. At first I thought she’s just peculiar and now she is getting worse. Last week, out … Continue reading The Crazy Argument →

Love is often unequal; affection always differs. The loving complains of the unloving; the heartfelt bemoans the heartless. Feelings have no reason; life has no cure. Do I believe in happy ending even if I know what the ending is like? It sounds naive if I say I do; it … Continue reading Poem Of The Day #7 →

Pammy says, “Your mom is taking little Sam to the park around the corner. I finally can say this to you.” “What? What are you trying to say?” Pammy’s husband Pan asks. “She talks about my friend Jia in a very belittled way. So Jia went to South Korea to … Continue reading The Mother-in-law (Flash Fiction #7) →

I’ve always felt that “f” is unfairly vilified. It takes on the thankless task of starting words like “fail”, “frail”, “flail”, “fray”, “fake”, “fall”. Even the seemingly harmless word like “frame” is burdened with additional meaning of “producing false evidence against”. Hasn’t “f” suffered enough? It is a hardworking alphabet … Continue reading New Word #6: The Double “F” Words →

They’ve been engaged for a year and the wedding has been planned for a lucky day this summer–lucky in its number in both the regular calendar and the lunar calendar. However she has a little something, probably a little blue bird, in her heart that she can’t hush up. She’s … Continue reading The Dilemma (Flash Fiction #6) →

Diurnal: of or during the day. Nocturnal: done, occurring, or active at night. Matutinal: of or occurring in the morning. Vespertine: relating to, occurring, or active in the evening. Crepuscular: of, resembling, or relating to twilight. Out of the five words, I’ve only regularly seen nocturnal being used. However once … Continue reading New Word #5: Timeline Of A Day →

He was born in either Suyab of present-day Kyrgyzstan or around Lake Baikal in Russia. Some even say he’s born in Ghazni of Afghanistan. The exact location is still in dispute. His personality and life choices are a lot like Lord Byron, the 19th century romantic era poet, even though … Continue reading A Beloved Rebel →

“Look, rice spaghetti. I wonder if it tastes like rice noodle. Let’s try it.” Pammy says to her husband Pan at the ShopRite grocery store. “Well, do we have to have food experiment? I mean can’t we stick with the food we are familiar with?” Pan grumbles. “We need to … Continue reading The Rice Spaghetti (Flash Fiction #5) →

Lil, a retiree and a widow, is talking with her daughter Dana. Lil: “I am going to Nepal with my friend Su next week.” Dana:”Why, Mom? You are wasting your retirement savings. Why Nepal? You are not thinking of climbing Mount Everest, are you?” Lil: “Oh, Dana, just a tourist. … Continue reading Mount Everest (Flash Fiction #4) →

These three vales are: Valediction: the action of saying farewell. Valetudinarian: a person who is unduly anxious about their health. Valedictorian: a student, typically having the highest academic achievements of the class, who delivers the valedictory at a graduation ceremony. Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between these three words, … Continue reading New Word #4: The Three Vales →

I just know it. He said he’s going to come back by this hour, but look, where is he? It’s because of his friendship with Doo, who’s a liar through and through, and who’s going to influence my little honest gullible Dragon. What a nice little nickname–Dragon–I got for him? … Continue reading He Is Home (Flash Fiction #3) →

It is said the Eskimos have fifty words for snow and certain people living in rain forests have fifty words for different shades of green. I had not noticed the big number of words for the brown color until I read “Heartburn”, in which the main character’s friend Arthur complains … Continue reading New Word #3: Many Shades of Brown →

Dreary day, endless rain, everywhere dark and wet. At intervals, the sky brightens up, but a mist lingers, a haze hovers in the cool sauna of the saturated air. I should have prepared for the rainy day, but I didn’t. Now I went to the store grudgingly, made a wrong … Continue reading Poem Of The Day #6 →

They are two brothers. Forty-three years ago, when they were five and six-years-old, their family became refugees after the Vietnam war, floating on a boat in Southeast Asia, not knowing where they would land and where their next meal was. They were lucky to land in the refugee camp in … Continue reading Two Brothers (Flash Non-Fiction #2) →

Spiel means “a long or fast speech or story, typically one intended as a means of persuasion or as an excuse but regarded with skepticism or contempt by those who hear it.” It can also be used as a verb. I wonder if some of the lectures I attended during … Continue reading New Word #2: Spiel →